//------------------------------// // Canterlot Woes // Story: Moon Eyed: Waxing Gibbous // by ZombieDice //------------------------------// The journey up the mountain was really nothing to sneeze at. The closer they got to Canterlot, the more drained Hex felt. He tried to keep up his energy, bouncing the colt on his back up and down whenever the 4 year old grew fussy or chasing him whenever he decided he wanted to run on ahead. By the time they reached Lily’s home, the stallion had quite the headache. Perhaps it was just dehydration, or a lack of food. Despite the fact that it seemed to be his blind eye that was aching, the stallion tried to push reason aside. In the back of his mind, however, his suspicions were growing. Seaddle was much like Manehatten in the sense that it was primarily filled with Earth ponies. It had a larger splash of Pegusi than Manehatten did, but Unicorns were relatively rare there. As a result, Hex had never been around this much magic before. Perhaps that was why the closer they’d gotten to the city, the more the dull ache seemed to grow. But… That wasn’t normal. Why would other unicorns give him headaches? It seemed to make sense, but there was no way something like that could happen, could it?  “Hex, dear, are you alright?” Lily’s sweet voice broke through his thoughts.  “Oh yes, I’m fine,” he insisted, forcing a smile onto his features. “Forgive me, I’m just a bit tired.” As she set down a plate, she couldn’t help but reach to ruffle his hair slightly. The motion made him stiffen up and immediately reach to make sure that his eye was still covered. “Thank you for the meal, Lily. I appreciate it.” “Oh no, I should be the one thanking you,” she replied, joining Hex and the young ones at the table. “I never would have made it back here on my own. You were a real lifesaver.” His pained smile became more genuine as he watched her feed one of the little ones before she ate any of her own food. Lily really was a caring, sweet soul. That did bring forth a question, however. Where was her husband in all of this? Their house was huge! He had to be somepony of merit, or at the very least of money. If he had that much, couldn’t he afford to have taken whatever trip she’d been on with his own wife? “Lily,” Hex started. “Will your husband be joining us this evening?” The mare nearly choked on her food. Clearing her throat, she tried her best not to look as embarrassed as she felt.  “He is… away on business,” Lily replied, perhaps a bit quieter than she meant to. “He’s always away on business.” “Always? And he leaves his wife, a mother of three, alone without any help whatsoever?” The stallion asked in shock. “That’s the long and short of it, yes,” she sighed out. “Forgive me if this is rude but, how much time does he spend with you?” He couldn’t help his curious nature. Sure she looked tired and at the end of her rope, but Lily was still a beautiful young mare, perhaps no more than 5 years older than Hex himself. All she needed was some time to take care of herself rather than rushing around after 3 energetic babies all on her own and he was sure that beauty would flourish. Guilt filled him quickly as he watched the mare’s ears droop with sadness. “He spent a lot of time with me, for the first six months of our relationship,” Lily said nervously. “He courted me relentlessly. He never stopped telling me how beautiful I was, and that he had to have me. I wasn’t used to that much attention and I suppose I was blindsided from the fact that somepony was showing that much devotion to me. So when he asked me to marry him I…” She had to pause, taking a moment or two to feed the tiniest of the foals before she would continue.  “I took the plunge. I thought that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, and that I wanted to spend the rest of mine with him. As soon as we were married, he was all over me. But something didn’t feel right. Every night was… really unsatisfying, and once I had our first little one, he stopped. After that, the only two times he’s wanted to be around me were--” Rather than saying it out loud, she motioned to the two younger foals. There was a bitterness in her voice that Hex could swear he could feel. Lily was so very unhappy with her situation, but she radiated the feeling of being trapped.  “Now he spends all of his time away on “business trips” where he comes home smelling of perfume and seeming like he’s the most miserable pony alive when he has to be here. Acting like he doesn’t care about his--,” Suddenly she stopped, looking up to Hex with guilt. “Forgive me! I didn’t mean to burden you with my marital problems.” “Oh no no,” he protested, holding his hooves up. “You have every right to be upset. It sounds very much like you haven’t had anyone to talk to about these matters, have you?” The embarrassed mare averted her gaze, giving a small shake of her head. A lot of ponies in this town just seemed to think she had it made. She was in a big house, with enough money to spare, with a husband and three beautiful children. She wasn’t going hungry. She wasn’t out in the cold. So what was the problem? They hardly stopped to consider the fact that a lack of love and support was just as detrimental as other afflictions. If she ever complained or reached out for help, they treated her as though she didn’t have the right to. But here was a stallion still smiling at her and seeming to be holding out a helping hoof. It was a strange but welcomed feeling. “What do you say, after dinner I fix you a nice relaxing bath, and you allow me to put the little ones to bed for you?” Hex offered. “We can talk more after that if you’d like.” Her eagerness showed through in the most genuine smile Hex had seen on the lovely mare’s face, and as she nodded he felt his own heart swell. If she needed a shoulder to lean on, he would gladly give her that for the night. *~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~* The sun filtering through the windows was far too much for Hex to bear. Already he missed the overcast days of Seaddle. His head was pounding horrible, and had been ever since the night before when the mare snuggled up against his chest had her burst of “excitement” the night before.  The sight had been beautiful. Never before had he actually seen magic at his partner’s climax. Perhaps it was just a unicorn thing. After all, quite a lot of the time their magic tended to be linked with their emotions. However, the beauty was quickly dashed out when his head gave a throb and the poor stallion was down for the count.  With a soft groan, he reluctantly pulled himself from the bed. In all honesty, he would have preferred to stay there and rest all day. Then again, getting caught in Lily’s bed if this should be the day her husband decided to come home probably wasn’t the best idea. The mare gave her own noise of dismay as she stirred awake. “Hex, dear?” “I’m alright, darling,” he called, leaning against the doorway to the bathroom. “Just… another headache. You go back to sleep.” Despite his words, the lovely mare was up to check on him before he could stop her. In a strange sort of way, they seemed to have traded. The mother practically looked as though she was glowing from the tender care and treatment she’d been shown the night before. Now it was Hex who looked thoroughly exhausted.  “You seem to have gotten quite a lot of those since you’ve been here,” Lily replied in worry. “You mentioned last night that peppermint helps, yes? I think we still have some peppermint tea in the kitchen. I’ll make some for you to drink with breakfast.” Pressing a soft kiss to his muzzle, the mare made her way out of the bedroom to let Hex do what he needed. A cold shower was welcomed against his aching head, and the temperature did help alleviate some of the pain, if only minutely. No matter what, it always felt good to be clean. Once he’d dried himself and made his way out of the bathroom, he found that the dirty sheets were still on the bed. Using his magic, he quickly cleaned up the mess and made the bed. It was one less thing for Lily to have to do later and something he didn’t want her worrying about whenever her husband came home.  Breakfast was much appreciated by the stallion, and the more time he spent with Lily, the worse he felt about having to leave her there in that situation. It wasn’t like she could just pick up her family and skip town to head off on a dangerous mission to a mysterious swamp. As Hex made his way towards the door, he felt a small tug on his cape-let.  “Are you sure you have to go?” The mare asked unhappily.  “I do,” he replied, reaching to run his hoof over her cheek. “I’m sorry. But… I do think that perhaps you should start a search for a new husband. Someone that makes you feel like you felt last night every night.” And by that, he didn’t mean the sex. He meant feeling listened to, appreciated, and like she was worth more than just being a baby-making machine.  “Trust me, I’m not the only one that can appreciate your beauty.” Giving her muzzle an affectionate nuzzle, he finally pulled away from Lily to head towards the train station. His head still hurt like hell, but perhaps he could sleep on the train to Appleoosa. It would take all day and all night to get to the town, but it would be worth it in the long run. The seats were comfortable, and he was glad that he wouldn’t have to walk back down the mountain as this train would be going down a different set of tracks. Hopefully there were no more setbacks in his travels.  The strangest thing was, the farther away from Canterlot they got, the more his headache subsided. By the time they reached Ponyville for their first stop halfway through the day, Hex felt good as new. It was like nothing had ever happened.