I still rested on the roof of the porch waiting for anything else to happen as I watched the moon slowly go down under the horizon. I didn’t feel that feeling of someone watching me and luckily the nightmare that had been haunting the Everfree was gone. Everypony that I cherished were sleeping soundly and here I was… still awake at night because I couldn’t sleep. Aside from the first night that I got that minotaur styled bed and the night after defeating Rourke and surviving the lava flow did I actually manage to find true sleep.
Every other time I did sleep I felt the creeping nightmares try to take control only to falter whenever they came close. For some reason I think I had Dream Eaters in my dreams keeping me safe from them. Otherwise I lucid dream my way into that realm of my mind where I keep track of all the weapons I hold onto. That did remind me that I have to practice those out sometime soon… even in my dreams. Probably I should do that as soon as I get those mangoes.
“I should really clean up in the basement.”
I remembered that I needed to do some cleaning and talking to Stiltzkin about making more jewelry to sell in Canterlot. Plenty to do before we leave and luckily nothing major happened during this time. Aside from the threat of Nightmare Moon there were no real problems here except for the Gala that comes up soon. Unless something else happens before then. Honestly how things go here is really weird so far and I don’t understand how things run for the world.
“Need to practice the new weapons… Can’t for the scythe because it’s made only for killing and flowers… for some reason. Book is for illusions but I don’t need them for anything just yet. Daggers channel lightning and can create clones made from electricity… though magic gives them mass which is also weird. Tomahawk channels the earth below my feet and supercharges my strength but is not the best for indoor training. And I’m talking to myself…”
I looked around… nopony was around. I was becoming… less aware of my surroundings whenever I spoke to myself. I probably wasn’t clinically crazy but talking to oneself is a sign of eccentricities. That’s what I’ll call it anyways.
As the moon finally started to lower once again I went inside and trotted down to the basement. Octavia was softly grunting on the couch as she moved a bit to find a more comfortable spot. I quickly got to her side when one of her twitches nearly got her sent over the side onto the floor.
“Careful there…”
“Oh… Gray… right there…” Octavia moaned out.
Well… at least I know she’s enjoying herself. After securing her to the back of the couch… mostly just scooting her so her back rested against it as she laid down I went for the basement and folding up my wings. This was to be one of my most monumental tasks I had ever done in the history of Equestria. Even more deadly than when I knocked that lava snake to the side from melting us alive. A task so death defying that not even Rainbow Dash was awesome enough to handle.
“Time to clean up that mess I made with Octavia…”
Fire is a good cleanser. I decided to incinerate all evidence which wasn’t too hard to do. The flames were useless around wood and didn’t burn them like a regular fire would. It seemed that magic we learned from out there would only affect what we focused on. So I focused on the spots that were left behind and turned them to soot. It also got rid of the musky scent that had decided to stick around. I didn’t chuckle from the obviously veiled innuendo I thought of when I thought about the sticky scent. I was an adult… mostly.
I groaned into my hooves about how this was my life now. No more high brow humor and dark asides that hid as thinly veiled threats when I interrogated prisoners. Now came the low brow humor and sex jokes. I’m pretty sure I had more class than that… probably.
After the stains were gone I quietly opened the basement doors and flapped my wings with help from an aero spell. The soot coiled around me and I sent it soaring out the now open doors. The sun was starting to rise making me realize I had been downstairs longer than I had expected. Maybe it was time to sleep… but I want mangoes… I’ll have to leave a message for the others then so I can sleep.
I took out the Lexicon and managed to will one of the pages to come out of the book. I wrote down a quick message about sleeping in the basement and asking them to handle getting mangoes for me. Hopefully that wasn’t asking for too much. I placed the note on the door making mention that I was locking the door but the keyblades could open it whenever they wanted to.
“Let’s see what’s going to happen today.”
Octavia woke up with a soft yawn as she peered around the room. She had felt Gray so close to her last night. When the blanket slid off her she finally realized what she had talked herself into wasn’t a dream either. The warmth she felt still radiated off of her as she cooed in joy at finally going along with her desires. She rested her head back and thought back to the entire night and couldn’t help but smile. Then she noted that there was still a heavy musky scent in the air… It clicked immediately that the rest of their herd decided to get into the spirit of things.
“Nice night… where is everypony though…?” Octavia grumbled as she finally managed to roll off the couch and onto her hooves.
With a quick stretch she managed to regain some feeling that she had lost about twenty minutes after Gray had started his… ministrations. She had other words for it but as a classy lady she would not stoop to such crass terms… even if she was very vocal last night. She trotted around the ground floor until she finally saw exactly where Gray had gotten to or at the very least what he was doing.
‘Ladies, I finally got to sleep after last night… I’m probably going to fall asleep for a while until later in the afternoon. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble could somepony please get the mangoes before they sell out. I need to catch some sleep after everything that happened. Seriously didn’t realize how sore my jaw was until this morning. Love, Gray.’
Octavia read the note over again with the blush covering her entire muzzle as she recalled plenty of what happened and what most likely happened to the other mares. Renewed vigor poured through her body as she galloped upstairs to the bedroom. The pungent stench still managed to stream from the cracks at the bottom of the door. She swung the door open only to be caught off guard by how everypony looked. Each of the mares were strewn across the bed in varying decadent position which left little to the imagination of what actually happened.
“Oh dear… This could be a problem.”
It took an hour just to get everypony back up and ready to face the day. Many of them had to share the shower just to get their knotted manes untangled. Regardless though who it was everypony looked oddly satisfied; Fresh Coat especially. Octavia and Vinyl were the last to share the shower… something they rarely did when they wanted to save on water bills. As a herd it was awkward but eventually they would be doing this more often so now was the time to get over it.
Redheart and Spitfire took the first shift though being the early birds usually, for work and for duty respectively, made their way downstairs reading over Gray’s note with the same luminescent blush that painted Octavia’s muzzle earlier. They too remembered exactly what they did.
Fresh Coat and Sunshower followed suit with similar reactions though Fresh took a certain pride in everything that happened. Holding her head high she didn’t realize she walked into Sunshower knocking her into the couch by accident.
“Oops. Sorry Sunshower. I was thinking something else… heh heh…” Fresh Coat nervously chuckled while Sunshower’s wings ruffled up in annoyance… at least it would be annoyance were she not also distracted.
“It’s fine… I was kind of distracted as well.” Sunshower groaned as she got back up and sat on the couch with the others reading the note as well.
Octavia and Vinyl trotted down as well while muttering to each other though the blank look on Vinyl’s face told a story. She wasn’t trying to answer any questions. As Vinyl’s eyes trailed off to the couch she raced ahead and took the note from Fresh Coat reading it. She pouted slightly but shrugged it off.
“So… for the afterparty we handle the day to day activities then? Seems legit. So who wants to go get the mangoes then? I’m sure one of the vendors has them on sale today. Is it Tuesday?” Vinyl looked around at everypony who all shrugged when her eyes settled on the table. There was a small bag of bits with Gray’s name on it. There were one hundred bits in it.
“Guess he planned ahead. So I’ll head out with whoever wants to go. So who wants to go?” Octavia motioned.
“I’ll go.” Sunshower chirped up floating across to Octavia with her saddlebags. They were very useful since Merlin enchanted them to hold multiple items in their own pocket dimension.
“I need to go check on our house. C’mon Fresh, you’re with me.” Vinyl brought up before trotting towards the door. Fresh merely hopped off the couch and ran off.
“I gotta stay here otherwise the whole town will go crazy. Besides I need some more rest, after all I am on vacation technically.” Spitfire yawned as she laid on the couch.
“I’m gonna lounge as well. The hospital needs me tomorrow for a small matter but I should have plenty of time to be around.” Redheart spoke up as she lounged on the couch as well with Spitfire.
“Looks like we got a plan. We’ll be back then.” Octavia motioned as four ponies left the house while the other two remained on the couch resting after their long trip and the spoils of war as they called it.
Octavia and Sunshower’s Day
The sun was finally shining as ponies all gathered ready to shop for whatever necessities that they needed. Applejack stood tall and proud against her cart as several ponies came to get their apples so early in the morning. It was the sign of a successful business and something she took pride in. As the crowd kept passing by with the odd customer every couple of minutes. It was then she noticed the oddest pair to ever grace her cart, that prissy concert mare Octavia and one of Rainbow Dash’s co-workers Sunshower. She had nothing against Octavia personally though the few times she went with her Canterlot attitude did bristle her mane the wrong way.
“Well howdy you two. Looks like you two’ve been through alot lately. Something wrong?” Applejack drawled on as Octavia and Sunshower stood before her.
The two were still a bit out of it given what they accomplished during their trip. They couldn’t say much about it but it didn’t stop other ponies from looking at them with concern.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve been through much but we have both been trying to keep ourselves busy since some changes have happened.” Octavia spoke first before Sunshower could respond. Sunshower, for her part, nodded vigorously.
“What kind of changes?” Applejack quirked an eyebrow.
“Big kind of changes. Ones that we are still looking to implement but it’s taking a while.” Sunshower finished up before Octavia could answer.
“Can’t ya talk about them?” Applejack voiced her concern.
“Oh yes… We can but we don’t want to until we are positively for sure this is really permanent.” Octavia answered politely taking up her Canterlot vibe which irked Applejack slightly.
“Aw right then. So what can I do for ya then?” Applejack dismissed her curiosity since there were still apples to sell.
“Seven apples please.” Octavia hummed.
With a quick flick seven apples were bagged up and given to Octavia who were suddenly placed in her saddlebags. Applejack was surprised that all seven fit in the small pack but said nothing about it. Fancy spells and such from Canterlot probably from her reckoning though she was uncertain.
“Applejack, you haven’t seen the mango seller have you?” Sunshower squeaked out.
“Mangoes? That galoot doesn’t show up for another hour. If you see him then make sure you tell him that he owes me ten bits.” Applejack growled out.
“Of course Applejack. How much for the seven apples?” Octavia politely asked.
“Fourteen bits.” Applejack stated.
“Thanks Applejack.” Octavia answered as she placed the fourteen bits on the counter.
“Thank ya kindly. Have a good day you two.” Applejack waved them off as they trotted for the next stall.
The two trotted a comfortable distance before they sighed out. Most of the day had been like that with several ponies asking them if anything was new in their life and every single time they would instantly clam up and seem really nervous. They meandered around for a while until the mango pony actually set up their stand complete with obligatory slogan on the nature of mangoes. It was highly underwhelming and with a near glazed over look they collected a small bushel of mangoes alongside all the other groceries they had bought.
“You think this is enough for now?” Sunshower finally spoke up to Octavia. They had twenty bits left after buying everything that they needed.
“Probably. We usually get lucky with food. Remember… we were well fed on the trip…” Octavia whispered slightly.
“Yeah… but the food kind of sucked. I’m glad Gray talked Cookie into letting him handle the vegetables we were to bring along. He had no idea what they even looked like.” Sunshower scoffed at the notion.
“I know. At the very least we managed to save all of them for the trip. Do you know where we’re going next? I’ve been thinking about a lot of things lately and I don’t remember the order of our trips.” Octavia looked around noticing that the plaza was slowly thinning out as the two made their way back to their base camp.
“I think it was the jungle with all the darkness. I think it had a name but it was in that book he has.” Sunshower surmised.
“Do you think we’ll get something neat like that? I mean getting… that was something amazing and all but so far only you have a real one.” Octavia slightly groused as Sunshower shuffled about nervously.
“I didn’t like how I got it. I was terrified. That… monster was choking Gray and I was so scared.” Sunshower stopped speaking as she noticed that there were still far too many ponies around. She sucked in a deep breath banishing the tears she felt start forming in her eyes and kept trotting along with Octavia.
Octavia remained silent as well as the ponies kept going through their lives blissfully unaware of how much the world that they lived in seemed so much smaller. Octavia peered around seeing those happy smiles… and with some trepidation took solace that they didn’t know just how dangerous the rest of the universe really was.
Vinyl Scratch and Fresh Coat’s Day
The two unicorns slowly trotted off for Vinyl’s conjoined home with Octavia. The problem with Gray was that he was a slouch when it came to buying food for his own home but at the very least he had impeccable timing with his…
“Hey Vinyl?” Fresh prodded Vinyl breaking her out of her fantasizing daydreams which she hid behind her sunglasses.
“What?” Vinyl shook slightly from the sudden jolt but kept her nerves at bay. Nopony must know what she wanted to happen to her body next time.
“Why are we heading back to your house?” Fresh stopped trotted slowly letting her back legs stretch out as Vinyl looked incredulously at her.
“Really? C’mon Fresh, it’s obvious. We need to get our grub on and right now that home doesn’t have a stocked fridge or cabinet full of munchies to satisfy my delicate palate.” Vinyl annunciated slightly regally if not for the goofy way she sniffed the air.
“You’re delicate?” Fresh Coat sniggered beneath her hoof while Vinyl just scoffed before chuckling as well.
“Delicate enough, you noob. So how did it feel? Finally taking off your training hooves and moving on to real horseshoes.” Vinyl lightly prodded Fresh’s side and she in turn tried to hide in her hat as she turned from orange to red. “I take it as it was good?”
“It wasn’t what I expected. From all my friends in Canterlot and Manehattan they said it would hurt. I mean it was slightly discomforting but then it got better. Is that how it’s suppose to be?” Fresh innocently brought up while Vinyl merely took on a ponderous look.
“Maybe? Firsts are different and while I could regale you with exploits of my past it’s something that I can sum up in one word for you. Disappointing. Mine was so disappointing that I could have sworn I never actually turned in the V. card at all. But enough about that. Let’s go get what we came here for and head on back. I’m sure Tavi has all the shopping under control seeing as she handles the shopping for us.” Vinyl shuddered as she remembered the last time she did the shopping. They had too many potatoes and it had been horrifying.
“That’s… something I guess. What are we getting? I mean are you even the one who cooks in the household?” Fresh slowly treaded forward as Vinyl opened the door.
“What? Like yeah, of course I’m the cook. Love Tavi and all but she still has trouble with anything that requires fire. Though I guess now I don’t have to worry ‘bout that now do I?” Vinyl chuckled as she rushed off for the kitchen.
“Wait for me!” Fresh chased after her nearly stumbling over some furniture before making it into the kitchen.
Both unicorns worked in tandem managing to mediate through their quirks to make some food for them to eat. Fresh would sometimes cut something wrong while Vinyl would add too much. Eventually they found a good flow for their magic to pick up where the other left off as they built an assortment of small snacks for them to all enjoy.
“I wonder though… what do you think about all this Vinyl?” Fresh mumbled after finishing another sandwich for them to enjoy.
“... I want to be seen as something more.” Vinyl muttered morosely.
“Something more?” Fresh winced when Vinyl rubbed under her eye quickly enough that Fresh thought she was seeing things.
“I’ve always been seen as… well an easy mare I guess you could say. Then somepony decided to stand up for me and not treat me like a tail lifter. Even though they could’ve left me to rot for no reason whatsoever. They didn’t. Even saying that they would stay regardless of what I chose to do. How could I not follow along with somepony like that. That treats me so well. Do you have a reason for doing this?” Vinyl coughed at the end hiding her growing sadness.
“Not yet. I’m grateful but I still don’t know why I’m going along with this. It’s been… harrowing a lot of the time. But I feel like somepony as well when I go out there to do these things. Not just another of the herd you could say. It’s not as deep as your reason but… but it’s my reason.” Fresh finished her thought packing away the sandwich as the two fell into comfortable silence.
After packing up the small meal they left the house locking the door behind them as they trotted off towards their friends and herdmates.
Spitfire and Redheart’s Day
“So… what now?” Spitfire breathed out as she laid on her back while Redheart laid near her. Their heads the only thing touching each other.
For the past hour that everypony had been gone they had both merely stared at the ceiling in abject silence lost in thought. For that hour neither had found anything to talk about because they were both there when they fought the monsters that were hiding in the darkness. They were there when they saw true malice rather than the garden variety evil they saw in Equestria. Both felt something was off.
“I don’t know honestly. After seeing out there it’s just… I don’t know how to react anymore to being back home. Out there is was challenging and dangerous and we were pushed to be the best we were capable of being. Now. I don’t know.” Redheart sighed.
“I’ve tried thinking about Wonderbolt activities but the only thing I can think of is how much most of my training wouldn’t help much out there. The clouds were all wild. We made it underground which meant all my cloud abilities were useless. Even with this fancy space magic I’ve found myself looking back on the Wonderbolts and finding them… lackluster. It that even possible?” Spitfire groaned as she rubbed her eyes.
“Possibly. I’ve found a way to heal countless ponies of their physical wound yet I know it can only do so much for everypony and relies entirely on me. All my medical knowledge is at least still useful to a point. Now… Now I need to figure out what to do with it. We need to keep secrets but both of us being technically guards for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna means we should report this. I don’t want to betray anypony…” Redheart slightly winced as her ears fell to the side of her head.
“We just don’t mention it. I’m sure nopony knows that we’re part of anything really. We need to watch out for the herd first in these situations. I mean I got all your backs on these things.” Spitfire brought up before grimacing once again. “I just never thought I would be disillusioned by being the captain of what is basically a stunt flying team. I love flying like that.”
The two mares sighed as they looked down at their respective hooves before clapping them together in solidarity. They knew they were just griping to each other about their new lot in life but it had been a big blow to their reality in a sense.
“Is it bad that I find this more fulfilling?” Spitfire jolted up summoning her training keyblade and staring at it.
“I don’t know. I can see why though. We saved an entire culture from someone’s whose greed trumps a dragons. We fought such large scale battles and won without really compromising who we are as ponies in a sense. Though I can honestly see how we’re just lucky to be alive.” Redheart took a deep breath remembering how many times those monsters had come and how close everypony came to death.
“It’s dangerous but I’ve felt more alive now than I have throughout my entire Wonderbolt’s career…” Spitfire grudgingly mentioned under her breath. It was something she found hard to actually mention.
Redheart said nothing. She didn’t know how to respond since she felt so anxious while they were out on their trip. The constant stress had not been good for her but at the same time she couldn’t deny how useful she actually felt doing something to help others. Ponyville usually had no major injuries and some malingering patients who thought they were hurt.
“Maybe we should look for that answer one of these days.” Redheart finally spoke after carefully choosing her words.
“Yeah… that’s probably for the best.” Spitfire sighed as she put her weapon away and laid back down with Redheart.
Neither spoke again merely lost in their thoughts trying to find out what made them feel so alive in the first place. Complicated thoughts clouded their mind as they waited the arrival of the others. A small growling came from the two.
“I’m hungry…” Both muttered as they stared back into the abyss that was the ceiling.
Twilight got ready to dash off since she got confirmation of Octavia and Sunshower back in town. She had gotten her pad of paper and specialty quill ready to go jot down notes. Applebloom had delivered the message to her only a paltry half hour ago. It was time to get to the bottom of things that her inquisitive mind wanted to know. Perhaps the secret of the universe or perhaps even the secret origins of thestrals in general. Before she could leave the room Spike burped up loudly coughing out a wisp of green flame as a message materialized in her general vicinity.
“Twilight… Message here.” Spike coughed out as he laid down from the sudden shift of flames.
“Oh my, a message from the Princess. I wonder what’s up now.” Twilight mused to herself. More likely than not they were just checking on her to make sure she was okay.
She opened the scroll and carefully read through the note. Then she read again. Then again until she couldn’t believe her eyes. A few drops of sweat fell off her brow before she started to dance around in a panic. She slowly calmed herself and read again.
‘Of course. The Princess already has the answer in Fluttershy. I better make an announcement to the town before things get out of hoof there. I know how flighty everypony is there.’ Twilight mused as she put down her spy equipment and began trotted out to the bridge over Ponyville stream. Spike followed closely behind ready to make sure to pick up the unicorn pieces when Twilight eventually lost her cool.
There was a large smoke cloud slowly wafting over Ponyville and they needed to stop it. Research would have to wait till later.