The adrenaline of the fight with the chimera had gotten us both somewhat aroused. After eating for a few minutes we fell into physical flirting, growling, and nipping at one another before progressing into full scale sex. In retrospect it was rather morbid. We were having sex while coated in gore, with the corpse of a chimera and a pony within sight of us. None of this registered as critical details at the time.
After rolling around in the leaves and underbrush enjoying our marital activities for several minutes we took a few minutes to just relax, cuddling up next to each other on the forest floor.
"We really should be heading back to the others," I said as I nuzzled my wife. "They are going to start worrying at some point."
"I am sure they are fine," Mera replied back, with returned muzzle and small nip at my neck. "If Sunset can smell and hear at this distance, then I am sure she can smell and hear us."
The idea that Sunset could smell us having sex was mildly unsettling. I wondered if she smelled it each and every time Mera and I had sex, it felt like having an audience, and I wasn't sure I was comfortable with that. Mera felt what I was thinking about and giggled.
"Oh hush that line of thinking," Mera said through a giggle. "So what if she knows when we are having sex. She likely smells sex everywhere she goes when she is going through a town. I wonder if Alicorns have to deal with estrus. Smelling all that sex, while dealing with estrus, can you imagine trying to deal with that? That would be torture."
"Luckily I don't haven't had to deal with estrus in millennia," came Sunset's voice from a short distance away.
"Hi Sunset! Hi Hot Sticks!" Mera waved at them happily. I buried my face into Mera's fur in embarrassment.
Hot Sticks looked around the area and looked ready to be ill. Sunset looked more than a little disturbed by the sight of the remains of the foal, along with the half eaten chimera. The fact both Mera and I were both drenched in the chimera's blood and stank of sex likely didn't help matters.
"You seem to be in a good mood," Sunset said to Mera. "How are you feeling, Pearl? Any injuries to either of you? It is hard to tell if you are fine or if you are bleeding. I can't make heads or tails of the scents here, not between all this carnage and the little after party you two had."
"We aren't hurt," I replied to her. "Can we just pretend you didn't hear or smell anything?"
"Don't be a prude, Pearl," Sunset scolded me. "You two are free to do that when your out of sight all you want. As Mera said, I am very much used to hearing and smelling that constantly, I don't give it much thought. I tune most of it out. I am not a pervert."
"Not to interrupt, but shouldn't we be taking time to bury the foal?" Hot Sticks asked, still looking green.
We all turned our eyes to the remains that were barely identifiable as a pony. Our ears all drooped down. Mera and I had avoided looking at the body and put it out of mind to this point, no pony wanted to think about it. Our blood-lust about it was over with, now there was grief for the foal.
"I will deal with it unless one of the three of you have a shovel packed away in your packs," Sunset said with a sigh. "You three head back to the road and I will join you shortly. There is a side path to a village a short distance down the road. When we get to it I will go to it by myself, and explain the fate of the foal. There should be a small stream near there, Mera and Pearl, please take the opportunity to wash yourselves when we get there."
Hot Sticks led us back to the road, which was good because we had lost any real sense of what direction it was in our frenzied state. It only took us a few minutes of quiet travel to find ourselves back on it.
"There is a lot of blood on both of you," Hot Sticks observed with concern. "Are you sure neither of you took any serious injury?"
"We are fine, the thing never landed managed to strike or bite either of us. The entire thing happened quickly and efficiently. It was a completely lopsided fight, the chimera never stood a chance." I scrunched up my muzzle in thought. "Honestly I don't understand why a group of armed ponies couldn't have just as easily done the same thing."
"Without proper training most non-Thestral ponies would hesitate. We have a natural timid nature towards danger. That hesitation can mean a lot in a fight. A group of such ponies would likely fail at sneaking up on the monster. They might win the fight in the end, but not without withstanding severe injury and casualties," Hot Sticks explained. I guessed the explanation made sense.
We continued to wait in silence for Sunset to return. When she finally arrived back we could tell that she had been crying. I looked to Mera and she gazed back to me silently. Mera was right, being what we were was a good thing. We protected ponies from having this happen. We had the drive and will to do what they could not, and if there had been Thestrals out here before we came along there would be one more foal that would grow up someday. We had no reason to be ashamed of what we do, and should in fact celebrate that we could do.
Sunset motioned us to resume walking without a word. We resumed our silent procession down the road with heavy hearts. The earlier exhilaration that Mera and I had felt was now gone, replaced with the sorrow for what we arrived a day or two too late to stop.
After walking for a short while Sunset came to a halt again, looking sadly at a less overgrown than normal side path on our left. She let out a sigh and turned to us.
"The stream is about a minute or two in that direction." She pointed a hoof slightly off to the right of the side path. "I will only be a few minutes. When I return I will be doing the transformation spell on you again, Mera. We want you arriving back in Crystal Heart in a form your family will recognize. I intend to keep pushing on without rest till we get there. This place gets to me, and I am ready to leave it behind."
Mera and I quietly nodded and started making our way towards where Sunset had indicated as she started walking the path towards the village. It didn't take long for us to find a small stream that could easily be forded without even swimming.
We were washing away the dried blood in our coats when we were startled by a loud scream. It took us only a moment to realize that it hadn't been a scream of fear or physical pain. Our ears were lowered as far as they could go as we gazed towards the direction the village must be, which was where the scream originated from. It had been a scream of anguish, likely from the foal's mother. I couldn't imagine trying to face her. How do you tell a mother their foal is dead? We could tell her that we massacred the beast that was responsible, but that wouldn't bring any comfort, that didn't change the fact the foal was dead.
Satisfied that our coats were clean of blood we made our way back to the road, shaking off the water as we walked so we didn't end up replacing the blood in our coats with mud. When we arrived back at the road we found Hot Sticks crying, the wails of the mare had brought him to tears. I embraced the stallion in a hug. Mera looked to do the same and then hesitated with a look to her cutie mark. Then she shook her head and cursed under her breath before joining us in a group hug of comfort. No one chided her or tried to stop her from joining in. After a minute had passed we broke the hug and all stared back towards the path, waiting for Sunset to return.
When she finally returned she was crying openly, and the three of us went and embraced her in a hug for comfort. She accepted the hug and sobbed onto our heads.
"I have had to tell ponies that their loved ones are gone more times than I can count," she sobbed. "You would think it would somehow get easier, the span of a pony's life is seemingly over in the blink of an eye to me, but it never gets easier. Telling parents that their foal is gone forever, that is the worst of them. There is nothing you can do or say to comfort them, it would be inappropriate to even try. There is nothing you can do to make it better, and can only watch helplessly as you see a pony lose the light in their world."
"Is there an afterlife?" Mera asked Sunset looking for some comfort about the fate the foal.
"I don't know," Sunset said with a shake of her head. "It is a nice pleasantry to think that when you die you go off to some better place, that our loved ones persist in some way other than just our memories. But I honestly don't know, six-thousand years of life and all I can tell you about is life. What comes after, if anything comes after, is a mystery to me. I want to think there is."
We all looked at each other with sorrow at her words. There had always been superstitions about an afterlife, and how there was a perfect world you went to when you died, or others that said that you were reborn again and again. There seemed to be no consensus about it, but every pony had their own beliefs. If an Alicorn didn't know for sure then it was impossible to say anything for sure. Sunset seemed doubtful about it, which was disheartening. However, It did put a new perspective on the prospect of immortality.
Sunset pulled out of the hug with a sigh. She glanced unhappily back towards the side path that led to the village one more time, and then turned her attention to Mera.
"Let's just get back to traveling, but first I have to get you changed back. We allowed your hunt, and you did well, but you need to show up properly presentable," Sunset told Mera.
"Do you think you can change me back to Thestral again after I have explained things to my family?" Mera asked hopefully.
"I don't personally advise it, but will do it if you really want me too," Sunset replied. "I will even let them watch if they can be trusted not to reveal me as an Alicorn. Seeing it happen might make it easier for them. I wouldn't normally allow that, but I am feeling sentimental about parents losing their offspring at the moment."
"I do want it," Mera insisted. "I intend to settle down as a Thestral and it is better if I get transformed before we start making moves to move in long term than after. My family will keep quiet about it, I am sure."
"You realize you won't be able to a acknowledge them as family in public after you go full time as a Thestral, right?" Sunset asked her with a raised eyebrow. "It brings up a lot of questions from onlookers, you will have to get used to calling them all by name in public. In private as well would be a good idea, it makes it so you are less likely to have a slip of the tongue."
"That will feel weird, but if that has to happen I can do it," Mera said with discomfort.
"Alright, just let me know when you are in need of the spell again. For right now just hold still, and everypony else please back away from her so I don't accidentally catch any of you in the spell," Sunset instructed.
We all did as instructed. When Hot Sticks and I were clear of Mera a golden glow appeared where Sunset's non existent horn would have been and it enveloped my wife quickly. With a quick flash it was over. Sitting on the ground was once again a pink Crystal Pony with a bright yellow mane.
Mera got up and looked herself over with displeasure, before finally sighing with acceptance.
"This feels weird now, actually it feels flat out wrong," Mera complained. "I want to move my wings and they aren't there. It seems like they should still be there."
She looked at her wingless sides and developed a curious look on her face. A moment later she looked like she was trying to concentrate on something. What happened was completely unexpected; she briefly shot up into the air without having appeared to jump, and then came down with a hard crash back to the ground.
We all rushed over to her to see if she was alright. She seemed to be, with only her pride hurt.
"Yeah, you aren't going to fly properly without wings," Sunset said. "I am impressed you were able to move the air, but without the wings to control how you move it you are just firing yourself in one direction."
"Oh well, was worth a try," Mera said dejectedly as she got back up again from where she had fallen. I came over and nuzzled her affectionately.
"You are still cute and sexy in either form," I told her with a smile.
"I appreciate it, Pearl, but it doesn't make me feel better," Mera said sadly to me. "I'd likely still find you attractive if you were turned into a stallion, since it is still you, but I doubt you would be content at all. It isn't exactly the same, but I imagine it is kind of like that."
"I understand," I said with a hug and kiss. She nuzzled me back in turn. "Just a few days and you won't have to worry about this form any more. I will miss you lighting up and glowing, but your Thestral form brings a lot of fun things with it, making you happy being number one on that list."
"Mmm, I love you," Mera said as she rubbed her head against my neck.
"Alright," Sunset said, drawing attention back to her. "Enough of the sickening sweetness for now. We have a lot of walking to do before today is out if we are going to make it to Crystal Heart. We should be out of these woods on about five hours if we keep up a good pace, and after that we will have a paved road that follows straighter again which should help increase our pace dramatically. I am aiming for an early afternoon arrival to the city outskirts. I don't need as much sleep as any of you, but I do need sleep, and I have been up since early yesterday morning. I am looking forward to getting tucked into a bed at a hotel."
So, we began our walk again. Again there wasn't much talk between us as we walked through the woods. We again from time to time passed where the road would have a side connecting path, most of which seemed to be overgrown, but a few well maintained ones. At one point we passed a stretch that had a fair amount of cherry trees, with cherries ripe for the picking, overhanging into the road. I flew up and grabbed a few of the cherries for each of us, with Mera looking on sadly as I did. She really was taking the lack of wings hard. She did gratefully accept the small fruits from me with a smile though.
The density of the trees began to lessen around us as it approached noon. Far more light came in from above, and the overhanging canopy eventually vanished. The temperature began to drop despite the fact that the sun was high in the air. The climate was getting cooler, and I wondered if the previous density of the forest had somehow insulated us against dropping temperatures.
The path abruptly shifted from dirt road to paved stone a few minutes after noon. Embedded in the road we could see the same types of crystals as you would see in the roads leading to Starlight's Folly from Yazyakistan, the ones that kept the snow from covering the road. Mera had told me the much of the Old Crystal Imperial District had snow year round, and the snows were only held at bay by the magical heart in the center of the city, which also kept the city warm year round. I imagined the heart to be something like one of the crystals that lined the road, only exponentially stronger.
The shift in climate was emphasized an hour after noon as the tree types changed to primarily evergreens, and snow began to lightly fall in the forest. I didn't notice the snow at first, as it didn't fall on the road, but Hot Sticks pointed it out to me. We were definitely now in Mera's home region.
The forest came to an abrupt end soon after, and we paused to look at the tundra of the Old Crystal Imperial District. The first thing that you noticed in the distance was what I assumed to be the Crystal Spire. It didn't stand as tall as the Great Tree, but it could still be seen despite us not being able to see the city that surrounded it. Snowfall obscured out vision of much of the rest of the area, but the spire glowed with its own light that pierced through the snow, like a beacon to Crystal Heart.
"There is home," Mera said with a more upbeat tone than she had in hours. She waved a hoof at the rest of the area after. "And here is boring old Ocid."
"Ocid?" I asked curiously.
"Old Crystal Imperial District takes too long to say, so most of us here just call it Ocid for short," she explained. Crystal Ponies seemed to have a tendency for giving things long names, and then nicknaming them from what little experience I had so far. Perhaps it was just a fluke, I didn't have a lot of experience beyond Mera with Crystal Ponies.
"We should be in Crystal Heart with about another hour's walk," Sunset said. "Let's keep moving. I really am looking forward to a bed, food, and the warmth of the city."
And so we began our final stretch of the walk to Crystal Heart.