Spice in the water

"Four twenty one... four twenty two... four twenty three..." He counted off as he pulled his head upwards; curling his stomach and burning at his core.

"Four sixty seven... four sixty eight... four sixty nine..." Sweat beaded down his frame, pooling in his shadow below. The sound of dripping echoed in the silence as each drop landed in the puddle beneath him.

"Four ninety eight... four ninety nine... five hundred..." H said, letting his arms waft down above his head, and toward the floor. He dropped himself down to land on his feet, staggering slightly as the burning sensation flared in his stomach. He hit the floor boards with a clack, and looked over to the wall mirror, seeing his reflection. his hair Had grown a bit long and raggedy, and the thin beard that just keeps growing back in every time he shaved it. As the thought occurred to him, he realized he'd just shaved that beard this morning. He walked over to his chair to grab his towel to wipe the sweat from my brow, but as he did he'd realize he'd been walking on his knuckles again.

Standing quickly he dismissed it yet again, brushing it off as nothing more than a rather odd compulsory habit. As he ran the back of the towel over his chest he noticed the callused skin on the back of his hand. Thinking it a bit odd, especially considering he hadn't used the back of my hands for anything. The palms, yes, his feet yes, but when would he have used the back of his hand? In hindsight, he probably should have questioned it more.

"Hey! Big guy!" Said a familiar voice from the doorway behind him. He turned around to be met with a blue pegasus, with a multicolored mane floating in doorframe. The look on her face was typical of when she walked into his training room, heavy lidded eyes, nose actively sniffing the pheromone filled air, an involuntary blush on her face and lips curled into a smile.

"Oh hey babe, what's up?" He returned the smile as hers wilted slightly, and he chuckled a bit at her frustration at her nickname.

"You've been busy all week, but today is our day remember?" She grinned, floating closer to him, wings flapping slowly.

"How could I forget, you erased everything on my schedule and wrote "DATE NIGHT" in it's place." He recalled the bright red ink, circled, and underlined mark on the calendar.

"Good! Because I made plans for tonight that I think you're going to like." She said, turning away from him, looking back over her shoulder slyly.

"Is that so?"

"Yep, this night is going to be...-"

"Awesome?"

"Actually, that was not what I was going to say."

"Oh? Is that so? You've piqued my interest." He said, rubbing his chin slowly. If Dash was using a different adjective then this must be special.

"It is, if you don't believe me, you'll just have to come see for yourself." She said, opening the door and letting in a slight breeze, sending a chill over his body. He grabbed a shirt off the chair, covering his chest and breaking the wind off his chest (not his arms however). He followed her outside, and she walked him into the yard. She brought me out to a tree nearby, and reached into it's hollow.

"I think you're going to like this." She grinned widely, feeling around inside.

"Now turn around, I want it to be a surprise." She said motioning to him with her hoof. He let out an exaggerated sigh, turning and crossing his arms actually quite curious. The sound of cloth shuffling, glass shifting and wings flapping behind him persisted for a few seconds, before meeting an abrupt silence.

"Alright, you can look now." She said, and he half expected to see something wild and crazy like fireworks or something, but as he turned around he was met with a pleasant little picnic blanket on the ground, a couple of glasses and a bottle of cider.

"Wow. I gotta say, I am impressed. You really put a lot of effort into-" He stopped suddenly as his eyes came to meet hers. She was hovering just in front of him, giving him the same sultry look as before.

"This? Oh this was nothing. I just came up with this off the top of my head." She said with a dismissive flick of her hoof.

"Maybe I should take my complement back then." He crossed his arms a smirk creeping across his face. She looked surprised for a moment before she caught on to his teasing.

"Aaaanyways, sit down and let's drink." She said, dropping down to the cloth, and grabbing a glass. He slid down to his knees and grabbed his glass as well.

"You know I never really took you as the romantic picnic type." He said as she opened the bottle. She blushed lightly, lip curled up to pout as she looked away from him.

"Hey just cause I'm not the girliest girl out there doesn't mean I can't do something corny every now and then." She kept her head turned, glancing up at him.

"You're right, you're right, that was insensitive of me. Rainbow dash, thank you for setting up this romantic night for us." He said, and her face changed from it's usual light blue to a bright red.

"D-don't worry about it, really." She stammered pouring them both a glass of cider, and he chuckled faintly. A pink glow burnished her frame as the day's last light fell with the sun.

"You are so cute sometimes, you know that right?" He said raising his glass to his lips.

"I am not cute! I'm way too cool to be cute..." She said, turning her face back to him pouting again, but better this time.

"Oh, come on, you sure look cute to me." He said, reaching a finger over to boop her on the nose.

"Oh yeah?... Well what's about me cute then?" She asked quietly, her tail swishing from side to side, she meant to stub him, but a small part of her was fishing for complements.

"How about the way you stick your lip out when you're mad at me? Or maybe how you have that really sensitive spot right between your wings, and jump every time I touch it? Oh, or that little squeak you make when I pull your tail?" He started to count them off on his fingers, and her face grew darker and darker shades of red.

"Or maybe how when I take your hoof and-" He started, but she reached over to cover to mouth in desperation.

"Ok, ok, you win, I'm cute!" She said, her face was so red steam was practically coming out her ears. He ginned widely, and could sense her frustration.

"But it's not like you aren't cute too!" She said, lifting her glass and taking a drink.

"Oh? Is that so? So then, how exactly am I cute?" He asked skeptically, leaning on his elbow and drinking as well.

"How about the way your nose wiggles when you smell something sweet? Or how you smile every time you see a baby? Or how when you eat waffles you cut them the same way every time, top, bottom, left, right, center? Or when you shower you-" She listed them off, and he mirrored her, covering her mouth. His face was as red as hers, and he knew he was blushing from the fact that he could hear my heart beating in his ears.

"Alright, alright, so I admit I may have some cute qualities... but I don't shake my tail when I cook." He said, turning it back around on her.

"No, but you do blush when I do it." She countered, and they met a stalemate in their red face-off.

"You know we could do this for hours." He stated plainly, and she nodded.

"We could... or we could see which of us is better at holding their cider." She said, holding up the glass.

"Point taken." He said, and finished off his glass.

"Ugh... If you two lovebirds are finished, I need to borrow him for a moment..." Said a gravely voice from off to the side. He practically jumped out of his skin when he heard him, before realizing it was the Captain.

"Oh, hey, how long were you standing there?" He asked, and the Captain crossed his arms.

"I was here from "What's about me cute then?" and I've been waiting for you two to shut up..." He said, and both Dash and the big guy had blushed.

"Well nobody asked you to watch us! This is our date night." Said Dash rather harshly, and the big guy stood up.

"Look, how important is it?" He asked, suffering one of Dashes glares.

"Twilight wanted to see you..." The Captain said, the usual un-amused look on his face.

"Well, Twilight can wait, we're in the middle of something. I'll go to see her later." He said, looking down to dash, who was drinking another glass of cider.

"Hey, I'm just the messenger. She said it was important, something about a comet, magic, and... she was talking really fast." He said, turning and opening his wings. The big guy opened my mouth hesitantly, about to speak, but he'd flew off before he could say anything.

"Eh, whatever it is it can wait... Tonight I'm yours." He said as he turned back to dash, he saw her grinning widely, and leaning on an empty bottle.

"You're mine are you? Well now I gotta figure out what to do with you." She said with a hiccup, letting the last drop of cider fall on her tongue.

"Rainbow dash... did you just drink that whole bottle?" He asked, but she just shrugged it off. He found it pretty impressive how he can still be amazed at how fast she was at everything.

"Hmm... First I want you to carry me home." She said ignoring his question, and he just shook his head. He rolled up the blanket, hiding it back inside the tree before picking her up.

"Honestly, you are adorable." He looked down at her in my arms, walking over to the side of his house.

"Maybe I am, but you're the one that's blushing." She said, flicking her tail up at his face. Even drunk, she never gives up. He walked up to the ladder, and started climbing up to her house. A cloud hovering in the air, that he'd built his house under. He scaled up to it, and walked inside as she wiggled in my arms.

"Bring me to my room, I want to show you somthin..." She said, pointing a hoof over to her room. He had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as he carried her up to it, setting her down on her bed.

"Alright, what is it you want to show me?" He asked, and she sat up (sort of) and faced him.

"Me!" She exclaimed wrapping her arms around his head and pulling him onto her belly, where she wrapped her legs around his arms.

"Hmm!" He tried to form words but was muffled into her stomach. She ran her muzzle through his hair, awkwardly sniffing at it.

"Yup! You are mine after all." She said, holding him tightly. He felt her grip around him loosen slightly and started to lift his head.

"Yup, you're... mine..." She yawned, rolling over to her side and holding his head close to her chest. He rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I really shouldn't let you get away with things like this..."

"No way, you're too nice, I'm gonna tease you for the rest of your life."

"Well... it might not all be teasing." She said, nuzzling his ear. He started to speak up, but was interrupted by her snoring. As she fell asleep, H decided it was time to go and tried to wiggle free from her grasp, but as he did, she clung tighter to him like when petting a cat's belly. Admitting defeat, he simply laid back and followed her to sleep.

That night his dreams were a jumbled mess of livid tendrils coiling their way around his limbs. They seemed to be fighting over him like toddlers with a doll. All the sound seemed muffled like they were under water. Eyes all locked onto him, predatory, he knew that they wanted to devour him, but the darkness obscured them. All but the deformed, clicking fangs which reflected light from the oozing drool. Struggling to try and break free as panic filled him, he swore he'd heard an audible pop in either of his shoulders as his arms went limp. In desperation, he lashed out biting at one of the tendrils. It recoiled and a low rubble shook the air as it cried out. There was a brief moment of pain shooting through his neck before was pulled out of his dream and back into the world.

He started to wake up to a familiar scent, only to open his eyes and have my vision filled with blue fur. He looked to his sides, seeing her legs wrapped around him and remembered the previous night. She apparently rolled on top of him; luckily she wasn't very heavy. He tried to move her legs without disturbing her, shifting her hooves and spread her legs apart to try and crawl out from under her, but about halfway down she decided to slide off her hooves and sit on his chest.

Letting out a sharp breath, he reached down to pick her up by her hips as gently as he could, and slid out from under her. As he sat up, letting go of her hips, she shifted onto her hooves, holding herself there with her rear in the air. He stood up and stretched when he heard a loud "pomf" from behind. He glanced back to see Dash's wings extended out with a bit of drool dribbling onto the bed of clouds.

"Well I know what kind of dream she's having..." He whispered to himself as he stepped out of the room, and down to the kitchen. He started preparing breakfast for the sleeping Dash keeping in mind that she will be hung over. Some french toast, and banana, with orange juice.

He set up one place for himself, and one for her. He started to eat alone, when he heard a grumbling from upstairs, and couldn't help but grin. She slowly hovered down stairs, her bedhead ruffling her mane out in every direction. As she made her way to the bottom of the stairway, she saw him and her eyes widened with surprise.

"Oh... Hey Big guy... When did you get here?"

"Get here? I never left." he chuckled.

"But you-" She started, a blush creeping her way back onto her face again. He continued eating as she attempted to pieced it together.

"You mean we... You spent the night here?" She asked, and he nodded with a bemused look. He seemed to be making her blush quite a lot lately.

"That explains that dream." She said, sitting at the table a bit of shame on her face. She shifted in her seat uncomfortably.

"We must have been pretty drunk..."

"You were, I wasn't."

"You weren't?! Then why would you-?! I mean I can't say I wouldn't, but still!" She said, and he quirked a brow at her.

"What?" He shook his head in confusion.

"Nothing!" She said quickly, dropping her nose into her toast.

"...Look, you told me to carry you home, so I brought you to your room, and put you down on your bed. Then you hugged me and we fell asleep. That's all." He rolled his eyes deciding that was enough teasing for now. She blinked with a puzzled look on her face, before a wave of relief washed through her and she relaxed.

"You know for somepony supposed to be hung over, you are pretty well off right now." He said, finishing off his breakfast and taking the dishes to the sink.

"I recover quickly." She said, and he instinctively chuckled.

"I should have known." He shook his head. "What don't you do quickly?"

"Well there is one thing..." She mumbled, gazing off to the side.

"What's that?" I asked, looking back over my shoulder.

"Nothing." She said dismissively, flying over to the door.

"Well, I gotta go, I have weather patrol this morning." She said, glancing back at him.

"Alright, later babe." He said, with a grin.

"Bye, love you!" She said quickly, darting out the door. He nearly did a spit take, but wasn't drinking anything fortunately.

"Did she just say-" He started with a simper as I finished the dishes.

He shook his head, trying to dismiss it as nothing. Making his way down the ladder, he walked down the path into town to see if he'd been commissioned for any jobs today.He walked down the street, waving to ponies as they passed, making hisway down to the market district. When he came to his stall and saw a few fliers left there for jobs.

"One from Rarity, more heavy lifting. One from the crusaders, something about hunting monsters. One from Aloe, wanting my help with massages, and one from Lyra... again." He nodded, looks like a full day of work ahead.

He took the fliers, and started towards Rarity's boutique when he remembered Twilight had called for him yesterday, and probably make a quick stop by her place before getting too busy. He made a short detour to the library, and knocked on the door. He heard a bit of shuffling followed by Spike's grumbling.

"Yes?" Spike said, less than amused. As he opened the door, a cascade of paper followed behind him.

"Umm, Twilight wanted to see me?" He asked, and he motioned me in.

"She's downstairs working, and I've got to sort through all these papers... again." He said, parting the sea of paper as they waded through it.

"What happened here...?" The big guy asked, watching his step as he trudged through behind the little dragon.

"Twilight's been obsessing about something she figured out a couple weeks ago. She connected the dots on one thing, which led to another and another. Now look at the place!" He motioned to the massive dunes of ink and parchment.

"And who has too clean it up? Spike, that's who." He grumbled, opening the door to the basement.

"Well, on the bright side, no one can say you never did anything for her." The big guy said, ducking through the door, and headed down stairs. Spike on the other hand went back to wrestling the great white mountain.

"Twilight?" He called, walking downstairs and seeing her, writing at her desk.

"Hmm? Oh! It's you! Perfect!" She said, dashing over to him.

"What is it you wanted to tell me?" He asked, looking at the veritable flood of loose paper around the room.

"I've been studying your element intensely, trying to find out what it means. After all, the elements of harmony represent harmony, but yours is one of the elements of order, but what does that mean? How is it different from harmony? Anyways, after a lot of studying I realized each element of order is twice as powerful as any individual element of harmony, which makes sense, since there are half as many, but they are also unstable! I was confused by this so as I looked into it further I found that it's because it's not native to Equestria! Wherever you are from, the elements of order have been disconnected from it and now they're in a transitioning phase since they've all been united! Not only that but-" She would have continued on like that for an hour had I not interrupted.

"Twilight, summarize!" He exclaimed, and she bit her lip.

"You're turning into ponies!" She returned, and the room fell silent.

"Wait... what?" He shook his head like he'd just taken a punch to the jaw.

"You're becoming a pony, and so is the captain... That's why your hair's been growing faster, and you've been running around on all fours." She said, only raising more questions.

"You remember shallow? He had the most exposure to magic, and he walked around as a pony all the time. You've been exposed to a lot of magic since you've been here..." She said, and I thought to myself for a moment in silence.

"What about the Captain, he's been here longer than I have. Why hasn't he changed?" I asked, looking down at her, and seeing the look of concern in her eyes.

"He was exiled most of his time here, and still I've even noticed it on him too." She said, and he started pacing back and forth as thoughts raced around his head.

"Well... is there anything I can do to stop it?" He asked, turning away from her.

" A few... You could always abstain from all sorts of magic, but that will only delay the inevitable. Or..." She started, hesitant to continue.

"Or what?" He asked looking back at her, catching a glimpse of the pain before her words.

"Or you return home..." She said, and he felt his knees shake slightly.

"Oh..." He said, his hand sliding across the back of his neck.

"Well I suppose being a pony isn't that bad, and besides, it would make things less complicated for me here I guess." He said, sitting down on my a stool.

"Yeah, and besides, we know plenty of shape-shifting spells that can turn you back into a human." She said, and he nodded picing his gaze up off the floor.

"That's true, maybe this is no big deal after all..." He said, wiping his brow, his initial nervous sweat dissipating.

"Anyways, If you have the time, there are a number of tests I wanted to run on you." She said, as he stood up.

"Thanks Twilight, but I have work to do. Next Wednesday I have some of your tests scheduled anyways." He said with a smile, standing back up.

"Alright, but if you grow hooves in the middle of a job don't blame me." She turned to a book she had open, levitating a pen over and continuing her work.

"Thanks again Twilight." He said climbing the stairs to the doorway.

"Remember, no magic!" She yelled up at him as he left.

Stepping outside and headed for Rarity's again, he made sure to stay up on two legs. As he came to her door his mind was preoccupied with what Twilight had told him, or to be more accurate how to tell Rainbow dash about it... or if he even should. He knocked, hearing a brief sudden clatter inside.

"Come in." He heard her singsong-y voice as he reached to open the door. As it swung open he was met with a mess of fabric and boxes. There seem to be a lot of messes around Ponyville when he's around, though this one was at least organized.

"Oh! Perfect timing, I was hoping you'd be here soon." Rarity said, a quick sigh of relief escaping her.

"I take it I'll be carrying these boxes then?" He asked rhetorically, leaning to one side.

"Actually... no. You see I have this crate out back that I need to move." She said clearing her throat.

"Alright. Let's get this job done." He said making his way to the back room.

"Yes but, do be careful, it's a very large box, don't to hurt yourself." She said with a look of concern on her face, but he dismissed it as nothing.

"Don't worry so much, I can lift anythi-he-he..." I opened up the back door and saw the crate. It was standing almost as tall as her house was.

"Oh... I see what you mean now." He said, walking up to it and wrapping his arms around it giving it a test lift. It wasn't as heavy as expected, but still far to heavy to carry.

"Yes, you see I need to get this to sweet apple acres, and it's. A trial to say the least." She cleared her throat.

"What is it?" He asked, scratching his head.

"A totem pole from Appaloosa." She said, and he was tempted to ask why she had it, but he was pretty sure he'd get the story from Applejack anyways.

" Shouldn't be too much of a problem." He said, patting the side of the crate.

"Thank you so much for this darling, how much will you cost for today." Phrasing it like that made him feel a bit sleazy, but he shrugged it off.

"A job like this the usual twenty bits should do." He said, and she immediately shook her head almost like she'd been insulted.

"No no no that won't do! I insist that I pay you at least fifty." She said, throwing her nose up in the air.

"It's fine, twenty bits is enough. It's just one crate." He said, raising up his hands as she levitated out her wallet.

"Rarity, there's no difference between ten small crates and one big one. Twenty will do."

"No I insist. Fifty bits." She put her hoof down.

"Twenty five."

"Forty five."

"Thirty."

"Forty."

"Can we meet at thirty five and be done with it?"

"Forty is my final offer.

"Fine forty it is then." He conceded, ending their little game of reverse haggling.

"Good, here you are. Forty bits." She had a smug grin as she levitated the payment into his bag.

"Thank you, now I better get going, Rainbow dash hates to hear when I've been lingering around here too long." He chuckled, moving to the other side of the pole.

"I know, I know. She can be so suspicious. Anyways, thank you for this." Rarity said turning to walk back inside.

"No problem." He said as he eased the totem down onto it's side. "Have a nice day." He said, waving briefly before returning his hand to the crate.

"You too darling~" She said as she shut the door, returning to her own work.

Letting the mass of wood down onto his shoulders, he let out a short stifled breath and started walking towards Sweet Apple Acres. Trudging down the path to the orchard wasn't extremely long, but it felt a whole lot longer to him with the weight of a small car on his shoulders. It was almost too much for him, almost. It took just short of half an hour to get there, and his arms and back were protesting the entire way. He had pulled the mass of wood down in front of the barn and dropped it with as much care as he could. Sitting on the edge of the crate he let out a haggard breath, trying to calm the burning soreness, but oddly it seemed to subside rather quickly. Brushing it off yet again, he knocked on the door waiting for one of the apples to open up. After a while with no answer, he let out a call, to see if he could get somebody's attention.

"Hello? Applejack? Granny smith? Big mac?" He called out with no answer. There was a brief moment of worry in his mind, but he didn't really believe something was wrong.

"Family outing I guess?" He thought out loud, and running the tip of his shoes through the dirt.

"Or they could all be dead couldn't they, my good man?" A familiar voice sent shivers down his spine as his eyes shot up, searching feverishly for the source. He looked all around but there was no sign of the speaker.

"Shallow?! Where are you?!" He called out, but there was no answer. He'd wondered if it were only in his mind but something about the clarity of his voice made him doubt that. After a few moments of deep calming breaths he looked back at the barn and decided it'd be fine to just leave the totem pole here. He'd just have to go without hearing the whole story behind it. He just had a sudden, need to... check on something.