Spice in the water

Deciding that the crusaders could hold off for a bit while he cures his suspicions, he headed for the Ponyville cemetery. All cemeteries were naturally a bit depressing, but something about this one in particular left him with a knot in his chest. It was a bit unsettling, but the feeling of unease that had been on his mind since Sweet Apple Acres was worse. He walked down to the furthest row of graves and then down four more empty rows to find a plot in the far corner of the yard.

"Here lies Shallow Graves. May he be remembered fondly and his trespasses forgiven." It read, and there was a red orange red flower growing at the base of the stone. An Indian paintbrush if his memory recalled. But to his relief the grave was covered with a layer of grass, still undisturbed, as he'd hoped. A long dawn out sigh later, he set a coin on the tombstone and turned to walk away.

Just as he did he was sure Shallow was gone for good. Nopony... Nobody comes back from the dead. He started to walk away with a renewed confidence, realizing how silly he'd been. That was something he might have done when he was fourteen, back when he still worried about his dad's ghost stories.

A short walk later, he'd found himself coming up on the cutie mark crusaders HQ. There was already a commotion going on inside, so he knew that he was about to get into a bit of a mess. So, steeling his resolve, he climbed up to the clubhouse and knocked on the door. At first there was no answer so he'd thought they hadn't heard him, but soon realized it had good quiet. He knocked again and was followed by a few short whispers.

"Who is it?" Called out one of the crusaders, instantly recognizable as Applebloom.

"It's the big monster you asked to help you hunt other monsters." He returned, and was followed by one sigh of relief, and a few more still agitated whispers.

"Can you keep a secret?" Asked scootaloo, and he opened his mouth before even considering the consequences of what he was saying.

"Sure, of course I can." One last round of whispers later and the door opened with all three standing in the doorway.

"You can come in but you can't tell anyone what you saw here this day." Said Applebloom, attempting to sound ominous. He ducked inside the doorway and saw an open book on a desk already opened to a marked page. He walked up to it and leaned down to read what was written.

"The fire ants are creatures living in the northern caves of Everfree forest. They are a variation of giant ants that have been genetically modified, and their name comes from their ability to expell a flammable acid from their mandibles. The fire ants of the Everfree forest were created by a unicorn named Lesko who was attempting to shrink giant ants to normal size through genetic manipulation and accidentally created the fire ants. Lesko's ambition was to make the ants exponentially smaller through generations, meaning the offspring is born smaller than its parents for generations to come. But one small tweak of an error in his spell has left the ants with a completely different mutation. The fact that Lesko used dark magics in his experiments in order to produce a quicker result may also help explain the "error." " The book goes on to further explain in very technical terms that the ants breathe fire by expelling flammable venom from what was their venom sacks, then igniting it with a spark made by clicking their mandibles. He calls this process "pyrosis."

"Why are you showing me this?" He asked looking back at the girls who were fidgeting slightly.

"Well you see... You took a while to get here, so yesterday while we were waiting for you... we decided to go ahead and catch one." Said Sweety belle, and it was obvious what comes next can't possibly be good.

"And?" He prompted them to continue, but they seemed not sure how.

"Well we caught one. A big one." Said Scotaloo, chuckling lightly and pointing out the window. I looked out and saw a large makeshift, and mostly wooden cage, surrounding the giant insect.

"I'm... not going to ask how... but why?!" He asked, rubbing his finger and thumb into his temples.

"Cutie mark crusader monster hunters?" They all grinned awkwardly up at him.

"And did you get your cutie marks?" He asked, the answer though obvious, he felt needed to be asked.

"No..." They answered in unison.

"You want me to get rid of it?" He asked, and they all nodded silently.

"...Alright. If you promise, never to do anything like this ever again." He knew the promise itself was probably meaningless, but at least he could hold it over their heads.

"We promise..." They said, hanging their heads dejectedly as he hopped down to the ground. The ant circled slowly to face him, mandibles clicking together making a sickly sound.

"Alright, option one, send it home. Option two, just toss it. Option three kill it." He thought to himself as he got into a ready stance.

"Option one is ideal, but with no way of leading it, and no idea where it lived, not viable." He thought to himself as the ant started spitting fire to burn down the wooden cage and get to him.

"Option two puts everyone here and everyone in Ponyville in danger not to mention the damage it would do to the forest." He thought to himself as the cage collapsed into smoldering scraps.

"Option three, I'm in danger, and the ant is dead, but everyone else is safe..." He thought to himself as the ant started toward him.

"They aren't going to like this..." He sighed, and started strafing to the side as the ant struggled to turn with him. It spit out a torrent of flame, trying to torch him, but it wasn't fast enough to catch him. He lept forward as the flames licked at his arm. It didn't actually touch him, but the heat coming off of it made him wince. Coming up to step on the ant's thorax, it immediately started struggling and frantically spitting flames. He couldn't hold it down as it tried to throw him off, it was strong enough to lift him. It turned and spit fire onto the base of the tree where the girls were and a rush of emotions flooded into him.

He perched up on it's back and started violently beating it's head with his fist. It cried out with a shrill unnatural sounding trill, shaking to try and throw him off. He latched onto the creature's torso, planting his feet on the ground to lift it up off the ground. He tossed it down head first, and it flailed wildly to get back to it's feet. He looked at the flames as they'd just started to spread up the tree, and his if his adrenaline wasn't already pumping it was now. He sprinted toward the an't crying out in anger as he picked up a large stone. Just as the insect had made it back onto it's feet, he tackled it back to the ground. It's legs kicked wildly, scratching his torso and face as he brought the rock down onto it's head again and again. Once it'd stopped moving he ran over toward the tree and started stamping out the fire. With the flames quelled, and threat neutralized, he could finally let his heard slow down. He could feel his pulse though his legs and arms as he collapsed onto his back looking up at the tree house.

"You girls alright up there?" He called out to them, but there was no answer.

"Girls?" He called out again.

"You killed it." The voice came from behind him, seeing the two of them standing a ways away as Scootaloo touched it with her hoof.

"Yeah, yeah I did." He said, waiting a short while on his back before turning over and staggering to his feet.

"Did you really have to?" Asked Applebloom, looking back at him as he walked up to it.

"Unfortunately, yes." He said with his hands behind his back, a somber look on his face. A brief moment of silence later, Sweety belle spoke up.

"We won't be doing that again." She said and he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty.

"I'm going to bury it if you want to stick around." He said, but was met with silence. He picked up the ant and took it over to the tree, digging around it's roots.

"Why here?" Asked Scootaloo coming up behind him.

"If I bury it here, then the ant will fertilize the soil and help the tree grow... Kind of like a last gift." He said looking back at her as he dug.

"It's a normal tradition among my kind to bury loved ones, pets, or anyone you want to remember beneath a tree." He said placing the ant in the grave. They stood for a moment in silence and he reached down to pat Applebloom's head.

"Let's get out of here, I'll buy you girls some ice cream." He said as he stood up.

The four of them went to town, and got ice cream like he said, cheering them up a bit before they ran off to return the book they'd gotten to twilight. The big guy on the other hand had a couple more jobs to do today, the first of which being to go help out at the spa. Ever since he'd started lending out his services, the spa sisters had been asking him to come down and help out with massages, mostly because of the obvious, hands being quite dexterous. They usually called him to come down about once a week, or when somepony important rolls through town. This was most likely the former.

Starting towards the spa, it wouldn't take long before he got there. He came to the door and ducked down, but as he reached for the handle an odd sense of anxiety crept over him, an he hesitated to turn the nob. He shook it off as nothing, turning the nob and stepping into the spa. He quickly met eyes with the two spa ponies, and was approached by Aloe.

"Oh, thank you for coming by on such short notice, we are having a hard time sing we have..." She stopped, looking up at him wide eyed.

"What, what is it?" He asked, looking around, and behind him.

"Y-you're bleeding! You're absolutely covered in scratches!" She said and he looked over his arms, seeing the scratches and chuckling.

"Oh right, it's nothing, I just fought with a giant bug." He wiped away the stray flecks of blood.

"Are you alright?" She seemed skeptically concerned.

"Of course, it wasn't hard, just..." he searched his mind for the right word. "troubling."

"If you say so." She smiled warmly and turned away walking toward the massage room. "We'll have to cover those scratches to keep from scaring the customers so you can barrow a couple rolls of gauze." She said, motioning to the cupboard.

"Why do you have gauze?" He asked, running the many services of a spa through his head.

"Let's just say, we weren't always good at acupuncture." She said, eliciting a shudder from him.

"Point taken." He said, pun intended. Taking a roll of gauze, he wrapped up his arms, covering them as best he could without being able to see all the dozens of little scratches.

"Now you just wait here, and we'll send in the customers for you." She said as he finished wrapping up.

"Will do." He gave a thumbs up as the turned to leave, he'd done this enough to know the protocol. He didn't wait long before she'd sent in the first customer, a mare he'd seen in tow but never known the name of.

"Hello there mam, and what will we be having today?" He asked, as her gaze drifted slowly up to meet his.

"O-oh! Um... I was... going to have a deep tissue massage." She said, a bit of anxiety in her voice.

"Deep tissue, that should be easy enough. Just step up here and lay on the table, and we can start." He said, motioning to the table. He heard her stepping up onto it as he turned to the cabinet, and pulled out the massage oils.

"So, how has your day been so far?" He asked as she laid down.

"Not bad, just a bit stressful is all." She let out a sigh, and he picked up that it might have been more than a bit.

"A lot going on, or just something heavy?" He asked as he'd poured the oil into the heater.

"A lot going on. I'm getting married next month, and my mother came down to help." She said, and he chuckled.

"Congratulations." He said and she returned the chuckle.

"Thanks, I really needed to relax a bit." She said as he walked up beside her with the oil vessel.

"In my opinion, every bride should have a massage before her wedding. It would keep the pressure off their shoulders for a day, let them calm down you know." He said as he poured the warm oil over her back.

"It would stop a few fights at least." She said and he grinned.

"Which is why you're here." He said and she nodded.

"Oh yes, I can't tell you how much I've wanted to snap at somepony over just the littlest things." She said as he set down the oil.

"Well I am glad I can help." He said, leaning in to start rubbing in the oils.

"Mmm..." She took a few deep breaths as he simply spread the oil across her back and forelegs. There was a calm silence as he'd gently ran his hands across her back feeling for knots and spots of tension.

"The stress here in your back is really bad, but that's a wedding for you. It'll all be worth it once it's over." He said as he started to knead at the muscles of her back. It was a lot like human muscles, but smaller, and shaped a bit differently.

"I know, and it wouldn't be this bad if my mother didn't micromanage everything." She said as he started to work his thumbs up between her shoulder blades. She winced a bit before relaxing again the anxiety melting away like snow off a rooftop.

"That... feels good." she said, as he'd worked into the small of her back with his palms.

"When it comes to stress relief, one of the best things anyone can do is to handle things gracefully. And by the looks of it, you've got that down." He said, managing to wrest a giggle from her.

"Well sir you don't know me, graceful I am not." She allowed the complement as he moved to massage her foreleg. He found that ponies tended to keep a lot of tension in their shoulders and by their hooves.

"Could have fooled me." He smirked, rubbing into her shoulders. Another moment of silence passed as she simply enjoyed the massage. After a moment he'd go over to pick up the oil again, and start pouring it over her back legs.

"Umm, you mind if I ask you a question?" She asked. He set the oils aside again, and nodded.

"Ask away." He said as he ran his hands along her legs, to set the oil in again.

"Have you ever been married, or had a marefriend?" She asked, and he was taken a bit off guard.

"Well married no, but a marefriend yes." Marefriend still felt awkward to say, but hey it was true.

"Was it ever hard to deal with all of your... issues?" She asked, as his hands glided over her thighs.

"Oh yeah, all sorts of problems came up. Mostly my fault too." He said with a shrug as his hands met her haunches.

"Did you ever... hate her?" She asked, and he hesitated to respond, focusing a bit more on the massage.

"No, never hated her. Hated myself a lot though." She looked back, a bit confused.

"I don't have too much experience with relationships but I'll tell you this. Thousands of things go through your head every day, but the only ones that they know about are the ones you tell them, and vice versa." He said, pressing his thumbs into the thick of her calf. She sat silent, waiting for him to continue as he raised up to the thick of her thigh.

"You can sit there mad at yourself for a week, but then finally talk to them about it, and it turns out they forgave you long before you forgave yourself." He said, and something about it resonated with her.

"Wise words, was that from experience, or-" She started, and he shook his head.

"No, no, my preacher told me that. He was a wise man." He said, as he pressed his palms up on her rump the both of them blushed uncomfortably.

"So long story short, talk to your husband-to-be about your problems. If the burden ever gets too heavy, nobody said you'd have to carry it alone." He said as he massaged the base of her tail, making her shiver a bit.

"That's pretty good advice, kind of corny, but good." She grinned awkwardly.

"And with that I think we're done." He said as he handed her a warm washcloth. "Just continue down the hall, and Lotus will take care of you next."

"Thanks again, it was really nice talking with you." She smiled, standing up slowly as her knees wobbled a bit.

"You too, make sure and come back again sometime." He said, getting the door for her and watching as she left.

"Don't worry I will." She smiled, continuing down the hall without looking back.

He had a few more customers come in, but none were quite so talkative. After he was done for the day, Aloe paid him for his time and he'd be on his way, off to finish his list. Oh right... Lyra. A brief moment of exasperation later, he'd brushed off his shirt and headed for the residential district. Lyra didn't live very far from the market so it had been easy to find the first time, but as many times as he'd gone down there now, he could make it with his eyes closed... walking backwards... while doing the cha-cha.

But he won't.

There wasn't much he could really do for Lyra in terms of heavy lifting or manual labor, but despite that he was called out to her home every so often. At first she would simply make up something for him to do, like moving the furniture, organizing her clothes, or something equally menial, but at some point she must have simply run out of ideas, because now he always finds the same thing when he comes out.

He knocked on the door and after a second he'd heard her call out "Coming!" followed by the sound of hoof beats as she descended the stairs. The lock clicked open and the door swung open hastily, with Lyra standing there tossing a comb back behind her. Something told him that today was about to get even longer.

"Hey there big guy, I wasn't expecting you so soon."

"It's like three in the afternoon, why would-"

"Aaanyways, come on in, I've got drinks set out for us."

"I thought you said you weren't-"

"Oh, and Bonbon's out for today, so we have the house to ourselves." Running his hand over his face, he simply submitted to the story and followed her inside. He closed the door behind him, as they stepped into the living room, drinks set out on the table in front of them just like she'd said.

"So we'll be doing the usual bit today?" He asked, as they both took their usual seats. Though something was a bit odd about Lyra at the moment. She seemed both relaxed and anxious at the same time... if that's possible.

"...Oh! Yes, the usual." She said reaching out both hooves and taking his hand.

"You must have been doing a lot of hard work recently, your nails look awful." She looked his hands over pulling out a nail file.

"Well, just today I've had to carry a massive totem pole all the way to Sweet Apple Acres, and fight a giant fire breathing ant." He shrugged.

"That explains the, umm," she cleared her throat, "Smell?" She glanced to the side and he seemed puzzled for a moment.

"Oh right, I'm probably sweating a bit huh?" He sniffed at himself, but he couldn't smell anything.

"Maybe just a bit." She said filing away at his nails.

"It's not bothering you is it?" He asked and she quickly shook her head.

"No, not at all! ... But if you, you know, want to use my shower, I wouldn't mind." She said sounding a bit flustered.

"Nah, I'll just wait it out. Can't get me into too much trouble can it?" He thought aloud.

"You might be surprised..." Lyra said, squirming a bit in her seat.

"What do you mean?" He looked puzzled yet again.

"Well, I don't mean to be rude but... You kind of have an effect on us mares." She said holding his hand with both hooves.

"Yeah, I've noticed..." He smirked.

"If you've noticed, haven't you thought that maybe it might be a bit weird for us?" She asked, and his puzzlement turned to intrigue.

"Weird how?" He asked absentmindedly.

"Let me be frank." She sighed. "How would you feel if any time you were around a friend of yours, you felt... horny?" She said, her face turning a bright pink.

"I think I'd feel... a bit sick to my stomach actually." He stared into the empty fireplace.

"I for one find it a bit unfair." She hesitated a moment, looking up at him. "But hey it's not your fault either. You can't help how you smell." She finished, setting the file down.

"It's weird that I'd never thought about it much before." He laid back, despondent at the fact that such a simple thought had never occurred to him. Some element of wisdom he turned out to be.

"Hey, cheer up buddy, have a drink." She said handing him a glass of blue punch. "It's not the end of the world right?" She chuckled.

"Thanks for pointing it out to me Lyra, you're a good friend." He said taking a drink, blind to the slightly disappointed look on her face.

"Right, that's me. A good friend." She chuckled again, but halfheartedly.

"Still I wonder... Just how bad it must affect Rainbow dash." He said looking down into the glass. "She's around me all the time, not to mention being my marefriend. She's gotta be getting the worst of it."

"I'm sure she doesn't mind, it's not like she can't-" Lyra stopped suddenly catching what she was about to say.

"Can't what?" He asked setting down his glass.

"Nothing! Nothing! It's not important." Her face flushed pink again as she waved her hooves in front of her.

"Alright. If you say-" He was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" She said, glad to change the subject. She darted off toward the door, with the big guy following her. She swung the door open and was standing in the shadow of a large figure.

"Hello?" She said in a more timid tone.

"Where is he?" Said the familiar gravely voice. The Captain again.

"I'm right here el Capitan." The big guy said rounding the corner. He immediately met the glare of the Captain, but this time more intense.

"You come with me." He said with a wave of his arm.

"Ooohkay...?" The big guy followed him outside.

"Look, I don't know why I've been turned into a messenger boy, but apparently this is for you." He said, handing him the scroll.

"Who's it from?" He asked, and the Captain's baleful look didn't falter even slightly.

"I'll give you three guesses."

"Twilight."

"Bingo."

"Don't know why I even asked." The big guy opened up the scroll, which was filled with words that he would need a dictionary and an hour to decipher it all, but the gist of it was just about the elements of order and the meaning of their instability.

"I'm going to need a while to decipher all of this technical jargon, and even then I'm not sure why she wanted me to see this." He said slipping it into his belt.

"She said it was important for something, but I never understand any of what these ponies are talking about." He said curling his wings over his shoulders. The big guy kept reading, but one part in particular stood out.

"The elements themselves seem to have a unifying effect, similar to the elements of harmony, but with a very different result. While the elements of harmony have been seen on several occasions coming together to create harmony and by extension friendship, the elements of order almost seem to oppose each other. I've deemed it likely due to the difference in the natures of ponies and humans, but the effects of the tests have left me baffled. Each of the opposing forces are supposed to create order, but in opposition with each other they inadvertently create chaos. It is from here I realized that each individual element worked by spreading it's influence instead of working directly off one another. Once signs of shown that the influence has spread, it's effectiveness of control is not only completely natural but immutable." Something about those last words stuck in his head, making him feel as if they'd dug up a lingering uncertainty.

"I think I'm going to go home for the day. I've got... a bit of thinking to do." He said turning to Lyra.

"That's alright, I understand. Important human business." She nodded.

"Then I'll be on my way." Said the Captain, spreading his wings and picking himself off the ground. He flew off, and Lyra headed back inside.

"We'll continue another day, alright?" He said as she turned, her hoof resting on the door.

"I'll hold you to that." She called back, as she closed the door.

He 'd started walking, making his way home, running that word through his head again and again. Immutable. Why had that part bothered him so much? It's not like it really mattered, it had no noticeable effect on anyone. At the very least there was nothing he could do about it. It's not like he could control it even if there was, so why worry about it?

His feet fell over the dirt path as he sauntered down he way towards his house. It would have seemed casual had he not looked so crestfallen. He repeatedly attempted to simply brush the feeling off his shoulder, but it just wouldn't let go... like that one piece of tape you find crawling on your arm. You try and swat it off, but then you see it on your hand, and try to shake it off. You know what I mean. He'd walked up to his door, reaching for the knob when a cold chill ran through the air.

"It's just tearing you apart, piece by piece isn't it?" Snapping around to look behind him, he looked around for the unnatural voice again. The unease had returned to sit on his chest, making his breath more shallow. Alas nothing was there, just grass trees, a couple flowers and not a pony in sight. He wanted to turn around and walk inside, but didn't want to take his back off the door. So in one nimble move, he'd opened the door and stepped inside to close it in one single smooth motion.

"Oh! Umm. Hey big guy... Back so soon?" Just as soon as he stepped inside his eyes had fallen upon the bright blue pegasus he'd known so well. However he hadn't expected to see her like this.