What had she done? By the stars, moon and sun, why did she… why did it feel so good to be scratched by him?
Luna paced around in her room in Twilight’s castle. She had done so almost the entire night, only stopping to help with nightmares. Only for foals though, she was not in the mood to deal with grown up ponies that did not want her help. Foals were always more willing to accept her after she helped with a nightmare.
She stopped. She had to lower the moon. She teleported into the top tower of the castle, where she had a good view of the sky. She cast the spell needed, feeling the toll it took on her. She had been awake a whole day and night, and she could be awake for much longer… but she really wanted to sleep. Worries had kept her up though. Did he realize what his scratching had done to her? He had stopped all of a sudden as if realizing something… Oh, stars, this was bad. She teleported back into her room.
She looked at her bed then started pacing again. Why had it felt so good? She had asked the question over and over again. She had never had any other creature scratch her, so she could not tell if it was because it was him, or if she just really liked getting scratched in general.
Was it the touch? No, she had been massaged the very same day, and though it felt nice, it did not feel as good.
Was it because he was touching her? No, he had stroked her mane just seconds before he started scratching her, and though that felt good, it did not get the same… reaction from her.
So it must be the scratching. She bit her lip. This was bad. He knew… her reaction afterwards had ensured that he knew something was amiss. He must have realized, that was why he stopped, and that was what had finally snapped her out of it.
Why did it feel so good? She sighed. She was running in circles. Focus on choices.
Pretend nothing happened… Could that work? She did have a good mask, she was a ruler after all, but she was rusty as well, and this was the most embarrassing thing she had done since… well in a long time. Could she look him in the eye without blushing? And what if he started asking questions? So many variables she could not account for. Next option.
Talk with him about it. That made her blush instantly. This was the mature way out, but also the most embarrassing. He must know what the scratching had done to her, so getting it out in the open and having a mature talk would most likely be… ah who was she kidding, she could not do that, it would be too embarrassing! Next option.
Send a servant to talk with him instead… No, that was silly. Next option.
Avoid him for the rest of his life. Easy enough, all she had to do was move back to Canterlot. Even if he came there one day, he would most likely come during the day when she was unavailable… unless he came to night court, demanding answers to why she had left all of a sudden, maybe even embarrassing her in front of her guards. Did she even want to avoid him? It felt so good to be around him…
She laid down, putting her hooves over her eyes. Why was this so hard? Why did she have to… why did it have to feel so good?!
She groaned. She had probably ruined it. Why would he want to continue being friends with her now? He probably never wanted to see her again…
She sprung up. No… he was not like that. She just needed to fix this. If there was one thing Jax had proved he could do, it was forgive.
‘It is not like I set him on fire.’ The thought made a small smile appear on her muzzle. It had turned into such a reassuring thought. That no matter what she did, somepony else had done something worse. She felt bad that Twilight’s unintentional mistake made her feel at ease…
Maybe Twilight could assist her. She was the Princess of Friendship after all.
***
“So… Luna. What did you want to talk about?”
Luna had caught Twilight after breakfast, and asked for a private talk. They had made their way to Luna’s room.
“Uhm…” She looked around the room, anything but the lavender pony in front of her. She was already blushing.
She took a deep breath and tried to put on her mask like she had learned a long time ago. She repressed her feelings and looked up at Twilight.
“Have you been scratched by Jax yet?” She asked, her voice carefully neutral.
Twilight looked at her for a second before answering. “Oh yes, it felt really good. Of course Spike does a good job as well, but Jax seems to know where to scratch and with what intensity. I think it helps that he doesn’t have sharp claws… why do you ask?”
“Well… I was scratched as well.” She admitted, barely keeping the blush away.
“It felt good, right? Did he do the thing where he scratches behind your ears and your back at the same time? I wonder how it would feel like to be scratched on the belly.” Twilight gave her an innocent smile while Luna was blushing madly at the thought.
“Yes, Twilight, he did and it felt good… maybe a little too good in fact…” She tried to hint, looking down at the crystal floor. Twilight of course did not understand.
“How could it feel too good?”
“Well… embarrassingly good?” She tried again. “In fact, I am a bit reluctant to see him for a while…” She looked up again, at Twilight tilting her head.
“It felt so good that you got embarrassed? How could it - oh! Oh… uhm…” She seemed to finally understand. Luna was busy looking down, but she could feel Twilight moving around uncomfortably. “Does he… does he know?” She could hear the embarrassment in her voice.
Luna sighed. “I do not know. I am having a hard time deciding what to do, so I thought that you could help me, Twilight.”
“Oh! Of course I’ll help you. That’s what friends are for.” Luna looked up from the floor to see Twilight smiling at her. She quickly took a step forward and wrapped the lavender pony in a hug, a smile breaking out on her muzzle. It felt so good to hear those words.
“Thank you.” It had been a while since she could rely on anyone but herself and her sister.
“You are very welcome.” Twilight answered, happiness clear in her voice. “We just need to find out what to do next.”
***
“I’m fine, Steady Hooves. Glad you’re checking up on me, but I’m sure you have other things to do.” Jax told his doctor while she was checking the burns on his upper body.
“Be that as it may Jax, I am responsible for your well-being, and I will see the progress with my own eyes. Now take off your pants.”
“But I’ve told you that humans don’t feel comfortable with showing… that part. Can’t you respect my privacy just a little?” He tried. This situation was not to his liking.
Steady Hooves sighed. “If it’s between respecting privacy, and saving lives, I always choose the later. This is especially important because I’ve heard from Beating Heart that she has allowed you to salve your lower part yourself. You’ve had your privacy, now you’re paying for it. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve already seen way worse than male genitalia. You’d be surprised how many grown stallions-“
“Alright already, I don’t need to hear it. Just… lock the door, please.” He said with a defeated sigh. Beating went over and did as he asked, while Steady patiently waited for him to get started.
There was a lot of staring, more than he felt comfortable with, but Steady remained professional. There was apparently one part he hadn’t salved well enough, and he needed to start doing so. He promised he would be more careful in the future. Just as they were both about to leave, he asked Beating to stay. Steady went on ahead, closing the door behind her.
“I have a question but I don’t quite know how to formulate it.” He started.
She gave him a smile. “Well I’m afraid I can’t read your mind, so you’ll have to try.”
“Yes yes… Okay. Let’s see… It’s a bit awkward though. I don’t think you’ll mind much but...” The smile was still on her face as she shook her head. “Alright. So I was scratching this mare…”
Beating gave a short laugh. “Nothing new there.”
“Yes… Well her reaction was a bit different than the others. She started shivering and moaning, breathing heavily towards the end… Does that mean what I think it means? I just want to make sure I don’t misunderstand something here.”
“That depends… what do you think it means?” She still had a smile on her face.
“Well… alright let me say it like this. If it was a human shivering and moaning at my touch, I would think she was… turned on. Of course I don’t have much experience with people moaning at my touch, and she wasn’t human. So I ask you.”
Beating nodded sagely. “A fine choice indeed. Alright, I’ll help. It just so happens that I have some experience in this field.”
“People often moan at you touch?” He asked a little amused.
“Ah, no. I was the one doing the… Anyway it is entirely possible that you are right. Some ponies get a little more out of a scratching session than simply getting rid of an itch. Whether your mystery pony did, is still up for debate, though it does sound like it.”
“So you’re saying that I could be wrong?”
“Of course. I learned a long time ago not to judge by appearances. There are other tells though. Did she move her tail away?”
“…Away?”
“You know… to the side. So you could have a clear view. It’s an involuntary thing.” To her credit she kept a straight face while explaining basic tells any stallion should know.
“Uhm… I didn’t notice.” Luna was about to turn around, but seemed to change her mind. Also, she had an ethereal tail, did it still act like a normal tail?
“She backed out of the room then? Or she waited a while after you were done? ‘Cause if she backed out, that probably means there was something she didn’t want you to see.”
She teleported away… that probably counted as backing out.
“Okay, thanks for the help, Beating.” His cheeks were burning a little. So he had turned her on. He didn’t know how to feel about it…
“You’re quite welcome, Jax. If you ever want to talk about relationships between different species, you know where to find me.” She winked at him and went on her merry way, Jax staring at her until she left.
***
“Jax.” Twilight said as she came in. Jax jumped at the opportunity to get his mind off of things.
“Twilight! How good to see you, come on in. No Luna today?” He asked with a wide smile on his face.
“heh…” Twilight had a bad poker face. Who knew? “No, she… uhmm… she doesn’t feel too well…” Something told Jax that Twilight was lying. Mostly Twilight, because she was bad at lying.
“Oh? That’s too bad… I was hoping to talk to her about yesterday.” He said mostly to see how much Twilight knew. He was actually glad that she wasn’t there… he wasn’t ready for that level of awkward between them. Twilight looked up.
“You were?” she asked way too quickly. She knew something, if she didn’t she would have asked what happened yesterday.
“So you know what happened?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Uhm… Yeah.” She looked a bit more determined. “Alright, let’s stop with the games. She mentioned that she might have made you a bit uncomfortable. Do you know why?”
“Alright Twilight, I can agree to that. Yeah, I talked to Beating to make sure. I was making her…” He sighed and looked away. “Horny.” He still wasn’t good with awkward situations, and this was definitely awkward. At least it wasn’t Luna.
“You told Beating Heart?” She asked somewhere between surprised and horrified.
“I told her the basics, didn’t give her any names. Give me some credit.”
“Alright, I’m sorry. So… How do you feel about it?”
He looked at Twilight. She looked at him with an innocent curiosity. He really didn’t want her to play his therapist. He sighed.
“I’m not entirely sure to be honest. As far as I know, she’s the first female I’ve ever turned on. At the same time she’s a completely different species, which is a big complication. I didn’t do it on purpose either… I guess I would like to just forget about it? At the same time I’m having a very hard time forgetting abo-.” Wait why was he telling her that? He was letting her play his therapist. His cheeks burned too much for his liking. Twilight looked a little embarrassed as well.
“Okay… That’s understandable I think. A completely natural response, to a completely natural… uhm… anyway! I think Luna wants to move on as well. So if she came in here and you both agree that it didn’t mean anything special and was just an accident, you can forget about it? Or at least move on?” It looked like Twilight was a bit out of her comfort zone as well, which was nice. At least he wasn’t suffering alone.
“Moving on sounds nice.” He gave the violet pony a nervous smile. He was not looking forward to this talk, but… it had to be done. He liked Luna, he didn’t want to lose her because of something minor like this. Well he had turned on a princess, it could be discussed how minor it really was… Still, she was the one asking to be scratched, it wasn’t his fault.
“Alright, I’ll tell her to come by tomorrow. She… kind of went to sleep. She said she’d been up all night.”
“Really? Well she is the Princess of the Night after all.”
“Yeah, she has been up during the day-time a lot lately though. So she can be with you.”
Jax looked at Twilight thoughtfully. “I guess you’re right. How long do you think she will continue doing so?”
“I don’t know? She has duties… didn’t she say that she wouldn’t be here more than five months at the town meeting?”
“Did she? I don’t remember that… you must have a good memory Twilight.”
Twilight just smiled at him before changing the subject. “You have made her very happy Jax. As much it pains me to say it, I think you’ve already been a better friend to her than I have.” Her smile turned bitter-sweet at her own words.
Her words warmed him and chilled him at the same time. He was happy that he had been a good friend, but Twilight had been her friend for longer. “I’m not so sure about that Twilight. You saved her from that Limelight thingy that made her into Nightmare Moon, and you helped her during Nightmare Night. I think you give yourself too little credit.”
“I don’t know about that… she just seems happier when she’s with you. More open in a way. I don’t know, it’s hard to describe. Since I became the Princess of Friendship, I guess I can kind of feel friendship? Her friendship feels… sturdier towards you. More uncertain towards me. I think that means that your friendship is… well, better.”
Jax looked at her in surprise. She hasn’t mentioned this before. “You can feel friendship? How does that even work? Can Luna feel the moon? Or the night?”
“Oh, well, I don’t feel it all the time, it just happens sometimes. I get this strong feeling between ponies, and I can just kind of… tell. Like when you came in with Rainbow Dash the first time we met, I could tell that you had the beginnings of a friendship going. I don’t know about what Luna feels if she feels anything similar, I never asked. Oh and… In case you were wondering… the friendship you feel towards them is real. It’s not something fake, created by magic. It’s real.” She gave him a determined gaze.
He nodded. “I know. Well I didn’t know, but I was going to treat it as something real in any case.”
Twilight gave him a cute smile and nod “Good!”
Who was he kidding, the standard around here was cute. A smile that was cuter than normal then? Something like that. Must be because it was happier than usual.
“Why does it mean so much to you?” He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. “Because you’re the Princess of Friendship?”
She considered his question seriously. “I guess… because you’re all my friends. I want you all to be happy. I want to see you smile.” She looked him straight in the eyes, with an honest smile on her face. “Even if you don’t see me as a friend.”
How did it feel being told that a person sees you as a friend and wants you to be happy even if you don’t see said person as friend? Pretty damn crushing in the heart area.
“Twilight… I-.”
“No it’s okay! I didn’t mean to put you on the spot, I’m sorry. I can kind of imagine what it must be like for you.” She looked at him with those big sad eyes. “If you accept me too quickly, you’ll feel like it’s the positive magic manipulating you. At the same time, friendship isn’t something you can simply control. Where does that leave you? Probably a place I wouldn’t want to be. That’s why it’s okay. I’ll wait until you’re ready. When you are, I’ll be waiting.” She gave him a sad smile. The kind that makes your heart break a little. God he was tired of sad smiles.
Twilight. She had come to the hospital every day since… well since she sent him there. Maybe she still felt guilty, even though he had forgiven her. More likely she wanted to be friends with him. She often came with much needed dinner, which was very much appreciated. The last couple of days, she would try to ask him about Earth before he steered the conversation away because he didn’t want to talk about that place anymore. Then they would talk about random stuff where Luna would join too. Sometimes other ponies like Lyra came, and they would play some kind of game. Twilight and Luna had been the main reason he hadn’t been bored to death these past couple of days. He felt really grateful that he wasn’t all alone… that he had people, or rather ponies, that would come visit him when he was sick. It felt really good.
“Twilight… I am ready to be friends with you.” He said honestly.
She looked at him with hope shinning in her eyes. “Really?” she stepped closer. “You aren’t just saying that because I made you feel bad?”
“No Twilight, I’m not. You are right - friendship isn’t something you can simply control, and honestly? I don’t know why I’m trying. Ponies aren’t humans after all. I shouldn’t have the same standard for a different species. It’s already too late for that anyway, it was ever since I decided I was friends with Rainbow Dash… the rest was just denial. Well it’s a bit more complicated than that, and honestly… I’m still afraid. But if I learned anything from your book, and from interacting with you all, it’s that I shouldn’t let fear stand in the way of friendship. Because that wouldn’t be fair to the ponies that are trying to be my friends.”
“Wow… Do you mind if I use that in my new book?”
“You’re writing another?” Jax was surprised. The first book ended with the defeat of T… Tirel? T-rex? What was his name… Tirke? Something like that. About the same time Jax was thrown into Equestria. Had something else happened since then?
“Yeah I think so. This is Ponyville after all, something always happens here. And I don’t think Tirek will be the last villain to try something evil.”
Tirek! That was it. “Then go nuts I guess. Wait, no, what am I saying? Don’t write anything about this in a book!”
“I wasn’t going to use that part.” She looked a little offended, and a little embarrassed by her slight blush. “It is a book for foals as well you know.”
“Oh… Okay, I guess it’s alright then.” He smiled down at her, receiving a smile in turn.
“Thanks… for both. You don’t know how relieved I am to hear you want to be friends.” She put a hoof over where Jax presumed her heart was. “Thank you.”
He leaned forward and wrapped her in a hug. “You’re very welcome.”
Ponies are amazing. They are so amazing that they can squeeze themselves into the hearts of humans and chaos lords alike.
He was not looking forward to his talk with Luna though.
***
Jax spent the entire day talking with Twilight, and later Rarity and Pinkie Pie. He was making his way back from the bathroom to his room to go to sleep when he overheard two nurses talking around the corner.
“… don’t even want to go near his room, yet Beating Heart goes in and out without any problems. She’s really brave.”
That made him pause. Were they talking about him? ‘Cause it sounded like they were talking about him.
“She says that he’s really sweet though. Looks like another villain to me… do you think that maybe those burns weren’t an accident at all like Rose said? Maybe Princess Twilight had to defend herself, and didn’t want to embarrass him or something.” The other nurse said. Definitely about him then.
“I don’t know… The elements all seem happy after they visit him, and would she really lie to a journalist just to cover for some villain? The story got to the front page of The Canterlot Informant for Celestia’s sake. I think she’s telling the truth. Didn’t you hear that Rarity has been defending him like crazy? Just because the flower-mares at the market like to dramatize everything doesn’t mean we should believe it. Remember the last time we did? Haven’t we learned anything?” The first nurse defended him.
“I guess so… but still. He has been getting a lot of visits from important ponies. Three out of four princesses, the elements of harmony… Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious? Like maybe they are keeping a close eye on him? Plus sometimes there’s this weird smell from his room… it always makes me shiver.” The second one argued.
“Maybe… we should ask him!”
“What? Are you mad? What if he decides to… silence us?”
“What, you think we’re the only ones who noticed? Come on, we don’t even know anything… that’s why we need to ask. Rarity insists that he’s good, and I even heard Rainbow Dash call him awesome at one point. Well, pretty awesome, but it still counts. Rainbow Dash doesn’t give out praise to just anypony.” The first, Jax’ favorite of the two, logically argued back.
“Oh alright, but not tonight… Celestia knows he’s scary enough during the day. And we’re taking Beating Heart with us. You hear?” The two nurses started walking away, their voices becoming less clear.
“Yes yes… and a squad of guards, and Big Mac. The squad to protect you, and that big hunk o’ meat for me.” They laughed all the way out of earshot.
Jax stood, leaning up against the wall with a big smile on his face. So Rarity had been doing more than just making his clothes and keeping him company. She had his back, even though he had done nothing for her. She didn’t even say anything about it, he had to find out like this. Ponies… They really are amazing.
Suddenly he was really happy that he ended up here. Even after everything he went through, even after all the hardships… this was a nice place.
He would have to do something for them all at some point. He just had to figure out how.