//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 // Story: I summon... // by Xinrick //------------------------------// The last day of my vacation with Harlow was here. Our stuff was packed, the cabin was cleaned, and Harlow and I were just sitting on the couch and watching movies. Aside my… nightmare episode, the only other things I can complain about were the… occasional morning incidents… and the gifts Brandy kept sending. Honestly how much is that job paying her? The first box already had a lot and everything else after that was… either a tier up in crazy or somehow was meant to go with a prior package… The craziest so far has to be to the… hyper realistic blow up dolls of Harlow and I… Seriously where in the hell did she get those and how did she get them with all those details right?! “So…last day of our Vacation and…still not sure when I’m going back to start fixing things…” "You mean to Equis?" Harlow asked. “Yeah…even if I’ve been having…more and more nightmares about it…” "Have they been as bad as the first one?" “Well…I haven’t woken up screaming so there’s that.” I admitted. Harlow sighed. "You should have told me sooner." “As I said, I haven’t been waking up screaming so it’s fine.” I said gently. “It’s also better than giving you a…sticky shower in the morning.” "It's really not." He sighed. "You don't have to be afraid to tell me things Mike." “I’m not afraid to say thing’s.” I said. “My nightmares are something I have to deal with.” "Deal with alone?" “You won’t always be around when it happens…and when half the time the Nightmares are…with you cuddling up to a more…evil and uncaring version of myself…” I shrugged helplessly. "Oh? Well, I can help you forget that at least." Harlows said, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me down on top of him. His coat was soft as always and he wrapped his arms around my neck and I fixed myself. My full weight on them as we were now cuddling face to face on the couch. “Thanks Harlow.” I said with a smile, wrapping my arms around them happily. "Being partners, not just as gods but intimate means we help each other. Even if you say you feel like it's nothing, I want you to tell me, alright?" He asked, giving my nose a quick kiss. “Alright alright you silly sheep.” I chuckled. “But…it’s just…a lot to handle all at once…I mean, come on, this is supposed to be our vacation and here I am having nightmares.” "Well, care to make a few enjoyable memories before we leave tomorrow? It's not sex but I won't mind spending the rest of today lip locked with you." “That would be a great end to this vacation.” I chuckled. With a nod, Harlow planted one on my lips and I returned in kind. We stayed like that until late. Two Years Later Brandy was sitting next to me. Laughing loudly. Harlow was in bed. Some healing potions on the nightstand. I was red and felt like absolute crap… "You… heheh! You fucked him- s-so hard his hips dislocated!" Brandy coughed out from her laughing fit. “Sh-shut up!” I whined. “I didn’t mean to!” “Totally…worth it…” Harlow groaned happily. “Oh don’t you give her more ammo in this situation.” I groaned. "Hey, I won't lie, it hurt, but I genuinely didn't think you were that horny." Harlow chuckled. "Did his knot get stuck?" Brandy asked. “No.” I said quickly. “It didn’t get stuck.” “Twenty minutes.” Harlow said. “Traitor!” I whined. "I am still high on afterglow, and pain meds." Harlow said. Brandy laughed even harder. “Oh shush you.” I said weakly to Brandy who was just laughing like a maniac. "Heh. Despite the… incident, it was an amazing first time… but next time, I'm topping. You owe me that much Mike." Harlow said. I sighed… yeah… “Yeah…yeah…” I shook my head. “Again, I didn’t mean to go that hard…just…ya know…” “Plump fluffy sheep ass?” Brandy managed to say through her laughter. “...Yeah…” I admitted. "I prefer toned sheep ass thank you." Harlow chuckled. "But this aside, in a bit we'll be starting our first trials to godhood. What do you think we'll be doing Mike?" “While you get to go murder thing’s cause you’re going to be a God of Chaos, I’m probably going to have to do a boat load of paperwork cause ‘God of Order’ and all that…” I sighed. “I’m a Summoner, not a Bureaucrat…” "Yeah… well, that's gonna suck…" Harlow sighed. "So are you two gonna move in together or what?" Brandy asked, getting both Harlow and I's attention. "What? You two spend most of your vacations together at an isolated mountain cabin, am I wrong for assuming you two would want to live together now that you're both eighteen and gonna be sexually active?" “Well…I suppose that would make sense, I doubt either of our family’s would want to be in the same house as two really horny young adults.” "True, and as gods of order and chaos it's fitting we live together." Harlow said. "Plus yeah, the privacy would be nice… getting alone for uh, the first time for this was not easy between the lessons and siblings… God I have so many siblings…"  I nodded. Harlow did have a lot of siblings. Many older, and many and more coming that are younger. I'm amazed mom and dad haven't had any other kids in my lifetime so far. “Hmm…while I understand that given your mother is a Goddess of Life, I’m a little surprised mom and dad haven’t been as…active if I’m anything to go off of.” I said. “Cause while I did have…sex with my girlfriends back home I wasn’t ‘dislocate hips’ kind of horny.” "To be fair you did have an eighteen year dry spell." Harlow said. "Then and before you were a normal human… pony species changing person. Your body and species here and overall power level are higher than most anyone else  on Equis." “Fair…” I admitted. “You think a lot of your wives will have a predator/prey kink?” Brandy asked. “Brandy!” I shouted in embarrassment as that got her laughing again. "I can confirm, that mouth knows how to eat." Harlow said. I fell on the ground. As did Brandy but she was laughing as she did. “Why must you both hurt me like this?” I whined. "I'm still high on pain meds and good recent memories." Harlow said. "I need to be around High Harlow more often. He's hilarious!" Brandy laughed. “So I’m going to get something to eat and not be around you two.” I said, getting up as I didn’t want to handle more of this verbal abuse anymore. “But his ass is right there.” Brandy said. …I totally didn’t trip and fall over again… After a few days, Harlow was good as new and we got back to our trainings. His dad took him for his first trial and mine took me to my first trial. I will admit, I wasn't expecting to be in a huge forest. “So…what are we doing here dad?” I inquired. “Thought me being a God of Order would have been a bit more…annoying paperwork.” "Heh, then you haven't been paying attention to the lessons." He said with a small laugh. "Order is far grander than that. It's a self sustaining cycle, one often easily disrupted. Take nature. Plants grow from the earth, feed various animals, insects, which then feed larger predators, which in turn also feed even larger predators, and when those predators pass, the earth and plants consume the body. Remember when you and your siblings were young and we'd take you to that one island to play and practice your animalistic instincts?" Dad asked. “Yes, it was great and…shocking that you just had a floating island and…holy hell that was so long ago.” I admitted. "Well, consider this a far more advanced take on that." Dad stated. "This island here, is completely isolated in its own pocket dimension. No way out, three million square miles. Many plants, animals, ECT. You'll be calling this place home for the next year." “Uh…why?” I asked nervously. “Do I have to go native or something here?” "As a future God of Order you need to understand the cycles of life and death in their complexities first hand. Your goal while living here will be to keep this land's natural cycle and order stable. Keep in mind that with yourself living here you too are capable of disrupting it as part of its cycle. For example, hunt too much and you can damage populations of both the prey and predators. One can say going native is a fair term to use but you'll be acting both as guardian and resident of this land. It does hold some dangers and as a future God of order these dangers, it's up to you to determine if the beasts causing the danger deserve extinction or a culling to lessen their effect. Everything you do here during the year will have an impact, big or small in some way, so when you make a choice, be absolutely sure you are certain of it." “Goodie…” I muttered. “That’s not something I’m looking forward to but let’s get on with it.” With a nod, dad stepped aside to let me enter the forest and I did, shifting to my feral form and heading in. One Year Later "So… was it as bad for you as it was for me?" Harlow asked. This was the first time I had seen them in a year, once the trial was up and I found them I just picked them up in a hug. Brandy had gotten us a house while we were away and while I was annoyed at the house warming gifts she left all over the place I didn't care that much. I just cuddled with Harlow in bed and they didn't argue. “Yes…it was…” I said. “Without you…well it was hard but then…it just got worse…” "Same… what was your first breaking point?" "I saved a pregnant Den Mother Wolf. She was far as I could tell the last, and she's a Den Mother, thought it was okay to let her and her pups live… pups grew quick, and her being a Den Mother, made more… population of their kind went from the one to hundreds… forest couldn't sustain it… I had to…" I swallowed… I know they were feral, wild animals but still… "I had to send people to other worlds, Isekai people. I was told as long as they disrupt and cause chaos, for better or worse it didn't matter… a lot of them ended up either dead or becoming monsters…" Harlow said. "And then the hallucinations started…" I said weakly. "Cause that's fun…" "I had to kill people… some were just kids…" Harlow shook. I remembered the pups… "Innocents…men, women, children…some weren't even more than a few months old but Order wouldn't allow it…" "... We're monsters, aren't we?" Harlow asked. “Yes…yes we are.” I sighed. "... At least, we're monsters together…" He said, leaning against me. "I don't know how some of The Family do this alone…" “No idea…and I’m concerned about what they do to not go crazy…” "Well, knowing my mom and dad… I can take a well educated guess…" Harlow sighed. "Not really in the mood for that though…" “Yeah…I just…want to cuddle…” I said sadly. Without saying anything else, Harlow scooted against me. I took him in my arms and we laid in bed like this… trying to push away the bad memories. Three Thousand Years Later "Ouch!" I yelped. "Sorry." Harlow said with a yelp as he pulled the thorns out of my back. "I still can't believe that attack affected you…" He said. It's been a long time and we're officially Demi-Gods now. As such, Harlow and I have begun to properly train to become full fledged gods. So, we're put in charge of opposing forces with the goals varying from world to world. This one was to have a Hero or Heroes strong enough to counteract some of aunt Pains army and villains. This included various monsters I did not think would be able to deal damage to me… let alone a giant cactus that could stab two foot long barbs into me! “I’m not a full fledged god yet, and cactus spines still hurt…” I grumbled. "Yeah…" He said, yanking another one out of me. "Okay that's the last one. Hard to Believe it took us a thousand years to become Demi-Gods… and so far a little over two thousand and counting to become God gods."  “Yeah…I expected this to be a lot faster…” "Well, we've had fun at least. Soon a lot of incredible sights… fooled around in a lot of them." He added with a chuckle. “Yes, yes we have.” I chuckled. “It was amazing.” "Remember that one world with that very homophobic church? When they were getting ready to preach but we made a mess of the place the night before and they literally burned it down?"  I chuckled. I think that priest had a heart attack on the spot seeing all that stuff all over his church. Potions are a wonderful thing~ “Yeah, that was funny…would have been funnier if they came in on us doing it on their altar but I suppose boundaries for our sex life need to be drawn.” I shrugged. "True." Harlow laughed. "And that volcano hot spring? We have to make a place there at some point cause that water is awesome." I nodded. That water really worked wonders on my muscles… and my fur was extra soft for months after. “Yeah, Volcanic Hot Springs are just pure amazing.” I sighed. “So much done…so many places visited…but…” I trailed off with a bitter sigh. "But?" Harlow asked. “I…miss everyone on Equis…” I admitted. “Sunset, Pure, Twilight…everyone.” "I can see that. I know you miss them…" Harlow sighed. "But time isn't moving for them, they're all still waiting for you to return… cause, if time was moving for them, well, you know…" “Yeah…yeah I know.” I sighed. "You'll see them again Mike. It's just gonna take a while longer than hoped." “Yeah…gonna take a lot longer than hoped.” I sighed. "Yeah… try not to dislocate their hips when you bang them." He said with a smirk. “That was one time!” I whined. Harlow gave a laugh as he hugged me. "You'll see them all again Mike. They're not going anywhere. In the meantime, we have stuff to do." “I mean, if you're in the mood you horny sheep.” I joked. "Shush. But I am serious our Heroes were pretty banged up in that last fight so we best make sure they didn't kick the bucket." “Yeah, let’s go see if they’re all doing okay.” To be continued