Shadow: I decided to revise the chapters slightly so that the tale is told in the present tense rather than the past tense. Sorry about the inconvenience, and I hope this A/N clears up any confusion.
Also, I threw in some references during the creation of this chapter for fun. Can you find EACH AND EVERY ONE?
Leather-Winged Oddity
VI - Happy Birthday
What is love?
Usually, when that question is asked, anyone with a good sense of humor would retort with a "Baby, don't hurt me no more", and a typical brony would ask Princess Cadance on the mattter.
But alas, I am in no mood to be singing Haddaway's fantastic line at the time... and sadly, there is no Princess Cadance at my side right now.
Good thing too, otherwise Shining Armor would think that I had kidnapped her.
I know what love is, in terms of definition: it's an emotion of a strong affection and personal attachment, and it is also a virtue representing all of kindness, compassion, and affection, or the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another. Love may describe actions towards others or oneself based on compassion or affection.
Yet with that in mind, I begin to ponder... what forms do love come in?
Many foolhardy people would like to think that love comes in many forms and shapes. But I, and a select few others, believe that love can only be used in two senses: a platonic sense and a romantic sense, even though I have not experienced the latter. Yet while I would like to undergo adoration in that form, I preferred to love someone or something in a platonic way.
However, I'm not here to talk about me.
After many futile attempts at getting to sleep, I give up on even trying. I get up, throw the covers off, and leave the room I was resting in. I need air, for it usually clears my mind. I quietly step out of the massive interior of the Shagwagon and into the cool night air. Its brisk feel on my skin and sharp scent in my nose rejuvenate me as I flap my wings and fly up to the top of the caravan.
But rather than being in my lonesome, I see somepony else on the top of the Shagwagon. Ginger Snap is laying on the roof with her front hooves behind her head, staring up at the stars, their bright shine reflecting off of her sharp neon green eyes.
"I take it ya can't sleep either?" I say. Ginger jumps, but when she sees it's only me, she relaxes and nods, yet with a frown on her face.
"Nope," she replies.
"Hmm." I shrug my shoulders and take a seat next to her. "How'd you get up here?"
"Levitated myself up here." Was it me, or did she say that a little too quickly?
"Ahh. I see." A few moments pass after I make that sentiment.
"I don't like you. Never have, and probably never will," she finally says.
"I don't give a crap. Never have, and probably never will," I snap. Ginger looks a little mad by my simple truth and me imitating her. I really don't care.
...OK, so maybe I lied about not caring. But she doesn't have to know, right? Otherwise, I'd never hear the end of it.
"Aren't ya gonna get mad or something?" she asks.
"Hell, nah. I've come across your type before: the rude type, always judging somebody by their appearance and their race. I guess that's why most ponies like you are always racist."
Ginger gets more upset once I call her out. "I'm not raci-!" I shoot her a skeptical look before she can finish. "Oh, who am I kidding?" I chuckle at her sentence transition. She starts laughing with me for a while, but we both stop a few seconds later. Before long, we are deeply submerged in a silence so powerful, one could hear a pin drop from a yard away.
"Ever wondered how Luna creates such a beautiful scenery in the sky at night?" I ask, breaking the ice. I only inquire this because of what I see in the moon: a lunar lantern, and the stars that gleam and illuminate Gaia are like stationary fireflies.
"She uses her magic, duh," Ginger answers snidely. I laugh a little bit more.
"No, I don't mean that: I mean at how each and every single star shines like a diamond, while the moon acts like some sort of... silent witness to everything that happens from the smallest deed to the most heinous crime."
"What are you getting at?" She asks.
"This sky, gorgeous as it is, isn't the same one that I knew and loved for the past twenty-two years of my life."
"What do you mean?"
"Ginger, don't play The Dumbass Game with me, please," I tell her. She raises a brow at my remark, but she smirks, showing that she is indeed fooling around with me... Not like that! "What I mean is that I can never go back to my planet ever again."
"So you're not from Gaia, huh?"
"Gee, what gave it away?" I question sarcastically. She giggles a bit. "Was it these big-ass wings?" I point at my flight appendages. "Or these huge Chocobo feet?" I wiggle my avian claws. Even though Ginger doesn't know what a Chocobo is, she laughs harder. It's my turn to raise a brow.
Ginger stops laughing a few seconds later, when the same thing I'm thinking hits her as well.
"Damien, we're not becoming friends, are we?" She asks in mock disgust.
"Oh, dear God, I hope not," I say in the same tone she used. We laugh again. "But now that you mention it... I guess you're not that bad of a pony after all."
"Thanks, I guess?" Ginger says. "And if it counts for anything... I don't think you're that bad of a... erm...."
"Person?" I fill in the blanks for her.
"...I knew that." Cue the laughter.
"Let's just go to bed. It's still pretty late, and we wanna get up pretty early for Daring's birthday, right?" I tell her. Ginger nods. I get off the roof of the Shagwagon and land almost silently on the grass, despite my non-usage of my wings: maybe Devil Imps and Angel Imps are extremely lightweight, like Pegasi. But when I land, I don't hear a thump next to me that signifies Ginger landing on the ground. When I look up, I see her looking down at the ground with wide eyes and tiny irises. Now I understand why she was so quick to answer my question about how she got up there. Since she was prideful, she didn't want to tell me she climbed up manually rather than with magic; now, she was stuck, due to her fear of heights.
But then again, she did fall down a massive and seemingly-bottomless chasm into Tartarus, so I guess I can understand her predicament. "Need some help?" I ask.
"No, I've got this," she replies.
"Bullshit, you didn't convince me!"
"I've got this, darn it!"
"Aha-haaaa- no, ya don't." I hold my arms akimbo. "Jump and I'll catch ya." Ginger shakes her head. "C'mon, you stubborn lady." She shakes her head again. I face-palm so hard, I actually whimper from the pain. "Oh, Goddamnit...." I fly up, and grab her around the midriff. She squeaks and begins kicking and flailing as soon as she's off the roof.
"Let me go!" she shouts in my face. I have to shush her and squeeze to get her to quiet down.
"Trust me, this is safe!" I tell her as I start lowering myself.
"Why the buck would you think this is safe?!" she whisper-shouts. I stop in mid-descent, my lips curling into a large, wry smile as I look at her through the corner of my eyes. She gets the message immediately. "Y... you wouldn't."
"Oh, would I, now?" Before she can even retort, I shoot up into the sky, beating my wings as hard as possible to get extra speed. She begins screaming as loud as she could. I almost drop her from how earsplitting of a volume her banshee-like shrieks are. After reaching two hundred meters above sea level, I throw her up into the sky with as much force as I could muster. She gets up a good fifty meters before she comes back down. I fly upside-down, my head pointing at the ground, with her in front of me as she still screams her head off. "Hey, how ya doin'?!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
"Me, too! It's such beautiful weather tonight!" What? I'm trolling her, shut up. Right before we collapse, I grab hold of her again and turn my flight path by ninety degrees before we splatter into the grass below, my back facing the ground, now parallel with it. Ginger grips onto me for dear life. I right myself and slow down to a halt, finally landing softly on the grass below.
I set Ginger down on the ground and step back a few inches. Good thing, too, because, she spins around and tries to buck me in the chest with her back hooves. "YOU JERK!"
I move quickly and place a hand on her mouth to quiet her. "Shut up! People are sleeping!"
"MPH DPMH CRMPH, YMPH BMPHMPH TRMPHM!"
"Run that by me again, lassy?" I remove my hand from her mouth.
"I don't care, you bucking turd!" she reiterates in a loud whisper. "You almost got me killed!"
"Ah... but I didn't. I told ya to trust me, and instead, ya lashed out aggressively. If I wasn't someone to trust, I'd've let ya fall to your death. But I didn't." Ginger blinks a few times at what I had told her. She sighed in resignation.
"I guess you're right...." Ginger says. "Sorry for trying to kick you."
"And sorry for doing that to ya, lass," I apologize. "It won't happen again."
I LIED!
"Let's just go inside, OK?" I finish.
"...Alright." We go back to the Shagwagon and step inside, thanking God or Celestia that neither Echo, Daring, Coconut, nor Disarray are awake. "Damien?"
"Yeah?"
"Despite the fact that you scared the crud outta me... that was actually kinda fun." I see a little smile emerge on her face. "Good night, Damien," Ginger tells me before she goes to her room. I smile a bit before she leaves the common room.
"Good night, Ginger."
The Next Morning
I awake to the sun hitting me in the eyes through the lone window in the room. It's a marvel at how the sun's rays are accurate, even in another universe. I can't help but think that if Princess Celestia knows of my existence, then she's probably doing this to me on purpose.
Nothing says "I love annoying the shit out of you" other than a rude solar awakening from everybody's favorite trolling Alicorn, eh? And I say favorite trolling Alicorn because I'm sure she's the only trolling Alicorn... unless she's suddenly decided to take Luna under her wing. Then she's just doomed us all, and she knows it, too.
"Damn sun... go away, no one likes ya..." I get out of bed and reorder the sheets and covers to their former glory. I riffle through my bag to find some toothpaste and a toothbrush: at least Nut has some concern for my hygiene. I throw on my undershirt, scarf, and jacket before I head out into the common room. The Shagwagon's five crew members greet me, and I them. Once I tell Daring Do happy birthday, I ask the crew if there's a bathroom onboard. Sadly, when I discover that no such thing exists aboard the caravan, I step out of the monster truck of a wagon and fly up high, my tools of oral hygiene in hand. I spot a small pond about a few meters away and fly to it, prepping for the day.
Once finished with grooming and cleaning myself, I return to the Shagwagon, yet I hesitate when I try to open the door. I mentioned to Echo the previous night that my gift to Daring was a two-piece. One piece of it would be for the evening. But the other piece... well, I don't see any harm in doing it now, right?
I heard tales - actually, that's a lie, no such tales of what I will discuss exist. I played Gaia Online long enough to know that Devil Imps and Angel Imps have two forms: the human state I'm in now, and another state.
I screw my face up in concentration as I tried to perform this said state. I shut my eyes and growl in exertion. "Hnnnnnnnnnnnng." Nope.
"Hnnnnnnnnnnnng!" Damn it. Still nothing.
"HNNNNNNNNNNNNG!!!" Not only did it not work, but I think I almost shat myself from the strain.
It's been three minutes since I considered transforming, and that still hasn't happened! C'mon, damn it, why won't it work!?
"HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN--" *POOF*
Whoa... did it work?
I think so, because a cloud of white smoke erupts out of nowhere. Once the cloud dissipates, I look down and see that the grass is indeed much closer than I thought. I tried wiggling my claws, yet I couldn't: it was like they had been removed. Same predicament with my arms, although I did feel something move above where my arse should be. I look around and find a long black devil tail laying in the grass next to me. I could still flap my wings and fly, so that's good. I get some air and fly to the pond where I brushed my teeth.
Whoa... it actually worked.
I'm not in a human form anymore. In order to help you get a better understanding of what I have become, imagine a little black plush thing that's about the size of a football and is slightly blob-shaped, has a long tail, all-red anime eyes, and smaller devil wings.
"Whoa..." I mutter. I blink a couple times at how differently my voice sounds. I sound like I belong in Alvin and the Chipmunk's music group, but I got kicked off because of my accent. That doesn't bode well with me at all... the first part, not the second. "This is bullcrap!" I shout in my squeaky voice, upset that it sounds like that.
Now, let me take a minute just to say that while I am annoyed my voice took a turn for the prepubescent, the overall effect is very kawaii.
But enough about me. I have a birthday to celebrate and a birthday girl... birthday mare... to entertain.
Once I master the art of using my tail, which took about five minutes of my time, I return to the Shagwagon and used my tail to turn the handle on the door and open it so that I can fly inside.
Oh, and did I mention that everyone inside flipped out a bit with they saw a winged and tailed black blob flying into the room singing happy birthday?
No? Well, joke's not on you, it actually happened.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!" I sing. "HAPPY BIRTHD--"
*WHACK!*
...God, do you think that me getting hit all the time is a funny joke?
Apparently so. To Him, it's like watching a clown car catch fire, with the occupants still inside.
I only say this because Coconut exclaims in surprise at my sudden appearance and decides to go all Muhammad Ali on me by launching a right hook shot at me. The hoof connects with my face and sends me flying into the wall. Sadly, being this form of an Imp requires energy and mana, the latter being something I have little of. The second I slump down to the floor, I return to my human form with a small poof and a cloud of white smoke, my nose bleeding from how strong Coconut's swing was.
"Oh, Celestia! Damien!" Coconut shouts in concern and worry once he discovers it's me. "I'm so sorry, mate!"
"Aah!" I put my nose into my scarf to staunch the blood flow. "Coconut, ya rat bastard! That hurt!" Echo comes over to help me to my claws, all the while laughing at my reaction. I pull the scarf off of my nostrils to reveal... black blood? No, that can't be right. But when I put a finger to my nose and pull away, I see that my nose was indeed leaking blood as dark as night.
"What the hell...?" I mutter before putting my stained scarf back to my nose to siphon the ink-like blood.
"Are you alright, Damien?" Daring asks me, trying to hold back fits of laughter from the scene that had unfolded before her only seconds ago. Ginger was laughing as well, but she did her best to stifle it as well.
But Disarray?
"BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAAAAAAAAA!"
Tickling him with several big feathers won't get a reaction like that out of him.
Once the blood on my nose is staunched, I try again with singing the happy birthday in my kawaii blob form, with much adoration from both Daring and Ginger. After that's out of the way, Coconut prepares a cake for Daring from the cooking materials he brought from Wethoof. Once the cake is obliterated by our many empty bellies, I tell Daring about a second piece to my birthday gift, one that would be performed for her at sunset.
"Bow-chicka-wow-wow~" Disarray croons, taking my telling her I'd give her a gift at sunset the wrong way. Everyone on board shudders when we get the reference.
"Wait, what?" I begin. "EEWWWW, no!"
When that chaotic camaraderie Disarray pulled out is over, we all treat ourselves to few birthday party games, like Pin the Tail on the Pony, Align Five - which, believe it or not, is a lot like Connect Four, and a few card games that Echo and I personally know, from poker to blackjack to even three-card monte.
Time, during those moments, does what it usually does best: speed up.
The sky, once a joyous blue from this morning, now emulates a vibrant orange hue as the sun travels across the sky and finally reaches its destination at the horizon. We all step outside and take a seat in the grass outside the Shagwagon. We stare at the sunset before us, watching the large ball of burning gas slowly descend out of sight. I feel someone nudge me in the ribcage. I look to my left and see Daring Do with a smile. "Aren't you forgettin' something?"
Oh, yeah!
I jump to my claws and walk over to Disarray, quickly whispering in his ear for certain instruments. The draconequus snaps his bear fingers, and two violins and a cello appear out of nowhere, hovering a few meters above the ground. He gives a violin to me, all the while taking the second violin in his bear paws and the cello in his lobster claws. Disarray wiggles his snout, letting the mustache flutter slightly. I hear another pop and two seats appeared right behind us. We take our seats and hold the instruments the way they were meant to be held.
"You guys ready for the second piece of the birthday part?" I ask them. They don't hesitate in nodding. "Ya know what song we're doing, Disarray?"
"Eeyup."
"Good. A-one. A-two. A-one, two, three."
Disarray started off the song by stroking the cello's strings with the bow in his right lobster claw, the left one tickling and tensing the strings at the neck of the cello. After ten seconds, I proceeded to play my violin, hoping that my lessons will pay off in this endeavor. Echo prodded Daring with a finger-like digit and held out his paw to her. The adventurous Pegasus smiled before placing her hoof in his palm. The two stood up and danced.
(Damien)
The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures,
And instructions for dancing.
But I
I love it when you read to me
And you
You can read me anything.
(Disarray)
The book of love has music in it
In fact, that's where music comes from
Some of it's just transcendental
Some of it's just really dumb
But I
I love it when you sing to me
And you
You can sing me anything
Coconut walks over to me, nudges me in the hip, and points at Ginger Snap sitting on the grass, a little sad smile on her face. "Go get 'er, matey," he told me. "I'll take it from 'ere."
"Ya know how to play?" Coconut nods. Once he takes control of the musical reigns, I quickly stride over to Ginger, who raises an eyebrow when I extend my hand towards her.
"What're you doing?" She asks.
"Well, a pretty lass like you shouldn't be alone when others're dancing, eh?" Ginger's cheeks burn at my remark, and she suppresses an embarrassed smile. She slowly puts her hoof in my hand and I hoist her up to her two back hooves to my eye level as she and I smoothly slow dance to the music that Echo and Daring groove to, all the while Ginger is smiling warmly at me.
(Coconut)
The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know
But I
I love you when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
And I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
The music undergoes a slight decrescendo.
(Coconut and Disarray)
You ought to give me wedding rings....
In that moment, I knew what love is. It wasn't just about being in a romantic relationship with someone, or simply having a friendly, platonic friendship with someone. Instead, it could be anything. Family, friendship, relationship, marriage: these are just one of the many few examples of how love is distributed and transmitted between others.
Once the song ends and our dancing slows to a halt, Daring, Echo, and Ginger applaud for me, Coconut, and Disarray. We three take a slow bow, appreciating the positive feedback from the others. Disarray clicks his lobster claws thrice, and the chairs and instruments disappear with another poof.
"Thanks so much, you guys, for letting me stay here for the night."
'Think nothing of it, man,' Echo scrawls into a sheet of paper with his large claw, which I know that it is such a thing because of last night... NOT LIKE THAT!!!
"I'm gonna get my stuff and I'll be out of your hair." I go inside the Shagwagon and to the room I was staying in to get my backpack and sword...
One problem though: My sword isn't a sword anymore.
Yes, that may sound incomprehensibly stupid coming from a college student that gets A's and B's in his classes, but I kid you not: My sword has become something else entirely. In Nightlock's place stands a six-foot tall scythe. The shaft is shaped in a slight meandering bend like a scythe should be, and is crafted out of pure black metal. Red and gold slightly tattered cloths are wrapped around most of the shaft's middle, where one is supposed to grip it, and a bit of both cloths trail out lazily at the bottom of their wraps. At the top of the shaft is a black diamond-shaped onyx gem the size of my fist. The blade is in the shape of a dragon's wing and is about four feet long, also black as well, with gray edges, signifying its devastating sharpness.
Despite this incredible transformation of my weapon, what strikes me as odd is that there is a note attached to the handle. I scoop the note into my hand and read it.
'Made some changes to your weapon, both physical and magical. Also, don't call it Nightlock: it's just a stupid name for poisonous berries that come from a trilogy of books about a girl who started a rebellion.
Think of it as an early/late birthday present. Enjoy!
~D'
D? Who signs their note "D"?
And who the hell changed my weapon!?
As I step outside the caravan, I go over the possibilities. My name starts with a "D", but I'm not stupid enough to change my own tool of murder. Daring Do isn't capable of changing an item's form.
That only leaves one person...
"Disarray!"
Or shall I say, draconequus?
"What the hell, brah?!"
"Ah, I see you found your new toy!" The draconequus in question says ecstatically.
"Dude, not cool, man," I admonish. "Why would ya go and do that?"
"I got a little bored this early morning," he retorts boringly.
"And ya didn't even bother asking me?" I deadpan.
"Nnnope." Damn him and his perfect Big Mac impersonation! Does he even know Mac exists?!
"You suck, man... also, what did ya mean when ya wrote, 'Magical changes'"? I ask.
"Simple. I just made it sharper, larger, and more magically adept than that toothpick you call a sword."
"What do ya mean?"
"It can now cut gemstones like butter if you give this puppy a good swing. Only thing it can't cut are black dragon scales, which are tougher than diamonds. As for magically adept... hmm... try, for example, to get rid of it and make it come back. Like, throw it away, or wish it gone, or something."
"Umm...." I'm at a loss of words. Whatever Disarray's cooked up might not be a good idea: what does he mean by 'get rid of it and make it come back?'. But I might as well humor him. I hold the scythe at the lower ends of its wrappings and throw it as hard as I could away from the crowd, towards the north, at a small trio of shrubbery and two boulders. I heard a strange whistling sound as the weapon spun in the air, and the three bushes and duo of large rocks that are in the vicinity were cut clean, even though the scythe's blade didn't come into contact with them, like the sharpness of it has made the air itself as fatal as razors slicing down a human's wrist.
What strikes me with awe is that the blade has not even fallen victim to gravity's everlasting pull. It just... floats... like a leaf in the wind. Or a phantom in the night.
Against my better judgement and rationality, I stick out my hand and will the polearm to come back to me.
Once again, I had no idea what I was in for.
The scythe's flight path changes in mid-travel, arcing like some sick rendition of a rainbow, and comes back to me as quick as a whip, still spinning like a massacring top. Behind me, I hear Daring and Ginger scream and Coconut exclaim.
"SHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-!!!" I shut my eyes and turn my head away, my hand still open and outstretched as I await the inevitable...
...that didn't come.
I feel a pressure force itself into my open palm, as well as something... something else. I crack open an eye and look at my right hand. In it is the scythe, held in an inverted fashion with the blade facing away from me as the red and gold cloths flutter in the wind.
"What the hell...." I mutter, my hands quaking from the fear of death. My right fist still grasps the scythe, my knuckles going wide from how tightly I was gripping it.
"Well, it actually works," Disarray chortles, using his left lobster claw to wipe a tear of mirth from his left eye. "Who'd've thunk it?"
"That's not funny, man!" I yell. "I almost died!"
"Yeah, but you didn't."
"Why, though?! How did it come back to me?!"
"Well, in order for it to come back to you, I had to take some DNA from you, and imbue it into the scythe."
"DNA?"
"I stole some fingernail clippings from you." I look down at my hands and sure enough, I see the fingers on both my left hand and my right hand are trimmed of their fingernails.
"Jesus Christ, you're a stalker." I suppress a shudder at this creepy realization.
"No, I'm not. But that's not the point," Disarray pressed on. "The point is is that that scythe is bound to you and you alone. Now that you have gotten the hang of throwing the scythe and calling it back, let's try another approach."
"Such as?"
"Wishing it away." I blink at the draconequus's words. Wishing it away?
"What." I deadpan.
"Try to... oh, make it disappear."
"Easier said than done, lad."
"Just do it!"
"Okay, fine! Christ...." I concentrate on the scythe, trying to will away with it. At first, nothing happens...
Oh, who am I kidding? Nothing happens after the first ten minutes. Even after the sun sets below the horizon and ushers in the night, not a single thing happens.
"This is boring," Ginger mutters. Despite her comment, I still try to 'wish' the scythe away. I stare at it for the longest time, with a stare that could eviscerate metal.
But I didn't expect it to briefly flash white and disappear in the blink of an eye.
"Ah!" I jump back at what had happened. I turn to Disarray and see him snickering into his right bear paw at my exclamation. "What happened?!"
"You merely banished it into the Abyss."
"...Abyss?" The more the draconequus spoke, the more confused I get.
"The Abyss is where several items that are banished into nonexistence go when they're... well, banished into nonexistence."
"So how do I get it back?"
"Simple, just wish it back like you wished it away."
"Is this gonna take longer?" I ask in an irritated tone.
"No, no, no," Disarray assures me. "Now that you've gotten it right the first time, it should take a little less time to recall it."
True to his words, the scythe reappears only seven minutes later, three less than before. "Niiiice...." I say, a smirk on my face.
"Thank you, you're too kind." Disarray takes a bow. I roll my eyes. "So have you thought of a name for it?"
"Nah, lad. I can't say I have."
"Well..." Disarray twirled his mustache with a lobster claw as he contemplated what to christen the blade. "How about... 'Ellipsis'?"
I blink a few times. Ellipsis? "Why Ellipsis?"
"Why not? It's a cool name for a scythe like that."
"Ellipsis...." I banish the rechristened weapon into the Abyss, taking only five minutes of my time this time. I turn to all five members of the caravan and bid them good-bye.
'See you around, man,' Echo scrawls. I shake his paw.
"Bye, Echo. Enjoy your pursuit o' life, liberty, and lulz galore."
"Bye, mate! We'll see ya soon!" Coconut says as he shakes my hand again, almost risking to cut off the blood flow to my whole right arm once more.
"Bye, Coconut. I'm gonna miss ya and your amazing cooking."
"Good-bye, Damien," Daring says before flying up and hugging me tightly. "Thanks for making this birthday one of the best ones I've had in a long time."
"Think nothin' of it, lass," I tell her. She removes herself from me before I turn to Ginger.
"Bye, Damien," she murmurs. I shake her hoof, but then think better of it and pull her in for a tight hug. She's taken by surprise by the action, yet she returns the hug with great gusto.
What comes next is also completely unexpected.
Ginger pulls her head away from off my shoulder and pecks me on the cheek. The spot where her lips contacted the flesh burns pleasantly, like someone had lit a warm fire next to me.
When she separates herself from me, I see her cheeks turn red as she blushes vigorously. I unwillingly follow her example and feel my cheeks burn red like fire.
"Daaaaaaamn, Connor-dawg! Nice work on gettin' that tail!"
Note to self: Draconequi like to think that they're black. I face-palm at Disarray's exclamation. "Lad, we were havin' a moment, damn it." Regardless, I ought to thank him for what he's done for me. I shake his bear paw. "But still, thanks for Ellipsis, man."
"Think nothing of it, Damien," Disarray assures. "We'll meet again someday."
"Also, I've been meaning to ask ya, what's with the gem at the top of Ellipsis's shaft?"
"Oh, you'll see in due time." Disarray steps back from me. I look at the five chroniclers and flash a smile their way.
"I will never forget your hospitality, guys. Take care."
"And we won't forget you, either," Daring says. "Safe travels, Damien!" They wave at me as I turn around and run in the direction of the Great Southern Rainforest.
Canterlot can wait.
Right now, I have a genocidal enigma to solve and an adventure waiting for me.