"Hey King, you in- Sweet Celestia what is that smell?!" Twilight yelped as she entered the room I was in.
"Smells like strong booze and regret." I heard Pinkie say.
"Definitely some whiskey and tequila." I heard Derpy's voice say.
“It doesn’t smell that *hic* bad in here.” I said honestly, though I might be a little drunk but fuck it. “How you girls doing?”
"How are you even Drunk? Isn't that impossible for Admins?" Twilight asked.
"Actually I heard the Admin of Alcohol came out of hiding so if this booze came from them then that's probably how." Derpy said.
"Oh finally, we can play beer strip pong again!" Pinkie added.
“Y-yeah…Barkeep decided to show up and give me some of the goo-*hic*, good stuff.” I shook my head, trying to get myself from seeing triple here. “How are you three doing?”
"A… little concerned. Luna told us you were taking time off then… you kinda just started drinking. Which considering you rarely have before, was an immediate red flag." Twilight said.
“Oh you know…just in self deprecation right now.” I said weakly, raising my bottle of whiskey. “It’s what I deserve after all…”
I felt the bottle of whiskey taken from my grasp as I saw Pinkie holding it. She took a sniff before taking a taste. "Woah! That's strong enough to put down a void monster!"
"Alright… well we aren't gonna let you wallow in a drunken cesspool. Derpy." Twilight said.
Derpy nodded, cracking her fingers and stretching a bit before she grabbed me by the scruff and… threw me over her back and carried me like a sack over her shoulder. "Let's get you a nice washing first." Derpy said.
… Okay either I am really drunk or this is happening…
“Uh…am I drunk or is Derpy somehow amazon strength?” I asked weakly.
"When we developed and began to understand our Admin abilities, we all began developing strengths in various areas." Twilight said. "Aside from magic I can also instantly calculate mathematic and scientific equations and perform transmutation and code writing. Pinkie can… know when everyone's birthday is as well as their likes, dislikes and such. And Derpy gained strength on par with your Council and her luck is as strong as ever."
"I can rip apart Monofilament." Derpy said with a smirk.
Oh my…
“Oh dear…” I muttered. “Well…that’s all good to know…but why can’t I wallow in a cesspool again?”
"Because we won't let you." Pinkie said.
“I can tell…” I grumbled. “Ugh…this sucks…” I groaned, hating how I’m just being dragged off and also it was not helping me from the fact that I was kind of drunk…
The trio brought me to the bathroom, where I was dropped into a hot bath and then assaulted by shampoo and three pairs of hands scrubbing deep into my fur… damn it this feels nice…
"So, what triggered your relapse this time?"
“Oh…you know…literally get told ‘hey, remember the starfish clones you had? Well they gained a separate persona, abandoned your family, and told you to both go fuck yourself and even you don’t want to be you so have fun’.” I explained. “So yeah…literally get reminded of my failures by myself telling me ‘I hate myself so much I’d rather be literally anyone else’...”
“Oh…” Twilight said slowly.
"You need a vacation." Derpy said.
“I need to get started with the War, cause that’s not going to stop whether I’m pissed at myself or not.” I countered weakly. “Also, a little to the left please…”
"If you're gonna join the war, then you should be spending at least a few more happy moments with your family." Pinkie said, getting the spot I mentioned.
I groaned happily at the spot on my back being rubbed. “I know…but it’s hard when I get told ‘you're not allowed to, suck my giant fluffy ass’...”
"I mean, we have literally seen you suck several variations of yourself off." Derpy said.
“That’s different.” I said. “That was consensual, the clones of me said it in spite because they believed ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too jackass’...”
"I mean, do you even know how many clones you had when this happened?" Twilight asked.
“Tried to have one per family member, cause that’s something we’ve tried to do…then maybe like…five per…like, the ten things I need to do?” I asked carefully.
"So too many for you to control and monitor." Twilight sighed. "That explains it. Even with all your growth and power, there are still some limits."
“Apparently…” I sighed, still hating this so much as I just…wanted something simple for once, not to have my failures flung at me or something getting in the way when all I want is…just something…
Warm water was poured over me, and I was then again covered in shampoo and scrubbed.
"So… when are you leaving for the battlefield?" Derpy asked.
“I…I don’t know…” I sighed. “Soon is the best I can say…I need to actually get involved, even if I don’t want to cause I know things will go sideways…”
"How long will you be gone?" Pinkie asked.
“It’s War…I could be back in a few days after a big battle, or it could take me years cause some jackass thought it would be funny to do an attrition battle…”
"So… this is gonna be the last time we see you for a while then." Twilight said.
“Most likely…and I wanted to make it special with you all but…well, I don’t have the time to do it…” I sighed bitterly.
"... Can you do us one favor then?" Pinkie asked.
“Anything…” I said, looking up at the three of them.
They all shared a look before looking back at me. "Can you smile for us? We don't want the last time we see you for so long to be of you sad." Derpy said.
“I want to give you a smile that…is actually a good smile though.” I said. “If I do it now…it might just feel and look hollow…” I shook my head, still thinking I need to be more for everyone…still thinking that even something so simple isn’t enough for the people I care about.
“King…” Twilight said softly, all three of them looking me in the eyes as I just clenched my fists underneath the water.
“I’m…I’m just a mess…” I said sadly. “No matter what I do…no matter what I say…I’m just a mess, I can’t help but think how I’m never good enough, how I’m not allowed to be happy even when everything is going my way or should be going my way…” I teared up.
“That’s not true, we’ve seen you happy.” Derpy tried to argue.
“I want to be happy…I’ve tried to be happy…and whenever I do get to be happy, I’m just reminded what the world is, about my past failures, about how I can fuck up or will fuck up, how I keep everyone at arm’s length when all I want to do is be there for them…” I explained weakly…as I just started to cry…feeling all their hands on me, feeling their presence and yet…I can’t keep myself from thinking I failed them, how I’m nothing more than a detriment even though I’m facing reality where it’s not true…
"Do you remember the day you saved Rarity and I from that Heartless?" Twilight asked.
“I…I want to feel better, not like my bones are about to dissolve into nothing Twilight.” I managed to joke, causing the three girls to giggle at that.
"That was when you arrived in my world. You just showed up, killed a monster that the best of the guard at the time had no idea how to handle and saved our lives. Even if you did get badly injured, you never stopped trying to help people."
"I remember when I came into the picture. A recording of you admitting you wanted Luna and her body, heh." Pinkie chuckled.
"Heh… I was just a fan girl." Derpy said. "Obsessed and maybe to an unhealthy degree. Still, what most celebrities would find off putting you… took me in anyway. I didn't get to know just The White Knight. I got to know King. An obsessive celebrity crush turn genuine romance over time. Something I had never had before."
“Fighting a Guard Armor was…honestly, it was a tad ironic and hilarious that the first boss I fight in this new world was that.” I chuckled. “I’m…still embarrassed to hell by that…ho boy.” I shook my head. “And…well, to be perfectly honest, you being a fangirl never really made me think less of you…I honestly thought it was adorable.” I said simply. “Though you caused a sonic boom with how fast you both ran to your room…and came, wasn’t really kind to my ears.”
“So that’s what that sonic boom was about…” Twilight said, which made me blink.
“You didn’t know?” I asked. “Coulda sworn I mentioned it once or twice…”
"I might have been a tad hard of hearing given the proximity." Twilight chuckled.
"Point is, you coming into our lives was the best thing that could have ever happened to us." Derpy said. "You mean so much to us. Seeing you miserable hurts us. So please, can we help you stay happy? At least, until you leave. And when you come back."
“I’d love that…” I said warmly. “I…I know I’m not the best…and to be honest, things have gotten way too big…I’m trying way too much…but…I’m just…I’m just glad that I still have you all…that even with me like…well, this,” I motioned to myself. “I…can still come back to people I know that care about me.”
Despite being wet they still all gave me a hug.
Once I was dried off and had my teeth brushed, Twilight took me with her towards the main house library. "Remember when I was tutoring you to use your cards?" She asked with a smirk. I nodded, blushing at the… sexy numbers… "Well, how about a refresher lesson?"
"Are you going to make math sexy again?" I asked.
"Maybe~"
I chuckled. "My sweet sexy nerd."
Twilight laughed, grabbing a few books and we sat down at a desk together and just… read, reviewed, quizzed one another. It reminded me of the early days so… so long ago.
We spent hours like this, sharing study books and quizzing, talking, laughing. We kissed, and it felt like back then.
"I believe it's my turn." Pinkie said as she walked up to us.
"Go on. We'll all be meeting up later." Twilight told me.
“Alright.” I nodded, nuzzling Twilight happily as I got up and stretched a bit. “Alright Pinkie, what do you have in mind?”
"We are going to do something you have not done before." She said, taking my hand and pulling me along with her. "Bake."
“Well…yeah, I have never baked before.” I said honestly, following along quickly. “Huh…surprised about that.”
Pinkie led me to a room that was just a kitchen. Various stove tops, ovens and kitchen equipment was here. She quickly put an apron on and handed me one.
I've never worn an apron before… hmm… does not cover all the cleavage completely… rude.
"Now, we are gonna bake this stuff from scratch, alright?" Pinkie said to me.
“Alright.” I nodded, ready for our baking. “I make no promises on making an absolute mess…cause even though I have done a whole lot of chemistry nonsense with a lot of highly explosive things…baking’s probably a whole different beast with the same core principles.”
"Well, today we are gonna bake some mushroom pastries." Pinkie said.
“Mushroom pastries?” I inquired.
"They're a type of meal pastry, rather than a dessert. The recipe is fairly simple, first we need to make the mushroom sauce."
Pinkie snapped her fingers, a fair sized pot appearing as well as milk, pepper, mushrooms, salt, and some other seasonings and such. "Care to chop the mushrooms?"
“Sure.” I nodded, grabbing a knife real quick. “How thin do you need it to be?”
"Small chunks preferably, or basic slices are fine." She said as she began to heat the pot, adding in the milk first as well as measuring the other seasonings.
I nodded, starting to chop up the mushrooms like she asked with a steady and precise hand.
One of the benefits of my endless self training exercises. I can slice in rhythm with minimal focus now, keeping all the slides around the same shape. As close as I can get given the uneven shapes.
Once that was done, Pinkie added them to the pot.
“Now, onto the dough.” She said, another snap of her fingers and she had bowls, a large bag of flour, a bowl of salt, some yeast packets, and pitchers of water.
"So, how much do we need to pour in the bowl?" I inquired, doubting I could just dump the entire thing in the bowl.
“We’ll start with four cups then see if we need more after.” She said. I poured in the flour and she added the water, salt, and yeast. She then put oil around her hands and began mixing and kneading the dough. “Rub some oil on your hands, it helps keep the dough from sticking.”
I nodded, doing such. She then backed away from the bowl. “Knead the dough some more while I check on the sauce.”
“Alright.” I nodded, grabbing the dough and starting to knead it, getting into the feel of just working the dough till it was good and ready.
Pinkie stirred and checked on the sauce, tasting it before putting the heat to low then covering the bowl with a cloth. “Now we wait for it to rise for thirty minutes, knead it some more, let it rise for another thirty minutes then we can form the pastries. While that rises we can shred the cheese.”
“Neat.” I nodded.
With another snap of her fingers she had a large bowl appear, a cheese shredder and a large rectangle of white cheese. “So, let’s get the cheese ready.”
“What kind of cheese is this?” I inquired, given that there are a stupid amount of cheeses out in reality I didn’t want to assume.
“Just basic Mozzarella.” Pinkie said.
“Alright.” I nodded, taking the cheese shredder and Mozz and starting to shred it carefully.
Time went by at a fair pace. Once I had all the cheese shredded and kneaded the dough again we waited til the dough rose again. Once that was done we made several small balls of the dough, flattened them, stuffed them with cheese and a generous amount of the sauce, folded and pressed the dough sealed then Pinkie placed them on a baking tray and put them in to bake.
“Okay, now we wait for them to bake.” Pinkie sighed, smiling.
“That was nice.” I said with a smile. “Now for the worst part, the wait for when we can eat the sweets.”
“They aren’t really sweets.”
“The wait is still bad though.” I said honestly.
“Heh, all good things take time, King. Waiting will always be part of that.”
“I know I know.” I chuckled. “Still can’t believe I’ve never baked before.”
“The hard part is usually the prep work, but I learned some useful tricks to speed it up. Still, even if I can make them with a snap of the fingers, It’s nice to actually make them by hand still.”
“Making stuff by hand gives you that gratification, that you feel your work paying off.” I admitted.
“Yeah. It also reminds me of before. When things were simple and less… scary…”
“Yeah…” I sighed bitterly. “But I’m trying to make things simple and less scary ya know?”
“I know, I just sometimes wish things never got to this point. Wish we could have had more moments like this… I know why you worked so hard, why you went overboard with the clones and… I hate that you so willingly threw yourself into it for us, because you felt you had to. Needed to.”
“Yeah…I wish I had more of these moments too.” I admitted. “Something just…simple with family…but there’s too much going on and I hate it…”
“Can you promise me something?” Pinkie asked.
“What do you need?” I inquired.
“When this is over… please King…” She said, tearing up as she looked at me. “No more work. No more projects. No more staying away from us out of fear we’ll be taken away if you don’t do something… just stay… please…”
I moved over and grabbed Pinkie and hugged her. “I promise Pinkie.” I said softly. “I will never leave you all again…you all mean so much to me.”
She hugged me back, sniffling as I held her. I’ve never seen Pinkie… cry before. Or even look sad… this has been eating at her for a long time.
I sighed… I have to make changes when I come back… family first… when this war is over… I’m never leaving them.
I held onto her until the oven went off. She quickly got up, pulling the tray out and then handing me one of them wrapped in a paper towel. She had her own and sat next to me in my arm again.
“I try and keep positive about things… but I’ve always worried about you King. You have a terrible habit of never believing you deserve happiness. Of blaming yourself for things outside of your control. I just… want you to always be happy. Because you deserve your happiness. Not even you have the right to say you don’t.”
“I know Pinkie…” I said softly, even though ironically this is how this whole debacle started…”I know…but I’m here now, and I’m glad we’re together.”
Pinkie smiled, a small one. “Come on, they taste best hot.” She said.
I nodded, taking a bite. It was creamy, the cheese was still melty and soft and the mushroom sauce was rich and full of flavor.
"This tastes great." I said warmly.
“It’s a simple recipe, but it never fails to taste great.” She chuckled. “When you get back, we’ll do this all the time. I’ll have many volumes of recipes to try so prepare to get used to seeing a kitchen when you return.” She chuckled again.
"That would be nice." I nodded.
We sat there eating the pastries until Derpy arrived.
“So, shall we?” Derpy asked.
“I’ll catch up with you later alright?” Pinkie said.
"Alright." I said, giving Pinkie a quick kiss and stood up. "So, what does my favorite fan girl want to do today?"
“Something we haven’t done before.” She said simply as she walked ahead of me a bit.
I followed Derpy down the halls and to one of the many balconies. Here was a view of the whole kingdom from high above and the telescope mounted onto the rails.
"Well, this is quite a view…but what's with the telescope? Are we stargazing or something else?"
Derpy said nothing, walking up to the telescope and looking through it at first. It was pointed down at the kingdom. She then smirked. “Here, look through.”
She stepped aside and I looked through the telescope, whatever magic inside it gave the zoom quite the range as I could see an area full of winged wolf people flying around or walking through the streets. Adults, kids.
"And…who are these adorable people?" I inquired.
“They are known as the Winged Dire Wolves. But, they are also our descendants.” Derpy said. I looked at her. “Sometimes I forget how old even we are. Those down there are three hundred and fourteen-ish generations from our kids, King. Their own species.”
I blinked. "Well…I wonder what other new species I've accidentally made through how horny I can be." I chuckled.
Smirking, Derpy playfully pushed me from the telescope. She looked through it for a bit then let me see through it. They were also wolf like, smaller and each one had small to medium length horns on their head, most were towards the center of their skulls. “Uni-Dire Wolves. Your descendants with Twilight.” Again, she moved me aside, looking back through the telescope until she found her next one. Looking through it I saw very colorful dire wolves but they were huge. Well, sorta. They were actually just extremely fluffy. “Earth Wolves. Your descendants with Pinkie.” Derpy finished.
There were so many of each of them. Whole… cities and… wow… I never even…
“For some reason, while our kids and grandkids come out as strong as us, the grandkids seem to give birth to weaker children. Power wise at least. All those puppers down there are no stronger than anyone else. Like we used to be before Admins and all that.” Derpy explained. “They probably don’t even know they’re related to you.”
"And…that's just from you three…" I muttered, noticing how the Earth Wolves seemed to have a really high affinity for nature and druidic magics. "Jeez…seeing all this is…quite something." I said, not sure what to really say at just how…long we've lived and…how many people there are that are my family…
“I know you work so hard to protect us King. But, we’re like you now.” Derpy said, making me look over at her. “We might not be as strong as you are, but we aren’t fragile or glass. If we have to, we will fight. We can fight. They… they can’t. So, when you are going out into the battlefield, think of them. We made them, even if they don’t know we did, it’s not only your responsibility to look after them, it’s all our responsibility. No more shouldering all that alone alright?”
"It's…still a lot to look after." I said softly. "But…glad that I have help looking after them all."
“You always have, dummy.” She laughed, giving me a light tap to the arm. “There’s a lot of them out there. Think there’s like… a large chunk of the current reality that’s a descendant to we in the Family in some way or another. Kinda weird realizing you’re the progenitor of whole new species and people you never met before… but, it’s also nice. Makes me love this Kingdom even more.”
"Yeah…an entire Kingdom made up of our kids…" I chuckled.
“And their kids, and their kids, and so on.” Derpy chuckled. “I like to come here and just… watch them. Makes me think. Maybe, if you want, when you get back we can watch the process next time. I know that sounds weird but… also fascinating.”
"Seeing the world around me pass by with the one I love…that sounds both heartwarming and just a smidge concerning when it comes to the life of an immortal." I chuckled.
“Yeah, but there’s no one else I’d want to do this with.” Derpy chuckled. “Come on, we gotta meet back up with Twilight and Pinkie for your farewell gift. I know you need to leave soon for the battlefield, so we came up with something on the fly.”
"What up?" I inquired.
Derpy laughed. “Come on, don’t act coy, you know what your ideal send off would be~” I blushed, but smirked. Derpy led me to a doorway. “Wait here, I gotta get ready inside.”
Derpy went inside the room and I waited patiently.
“Hey.” I turned, seeing Heart slither up to me. “I heard you’re finally leaving for the battlefield.”
"Yeah…" I sighed. "And while I still have clones here to help keep the place protected…not enough for my liking…but hopefully the War can swing in our way with what I have in mind for a start."
“Hopefully… Well, as you know… I’m not joining in the war… I just… can’t. I’m sick and tired of being a weapon to others. Hell, I exist because the original Gray thought I’d be a good weapon… So, I have something for you.” Heart said. In a flash they summoned their X-blade… and handed it to me. “Here. X is linked to me so, I won’t be fighting but with this you can use my powers as well.”
My eyes widened as I gently took the original X-blade. "Well…this is…quite a gift Heart…" I said, honestly surprised they would hand this to me.
“Well, this all started because of Keyblades and such, and I figure you’d love the chance to use it in a real battle.” They chuckled. “Now, I gotta get inside too~” They added, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing through the doors.
I smirked, looking at the X-blade… it’s been forever since I’ve seen this thing… I stored it into my Assistant, happy that… they love me… and they always will.
"See…this is what I keep fighting for…" I chuckled, shaking my head. "Where I…I can enjoy this simple shit…cause when this is over, things will finally be simple." I said to myself warmly, before heading inside to see what 'gift' they had in mind.
I saw all my loves. All of them… All of them were either in the nude or in lingerie… Yeah… This is the send off I need.
To be continued...