As we left the Heart's Desire we were given a crystal for putting a sound buffer around a small room. The staff member who gave it over to Mera even took to time to compliment Mera's Thestral form. This hotel was definitely on an entirely different level of service.
It was fairly late in the evening as we made our way back to the residence. The streets had a few ponies going about, but not many. The streets were brightly lit with streetlamps that on close observation seemed to be electrical. The soft light of the lamps hitting the soft colors of the crystal buildings was soothing to look at, and gave the entire city an extra peaceful feel. Crystal Heart really was the most beautiful village, town, or city that I had ever seen. It didn't take that beauty in a direction that teamed of wealth, there was a sense of goodness and innocence about Crystal Heart that was hard to describe. It was hard to imagine that Mera had ever longed to be away from this place.
Our path took a slightly different route than we had taken going to the hotel. I didn't question why, I was just enjoying my surroundings. Mera came and rubbed up against me in a nuzzle, and she smiled as she felt my enjoyment of the place we were going to make our home for at least the current average pony lifetime. We hadn't discussed how long we were planning on staying here, but the proximity to family told us that being here would be best, at least through the current generation.
We came upon a strange statue in the middle of one square. It was made of a blue crystal and seemed strangely out of place. It was worn and weathered to where it had no more of the fine edges that most the crystal here had, which indicated it had great age. The statue was of some creature standing on two legs, holding up a heart in the air. It was impossible with the weathering to tell what kind of creature it had once been. Planted around the statue were many neatly kept flower beds. I stopped to gaze at the statue and the others stopped to let me.
"That is the statue of Spike the Brave and Glorious," Mera told me. "I know it is hard to tell, but he is a baby dragon. The heart he is holding up is the heart of the city. I can show you pictures of what the statue looked like long ago sometime."
"This is the only statue I have seen. What is so special about this Spike?" I asked, gazing up at it.
"Spike was a hero to this city a very long time ago," Diamond explained. "It was he who freed this city from the rule of a dark lord who enslaved all and brought darkness and fear to every Crystal Pony. He was raised by the Twilight Princess herself as if he were her own child, despite being a dragon. They say that it was even she who hatched his egg. We keep this statue in memory of him."
"It is hard to imagine there was ever any darkness here," I said as I looked around again.
"Darkness can find a hold anywhere, it is up to the brave to push it back. Spike pushed back that darkness while still a young whelp. If a mere infant can fight back the darkness with bravery and commitment to good, it gives us hope any creature is capable of making a difference," Diamond said with pride as he looked up at the statue.
I looked up at the statue again and couldn't help feeling a small amount of inspiration and pride myself. It was a reminder that every pony was important and any pony could make a difference. For a pony like me, who had lived most their life as an outcast it meant a lot. Mera and I had special opportunities to make a difference too. I intended to do the best I could.
We started walking again and within a few minutes were back to the residence. Tibia ordered Peridot to bed, despite the protests of the filly. Tibia reminded her that she had school in the morning still, and practice with the guard after, and she needed to be mindful of her sleep schedule. This led Peridot to relent, her desire to prove herself to the guard was just too strong.
The four of us adults sat and talked on the living room for a while. A combination of small talk and making plans. Mera and I would go to the bank and go bed shopping tomorrow in the late afternoon. I would begin my apprenticeship with Tibia in a week after I was well settled in. The fact that Thestrals tended to be nocturnal posed some problems with that, but we agreed we could figure something out that wouldn't be inconvenient to either Tibia or myself. We also discussed what was a fair rent payment, with Mera and I insisting on higher amounts and Tibia and Diamond lower. It was nice to be making plans for domestic life. It was something I had long ago lost any hope for having, and this felt like I was being given a reward for something, though I couldn't say what.
Eventually Tibia and Diamond retired for the night as well, with a final reminder to not forget to install that crystal to our room. Mera even took a few minutes immediately after to go put the crystal in place on our door, the magical artifact embedded itself in the door. We tested it out, with Mera going inside the room and speaking with ever increasing volume to see if I could hear it beyond the door. Even when she got to shouting no sound escaped the room. We were free to be as loud as we wanted in that room.
Mera took me on a tour around the house. There wasn't much to see, we were the first room upstairs, followed by Peridot's, and finally Tibia and Diamond's. There was a nice sized bathroom upstairs, with running hot and cold water in both the sink and shower. The bottom floor had the now familiar living room, a kitchen, a small room for washing linens, and a small dining room. There was a door the exited to a patio in the back with a small yard, and a paved walkway to an outhouse at the corner of the yard. The whole place wasn't that large, but it was enough to for a family to live in comfort.
We sat out on the back patio for a while, just enjoying the night air and talking about our plans together. Mera spent a while talking about how much Peridot had changed since she left home, there was both wistfulness and pride in her voice as she did so. She told me childhood stories about her misadventures that had at times led to her parents ire. I shared a few of my own early childhood stories, from when my mother was still alive. Not everything from my childhood was an unhappy memory, my mother had always found ways of bringing me joy.
We eventually went back to our room. When we entered Mera gave the bed a look and then went and pulled her quilt down into the middle of the floor. She laid down on it and motioned me to come join her.
"I am not tired but not sure what to do right now," she said to me. "I guess that is the downside of being nocturnal. Being wide awake and having most other ponies sleeping soundly."
"We will have to pick up some new hobbies it seems," I said as I nuzzled her. "We can definitely spend time teaching you to fly. Once you are a fully competent flutter we can do flights at night. I know we have to do Sunset's exercises. We have been slacking off on those already, which might make her mad at us."
"We can do those in a while, there is still a lot of night left," Mera replied. "I hope Tibia and Diamond let us sleep until early afternoon. I am worried they will not get what it means to be nocturnal early on, and end up waking us up before it is even noon."
"You act like they will treat us like fillies. They haven't treated us that way at all to this point," I replied back.
Mera sat up and I could tell that she was thinking about something. I wondered what I had said.
"They haven't have they?" She asked, though it was more statement than question. "They treated me like a filly up to the day I left home. They never really treated me like a grown mare."
"Well, they treat you like one now," I pointed out.
"I guess they do," she said with wonder. "I suppose I can understand why they treated me like a filly before. I had no real direction in life."
"And now you return with a hefty contract from the Alicorns showing you have made something of yourself," I said with a nuzzle. "Not to mention you have had to deal with horrible things, watching me get raped, hearing that poor mare wail for her foal. And you are a pony who ripped apart a monster with her bare teeth. That isn't a pony you treat like a foal."
"You are right," she said returning my nuzzle. Then she got a small frown and got up, and walked over to her dresser. She pulled open the bottom drawer and began rummaging around in it. Whatever was in it wasn't linens or clothing. I could hear hard objects being jostled.
"What are you doing?" I asked her curiously.
"Trying to figure out what in Tartarus they pilfered for Peridot. Whatever it ends up being is getting thrown away, but I want to be able to replace it for her with a new one from the store," Mera said as she kept searching through the drawer.
Unable to restrain my curiosity about her stash I went to go look inside it as well. The drawer was packed with all manner of odd items, and magazines. I reached in and grabbed one of the magazines and flipped through it. The magazine had page after page of pictures of mares in very compromising positions. A few of them were very openly just displaying their slits, and a few others were pictures of two mares very clearly getting intimate with one another. Strangely a lot of them were wearing leggings, which for some reason made my nether regions get damp just looking at them.
Mera looked at me looking at the magazine and gave a smile that bared her fangs.
"You are free to look at other mares precious, I'll even look right along with you, but remember you are mine. I don't think you would ever cheat on me, but just a warning to be clear," she said menacingly.
"I wouldn't dream of cheating on you," I said slightly defensively, and glanced back at the smutty magazine. "This does give other ideas though. I think I would love to see you in leggings."
"We can definitely do a little dress up," she said as she kept searching the drawer. "I have some ideas of things I would love to see you in as well. Plus, while I can't stand the idea that Peridot was using any of the toys that I used, I think it would be arousing just watching you use one."
"We are being really dirty," I said with a laugh.
"No, we are being a happily married couple," she said with a short. "Plus being sexual isn't dirty. If it was I wouldn't be comfortable simply replacing the toy for Peridot. We have needs, and it is completely natural and right."
After a little more shifting around of objects in the drawer she seemed satisfied.
"Alright I am certain I know what it is," Mera said at last. "It is easy enough to replace. Actually, the shop that sells this kind of stuff is one of the ones that operates at all hours. We can head over there now and get that done. That should at least give us something else to do for a little while." She got up and began walking to the door.
"Is it the same shop that the Pegasus works at?" I asked carefully, not following right away.
Mera stopped, turned, and looked at me.
"I had forgotten that we were going to track him down with everything else going on," she replied. "Yes it is. It doesn't mean for sure he is working right now, but if some pony else is working we can ask about when he will be in. We can wait, and do something else for right now if you want to."
"Why do you think I would want to not do this right now?" I asked her with surprise.
She gave me a sympathetic look. She walked over and sat back down next to me, draping one of her wings around me.
"This Pegasus might be your father," she replied back quietly. "That is a big deal, and your scared of meeting him. You can't hide your emotions from me. You might not be having a panic attack right now, but you are terrified."
There was no denying that fact to her. She could tell my emotions better than I could. I tried to get an idea what I could possibly say to him when I confronted him. We needed answers, he was the one link that tied Mera and I together before Starlight's Folly, but there were a lot of emotions balled together about him. He was the reason my mother endured such misery at the mercy of our tribe. He had used her and left her with the consequences. I wouldn't have been born, but maybe my mother might have ended up living, instead of being eager to go back into war because it was the only respectable thing she could do. Her life had been ruined because of me, and lost because of me.
Mera withdrew her wing and gave me a hard smack with it. She glared at me with anger and hurt in her eyes.
"Don't you ever think that!" She yelled at me, as I cringed back. "You are not to blame for what happened to your mother. You are the most special pony in the world to me, and you are not going to think that you are some sort of mistake. Yes, it was tragic what happened, but you are not to blame."
"it is hard not to think that," I said in a whisper. "We struggled so much, and I am sure she took off to war because no pony would give her decent work. I know she loved me, but at the same time she might have had no reason to go off to war again if it weren't for me."
"It wasn't about you or the circumstances you two lived," Mera replied back, as she embraced me again in her wing. "She was angry about what happened to her sister. I can understand what she was feeling. Something had killed her sister and she had that same blood lust that you and I both have experienced ourselves. If some pony killed me what would you do it you had a chance to take retribution? Don't you still want retribution on those that killed her? I know how you feel about Klugians."
I would have been lying if I said no, and Mera would know I was lying as well. I knew that if there was an opportunity to fight Klugians I would take it in a heartbeat. I knew that was what my mother felt when she re-enlisted and left me I my own.
"Maybe it is some pony else you are angry at," Mera said as she felt my emotions. "Maybe the pony you are angry at, and don't want to admit to being angry at, is your mother."
"That doesn't make sense." I replied back quietly.
"Who said anything about making sense?" Mera said. "You feel something, it doesn't need to have a perfect reason. She went off to fight and she left you on your own to do it. Her blood lust must have seemed more important to her than you did. Afterwards you spent years suffering and alone. Tell me you aren't angry at all."
"I shouldn't be angry at my mother. She loved me, and she supported me no matter what." I was holding back tears.
"You can be angry, it doesn't mean you don't love her, and didn't appreciate her," Mera replied, as she hugged me tightly with a leg in addition to her wing now. "I am angry with you right now, because of what you thought of yourself. It hurt me to even feel you think that you were some sort of mistake. But I am angry because I love you. I don't know if it was wrong or right what your mother did, but it was something she felt she needed to do, and I don't doubt for a moment she worried what impact it would have on you. It is okay to be angry, and it is okay to forgive her."
I just cried into Mera's fur. So much for me being the emotionally strong one lately. She didn't push me any more on it. She just held me and let me cry.
"I think we should go see about this Pegasus," I finally said. "We know we need to no matter what. I don't know what my reaction will be if he turns out to be my father. If he is there is likely something bigger going on with him anyway. We need to find out what. We won't find out putting things off."
"And he might not even be there right now, and we will end up having to check again another time," Mera reminded me. "Come on, let's wash your face and get going."
When we made our way to the bathroom we nearly ran into Peridot who was exiting it at that very moment. The poor filly nearly jumped to the ceiling with how startled she was to have ponies nearly walking into her this time of night. When she realized it was just us she gave an aggravated look at us for startling her.
"I was just getting something to drink from the sink real fast," Peridot explained. "What are you doing up so late?"
"We are nocturnal, we tend to be awake all night and sleep most of the day. It's a Thestral thing," Mera explained to her sister. "Sorry about startling you, we weren't expecting any other pony up."
"It's okay, I am just being a scaredy filly," Peridot said, accepting the apology. "I am kind of feeling sick. My head hurts and my stomach feels funny."
"You shouldn't have had that refill," Mera chided. "You are too small still to handle alcohol. Even something light like apple cider. You will just have to pretend you aren't feeling this way, or you will get fussed at. Take it as a lesson for when you are older."
"I will try," Peridot said, grateful she wasn't getting an earful now.
"By the way, do you like stallions or mares?" Mera asked.
"What?" Peridot said, blushing brightly.
"You just had estrus last month, do you know if you are attracted to stallions or mares?" Mera continued to question her little sister.
"That is kind of embarrassing to talk about," Peridot said, shuffling from hoof to hoof, still blushing fiercely.
"Well, I was just asking because I was going to go replace that toy for you, and I figured you might want to have a magazine to look at when you felt the need to use it," Mera said coyly.
"Oh," Peridot said, realizing that her sister was essentially offering to buy her a porn magazine. She still was blushing fiercely, but her newly awakened hormones could be seen winning out. "Um, stallions. Definitely stallions."
"No accounting for taste," Mera sighed. "I'll find you something to look at, our secret."
"Thanks sis," Peridot said bashfully.
"Remember, it is Mera. No calling me sis, pipsqueak," Mera replied. "I am just a mare who your parents rent a room to, who happens to sneak you porn."
"Alright, Mera," Peridot giggled.
After Peridot hurried back to her bedroom I gave a lighthearted punch of a hoof on her shoulder.
"Bribing your sister?" I asked.
"What's the fun of being an older sibling if you can't do things for your younger?" She defended herself. "Plus this is still going to be a weird transition for her. I make it easier if I am on her good side."
"I guess it makes sense, mildly manipulative though," I replied back.
"Whatever makes her happy," Mera said, seeming happy with herself. She ushered me into the bathroom and quickly scrubbed my face with a towel.
We were soon back on the streets. There were very few out at all at this hour, aside from a few members of the Crystal Guard that were patrolling the streets, and a few stray ponies who looked like they may be returning from parties that they had a bit much to drink. The Crystal Guard members would watch us as we walked by, but didn't question us, aside from one that just asked if we were having a pleasant evening. The calmness, and serene nature of the city again soothed my nerves.
A few streets into the business district we came to our destination. A simple looking shop of red crystal, that had no displays in the windows, with red curtains blocking the view into the shop. I could tell their were lights on inside, and there was a small sign hanging near the door that said always open, age restricted access. The name of the shop hung over the door, Cadance's Special Closet. I wonder what the Alicorn of Love would have thought of her name being attached to this kind of shop, based on what little I knew of her she likely would approve.
We let ourselves in. Inside was a strange shop that was part bookstore, part clothing store, and the rest with shelves displaying items much like the ones in Mera's drawer. The sales counter had a dark pink Crystal Pony mare with a red mane cut extremely short who was reading a book. She looked up as we entered, and she did a double take at seeing two Thestrals entering into the store. She quickly recovered upon realizing we were potential customers and came around her counter to meet us.
"Good evening, you two gave me a bit of a shock. I have only ever seen Thestrals in the exotic magazines, so forgive me if you catch me staring. I am guessing you are vacationing here, I hope you are enjoying the city, and you can find some things to make your visit more fun in our shop." She smiled at us, and she was definitely not hiding the fact she was looking over all our Thestral features. "I am Kitten Purr, and I would be more than happy to help you find anything you might be interested in."
"Thank you," Mera said as she took a quick glance around, pretending she was not already familiar with the shop. "We aren't vacationing though. My wife and I just moved to Crystal Heart."
"Oh my, that is interesting," the mare said as her face lit up with excitement. "This city must be so much different from your old home. I try not to gossip, but I am sure that within a week every pony in the city will be talking about how we have new Thestral residents. Please don't get driven away by all the talk though, it is just so interesting to hear about. Most ponies in this city are really very nice."
I could already guess that this mare would be one of the first ones spreading gossip. It was probably a good idea to make a good first impression with her so it was positive gossip. I didn't have to be a political mastermind to figure that out.
"I am taking up an apprenticeship at a flower shop in the city," I explained. "It's owner is going to be renting us a room until we find our own place. Do you have any suggestions on where we might find a good house available?"
"I don't know for sure off the top of my head, but I would be happy to ask around for you," she replied. "What flower shop are you going to be apprenticing at? I shop at a lot of them, maybe if I knew where you would be working I could asks some friends if there are any available properties nearby it."
"Do you know the shop run by Tibia?" I asked.
"Oh, I know Tibia! Or at least I am familiar with her." Kitten said happily. "She has been so distraught since her daughter moved away. I admit we were a little sad to have Biblo move away too, she was a regular customer." She looked over to Mera and her eyes fell on her cutie mark. "Oh, and you have the same cutie mark as Biblo! No wonder Tibia took a liking to you two."
"She did mention that," Mera replied back with a smile. Kitten apparently didn't notice the same voice as well. "We heard there was a Pegasus that worked here, we were hoping to meet him. There aren't a lot of ponies that have wings in this city that we have seen, we figured he might know some houses better suited for flyers."
"Fig Leaf? He stopped working here about two months ago, he only worked here maybe about a year," she said trying to recall the whens of his employment. "He just up and vanished one day, was a model employee when he was here, but no pony really knows what happened to him. He didn't really talk to any pony outside of work."
I tried to keep it from showing on my face, but my mind was racing. He vanished almost as soon as Mera took off to Starlight's Folly, and he started working at this shop not long after I moved to Starlight's Folly. We were supposed to be on guard for any more extremely strange coincidences, that definitely counted. If there was some Alicorn plot he was definitely involved somehow. I had a name now to put to him, Fig Leaf.
"That's too bad," Mera said with disappointment, and I knew she wasn't faking disappointment. "Well, we are picking up some things for a friend right now. Smaller towns don't typically have shops like this, and we figured we could find some things she could have some fun with. Neither one of us has much interest in stallions, but she does, so we will happily take what you suggest. Perhaps a toy to help her with her dealing with estrus without a special somepony, and a magazine with plenty of pictures to encourage her as she uses it, if you know what I mean. Crystal Ponies being the subjects might be nice, just to mark where we got them for her."
"Oh I can definitely find just the things for your friend," Kitten said happily. "Nothing I can interest you in for yourselves tonight? We have plenty of things for married mare couples to enjoy. Everything from regular toys to enchantments to let you temporarily have stallion parts."
"Not tonight, but we will almost certainly be back in the future, we were thinking of trying a little dress-up soon," Mera said with a sly smile. "Maybe after we have settled into our own place first though. We have to be considerate of our hosts after all, and I don't think they want to hear us getting too excited. They have a younger daughter we don't want to be a bad influence on."
"Well, we look forward to seeing you in the future then..I apologize, I didn't get your names," Kitten said pleasantly.
"I'm Mera and that's Pearl," Mera replied back. "It has been good to meet you Kitten."
The shop clerk quickly selected some items to fit what Mera asked for. I paid for them since we still hadn't been by the bank. We thanked Kitten Purr and left the shop.
"So we are at a dead end," I said to my wife after we were well out of earshot of the shop. "We definitely need to talk to Sunset about this Fig Leaf though. That timing with his starting employment and taking off is way too conspicuous. I wouldn't be surprised if he took off the day after you did."
"Like the only reason he was here at all was to get me to go to Starlight's Folly," Mera said with a nod. "Which likely means he knows about you too."
"If he turns out to be my father I am going to seriously hurt him," I said through a snarl. "He never made any attempt to meet me or help my mother, but he knew about me. If he is my father, he is a bastard for that."
Mera nuzzled me without a word as we continued to walk back. She didn't have any way of soothing me about Fig Leaf, and there was nothing more we could do about him for right now. We would tell Sunset about him, and see if she had any further ideas, but that could wait for right now.
We took the scenic route back home and it was nearly dawn by the time we reached it. When we entered back in we found Tibia was awake and sitting on one of the couches, drinking tea and flipping through a book. She looked up at us as we entered.
"You are up early," Mera said to her.
"I had trouble sleeping all night," Tibia replied. "I finally just came down and made myself some tea. I figure I will make a nice big breakfast for every pony in a little while since I am up already." She glanced back down at her book with a sad look.
"Is something bothering you?" Mera said with worry. "I know it has been a lot to take in all at once yesterday."
"Nothing you two dears did," Tibia assured us. "Just being nostalgic about how things used to be. Everything has changed lately, all the stuff with you, and Peridot too. It is like my daughters have become completely different ponies in the last few months, and I am mourning the loss of their foalhood. And I worry about my fillies too. It used to be I just worried if yo...if Biblo would ever find some direction in her life, and whether Peridot was getting enough to eat and if she had enough friends. Now both have directions in life suddenly, and I worry one will be eaten by some monster while defending foals, and whether the other is ever going to be called off to war and die in some battle."
"I don't know what to say to that," Mera confessed as she looked sadly to me for a way to comfort her mother. As a pony who had lost loved ones to conflict I didn't have any comfort to give though. Tibia's fears could come true, there was no denying that.
"I also worry I won't be able to connect as well with either off my daughters," Tibia said sadly still. "I love them, and I know they love me, but we don't have much in common anymore."
"Maybe you just need to find new things to bond over," I suggested.
"Like what?" Tibia asked as she flipped a page of what I now realized was a family photo album.
"Well, maybe you and I can learn to connect on flying," Mera suggested with a smile. "I know you almost never take your changeling form, but I know you have to miss flying. I am still learning to fly, and I would love to have you there to fly with me."
Tibia looked at Mera for a moment and with a flash of white magical flame, that was hallmark of a changeling shifting shape, took on her true form. The same coloring all around, but clearly more insect like than pony like now, with large green eyes with no whites or pupils to them, and a pair of dainty insect like wings. She looked at Mera hopefully.
"Are you not embarrassed by me at all like this?" Tibia asked with a quivering voice, that had just the smallest bit of a gravelly sound to it. "I know every pony knows I am a changeling, but I always worried you would feel weird with seeing me like this."
"Why would I feel weird about it?" Mera questioned with a tilt of her head. "It is what you are. And you seem to be the one taking my own transformation the best out of the family."
"Physical transformations aren't much of a big deal to changelings, it is part of what we are after all," Tibia replied. "If anything it makes me feel a little closer to you because of that." Tibia fluttered her wings, lifting herself off the couch into the air for a moment, before lowering herself back down to the couch again. "I do miss flying I admit. If you want me to go flying with you, I would be overjoyed to be able to fly with you. Maybe it is about time I stopped trying to hide what I am all the time."
"I would like that very much," Mera replied back with a happy tear in one of her eyes.