Chapter 22
Cold water washed around Lotus, taking with it the heat of many bad decisions. Once even a few seconds in such an uncomfortable space would've driven her to finish cleaning up as quickly as possible, before stumbling out of the shower with desperate, insatiable shivering.
No longer. Something about the kirin's disposition, or maybe the supernatural heat boiling in her belly, kept her from feeling anything but a pleasant coolness against her skin and scales. With every passing second, calm and confidence gradually took the place of confusion and self-doubt.
Yes, it was getting harder to think straight around Iron. He could only save her life so many times before leaving an impression. Whatever disgust she expected, it never manifested. All that remained was the intellectual confidence that her old self would be unhappy with what she was doing. But Lotus didn't feel like Eric in those ways anymore. Should she be surprised that a horse brain worked differently?
I need to stay focused on getting that portal open. I can figure out if this makes me gay once I get us to Equestria.
Somewhere out there, in a world she knew almost nothing about, an evil sorceress had once waged a war of genocide and conquest and was now free to do it again. The only way to stop her, apparently, required the spellbook waiting for Lotus to study. Every hour she spent struggling to get over herself, people might die.
She shut the water off, but there was only a single wet camp towel. She ignored it, focusing instead on the warmth burning in her chest, releasing it to flow freely up and down her body. Not so much that it would change her mane, transforming her into a creature dangerous to her friends and enemies alike—this was just a few breaths to stoke the embers.
Steam soon filled the room, leaving her body crisp and clean. I just need to focus on getting the Worldgate open. After that, who knows?
Iron brought her lunch a few hours later, interrupting her first attempt to hold even some of the Worldgate runes in her mind.
She looked up from her meditation spot, surrounded by several self-levitating sheets of paper. "Iron? Oh."
He nodded grimly, settling the bowl on the table in front of her. "I'm afraid we're nearly out of supplies. After dinner tonight, that's it."
Of course they were. She had only planned for three days camping, which meant she brought enough supplies for about twice that long. They were well past that, a product of careful rationing and perhaps a little foraging too. She levitated the bowl up to her nose, sniffing at the oatmeal inside. Gus had seasoned the contents with a pinch of cinnamon and other spices, but it barely helped.
"What should we do now, hunt rats? I can feel them in here, scurrying around. But I think I'd rather starve."
Iron chuckled. "I think Gus wants to purchase supplies from a human vendor. He planned to have a conversation about it once you were too mentally exhausted to continue practicing."
He nudged the door shut behind him, settling into the doorway. "About earlier. Lotus, I... if I've upset you, I'd like to apologize. I know most of my armor is gone, but I'm still on duty. I deserve no forgiveness, but I ask it anyway, with an oath that I will not repeat that indiscretion in the future."
So much for avoiding that subject. Lotus couldn't even distract herself with food, not without sticking her face in another dreadful bowl of oatmeal. She levitated her magical worksheets down onto the floor around her, then met his eyes.
"You don't have to make it sound... so extreme," she finally said. Each word came slowly, somewhere in the battle between what Eric's memory might want, and what Lotus did want. In the end, the memory would just have to accept that she wanted different things. Why shouldn't they?
Iron's formal posture relaxed. His wings opened, and he even smiled again. "How should I sound, then?"
"You can apologize for... distracting me," she said lamely. "You have no idea how hard this is! The pressure is bad enough before you start introducing all these questions."
She settled one hoof on the cursed spellbook for emphasis. "Getting to Equestria has to be our top priority right now. The danger has to be resolved before anything else."
Iron nudged her chest with one feathery wing. If she were human, that gesture would probably be more intimate—as a kirin, it just felt teasing. "I have thought about it. But when we get back to Equestria, that will be it. The princess can change you back into whatever you used to be and send you home. Hopefully with a reward commensurate to the service you rendered Equestria in helping me, but still. That will be the end."
"Princess Luna writes like she thinks I would make for a gifted student. You think she would want to get rid of me that badly? Pack me up and send me on my way as soon as we're through the door?"
"I thought you wanted that. You want to change back into one of those too-tall spider-hooved primates, right? Go back to living in that prison house."
It was her turn for a little bitter laughter. "Look, Iron. I'm still figuring this out. Magic, and—some other stuff. Right now, I can't tell you what I'll decide. Only that I have to make it to Equestria first. Help me do that, and..."
She flushed, tucking her tail between her legs. Her ears folded backwards, and she levitated her spells back into the air. "You can finish that oatmeal if you want. I'll skip this one."
"Right." Iron took it, somehow holding the bowl with a wing. How he could move with that and somehow not drop it, Lotus couldn't even imagine. That was one lesson her transformation wouldn't be teaching her tonight. "I guess I'm sorry I... distracted you. I'll be more careful until we're in Equestria."
She nodded eagerly. "More c-careful, that's all. You saw what the princess wrote in her letter. Searing Gale will make the next attack even worse than this one."
As it turned out, Lotus wouldn’t have to wait for the evil sorceress to try and kill her again. Their resident griffon had a plan that might take care of that all on his own.
"You can't be serious," she said, smacking one weary hoof against the driver's door, shoving her pickup closed. "You think we should go buy supplies? Like, from a store?"
"Yep."
Even seeing the confidence on his face, Lotus had to check to make sure she wasn't the victim of some absurd, practical joke. She eyed the gloomy parking garage for any sign of his cameras, tucked away where she wasn't meant to notice.
But even with her horn glowing, she saw no glitter of a glass lens. "What do you think will happen when we walk into a Walmart looking like this? How long until we get shot?"
Iron Feather lingered just behind her, wearing a heavy satchel over his shoulder. Inside was the cursed tome, along with Luna's journal and a few other knick-knacks.
Unlike the tiny home she had rented with Gus, the asylum was much too large to fully search, let alone secure. Distracting or not, at least the guard knew how to do his job. If she hadn't hit him with this truck...
"Not somewhere so big, or with so many people. You're right, the chance some crazy redneck decides I'm a wild animal about to maul someone is just too high. We're going to go to a gas station, the truck stop’s just off the highway and that overpass with the bridge."
Lotus knew it, since it was the same station she usually stopped at for snacks on her way to her family's farm.
"We have to get food somewhere. We have to take a risk somewhere."
Lotus glanced over her shoulder, eyeing the pony. "You need to understand, Iron. Weapons are everywhere here. Most people who live out here could kill us from long distance, so fast we wouldn't have a chance to react. Our weapons are much more dangerous than swords and spears, and everyone has them."
The guard's expression remained almost identical, perhaps twinged with a few degrees of confusion. "Every foal among the earth ponies could crush my skull without effort. The unicorns could lift another pony into the air and strangle them. So what?"
"She thinks people would be afraid of us," Gus supplied. He opened the door, then clambered into the driver's seat. "She might be right, but we can mitigate the risk. We're going at night; we're taking the empty country roads instead of the highway. If the police are still looking for your car, the time and obscurity should help."
He settled into a standing position on the seat, resting both claws on the wheel. It would still take someone else's help to drive the car, no matter how close those claws came to human dexterity.
"Even if it's empty, the clerk is going to panic. Every sheriff in the county will be speeding over before we finish paying. Assuming you have the money to do that, my wallet was in the house when it burned."
Gus nodded absently. "I've got a plan for that, and not getting caught. We're going to park outside the view of any cameras. We go in, buy as much as we can, then sprint like hell for the truck. Police won't be looking for a pickup at that point, but three... whatever we are. Can you imagine what social media will look like tomorrow morning? Two horses and a bird buy snacks at Montana gas station, here's how AI faked it all!"
She turned her back on him, tail flicking up against the truck in annoyance. "You think this is a good idea, Iron?"
"No, but I think we have to do it anyway. If your friend could fly, he could go alone with considerably less risk. But I don't trust my wings for something so dangerous, or my ability to interact with the natives of your realm. We have to go together."
That explained why he was unwilling to leave the book behind. "I guess we're doing this." She hopped up into the car, squeezing past Gus and down near the pedals. From then on, she kept her eyes determinedly focused on the ground, or the wall, or anything but looking behind her. "You should've put some pants on first."
"I'd love to," Gus said, starting the old pickup. "But someone burned all my pants. But I've thought about all that for the vlog, don't worry. If I pick the right angle, we won't have to blur anything. It's even easier for you—do kirins even have breasts?"
Lotus stomped one hoof against the metal floor, so hard it stung. "Remember where the one who burned your pants is sitting, Gus. I think you should forget you ever asked that question, unless you want me to burn even more next time."
She didn't turn around to see his face, but his voice made his reaction clear enough. He got the message. "Right. Another time."
The passenger door banged closed a second later. "I know you've explained it to me before. But your world's taboos are still... difficult to grasp. When we get to Equestria, I think you'll like our way of doing things better."
There was little opportunity for conversation once the drive got going. Lotus couldn't relax, not when she had to work both pedals without any view of the road outside. She listened attentively to Gus's instructions, fighting back the growing dread of what waited for them.
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I mean you can always add art later, besides as much as it is lovely to have it I want the story most
Counterpoints:
a) Human weapons are incredibly fast and have an long range. You wouldn't see the bullet coming.
b) In Equestria, you are a guard. Killing you there would have serious repercussions. In Earth, you are a thing.
They do need to take a risk since there's no chance they will last a week without supplies. Lotus does admit that she doesn't know what she wants anymore which earns her points for honesty if nothing else.
I'm not clear on how they concluded that going to a store and attempting to just make a purchase would be less risky than outright stealing, especially when the authorities are looking for them and they're going at night anyway.
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Ponies eat grass Griff Griffs eat meat and bird seed
Eh, I was hoping for more of a talk between Iron and Lotus. I wasn't expecting them to fully come to terms, but it just kinda gets brushed past. This is definitely a filler chapter.
I'd argue that one's orientation staying pointed at the opposite sex even after changing one's own sex is the most heterosexual thing possible. It's all a matter of reference frames.
I love this exchange. Ponies are but one of the many species on their native deathworld that are casually capable of lethal force. One in their military will be especially blasé about the idea of everyone he meets being able to kill him with little more than a thought.
Given how she's trying to cram hyperdimensional magical mechanics, I can hardly blame Lotus for wanting to keep other horribly complex topics off the table for now... but I get the feeling that that particular issue is going to make itself known whether she likes it or not. But first, snack run! That'll make for one heck of an adventure.
...so why risk in person? Doordash exists, and doesn't even have to be dropped off directly at their building. I doubt Gus is carrying cash anymore, so any risk of transaction monitoring is the same.
If the setting is far enough for Gus to think of AI deepfakes, prepaid delivery is hardly a big leap.
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I thought the story made this clearer, though it might be only by implication. I'll need to find a cleaner way to revise it into a past chapter I suppose. None of their phones made it out of the burning house. (that doesn't mean there aren't numerous other problems with a plan like this, but anything that would rely on a phone isn't available to them)
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Heck we saw Rainbow Dash demolish a building with no ill-effects! I'm not convinced a bullet could catch her.
Of course, how much of that is cartoon logic is up for debate.
Well, that's one way to dry off.
My opinion...
https://m.Also, as the saying goes, "si arma proscripta sunt, soli proscripti arma habebunt. (if weapons are outlawed, only outlaws will have weapons.)
Every single time I’ve found a serious looking police control that seemed like they were looking for someone dangerous was, exactly, on those very roads and on said ‘obscure’ times. Contraty to Hollywood-esque knowledge, police officers usually have brains and know where to look, and that if you are hiding, you won’t take the highway in the middle of the day.
And no looking for a pick-up? Yeah… like it wasn’t ‘stolen’ by said creatures. I mean… the police might be confused by the witnesses’ claims, but ‘keep your eyes open for that specific pick-up and weird critters around’ might be in some police briefing right now, maybe along ‘a dangerous pyromaniac on the loose’ or something.
I'm eating good today with all this high quality adorable art
Amazing Story once again. Can't wait to see what this Equestria is like in this story line (if we get there in what you have so far written? I'll find out in a bit).
Picture seems down, getting the good ol 404 not found.