When You Move To Ponyville, You Stick Your Entire Body In 'Crazy'
Rainbow had sent off a few scrolls to the Princess in her time (or asked Spike to do it, which clearly counted), and had initially resented the implication that she might need to do so. When it came to understanding how various kinds of relationships were supposed to work, Twilight was the one who had started out as strangely, sometimes incomprehensibly, and almost comedically behind. The suggestion that Rainbow could still have something to learn about anything so basic as friendship... that hadn't gone over well.
Under the other wing, some friendships could be sort of complicated. Often in unexpected ways. One of which had her out of bed in the predawn hours, in full flight above a Ponyville which danced with colors both perfectly natural and strange, because --
-- maybe that was a potential scroll-in-waiting, or at least the opening line of one. Rainbow wasn't about to tell the Princess about everything which had been taking place during the spring, because some subjects were simply too personal and most of what her recent attempts to write out her feelings had done was produce a lot of furiously-chewed wads of blame-taking paper. But when it came to the lesser details...
'A friend is somepony who, when you tell them what part of the problem is, can probably hold back some of the laughter for at least three seconds.'
Rainbow had insomnia.
She was fairly sure that telling most of the others would have been good for watching multiple sets of ribs doing their best not to heave. There was one exception, of course: Twilight would have simply locked up the tree. Again.
It wasn't the first time. The first time Rainbow had experienced that level of sheer biological betrayal remained fully inexplicable. Sure, some ponies claimed that sleeping too much during the day could leave somepony unable to get the normal number of night hours in, but Rainbow was effectively a priestess of sleep and knew exactly how much had been offered up at the altar. She'd just had a night when she hadn't been able to fall asleep for more than a few minutes, then she hadn't been capable of managing even that much, and when she'd finally gone for help...
Okay, so a freshly-awoken Twilight didn't want to try creating a sleep-inducing spell on the spot. As Rainbow saw it, a librarian had certain duties to the community. Something which, in what had clearly been an emergency, needed to transcend normal operating hours. So asking for the most boring reading material in existence should have just demonstrated how much she respected the then-unicorn's job. And waking Twilight up a few more times in order to provide crucial sections of the Day Court transcripts with some historical context? That was an open admission that Twilight's lecturing skills had value, so shouldn't the librarian have stopped muttering to herself after a while? And really, the half-audible death threats were completely uncalled for.
Besides, if Twilight had really wanted to help, then she would have led off the suggestions with the one about Rainbow going outside, putting in some intensive exercise, and tiring herself out. Instead of waiting for several hours. And when Rainbow had rather kindly pointed out that minor priority-sorting error, Twilight had asked her if she was familiar with a strange word, followed by using her field to fling the pegasus out the nearest window.
Rather cruelly, this had been done without defining the word first. And as soon as Rainbow figured out how to spell it, she was going to use a dictionary and finally find out what 'defenestration' meant.
The exercise suggestion had totally worked out, though. To perfection. She'd performed the single most energy-burning activity her rest-deprived brain had been able to come up with, and it had put her to sleep. It was just that the police chief had expressed an opinion regarding setting off a Sonic Rainboom over Ponyville at three in the morning.
Miranda Rights had also made it rather clear that she was passing that viewpoint along on behalf of the citizenry. Verbally, as opposed to using the sign language which the majority of the newly-awake had preferred. Rainbow didn't know a lot about the speech made from foreleg, ear, and tail movements, but was hoping it didn't normally involve kicks.
She'd been lucky enough to avoid a second brutal bout with the sleepless condition -- for a while. But as it turned out, there were a lot of things which could trigger insomnia.
Like having too many words in your head.
Not knowing if they were the right ones.
Having no one to hear them...
Sun wasn't due to be raised for at least another hour. The settled zone was mostly asleep: some of the earliest commuters were already up, staggering in the general direction of the train. And to Rainbow, each of those travelers registered in her eyes as something which wasn't quite red. It lay beyond red. A hue which was perfectly natural in her sight -- but when speaking with two-thirds of Equestria, it was utterly impossible to describe.
How could you truly talk about a sense to those who lacked it? Describe purest crimson as a musical note and for those who couldn't see it, the first faint shade of inphrārēḍa would exist as visual ultrasound. But for Rainbow and just about every other pegasus who'd finished puberty, the ability to see heat was normal. As natural as flight. And with the ponies who weren't gifted with either...
Words. Only pegasi talked about inphrārēḍa, and the hues of heat which lay beyond. They did so using terms which earth ponies and unicorns never invoked. The other two species had no need. They would never know, and -- there were ways in which that hurt. So many of her friends had been deprived of experiences which Rainbow saw as fundamental, and they didn't even understand enough to mourn the loss.
Even Twilight had issues with it. Rainbow was the alicorn's flight instructor, along with teaching her how to weave the threads of power which made up pegasus techniques. And when the librarian managed to truly tap into her winged aspect... that was when Twilight could see heat. Rainbow had taken pride in being the one to give her the names for every color which existed in the true spectrum, along with allowing for a little justified smugness when she got to correct Twilight's pronunciation. And as with flight, it had felt so good to share a little more of the true world with somepony she cared about --
-- but once that aspect receded, when Twilight was truly thinking as herself again -- the librarian didn't remember what she'd seen. Couldn't even describe it. And with the others, who would never be able to reach for even the most temporary of experiences...
Where were the words which would make them understand how it felt? Did those terms even exist? And if they didn't, what good were words at all?
(Twilight had wondered about some of the words. Terms had to arise when there was something to describe -- but the words pegasi used for the hues of heat didn't sound like anything else in Equestrian. Twilight had proposed that pegasi might have had their own language once, and only the spectral terms had survived. The alicorn could have that sort of thought, and there were times when it made her cool. Rainbow was just really hoping she was wrong, because the rest of the lost language might be written down somewhere and there was something sad about a book nopony would ever be able to read.)
It was so hard to find words. Almost impossible to know if they were the right ones. And when those words were meant for one person, just one, and you didn't know where they were...
Rainbow couldn't sleep. The most obvious cause was an excess of words, when there was no one present to hear.
(There was also guilt.)
(Fleur had said it wasn't her fault. Maybe Fleur was wrong.)
(Or maybe...)
(...the thing Applejack never understood was that there were times when friends would lie as a form of protection...)
So she was searching for Gilda.
Maybe it was pointless. An excuse for moving, because that was the best way to fight back against the insomnia and seriously, Chief Rights could have at least allowed her to set off a Rainboom over the dam. But at least this way, she was doing something. And she was mostly staying focused on heat, because it was a fairly dark night and what the other species considered to be 'normal' sight wouldn't be doing much for a while.
Which was a good reason for maintaining altitude. A low-flying pegasus who wasn't working with the more standard assortment of colors could occasionally get a high-speed reminder of how portions of the inanimate tended to match the temperature of the ambient air.
Gaze down at Ponyville, during what was frankly a far too humid spring night and Rainbow didn't know what the Bureau had been thinking when they'd put that much moisture into the schedule...
An occupied home might glow. Temperature comfort varied somewhat by the individual, and it was deep enough into the season for some ponies to have turned off their heating systems. Others were still running their vents at full blast, while a very few opened windows to let the cool air in. But thermal vision didn't work like a bone-glow screen: unless there was something very hot or cold on the other side of a wall, then what Rainbow would get was the temperature of the wall. A pony moving around within the house didn't show up.
There was dew on the ground, and it cooled the world. But every pony on the street, in the air... that was a beacon. Some had taken their pets out for early walks, and it all gave off the radiance of life. And for a pegasus who was willing to look closely...
There were three major Equestrian pony species. Rainbow, who'd been aware that she was one of the first ponies in generations to get a true look at the crystals, had tried to evaluate the residents of the North in full sight and -- found that something about their coats did strange things with the radiance of heat. Crystal ponies seemed to have a wider temperature tolerance, could go out beyond the Barrier and stay in the swirling cold for a time without ill effects -- but fur-to-flesh contact made them feel a little cooler than normal, and it had to be touch because it was just about impossible to see how hot any crystal was running.
When it came to body temperature, earth ponies and unicorns were very close to each other. Pegasi, who tended towards quicker metabolisms, were somewhat warmer.
Griffons ran hot.
It wasn't that much of a difference, and Rainbow felt it potentially varied by the individual. A griffon's body could display any combination of great cat and hunting bird: perhaps those facets contributed to the thermal result. But with Gilda -- hotter than earth ponies and unicorns, a few crucial degrees above pegasi. And as the only griffon in Ponyville (or rather, the only one who could claim that status in mind and body), Gilda would stand out. It would be easy to spot her this way, in the crucial hour before Sun brought in the rest of the light.
As long as she was in the open.
She also had to be within Ponyville.
And Rainbow didn't know.
There had been multiple sightings within the borders: a single biological griffon in a settled zone wasn't going to be confused with anyone else. But it didn't mean Gilda was staying in the town. Rainbow had already checked the hotels, she couldn't peer into every private residence and when it came to personal comfort for a traveling griffon, Canterlot and the Aviary were right there.
If it's the 'linkless' thing...
(She didn't want to think about that for long.)
She might not want to stay near other griffons.
...I should check Canterlot anyway.
Too many presumptions. Gilda could be curled up in the cool basement of an abandoned house. Safely tucked into the corner of a bell tower. For all Rainbow knew, her friend was trying to sleep in the Everfree.
Just find her.
Searching the Everfree was something best done with 'normal' light on standby, because there were monsters who were aware that pegasi could spot heat and had evolved a few tricks to match. Rainbow was still considering whether to go in anyway.
She checked the shopping district. Hovered over the restaurants. To the east, fast-dissipating clouds of short-lived warmth represented the train: the steamstack was venting.
At one point, she passed through another of Zephyr's assigned sites and because she would have had to eventually do it anyway, risked a few seconds in checking it over.
The results were somewhere beyond satisfactory. They were also somewhat odd.
I think this residue is fresher than it should be. Not that she was always the best judge of that, and the traces of certain basic weaves could fade at different rates. But it's more than that. This feels like...
...maybe 'feel' was the wrong term. (Words could be exceptionally stupid that way.) As with unicorns and earth ponies, every pegasus worked magic in their own way. In that sense, the assigned cloudbreaking area didn't feel as if Rainbow had personally done the job. She had a good sense of Zephyr's signature now, and it couldn't be confused for her own.
It wasn't the signature. It was the style. Because there were enough lingering threads in the area to indicate the pattern of the weave, and when she looked at how they had been traced against the loom of the sky...
He did this the way I would have. 'Close enough for changelings', as the very recent saying went. Not that changelings could actually use pegasus magic, but words could be suspect and a lot of sayings were stupid.
...maybe it wasn't that strange. Rainbow considered herself to be -- 'talented' was an understatement, but it was also the best way to keep Rarity from rolling her eyes when the accurate terms came out. And Zephyr was an IST foal --
-- adult. He was an adult, if not by all that much. But something about Zephyr made it very easy to think of him in terms of extreme youth, and none of them centered on the want she'd spotted in his gaze. A near-stare which didn't care very much about whether its owner got caught. Rainbow didn't need Fleur's talent to tell when somepony was just about openly lusting after her. And nopony needed a mark to stamp an eternal NO over the mere concept of being with him. Anypony who felt like they would enjoy being on the receiving end for that kind of attention was welcome to intercept a portion of hers and in doing so, find out how long it would take them to change their minds. She didn't think much of Zephyr as a stallion and when it came to what little she'd experienced of his personality, Rainbow vastly preferred not to think of him at all.
But if she forced herself to do nothing more than evaluate his efforts -- to be fair...
She was talented. So maybe she'd just naturally done things in the same manner as the Bureau's crisis stormbreakers, while he'd picked up the style from his parents. Living with, and learning from, the best.
She'd... occasionally found herself wondering what Fluttershy might have become, if the caretaker had inherited that raw field strength. It was a hard thing to picture, and any attempt at creating an image quickly found jagged gaps developing from the center out. She didn't want to imagine Fluttershy that way, because the resulting mare might not have been her friend.
Rainbow didn't want to picture a world where Fluttershy was a future part of the IST, and the cottage was just... empty.
But when it came to what the caretaker might have been like as a prospective stormbreaker -- maybe Zephyr was it.
She didn't like him as a person. She didn't have to. Not if he was the right pony for the job and, incidentally, figured out when to bucking blink once in a while. Because there was such a thing as sexual harassment of a superior. Rainbow had briefly looked over the paperwork required to file that complaint with the Bureau, considered the time involved to get through the triplicate, and had then decided that kicking would be faster. Lightning would put a significant divisor on that --
-- no.
This... wasn't about her. Not completely, and certainly not as far as the Bureau was concerned. It was about Ponyville. Because somepony in the Sphere had decided to pull a Stratus, and had done so with a colt -- stallion -- from Stratuston. Calendar and clock were both counting down the scant time remaining until the Bureau would demand her answer.
One or the other. Not both. She'd been trying to make 'both' work, but she knew there were problems. She understood why all parties wanted a final decision. And when she tried to think about which one it had to be...
...it hurt.
The pain was fully familiar.
"A weighty choice is yours to make: the right selection or a big mistake. If a wrong choice you choose to pursue, the foundations of home will crumble without you."
An ache which went into the soul.
(She'd relayed Discord's speech to Zecora, roughly two moons after it had all ended. Partially to get a professional opinion on the rhyme quality, but mostly because the potion-brewer possessed what might be the best derisive snort on the planet.)
Rainbow fully believed that she was capable of being loyal to any number of things: her Element clearly didn't come with a capacity limit. She could commit to everyone (and right now, 'everyone' was very much the proper term), but -- she couldn't be everywhere.
She was trying to make a decision. She wanted to, if only to get it over with. To -- figure out what she truly wanted. And that had to be the Wonderbolts, right? The whole reason she'd originally gone for a Bureau post was because she'd figured out the secret: she would essentially be getting paid to practice. Compensated training. And it had worked. She'd made it through the Academy. She'd achieved her dream --
-- their dream --
-- but...
It wasn't just the Bearers. When it came to participating in missions, being a full-time Wonderbolt actually wasn't much of an issue. If anything happened which required the group to assemble, then the palace would dispatch escort-capable teleporters to fetch her. By Rainbow's best estimate, she could be brought in from anywhere on the continent in something under an hour. Taking her out of an international tour was actually faster, if only because the sheer distance meant the Princessses would need to become personally involved. She wouldn't have as much time with her friends, but... if there was an emergency, she would be there.
She could leave Ponyville, if she wanted to.
She could.
(She kept telling herself that.)
And if she committed to the Wonderbolts, then -- Ponyville would need a new weather coordinator.
Maybe Fluttershy's brother was it.
I have to be fair.
Passing Shower wasn't fair with me. The only times when he wasn't trying to get me fired every week was when he was trying to do it every day.
I need to give Zephyr a chance.
She needed to find Gilda.
Rainbow flew on. Cyan wings beat at the wet air. Moisture soaked into her coat, saturated and begin to drip as faint touches of rose light began to creep into the horizon's fringe. Sun was on the way.
The hardest part was maintaining the pace. Keeping it from accelerating, because there would always be something in Rainbow which wanted to go faster and a speed overfly during a search was exactly the wrong thing to do. She was currently moving at a little over a standard trot.
She was always better at hide-and-seek.
Most of which had taken place before Rainbow's full vision had come in. (As with just about all of pegasus magic, it had been something which had only truly arrived at puberty: fillies and colts who tried to tap into the sense would find themselves squinting at thermal blurs.) But there had been a few after, and...
We talked about it.
We talked about everything.
Our magic. Our dreams. What we could do to make it all come true.
Together.
What had telling Gilda about that first true sighting of inphrārēḍa done? Well, for starters, it had inspired the Protoceran to get that much more creative about hide-and-seek. All Rainbow had really accomplished was to teach her friend about new forms of concealment. Surround yourself with enough obscuring temperatures and it would create a different form of invisibility.
Gilda had truly listened to what Rainbow said. Always.
Until she hadn't.
She was always warm.
Wingbeats faltered.
Sometimes it got cold at camp. Cold on purpose, because the counselors wanted us to practice in different conditions. And it would still be cold when we went back to our bunks. None of us could shift heat yet, it took a while to warm up and the blankets didn't always feel like they were enough.
And Gilda was warm.
We'd share a bunk. And she wanted me to stay close, because... I was her friend. The only one she had at camp, the only person she really knew.
I was her guardian.
So we'd go under the blankets together. Feathers and fur, pressed tight. She wanted to warm me up, because it was something she could do for me. We talked and laughed and...
...cuddled.
All the time.
Is this my fault?
She had to make it right --
-- the Bureau would understand. So would the Wonderbolts. If Gilda hadn't been found by their deadline, then they would have to understand. Rainbow would stay in Ponyville for as long as she needed to. Or in Canterlot, or go into the Everfree. Wherever a griffon could potentially hide.
But it didn't have to take that long. All she needed to do was keep looking. Maybe ask a few ponies to come and alert her if Gilda was spotted. And until then -- well, maybe the insomnia was actually a freshly-recruited ally. More hours awake meant more time to search. To carefully slip through the sky, trying to find that familiar warmth.
That was what you did for a friend. For someone you loved. And there was something in her which had loved the tiercel, from the very start.
She loved Gilda. But... not in the way Fleur had said Gilda felt about her.
Cuddling. Snuggling together. During summers on the ranch, sharing a nest. Talking about magic and life and a shared dream.
They had planned to do it together. Everything, together...
This is my fault.
She had to fix it.
It was the distant-seeming suggestion of shifting colors which got Caramel to truly look at the sky, when he'd been focused on his company for so many hours. And when he spotted those first hints of rose and warm orange, a fast-approaching Sun told him just how many hours it had been.
"Oh, Sun..." the earth pony softly moaned, and his company laughed.
"Right," she said, and the huge golden eyes briefly looked over his head, stared through the living room window. "That's Sun. Or it's going to be Sun in a few minutes. We're just getting the warning shot." The eagle head shook, and leonine shoulders tossed off a powerful shrug. "We'll call that a decent talliho anyway."
"A --"
Her beak parted slightly, and the powerful body shifted slightly on his couch. It was one of Davenport's finer models, wide enough for a pony to rest while fully facing forward -- with company. And the tiercel was sitting right next to him.
Caramel hadn't asked her to do that. There had been no attempt to shift his body closer to hers. She'd just taken up the position. And when she shifted a little, or got up because he'd made sure to keep her mug topped off with water all night --
-- she couldn't really use the hoof loop as intended, but the flexible talons had a way of establishing powerful grips --
-- the tiercel was surprisingly warm.
"It's something we say on the hunt, if it's being done as a pride," she educated. "It just means you're the one who made the first sighting, and it can call in everyone else to help. But you can't always say it too loudly, or you might scare off whatever you were after." It was a rather soft snicker and, to his ears, almost entirely free of malice: the minor leftover was put down to the natural desire for scoring a few points. "Not much chance of that happening with Sun, right? Or was that whole incident a few years back just you going loud because it was getting a little light out and that was going to make it easier to track down the good grass?"
His own smile was fully natural. Warm. And the little laugh felt good -- but the shifting colors of the sky still represented a problem.
"Not me," he admitted. "I don't think I've ever seen grass good enough to shout about. Not even yoysia, and that's supposed to be the most expensive grass in the world." Curiously, "I don't suppose you've ever tried --"
It had once been a natural tactic for him. Discover what was desired, then spend on it. A Lot. But somepony had ridden roughshod over his budget, the lessons had been pounded in with extra force --
"-- sorry," he winced. "I didn't think..."
-- and he'd just remembered that he was talking to a griffon --
-- she laughed. It was a boisterous sound, one which echoed in the small house while carrying no traces of received insult at all.
"I haven't," she admitted. "I could, but I haven't. Not that type of grass. Never even heard of it."
Caramel blinked. "You can really eat --"
It got him a little shrug. "-- omnivore," she reminded him. "I don't really get anything out of it, though. Not for food. But when I've got an upset stomach, there's some kinds of grass which can calm it down."
He shifted his position a little, tried to picture it. The sky used the pause to become that much brighter.
"Does Protocera have any grass which has natural caffeine?"
The beak closed for a few seconds, and that meant he had to watch her eyes.
It was so strange. Half of her face was relatively immobile, and the motions made by the beak weren't particularly subtle. It placed just about all of the expressions into the upper portion, and that meant he had to look at her. Pay real, near-constant attention, just to try and work out a little more of what she was feeling. Caramel had been putting in true effort for hours and like so much else about that night, it had been an education.
But that was trying to read her features. The voice was slightly raspy, a little rough -- but not unpleasantly so. And the tones almost felt -- normal.
She seemed to be thinking.
"Not grass," she finally said. "There's yaupon, and I can eat the berries. You can't. The leaves would have to be steeped for tea. Why?"
"Because," the earth pony softly groaned, "we've been at this for hours. Just -- talking. And that's Sun on the horizon, and I've got a work shift today..."
The beak parted again: the smile. "You'll live."
"Not if Bon-Bon catches me nodding off, I won't."
"You'll still live," the tiercel opinionated. "And you'll be even more awake. Getting a hoof in the side does that."
A little morbidly, "You think she'll stop at a hoof?"
"If she doesn't, just yelp." The tiercel made a minor show of inspecting her talons. "Maybe I'll hear it."
With a perfectly straight face, "Please don't hunt down my employer."
The huge golden eyes rolled. "Fine..."
Talking. They'd spent all that time in just... talking.
The griffon was utterly fascinating.
She'd originally touched down in front of him because she'd needed directions. Advice, because she was new in town and didn't really know how to get around. And she'd just -- kept talking to him. She seemed to enjoy it.
The tiercel had dropped by his house. Asked if he wanted to talk a little more. And he'd invited her in, because... he'd felt as if she was curious.
She'd been the one to choose her position on the couch. Sitting close by.
He'd needed some time to get used to that. Caramel wasn't accustomed to griffon scent. Neither was Shimmy: his ferret had taken one look at the guest and retreated to privacy for the night. (Great golden eyes had carefully watched the movement.) And there was a slight overlay of blood. Something which was likely just the result of her normal diet, but -- blood. A scent which made it hard to stay close.
But then she'd started to talk.
She wanted to know about Equestria.
About him.
And in return, she'd spoken of Protocera.
The stories of her home...
International Studies had never been his best subject. Closer to the worst. He didn't remember much of anything about her home, and was now fully prepared to blame the study material. Neither book nor teacher had made Protocera sound particularly interesting. But when she talked about it... he could hear the love. And it all sounded so strange, strange and wondrous and...
Caramel didn't know how to judge her looks: when it came to griffons, he didn't have any basis for comparison. He genuinely had no idea whether she was attractive.
Of course, there were things he'd picked up on. Like the bloodscent, but -- perhaps that was natural for her. (Fleur used a certain soap to fend off the olfactory consequences of veterinary work, and maybe that would help the tiercel if he could get a supply.) And he'd spent more than enough time around pegasi to recognize when wings badly needed to be preened. The tiercel needed a good grooming season, especially since the oversized feathers which came off the forward crest of the head were starting to droop.
There were times when she paused in her speech. Breaks which could stretch out across multiple heartbeats, as his wall clock ticked on and her eyes remained unfocused. He put this down to Equestrian not being her native language. She was very fluent, but she probably wasn't accustomed to using it for this kind of duration. Stopping to recover vocabulary wasn't unexpected.
She also had strange ways of moving. Part of that came from what he was starting to recognize as a natural, predatory stalk: something which had half-notes of near-familiarity trying to sound in his brain. And she didn't always seem to keep full track of his position. When she got up or sat back down, the talons would come a little too close, and -- the tips weren't exactly blunted. The couch cushions were becoming scratched up to the point of requiring repair, and he couldn't make himself care.
He didn't know if she looked appealing. It was nearly all coming from the voice, added to the simple fact that she'd wanted to come in. To spend time with him. And... she was so close. Like a pegasus, any little adjustments to her position tended to include her wings. They unfolded, brushed against his flank...
The feathers felt the same.
They'd talked all the way across Moon's time, bringing them both back to Sun. It meant he'd been feeling better about himself for hours. More complete.
Part of him recognized that if it had been two years ago, he already would have been trying to research international travel costs. Recent training instructed him to hold off.
"You're being very nice to me," the tiercel abruptly said. "Are you always this kind to new arrivals?"
"I try," Caramel admitted -- then paused, and considered how to place the proper emphasis within the next words. "I met my best friend that way. Trying to help her get used to Ponyville." Carefully, "She's just my friend, though. She's already in a relationship, and she's not my type."
Somewhat quickly, "The tall white mare, right?"
He didn't question it. Caramel didn't think of himself as being the least bit distinctive, but Fleur stood out. If the griffon had seen them together -- well, even the most casual glimpse from the air would have lodged itself in memory. "Yes."
A little eagerly, "You met her when she moved here?"
"A couple of days after," he told her, and curiosity began to rise -- but then he yawned, and fighting off the blush took priority. "Sorry. It's not you. I'm just tired --"
"-- so where's she from?"
"Drayton."
The huge golden eyes took a while to complete their blink.
"...Drayton..." the tiercel slowly said.
"It's okay if you've never heard of it," Caramel said. "It's the smallest settled zone in the realm. Most ponies have no idea where it is. Personally, I'd need to fetch a map --"
"-- Drayton," she repeated. "That's -- interesting." The beak parted again, held position for a few seconds. "I know you've got work. And you'll probably need a nap after. But once that's done... do you mind if we talk some more? Maybe you could show me around. Help me get used to the place, like you did for her. Is that okay?"
"Sure," he quickly said. "And it won't be too much of a nap. I'm an earth pony. Endurance is a specialty --"
It was partially a lie. He could keep going for longer than many, based on species alone -- but it wasn't exactly his mark, and there were plenty of pegasi and unicorns whose talents kept them on their hooves for far longer than Caramel could press on. Fluttershy alone --
"-- it would almost be like a date," the tiercel considered.
His tongue froze. Her head tilted towards him, and white feathers bobbed.
"Did you want it to be?" the griffon asked.
Caramel's brain went into overdrive. Every neuron seemed to be firing at once, trying to decide if the tiercel was joking and, if she wasn't, what kind of answer she wanted to hear. Along with trying to determine the one he needed to give.
But they'd been talking for hours...
She didn't remain still as she waited for his answer. Wings shifted, brushed against him. And perhaps all feathers were the same.
All hearts.
Then she languidly stretched: something which was decidedly catlike. Forelimbs extended. Shifted to the sides --
-- it had been hours. It was reasonable to expect that she was tired. She hadn't really been keeping full track of where he was in the first place, and when they'd been both been up for most of the night...
The tiercel carried a constant background scent of blood and if Caramel hadn't adjusted his position in a hurry, some of it would have been his.
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The Red Queen (Through The Looking Glass said "Sometimes I believe 6 impossible things before breakast.".
Nobody else would believe you.
According to the Internet, about 15.1% have experienced some attraction to another woman
Very interesting! I like the dynamics between Rainbow and Zephyr and Caramel and Gilda. It would be funny if at the end of all this, Zephyr actually developed enough to become her replacement. Fleur and Fluttershy would have a shitfit.
Nice cool-down chapter after that absolute ride last time. Thank you so much for the update and always looking forward to my favorite story getting more chapters. 😊
I get the sick feeling that Gilda's playing a long game and using Caramel as a pawn...
Pegasi lost language was a nice touch.
And it is plausible.
If zephyr could grow up mentally he would probably be good at that job, poor caramel he in for a rough time with gilda, he can't catch a break
If this world has some form of karma where everything balances out in the end, then Caramel is going to end up as a prince in some far off land with harem or something. Because he just keeps getting the shit-end of the stick, and he really never did much to deserve it >.<
Also looking forward to hearing RD, the mare that's not so good with words at the best of times, give an "it's not you; it's me" speech and genuinely MEAN it...
. . . I desperately want someone to show Rainbow an infrared camera now.
EDIT: I think it'd make her feel a little less lonely.
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my bet he end up married to a dragon
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There's a difference between an infrared camera and true "color" infrared vision. Most thermal cameras measure the total IR flux over some wavelength range and interpret that as a temperature. It's effectively just a monochrome image, very different from having an extra color receptor. To Rainbow (and adult pegasi in general), all other equines are basically protanopic (lack the first color receptor).
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Then there might be lost unicorn and earth pony languages too?
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I was wondering more if Gilda would be the replacement, because that's really where the skill's coming from, he probably can't do anything she hasn't shown him?
...
Caramel's probably gonna nod off. I wonder what Bon-Bon's gonna do about it, what questions she'll ask, etc.
Well, at least we know that Gilda's physically okay... And what's she gonna do with the Drayton info. Hmm... Bloodscent... Depending on what Fleur's gonna do after we saw her last, she might smell of it too, to whoever she met up with.
Also, what's gonna happen to the puppies, I wonder.
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that would be a good end for Gilda, on the other hand i dont think zephyr really had the motivation or have anyone to actually teach him proper to do a good job, if he sort out the former, what Gilda forced him to do correctly he could have a good career but it unlikely unless he goes through a radical change
And there is: The moment I hit the "Broken Next Button" wall.
At least there are recent updates. And now it's time to go see what the "Centaur" story is all about.
I kinda wish for Gilda's sake that she and Caramel would have a chance, but I would not be surprised if he ends up with Joyous. Dude has a type. She fits the type. No magic pheromones needed. He's getting better.
Maybe it could work.
I just hope Gilda doesn't wind up with a bad end. The blood on her beak all the time seems ominous, but girl needs a friggin bath so there's no telling how many snacks are blending into one.
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This is all true. But.
I think you're missing the point. There is an aspect of the world that two-thirds of her friends are missing out on. Twilight can occasionally tap into her alicorn-ness to experience it, but as mentioned in this chapter, she has to actively do it and it stops when she does. She can't even remember what she saw. This makes Rainbow Dash very sad.
An infrared camera would be a poor substitute for pegasus sight. Yes.
But it IS a way to see the world like she does. Just a little.
My mind's eye sees Rainbow excitedly dragging her friends around, having them point the camera at things, and finally being able to share that otherwise invisible aspect of the world with them. I'm not sure whether she or Twilight would be more happy.
Rainbows devotion to Gilda, to "making things right" is quite touching ... and I think its going to get her hurt (emotionally if not physically).
Gilda has some plan regarding Fleur and the fact that she concealed where she came from is going to play into it.
I think, forcing Caramel to pay attention just to keep from getting shredded is a little bit mean, but hey, he’s learning. And he does like living dangerously. I’m just not sure Gilda barn door swings both ways.
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She's playing the part of a honeypot
👍
I wonder if right around here is the time that ‘Catbird Fished’ one-shot idea that was floating around gets published. Kinda like that Fleur/Harry Potter crossover oneshot during the first one.
"The only times when he wasn't trying to get me fired every week was when"
"The only times when he wasn't trying to get me fired every week were when"?
"saturated and begin to drip as faint touches of rose"
"saturated and began to drip as faint touches of rose"?
"The tiercel needed a good grooming season, especially"
"The tiercel needed a good grooming session, especially"?