//------------------------------//
// The Four: Chapter Three: The Lover 
// Story: The Few 
// by EctopicEntropy 
//------------------------------//

	She conducted her tests, which were really nothing more than short spells that just left a tingling sensation. Bored by it fairly easily, I struck up a conversation. “Why are you so interested in humans?”
She looked up at me, startled, then said: “Sorry, not used to patients being awake for this. I suppose I’m interested in humans because everyone tells me I shouldn’t be.” She rested her forehooves on me, assuming a thoughtful position. “I suppose I never really thought about it. What about you, huh? Why are you so interested in ponies?”
“What makes you think I’m so interested in ponies?”
“Well, you were human, living in the human world, and you chose to come here and be a pony. Surely that wasn’t easy.”
“Well, no. It wasn’t.”
“Then why’d you do it?”
“Because here is so much more peaceful than there.”
“If you think here’s peaceful, I don’t want to know what your world is like.”
“How is here not peaceful?”
“Well, there’s crime almost every day, for one.”
“So? We had crime back home, too. Every day for sure, and usually more than once a day, too.”
“Wow, alright. I had heard your kind was warfaring, but I didn’t know it was that bad.”
“Oh, that’s nothing. We wage wars every couple of decades, resulting in casualties in the thousands.” She just stared at me, seeming to be shocked. “Didn’t I tell you that, the first night you asked about humans?”
She seemed to remember it, that I had told her about all the wars of humanity. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she ran out of the room. I magicked myself out of my bonds and my human form, then proceeded to return to the apartment. I was greeted by a very worried Bon Bon.
“She just ran through, crying. What happened down there?”
I stared at her closed door, knowing she was crying behind it. “Hopefully, what needed to. She’ll come out of there in the morning either a killing machine or completely off humans.”
I knocked on the door, and in the light of magic, it opened a fraction of an inch. From inside, a faltering voice asked: “What?”
“Well, firstly, I want to apologize for shattering your worldview. And secondly, you must understand that sometimes evil is necessary.” I winced at my own statement, knowing my own atrocities, but was pulled from my reveries before they even began by David.
“So I just realized we don’t have pony names. Or cutie marks.”
Perking up to something that wasn’t completely depressing, I turned to him. “Well, yes, I suppose that is a problem. So, ace, what’re you?”
“Well, I think Ace is a good start, and I used to draw and still like to, so what about Ace Graphite?”
“What do you think, Bon Bon?”
“Well, I don’t know. It’s a fairly standard name, by etymology standards, anyway. It’s fine, but please don’t drag me into this. I have cookies to bake.”
“Yes, right. Smells delicious, by the way. So who am I?”
“You’re not seriously asking me, right? How am I supposed to tell you who you are?” The one now known as Ace said defensively.
“Well I dunno, I don’t really have a preference on names at all, so just throw some syllables together and I’ll figure out how to spell it.”
“What about” he paused for a moment, tapping his chin. “Kiko Krieshtenay?”
“I like it, but I have to spell it my own way.” Spelling it out, in the air, with magic, I wrote and said: “Kiqo Kreichtene.”
“You just have to be special, don’t you?”
“Well, wouldn’t you want to be?”
“I suppose so. What if I replaced the ph with an f?”
I wrote it out, then, gesturing to it, said: “Comme tant?”
“Si, si, you multilingual bastard. But what’s that, at the end?”
Using magic I wasn’t sure was entirely Equestrian, I magnified the little dot at the end. What I thought was a blip was a pencil over a spade, like from the deck of cards. It was a very stylized spade, fancy as all get out, but as soon as it was in focus, it moved. Where it moved was Ace’s flank, where it stayed and seemed to be quite content on.
“Oh hey, nice mark.” Bon Bon said after putting down a tray of cookies. “Did you know it’ll change when you do something you’re talented at?”
“Really?” I asked, intensely curious about everything new after traveling more than a few worlds. “Go draw something, dude.”
He laid out a quick sketch on a small sheet, and just as Bon Bon’s bons were steaming when she took the cookies out, his pencil started to draw more onto his mark.
“Neat!” I exclaimed, but then had a dampening thought. “Where’s my mark?”
“It comes when you do something you’re gifted at, right?”
“Right, but what? I have such a varied skill set, though. What mark could capture all that?”
The other two seemed to be stumped by this, but then it came to me, in the form of what I was best at: an idea. Something went ding, and what appeared on my flank was exactly what I expected: a lightbulb. “Fantastico! I wonder what it’ll do at different times.”
“Well I imagine it’ll light up.”
“No shit, sherlock. I never woulda guessed.”
“Shut up, brainiac.”
“God I love insults. They’re so nonsensical.”
“You’re the one with a lightbulb on his ass.”
“At least it’s not up it, like some people.”
Bon Bon snickered, and Ace glared daggers at her. Subsequently, the door was blown in by some awesome force. There, in a weird kind of rage-trance, was Twilight. In between heavy breaths, she managed to get out: “I fucking hate, no, love you.” Regaining normal breathing, she continued: “And I don’t understand any of it, so shut the fuck up and kiss me.”
“Why don’t we go back to your place and hash this all out, eh?”
“Right here, right now, on this god awful shag carpet.”
“Twilight, you’re awesome, and I love you, but no.”
“Why not? Too scared to love me? Too scared of my power?” She was almost in tears, and was definitely about to run for it, so I tried to rationalize her.
“No, it’s because other ponies are watching.”
Fire danced in her mane as she approached me, hips all full of swagger. “That just makes it better.” She dragged a hoof under my chin as Bon Bon dragged one across her neck, but all I saw was Twilight. Holy shit god damn, she was beautiful. I was inclined to consent, but rationality took hold and shook me out of it.
“Yes, but not here. Your place, now.”
“Celestia help me, you’re such a bore. Whatever, if you’re not at my place in five minutes, I’m putting the wine away.” She left with a flick of her tail, right under my chin, and a pop of magic.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked, turning to Bon Bon.
“She’s in heat. If you follow her, I’ll lose all respect for you.”
I just pshawed at her. “I don’t need your respect, I’m getting laid.” I left with a grin and a pop, leaving Ace and Bon Bon with Lyra, who had just come out.
Lyra spoke first: “Did that make anyone else really horny?”
“Three way?” Ace asked, in turn. All he got was a cookie to the face.


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As I appeared at Twilight’s door, she was just shoving Spike out.
“Get, get. Shoo.” She was saying, and then upon seeing me, said: “Oh, hey you. Come on in.”
“Give Rarity my best” I said to Spike. He made to return a remark, but waved a dismissive claw and left.
In short, we fucked, in long, it was about seven times. She cried into my chest afterward, explaining how heat cycles worked, the core principles of marehood, and how she couldn’t control herself sometimes, and how she had meant to make me stay earlier, but my leaving had just made it worse. Basically, the horse half of being a talking horse. I didn’t mind the rut, and told her so, and she just looked at me with those big, wet, amethyst eyes and said “Really?” I left her with scuffled hair and a kiss on the forehead, because disappearing was what I did best.
I returned to Bon Bon’s apartment, only to find a pile of ponies, one of which had just criticized me for falling into bed. Said bed-hating bedhead poked out and said “I can expl- no I can’t.” I heard Ace chortle, and then get slapped. I just laughed at them, already having been spent, and headed for Lyra’s bed.
“Don’t have too much fun, alright?” I said as I closed the door. “What a day.” I said to myself on the other side, sprawling out face first on the bed.