//------------------------------// // The camping trip // Story: The Delta Dilemma // by Sunka //------------------------------// The Everfree Forest was not the type of place a pony liked being after dark. All manner of dark and mysterious things lived inside. Nature moved on it's own accord. Yards and the mares had managed to make it to a cliff face before a terrible storm had forced them to huddle together in a shallow cave where they waited for the violence outside to stop. Yards pulled a heat stone out of his pack and activated it's enchantment. The stone bathed the inside of the alcove in warmth and light. The Apples and Delta were setting up sleeping areas while Toffee and Yards were looking at the map. “So how much further?” asked Yards. “Probably a couple more hours. It's not that far flying, but the path winds around the mountain so it'll take a while to climb up.” Apple Rhubarb came around, giving out apples for everypony to eat. The two thanked her and went back to their conversation. “Why did he leave?” he asked her. She sighed. “He took Twilight's death really hard. She was like a mother to him, and everypony was fighting over her legacy, trying to pull him to either side. There was a cave the Elementals had found in one of their adventures. Spike was turning it into a lair before the war started. He liked that it was close enough that he could help Twilight but sort of 'get away for the weekend'. It gave him a place to explore being a dragon in a place where he couldn't hurt anypony.” Delta walked up besides Yards and covertly switched apples with him. “So once you get your notes thingie how long will it take to get your all powerful world shattering anti-smooze weapon?” She took the last bite of the apple before throwing it deep into the cave. He gave her a pointed look. “It depends. I'm not sure how it's going to work. If it works similar enough to something already established I could have an Alpha prototype in a week or so.” “A week?” “To an undetermined amount of months if it's sufficiently different.” “So how long do we have?” Yards shrugged. “You never know how long it's going to take. One screw up in a lab can shave off months or cost you years. The lucky thing is we're not potentially working with extremely hazardous materials, so we don't have as many safety protocols.” “Then what do we do now?” asked Toffee. Delta looked around. “Well, we could have an orgy.” “Mah, what's an orgy?” asked ears too little to have heard the joke. “It's a party,” her mother quickly answered. “YAY, an orgy, let's have an orgy!” The filly bounced around the cave while her mother glared at the changeling. Delta gave a sheepish grin. “Let's just turn in instead.” offered Yards. The others agreed. Yards changed the enchantment on the stone to turn off the light and leave on the heat as all the mares settled down. Delta was the first to come over. “Exothermic,” she whispered. “Do you mind?” He sighed and lifted his blanket up as she slid next to him. She felt cold, but then again, women generally did. He wasn't really sure if her species were exothermic, since it'd never occurred to him to measure that. They shared a lot of beetle attributes, but he'd disobeyed the order to dissect her. He felt embarrassed he'd never done a real physical on her. Of course, that would also mean inspecting her anatomy. Given her current attitude, something told him she wouldn't mind that. Little Rhu was next. She snuggled next to Delta. “Can I sleep wit you?” She sighed before nodding. Apple looked on with a smirk. Cock blocking at it's finest. Toffee walked up flapping her wings. “The wind from the opening is ruffling my feathers and keeping me awake. Can I use you for a lee?” His heart was starting to beat faster as she snuggled down wind from him. Were all the girls going to just -?” “PONY PILE!” Apple jumped on top of him and the other girls laughed. They started to wrestle him, trying to hold him down with their combined weight. With a little bit of levitation here and there he was able to fight off their attacks without it looking like he was using magic. Unfortunately, he could never win this battle. If he held one down the other two were on him. Rhu tried to help them, but did little more than get under hoof and make his footing more unsecured. Finally Delta grew exhausted, the years of confinement robbing her of any real endurance. Toffee quickly lost interest as well. Left alone Apple Rhubarb was little mach for his strength and magic. She was quickly pinned down. “Oh darn, I lost.” Her eyes said she wasn't the loser. Yards sighed, foam thick on his flanks. He collapsed on top of her, exhausted. The other girls gathered around them as they all fell asleep, tired, warm, and happy.