Silver Rain groaned and shifted in his sleep, snuggling closer to the soft warmth of a dream that felt like it was hugging him back. He was barely on the edge of starting to wake up, but he could already feel the hangover making itself known and didn't want to let go of that comfort till he had to.
Except...that wasn't a dream. As the misery of the hangover drug him further into wakefulness, that warm, comforting, embrace only felt more and more real. Slowly cracking his eyes, he found himself nuzzled into a mane of brilliant auburn streaked with lighter shades of red.
Pulling back slowly, his eyes widened, sleep quickly shoved out of the way, as he saw the mane belonged to a gorgeous mare with a chestnut coat, white 'boots' above her horse-shoes, wings whose tips ended with more light orange feathers, and a tail to match her mane. But it wasn't waking up with a knock out mare that nearly stopped his heart.
It was waking up with a knock out mare who had a long horn to go with that brilliant pair of powerful wings.
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Blys had felt Silver's return to the land of the living almost from the beginning, but had feigned continued sleep as an excuse to keep snuggling. Even though his emotions were touched with drunkenness, Silver had been a constant source of mild affection through the night, and her own snuggling back had helped, though she didn't mind the contact on its own.
However, she was becoming increasingly concerned by the change in emotions as Silver woke up, shifting slowly towards confusion, anxiety, and eventually panic.
Blys mercifully had quite a bit on the stallions likes and dislikes and had a good idea on how to distract him from his panic.
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Silver watched as the alicorn stirred, standing on the bead and stretching, her wings extending out to either side, and giving the cutest yawn he’d ever seen. After she then sat up, her wings pulled close again, and she shook her head, leaving her mane to fall semi-messily, looked over at him and gave a playful smile.
“Did you sleep well chere?” Even her accent was adorable.
Silver Rain’s thought processes ground to a halt at the action. It was too much to take in at once. Everything about her screamed ‘impossible dream mare’ yet there she was, sitting on his bed, being mildly flirty, and clearly having no qualms about having just spent the night with a stallion she seemed to have just met.
As Silver’s brain slowly restarted he realized he was being talked to, and the mysterious alicorn was no longer on his bed.
“-ere? Silver? Are you feeling well?” Silver nearly launched himself into the air, and did skitter a few feet away from the mare that had walked up beside him and had nearly touched his cheek with her hoof.
“I’M FINE, I mean, healthy, I mean, fine, that is, feeling well yes. Very well, never better.” Silver’s panicked response clearly did little to dissuade her concern, but at least she didn’t press the issue.
She didn’t look convinced, but at least sat where she was. Looking at him with that concerned pout. With her tail pulled in front of her like a cat. And her mane falling to cover one of her eyes…
Mercifully, before his brain could completely shut down again, his alarm went off. Having been shaken out of his trance, he realized that it was his old alarm that had gone off, and he was now pushing late for work.
“AAHH, oh no work, I’m gonna be-“ He froze, realizing that he still had an alicorn princess sitting in front of him, and that just taking off on her was a VERY bad idea.
Before he could offer an excuse or explanation, however, she had already realized what was going on and made the decision for him.
“It is quite alright. You have responsibilities, and I do not wish to cause trouble. Please, do not let me interfere.”
Silver could only stare dumbly at her for a moment, before slowly turning and heading out the door to get ready. He dared not take his eyes off her, for fear that she’d disappear somehow if he wasn’t looking. Once in the hall, he dashed downstairs to get ready, still trying to process what had happened and as going on.
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Blys couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something really important, but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what it was. She thought that she had done an excellent job of creating Silver’s perfect mare, so why would he be afraid of her? He certainly hadn’t given her the impression that he was normally this panicky around females.
Unable to come up with a solution, she used the mirror in the room to double check her disguise, and finding nothing wrong she trotted out to find her host.
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Down in the kitchen Silver was hurriedly preparing breakfast for his mysterious guest while downing a piece of his own toast. There was no way that he would leave her to such a simple breakfast of plane toast washed down with a quick gulp of milk, but he himself wouldn’t have time to enjoy it.
Hearing a noise behind him he spun around to once again find himself nearly face to face with the unknown princess, just barely avoiding dropping the waffles.
“H-here, I’m sorry I can’t stay to join you y-y-“
Waving him off the mare smiled, “it is quite alright chere, I understand. However, when you are done I would like to spend some time getting to know you, without the alcohol, oui?”
Silver’s jaw once again dropped, as he realized he somehow picked her up in the BAR while drop dead drunk. As his brain continued to struggle to pull itself together he nearly failed while still failing as she stepped closer and gently lifted said jaw closed with a hoof.
“Oui?” She asked again, a playful smirk gracing her lips.
“W-w-we…” Silver didn’t actually know what it meant, but he had a guess. Before anything else could transpire he bolted for the door, just barely managing to stop himself before running out.
“Y-you’re welcome t-to stay here as long as you like. Please, f-feel free to look around or use stuff as you need…” The invitation said, he proceeded to resume his sprint out the door leaving the confused, and more than a little amused, alicorn to her breakfast.
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Blys was still confused at the events unfolding, but at the same time couldn’t complain about the invitation. It solved a number of issues in terms of where to stay out of sight, as well as gave her free reign to learn more about her first mark. Smiling as she tried waffles for the first time, she settled in to plan her next steps.
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Silver thanked Celestia for his unnoticed entrance as he snuck into the construction area. He was independent of the regular builders and tended to receive a lot of flak from the forepony about his lagging behind the main team. So, after having set up near the current hot water node to be finished, he quickly began work, still questioning his own eyes at what he had seen that morning.
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Blys was more than pleased with breakfast. Hurried or no, Changelings rarely got a lot of fresh, and especially cooked, food. Being a subterranean species by nature, and one who’s primary food is emotions, the available foods at best tended to be bland and repetitive.
She slowly wandered around the house, looking at pictures and newspapers, as she munched on an apple and idly cleaned up the semi-mess. While the place wasn’t exactly a disaster, it was clear that its occupant had been far more concerned with other things lately, and it was a normal thing for Changelings to clean their surroundings. In an underground hive, messes could easily result in magnifying disasters if left unchecked.
It was while doing this that she happened to pick up a book, and as she started to look for the shelf it belonged to happened to look at its cover.
Or at least, what she thought was its cover.
Doing a double take, she realized that instead of the usual cover, the ‘front’ instead appeared to have the description on it, like on the back of most books. Confused, she turned it over, and found on the ‘back’ was indeed what would otherwise be the cover picture and title. On said cover was another winged unicorn, with ‘Princess Of Adventure’ in big letters. Curiosity piqued, Blys decided to take a short break, and hopped onto the nearby couch to see what this ‘backwards book’ was all about.
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As time went on Silver managed to collect his thoughts and settle into his usual work routine. Finally calm, he considered just how much he had had to drink the previous night, and came to the conclusion that what had happened was little more than a delusion from WAY too much alcohol and daydreams.
There was no way he’d actually spent the night with an Alicorn Princess, and decided that perhaps he’d been reading far too many ‘Alicorn Marefriend’ nangas lately.
I mean really, alicorns don’t just show up in a stallion’s life and instantly pull them into a whirlwind relationship.
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It had been forty-five minutes, and Blys had found herself still staring at the same page in outright horror. WHAT had she gotten herself into?
So she had apparently picked a form that wasn’t just exotic, or stunning, but actually outright LEGENDARY!? How was she supposed to know this, she'd spent her whole life learning about GRIFFONS!
From what she could tell from this (helpfully illustrated) book, ‘alicorns’ as they were called, were creatures of outright mythic proportions. While the most well-known ones actually ruled kingdoms, there were apparently more ‘subtle’ ones who just dropped into the lives of ponies who needed it.
She was about to just get out right then and there when she considered the previous night’s conversation. Silver HAD been going through a lot, and did seem pretty down in the dumps. Would she really risk playing the role this book described? Alicorns DID seem pretty universally loved and admired…what a coup it would be to bring in such success on her first collection. And, well, Silver seemed to fit the part described, as a nice but unlucky stallion. She could not only help her hive, but get him back up on his hooves, all in one big part.
Nodding, Blys had come to her decision, and immediately began searching for any more of these books to read. If she was going to go through with this, she needed to know more about what to do and how to act, and fast.