As Level Ledger awoke, and headed for the kitchen in search of the sweet nectar that fuelled him from day to day, he saw that Twilight Velvet was already up, and that a fresh pot was on the table. However, as he made to reach for it, her magic held the pot of life just out of his reach.
“Let me be perfectly clear on this,” she said, before giving him the pot. “Your mother and I are going to have words.” She shuddered as she recalled what she had to clean up. “I mean, how the buck did they get it on the damned ceiling?”
“Don’t know, don’t want to know,” Ledger returned as he made his cup of coffee. “It was bad enough seeing it for a second.”
“I can imagine,” Velvet nodded as she pushed the bowl of sugar forward. “Also, I have one more piece of advice for you dear, but I really hope you don’t take it the wrong way.”
“I’m listening,” Ledger said as he dunked a sugarcube into the cup and stirred it.
“Do you ah, know any soundproofing spells?” she asked. “Because, you might want to think about using them next time. Those mares of yours are… enthusiastic.”
“...Oh dear,” Ledger said, blushing. “I, ah, thought I used them…”
“Well either you did and they failed, or you forgot while in the ehh, throes of passion as it were. I erected one before too much damage was done, but I fear Leafy was a little scarred after her daughter shouted something I care not to repeat.” Though, she would have Night try that on her later…
“Yes, I am terribly sorry about that,” Ledger said, still red and not touching his coffee just yet. “We, ah, normally don’t get many visitors on the farm...I guess I must be out of practice with my soundproofing spells.”
“Yes well… moving on,” Velvet blushed. She did look remarkably like Twilight when she did that. “Have you heard back from Twilight yet?”
“Not yet, but that’s typically how it goes with her,” Ledger said as he finally sipped his coffee. Nodding at the taste and setting it back down, he continued his earlier sentiment. “Sometimes she’s here several days in a week. Sometimes she can’t come over at all. She’s here when she’s here, and I cherish those moments like I do with all the others. Today I have to work, so it’s unlikely I’ll see her at all.”
“Such a shame,” Velvet sighed, and even as he did, a scroll winked into existence above Ledger, narrowly avoiding landing in his coffee.
“Then that happens,” Velvet giggled. Ledger took the scroll and opened it, with Twilight explaining that Midnight would be back by the days end, but she wasn’t sure if she’d be returning with her. It also told him of the rather wonderful discovery she’d made concerning the female side of his herd, and it explained how she’d come to that conclusion in her usual amount of detail…
As in, a lot. She even included diagrams for buck’s sake. Ledger blushed, but merely rolled the scroll back up and stuffed it in his saddlebags. He’d file that at work, in case he needed something for...reading later.
“Ahem. Midnight will be back by the end of the day. But with Twilight, it’s anypony’s guess. She may or may not have time to come over.” With that message delivered to Velvet, Ledger decided that his coffee was absolutely fascinating.
“Well, good to hear, I do hope I can see her again before I have to go home,” Velvet hummed as she floated her empty coffee mug into the kitchen. Scope eventually wandered down stairs, and grabbed the coffeepot with her magic, drinking it straight from the pot.
“And good morning to you too,” Ledger said with only a touch of snark.
“Refer to my usual cactus-based retort,” Scope replied in a flat tone as she drained the whole pot before taking it into the kitchen to refill it. “Urgh! I do not want to do anything today… Ledger, can I have a sick day?”
“It’s not like Celestia has moved her flank on getting the messaging service folded into the government yet, so I don’t see why not,” Ledger said. “Just keep in mind, you lose out on the chance to try and seduce me at work during lunch break.”
“Oh no, woe is me,” Scope replied with enough snark for him to choke on. Ledger just shrugged before finishing off his cup of coffee.
“Your loss,” he said. “Now that my paperwork has been automated, I find myself with a lot of free time, and very little to do with it.”
Cider limped down the stairs, each step earning a pained groan from the mare. Velvet gave her a curious look and looked at Ledger with a raised eyebrow.
“Note ta self,” Cider winched as she ambled into the kitchen. “Do not perform any strenuous activities after a serious sparring session with Fritter… owww…”
“You were the one that kept saying ‘harder’ last night,” Ledger pointed out, wishing that there was coffee left to give her.
“Y’all didn’t hafta listen to me,” Cider groaned as she stared at listlessly at the empty pot. “Awww…”
“Scope’s making more,” Ledger said as he scooted next to his mare and kissed her. “And a good stallion always listens to the mare.”
Cider just groaned as Apple Leaves walked in and placed a basket of vegetables that she’d just harvested from the garden. That was when Cider remembered something and hobbled from the room in a hurry, returning a few moments later with a slip of paper in her mouth.
“Hey Ledger?” she asked. “Think you could run this to the bank for me and cash it?”
“Yeah I can do th-” Ledger cut himself off mid-word as he looked at the check. “That is a lot of zeros,” he mumbled as he continued to stare at it.
“That was from one case,’ Cider nodded. “Imagine whut’ll happen when ah get to harvest a whole crop an’ produce a few hundred bottles?”
“Iiiiii think our money issues are well and truly solved,” Ledger said as he gingerly floated the check over to his saddlebags. “And that’s before Twilight and I get teleportation cracked as well.”
“Ah reckon,” Cider nodded. “Still, ah imagine the price will go down when I can produce more of it. An’ once it takes off, ah reckon ah won’t be the only one to get in on this, so this won’t last forever.”
“Still, that’s quite the sum for one case,” Ledger said. “We could be set for a while with that money.”
“Ah still don’t know why she paid me so much,” Cider said, staring at the empty pot as the coffee slowly dripped into it. “Ah won’t complain, ah jus’ don’t know if it was worth that much.”
“Considering how high-quality your produce usually is, I’m going to say she probably thought it was,” Ledger said, sitting next to Cider and hugging her from the side. “You’re probably right, though, in that others might not pay nearly as much…”
“Flatterer,” Cider blushed and looked away. Velvet giggled at the cute show, as did Leaves.
“Coffee’s done,” Scope announced, causing Ledger to hug the floor as Cider all but vanished and appeared next to her marefriend.
“I’d complain, but I’d probably have done the same if I’d been the last one down,” Ledger muttered before picking himself up. “Well, I suppose breakfast is the next item on the agenda,” the disguised drone mused.
“I can arrange that dear,” Leaves nodded. “Velvet, would you give me a hoof?”
“Of course,” the Unicorn replied. The two mothers quickly kicked the younger ponies out of the kitchen as they went to work.
“So did Fritter come home last night?” Cider asked, feeling much better with coffee in her system.
“I don’t think so,” Apple Leaves replied. “Perhaps her date went well?”
“I’d say so,” Scope chuckled. Ledger shook his head at the banter before easing himself into his chair and looking at his empty mug.
“You realize talking about her like that is just asking for trouble,” the drone rejoined. Scope refilled his mug and dumped a sugarcube or two into it.
“How so?” Cider asked.
“Well, any second now, Fritter will probably walk in that door about as bow-legged as you were,” Ledger explained. “Probably when we’re in the middle of discussing what a unicorn and a changeling nymph got up to with her.”
They all turned and stared at the door, honestly expecting her to do just that… And did so for a solid five minutes before they realised that life wasn’t that cliche.
“Ah well,” Scope hummed. “I think I’ll come with you anyway Ledge. I should check up on the others. See if they’re getting on alright.”
“If you want,” Ledger said as he drank his second cup. “I know I can’t stop you, after all. And I could do with company at the company.”
“All yer little buggy workers not enough company?” Cider chuckled. “Well that’s fine. Ah have a lot to do here today anyhow. Make sure mah fields ain’t sufferin’ any frost damage. Check the settin’s on the greenhouse, stuff like that.”
Ledger sat next to Cider again, kissing her cheek and leaning on her. “We both have quite a few things to do, don’t we? Ah well.”
“Hmm, true, but try and do some actual work, rather than jus’ doin’ Scopey huh?” Cider gave him a cheeky wink as Leafy and Velvet brought out some breakfast of eggs, toast and a simple salad.
“Breakfast is ready~” Velvet sang out, beating Leaves to her usual Apple holler of ready food. “Not quite as extravagant as dinner, but I imagine we don’t have time to dilly-dally today.”
“You imagine correctly,” Ledger said before digging into his breakfast, enjoying the taste all the same. Cider and Scope nodded in agreement, the two mares already tucking into their own breakfast.
Once they were done, Cider, Scope and Ledger cleared the table before the two Changeling’s left for work. So far it was shaping up to be a rather average day…
Scope had moved her chair into the middle of the room and slowly spun on it. Only two of her minions had actually answered her call, the one in Ponyville and the Baltimare one. Now she was bored out of her little buggy brain as she used her magic to make the chair spin faster or slower.
Ledger, on the other hoof, was bored as well, but that was because his job was going well. Half of it had been taken care of already, namely, the paperwork he had to oversee everyday. The other half?
Well, that was being seen to as well. Ledger would create a proposal for an idea he had, and then his spell would, based on past costs, tell him if it was a good idea or not.
Which left him really bored, as he was running out of ideas to run past it.
Ahh, the downside to creating a spell that was too efficient. He opened his desk drawer to take out something… and noticed a book he’d never seen before nestled in there, the papers around it were displaced, so somepony had teleported it inside.
It also smelled distinctly of sugar and wine, so he already had a guess as to who put it there as well. He pulled it out gingerly, expecting it to be trapped...before he saw exactly what it said on the title and grinning slightly.
“Ooookay, Sugar, I’ll play your little game...if only so I can learn a few new tricks to surprise Midnight with…” With that, the disguised drone pulled his book out from his saddlebags and flipped to the first open page as he began to read and record the information in this...very interesting book.
Midnight paused on her way to the bakery and shuddered. A great imbalance had been put in motion. She felt… both anticipation and uneasiness.
Ledger’s eyes drank in the information, already coming up with so many new ideas. Wonderful ideas. Perverted ideas.
He was also careful to keep the books away from the operating space of the spell, because he didn’t need it learning those things, or that much.
He also heard some commotion from down in Scope’s office, since it lay directly below his. It sound like she was jumping around the room for some reason…
He sighed before closing both books and suspending the spell, deciding to go check on the hyperactive nymph. He really didn’t have anything better to do.
After a short trip downstairs, he stood outside her office and knocked with a hoof, to gain her attention. She didn’t answer, and the sound seemed to be muffled, but he heard voices in there, as in, more than one.
An older mare, some strange foreign accent and Scope. Ledger rolled his eyes and knocked louder. Regardless of what was said after this knock, especially if they didn’t answer at all, he was going in.
There was a sudden crash, like something had hit Scope’s desk, before the mare he didn’t recognise started yelling.
“Okay,” Ledger yelled as he barged in, taking the scene in and pausing. “What in the...world is going on?”
A Pegasus pony he clearly recognised as Daring Do lay on the floor… and nopony else. She glared at her desk, like somepony was perched there…
“Okay Ahuizotl!” she yelled. “Where’s the treasure?”
She leapt at the desk and was engulfed in azure flames, turning into a creature that Ledger couldn’t even begin to comprehend. “MWAHAHAHAA! I have fooled you Daring Do! You will never find ze treasure now!!”
She quickly shifted into her true form and frowned. “He’s right, we have no idea where it could be. And we’re running out of time!”
‘Daring Do’ made another appearance and chuckled. “Heh, that’s what he wants us to think Secret. I wouldn’t...put it...ohhhh,” she finally noticed Ledger. “Um...hi?”
“...I see somepony likes role-play outside of the bedroom as well,” Ledger said with a small smile on his face. “Y’know, I actually ran across a setting for one of those books once?”
“One! You will tell NOPONY about this,” Daring said, her rose-coloured eyes filled with quite a bit of embarrassment. “And two… what? REALLY!?”
“Yup, old temple on the border of the Lands and Equestria, ran across it as I was border-jumping,” Ledger said as he sat at Scope’s desk. “Looked downright ancient as well, and I couldn’t resist a peek around.”
“Tell me!” she said, shifting back to her true form and jumping onto the desk, her muzzle almost pressed against his. “Tellmetellmetellmetellmeeee!”
“All right, all right,” he said with a chuckle. “Now this was...about a year and a half ago. I had just cleared the immigration office, with flying colors, and passed the last waypoint that said I was in the Lands. I had just been about to don my disguise and start hoofing it into Equestria, when I saw something through the nearby underbrush.”
“A treasure? A pygmy pony? What was it!?”
“Just a column of stone, but it was too smooth to be natural. So I looked at it, and then I saw that it had been engraved, worked over with tools. My thoughts at the moment were, if there was one, wouldn’t there be others? So I searched and found a small trail of columns, leading me to an ancient stone pyramid that seemed...really, really old. There was even a few trees growing on it.”
“A stone pyramid?” Scope tapped her chin. “Like in the book Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny?”
“Something like that, yeah,” Ledger said with a nod. “I made my way through the temple, narrowly avoiding the, somehow, still-active traps. Half of them had run out of...whatever ammunition they were using, but the others were simple mechanical devices. Fortunately, not everything was trapped, and it was when I reached the main chamber that I realized I’d seen this somewhere before...and that was when my time with that book came flashing back to me.”
“That book? Which book?” Scope was hanging off of every word now. Her blue eyes shining with excitement.
“The Ring of Destiny, of course,” Ledger said. “I recalled that there had been secret switches to get at some of the...less-trapped areas of the pyramid, and looked for one. Imagine my surprise when I found it exactly where the author wrote about it.”
“No way,” Scope whispered in quiet awe.
“Mmhmm. I found the treasure room, but there was nothing in it. Didn’t stop me from exploring the rest of the pyramid, though, and my memories of the book helped me avoid every last trap on my way out once I was done.” Ledger leaned back and watched Scope’s face for her reaction to his finding of the location of one of the Daring Do books.
The nymph was… yep, she was vibrating. Actually vibrating.
“Oh. Sweet. Hives,” she gasped. “That’s so awesome! You hafta take me there!”
“Maybe when we both take a vacation again in, hmm...six months time? That sounds about right. Then I can try to show you where it was. We’d have to go to the right Hive, though, and then journey north until we hit the border, then start looking around for the pyramid.” Ledger laid the scenario out for the nymph.
“Heeheehee, I can’t wait,” she giggled. “Just six months, Middy will be too pregnant, Cider will be in the middle of harvest. It’ll be just us, in the middle of nowhere…” she leaned in close and licked her lips. “Alone together~”
“Well, I can tell we won’t be sleeping,” Ledger wryly observed. “And perchance you forgot yon scholar of lavender? Perhaps she would like to join us on our expedition?”
“...Drat!” she muttered under her breath. She’d forgotten about her. “Ah, she’d likely be too busy with Princessey stuff anyhow.” She looked at him and then blinked. “What are you doing down here anyway? Don’t you have actual work to do?”
“Not with my paperwork spell chugging away and telling me which ideas are unfeasible or not,” Ledger said as he sat forward again. “It’s boring up there when the work completes itself.”
“Well, try doing it yourself you lazy drone,” she sighed. “Honestly, what did you expect from a spell that does your work for you.”
“That it’d turn out to be a wonderful boon that saved me time,” Ledger said. “I just didn’t expect the amount of time it saved me to be ‘all of it.’”
“Well, what ever will you do with all that free time?” she asked, batting her blue eyes at him.
“I tend to devote it to cracking the mysteries of teleportation so that we’ll be on top come the new upheaval, and just recently I took to telling stories to nymphs,” Ledger said as he moved to stand up again.
“Oh hah hah!” Scope replied with more than a hint of sarcasm. She shifted back to looking like Daring Do and pinned him to the chair. “And, I trust no-one is going to know about this hmm?”
“My lips are sealed,” Ledger promised, wondering what she was intending, if anything.
“Good,” Daring nodded. She had honestly figured that he’d make her doing something to keep her secret. Well, she had no idea that even level Ledger didn’t plot all the time. “You’re free to go then I guess.”
“Fair enough,” Ledger said as he stood up and cracked his neck. “I just got the most interesting book in the ‘teleportation-mail,’ and I’m eager to get back to it.”
“Yeah, sure, go back to your book,” she replied sitting at her desk and putting her hooves up. And she made sure he was looking when she crossed them the other way. “I’ll just be here… bored…”
~*~*~
The stone platform in Cider’s backyard glowed as three figures emerged from the light. Midnight stretched, never having been teleported that far before. It left her feeling a little dizzy.
“Bleh, can’t say I’m a fan of that,” she muttered. “And yet Ledger will insist on using it to go back to Ponyville…”
“It’s not so bad,” Ace replied, hugging Amy closer. “But I also prefer more traditional means of transportation.”
“Yeah, it’s a little weird, being moved so far so quickly, but you just watch those pair of smart ponies,” Amy said, returning the hug. “I’m sure they’ll work it out.”
“More than likely,” Midnight replied as they walked inside. She looked around, her ears flicked but nopony seemed to be home.
“Aww, and I was hoping for a big welcome back. But nooo, now I’m all alone,” she whined.
“You know the others are probably just busy with their work,” Amy said, beeping the batpony with a hoof. “I’ll bet you ten bits and a bowl of mango-ice cream that Cider will be back inside in ten minutes, even if it is just to cool off.”
Unfortunately, Cider was out checking the far fields, so around twenty minutes passed and nopony showed, Midnight sat there with a smug grin on her face.
“Mmm, looks like I get a sweet treat~” she purred.
“Fine,” Amy relented with a roll of her eyes. “You’ll have to come by the shop later, but I’ll at least stick around until you get some company if it means that much to you.”
“Nah, I’m gonna go find Levvy, and I’m sure you two wanna celebrate a little,” Midnight replied, giving Amy a small hug. “Though, you certainly seemed to be doing that with Chryssie huh?”
“That’s a headache waiting to happen,” Ace groaned. How in the hell did he even get into this mess? He looked at Amy and nodded. Oh yeah, it was her fault.
“I’m sure the queenie will be up to sharing, Acey~” Amy purred before giving Midnight a hug. “You take care, okay? Come by the shop sometime for that ice cream, or just to hang out if you’d like.”
“Will do,” Midnight nodded. She waved them off before heading to the bathroom to take care of a few necessities and then flew off towards the city. Time to go bug hunting~
Scope had woken up, and spent the last half hour plotting her revenge… though she had yet to come up with anything suitable. She suddenly sniffed and tilted her head, what was that?
Oohh?
“Hey Level?” she inquired innocently. “Maybe you should open the window? Let some fresh air in here. It’s starting to smell like Sugar’s place.”
“There’s spells in the floor, wall...everywhere to help with that,” Ledger said as he turned the page of the book he was reading. “Musta missed the spells for smells…”
“Yeah well, you’re closer and I’m still exhausted.” she reminded him. “Plus I may need an extra dose or five of my potion after that round…”
“Point taken,” Ledger said as he cracked the window open. “Plus they work better with an open window anyways.” His horn lit up, followed by the room glowing, before the smell...vanished, driven out of the open window by magic.
That was about when something brown and furry flew through the newly opened window and impacted him, pinning him to the floor and assaulting his form in kisses as Scope hummed thoughtfully.
“Ahh, right on time,” she mused.
“Ack!” Ledger cried from under the Midnight-missile. “I take it...somepony missed me?”
“Only *mwah* a little *smooch* How’d you guess?” she asked, her affection making the stallion look like he took a trip through a tumble dryer.
“It could be the slobber you’re trying to drown me with,” Ledger deadpanned as he still did nothing to remove the batpony. Her love was always the best, after all.
“What about me?” Scope asked and Midnight detached herself from Ledger long enough to give the nymph a hug and a kiss, before returning to nuzzle her drone happily.
“You can’t tell me you didn’t miss me,” she hummed. “Get up to much while I was gone? Or did you spend all your time lamenting that your love-bat wasn’t here?”
“I do miss you when you go, yes,” Ledger said as he hugged her. “But the others proved very distracting, and even with my new spell working to remove most of my work, I seem to have gotten a little something to do at the office.” Ledger’s eyes alit on the book he’d been reading a minute ago.
“Are you being naughty with Scopey again?” Midnight mused, running a hoof through his mane. “Isn’t there a rule about the boss bucking his employees or something?”
“Actually, not at this company. I always meant to ask Toll about that…” Ledger mused, before the thoughts of why she wouldn’t want that rule suddenly gave him vivid, vivid mental images. “Aaaaagh, my braaaaaain…”
“Levvy… are you okay?” Midnight blinked. She hadn’t really been paying attention so she missed what brought this on.
Scope decided to strike while the iron was hot. “Realise what those chains on the floor are finally for Boss?”
“Somepony poke out my mental eye,” Ledger moaned as he went limp. “With a flaming hot poker. I don’t want those images anymore.”
“What images?” Midnight asked and Scope chuckled.
“Oh, I bet he’s just realised that I’m not the first pony that’s probably been bent over that desk,” she laughed evilly. “In fact, she probably sat in that very chair, doing—”
“STOP!” Ledger shouted, pointing a hoof at her dramatically. “I do not need to hear about which underlings of hers you think she was bucking! Hives dammit, I need that brain! It’s the only one I’ve got!”
“I’m just thinking, maybe his muscles aren’t the only big thing about Cider’s new helper,” Scope pushed on, ignoring his pleas. Midnight just rolled her eyes as she fetched a cup of water from the cooler and stood to one side until this finished playing out.
“Argh, and she was probably blackmailing some of the stallions with...Dammit all Scope! I didn’t need to think about what’s been done in this office by her!”
“Don’t you mean who’s been done?” she cackled as Midnight sighed. Yeah, time to put a stop to this before Ledger teleported the nymph into the sun or something.
“Wanna know what I’ve been up to?” the bat asked, changing the topic.
“Please,” Ledger pleaded, desperate for the change.
Scope pouted, but she’d had her fun. Plus, she wanted to know as well.
“Okay,” Midnight started. “I went, because Amy’s had trouble organising stuff for her wedding, mostly because nopony here would cater for a Changeling. So, we went on an impromptu trip to Ponyville. It was pretty great. We got her a dress, a cake, which I wanna eat soooo bad, and a wedding band as well.” The Thestral tapped her chin as she decided to leave out a few details for now. “She also has something she wants to tell you, so there’s that. Oh, and me and Twilight discovered she likes mares, and Ace and Amy banged Chrysalis.”
“...I have no idea how to react to that last one,” Ledger said as his eyes unfocused, his brain refusing to process the image. Especially after its latest workout.
“Eh, it was more of a ‘you had to see it to believe it’ thing,” Midnight shrugged. “Dunno how that’s gonna play out in the future though. And Chryssie is still grumpy and snarky, just, not towards Ace and Amy.” She took a seat on the floor, since Scope was taking up the couch. “So what’s new with you lot?”
“Twilight and my mom talked things out and agreed that they both have my best interests at heart, my spell has proven to be ridiculously competent in telling me what would and would not be profitable, and I got a delivery from Sugar Darling,” Ledger said as he sat back in his chair and indicated the open book with one hoof.
“Hmm, what’s that?” Midnight inquired and Scope’s eyes widened.
“MIddy! You gotta run!” she said with a sense of urgency. “Run far and run fast!”
Midnight blinked and looked at Ledger. “Um, wat?”
“I have no idea what she’s talking about,” Ledger replied with a practiced smile. “This is just a book Sugar sent me.”
“A book of evil that has made his perversion increase a thousandfold!” Scope shot back.
“It’s just a book,” Ledger said with that same smile. “No harm ever came from reading a book.”
“No, but it does come from what you learn from that book!” Scope retaliated.
“Oh kay,” Midnight said, not really getting what was going on here as she backed up slowly towards the door. “I think… I’ll go do a thing… at the place…”
“Oh do stay, I just got to spell twenty,” Ledger said as he looked down at the page. “Oooh, heightened sensitivity, that could be fun.”
“That… sounds like trouble,” Midnight replied. “And possibly illegal. You do realise I can arrest you right?”
“Breaking out the hoofcuffs?” Ledger asked with a raised eyebrow. “Maybe I should use spell two…”
“Sweet Holes, not that bloody spell!” Scope said. “Nope, you’re on your own Middy!” With a flash of light and a cracking sound, Scope teleported from the room as the Thestral raise an eyebrow.
“What in the hay did you do to her?” the bat questioned.
“Probably something similar to what the Violets did to her,” Ledger mused as he flipped through the book. “This did, after all, apparently belong to a unicorn lover of Sugar’s...who managed to keep up with her, or so the foreword says…”
“That won’t end well,” Midnight shuddered, idly wondering what was in it. “I wonder if Moondancer has read it… Heeeeey Ledger. Can I borrow that once you’re done~?”
“I don’t intend to be done with it, or you, for a long time,” Ledger said with a smile. “And I’m going to copy the spells in it down to my own book, count on that. Let’s just hope Twilight doesn’t get Scope to translate that part of it for her, ey?”
Midnight nodded. Note to self, tell Twilight that Ledger has a book he says she can’t read~
“So, then what do you intend to do then?” Midnight asked. Ledger half-lidded his eyes and there was a click from the door as it locked.
“You,” was his response, in a tone that would have sent Twilight or Cider into a blush.
~*~*~
Later that evening, Ledger and his herd, along with Apple Leaves, Velvet, and Fritter, sat around the dining table, ready to start eating. There was a flash from outside, and the back door opened as Twilight ran in, panting slightly from exertion.
“Haah, phew!” She paused to catch her breath and sighed. “I hope I’m not late everypony.”
She looked… different. Her mane had been done up, the back was now spiked upwards and most of her mane was curled up over her head. She also wore a pair of half-moon shaped glasses and her lab coat.
“Accident in the lab?” Ledger asked. “Not that I’m complaining, the look isn’t half-bad. You should have your mane done more often.”
“I get my mane done, and he calls it a lab accident,” Twilight sighed as she took a seat next to Midnight and Cider. “No actually, I got it done earlier, and decided to go over the results of the testing I did with Amy, I guess I lost track of time though.”
“To be fair, wearing the coat to dinner doesn’t help,” the disguised drone pointed out.
“Yeah, well… pbbbth!” Twilight blew a raspberry at him. Twilight Velvet rolled her eyes and smiled at her daughter.
“Do try and show some maturity dear,” she hummed.
“Aww, I think nerdy Twi is cute,” Midnight hummed, kissing her cheek. Ledger hummed and nodded.
“She’s adorable all the time, but the coat and mane do show off her charm. The glasses don’t hurt either.” Ledger, having finished his assessment, gave Midnight a kiss, seeing as how Twilight wasn’t in range at the moment. The bat still passed the gesture along regardless, causing Twilight to turn an adorable shade of red.
“Well you look lovely dear,” Velvet replied. “Very chic.”
Midnight nodded and looked at Cider and Fritter. “So what happened to you two? Get in a fight or something?”
“Just settled an argument,” Fritter replied. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing at all,” Ledger agreed, wanting to keep Midnight from sparring as much as he could.
Midnight quirked an eyebrow as she looked at the trio. “Hmm,” she tapped her chin and leered at them. “Very suspicious…”
Ledger just smiled knowingly at Midnight, before attempting to change the topic. “This is wonderful food, Miss Velvet. My compliments.”
“Many thanks,” Velvet replied. “I must say, even a mare of my age still learned quite a bit from Leafy here. You Apple’s sure know how to cook.”
“That we do,” Apple Leaves nodded. “What can I say, it’s in our blood.”
“Ah’m still better,” Fritter puffed out her chest and earned an eyeroll from Apple Leaves.
“I will admit that last night’s dinner does stick out in my mind,” Ledger said with a nod. “But that was then, and this is now. And now I’m famished.” The drone then started in on his food, humming appreciatively.
“Ah stallion after mah own heart,” Fritter giggled. “Why, if y’all weren’t taken and ah wasn’t a fillyfooler…” She giggled as Cider shot her a death glare and tucked into her own food. Soon, the sound of nomming ponies filled the room, silencing all conversation for a few minutes.
It was Midnight who spoke up next, winking at Scope and Ledger suddenly felt the air chill for some reason.
“Oh Twilight?” the bat said idly as she used her fork to play with a piece of apple. “Did you know that Ledger has a new book, a very interesting and one of a kind book?”
Twilight blinked and with a flash of her horn, she had swapped seats with the bat so she could sit next to Ledger. “Is that so?” she asked, her large eyes sparkling.
“Maybe,” Ledger said, already trying to think of how best to get out of this situation. “It was a delivery from Sugar, and I’m reading it and copying the information in it to my own book.”
“Hmm, I’ll have to see the original text, and you still owe me a sneak peek at that book of yours Ledger,” Twilight hummed.
“I’ll get it for you later,” Scope said, barely holding back her giggles. This was going to be amazing!
“I still have yet to field-test all the spells in this book, though,” Ledger said with only a slight smirk as he looked at Midnight. “It may be a long and lengthy process.”
“I think a study-buddy would go a long way in helping you with that,” Midnight shot back with a smirk of her own. “After all, it pays to have a, different perspective.”
“You ever get the feeling that they’re having two conversations at once?” Velvet asked Leaves, who nodded in response.
“Ah reckon it has to do with the bedroom, an’ their all jus’ sparin’ our brains on the details,” Fritter replied nonchalantly as she ate her food.
“Maybe when you have a few days off, I can show off the spells in this new text,” Ledger eventually conceded to Twilight.
“Yes, I have open Court for the first time tomorrow” Twilight said, then gasped. “Ohh! Why don’t you come? I could show you what I do.” She looked at her mother. “Could you come too? It’d mean a lot if you could be there Mom.”
“I’d love to dear,” Velvet responded.
“I suppose I can take a day off,” Ledger replied, not telling Twilight how effectively his spell had cleared up his schedule. Really, these days all he did was come up with new proposals to run by it.
He did double-check the work it was putting out, though. He wasn’t a fool. It all seemed to check out, though. The things that he was coming up with that cleared his spellwork, he asked a worker to look into trying.
“My paperwork won’t pile up too badly if I take one day off,” the drone said.
Scope snorted, before shooting Ledger a look that said she hadn’t forgotten before. If Twilight was going home, she wasn’t going back uneducated. Ledger gave a wide, fake smile as he lit up his horn, looking to grab both books from his saddlebags before anypony else could. When the books floated out, they vanished from his magic as Twilight’s easily overpowered his.
The Alicorn looked at both books and smiled gleefully. “Oooh, booooks~”
“...Well, we’re boned,” Ledger said. Deciding to spend his last few hours as a free pony before bed, Ledger resumed his meal, waiting for Twilight’s reaction to the book’s contents. He was quite surprised when Twilight floated the books back over to him, as Midnight and Scope almost screamed with frustration.
“I wouldn’t just steal your books Ledger. I like knowledge as much as the next pony, but they’re yours.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I do expect you’ll let me read them soon yes?”
“Perhaps,” Ledger said with a smirk. “One of them is written in your language, so you can read that one...tomorrow, maybe during the slow hours of your court?”
“That’d make for a fun...session,” Scope snorted. Midnight giggled and Velvet and Leafy just shrugged again.
“Okay,” Twilight nodded. “I could actually use your help tonight. Seeing as how my new research pertains to your previous… condition.”
Ledger paused, finished what he had in his mouth, then looked to Twilight. “Amy?” he asked, naming the only other changeling he knew that had some...difficulties in keeping her color stable.
“Yeah, and while I’d just use the method I did to help you… some, complications have arisen.”
Ledger hummed as he thought about it, before chuckling. “Oh hives, she succeeded, didn’t she? That’s probably the only thing stopping her from being cured right now.”
“Yes, I’ll spare the details and let you assume, since I believe she wants to tell everypony herself…” Twilight paused, she wondered why it was taking so long to do so in the first place. Hmm, perhaps she wasn’t quite as bad as Pinkie Pie…
“Yes, well, part of our arrangement is that I become your test subject, I’m pretty sure I knew that when we started this,” Ledger said before finishing off his dinner.
“That sounds…” Velvet frowned. “I am so glad your mother isn’t here to hear that Ledger. She might take it quite the wrong way.”
Twilight fell quiet and looked at her plate. “She really doesn’t like me much huh?”
Ledger finished off the food in his mouth before shaking his head. “It’s nothing...personal, Twilight. I swear. She likes the others a bit more because they helped...fix me. If she knew what you’d done to help me when I was at my lowest, she’d probably greet you like a daughter.”
“I didn’t do that much,” Twilight replied.
“Not to mention it’s my fault you got like that in the first place,” Midnight added.
Scope frowned and slammed her hooves on the table. “Well you know what. Who the fuck cares! This is our herd. Our family! We’re the ones who get to say who stays and who doesn’t and if anypony has a problem with that, they can go fuck ALL the cactusus!”
“I believe you meant cacti,” Twilight corrected her without missing a beat.
And that tore it, Scope’s big speech falling apart because of a grammar error was too damned funny. Ledger snickered first, at the sight of the smaller mare being so angry and defensive of her family.
“Oh shut up,” Scope pouted, sinking back into her chair and folding her arms.
“You’re right though,” Cider nodded. “While our situation is unusual, we’re th’ ones makin’ th’ rules here.”
“Agreed,” Velvet nodded. “As long as you all love one another. I see no problems with it. And I do apologise for my earlier distrust. My dealings with Changelings up until this point have been less than favourable. But I trust that my daughter knows what she’s doing.”
“I also agree,” Apple Leaves nodded.
“Thank you for your trust,” Ledger said, nodding at the older mares. “I only hope I prove worthy of it.”
“You have no need to ‘prove yourself’,” Velvet hummed. “We’re not a Griffon family after all. Just promise that you’ll take care of my little Sparkle?”
“Mooooom!” Twilight whined. “Don’t call me that in front of the others.”
“As long as she lets me,” Ledger chuckled. “I get the feeling she’s going to put me in as much trouble as I try to save her from.”
“Leedgeerrrr!” Twilight switched targets for her whining, only to be silenced by a kiss from Midnight.
“I think we’ve got it covered,” the bat giggled after breaking the kiss. The disguised changeling drone just snickered again, before he whisked his plate into the kitchen with his magic.
“Well, that being said, I’m going to go get caught up on my reading,” he informed the mares, giving the ones in his herd a quick smooch before he went off to the study. Twilight giggled and once he walked up the stairs, she vanished with a flash of light, ready to meet him in there.
“That’s going to end one of a few ways,” Midnight chuckled. “And he didn’t even notice my eyes are back to normal. Typical.”
“They are?” Cider and Scope leaned closer to peer into her once-again emerald eyes. “Ooh, they are!”
“But, I thought that wasn’t supposed to happen until later?” Scope asked.
“Yeah, I don’t really know either,” Midnight admitted. “And it’s not like there are any Thestrals around to ask. I think dad buggered off back to Canterlot without telling anypony again.” She sighed and then a thought occured. She could always ask her. Midnight shook her head and whimpered slightly at that thought. Asking that mare anything was just inviting trouble.
“Just ask Luna,” Scope shrugged. “She knows a bunch about Thestral crap right?”
“Oh yeaaah,” Midnight realised and made a note to see if she could get in contact with the Princess later on.
Upstairs, Twilight had used a reverse gravity spell to cling to the ceiling. Ledger would never see this coming~
The drone walked in, closed the door behind him, and paused before he got to his chair. “Emotivore,” he spoke up. “My range might not be as good as Scope’s, but I know you’re up there.”
“Tch! That’s gotta be some kind of cheating,” Twilight pouted, switching the spell off and landing on the floor. “How in the hay does Midnight get the jump on you all the time then?”
“She knows some freaky martial skill that sends her to a state of no emotion whatsoever,” Ledger said as he sat in the chair, putting both books in his saddlebags on the desk. “Can’t track that except with your eyes.”
“That sounds… interesting,” Twilight made a note to study that as well. Her new loves were just full of fun surprises. “Now. Wanna read together?”
“Iiii’m not sure you want to read this book,” Ledger said as he moved to move the book in question further from Twilight.
“Aww, please?” Twilight batted her eyes and gave him a puppy dog look. Ledger opened the book to the second spell and showed it to Twilight, trying to gauge her reaction. Twilight read it, her blush increasing as her eyes scrolled down the page.
“W-w-w-what is this?” she stammered. “Why do you have a book on… kinky magic?”
“Sugar sent it to me,” Ledger said as he pulled the book back. “I have no idea why, but I intend to make the most out of it.”
“I’ll bet you do,” Twilight murmured as she flicked through the book. All these new spells… Albeit, naughty, kinky spells… but new spells nonetheless.
“Midnight already showed she can break out of that denial spell by sheer will alone, so I was looking up some other tricks for later,” the stallion said as he watched Twilight flip through the book.
“Well, that spell’s all about manipulating emotions and nerves… and if she can do what you said she can,” Twilight pointed out. “Hmm, what’s a...oh my!” She turned a nice shade of pink and showed Ledger the page, one that showed how to… ahem, duplicate a certain piece of anatomy.
“Oh dear,” he said, going over the spell itself before looking at the top. “Ah...well, we can fault him on being unimaginative in naming the thing, but if this hemipeni spell actually works, I’ll make sure to not use it on you at least.”
“I’d appreciate that,” Twilight nodded as she dared to continue looking. Binding spells of various types, as well as a few other things she dared not think about too hard. She pushed the book back to Ledger with a blush and sighed. This was far too overwhelming.
“I warned you,” Ledger said as he looked over one of those spells again. Maybe he could adapt this one to work with his natural shape-shifting…
“You have your thinking face on again,” Twilight said. “Care to share? Or do I not want to know?”
“Just thinking on how to adapt some of these spells to my decidedly not-Unicorn body,” Ledger hummed.
“Ah, that’s right, you and Scopey can transform…” Twilight suddenly turned red and shook her head. “Okay, making an iron-clad rule here. No transforming into my friends for sexytimes. Got it!”
“I’ll be sure to tell that to Scope, though you may want to provide her a list,” Ledger said as he thought about showing off already. Then decided against it, for the moment.
“Good, I love my friends. Just… not like that,” she shuddered, remembering some rather, risque books that had been written, like ‘The Elements of Friendship and Love’. That had been a rather embarrassing couple of weeks. “I mean, how would you feel if Scope turned into… let’s say, Amy or Sugar?”
“That’d just feel wrong,” Ledger said, sticking his tongue out. “I care about them, true, just not like I care about any of you.” Ledger flipped the page as he continued reading.
“Somehow, I don’t think that bothers Scope,” Twilight said, remembering their disastrous first meeting.
“Not a lot does,” Ledger agreed, now confident he didn’t need anything beyond his natural shapeshifting abilities to pull off that spell.
“Well it’s usually fine, it’s who she is… I think,” Twilight said, crossing her eyes. “I really need to take the time to get to know Scope and Cider better.”
“Date nights with them,” Ledger said as he flipped to the next page. “Though I can tell you right now, Scope’s not one for dates. You’re probably going to have to trick her into it. Now is the season if you want to take Cider on one, there’s less, though not no, work to do on the farm.”
“Okay, so pencil them in quickly, and figure out how to trick Scopey…” She then smirked and pulled a calendar out of her pocket. “There is a Daring Do movie coming out soon…”
“That’d work, I can arrange to be busy on that day,” Ledger said with a smile. “I’m sure I can arrange for Midnight to be busy as well, and Cider should catch on to what we’re doing and conveniently arrange to be busy too..”
“Righto, so maybe a home-cooked meal for Cider, and movie night with Scopey.” Twilight wrote that down and smirked as she discreetly pinched his flank with her magic as she wrote.
“Yeep!” Ledger said, before looking up from the book. “Somepony’s feeling frisky,” he observed.
“Hm? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Twilight whistled innocently. Ledger raised an eyebrow before returning to his book, but not before sneaking a quick magical grope of Twilight’s flanks.
~*~*~