What did I say about a night to remember? I think a night that I will forget is more accurate.
Celestia's sunrise hits me in the eyes. Ugh, time to wake up. I'm glad that my ability to channel prevents me from getting hangovers. But I think I might be a little drunk still. I look at the Rainbow mane I'm snuggled up with. I give her a hug as I extricate my hoof from under her. I move myself back and I find another body next to me. I look over, Cloud Kicker is asleep, holding me, funny, I didn't even notice her hooves around my barrel. I stop for a moment. Searching through my memory of last night. Uh, did I do anything I would regret? A little after midnight my memories get really hazy. I might have done something. Uhhh, not good. How am I going to get out of this?
I cautiously sit up. This is a pretty big bed, and it has to be in Fluttershy's cottage, I look around. Well, at least not every pony is here. In front of Rainbow Dash is Pinkie Pie, and behind Cloud Kicker is Blossomforth and Flutters herself. Though it looks like Fluttershy is almost falling off the bed. I use my wings to help pull my body from the assembled ponies. I'm lucky, I don't disturb any of them enough to wake anyone. I get to the foot of the bed. I'm looking back at the girls in the bed and immediately trip over Big Macintosh, who was sleeping on the floor. I end up half on him.
Apparently my yell as I tripped was enough. Six heads poke up. All the ponies look at each other, and there is some frantic rearranging.
“Gah, my head.” Groans Rainbow Dash. Several sets of hooves start holding onto heads.
“Never again” Blossom moans.
“You'll get over it.” a sober Cloud Kicker says to her fillyfriend. She flaps off the bed. Apparently that mare can really hold her liquor. She lands next to me as I extricate myself from Big Mac. I can tell his head is pounding though. I gesture to Cloud Kicker as we leave the room. She follows.
“Did I do anything that I don't remember last night?”
“What?” she says. “Are you asking if we banged?”
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes, I'm asking you that Cloud Kicker.” I say as I grab several glasses out of the cabinet and start filling them with water. I use Air to float my bag over. I bring out a big bottle of ibuprofen, and shake out quite a few pills.
She looks thoughtful for a minute. “Not that I don't think you would be a good bang, I'm certain you were a complete gentlestallion last night. Though I think you danced on the table with Pinkie Pie. Discord got tired of our drunk and disorderly behavior and poofed off wherever he went. What was that thing you used to make music?”
“An ipod, it's a device from my world. I've got a lot of songs on it.”
“Nice.” She says. She's on her third cup of water. She must be feeling the effects of the morning after herself, but she hides it better than most. I pick up all the glasses of water in Air and trot back into the bedroom.
I float the glasses to each pony. “Drink plenty of water, and those pills are a moderate pain reliever. You gals should be fine lickity split.” I stage whisper to the ponies.
In the living room, the remainder of the ponies from last night are passed out. Moonshine and Twilight apparently heard the water running, and their channeling means they aren't in any pain. Thank Celestia.
“Wha happened?” Twilight slurs. Yup, she's still drunk.
My daughter giggles at her. She's completely sober, I search back through what little memories I have of the previous night. I think Moonshine drank enough to get a pleasant buzz, but not much more than that. My daughter, the prude. I had to chuckle at that.
“Twilight, be glad you can't get that morning after feeling. Though you did drink a lot. How much wine did you drink before Dad brought out the hard stuff?”
The woozy alicorn swayed a bit as she stood up. “I don't know, but what kind of wine was that? It was very good.”
“It's a sweet red wine, from a little place in Texas. When I get wine, I only get it from there.”
“Well, we will have to make sure to keep that stuff around.” She thinks about it for a second. “Moonshine, you've shown me how to do that inter-dimensional gateway, so I could go there and visit your world and learn as much as possible about it?”
I smiled at Twilight. “Yes, you can visit my world as much as you want. But I would appreciate if you didn't until my daughter, or I, go with you. Some of the normal social conventions are completely different than Equestria. You'll have a big learning curve from minute one. Remember, your lives are broadcast in my world. You don't have any access to what is normal in my world.” I sigh, “and my world is quite depressing compared to yours.”
She smiles, “I'll never turn down an opportunity to learn.”
“I know that Twilight, and I'll even try to arrange for you to meet the voice actress that gives you your voice. I think you would like her.”
“I don't know, wouldn't that be kind of weird?”
I have to laugh. “Given what the bronies have been like, I think Tara will take you in stride.”
We grab some more cups of water, and start handing out the medicine. All the adepts in the cottage start working on the cleanup. Fluttershy stumbles out of her room and sits at the kitchen table. I can tell she feel horrible.
I move up to her and put my wing around her. “How do you feel sugar cube?” I keep my voice low.
The ibuprofen seems to be starting to work it's magic. “I'm feeling a bit better. What happened last night?”
“What do you remember?”
“I started drinking that Patron with Twilight, I think we finished off that bottle. I'm so sorry.”
I smile at the yellow Pegasus. “No worries Fluttershy, I bought that to be drunk. I'm glad you enjoyed it.”
She smiles blearily at me. “Last night was fun.” She then lowers her head slowly to the table. “But lets not have a repeat any time soon.”
I squeeze her with my wing before withdrawing, “Sweetie, a night like that is only for occasional consumption. Too much of that is bad for you.” I float over a cup of fresh brewed coffee. “Take a sip.” I know Flutters isn't much for coffee, but I know she does like plenty of sugar in it. As Fluttershy takes a sip of coffee, Pinkie Pie bounces out of the bedroom.
“Sparky, that was a fun night, not like my usual parties, but it was a good party all the same. I hope we can do it again.”
I smile at the pink Earth pony. “No problem Pinkie Pie, I'm glad you had fun. Wait a second.” I look at her completely lucid expression. “I know you drank more than me. How are you so chipper?”
“Oh, you silly. After some water, and those magic pills you gave us, I'm right as rain. And I have to get home. Bye.” She finishes with a peck on the cheek for me, and a hug for Fluttershy. My daughter get's bowled over with a hug, as does Applejack. Moments later, she's out the door, bouncing like her usual self.
“Ahh, that's Pinkie for you.” Twilight says, voicing the thoughts of almost everypony in the room.
The next to emerge is Rainbow Dash. She's not looking too hot. I notice some vomit had dried on her muzzle, one of my last memories of the night before was her and Cloud Kicker doing shots together, trying to drink each other under the table. And I'm pretty sure Rainbow lost that one. She is still stumbling around. I float a large glass of water and a large mug of coffee on to the table as she sits down in front of it.
“What a night. I don't remember much, except it was fun. What all happened.”
Cloud Kicker is there to save the day, apparently she had the best memories of the night. She starts explaining some of what happened while Big Mac and Blossomforth also come out of the bedroom. Their heads are hung low, it's certainly the morning after now. Blossom sits down, and then immediately has to run back to the bathroom. Her retching is quite audible in the kitchen.
“Poor girl, I should help her.” Fluttershy starts to get up, to be quelled by my daughter.
“I can help the poor mare.” Moonshine murmurs to Fluttershy as she moves by. My daughter has a very nurturing heart. I think it's one reason why she loves Fluttershy so much.
I move next to Rainbow Dash. “Dashie, do you want to head home, I know we both need a shower, I'm pretty sure I smell like a brewery right now, and you ain't too hot yourself.” She looks up at me with bloodshot eyes. Not comprehending.
“Here, I'll make it easy.” I open a gateway right outside my workshop. I lead poor Rainbow through the gatway and wave at the rest of the ponies as I let the gateway close behind me. I open the steel door and lead her in.This is the first time she's been in it since I've completed the main construction. She looks at me curiously as I turn on lights and lead her into my workshop. The corridor is granite and slate slabs, the floor is obsidian that has been shined to an absolute gleam. Off to the left is the small foundry and smith shop I've built. Farther down is the electronics workshop. I bring her to the end of the hallway, I built a large shower and sunken bath tub in the room that can't simply be called a restroom, it's more of a personal spa. I've put a sauna in, a large swimming pool, and a large area for taking care of bodily necessities, and a large washing area. I lead her to the tub, a flick of Air starts the tub filling. I set it for a very hot bath. I float a cup to a water fountain, filling it with water just a few degrees above freezing and float it over to her. She drinks greedily. She looks around.
“You have been busy. You built all this with your power?”
I smile at her, “yes, let me show you some of how I usually live.” I have adapted some things for the anatomy of a pony, but this is very much like one of my apartments back home. I lead her into the tub, I grab a sponge and a bar of soap. I lather her up and gently clean her face and body. I've put in a good filtration system into the tub, the soap and everything dirty floats to the filter and the water itself stays pretty clean. I wash her mane and tail, and rub the soap all over her body. The hot water allows her to relax. After she's all clean, I finish up cleaning myself. I float a couple of large towels off the rack over to her, and I help her get dry. After only a few minor complaints that she can do all this herself, which I ignore and keep on pampering her. I float her onto the massage table.
This massage table is nice, it's designed for Pegasi so their wings can get preened professionally in addition to a good massage. I start working my hooves over her back. Listening intently to her moans of pleasure as I work every kink out of her body. After a quick preen, she's been taking really good care of herself, even though her mane is usually in disarray, she is very good at keeping herself in good shape, I look over at her. She's fallen asleep. I brush her mane, I know she likes to keep it in it's usually messy bedhead look, but I just tease the hair a bit, make it look a bit better. Flows of Air have her floating behind me as I trot to the living quarters part of the shop. I settle her on the bed to continue sleeping as I head into my workshop. I head down stairs to the underground portion. I spend most of the rest of the morning hammering metal and completing my personal projects. After a few hours I hear Rainbow clear her throat. I've bought a few poniquins from Rarity in the last couple of months. I'm using them for my work. I'm in the process of setting a weave of Saidin on my work. I wave Rainbow over to a pillow while I'm completing the weave.
“What are you doing?”
I shush her, and hear her “hmmmpf” as I try to concentrate. Getting a weave to endure on something is infinitely harder than simply tying off a weave and leaving it be. I want this to work every time, so I'm actually working on a microscopic level, using the power to allow me to feel what I'm doing on that level. I've got nearly a meter of metal to infuse left. I divert enough concentration so I can speak.
“Rainbow, I must concentrate to do this right, it's delicate work. You can either wait an hour or so, or you can go for a flight and I'll catch up to you when I'm done with this.”
I don't hear her move, so I'm guessing she's going to wait. I've got leather protective gear on to protect my fur and feathers from the sometimes very hot metal. I'll tell you, finding a leather supplier here in Ponyville has been impossible, for the most part, I've purchased from Canterlot, where some specialty stores are, and some, I got from home. Nothing beats thick leather when you are making what I'm making. To someone who can wield Saidin, the piece in front of me is glowing as it looks like I'm sewing with threads of pure Saidin, it's what it takes to make what are called standing flows. I glance at my reference book from time to time, only pausing to shake sweat out of my eyes. The hour passes slowly. Then another half hour as I tie all the flows together so they end up self sustaining. After I'm done I sigh and lean back.
That much intricate channeling has given me a headache. Rainbow is sitting, watching me. In the final workshop I have downstairs, I've installed a lot of LED lighting I purchased at home, the room is very brightly lit. I've figured out how to adapt the lightning clouds the ponies use for electricity to give a consistent voltage and current, along with master electrician training and knowledge, my main workshop is a large, open space with metal cabinets and several work benches. I've got a pile of some of the salvaged equipment from the battle in there. I've got several hundred rounds of rifle ammunition, three working rifles, and some other various bits and baubles that I've been experimenting with. The guns have been restored to new working condition, and modified for pony use. I've been figuring out how to manufacture more ammunition, and trying my hoof at making some more rifles, but those are future projects. I'm working to protect my little ponies before I think about making offensive weapons.
I roll a large tool chest that would be at home in any mechanics shop towards me with flows of Air. I float off the top section and set it next to me. Out of it I pull a selection of lacquer paints. On the flank of each side, I've engraved Rainbow Dash's Cutie mark. I take the white, red, blue and yellow paints out, and start applying the paint. A few minutes with the brush and the paint is glistening wetly on my project. I've still got a hold of Saidin, so I apply heat with it to the now painted cutie marks. A few moments later the marks are dry and hard to the touch. I am finally done. I lean back and grin at Rainbow. She gets the cue and comes up next to me.
“What have you made Sparky?”
I smile at her and kiss her cheek. “Something for you, if the invaders come back.” I move back and let her see the entire ensemble. It's a set of armor. Much like what she wore when she was jousting with Fluttershy in the Crystal Empire.
“It's beautiful.” She spreads her wings and hovers around the ponequin. I've been working pretty hard on it, the armor weighs less than ten pounds. And with all of it, and the standing flows which are activated by clicking together the various buckles of the armor. I tell her as much.
“This armor should be bulletproof, not because of the structure, but because of the flows of Saidin I've weaved into it's structure. It's lighter than the armor the Royal Guard uses, and gives you better protection. Your wings are also protected as well.” I pull out the wing guards. “The ends fit over the outermost feather of the wing, and conform to the leading edge of the wing. You should be able to fly without a problem, and yet your wings are protected from attack without affecting the aerodynamics of flight for pegasi.”
She breathes in deeply. “This is your big project?”
I smile at her. “Yes Dashie. You want to try it on? I have to finish some of the embellishments. I'm going to paint it all black, with gold highlights. It will be even more beautiful once it's done.”
She smiles at me. “No, if you put it on me, you would have to be taking it off right away, I'd rather skip that step.”
My smile falters, what the heck does she mean by that? The answer to my unasked question comes from her giving me a hug with her forelegs and wings, a nip on the ear, and whispered promises. My wings quickly unfurl and stiffen up. My smile comes back. And I let her lead me back to the bedroom upstairs.