//------------------------------// // 101 - Settling down // Story: A Penny for your thought // by Damaged //------------------------------// "No more griffons." Penny glared at Stick as they were getting ready to get off the train back at Canterlot. Their honeymoon had been mostly relaxation and exploration. Except for the last night. "But you said I could do anything I wanted!" Stick nuzzled her wife, the protests more a game than a real argument. "And I did anything you wanted. Now I am telling you, in future, anything you want excludes griffons." Penny nipped Stick's shoulder. "And you deprived poor Hay of some fun." Hay lifted a hoof, trying to keep out of their verbal sparring. "Why?" Stick tried to look innocent but even she had almost balked at what she had turned into. It warmed her that, despite the… shape, Penny had agreed to try it. "Because there is no sex for a week." Penny looked between the pair, Hay looked a bit sad but stepped over to Penny and nuzzled her. "You would do anything she asked at least once, wouldn't you?" The half-bred mare distracted Penny from what was turning into their first married argument. The lunar mare nodded. "Stick, it is up to you to limit yourself. Penny would fly to the moon if you wished it." Stick seemed to deflate. "Yeah…" Penny couldn't stand to see the drone suddenly without the vim that she usually maintained. She reached with her magic and both pulled Stick toward her, weakly, and started letting her emotions spill. The kiss the two shared was a seal and a promise. "I will do anything you ask, once." Penny looked into Stick's eyes, seeing only the wife she now knew. Her love swelled and she kissed Stick again. By the time the pair broke apart from their make-up kiss Hay had their bags already stacked and ready, her magic wrapped around most of them. "Oh, run out of air did we?" The unicorn laughed at the two, kissing the cheek of each. "It is probably about time we get our own place, too. That room at the school is starting to feel… cramped." "Oh, I am glad I wasn't the only one." Stick beamed at this, her own revitalized magic hefting her half of the bags. "Well, we still have a few days before we are officially 'back', why not spend tomorrow looking for a place?" "But, what are we going to do today?" Penny liked their train of thought and, with the little bit of bits coming from her teaching, the good-sized portion from their investments, and the stipend that Celestia seemed to keep paying them, they could afford something nice and cozy. "I hurt you, Penny." Stick leaned her snout in to nuzzle Penny's neck as they left the train. "Which means I need to kiss you all better." Penny blushed and squirmed a little. "Okay, that might be nice." It sounded really good, actually, and Penny was more than happy to spend the rest of the day being seen to by the changeling. The houses around the school were mostly taken up by staff, so the trio decided to start there. While Penny headed to the staff area to ask around, Hay and Stick took care of a few things they needed to get done. Hay in particular was almost done with her final project and was eager to have it hoofed in. "Excuse me?" Penny knocked on the door to the big staff room where the various ponies who had a hoof in classes and running the school spent most of their time when not actively with the students. "Penny? Come in, come in!" Gingersnap beckoned Penny in and to a couch in an open area. "Didn't think you were rostered on today?" "Nope, not today. I was actually wanting to ask you about anywhere that I might be able to buy or move to, nearby." A cup of tea levitated over to Penny and she caught it with her own magic. Light things were her forte, it seemed. "Oh! Well, I have seen a few. It can be hard to tell if somepony has truly moved out or if they are just on a long holiday, but I think," the orange unicorn was scrawling on a piece of paper, "these are all free. If I remember rightly, this area of the city is owned by the crown. You could probably either rent somewhere or buy it. I would normally advise against trying the latter, but that wife of yours could argue a dog out of its teeth." A special thrill ran through Penny when she heard Stick referred to as her wife. It was true! "Thanks so much. The dorm room was just… it is small, really small." Penny took the paper. "And the walls are thin. Would you believe the school had to make sure there were no ponies in the rooms to each side of you?" Gingersnap gave Penny a conspiratorial grin. "And I guess you have an addition to your family on the way, too." Penny was blushing from the knowledge that the walls were apparently thin. She took a deep breath, it was something Hay had taught her. "We do." Penny looked down at her belly, she was nowhere near as big as Night was, but then, a nurse had assured her that with a single foal she would never get that big. "Have you picked a name yet?" Gingersnap was happy with the shift in conversation. Who wouldn't be happy talking about foals! "Ensorcellee." Penny had never, in her life, been excited about babies, they were those… things, that in twenty years or so would become interesting. Now, however, her maternal instincts had full control and she couldn't stop herself. "A little filly unicorn." The orange mare's hooves clopped together excitedly. "Oh, taking after her dam then?" Penny reached to her bags and pulled out the picture. One of the pictures. She carried it with her everywhere. She showed it to her friend. "Oh wow, she looks amazing! No wonder you picked that name, she will ensorcell anypony!" Penny was smiling and giggling along, even the most inane things seemed perfect when her foal was involved. "This is a few weeks old now, but you can see her little horn, tail and mane." She was pointing out the obvious, but it seemed the thing to do. "Well, you make sure you find the right home, and make sure it is close, I have a feeling your little one will be here soon enough." It was natural to hug Gingersnap as they both got up. Penny had her hopes high and her spirits higher as she left the school. Trotting through the city, there was the sense of everything being just right. She wandered out and found the first of the places on the list. It was after looking at the third of them that she thought she probably should have brought one of her wives, if not both. After deciding that a few of them would fit the bill, Penny trotted along to the castle, with luck she would be there in time for the end of court. She was trotting through the big halls of the castle, the guards having just let her through, when a presence seemed to make itself known not too far away. "Hello there, Penny Farthing, now, isn't it?" When Penny turned and looked at where the voice was coming from she saw what she thought at first was a human in cosplay. "Uh, hello? No, I just got married. Penny Cart now." She stopped her trot and turned to the odd, canine-featured woman. The cosplay thought was way off. Penny could see that this was certainly no costume, she really was talking to some kind of wolf woman. "Congratulations to your stallion. I am Nefertari, and I was wondering if we could have a chat?" Penny finally picked the features of the canine parts, jackal. "Uh, two mares, actually." Penny smiled, she never disliked being reminded of her wives. "And I was going to try and catch an audience with the princess, but I guess I can wait until tomorrow. Lunch?" The unicorn made a point of showing a little more fang, so the woman would be able to make a choice based on a mutually omnivorous diet. Nefer pondered this little information. She had done some research on the mare, but apparently she should have done more. "Lunch would be perfect. I have been trying to keep in touch with Silver but I believe his wife has been keeping him from appointments." "Oh? Needed to discuss something with him? I have been doing a little work, trying to help any humans in the city land on their hooves, maybe I could help?" Penny had turned and was walking for the exit, the strangely dangerous-feeling woman walking at her side. "That would be perfect, there were just some things I had wanted to ask him." Nefer was practically in love. This mare was walking just the way she wanted her to, conversation wise. Now, she had to think quick to get her questions prioritized. "The biggest one being, what it is like to be human?" Penny laughed and turned them down the street toward the nice fish-serving restaurant. "Well, I can tell you what it was like being human, but not what it is like to be one now." She gestured at herself with a hoof. "Not much of one left, but the memories." Which was what the jackal was after. "Well, anything you could remember would be one less thing I have to bug Silver about." Their slow walk took them to their target and they both slipped in and got a booth. "So, firstly, weapons." Nefertari tried to keep it as off-handed as she could. "Your people seem pretty… weak, I haven't seen much in how they defend themselves but maybe you could help enlighten me there?" Penny realized something might not be completely on the level. "To be honest? Our brains." Nefer looked at her with a droll stare. "I am not joking. In a human over half the food they eat goes to fueling the thing." "Over half… how do you know where the food goes?" Knowing a side-track when she saw it, Nefertari had to go with it. This could be a long-game. "That is a whole other weapon, but it uses the brain. Science." Penny saw that she had actually stumbled the woman, so continued. "I mean, we started off banging rocks at things we didn't like, then moved on to attaching rocks to sticks so you don't have to be so close. Pretty soon, with a few thousand years of science, you end up with sticks so sharp they can kill millions and an arm strong enough to throw it across the world." Nefer was being drowned in useless information. This wasn't a new weapon design, this wasn't even courtly sidestepping. Penny was artfully telling her everything, about everything. "So lets go with a knife. Started off as a sharpish piece of rock, became sharpened piece of obsidian. Then metal-forging took over, gave us copper, bronze, iron, and steel." Penny was off, her teacher-mode engaged. She had already seen steel forging at work here so this talk was not dangerous at all. And Nefer felt dangerous enough without explaining to her about explosives, guns, and flame weapons. By the time their meals arrived Nefertari had about as much knowledge about making knives and swords as she was likely to ever have without spending years making them herself. "But surely humans used weapons better than knives?" Penny had decided she actually liked Nefertari. She came off blunt in some ways and sneaky in others. She knew the jackaless had tried to manipulate her but, still, she seemed to really care for her ponies. "Well, of course, but you understand if I explained how to make a weapon that was big enough to level Canterlot, I would be responsible for everypony hurt by it." "You aren't as stupid as I hoped." Nefer finally conceded and lifted up the still-steaming fish from her plate, biting into it. "And you definitely aren't here with Silver's blessing for me to explain how to make explosives, too." Penny opted for a fork with some squid on it, popping it in her mouth and sighing happily. The two sat in silence a while, enjoying their meals. "So you won't tell me anything?" Nefer didn't like it, out of necessity she wanted the brighter of the former humans, since they would likely know more. "Didn't say that. You aren't asking the right questions or making the right offers." Penny had a whole fish left on her plate. When she was human, the thought of all those bones and bits would have put her off. But her teeth were built for this, her body made for handling them. "What weapons would you be willing to teach me about?" Nefer watched the mare shake her head. "What weapons are you... enough of this game." She got up to leave. "The question you should ask, is what weapons will be useful to your people, and the offer you make is that you will see they will never be used on ponies during your lifetime." Penny made room for the woman to get past her bulky self, but the jackal just sat back down. "That promise is a big one." Nefertari was pondering what other humans she could get this kind of angle on, maybe ones who would tell her what she wanted without a political deal. "Would you doing your best to see they are never used be better wording?" Penny's offer met a shake of the canine woman's head. "Well, I don't know about you, but this food is delicious and the company has been interesting, same again tomorrow?" Nefer's eyes narrowed a moment before she realized the mare was not only serious but being truly genuine. "I think so, I will need to talk to the spirits about this."