"So, Thunder, what're you doing today?" Twilight asked at breakfast the next day. "I think you've earned a day off, y'know, after saving us from turning into chitin and antennae?"
"Woah, woah, I have a free day?" I asked cheerfully, pumping a hoof. "Ace high!"
"Your plans are what exactly?" Fire asked. "You've got a good while to burn. Why not head down to Ponyville? Show everypony the new Thunder?" I considered this. I did have quite a few friends I left in Ponyville, the Prototype Afterburner included, AND that clone of me that hid from public view. To be honest, I was actually getting to like that guy.
"Well, I suppose." I replied. "Need to go pick up some ordnance at home, anyway." Inferno looked up.
"Oh, you didn't know?" he asked calmly, "We emptied all your shit into the shed. We're renting your room out to couples as a romantic room." I promptly let my hoof plant itself into my forehead.
"Fuck."
"Yes, they do quite a lot of that."
"Well, who the hell are you talking about?"
"Thunderlane and Flitter." Solar cut in. "Y'know, your other best friend and his marefriend. I spoke to her, she's like you, she's slightly nuts."
"She sounds fun. I'll probably meet her down there. Anyway, if that's all, I'll tell Luna I'll be away for the day, and tell the co-workers I'll be getting some weaponry, and be off."
"Try not to spend too long with Luna and Nightmare Moon. Don't want to spend your day doing what you do at night." Rarity laughed, prompting everypony else to join in as I rolled my eyes. "As fun as it may be with the two of them!"

After a goodbye kiss (and certainly not an extremely wild sexcapade) with Nightmare and Luna, I hopped on a train back to Ponyville. It was an uneventful ride down, only a dozen Changelings came at me on top of the train, and it involved a fire axe, but you don't need to hear about that. Anyway, I decided to act as casual as possible. Boots were on, jacket was off, hat was off, lovely weather, and literally everypony was outside enjoying it. I could remember the way back to my house, so I headed off.
As I went past the restaurant, a whistle caught my ear, followed by female giggling. Looking over, I could see Cheerilee, Bon-Bon, Lyra, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Rose Luck, and Colgate, unsurprisingly having another girly day. I smirked, and trotted over.
"Well, look who it is!" Vinyl laughed. "Been a while, Thunder!"
"Aye, it has." I nodded, chuckling. "A fortnight."
"So where did you storm off to?" Cheerilee asked. "After all, the Princess' suitor disappearing made national news!"
"Ah, you know, the usual. Hop on a train, go adventuring around the country, and such like." I moved a booged hoof for emphasis.
"That where you got the boots?" Lyra asked, leaning over and poking them.
"Nope. You know when I got hospitalized after a trip to Appaloosa? The mare that helped me on sniping duties made them, using the skin of a buffalo I hit. And, surprisingly, they're quite comfortable."
"Oh, you're the handsome rogue Vinyl was talking about a while ago." Octavia cut in, raising a cup of tea. She seemed incredibly British, and the grey mare was actually rather pretty. "Apparently you've done almost all of it, all over the country! What's that like, hmm?"
"Fun. That's one way to describe it." I laughed. "Helping the Elements, courting a goddess, attending the Gala, all that guff. You know, I came from a place that had a stereotypical accent, and it sounded just like you, Octavia." She looked confused, so Vinyl tapped her on the shoulder, whispering something into her ear. Octavia looked more like she understood now.
"So you...come from a dimension different to ours...and I sound like the people of your country?" she asked. "Right...certainly sounds interesting."
"That's nothing. Griffonia? Their accents sound French. Austallions? Australian. Eagland, England, Germaney, Germany, the list goes on, every place name here is either a pun of our country names or our country names are a pun of yours. It's crosslinked!" I said. "Plus, Manehattan. Manhattan. New Pork? New York. Shanghay? Shanghai. Even city names. Everything links up, it's amazing!"
"So...we were effectively connected via an inter-dimensional link, surpassing the laws of space and time, whilst somehow linking our dimensions via a Faustly trail!" Octavia smiled.
"Exactly. If I was more sane, I'd know what that meant! But yes! That!"
"Octi, I didn't know you were that smart." Colgate said, looking relatively amused. "Where were you educated?"
"Eton College." she beamed. "I was head of my class in the cello. Thunder, dear, might I ask where you were educated?"
"A school where I punched a lot of people." I replied casually. "Mostly because they were assholes, but partly because it was adolescent humour to smash your friends in the arm. It happened to me, I shrugged it off. Head of my class in Computer Studies, and master of Photoshop."
"Photo...shop...?" Cheerilee trailed off.
"Image editing software. Like the kind they use for mares on magazine covers: remove bruises, make things bigger, smaller, put in an image and make it look like it was there when the picture was taken when it actually wasn't, that stuff. It was fun."
"You know, I was in a few magazines." Vinyl boasted. "Dunno what ones, some guy just took loads of pictures of me." I looked at the girls, and we all had the same devilish glint in our eyes, and the Mr Bean smile.
"What kind of pictures?" Octavia smirked, leaning in.
"Dirty pictures?" I added, leaning in as well.
"No, no, pictures of me behind my deck!" Vinyl said quickly, going red as we all laughed.

I entered the shed. It was dark and musty. All around were tools, gathering dust and webs, a workbench that hadn't seen action, and sat on that, glinting wickedly in the low light, was my target: the Prototype Afterburner. This one was different, since it also had the function of spraying petrol from a seperate nozzle to keep the fire stoked. However, just as I turned to leave, something shifted in the back of the shed. An animal? I looked over. Gathering dust, like everything else, was my clone, curled up in a corner like an unwanted dog. He was either sleeping, or he'd just twitched after he died. I slowly approached him.
"Bro?" I asked. "What're you doing here, I thought you'd be up in Canterlot!" Slowly, he looked up, an expression of sadness on his face.
"Really?" he sighed. "You disappear for 2 weeks, leave me behind, and wonder why I'm not sleeping with your marefriend? And that wedding, they didn't even let me come with them, not even to help. To be honest, there was nothing for me to do, except hide here from public view and wait for you or the others to come look for me."
"Well, I found you." I smiled, before pulling him to his hooves. "I'm headed up to Canterlot, I received a day off from my job and the other guys as their bodyguard. I think I can split the pay both ways. But we'll need to do something about your appearance, so ponies don't get confused. I think maybe some streaks of white in your mane and tail wouldn't look too bad."
"Agreed." he nodded. "Should probably do that, avoids confusion. Oh, reminds me, have you met any mares that liked you in a sexual way?" I put a hoof over his shoulder with the Afterburner slung on my back.
"Well, there's a couple." I smirked. "Potentially more. With you safe 'n' sound, I suppose we'll be back in the buisness of bro-hoofing and booyah-ing."
"Would one of them be that pretty mare with the grey mane and music note for a Cutie Mark?" he asked.
"Octavia? Maybe. What about the light blue one, deep blue mane with white stripes? Colgate?" I replied.
"Ohh, she sounds nice."
"Aye, she damn well is. Let's talk about this later, when we're up in the Princess' chambers with Nightmare Moon and Luna." I felt him look at me when the words 'Nightmare Moon' were mentioned.
"She's still around?" he asked excitedly as we reached the train station. "Is she still hot?"
"Yep."
"Then let's go. I have plans to accomplish when I get there."

"Thunder," Luna panted, putting her head on top of my head, "What happened to your clone and Nightmare?"
"Oh, y'know..." I replied breathlessly. "Stuff. But, I still have you." I sighed, placing my hoof on her chest. She nuzzled against me, increasing the temperature of my body.
"Yes, you do. And with that wedding and planned invasion coming up? I think we'll both need each other as much as possible." Luna wrapped her wings around me, pulling me close to her. I smiled.
"Damn right we will."
After a vigorous, incredibly intimate session of massages, making out, and sex, we were silent. In idleness, I flexed my wing, which rubbed against Luna's ass. Suddenly, she practically flew to sit up.
"Thunder, your wing." she said quickly, grabbing the sensitive appendage. As ever, it had the large hole in it, and as she poked it, I grew more and more concerned.
"Yes...what about iiiIIIT?!?!" Luna suddenly, without warning placed her tongue against the wound edge. It didn't sting, oh no, it felt glorious. "LUNA, WHY DID YOU LICK ME?!" I whimpered.
"Because your wing seems to be in ideal condition. Tomorrow, we'll go down to the labs. They've been working on augmentations, prosthetics, whatever you want to call them. We shall see if we can get something fitted to fix your no flying issue."
I never asked for this. was all I could think of at such a sudden idea. Then, my mind had another idea.
"You know..." I started. "When your tongue caught a feather, I felt amazing. Can I do it to you whilst you do it to me?"
"Of course. If we get the opportunity, you'll have wings stronger than any pegasi, and we can do it as much as we want."

What a shame.

Author's Note

Yeah, RIP.