It had been a month since the whole mess with Leaf. I spent most of it with Claire, helping her cope with what happened and look after our two newest additions to the family. The kids from what I have seen, so long as they drink at least a small cup of the mana potion a day are fine in terms of not needing anything else. They can still eat normal foods though, but they describe them as tasting watered down even when they aren’t. A little of the mana potion put into or on what they are eating/drinking seems to fix that issue. Guess their odd semi-Hollow-like biology has some quirks.
Branch was coping, if barely. Still, today he, Claire and I were ready and he was going to teach us some earth bending stuff.
“Now then, how much did Leaf tell or teach you two about?” Branch asked.
“He told me to speak to a Seed and try and help it grow.” I said honestly.
“And he taught and told me a lot more about that, talking to Nature, earth bending and the like…but when it came to Hollow Powers he didn’t really know much, especially when I transformed into my Resurreccion form.”
“Yes that makes sense…” Branch sighed. “You see, there are two sides to the Earth, the gentle life giving side, and the strength and power of the ground and land. Leaf and I were two sides of the same power. He could control and make plants grow even in environments where they did not simply by speaking to them, and I can reshape the very lands and even create volcanoes.” Branch said.
“Oh…” Claire blinked.
“That’s really cool.” I admitted. “And…jeez you must be really strong with Earth magic to create Volcanoes.”
“Actually, Leaf is stronger than I. Anyone can use what I can do to fight, use even magic to reshape a land and pull forth magma, but it takes something special to breath life into a lifeless place, to grow anything in infertile land. It’s ironic really, Leaf’s power is a reflection of how life always finds a way, yet all he wanted to do was end his…”
“Well…I suppose that makes sense.” I nodded.
“He…seemed to have some form of happiness when I was around though…” Claire admitted. “Even if he was…still depressed.”
“Maybe. But I suppose the first thing you should know about my kind of Earth is that it takes pure willpower to perform what I do.”
“Cool.” I nodded. “So how do we start this?”
“Will the earth to move, with your body, mind, and soul all working in unison. It might take some time, but eventually the earth will move to your wills.”
The both of us nodded, as I closed my eyes and tried to feel the Earth, wanting to get a feel for this before trying to force my will onto the earth.
It felt almost similar to what Leaf had me do, but rather than trying to speak to the infant seedlings and seeds, instead I was facing the mass of old yet… mindless earth that was rock, dirt, magma. It didn’t have the same feel exactly, but it felt more… susceptible.
With a deep breath, I raised my hand up, a chunk of the ground before me floated up. So cool!
“This is awesome.” I said with a smile, looking over and seeing Claire doing the same thing.
“Yeah this is really cool.” Claire said with an equally happy smile.
“Good, you are taking to this quicker than I was expecting. Now, try and turn the earth you are carrying into magma. To do this, you must use both emotion and willpower together.” Branch said.
I nodded…but then immediately noticed that the rock Claire was holding immediately turned to magma. “Uh…that was fast.” I blinked.
“I have…a lot of pent up anger…” Claire said carefully.
“I expected such. You two catch on fast to this kind of earth manipulation.”
“Yeah…a little surprised at how fast we got this…” I said carefully. “But finer control of this can’t be that simple…”
“Well, that depends on you two I suppose.” Branch shrugged. “The most I can lift with my Will Power is a tower of earth the size of Canterlot Mountain. In terms of Volcanoes, I don’t actually know how big of one I could make. Didn’t want to accidentally cause a disaster.”
“Yeah I doubt we can do that.” I admitted. “Cause we just started learning Earth Bending here, just because Will and the like is there, control is important right?”
“Of course, but mostly it’s more important when working with Magma. Given it takes emotions to create and call as well as Will, if you lose yourself to those emotions and let your Will falter, then you can potentially create a disaster.”
“Uh…so should I be worried as to why this thing is glowing brighter?” Claire asked, as the both of us looked over and saw the ball of magma…starting to pulse…oh dear.
“So…about that ‘disaster’ bit…” I said nervously.
“Well, when I was testing my powers first and using Magma, I at least was by the coast and accidentally made a small island.” Branch said.
“That’s not good.” I said quickly.
“And can someone help me before this turns into a bomb?” Claire asked weakly, holding her hands out to try and keep it contained but it didn’t look too happy about that.
Branch walked over to it, walking right up to it until his muzzle was next to it. He then blew, like one would blow on a candle and the ball of magma cooled instantly into rock. “There you go.”
Claire sighed thankfully as the rock fell to the ground. “Thank you, that was…really concerning.”
“Yeah…I know you’re pissed but damn.” I said sheepishly.
The training with Branch was going very smoothly. Whether that's because his style of earth bending was easier or if Claire and I had an aptitude for it was still up in the air.
Now that I had some freedom with training going well, it was date night. My girls, and lovely femboy Alex were all excited for some one on one time. First date night was Derpy, who I hadn't had alone time with in… well, technically over eighteen years.
“Alright my adorable pegasus, what would you like to to today?” I asked with a smile.
"Heh, been a while since we had a date night. Maybe start off with a walk, maybe catch a movie? There's still a lot of this place I've never seen." Derpy said, sporting a lovely red dress as we walked through the streets of Polkadot's hive.
“Yeah, I haven’t seen a lot of this place either.” I shrugged. “So walk first, then movie.”
"Yeah. So, how's training been?" She asked as we were looking at the various buildings and such around.
“Going rather smoothly to be honest.” I admitted. “While the Earth bending is easy…it’s everything surrounding it that’s kind of getting me and Claire.”
"How so?"
“Well, it’s all about Will and Intent, got to have the mind, body and soul all working together…while it seems simple from the get go there have been some…complications.” I said sheepishly.
"Did something happen?"
“Well…let’s just say there've been a few too many ‘close calls’ when it comes to balls of magma almost exploding…but funnily enough all our nonsense gave our training grounds some really stupid good fertile soil because of it.”
"Well, that's good at least. So, I've been wondering Mike, what's your life been like in the other place you got your new fluffy wolf body at? Alex has told us some stuff but I wanna hear it from you."
“It’s was…all around great to be honest.” I admitted. “I actually got to meet a Santa Claus when I was a pup.”
"Santa who?"
Right, they don't have that here. It's Hearths Warming, similar but different.
"Right, did I ever tell you about Christmas? My version of Hearths Warming?"
"I don't think so. How similar is it to Hearths Warming?"
"Well, it's overall the same, family spending time together during winter, food, merriment, caroling all that stuff." I shrugged. "Differences are why Hearths Warming and Christmas exist, and also the jolly gift giver himself Santa Claus, a magical being that travels the world in a single night giving gifts to all good boys and girls." I explained.
"So, some random person using magic once a year breaks into your house to give your kids gifts for being good?"
"Not as…criminal as you make it sound, plus he is a Saint so he wouldn't do anything bad." I explained. "And where I come from, at least back on Earth, he's extremely well known so he's not completely random."
"I guess but how does he know if the kid is good or not? Is he stalking them or something?"
“Considering he’s magic, he basically has a ‘detect good and evil’ kind of magic, where he can tell who’s been good and who’s been bad.” I said honestly. “I haven’t really looked into it in…a long time…I know it sounds weird cause of cultural barriers but I promise it’s not weird.”
"Huh. So what kind of gifts does he give?"
“Whatever the kid wishes for basically.” I shrugged. “If they want a new toy, sure, if they want a new scooter, have at it.” I explained. “Now sure…technically back on my world Santa was used more as a scapegoat for parents to have had enough money to buy them the thing they wanted for an entire year but in the other world Santa exists and does the things.”
"Huh. Weird. What about the bad kids then?"
“They either get nothing or a lump of coal.” I said. “Sure you can heat a house with coal, but no kid would be happy about getting a black rock, especially those that were bullies or did other bad things and expected to be rewarded because of it.”
"Huh. That's odd." Derpy hummed. "But if you want we can celebrate it with Hearths Warming come winter?"
“Again, cultural differences, especially when Christmas is a combination of like…four different holidays all mashed together.” I shrugged. “But that would be great.”
"Alright." She nodded.
We arrived at the movies, selecting a simple comedy and it was alright.
When the movie ended we enjoyed a quick walk in the park and a rather… enjoyable make out session in some bushes.
"This is gonna be neat." Polka Dot said with a smirk, wearing her iconic handkerchief around her neck as we walked. "Glad we can go on a date night. Feels like I'm the only one that really hasn't been on that many dates with you."
“Sorry about that.” I said sheepishly.. “Don’t mean leave you or anyone else out on these dates, but do you have anything in mind for today?”
"Yes, there is this awesome gamer cafe I know. Trust me, you'll love it~" She said with a wink.
“Okay, I honestly haven’t been to a gamer cafe in forever.” I said readily.
"It's gonna be amazing, trust me." Polka Dot said.
It was a bit of a walk to the place but we arrived at the cafe, aptly called Fantasy Cafe Offline.
Entering I blinked as I saw various… video game characters all dressed in either tight fit, skimpy, revealing and eye catching outfits.
Males and females.
"Like?" She asked as we walked to and sat at a table.
“Me likey a lot…” I said…my tail being the prime indicator of that as it won’t stop wagging at all this.
"They're all bots. Voices and core personality as well as looks are of course all exact replicas, and for a fee on the menu here," She tapped on the table, it lighting up displaying a menu. "They can be as slutty or cutesi or whatever you wish to make them for your meal. For an extra charge they can even feed you."
“Feeding me is a little much but…oh boy…”
"Well, go ahead." She motioned to the menu. "Pick your favorites and let your little horny teenage self have a field day~" She chuckled.
“R-right…” I said, looking up the many…many bots and wondering which one I should pick cause…yes, I will let my horny teenage self have a field day. “This is incredible.”
"FYI, whoever you pick here is how I'll be looking for the fun after~" Polkadot said, giving me a smirk and a wink.
I gulped.
“Uh…right…” I said carefully, trying to decide on the many different bots.
I ended up picking three. Paid the fees and such for some… warm up… and after, Polkadot kept her word and three rounds in three different forms that made my horny teenage self hit heaven.
These park bushes feel like they're gonna get a lot of uses.
"This place kinda reminds me of home." Alex said as we walked around the hive.
“Well, these changelings have delved into multiversal travel.” I pointed out. “So they might have some fancy thing’s involved after going around it for a while.”
"That would make sense." They nodded. "So, Polkadot was walking rather funny when you two came home early to pick me up and drop her off~"
“W-well…she took me to a Fantasy Cafe and…well, I picked three bots that were some favorite female characters that were…well she made a promise to ‘have fun’ as those three.” I explained sheepishly, blushing at the still fresh memory of plowing them.
"Ah. That means I'm the only man you've ever loved to look at then~?"
“Yes.” I nodded. “Most of the appeal is in the feminine looks and you have that in spades Alex.”
"Heh, so, for what I want to do, we kinda have to get out of the hive." They started.
“Well, I suppose the bushes are going to be getting a break today.” I admitted with a chuckle.
We headed out of the hive. Once we were in the wide open air outside, Alex flew me up to a cloud. My Hollow Magic and some other nonsense I'm sure letting me lay on it like a large bed. Alex then let themselves drop onto me, their wings acting like makeshift blankets as they cuddled against me.
I wrapped an arm around Alex and cuddled back. “This is nice.” I said warmly.
"Yeah. After we go back I'll have to leave for work again. Time dilation finally catching back up back home." They sighed.
“Yeah…but we’re going to be making the best of the time we have.” I admitted.
"Yeah. Lot more time than I initially expected. So… I was wondering… when you beat Nightmare… are the others gonna move in with us back home?"
“Well…maybe.” I said. “I haven’t really asked about that yet but I’m sure they would like to move into our place.”
"Well, it would be better for all your kids, plus… them moving in with us means you won't… outlive them. I know you could visit them in the Afterlife if you did but we both know it's not the same."
“Yeah…even with my little stint with my Griffon teacher was…something…” I blushed at remembering that drunken sexcapade. “It’s…it’s not the same to see my dead family when they could be all alive and well.”
"Afterlife is for the dead. We by definition are still alive even if we can visit them."
“Yeah…” I sighed. “So…best to get them to move in with us.” I nodded.
"Alright then. When I get home I'll get some redecorating and remodeling done of our place." They said, leaning against me. "Till then, just gonna enjoy this."
“Yeah…just gotta enjoy some calm cuddles with my wonderful angel.” I said warmly.
Claire and I laid down in the Hive park. The artificial night sky looked really realistic. It was nice.
"... I don't know what to do Mike…" Claire sighed.
“What do you mean?” I inquired. “Is something wrong?”
"Well, my training with Branch and all my anger… it's not just Nightmare I'm pissed at, it's Leaf too and I hate it because I get all these memories of the years we were friends and… they make me sad and even more mad I just… I'm not sure what I'm gonna do if we face off against him."
“He told me before he did…all of that, that he truly did love the village, that he didn’t want to but…he was forced to because of the deal he made with Nightmare…so at this point it’s either kill him and give him peace like he wants, or save him and smack him upside the head for being a butt.”
"... I'm not sure what to do with those options… can we even save him?"
I sighed, knowing that sometimes there are people that couldn’t be saved as I saw the true criminals or…Bahamut's children…”We can if we try, and if he wants it.” I admitted.
"... This whole mess is a headache…" She sighed, leaning against me some more. "I hope things go well soon."
“I’m sure things will get better…even if it’s all a headache and complicated right now, but I promise things will get better.” I said, wrapping an arm around Claire and holding her close.
"When do you think we'll get to have some form of normal life back?"
“Well…we’re having some form of normal life right now.” I admitted.
"It's not the same. I want to be able to just… wake up, and not have to worry about some she demon trying to destroy the world…"
“That’s fair…but we’re going to get that life back, I promise.”
"I hope it's soon…"
“Whether it’s soon or later…we’ll do this,” I said, gently taking her hand and squeezing it. “Together.”
To be continued...