//------------------------------//
// Ch 2 
// Story: Wings of the Heart 
// by gundamexia34 
//------------------------------//

'Geez, this girl is strong!' Tim thought to himself as Twilight all but dragged him up the hill, 'How is she doing this?!'

Meanwhile, Twilight's mind was racing as she eagerly planned out the introduction of her latest discovery. She didn't even notice that she was treating them as objects rather than people.

"Hi, girls!" The purple unicorn called with glee, "I want you to meet-"

"YOU?!" Rarity shouted, her face a rictus of rage as she looked at Tim, "What have you done to Twilight, you foul ruffian?! And where is Opal!?"

{Away from you, if it wasn’t clear enough.} Gilgamesh taunted, despite her not being able to understand him.

“I haven’t done a damn thing to her, you…” Tim took a deep breath, barely keeping from using a very nasty word that would likely get him lynched, “Look, just because I defended myself when you tried to slap me because I made a casual comment about your cat being overweight does not make me a ‘ruffian’ as you so irksomely put it.”

{Also, if you are gonna call me a ‘brute’, phrase it properly, like ‘gentlemanly brute’.} Gilgamesh added.

“Preeety sure that’s an oxymoron, there, buddy.” Tim commented.

“Has he lost his mind or can he understand that cat?” The rainbow maned pegasus blurted out to no one in particular, stopping the argument.

“The latter. I can understand most cats, haven’t tried anything bigger than a housecat, though.” Tim said with a shrug as he pointedly ignored the seething white unicorn, “Where are my manners...Timmothy Pestarosa, also called Tim by friends or Tempest by foes. And this is my friend Gilgamesh.”

Gilgamesh didn’t say anything, instead he ‘stood up’ on his hind legs and did the ‘paw paw’ motion...which instantly got the attention of a butter yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail.

“And there you go imitating a Kangaroo again! Why can’t you just learn to wave properly?” Tim snarked.

{Shaddup! We can do Zoo Accuracy Tests later, hairless ape!} Gilgamesh snarked back.

“Oh my!” The yellow pegasus exclaimed, blushing, “He’s rather foul-mouthed, isn’t he?”

“Eh? He didn’t curse or anything.” Tim said in confusion as he scratched his head.

“R-really? Oh, I’m sorry. It’s hard to understand him, it’s like he has a heavy accent of some kind to me.” She explained.

{Bug off.} Gilgamesh said to no one in particular and jumped out of Twilight’s arms and onto a tree branch overlooking the group.

“I think he’s at a bit of a limit,” Spike commented, giving a slightly uneasy look at Gilgamesh before turning to Tim. “Did he have moments like this back...wherever you used to live?”

“Eh, they were rare, And I can’t tell what’s set him off, even now. It was an honest mistake.” Tim shrugged.

“Serves him right! Stealing my dear Opal’s fish, after I spent hard-earned bits on it…” Rarity said, making Tim freeze and glare again as the dark aura and mask reappeared.

{Twilight, can you intervene before this goes too far?} Gilgamesh asked. {And while you’re at it, wash her mouth or something. Her stupidity leaves her mouth faster than her common sense.}

Unfortunately, Twilight was too busy muttering to herself while writing about this new development in a notebook she pulled from...Somewhere.

“OH, WILL YOU JUST GET OVER YOURSELF!?” Tim’s voice sent a few birds out of their trees from fright, “HONESTLY, YOU’RE ACTING LIKE A 3-YEAR-OLD CHILD WHO DOESN’T GET THEIR WAY, AND I AM ABOUT 5 SECONDS FROM BENDING YOU OVER MY KNEE AND SPANKING YOU LIKE ONE FOR BEING A BRAT!”

“I...I…” Rarity was looking pale, even for her.

{Seriously!?} Gilgamesh loudly questioned. He quickly jumped from his branch and landed on Tim’s face, obscuring his vision and taking him by surprise. {Get a hold of yourself! I haven't seen you this mad since one of your idiot coworkers blew up the building you worked at!}

Tim stumbled a bit as he pulled his cat off by the scruff of his neck, taking panting breaths as he tried to recover from the near suffocation. This forced him to calm down, as did the look in Gil’s eyes.

“Sorry, buddy.” He said as he hugged his pet loosely, “You know how protective I get of my friends, and you’re my closest friend, a brother in all but blood and species. I’m not the type to just stand there and let someone insult you like that.”

“I, umm, I hate to be rude, but I really hope I misunderstood him there.” The yellow pegasus said as she blushed, “I thought he mentioned something about...well...Blowing…”

Gilgamesh suddenly had steam blowing out his ears before he jumped out of Tim’s hug and began running around the picnic area, and swearing in a thick Scottish accent enough to make a sailor blush.

Speaking of blushing, Tim was as red as a fire engine as he spluttered.

“W-Wrong type of blow! He said one of my coworkers blew up our building, as in he made it explode!” He managed to get out, barely being understood as his accent came out in full force.

“O-Oh! Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” The yellow pegasus had her face in her hands, her hair hanging over them, and her wings crossed over that from embarrassment.

Both the rainbow pegasus and a farmer-looking mare looked at each other briefly as they struggled to decide whether to laugh at the situation, or feel bad for both the man and cat being misinterpreted. “I’m seriously wanting to know how to understand him, just to know the context of what he said versus what Fluttershy heard,” the rainbow pegasus said.

“Basically, he told me to calm down and said he hadn’t seen me that mad since the incident I mentioned.” Tim said simply, avoiding looking at the white unicorn to avoid his temper flaring again.

“And what’s he saying now?” The farmer pony asked as she briefly glanced at Gilgamesh as he made another lap around the area.

“Trust me, you don’t wanna know.” Tim deadpanned as he pulled out a tin from his pocket and opened it to reveal some leaves, which he took a pinch of before shutting the tin and holding out the leaves to his cat.

As soon as Gil smelled the leaves he collapsed onto the ground with slightly glazed eyes. {Suddenly feeling like I can hear the colors of the wind.} He drunkenly said.

“Catnip. For use in emergencies only to calm him down.” Tim explained when the yellow pegasus looked at the cat with concern. She sighed in relief.

“Oh, good. I didn’t know what happened.” She said simply.

“You have a good heart, to worry about an animal you just met and thought was acting inappropriately.” Tim smirked and winked to show he was kidding.

“Eep!” The pegasus sounded like a mouse as she re-covered her face in all 3 layers.

{Is that a lemon chocolate bar, or a flower of feathers?} Gilgamesh rambled as he stumbled towards her and attempted to bat at her ‘moving’ tail.

“Alright, that’s enough. Anyone got a bit of water?” Tim asked, being handed a pitcher by the pink mare, he then poured a small amount into a glass before dumping it on Gilgamesh to snap him out of his trance.

{ACK!!! COLD! COLD! COLD!} Gilgamesh shouted as he then jumped through the yellow pegasus’s wings and into her arms.

“Sorry, bro. Had to bust out the catnip to calm you down, and you know the quickest way to snap you out of it is a bit of water.” Tim said as Fluttershy squeaked again before her instincts kicked in and she started to pet Gilgamesh, turning him into a lump of cat putty. Gilgamesh looked at Tim with an angry expression, but could only purr and gargle as his senses were overstimulated to the point of losing control of speaking.

“Alright, now that that mess is over with, can we get some names?” Tim asked as curtly as possible since he didn’t want anything else to go wrong.





After the pleasantries were taken care of (though things were still a little tense between Rarity and Tim) the picnic turned out to be rather enjoyable. It was as they were about to pack up and head back that they were approached by a pony in golden armor with a sword on his hip. Tim tensed a bit at the sight of the weapon and subtly started reaching for his watch.

{Hold on, Tim.} Gilgamesh said as he left Fluttershy’s arms. {Let’s listen to what he has to say, or whatever...You know, gauge his intentions.}

“Guy approaches with a sword on his hip, his hand on the hilt? I don’t like it…” Tim said suspiciously.

{And you said I was paranoid.} Gilgamesh muttered, watching both his owner and the armored pony so nothing would happen.

“A hand on the hilt usually implies it’s ready to be drawn.” Tim pointed out, watching carefully as the pony approached Twilight.

“Twilight Sparkle?” The new guy asked, “I have a message from your brother.”

“My brother? What could he want that needs a guard to deliver it...” The mare took the letter and opened it before her face became a rictus of rage, “A WEDDING INVITATION?! AND NOT ONCE HAS HE MENTIONED HE WAS DATING ANYONE BEFORE NOW?!”

“Uh-oh…” Tim said as he backed away.

{And I think the hand on his sword is for reflexively putting something sharp and pointy between himself and an angry unicorn.} Gilgamesh agreed, before he smelled something and clumsily covered his nose. {That is, if his bladder had more control.}

“Along with his bowels, ugh!” Tim staggered back as he pulled his shirt over his lower face.

All the rest of Twilight’s friends reacted in kind to the horrible smell of the scared stallion, ranging from flying out of smelling range, to pulling out half a dozen bottles of perfume and replacing the local oxygen with it.

“Seriously, who trained these guys?” Rainbow asked, not sure whether to gag or laugh. “They were no use against Nightmare Moon, they weren’t even seen during Discord’s brief time out of stone, and now they are pee and poop scared of Twilight of all ponies?”

“Well, it seems my brother was more focused on his secret love life than doing his bucking job!” Twilight said lividly, “I will be having words with him about that and telling Princess Celestia!”

Tim gave a low whistle, knowing that she must be seriously pissed off to drop what he could only guess was the local equivalent to the F-bomb.

{Oh! Can we come too?} Gilgamesh asked, before quickly covering his nose again. {Urgh, I think he’s scared so bad, I think I smell blood in both his pee and poop……...urgh.}

Twilight paused at that moment and blinked as her mood shifted from pissed to thoughtful fast enough to give someone whiplash.

“Actually…” She began, “That might not be a bad idea. With you being from another dimension, it might be best to introduce you to Celesti-Ugh!” The smell finally hit Twilight now that her temper had simmered down, “Gah! Dismissed soldier, go change, or something!”

“Y-yes ma’am!” The guard said before his horn glowed and he teleported away, leaving his armor behind in his haste to escape.

“Ugh, well, who’s gonna check that to see if it’s clean?” Tim asked, “Not it!”

A bunch of ‘not it’s’ were sounded off, leaving Gilgamesh as the last one. {And of course, leave it to the bloody feline to sniff things out like a dog!} Gilgamesh carefully moved closer to the armor, sniffing occasionally before he carefully batted at some of the pieces. {I think it should be clean, I’m only smelling what smell he left behind. Must have been using adult diapers or something...though, I CALL DIBS ON THE HELMET!!!} He then pounced the helmet and began playing with it as if it was a paper bag or an empty box.

Tim sighed and translated, getting sighs of relief all around.