CH1: First Contact

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Lodestone flew easily with his powerful grey wings as he slowly circled the forest. His orders had been clear: scout the Everfree Forest and determine it's use for a new mining facility. He rolled his eyes and muttered to himself, "Idiots..."

Flim and Flam knew perfectly well he didn't know the first thing about mining, nevermind prospecting. Why in Equestria they would send him - and only him - he had been trying to figure out since he boarded the train to Ponyville.

He turned his head left and right, searching for... well, rocks, he guessed. Unfortunately he was surrounded by nothing but an endless sea of solid green treetops too thick to even see branches, much less the ground. He'd been hoping to find a cliff with exposed rock layers or something, or failing that, at least a clearing, but he was forced to admit there was nothing to be gained from looking at leaves up here.

With a small resigned sigh, he glided to the nearest edge of the forest and attempted to push his way through the thick canopy to the ground below. Eventually, having finally wrestled through the thickest part of the canopy, Lodestone weaved methodically down and landed solidly on all four hooves.

It would have been an impressive sight if his long, sky blue mane hadn't plopped down across his face.

He snorted and shook his head but some of the hair was sticking to the light sweat across his muzzle and he was forced to wipe it away with a hoof.

Only then did he notice the small mare watching him nervously from between two nearby trees.

Surprised, his ears folded down and he almost stepped back, but he regained his composure quickly and took a cautious step forward, speaking softly.

"Hey, sorry... hope I didn't scare you."

"Pffft!" she blew a raspberry. "Hope I didn't scare you!"

Something about that seemed to tickle her funny bone and she laughed. If there was an extra edge of relief in her chuckling, that couldn't be held against her, could it?

Despite her intentions of running away and the lingering anger from last night's row, the mare was happy to see another pony. She came forward and held out a hoof.

"Granite. Um, what are you doing here exactly?"

Too late she realized her folks might have hired this pegasus to look for her and drag her back. She dug her hind legs into the soft ground and tensed up, ready to bolt if he should make a grab for her.

The pegasus looked relaxed, but a careful eye might have noticed the subtle shift of his weight and the way his gaze scoured the small earth pony as she approached. The odds of there just happening to be another pony right where he touched down made him more suspicious than he let on. His official job title might have been Sky Crane, but unofficially he was effectively the security escort as well.

And yet... all seemed well. As far as his watchful eye could see, this really was just an ordinary pony. She wasn't even armed. He relaxed marginally and gave her a small smile.

"I'm just here for a job, checking out a possible dig site. You're the little mare all alone in a dangerous forest. What are you doing here exactly?"

He was fairly sure there was no danger here, but he kept his wings loose, ready to spring out in an instant... just in case.

Her ears went down with an almost audible flop and Granite suddenly couldn't hold the stallion's gaze. "Um..." she said, tracing a line in the dirt with a hoof.

"You're not here to take me back, are you?"

He had said he's here for a different purpose, but having run away, the mare was very frightened of being forced to go back. She would never be let out of her parents' watchful gaze again!

Something he said made her slightly hopeful, though and it overruled her fear. "Job? I wanna job!"

He had said 'dig site'. Even though her cutie mark didn't quite show it - the image was a simple spiral - Granite was very interested. Stones and rocks appealed to her. She liked their quiet, solid company. "I can dig. Do you think you could use another digger?!"

Lodestone chuckled and raised a foreleg as if to shield himself from a blow.

"Whoa girl, slow down!"

Still grinning, he moved his raised hoof to his muzzle thoughtfully.

"Let's see... take you back? Well if you're lost I'm sure I can help you get home, but from the way you said it I'm guessing that wouldn't be your first choice, would it?"

The pony shook her head emphatically. "No, sir! No way I wanna go back!"

Under her breath she added: "Even if I am lost..." but it wasn't quite low enough and Lodestone would easily hear it.

Wandering around on her own suddenly didn't appeal to Granite, not when she'd gotten the idea of a job lodged in her mind. She sprang up to her hooves and pranced a little in place. "I'll help! I know digging and I know rocks. What are you looking for? Then maybe you can give me a job?"

She was under the impression that Lodestone was in charge of the operation and was going all-out to prove her worth to him. "I can pull my weight! I used to work on a farm!"

His smile faded as he spoke quietly, hoof still held to his muzzle.

"Lost, don't want to go home, and awfully eager for a job..."

He set his hoof down and leaned in close to look her in the eye. He was careful to keep his expression from looking too serious - he didn't want to scare her off, after all.

"I'm not going to have to deal with some kind of search team looking for you, am I?"

"Umm..." Granite said doubtfully. The ears went down again and she blushed heavily.

"No?"

It wasn't so much a statement as wishful thinking. "They won't care!" she explained, trying to convince herself more than Lodestone. "They never cared before."

She remembered something and brightened up. "Besides, I'm old enough! I can go off on my own if I want!"

He sat down in front of her and tilted his head, a wry smile across his face.

"And how were you planning on handling the Cockatrices alone? How about the Chimera? The Timberwolves? Bears? Hay, even the Poison Joke?"

The news made the mare's face fall a little, but she rallied quickly. "Well.. yes, if you must know!" she bluffed.

It was painfully obvious she didn't have a clue what was further in the Everfree, nor any idea how to deal with it. The mare knew it too.

"I can run real fast! And- and..."

Granite cast around for another idea, then grinned fiercely when she got it. She lifted her rear up in the air and kicked with all her might, even if she didn't hit anything. "I can buck!"

The pony glared defiance at her new friend. "They said it's useless for farming corn, but I practiced anyway!"

The pegasus watched her antics with an amused expression, then feigned surprise in response to her intense stare.

"Impressive! Well now, don't let me hold you back, I'll just get back to work and leave you to your exploring."

With slow, deliberate movements, he stood up, spread his wings wide, and looked up toward the... well, what bits of sky were peeking through the thick canopy overhead.

"Wait!" Granite yelled out and tried to grab on to the pony before he could take off.

"Take me with you!"

She gave him her best pleading look and tried to come up with a bargain. "All I want is a chance, okay? I'll help you look for a dig, no charge. Just- lemme show you what I got before you decide! I want a job!"

Granite intensified her begging expression, but it just made her go cross-eyed.

He looked down at the pony practically hanging from his neck.

She was cute and if he was completely honest, he was eager for any help, but he couldn't just welcome the first mare with a pretty smile that came along.

"Alright, do you even know anything about rocks?"

Lodestone knew almost nothing himself of course, but over the years he had picked up some jargon, so he rattled it off with the assumption that a young, runaway farm pony would know even less.

"Can you find me an igneous extrusion or a tectonic plate? How about a sedimentary formation or a silica butte?"

Granite let the pegasus go and sat back on her haunches with a smug smile. "You, sir, know next to nothing about mining!" She pointed out. She giggled as she repeated the list silently to herself, then shook her head.

"Some of those make no sense and the rest you won't find until the Ramblies beyond Everfree. Maybe you'll get some ferrous stuff around here, but if you want igneous you'd better try south to the mountains of Appleloosa. That's Diamond Dog territory, but you probably know that."

The mare stayed on her haunches, with her forelegs crossed and an expectant expression on her muzzle.

Lodestone's ears started to swivel back, his eyebrows raised, and his tail lashed just once before he caught himself and forced himself to relax and smile.

"Ah... yes, good, you know the basics at least. Most everypony I ask just uh... just starts trying to point stuff out, not even realizing most of that was gibberish."

He stood and turned toward the center of the forest.

"Come along, then. You'll have to do better than that if you want to impress Flim and Flam."

As he began to walk, he looked back over his shoulder at the little mare, flicking his tail just a bit more than a friendly wave.

"Name's Lodestone, by the way."

"Oh! Nice to meet you," Granite said pleasantly now that she had passed his test. The smugness was instantly gone and she quickly fell in step with the stallion. "I'm Granite. I guess that makes sense, huh?"

She chuckled at her own weak joke.

"Flim and Flam? Never heard of them. What do they want around here?" If the mare was disappointed she wasn't speaking with the boss of the operation, she didn't show it. She also chose to ignore the comment about 'doing better'. She was sure she could impress anyone at all.

"Um, which way are we going?"

Granite knew the geography of the area, but only on maps. Now that she was actually in the forest, her sense of direction was essentially nonexistent.

His ears twitched awkwardly as he considered the question.

"Actually, I don't really have a specific location in mind. Can't see a damn thing through the leaves above..."

As the cow-patched pony caught up, he gave her a thoughtful glance out of the corner of his eye.

"Why don't you show me what you know and find me something useful?"

Granite just rolled her eyes. "What did you have in mind? A bakery? Pub?" It wasn't very funny, but it still made her giggle.

"Okay, a mine. A mine. There should be one around here. Or maybe..." The mare smiled widely. "Let's head south! There's better ground that way. Not as soggy. That is, if you know which way is south..."

Despite the jab, the pony went and examined a nearby tree. "Uh, moss always points north, right?"

The only problem was that the trunk was green all around. "Fat load of good that does us," Granite murmured to herself. Then she inspected the tree canopy above them.

"Can't you like fly up there and look around? Maybe you'll see which way..."

"Uh..." He looked around uncertainly, "I thought we were already on the southern end?"

He slowed to a halt and concentrated.

"I'm pretty sure I came down on the far side of from Ponyville, and that's due north of the the Everfree..."

Suddenly, he chuckled gently and shook his head, "Ah, what am I thinking. Just look at the sun rays!"

He looked up and pointed with a wing. The canopy was thick but no amount of leaves can block all the sunlight. Thin rays of sunlight shone through tiny gaps in the green, angled to their left.

"They're angled to the left, so that way," he pointed his wing to the right, "Would be east."

His ears drooped when he realized he was pointing straight back the way they came, toward the edge of the forest.

"Can't you fly?" Granite asked. "I thought you guys could fly. The wings, you know?"

She shrugged a little to herself, then inspected the patches of light on the ground. "So, south would be, um, that way?"

Her hoof pointed more or less correctly. "Once we get out of the swamp and to drier land we should start seeing some interesting minerals. Much easier to dig, too."

The mare set off, radiating confidence. "Come on, it's this way. I think the ground is sloping up."

Rather than follow behind, Lodestone trotted up beside her to avoid the distracting view... Sweet Celestia it's been too long since he had a mare. Flim and Flam had been taking far too much of his time the past couple of years!

He berated himself silently and brought his focus back to the present. He turned to look at Granite, his expression earnest, but his eyes were dancing merrily.

"What, fly? Me? Oh no, I was just climbing a tree earlier and fell! Darndest thing how I just happened to land on all four hooves like that."

"Must have some cat in your ancestry," Granite replied smoothly. It made her giggle again, but she didn't stop walking until they came to some thick undergrowth.

It was a forest and they weren't on any official path, so of course the plant life was thick and nearly impenetrable. "Here, let me get that," the pony said helpfully. She easily pushed through the thick foliage, snapping several sturdy-looking vines with ease. Her passage left a little tunnel.

She concentrated on walking for a while, but then stopped so suddenly the stallion would nearly walk into her. "We're not near any villages, are we? There's nothing this way until Appleloosa, right? Hmm..."

She didn't explain any further.

Lodestone was a bit taken aback by the question, "Uh...I don't think so? The Castle of the Two Sisters is somewhere over this way, but it should be quite a ways off still. Why do you..."

But then he caught it too: a faint whiff of smoke. Not that of a raging wildfire, but a cozy smoke, like from a warm hearth and cooking pot.

"Wait a sec... that's smoke, isn't it? But... good smoke. It smells like lunch." As if on cue, his stomach growled faintly.

"Campers?" Granite offered a suggestion. "Who would go this far into Everfree?"

She shrugged a little and angled herself towards where she believed it was coming from. "This way. Let's go check it out!"

In moments she was pushing through brambles again. Maybe she should have shown more caution, but given her experiences in the forest so far, Granite was feeling optimistic about meeting new people.

The pegasus hurried to intercept the little mare, thrusting a wing out in front of her, then leaned forward to murmur in her ear.

"Don't go rushing off, especially deeper into the forest. There's a lot of dangerous stuff here and most of it isn't even understood. We need to be careful."

He glanced meaningfully at her hooves resting on the next vine to break, "And quiet."

"Oh!"

The young pony blushed a bit at both the contact and admonition. "Okay!" This time it was a whisper.

She stepped away and allowed the stallion to proceed ahead of her. "I'll follow your lead. Who do you think it is? It's gotta be ponies, right? Dragons don't come this far and no other creature uses fire..."

It went to show just how little she knew about the world - other than the rocky bits.

He stepped carefully around the mare in the cramped space, looking troubled.

"I'm not sure... I suppose it could be ponies, but if so, I don't think they're from Ponyville."

With slow, deliberate movements, he began carefully bending the foliage aside, speaking softly as he worked.

"The Mayor assured me nopony comes out here except for a Zebra who lives near the northern edge and what few visitors she gets."

He held a foreleg up, holding a space open for Granite, "Looks like it thins out just past this bramble bush. Scoot through here, I'll be right behind you. Go slow and watch your hooves - avoid the branches and pine cones."

It was all well and good for Lodestone to say it, but of course Granite immediately trod on a branch, causing an audible crack. "Sorry!" she whispered.

Her next hoofstep was better as the mare carefully inspected the ground. There was barely even a rustle as she made her slow way through the thicket.

Once through, she stopped and waited for the pegasus to join her and tried to spot whoever was cooking. A small gasp escaped her. "Are there any other ruins round here? I think that's a wall!"

It was thinner past the brambles, but not by much. When Lodestone finally wiggled into place beside her, he immediately saw what she meant: a tall stone wall was up ahead, stretching to either side as far as he could see. It was well made, but seemed to be in disrepair - he thought he could see dozens of thin cracks curving and weaving all over the stone structure.

He turned to Granite and smiled reassuringly, "Looks like the wall is full of cracks, which means it's probably very old and not used anymore. I bet some traveling ponies just took up a temporary shelter here."

"Y-Yeah," the mare agreed, happy that there was someone to reassure her. Almost without realizing it, she stepped closer until her flank was brushing Lodestone's. "Maybe we should go around it?"

She looked to the left and right, but it was impossible to tell how far the wall stretched in either direction. "Which way?"

Lodestone shrugged his shoulders and looked out a little further, most of his head and neck now sticking out of the undergrowth.

Something twitched in the corner of his vision and his gut clenched suddenly. Without waiting to find out why, he sucked his head back through the bush as quickly and quietly as he could manage, raising a feather to his lips in a shushing motion. His ears perked up and swiveled nervously.

Seeing the motion was enough to shut Granite up. She followed his lead and listened intently for a while.

"I don't-" she began, but shut up when she caught Lodestone's look. "Sorry!"

The longer the wait went on, the more nervous the mare became, shuffling her hooves and swishing her tail like crazy.

At last, when she couldn't take it any more, Granite leaned forward to try and ease the branches apart so she could see.

His sky blue mane would stick out like a sore frog against the dark green and brown of the forest, but her mottled hide and dark grey mane would help her stay hidden... if only she could sit still. So, rather than try to stop her from leaning forward, he laid a firm hoof on her foreleg and wrapped her tail in his. He blushed slightly at the intimate contact, but he trusted his gut. If there was a real threat out there, neither of them could afford to be shy.

As she looked back at him, he whispered, "Go ahead, look, but for Luna's sake stop rustling!"

Granite twirled around at the unexpected touches, ironically causing yet more rustling. She watched the very forward stallion with big, curious eyes, but then matched his pink muzzle.

"Oh! Sorry!" she whispered back.

A thought seemed to strike her. "Hey - what exactly are we afraid of? We haven't seen anyp-pony yet..."

She sniffed the air once more. "It's just some wood smoke and, uh, bread?" It wasn't quite bread like she was used to, but it was definitely something baked. "And..." this next smell was causing her some issue. "Um... I dunno what that is..."

The ponies wouldn't be used to the smell of roasting meat.

Shaking his head, he spoke quietly, "I'm not sure, but my gut says there's something strange here, and I've been night watch too many times to ignore a gut feeling like that."

He nosed toward the small opening in the bushes, "Go ahead. You're a lot better camouflaged than me." He brushed aside a bright strand of hair with his wing to emphasize his point.

Her bravado was gone and any potential feelings at being touched as well. The mare gulped and placed a nervous hoof. She looked around and swiveled her ears madly, but couldn't catch anything out of the ordinary.

That seemed to encourage the pony and Granite made her cautious way out of the bush.

A strange whistling sound cut through the silence as the pony stepped out of the bush. It sounded as if it were coming from the forest behind the pair. Not long after, the pair would hear the sound of something following the path they came in. Whatever it was, it was big and it was not alone.

"RUN!" Granite yelled, already half-panicked. She jumped partially back into the bush to grab the stallion, then tried to pull him out and get him to follow.

She didn't know which way to go, so she picked left at random and galloped as fast as she could.

A few dozen steps farther she slowed to look behind and see if Lodestone was following her.

At the same instant, Lodestone tried to silently grab the mare and hunker down to listen. He flinched as she screamed in his face, then swore when she bolted.

He launched out of the bush after her, his wings giving him extra thrust as he galloped to catch up with her. He might be slow in the air but he's no slouch on his hooves!

"Wait! Granite!" He shouted, already knowing it was futile - her panic wouldn't allow her to slow now. If he could just get his hooves around her, he could easily fly them up and away, but nopony runs quite like a panicked filly, and it was precious seconds before he reached her. He pumped his wings powerfully and leaped through the air, reaching toward her with both forelegs.

Coming from the brush behind them was a dire wolf. It didn’t struggle with the vines like the Pegasus, it just ripped through them like they were thin string. Though the ponies had a lead, dire wolves were notoriously fast, vicious, and cunning creatures. The beasts fangs were like knives and its body was a mass of muscle made for the sole purpose of hunting. With its teeth bared, it raced towards the pair. It didn’t run straight at them though, instead it ran to cut them off and guide them towards the wall so their escape options would be minimized.

Poor Granite took one look and yelled even louder. Had she been capable of thought, she'd have let Lodestone catch her and pull her up into the air, but as it was the mare just bolted even faster away from the creature. The fact that she was letting herself get caught didn't seem to register at that point.

It wasn't long before she was running right alongside the wall, desperately looking for an opening and completely ignoring Lodestone.

The mare lurched suddenly to the side and his hooves closed on nothing. "Blackened body of Night, Granite!" He swore, flaring his wings to get his hooves back on the ground. He briefly considered spinning around to face the beast behind him, but he knew wolves rarely hunted alone and didn't want to lose sight of Granite, lest she find the wolf's friends by herself.

His hooves pounded into the grass as he tried desperately to catch up to her again, but she clung to the wall like it was the only thing keeping her alive, too close for him to spread his wings. He pressed forward, trying to shove his body between her and the stone wall, and some distant part of his brain realized the stones were not cracked, but rather etched with an intricate swirling pattern of deep grooves.

Up ahead of them a creature stepped out of a large opening in the wall. It stood tall, similar to a Minotaur, but in their panic they wouldn’t have time to examine the being. In its hand was a spear of sorts, though shorter than what typical guard ponies used. Lifting the spear above shoulder height, it hurled the thing in the direction of the ponies and the the wolf. The spear made a sickening sound as it buried itself in the head of the massive predator, forcing it to fall and slide through the grass. Just like that, the beast was dead, but now the ponies would have some new, unknown creature to deal with.

The imposing sight didn't seem to make much difference. Granite scrabbled on the ground to try and stop in a hurry, unfortunately placing herself right in Lodestone's path. On top of that, she tripped and rolled to a stop.

"NO NO NO," she whimpered as she tried to scramble up to her hooves, "WHAT IS THAT? WHAT IS THAT?!"

She wasn't having much luck with her footing, partially because her legs were twitching randomly and partially because she was still panicking. Her chest was heaving as the mare panted.

The dash hadn't been overly long, but the fright had taken more out of Granite than simple galloping.

Lodestone's wings sprang out instinctively as he strained to stop before he barreled right over the cowering mess of a mare. One wing smacked the wall and he felt a sharp pain, dulled significantly by the adrenaline coursing through him. His hooves skidded, then he hopped slightly, landing solidly to stand over Granite protectively.

Rising to his full height, he tried to look as threatening as possible, "S-Stay right there!" He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. What kind of monster was that? "Don't come any closer! I'm w-warning you!"

He drew a dagger from his hip, though made no effort to close the distance between them. Now that the two had a chance to look at him, they would see he was definitely not a Minotaur. He was clad in some kind of tan, thick material, almost like the hide of an animal. His face was flat in comparison to a pony’s and he wore two scars that ran diagonally from the middle of his forehead, over his right eye, down down to his jaw. His brown hair was trimmed short and he had a thin beard that looked well kept. His eyes, dark green in color, stared down at the two intensely.

“It’s the first time a beast from the forest has spoke--“

He was cut off as two more humans, armed with their own spears, came out of the brush nearby. They, unlike the man before the ponies, were sweating and looked as if they had been running.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Granite started panting faster. She was in danger of passing out from sheer fright, but at least she had enough sense to crawl in Lodestone's shadow. Her hooves sought out anything to grab and she ended up clinging to one of his legs.

"What are we gonna do! They have us surrounded!" the poor pony whimpered.

It had only been a matter of time and now the waterworks opened fully. For a moment it would sound like a cow moo-ing, but the noise quickly changed into loud bawling.

"I wa-wanna go hoooooome!"

The monsters behind started to approach, the pointed tips of their spears held out to try and box them in, hold them down. Lodestone almost laughed. Trap a pegasus? Please!

With a small hop, he twirled around to face the new threat and crouched, bracing his hindlegs against the base of the wall as if he would spring at his attackers. Instead, his forehooves snapped together under Granite's trembling frame and he thrust himself into the air with all his might. He spread his wings wide and...

His right side exploded in pain as the hairline fracture in his wing suddenly buckled under the strain of flight. He felt a dull thump and tasted dirt. His hooves flopped helplessly as he struggled against the darkness creeping into his vision.

The strange creatures wasted no time.

“Make yourselves useful and get these two tied up. Get them inside and lock them up for now.”

The man with the dagger kept it pointed at the pair, in case they tried something. At the very least, he didn’t threaten to harm them. Before they could get too close though, he stepped towards the closest of the pair.

“And we’ll talk about your failure later, in front of our beast master.”

By now Granite was holding the pegasus so tightly he was in danger of passing out from no oxygen. It probably didn't help how she landed on top of him when they fell, but at least she had enough presence of mind not to step on his wings.

"Please get us out of here! Please! I was joking when I said you couldn't fly, I'm sorry!"

The pony sniffled a little, but maybe the fact that they wouldn't be murdered outright was helping. She looked at their assailants and shrank back, trying to make herself as small as possible.

As a last-ditch effort, she tried begging: "Please don't hurt us! We didn't mean to come here!" Granite didn't know what exactly their offense had been, so she tried guessing. "I'm sorry I trampled your bushes! Just let us go, we won't come back ever, I swear!"

The adrenaline was rapidly clearing Lodestone's mind, but he couldn't quite make sense of what anypony was saying. "Concussion," a small part of him thought. On top of that, lack of oxygen was beginning to take effect now, as nothing makes a pegasus winded faster than wing-galloping except a crash, and he had just done both.

Still, his sides heaved against the earth pony's stiff limbs as he struggled to roll over his left side and onto his hooves. His right wing hung limply at his side but he slowly sat up on his haunches and glared at his attackers.

"Don't... hurt her... Have to... go through me..." His jaw felt clumsy and his tongue felt thick and stupid.

“They talk!”

One of the men stopped in shock at this, but the one that “saved” the ponies stepped forward.

“It doesn’t matter! Bind them and take them inside! The longer we wait, the more we risk another monstrosity coming at us! Just get them inside and we will take them to the shaman later!”

His words seemed to get the men in action. The stallion was easy to take care of, since he was already on the verge of being unconscious. While one man held him, the other tied his legs close together with some makeshift rope made from the vines in the forest. The “leader,” or what seemed like the leader, made sure the cow-like mare didn’t run away before the men could get to her. Like her friend, her legs would be tied so she couldn’t run without having to snap the rope, but she could walk, albeit wherever the men decided. Once they had finished, they handed the leash portion of the rope to the leader.

“You two take the wolf in to be skinned. I’ll take these two... creatures and make sure they are not touched till the shaman returns.”

With a weird salute, they grabbed the slain beast and began hauling it through the makeshift gate of the wall.

The handling, together with the word 'skinned' proved too much for Granite and she fainted with a quiet sigh.

Lodestone struggled weakly against the monsters, but one of them tried to close his injured wing so it could be bound against his side. His world was filled with pain, then darkness.

CH2: The First Night

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Hours passed before either awoke and they found themselves lying on a bed of straw. The only light in the room was from the sun shining through the doorway, though it looked like they were moving into the evening. The man they had met earlier sat against the wooden walls opposite to their makeshift beds and appeared to be carving something out of wood using a small knife.

Granite was the first to wake up. She shifted slightly and opened her eyes. Then she immediately saw the human and his knife, which made her whimper and scurry back, against the wall, as far as she could.

The pony drew herself into as small a ball as she could and flattened her ears. She glanced around for a way to escape, but the doorway was too risky with the human in their way.

Her distressed sounds made Lodestone groan and stir, but his head still felt thick and it took a great effort just to crack open one eyelid. He saw Granite cowering in the corner and his muzzle twitched into a lopsided grin.

"Heh... COWering..."

“The shaman tells me you are horses, creatures favored by the gods.”

The human didn’t take his eyes off his little project, he even blew some of the dust off of it.

“She said your arrival was foretold. How came you by this village, horses?”

"We're not horse-" Granite began automatically, but then her eyes snapped to Lodestone.

"What did you just say?!" She demanded in tones of quiet menace. She unwrapped herself a little so she could tower over the prone pegasus. "Did you just call me a cow?!"

It looked like there would be steam coming from her nostrils momentarily as the mare glared. She put her hooves on the stallion and shook him a little. "Answer me!"

A sharp intake of breath and his ears folding back were the only outward signs of how much her jostling was hurting his wing. He lacked the will to do anything more.

“I would not move him so much if I were you. This village does not have much in the way of healing.”

He set the carving aside and stood upright. To them, he would be like a giant, though he only stood at six feet tall. Slowly, with his eyes locked on the pair, he walked forward.

“I ask again: how did you find us? There are large, dangerous beasts everywhere outside of these walls. What is it that brought you here, little horses?”

Her anger forgotten, Granite gently laid her pony friend down and faced the new creature. The calm tone was helping and she wasnt about to panic anymore.

"Um. We're not horses, actually," she pointed out, focusing on the one sure thing. "We're ponies."

She remembered the knife and shrank back a little. "We didn't m-mean to trespass!"

As the pain faded, Lodestone found he could focus a little more sharply. The dull murmur of noise clarified and he found he could finally understand what was being said... just in time to hear Granite's fearful cry.

His eyes flew open and he tried to bolt upright. The room spun crazily and the dark silhouette against the doorway blurred, then his stomach lurched and he vomited onto his hooves.

“As I warned. You will be safe within these walls till next light. I would suggest that you head back to wherever you came from when that time comes.”

His gaze shifted between the two for a moment before he plopped down beside them.

“If you intend to stay here longer, you will need to earn your keep.”

"We'll go!" Granite said quickly, almost before the human had finished talking. "You're letting us go?"

For a moment she seemed as if she didn't believe it and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What's the catch? You like hunting ponies or something?!"

At long last the mare remembered her poor friend and the mess he had made. She shifted away and scrunched up her muzzle in distaste. "Ew!"

Then she saw his face and her expression, as well as her voice, instantly softened. "Are you okay, Lodestone?"

He slowly lifted his head to look at the small mare with half-lidded eyes. After several seconds, he lowered his eyes and weakly tried to shake the vomit off one hoof.

"Bad headache... can't focus my eyes... what happened?" His voice was thick and muddy, as if his lips were numb or he was still half asleep.

“The shaman used her magic to numb the pain, but we dared not mess with your wing, lest we break it or worse.”

Looking out on the village, they would see it was a lot simpler than any pony village. The buildings were basically tossed together, the city built with little cohesiveness to it, and there were no light fixtures of any kind around.

Granite blinked and stared at the human, trying to imagine what a unicorn-human would look like. She shivered at the thought and looked back to the stallion instead. "You hurt your wing?! When?!"

She tried to remember, but all it did was make her blush at her own reckless, panicky actions.

He began to shake his head, then winced and just stared at the ground, "I'm not... it's all fuzzy. I tried to fly." He looked up at Granite, his expression softening, "And you? Are you hurt?"

It was unclear if Lodestone even realized the man was there. His body was turned away from the door and his attention wavered between his dirtied hooves and the mare he barely knew.

“You tried to fly and smashed into the wall, from what I saw.”

The man looked at the Pegasus with an almost annoyed expression, though it was hard to tell with how little he showed outwardly.

“There is a reason that I want you two to leave as soon as possible. You will die here. All manner of beast descends from the evil forest and we do our best to simply survive. You-“

His face nodded towards the mare as he fixed on her intently.

“-have lived a very soft life. I’ll bet you’ve never had to fear a monster just outside your home. And you-“

His focus shifted back to the Pegasus, though his expression softened somewhat.

“-you have potential, but I doubt any experience, if the wolf was an indicator.”

Now that the human was disparaging her abilities, Granite looked down with a slight blush. She couldn't refute the accusations, nor did she want to, not after the day they'd had. It would suit her just fine to get out of there as quickly as possible and back to civilized pony world.

She said none of this, but when the mare looked at her pegasus friend her resolve stiffened and she frowned a little. "I'm not going without you," she promised. At least that took some of her shame away.

Granite was still glaring when she finally faced the human again. "We'll stay until Lodestone feels better and then we'll go!" she said with determination.

Lodestone turned to the creature in the doorway and, after a brief pause, his eyes widened in recognition. His brain still felt sluggish but it was beginning to clear and the pain had faded to a dull throb. Lowering his gaze, he concentrated, trying to remember what had happened.

"No... not the wall. I tried to fly us away and..." He winced, glancing at the wing folded awkwardly at his side, "My wing broke and I fell. I must have hit it while galloping..."

He turned to Granite and sighed, "It'll be weeks before I can fly well enough to get us out of here."

“You’ll have to earn your keep then. I also doubt we can do much for your wing, as we don’t have any of our own to know how to fix them.”

With a sigh, he moved from the doorway and sat a few feet from the pair.

“What are your skills? Can you hunt, cook, build, or mine? Those are things we need the most here, after all. Once you start working we can give you your fair share of meat and what little we can grow here.”

Each word felt to Granite like a fresh slap on the muzzle. She shrank back from the human. A couple of times the mare even looked at the door longingly, as if she was considering just running for it, but then her gaze settled on the poor, injured, drugged Lodestone and she relaxed.

"Fine..." she said at last. "Get us some hot water. We have to wash up."

The pony saw the human's expression and flattened her ears. "I can mine. I can also farm, but I don't want to. I can cook."

Maybe she forgot about the meat, or just chose not to bring it up. She was bewildered enough as it was, without adding that on top.

At the word "meat," Lodestone sniffed the air and suddenly placed the scent: years ago, there had been a couple of griffons in his mining camp. Every night, they would go out into the forest and bring back lumps of flesh they cooked by a fire. Most ponies were openly sickened by the act, but he had found the smell strangely alluring. Fearing what other ponies would think, he never dared ask for some, but he had always wondered.

He snapped out of his reverie and realized the man was staring at him expectantly.

"Oh! Uh, sorry. Well I'm a very strong flyer, but..." He glanced back at his wing again, "I won't be lifting anything for a while I guess. I don't know about hunting but I can fight pretty well... I'm usually the de facto security guard." He hesitated, glancing at Granite before continuing, "I can also mine, but not as well as my coworkers... you know, hence the heavy lifting and guarding."

“The only “hot water” we have is boiled in a cauldron. I don’t see why you would want that. If it’s a bath you require, head to the river. You follow the inner wall heading west and you’ll find it.”

The man pointed out the path from the doorway and looked back to the stallion.

“As for you, if you can walk then come with me to the shaman. She may try to heal you if she knows you are okay with whatever consequences it may bring.”

Lodestone hesitated, uncertain about leaving Granite alone, but the thought of having his wing healed was too powerful a lure. An earth pony with an injured leg or a unicorn with an injured horn may be inconvenienced, but their lives don't change all that much, with the possible exception of very powerful unicorns like Princess Twilight. However, a pegasus with an injured wing is chained to the ground, robbed of the freedom he is accustomed to nearly from birth. It is stifling in a way no grounded creature can hope to understand.

Thus, when he glanced at the mare and didn't see any immediate problem, he quickly succumbed to the temptation and attempted to stand. He was a little wobbly, and moving too fast exacerbated his headache, but he could walk.

He nodded to the man, "Alright, let's go."

People were already in and around their own homes by this time of day, meaning many curious eyes were on the stallion. The humans all seemed to wear some manner of fur or makeshift piece of clothing, all of it looking very modest. At the corners of each “road” were a set of guards that had their own weapons. They were closer to the spears Canterlot guards had, if more clumsily made. Rather than watching the streets, they had their eyes on the skies, though when they noticed the man they would give him a salute where they made a fist over their chests.

“Keep your eyes open, I haven’t liked the look of the skies the last few days. They may be coming.”

With a nod, the guards went back to their watch of the skies. At the far end of what seemed to be the “district” they were in they found a larger building standing alone. All around it were various charm-like objects and the bones of different animals.

“This is where she lives. A word of warning: She can be a little... eccentric.”

The size of the village surprised him. From the simplicity of the clothes and buildings, Lodestone had been expecting no more than a handful of huts and a small tribe of a dozen people. Instead it was nearly the size of a full mining colony or a district of Ponyville.

He turned his attention back to the man beside him, "I can handle a little oddness if it means healing my wing faster." There was a short pause, then Lodestone asked, "Everypony seems to show respect for you... are you the leader here, then?"

He gave the stallion a little grin, finding that question very amusing but ultimately shaking his head at it.

"No, I am well-respected due to circumstance only. I-"

An old lady burst through the door and grabbed the man by the ear. With a quick tug, she pulled his ear, forcing him into an awkward position.

"Da will of de gods is not mere circumstance! You were chosen for a reason, who be you to question the mightiest of all beings?!"

While he squirmed to loose her grip from his ear, something caught her attention. When she turned, she also lowered her body so her face was mere inches from the stallion. One eye was kept wide open and looked around independently of the other eye, which was focused on him with a squint. She sported several tribal piercings like some of the zebra's were said to have. One was at the bottom middle of her lip and looked like a wolf's fang, another through the bottom of her eyebrow and stopping just above it, and finally she had something like a minotaur's nose ring.

"Ah yes, the winged one. I suspect ya be here for some healing magic! Be warned, da spirits and gods are not always kind to those who seek dey're aid."

To his credit, Lodestone did not flinch or shy away at the sudden inspection. His fear of these strange creatures was quickly fading, replaced by a bemused fascination. They had guards, language, a simple society, and now apparently even religion! He needed to get back to Ponyville and make sure the Mayor or Princess Twilight knew about this new species... this was getting way above his pay grade.

He returned her gaze steadily, trying to keep his good wing from rustling nervously, "I would like some healing, yes. What kind of... side effects should I be worried about?"

"Da spirits answer to those who really be needing da help, but dey hate being asked to do minor tings."

The man nodded in quiet agreement as he pictured some of what had happened before.

"Cuts have been healed, only to turn black and green, like rot. What could have been healed naturally in time ended up doing more harm, or even killing them. Worse yet, when they rot, we can't bury them, their bodies must be burned so this new disease doesn't spread."

If nothing else, it went to show how little these people knew about the body and natural processes. It definitely meant vaccines or antibiotics were out of the questions.

"But you should be fine. You are one of the chosen races of the gods, born into favor and gifted with their protection."

Lodestone wasn't overly worried. So long as he was healed well enough to fly, any disease or infection could be easily cured back in civilization.

He nodded to the old lady, "Alright, I'll do it."

She led him inside the hut and it turned out to be everything he had heard about a zebra's hut. It was filled to the brim with odd artifacts, bones of various creatures, voodoo items, totems, you name it. For as interesting, or odd, as those items may have been,any chance of admiring anything was ruined by an overwhelming stench. It was as if something had died inside of his own nose, but the lady seemed to be used to it. The man, however, stayed outside, probably for the reason the stallion may now be struggling with. Strange symbols were carved into the ground in the middle of a hut and had several sets of circles around them.

"Step in, step in! Dis be the where da spirits flow through ya!"

Once he was situated in the middle of the circle, she grabbed an almost hourglass-shaped object and held it from the middle point. The top and bottom of it were rounded and as she started to shake it, he would hear something hard rattling inside. She chanted and moved around him in circles, occasionally tossing some red powder into the air. The light within the room started to fade, as if the sun were being blocked out, though nothing was covering the windows. If he were to look, he would see something INSIDE his wing squirming, like his very bones and muscle were being moved by a cold, invisible hand. Within mere minutes, his wing was back to its proper shape and typical look, though it still felt sore and swollen.

"Dere, da spirits have done what ya wanted."

A deeply unsettling feeling had filled his wing throughout the incantation and he had refused to look, deciding he was better off not knowing. When the lady spoke again, he was almost afraid to see, as if he half expected his wing to have mutated into something wholly unrecognizable. He slowly turned his head and was relieved to find his wing almost entirely healed. He marveled at the recovery, slowly opening the wing. It was incredible! Where before it had been limp and dead, with even the slightest movement sending sharp jolts of pain through his side, now there was only a dull soreness, as if the muscles had been overused.

He flapped the wing experimentally... and promptly gagged as the moving air intensified the stench. Backing away to stand closer to the door where the air was a bit clearer, he turned to the old lady, "Sweet Celestia, thank you! I wasn't expecting anything so fast or as... well, effective, I suppose."

“Sometimes it isn’t so fast, it’s fairly random.”

The man looked in from a window as the light started to break through the “darkness” that had filled the room.

“Da spirits do as dey please, always. Now leave, I be needing ta prepare for da journey.”

The lady practically shoved the pony out of the building so she could do whatever she was going to do. The man, however, stared off at the rock formation the village was built partially into.

“I pray that your arrival was a good omen. We could use some blessing to help us through this year, especially if we are to see it through winter again.”

"Is winter tough for a simple village like this?" While he spoke, he tested his wings to find out just how well they healed. They spread wide and began flapping very gently, then slowly accelerated until he lifted just slightly off the ground. He found his wing was fairly sore, but whole and strong. All he needed now was a bit of rest.

“We can hardly feed the village as it is, due to these damnable monsters outside the walls. Some hunting parties go out and never return, others come back with no food or half dead. We would grow our food, but we only control a small part of the river.”

Heaving a great big sigh, he rubbed his forehead out of frustration.

“The worst of it comes in the shape of Thunder Rocs. Great, big hulking birds that bring storms with them. We’ve had to make disposable wooden spears just to deal with them. Like the one I threw at that wolf you were being chased by. The wood gets reinforced and can penetrate their think hides when thrown, but it only drives them off. We’ve yet to kill one during their assaults.”

Lodestone landed again, not wanting to strain his wings too much.

"Thunder rocs? I've never heard of them." His voice lowered as he mumbled to himself, "Maybe that's why pegasi can't control the weather here..."

He looked up at the man again, "Well anyway, why don't you just leave? The Everfree Forest is the most dangerous corner of Equestria short of Tartarus itself."

“How many would you have us risk to leave this place? This wall is all that stands between us and a sure death! No, we will stay and try our best to survive. At least here we know we will have the god’s protection.”

The man’s eyes wandered through the village with sad eyes. It was almost like he was saying goodbye to people even before winter was close to setting in.

“Tomorrow I will meet with our leader and head to our most sacred place to pray. If all goes well, we may be blessed with a plentiful bounty, enough to help us last."

Well, it had been worth a shot. Maybe the Mayor or Princess Twilight will know what to do to help them. There was a brief pause as the two simply stood in front of the shaman's house, then Lodestone cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I, uh... guess I should go check on Granite, make sure she's okay."

The mare in question was sitting on the bed, almost exactly where they had left her. A bit of calm and some time to think have done wonders and now she was no longer on the verge of panic. She had shuffled away from where Lodestone had puked on the primitive bed and very pointedly wasn't looking at it. She had also wrapped her tail tightly around her legs to keep it from getting dirty.

The pony seemed okay, if a little more alert than usual. Her ears kept turning this way and that as she intently listened to the noises on the village and she kept her gaze on the door.

When Lodestone came back, she smiled and heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia..." she murmured.

A surprising feeling of relief flooded Lodestone's body when he saw the small mare again, though whether he had been worried about her or she was simply a familiar sight among all the strangeness around, he couldn't tell.

"Oh, Granite." His voice came out softer than he had intended, almost tender.

His ears folded back and he cleared his throat awkwardly before turning to the man standing nearby, "So are you leaving us here for tonight, uh..." His voice faltered, "Well, what should I call you? Got a name or a title or something?"

"My name is Rohan, and yes, I will be leaving you to yourselves after a while. There are yet more things I wish to discuss, if at all possible."

Rohan took his spot at the wall opposite to the straw bedding he had left the ponies in before. Once he was nice and comfortable, he found his gaze wandering to the window and the small sliver of sunlight that passed through it.

"I believe you said this forest is one of the most dangerous areas in the land, so it seems unlikely that you knew about this place before coming here. Did you not encounter any manner of beast up until stumbling upon our walls?"

"Nuh-uh," Granite shook her head first. "Just you..."

Her voice trailed off and the mare looked away in embarrassment. "Um, I didn't mean- Sorry."

She focused instead on the stallion and lowered her voice. "Is your wing better? Can we get out of here?!"

At least she was careful to say it in the quietest whisper she could manage. "I don't like the look of this place..."

While his face was turned away from the man as he entered the hut, he muttered, "Later," as softly as he could manage.

He approached the 'bed' and tried to cover his vomit from earlier with some excess hay, hoping to at least mask the smell a bit. As he messed with it, he looked up at Rohan and shook his head, "The dire wolf you killed was the first beast we encountered..." He trailed off thoughtfully, "Wait, aren't we still near the edge of the forest? I didn't think we'd walked that far when we found your wall."

"I wish I could say. None of my people have wings to fly out and see, which limits our scouting. Worse yet, certain areas are worse than others. No hunter will venture southward for any reason, only one has ever returned and the tales he had..."

It made Rohan shiver to think about and he almost instinctively put a hand on the knife he had secured to his waist.

"That aside, there are marshes to the north with hulking monstrosities. We've taken to calling one of them a "Hydra," it's a three-headed beast with a foul temper. The western side is where you came from and tends to be the... safest side, though it takes its share of lives as well. East... well, we don't have a way to travel beyond our sacred mountain to see what lies that way."

Granite was staring, wide-eyed at the story. She gulped several times as the human was explaining. By the end, she was trembling a little.

"I w-went into all that al-alone!" she whispered, aghast.

It looked like she was about to start crying again, but the pony pulled herself together and turned adoring eyes on the stallion instead.

"Thank you!" she breathed out, grasping the poor pegasus and giving him that signature earth-pony, bone crushing hug. It was a piece of luck that she didn't grab his wings, too. "Thank you so much for finding me!!"

Granite still didn't speak directly to the human, that was how much she was intimidated by what she had seen in their 'fight' with the wolf. In fact, even if she didn't fully realize it, Granite was trying to hide behind Lodestone.

As her hooves clasped around him, Lodestone looked down almost in shock, but he forced himself to calm down and slowly stretched a wing out over her shoulders. She seemed to relax under the cover and her grip around him loosened slightly.

He turned back to the man and spoke very cautiously, unsure if this was a sensitive subject, "You keep mentioning this sacred mountain... If possible, I would very much like to see it, if that's okay."

"I do not have the authority to permit you entrance, even despite my role in this village. You would require the permission of the chief, our shaman, and our priest, if you wanted to see the sacred site. I can take you before our trip in the morn, I doubt they will refuse a blessed one."

The light of the sun had finally disappeared from view and the human walked over to the window to look straight up at the sky. Luna's moon, bright and full, seemed to have him somewhat worried. Not a moment later, the sound of howling rang out from the distance.

The awful noise made the mare shudder and cling even more tightly to the poor stallion. It would start to feel like a vice at this point and, what was worse, Granite wasn't even fully aware she was doing it. The canopy of feathers was just making her feel safer.

"W-We're s-s-safe here, right?" she stuttered in fright. "They can't c-come in here?"

She tried to calm herself with a big gulp of air, which seemed to work. Gradually, her grip lessened. "I shouldn't have left home," the pony said remorsefully.

In stark contrast, the sound of a potential threat almost seemed to electrify the stout pegasus. All traces of exhaustion vanished and minor worries about his wing and the vomit were instantly forgotten. He straightened, his ears perked and swiveled, and though his voice remained soft, it became strong and steady as he spoke briskly.

"Was that a thunder roc? Can I help in any way or should we just stay out of your way? I can fly now but not very well until I rest."

His tail twitched and he half rose from his sitting position before he seemed to notice the mare's weight and sat down again.

"The howling? No, it's just more wolves. No doubt they are looking for their fallen friend. A thunder roc is a bird as big as any of our buildings and wherever they fly, a storm follows. I don't know why, but many of the dangerous creatures become restless during the nights. One or two only appear in the presence of a full moon."

Tonight was not a full moon, but it never hurt to check such things. Even outside of the Everfree forest, there were certain creatures that responded to Luna's moon, though none were like those within the forest.

"The walls are protected well enough, so I doubt we will have troubles tonight, but if something happens I would like you two to stay out of it. Without any combat experience, it's likely that people would die trying to protect you."

Granite was only too happy to agree to those terms. She nodded enthusiastically, acknowledging the human for the first time with a big, relieved smile. "Okay! We promise! Thank you, um... sir?"

She didn't know how exactly to call the human.

There had been no more strange noises, so the mare gradually relaxed. She let her pegasus friend go and settled herself down on the hay. "So - we just sleep here?"

She didn't mind in the slightest - at home Granite had spent more than one night on a pile of hay in the barn, especially when it was too hot in her attic room.

As soon as the pony made herself comfortable, there was a strange, growling, rumbling noise, which made her blush. It was strange - the blush was quite visible on the lighter patches of her fur and almost imperceptible on the darker ones.

"That was m-me," Granite admitted. "I, uh, skipped breakfast. Um, and lunch."

Lodestone relaxed visibly at Rohan's reassuring words, but continued to be alert, his sleepiness forgotten.

Before the man could respond to Granite, he quickly interjected, "If you can bring us food, please bring mostly fruits and vegetables... if possible, of course. I know you said you cannot grow much food yourself, but..." He hesitated, unsure how she might react, "well you see, most ponies don't take to the idea of meat very well, much less eat it themselves." He opened his mouth as if he might continue, then closed it again, seeming uncertain.

“No meats? Your kind must live in luxury to be able to grow enough food to satisfy yourselves then. I will see what I can do.”

As he passed, his eyes lingered on them for a moment, though it was hard to tell what he might be thinking that’s to the darkness shrouding his expression.

Being left alone really helped Granite relax. She even began smiling a little. "So - stuck in the middle of Everfree with some weird creatures, uh?" she asked tentatively.

It didn't seem as funny out loud as in her head, so the pony sighed. "Sorry about dragging you into this..."

She heaved a sigh, which sounded almost like a little moo there at the end. It was undoubtedly yet another reason for her friends to make jokes about her looks.

One part of the pegasus itched to be up in the sky, as the visibility from the ground is nothing compared to a bird's eye view and being indoors when danger was around only intensifies that feeling. Another part was intensely focused on the mare wrapped around his chest, soft and warm, her tiny movements as she talked brushing the sensitive primaries of his wing across her back.

Seeing her gloomy expression helped to make up his mind. He reached around with his other wing and gently lifted her chin, smiling gently, "Don't be. I could have flown us away a dozen times since we met yesterday."

He looked away and wiggled his rump, trying to get more comfortable, then muttered to himself, "Gonna be chilly tonight..."

"Um," said Granite, now very definitively red in the muzzle. "I guess we better huddle... y'know... for warmth?"

She couldn't quite meet Lodestone's eye, but the pony shuffled a bit closer. "IF y-you don't mind, that is!" she added hastily.

"Or we could ask for some blankets..."

The pony seemed really unsure which alternative she preferred. "I don't mind roughing it for a night. We're getting out of here tomorrow, right? We need to tell somepony about these... creatures."

"Yeah... tomorrow, definitely," he mumbled, sounding distracted.

Now that her head was turned away shyly, he looked more closely at the mare, studying the curve of her neck and the side of her muzzle. He needed to decide how he felt about her in a hurry.... she just seemed so young. He couldn't have been more than a couple of years older... gosh, was he really not even twenty? He had been so busy the last few years, it felt like at least a decade.

Half watching her beside him, half lost in his own thoughts, he continued to stare at the side of her head.

For her part, Granite flicked an ear as sounds from the village drifted in, but didn't turn to look. She was apparently getting used to the surroundings enough so that she'd sleep.

"You know what made me do it?" Granite asked suddenly, without any prompting from the pegasus. "You wanna know why I... left?" she very carefully didn't say 'ran away', since the mare didn't know if Lodestone would try and send her back.

The question snapped him out of his reverie and he sucked in a breath, hurriedly turning his head away. How long had he been staring?

By her tone, this was important to her, so he spoke gently, trying to reassure and calm her, "I'm not one to pry into anypony's past, but if you need to talk about it, I'm here."

The mare hadn't noticed anything inappropriate, nor was she looking. She was staring at her foreleg, where a patch of brown mixed with white. She heaved a sigh. "It was my birthday a few weeks ago. My brothers got me a bell. Everypony laughed, even mom."

It was obviously a very bitter memory, because Granite was glaring at the world in general. "As if it wasn't enough ponies in school make fun of me!"

She dared the pegasus to comment, just with her stare. "I just... knew I didn't wanna stay there."

Despite her bold words, Granite was homesick, even if she'd never admit it, not even to herself. After all, it was her family and she missed them, bad jokes or no.

He honestly tried to be open and compassionate, but confusion got the better of him, "Sorry... a bell? I don't get it. What were they making fun of?" His prior delirious comment aside, he had never really thought about how unusual her coat might be. She was cute as a button and the years on the farm, willing or no, had toned her body nicely.

Granite blinked a few times, then narrowed her eyes as she tried to decide if Lodestone was poking fun at her or not.

Her voice came out measured and calm, but there was a definite thread of explosion if the stallion didn't respond just right.

"They got a bell for me to wear around my neck. You know?" the mare patted her chest. "A cow bell. Do you want me to draw you a picture?"

His ears flattened at her expression, "I... what?" He looked bewildered for a moment, then his eyes widened with realization, "Wait, you mean they teased you for your adorable coat?" Realizing what he just said, he blushed and clamped his muzzle firmly shut.

Granite gasped and her eyes widened in shock. "Adorable?!" she asked rather loudly.

She opened her mouth to yell at the poor pegasus, but then didn't find appropriate words and shut it again. As if unable to believe Lodestone, she stood up and inspected as much of herself as she could see by craning her neck.

"Well, that's a first..." she managed, still somewhat in shock. "Usually ponies just call me... uh, never mind."

She blushed heavily just from the memory of the name, luckily she hadn't said it out loud, or else her cheeks would set their makeshift bed on fire.

"Well," He shuffled his wings uncomfortably, "yeah, I mean..." he seemed to struggle to find the right words, then sighed, "Alright look, I'm no good with this sort of thing and I'm really buckin' tired, so I'm just gonna be blunt and Luna blast the consequences."

Leveling his gaze at her, his tone was crisp and matter-of-fact, "Not once have I thought of a cow when I saw you. When I landed in front of you yesterday, first thing I thought was your coat was cute and it was nice to see somepony look unique for once." He rolled his eyes a bit, "All the mares in Ponyville go to the same spa, the same boutique, the same florist... If they aren't copying Rarity, they're copying one of the other Elements or sometimes even Celestia herself."

There was a short pause, "It just gets a little old, y'know?" he finished lamely.

Now there really was danger of fire. Granite couldn't meet his gaze, so she focused instead on her forelegs again. "Oh," she said flatly. It was painfully obvious she wasn't used to taking compliments.

"Aha!" she exclaimed suddenly at a recollection. "What about that 'cowering' thing earlier?!"

At least jabs she knew how to deal with - with compliments, the pony was completely lost.

"Uh..." He seemed genuinely taken aback, "what? Cowering? What, when you froze up outside the wall and I tried to fly you away?"

"No," Granite said sharply, relieved to be on a firmer hoof, "when these - uh, hoo-mans dragged us in here. You looked at me and said 'cowering'!"

She was doubly upset - first for the cow pun and second for calling her a coward, even if it was true.

"Although, you were a bit... delirious," Granite admitted.

His ears folded down and he looked away, made anxious by her sudden anger. Had he said something wrong? He did say 'Luna blast the consequences' but this wasn't at all what he expected.

"I, uh..." His muzzle scrunched up in thought, "When I woke up here, first thing I remember was... well," He glanced meaningfully at the pile of hay he had lumped over his former lunch.

"Oh," Granite said after she realized where he was looking. "Well, maybe you did hit your head kinda hard..."

She magnanimously extended an olive branch. "You probably didn't know what you were saying."

Now there was fresh tension in the air, which mingled with the awkward from before. The mare took a deep breath. "Look, let's just forget about it, okay? It's been a crazy day."

She stretched out again, but this time didn't press against the stallion, even if it was starting to get quite chilly.

His muzzle dipped a bit, feeling oddly disappointed.

Silence filled the hut and Lodestone quickly grew uncomfortable with it, "I'm sorry... uh, for what it's worth." He looked up at her again, "I don't remember much of anything after my wing broke, but whatever I did, I'm sorry."

A slight breeze flowed through the gaps in the crude wall, rustling the hay and tousling her mane. Lodestone suppressed a shiver at the chill that was rapidly settling in.

"Uh," Granite said, a bit stiffly. "Okay, apology accepted.*

Her teeth chattered for a moment before she got herself under control. "I know this isn't the best moment to ask, but could I borrow some of those feathers?"

She gave Lodestone a completely serious look. "Just until morning, okay?"

Unreasonably pleased at her acceptance, he felt suddenly jovial. He feigned indignance, "Certainly not, my feathers stay with me!" Before she could properly react, he broke into a wide, warm smile and his wing curved into smooth arch at his side, "But if you come a little closer I'll happily share them with you."

Granite just rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said curtly, but couldn't quite hide the flash of a smile as she scooched closer. In moments her back was pressed against Lodestone's belly, keeping both of them a bit warmer.

"Um - this doesn't mean we're dating, okay?" she phrased it as a statement, but it was definitely a question. The mare didn't want to reveal her ignorance. "It's just cold."

"Nah, you don't seem the type to sleep with a colt on the first date." He smiled nervously, his earlier blush returning, "Sooo, this can't be a first date, right?" He yawned and lowered his head to his forehooves, "Anyways, I'm sure we'll be terribly awkward in the morning and just pretend it never happened..."

"Smooth," Granite commented on his technique. "Such a charmer."

She didn't know how 'charming' would look, but she knew this wasn't quite it, which made her feel a bit better about her own lack of practice. It had just been too hard to see any of her friends in that way, mainly because they all remembered her running around and moo-ing, back when she had been enamored with the 'cow' idea, rather than loathing it.

"Do you think these creatures are some kind of minotaur?" Granite asked, suddenly changing the topic. "They look kind of like minotaurs..."

One eye opened and looked up at her, "Don't know, tell the truth." He turned his head a bit to get a better look at her, "You ever seen a minotaur? They're bucking huge. These things, these... hoo-mans, they're tall but they seem kinda scrawny to be part minotaur."

"Huh. Okay," Granite said, taking his word for it. Of course she had never seen a minotaur.

Curiosity sated for a while, she snuggled a bit closer against the source of warmth.

"Mmm, 's nice..."

Within minutes, the mare was gone, off to slumberland. Occasionally she shifted a little, or feebly kicked a hoof, but for the most part she slept quietly.

The mare's warm, wiggling body forced Lodestone to reposition himself before he made things far too awkward for not-a-first-date.

Even as tired as he was, he couldn't shake a deep sense of unease and he lay awake for a long time. He had decided to trust Rohan but didn't trust - or even know - anypony else here, which made it hard to feel safe. Fighting habits built up over long years of being the night guard, his subconscious kept insisting he sit up and stand watch.

He fidgeted restlessly without even realizing it, and at one point found himself curled tightly against Granite, his face almost smothered by her mane. She smelled like earth and home. He inhaled deeply, his belly pressing against her warm back, and her scent eased the tension out of him. Finally, almost reluctantly, he began to doze.

CH3: The Spirits

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It was still the middle of the night when Granite woke up, nice and warm, wrapped up as she was. A filly could get used to that!

There was, however, a new problem. She tried to ignore it, but it was getting quite urgent. As a last-ditch effort, Granite tried shuffling into different positions, but none of them helped with the pressure in her bladder.

There was no avoiding it. Her ears were already flat, partly out of embarrassment, partly out of contrition. She would have to wake up Lodestone.

"Um... you sleeping?" she whispered, experimentally. When nothing happened, she nudged the stallion lightly. "Lodestone?"

Lodestone was a light sleeper - that her voice didn't immediately rouse him showed just how exhausted he was after the days' events.

Inhaling deeply, the pegasus turned his head to her and cracked one eye open, "...Yeah? What is it, is something wrong?" He hoped whatever she needed wouldn't require too much movement on his part. Maybe he would be able to slip back to sleep with relative ease.

"Um,..." now that she had to say it, Granite was bashful and embarrassed. She didn't meet the stallion's eyes, but she managed a weak whisper: "I, uh, need to go."

She looked at the door with the sleeping human village outside and gulped. "C-Can you go with me? J-J-Just so we find a bush or something..."

He relaxed and his head plopped to the ground again. Just as he opened his mouth to say something dismissive, he hesitated. Rohan had said nothing good of the night here, and Granite was small and obviously uncomfortable in this unfamiliar place. She must be terrified to even look outside, much less expose herself in such a vulnerable way.

With a small sigh he turned over, sat up, and gently said, "Yeah... okay." He stretched his forelegs over his head and spread his wings wide, then stood and slowly walked toward the door.

With a relieved sigh the distressed pony hurried after her friend. Judging by her rush to get outside, it had sure been critical. She had nearly waited too long.

"W-Which way?" she stuttered, stopping as soon as she was out the door.

There were no humans around, nor any other sort of creature, at least none that Granite could see. Despite the urgency, she waited for Lodestone to go first, even while her hind legs did a little jig in place.

"Uh..." He looked around, then shrugged, "I guess to the river? I think Rohan said that was to the left..." Without waiting for a response, he began walking in that direction.

Granite was only too glad to accept some leadership and gratefully scurried after the stallion. She yawned once or twice along the way, but other than that she was focusing on holding it in.

It wasn't too long before they came to the water, but the young mare seemed uncertain. She looked up and down.

"Just h-here? Won't, uh, the smell? Where do you think these humans drink?"

Unsure of herself, the mare kicked at the water a few times with her hoof.

Lodestone resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"It's a river, Granite, not a stagnant pond. Anything you do here will be rinsed away in moments." He wiggled his snout and made a sour expression, "Besides, the whole village kinda stinks. I doubt they'd even notice."

The ears went flat and the mare turned around. She walked partly into the water, then froze, staring at Lodestone.

"Mind turning away?" Her voice was a lot more confident making this request. "I'm not gonna do it with you watching!"

Good thing the darkness covered her blush. What Granite didn't say was that soon she wouldn't have a choice in the matter. There was such a thing as modesty, though.

The corner of his mouth twitched into a small smirk, "You sure you'll be okay?" He made a show of scouring the far riverbank, "What if a monster jumps out just as I turn around? You wanted a guard, right?"

A small whimper was all the warning Lodestone would get. Of course there'd be nothing to see, but the sound of splashing water was unmistakable. Even as her embarrassment peaked, Granite couldn't contain a heartfelt, relieved sigh.

She still wouldn't meet the stallion's eyes, though. She just stared right in front of her, unseeing, while the sound went on.

His eyes widened. Spinning around as fast as he could manage, he sat down hard, his back to Granite. He had only meant to tease her a bit, not embarrass her like that!

Aside from the embarrassing sounds, Granite didn't make any other noise. Once it was done, she heaved another sigh and came out of the water. Her hind hooves were a bit wet, but they would dry out by the time they returned to the hut.

As she rejoined Lodestone, the mare's gaze was a bit hurt. "Happy now?" she said.

It had been the wrong moment for teasing. "Let's go back," Granite begged.

He rose to his hooves and began walking back to their hut, his ears folded down. If the moon had been brighter, the mare might have noticed his own muzzle was faintly pink.

They walked almost the whole way in stony silence before Lodestone finally spoke. His voice was low and deeply regretful, even more than was really necessary for the small mistake.

"I'm so sorry, Granite. I didn't realize it was that... urgent."

"Shut up," was all the comment she made, at first. Except that it made their walk even more uncomfortable.

A few more steps and she sighed again. "It's fine. Just don't mention it. You didn't see anything anyway!"

She finally realized it was dark and she was facing the stallion. Besides, it wasn't as if ponies habitually wore clothes. It was just that 'doing their business' was considered a private thing.

“Who the fuck is pissin’ in the river! Buncha fuckin’ assholes!”

The two ponies were a good enough distance away by the time they heard the yelling that they wouldn’t be suspect number one if the man decided to search around.

Lodestone froze, then looked over his shoulder and whispered nervously, "What? But..." Shaking his head, he accelerated to a trot, "Nevermind, let's just get inside before anypony suspects us."

Granite gave a frightened, nervous whinny and scurried to the hut she saw up ahead. It might have been theirs, or it might not. They all looked alike to her.

Too bad she made some noise on a patch of hard dirt, though.

She really didn't do well with stealth, it seemed.

At least the doorway wasn't far and the mare gratefully dived inside.

As they entered, something in the hut began to move. From the sound of it, the person, or animal, was quick and moving right towards the pair. In the limited light, neither could easily see it, at least until the human pulled the fur curtain away from the window and let a little light in. It was a human, a bit thicker than Rohan and holding a hammer.

“You little shits scared the spirit outta me! What’re ye doin’ in ma house?! Ye know how eas’ly that could spook someone out here?”

At the very least, he lowered the hammer and started looking out the window to check if anyone else was around.

Failing to grab the mare as she rushed toward the first hut she saw, Lodestone hurried forward and stepped inside behind Granite.

"Sorry sir! Just got a little turned around, won't happen again!"

A wing wrapped around Granite's chest and he tried to tug her back outside.

Granite just stared for a while, so confused that she resisted being pulled out.

"This isn't, um, o-our hut..." she said lamely.

Despite the strange situation, she took the opportunity to look around at how these humans lived. It's wasn't too different from pony homes, if a bit more... rudimentary.

At last she came to her senses and let Lodestone drag her out.

"Sorry!" she said to both the strange human and the stallion. Then, a bit more quietly, she went on just for Lodestone's ears:

"I don't do too well under pressure..."

It had taken a lot to admit that.

“I’ll bet yer sorry, but ye’ll prob’ly make the same mistake twice. Follow me.”

The large human sighed deeply and set the hammer on a nearby table as he walked out with the mare. Even with the little light the moon offered, the stallion would be able to see the human eyeing over his wings.

“I’ll bet that Rohan put ye over here. I’d guess he thought ye’d go undisturbed through the night, since it’s empty and all that.”

The area would look more familiar as the group got closer to the correct hut, though it was undeniable that the humans still awake were all on edge. Even with guards patrolling about, people still seemed afraid of potential threats.

As they followed, the guards' fear began to rub off on Lodestone. He watched the skies nervously, the urge to take flight almost overwhelming.

In an effort to distract himself, he turned to the strange man and asked, "I know Rohan said the nights are dangerous but... don't you people ever sleep?" He gestured a hoof at all the people milling about, "It feels like there are just as many people out here as there were in the day."

Now Granite, too, was catching the mood. Almost unconsciously she began to walk closer and closer to the stallion, until she was pressing against his rump and nearly trodding on his hooves.

The mare scanned the skies fearfully and swiveled her ears at every small, unexplained sound. It was just the humans going about their business, but she was working herself up nonetheless.

It was with considerable relief that she recognized their hut up ahead and breathed a sigh of relief right into Lodestone's ear - that's how close she had gotten.

With a slow shake of his head, the man stopped near the entrance of the hut before either went in.

“Many stay awake so that others can try ta sleep. It helps ta have a guy like Rohan patrol, but he cannae go ev’ry night, ‘s impossible.”

As if lost in thought, he stared out towards the village for a long minute. Once he snapped back to reality, he stepped out of the way of the ponies.

“Alright, off ye go. Get yer sleep so that I can get back to ma house and get some myself.”

Trying to ignore the mare pressing herself against him, he nodded his head in a little bow to the man, "Sorry again for barging into your place."

He turned to enter the hut and only then noticed the crude plank of wood just by the entrance. On it was a tiny pile of raw vegetables, two under-ripe apples... and a small strip of dried meat.

"Phew!" Granite exhaled. "That was close!"

She finally peeled herself off from the stallion and flicked her tail around - a sure sign of nerves.

"He could have been upset I went into his house..." Granite admitted, not quite meeting Lodestone's gaze. She knew it was her own fault. "Sorry."

After a moment's thought, she stepped closer and gave the stallion a tentative nuzzle. "Thanks for going with me..."

Only then did she notice what he was looking at. "What is that? Food?"

Her nuzzle surprised him so much he jerked his gaze away from the food and turned to her. She was standing so close he could feel the fur of her flanks lightly brushing his, and he quickly turned away again, ears folded down in embarrassment.

"Uh, yeah. No problem. Thought you were... mad at me?"

As nonchalantly as he could manage, he grabbed the makeshift tray with a wing and carried it into the hut. He considered trying to swipe the meat and hide it from Granite, but there's no way she wouldn't smell it. He'd just have to hope she wouldn't freak out too badly.

For the moment, the mare wasn't paying the tray any attention whatsoever. She was suddenly focused on the stallion, intently.

Maybe it was all the excitement they'd been through, or maybe it was the cuddling session earlier, but Granite was blushing. It was particularly obvious on the lighter patches of her fur.

"You said you were sorry. I moved p-past it," she explained.

"Umm...."

There was something more, but the pony couldn't find a way to say it. She just stared at Lodestone, mouth hanging open in confusion.

He set the tray down toward the back of the hut, turned around, and was surprised to see Granite still standing in the doorway.

"...Granite? You okay?" Silhouetted against the moonlight outside, he couldn't make out her expression, but he could see she wasn't moving. "Come on, you must be cold out there," He picked up one of the apples and wiggled it at her enticingly, "And you haven't eaten all day, right?"

That got the mare moving and she walked forward. She accepted the fruit gratefully and bit off half in a single chomp.

"'fanksh!" she said with her mouth full.

While she chewed Granite went to the bed and sat. It seemed that one apple was enough for her. Instead, she patted the hay beside her, then swallowed so she could talk.

"This still doesn't mean we're dating, okay? It's just dinner and cuddling."

He stared at her as he munched on some of the vegetables. They weren't anything he recognized, but the flavor reminded him faintly of onions, though they were starchy like potatoes.

"If dinner and cuddling doesn't qualify as a date," he said, lifting his apple and staring at it intently, "...what would?" He slowly raised his eyes to meet hers and bit the apple in half.

"Kissing..." it slipped out before Granite could prevent it. She gasped in shock, then let out an involuntary 'moo' sound.

Unfortunately that just made it worse and she hurriedly plopped down so she could hider her muzzle under her forelegs.

Lodestone chewed thoughtfully for a moment, then shrugged and gave her a wry smile.

"Alright, we just won't kiss then."

He picked up the tray and laid down beside her, wrapping his free wing over her. He realized she was shaking - she must be colder than he realized.

"Here," he said, nudging the rest of the veggies toward her, "you'll need more than just an apple."

Granite wrinkled her nose at the smell. "Hey, what's that?!" she pointed right at the meat.

She audibly sniffed, then gasped. "They gave us meat?! B-But we're ponies!"

The sheer thought was disturbing enough to make the mare squeeze herself closer and hide her face as best as she could under Lodestone's wing. "I think I just lost my appetite."

At least she wasn't running away from it or something...

He gently squeezed her with a wing, "Don't worry, I won't make you eat it. I left most of the vegetables for you." He glared at the meat, trying to look disgusted and uncomfortable, "I'll... force it down. I'm worried if we don't eat everything, it'll insult them or something." He tried to fake a reluctant sigh, then shrugged, "Protein will probably be good for my injury, anyways."

"Yuck!" Granite made a face. "You don't have to do that! Just leave it, there's enough of the other stuff for us both!"

Although, now that the idea had been put in her mind, Granite was intrigued by the prospect. Despite slight nausea, she kept watching what Lodestone would do.

"I h-heard there's some ponies out in Manehattan who like to eat... f-fish," Granite vouchsafed in a whisper, as if it was a big, dreadful secret. "Can you imagine?"

She sniffed the air again, morbidly fascinated in the morsel. The rest of the food was forgotten for the moment.

He shook his head, "I'm not leaving it. We simply can't risk offending these people." He sighed and glanced sidelong at Granite, "If it makes you uncomfortable, do you want me to step outside so you don't have to see? I could even go down to the river and drink some water to get the smell off my breath if you want."

"Nuh-uh!" the mare shook her head. "It's f-fine... You don't have to leave."

She shivered a little, then wiggled a bit closer still. "I'll be fine."

Granite kept watching with wide, unblinking eyes. She was holding her breath, so she wouldn't have to smell it too much, yet she couldn't look away. A pony eating meat - unthinkable, yet strangely alluring.

"Heh," she laughed to dispel some of the tension, "if you have to puke, go outside this time, okay?"

Lodestone grinned at her, then lifted the meat with a wing and sniffed it, looking serious. It smelled good and his mouth began to water. Still trying to keep up the act, he took a cautious nibble at one end, but it was tougher than he expected and he was forced to tear off a chunk much larger than he'd intended.

The flavor was... surprisingly bland. His ears drooped and he huffed slightly, feeling disappointed. The texture was rough and fibrous, not very pleasant, and he considered spitting it out, but then he noticed it did actually have a faint flavor. Curious, he swirled it in his mouth some more and the salty flavor became more noticeable. It was unlike anything he'd ever had before, and it only intensified as he chewed it more and more.

He became suddenly aware of Granite's eyes on him and he swallowed hard, trying to act like he had to struggle to get it down.

"Is it good?" Granite asked in a breathless whisper. She was trembling a little from over-excitement, but at least she wasn't retching or screaming. Maybe seeing somepony else do it was easier on the mare.

"What's it taste like?" she asked, but then changed her mind: "Actually, never mind. I don't wanna know."

Now that the first bite had been taken and nothing too horrible had happened, Granite relaxed and inspected the tray for herself. She picked up something at random and began eating herself.

"Probably for the best," he murmured, "I don't think I could describe it. It's not... bad, but it's texture is really weird. I almost spit it out just for that. It's not like anything I've tasted before, except it's really salty. I guess the saltiness is why it's not so bad..." He shuffled uneasily, and said honestly, "It feels so wrong, though."

There was only a moment of hesitation before he tore off a larger chunk and began chewing it thoroughly.

Granite shivered at the sight, but that just made her giggle for some reason. "So..." she asked with an insolent smile on her muzzle. "How long till your teeth go all sharp and you start hunting like a wolf?"

Before Lodestone might take offense she nudged him with her elbow. "Joking..." she explained, as if it was necessary.

She watched her friend finish the strip of meat, then sighed. "It looks wrong, too. I won't tell anypony, okay? It'll just be our little secret."

He chuckled in response, then continued working on the strangely tasty meat. When he was down to the last piece, he hesitated and glanced at her.

"Sure you don't want to try a tiny piece? It's fine if you don't," he continued hurriedly, "Just wanted to make sure before I finished it."

Granite hurriedly shook her head. She might be morbidly curios to see it done, even strangely attracted to this strange pony who did it, but she knew her own limits. A taste of it would very like make her puke.

"I'm fine," she confirmed, swallowing the last carrot. She kindly left some vegetables in case Lodestone might want to clear the taste of meat from his mouth.

"Oh," the mare continued, "if you decide to throw up while we sleep, don't do it over me, okay?"

She shuffled until she was lying on her side, facing away, but still covered with the wing. "Good night, Lodestone."

He swallowed the last piece, then followed it with the last of the vegetables. It wasn't that he needed the taste out of his mouth, but he was worried the smell on his breath would be too disgusting for Granite to tolerate.

Finally, he scooted the small tray aside and shifted to a more comfortable position, glad the little mare was still friendly after his blunder earlier. Distracted by his thoughts as he snuggled close against her back, he nuzzled her cheek before he realized what he was doing. His muzzle burned hot with embarrassment, and he tried to lay his head down calmly, hoping she was too sleepy to notice what he'd done.

Granite was fully aware, but she took a few seconds to think up her next move.

"Jeez, it's like we really are dating!" she said, mock-complaining. "Keep it between your legs, fly boy!"

That last made her giggle a little. She didn't push the pegasus away, though.

"Actually," she concluded in a whisper almost too faint to hear, "that was kinda nice."

His blush intensified and he twisted his hind legs a bit so he wasn't quite so wrapped around her. The whisper had been just loud enough for him to hear, but since he had no idea how to react, he pretended he hadn't heard it at all. He chuckled gently, then simply murmured, "Good night, Granite."

As the sun began to rise, the people collectively heaved a sigh of relief. Rohan, not one to dawdle, made his way into the hut and began to shake the two ponies awake. Instead of an assortment of furs stitched together, today Rohan was wearing a leather-fur mix reinforced by some metal in various spots. Attached to the belt on his hip was a sheathed sword of some kind.

“If you don’t wake soon, there will be no time to ask about your journey to our holy place, assuming you are still interested.”

True to her embarrassing nickname, Granite woke up with a squeak that ended up sounding a little like a cow's moo. She observed the armed and armored human and shrank back in fear. He must have come for her and there was just one reason she could think of, in her addled, early morning state.

"I didn't mean to pee in the river! I didn't know! I'm sorry!" she whimpered, drawing Lodestone's wing up over her muzzle as if it could protect her.

The pegasus was already beginning to wake from the sound, but Granite grabbing his sensitive primaries startled him wide awake and he almost yanked his wing from her. Of course, then he saw the expression on her face and immediately felt bad, slowly extending his wing again for her.

Finally, his brain caught up and he realized what the man had said as he was waking.

"Oh! Uh, yes, please, we would be honored to see your hallowed grounds." He stifled a yawn and turned to Granite, "Right?"

“You peed in the river? I was not aware of that...”

It explained why he heard someone cursing up a storm last night, but that was of no importance. Right now, he was focused on getting them up.

“If you are to join us then we must go. Time is of the essence and the leaders won’t wait, even for your kind.”

"Where are we going?" Granite asked Lodestone. It was as if she hadn't fully heard what Rohan was saying and was turning to the pegasus for help.

"Is-is it safe?"

Now that the initial panic was over, the mare stood up and stretched a little, but she still kept her eyes on the scary-looking human. She wanted to hide behind Lodestone again, but mastered herself and stayed put. After all, she had been in this place nearly a full day and no one had tried to attack her yet. Maybe they weren't as scary as they had seemed yesterday?

Lodestone shrugged and got to his hooves, "Their holy place, I guess." He turned to Rohan, "You mentioned it was in the mountain, I think? Lead the way."

“Follow closely then.”

He brought them further into town than either of their trips had taken them before. The random, thrown together huts that people lived in gave way to stalls and various shops built with mud bricks. Here was where the village was at its most active, but even with a large crowd, the ponies would find themselves being given a good amount of space. Looking around, each stall was unique in what it sold, meaning people weren’t competing to lower prices. Even then, the stall owners didn’t look that much more well off and people seemed to wear a smile as they traded for what they needed. Rohan lead them dutifully through the “bazaar,” as that’s what it most resembled, and closer towards what seemed like a small mountain. One building at the end of the road, however, stood out from the rest, since it was made of proper stone. The sound of hammer on metal could be heard there and as the trio passed they could see the man from the night before hammering away at what looked to be a spear head. At his side sat an equally large man, though younger in appearance, who used a chisel to carve intricate symbols into the various metal objects.

“This is one of the most well defended places in the village. If you ever have need, I would suggest hiding here.”

"Uh-huh! Okay!" Granite was quick to agree at the mention of safety. She was walking very close to Lodestone, sometimes getting in his way but mostly just brushing flanks. The mare was nervous with all the strangeness and the unusual people she saw, but determined not to show it.

She had eyed the wares in the bazaar with interest, but didn't make a move. She had no money with her, after all. Running away had been a thing she had done with zero preparation.

One thing did prod her curiosity, though, and Granite asked their human guide directly: "Um, mister Rohan, sir?" she began meekly, "why are your weapons carved with art?"

Lodestone nodded, "And the defensive wall, too. It has similar intricate patterns as your spearheads."

While they walked, he looked at everything around him, surprised yet again at the size of the village. Yesterday he had thought he'd seen most of the place, but now he knew that had only been a small fraction. If they weren't so horribly primitive, he'd call it a town instead of a tribal village.

“Ah, they are symbols of power. Between our Shaman and priest, we have found that certain words can contain power. Etching those words into our creations, along with a blessing, can imbue them with special properties. For instance, the wall is slightly sturdier than simple stone.”

He watched the two smiths work on the weapons that had come to define their way of life in the village. Spears were the most typical, but daggers and various kinds of swords had their uses as well. Shields were not particularly common, but there were still a few made, in case of larger creatures attacking by ground.

“We are nearly at the base of the mountain, there you will meet our leaders. Though, you’ve already met one.”

He spoke of the shaman that lodestone had met before. After nearly a quarter mile of hiking on a slight incline, they finally ran into the trio of leaders. Unlike the shaman, the priest was a young lady with long, blonde hair and fair skin. Her blue eyes were like pools and her clothing was a tad more intricate than anything seen in the village. Their chief, who stood in the middle of the two, also happened to be a woman, though much more muscular and barbaric than her companions. Various scars covered her arms and the parts of her body that were showing beneath her wolfskin clothing.

The explanation about magic piqued Granite's interest, but only until she spotted the new humans. She began to relax when she saw they were ladies, but then she noticed the chief's scars and froze.

One glance at the woman's expression was enough to shake the mare's confidence and she edged her way behind the pegasus. She tried to make herself as unobtrusive as possible.

"They look scary," she whispered to Lodestone from behind his back. "Be careful!"

Not knowing what would be proper, he decided to err on the side of too-formal and quickly moved to stand beside the mare, not letting her hide behind him. He dropped into a low bow, bumped her hoof, and eyed her meaningfully until she did the same. He lowered his head and spoke softly.

"Our deepest thanks for your hospitality - and especially for my healed wing. May the Sun and Moon watch over you."

He held his bow until they responded.

“Will you excuse us?”

The chief yanked Rohan away and proceeded to scold him off of the road. As she did, the priest knelt down beside the stallion and began inspecting him up close, even going so far as to reach out to the wing.

“You were right, there is an aura around them, but it is light and warm. Blessed ones, how is it that you come to have-“

The loud thud of the Chief whacking Rohan over the head stopped her train of thought. Having ended whatever they were talking about, both stepped back over to the group and the chief held a hand up in greeting.

“Rohan has informed me you wish to join us on our little outing. You can come, but I’m gonna be watching you. You’re still new to this village, and that means you haven’t necessarily earned my trust, but you are blessed beings and this is a holy site.”

"Out-outing?!" Granite said nervously. She didn't seem to hear or understand all those things about 'blessed ones' and auras, so she just focused on the bits she caught.

"Where? Is it d-dangerous?!" she stammered.

Now that they were talking again, she had stood up from Lodestone's impromptu bow and stepped closer to the stallion.

The pony peered from one human to the next, then worked up her nerve to demand: "How about you stop talking in riddles and tell us where we're going and what we're doing?!"

Lodestone stood and sighed heavily, "Please forgive her. She doesn't take to stress very well. One moment." He stepped close and quickly whispered in her ear, "Please don't anger the army of tribal warriors, yeah?"

After he stepped away, he looked up at the leaders and grinned apologetically, "Though I have to admit I'm also very curious what's going on. Should we just wait and see or can you explain first?"

"The easiest way to put it into words is that it is a place where we can commune with the gods and ancient spirits in order to receive guidance or blessings. So far, the spirits there have only truly attuned themselves to four people: Us."

The chief had started to lead them along the road leading up the mountain as she explained. It was clear that the humans had taken some time to make sure this road was maintained and ready for those of the village to walk its path.

"We have sent many of the villagers into this area, as they still provide insight or some knew knowledge. Our smiths learned about how to carve words of power into stone and metal during their trip, but many hear nothing at all. I guess they just go and reflect, and that reflection allows them to see things more clearly, or something."

Rohan, who had been listening patiently, turned to walk backwards so he could face the pair of ponies.

"Each of us four has received a different type of blessing there too. Our Shaman gained the ability to commune with spirits and life forces, the priest was given the ability to weave spells and fend off sickness and disease with her magic, the chief gained incredible wisdom and was taught how to lead, while I was gifted with combat prowess and power to accompany it. It is because of these blessings that we have been able to survive in this forest."

"Oh, Granite said weakly." It was all too much at once for the poor mare, but she made a game attempt to keep up.

"For us ponies it's just unicorns who can do magic. Oh, and alicorns, like the Princesses."

It wasn't much of a contribution, but it was there. The mare still peered around fearfully, anxious about the scary forest, but at least she didn't bump into Lodestone so much. Talking helped, and focusing her mind on something else but the danger also.

She paused as a thought struck her, then hurried a few steps to catch up. "You think we'll also get magical powers?!"

Nodding thoughtfully, Lodestone followed the group of leaders, hoping to see how they used magic without horns. While the leaders seemed to consider Granite's question, he brought his head close to Granite's and asked, "You doing okay? Let me know if the weirdness starts getting to you."

The mare was feeling a lot better. She actually grinned at Lodestone. "Okay, lemme tell you about yesterday, then..."

She chuckled a bit and bumped her flank against the stallion. "Thanks, tho. I guess this isn't too bad. At least there's no monsters."

Looking up ahead at the humans, Granite hurried to catch up.

The incline slowly leveled off as they got about halfway up the small mountain. The road led into the mouth of a cave, where the humans stopped. Rather than use a torch, the priest mumbled the incantation to a spell that floated a small ball of light just above her head.

“Please stay very close to me, there isn’t much light till we get further into the cavern.”

The other three humans stood back, so the ponies could stick near the priest and the light source.

“Also, umm... please be respectful if the gods and spirits appear before you. They have been mostly kind to us and we don’t want to disrespect them.”

It had been so quick, Lodestone had hardly even noticed the priest's murmuring before the spell was cast. He decided to watch that one closely as they went forward. Maybe he could gain favor with Princess Twilight if he could give details about their magic.

"What will they look like? And... didn't you say we're honored beings or something? I thought we wouldn't have to worry about offending them."

The cave was a bit better for Granite. She didn't have to look around as carefully because there were fewer directions danger might come from. She felt much more at home in the gloom, even with the strange humans and their unusual, non-unicorn magic.

"Respectful," she murmured, "got it. Okay, respectful to ghosts. I can do this..."

She was murmuring mostly to herself, but she kept walking all the while.

"Huh, interesting strata..." she said, not intending for anyone to hear, really.

“Strata? I’m afraid I am unfamiliar with that word.”

Following her gaze, he noticed she was looking at the formation of rocks in the cavern and realized it must be some miner lingo.

“Do you know much about rocks? There is a mine at the base of the mountain. We could use more help down there, if it interests you.”

"Oh right, you mentioned mining yesterday, didn't you?"

The pegasus hurried to jump on the opportunity. Getting in Princess Twilight's good graces would be nice, but Flim and Flam practically owned him. He must remember his assignment.

"We would love to see the local geology, wouldn't we Granite?"

"What? Uh, yeah," the mare confirmed uneasily. It took her a few seconds to remember yesterday, which seemed like ages ago. "Sure. Geology. I can mine."

She stepped closer to Lodestone and lowered her voice. "What are you planning?" she asked, her rushed, quiet tone managing to convey that it would probably turn out to be a stupid idea.

"I won't help you steal from them! I'd like to go on living, thank you very much! Have you seen those spears?!"

Granite had been letting her voice get louder and by the end they could all hear her.

Rohan watched the exchange with a grin and leaned in when she finished.

“You should listen to her. They are very sharp you know.”

The group began to laugh when the mare jumped slightly at his entrance into her whispers, though it ended after only a moment. The cavern opened up and the priests spell faded into nothingness, yet there was no lack of light. Gems, large and, glittered all around the walls. In the middle of the room sat a series of pools, fed by water that dripped from several places in the ceiling. That, however, was not what would gain the ponies’ attention. Jutting our from the ceiling was a massive illuminated sapphire that could easily take up the entirety of one of the huts down in the village.

His face was aghast and it only got worse when he realized the humans had heard her too. Flim and Flam might try and steal from them, but he sure as hay won't!

"Celestia above, Granite, of course I'm not gonna steal from them! I just want to see, maybe try to trade..."

He trailed off and openly gawked as they entered the massive cavern. In all the mining expeditions he had been on, nothing had ever come close to this. Not even the Solution Caves of Neighagra Falls could compare to this... The sapphire alone would be worth more than the entire output of the Crystal Empire and San Palomino Rock Farm combined!

Even the mare stared. She watched the stone for a bit, then said - all too loudly again: "Although, if you stole that, you'd be set for life."

She caught Lodestone's expression and giggled. "I'm kidding! Yeesh!"

It had done Granite some good to joke a bit. She was much more relaxed. The combination of underground, geology and jokes were extremely good at putting her at her ease. The fact that none of the humans had tried anything harmful helped even further.

She made her way closer to Rohan - the human she knew marginally better than the other three. "So, what should we do?"

“We wait for them to start their ritual.”

The humans seemed to have brushed off the jab about stealing the gem as the shaman and priest moved to opposite sides of the room. Both began to chant, though each pulled an object from their clothing for this ritual. Like before, the shaman used the rattling item and began to do a tribalistic dance during her chant. The priest’s item, however, was a harp-like object. As she played, she twirled elegantly and continued her own chant till the two met in the middle underneath the sapphire. The light it was already emitting began to glow bright and brighter until it was blinding. As the light faded, spirits began to appear in the room, though they were not human or pony. Truthfully they were closer to the deer that once controlled the land many, many years before the castle of the two sisters was ever created.

Lowering his wing as the light faded, Lodestone was surprised to see the spirits' forms. He didn't recognize the deer-like creatures, but they were obviously Equestrian in nature.

Unsure what was required of them, he lowered his head respectfully and took a hesitant step toward the spirits, watching to see how the humans would react.

For her part, Granite just stared curiously. Seeing pony-esque shapes calmed her immensely, even if she was uneasy about magic and ghosts. She even waved at one of them in a friendly fashion.

"Cool," she commented, "but why are your spirits equine? Shouldn't they be - dunno - human shaped?"

Granite wasn't looking at the over-bright gem either, so she had plenty of time to inspect their new visitors. She pointed a hoof, while at the same time tapping Lodestone with her other. "Oooh, check out that one!"

“There are some missing...”

The largest of the deer, a stag with beautifully massive horns, stepped forward as the humans began to kneel. It was easily larger than Celestia and it’s eyes held the gaze of one who had many centuries of wisdom to share. It stopped just before the two ponies and lowered its head to inspect them closely.

“Children of the sun have stepped into our domain once more. One- a gentle, yet indomitable spirit. The other- steadfast and brave, yet guided by foolish hooves.”

Its gaze moved from Granite to Lodestone as it spoke about them in turn.

“What is your purpose here?”

There were a thousand questions he wanted to ask, but he thought it best to answer a direct question from... well, whatever these beings were.

"Uh..." His tail flicked nervously, "My employers sent me to this forest to see if it would be a viable to set up a new mining operation here. If they knew this was here..." He shuddered slightly at the thought of what they would do to get a hold of this cave.

In that moment, standing before this mysterious being, staring at the wonders all around him, Lodestone knew he would do everything within his power to keep Flim and Flam away from this forest.

"What?" Granite demanded of stallion, of course at the most inopportune time. "What would they do?"

The mare had lived a relatively sheltered life, where the worst she had seen - what had driven her to run away from home - was light teasing because of her color. She couldn't imagine what ponies like Flim and Flam would be capable off if they saw enough wealth within hoof's reach.

She looked at the spirits and quickly lowered her head. "I was only joking about stealing it, um - forest spirit! I swear! Of course I'd never..."

“Nor would it be within your power to do so. There are other spirits here that would help us to defend what is ours and ours alone.”

He lightly tapped his right forehoof against the ground and the gems that were on the walls began to light up. The lights formed lines between many of the clusters until they finally formed shapes in the same way astrologers do with the stars. The symbol of the deer turned out to be but one of four clusters, as well as the only clan that showed themselves to the ponies.

“The wolf clan, quick and effective, would hunt down transgressors. The mighty Ursus clan could easily overpower an army. My clan, the deer clan, are adept spell casters that would use the very forest against you. The lizard clan, wisest and most ancient of all, would bring fear into their hearts in an unspeakable way.”

The display of power set Lodestone somewhat at ease, but he would still keep his employers well away from this place. He had underestimated them before.

He glanced at the humans and realized each of them must be tied to a clan. While he pondered this, there was an expectant pause and he realized this might be his only opportunity to ask a question. He ignored Granite's question and looked back to the iridescent deer, trying to keep a respectful demeanor.

"I hope you won't be offended if I ask... does Princess Celestia know about you? And, uh, do you... want something from us? I'm guessing you didn't reveal yourselves just to chat..."

“The sun mare and her sister are well known to my kind. They once sought wisdom in this very place, though it was many years ago.”

Before answering the second question, the stag made its way back to the center of the room.

“Your kind have always been less cautious around mine. As such, we were picked to come alone to make a request. These humans have been...displaced. They are not of this world, yet they struggle with all their might to survive in this harsh land. We can only provide so much assistance, but you can provide far more. With the aid of your kind, these “people” can thrive in this world. Will you aid them?”

"What can we do?!" Granite asked plaintively. "I'm just a farmer girl who likes rocks. I don't know anypony big or important!"

She looked at Lodestone with a certain hope in her eyes. "Maybe you know who to take this to? I guess the Princesses, but I don't know how to get a hold of them..."

Now that the request had been voiced, Granite was ready for action. She was prancing a little, seemingly on the verge of running off to do... whatever. Possibly go look for one of the alicorns. She all but forgot about the horrors of the forest around them.

Lodestone's ears folded back, "Well... I guess I could talk to the Mayor and get word up the chain of command..."

He looked up at the deer again, his brow furrowing, "But what do you need us for? Is your power limited to this cave or something?"

“No, the cave is not what binds us, it is merely the home to what we are truly bound to.”

He raises his head to peer up at the magnificent sapphire that had first spawned them.

“Long ago, our four clans bound our spirits to this gemstone, so that we may continue to be a guide to those we left behind. Wherever it moves, so do we. But that is not the main reason for the request.”

His gaze slowly shifted back to the ponies, though now he wore a somber expression.

“I sense that your world is vastly different when compared to when the sisters roamed this land. You can improve the lives of these humans in ways we cannot. But ultimately, it is your choice to make. For now, we must return to our slumber.”

The light from the sapphire faded back to its original glow and the spirits of the deer faded with it.

"Well, that was..." Granite started, then paused to search for the correct word. "mysterious?"

She looked at the humans expectantly. The mare was feeling a lot better, now that she had seen these forest spirits. They instilled her with a sense of safety, at least in this cave. They weren't exactly ponies, but they weren't monsters either. She felt she could trust them.

"Now what happens?"

It sounded almost like Granite was treating the whole exercise as some kind of performance for her amusement. She even glanced at the pegasus, wearing a wide, goofy grin on her muzzle. "That was cool, wasn't it?"

He stared at her foal-like smile, momentarily dumbfounded by how lightly she was taking this. He spoke slowly, half explaining to Granite, half trying to process it for himself.

"We were just talking to... some kind of spirits that the Sister Princesses themselves came to for guidance and wisdom, and they... they tasked us with helping some creatures that aren't even from this plane of existence find a way to live in Equestria... and all you say is 'that was cool'?"

His expression was somewhere between amused and bewildered. A weak chuckle bubbled out of him, then his hindquarters collapsed and he just sat on his haunches awkwardly, his eyes staring blankly in the direction of the mare.

"Jeez, lighten up!" Granite said. She became thoughtful for a moment, then her grin was back. "Here. Moo! That make you laugh?"

It was apparently okay if she made cow jokes about herself - just nopony else was allowed to. Maybe her lightheartedness could be explained by relief after a scary afternoon and night.

“If I may interrupt, I’m actually fairly curious as to “how you can help” too. I trust the spirits to know what they’re talking about, but how are you two gonna make our lives safer and better?”

The chief plopped down on the ground near the two ponies and allowed her eyes to wander around the gems.

Another laugh burst out of Lodestone, sounding a little hysterical now.

"Hay if I know, I'm just a damn skycrane! What am I supposed to do, carry you out of here?"

Danger and stress he could handle, but trying to wrap his head around the sheer gravity of the situation was simply overwhelming. The more he thought about it the less coherent his words became and he began to slump to the ground as he rambled.

"I just wanted to look at some rocks and this ancient being thing comes along and says to help some weird minotaur things and its our choice but of course we can't just say no and leave these people..."

Granite tried to surreptitiously kick her colleague on the ankle. "You okay?" she whispered, before turning a slightly manic grin on the humans. "I'm sure we'll think of something. Right?"

Another kick. "Right Lodestone?!"

It was a small mercy that the spirits weren't visible at the moment.

“Welp, seems like we are doomed. Guess we’ll just head back down to the village and continue on as best we can.”

The chief dismissed the ponies nearly altogether just based on that reaction as she got up to walk towards the exit to wait. Rohan, however, stood by the stallion and gave his shoulder a pat.

“Fret not, little pony, we’ve mostly figured out life in this forest. We just need to find a way to make it safer!”

Lodestone sat up suddenly, looking for all the world as if he'd just cured the world of evil.

"Of course! I even said it earlier, I'll just tell the Mayor. She can explain to Princess Twilight and they can handle it from there! We're just the messengers."

He turned to Granite and chuckled weakly, "Then we can just look for rocks somewhere else, right?"

Granite glanced around the cave at all the gems with big, shiny eyes. Then she shook her head clear. "Y-Yeah. Somewhere else. Sure."

She turned the way they came, waiting for the stallion to come. "So I guess we're going now? Um- can you still fly me out?"

Being faced with the idea of walking through Everfree was making the poor mare quite nervous.

“The spirits asked for your help, not for you to go get help. I will not accept aid from this princess simply so you can shirk off the request and feel good about yourself!”

Rohan gave the stallion an angry glare for such an open affront to what was basically one of his gods. Even the other three were taken aback by his outburst, but the priest slowly nodded in agreement.

“The spirits asked you to help. If some other pony comes along and has impure intentions, they could do more harm. If you wish to leave and not help, that is also your choice.”

The same spell she had used to lead them through the dark part of the cavern was cast once more, though all eyes were on the stallion.

The brief respite had cleared Lodestone's mind somewhat, but Rohan's sudden vehemence brought him up short. He stopped suddenly, forcing the others to halt as well, and tried to control his emotions.

"Um... y-yeah. Of course."

He closed his eyes and took two breaths to steady himself. The tension almost seemed to flow out of him and when he opened his eyes, they were clear and focused again.

"You understand we can't do everything ourselves, right? Eventually we'll need to bring other ponies in to assist, but..." He took one more calming breath, "You're right. I can't just shirk responsibility from somepony like that. I'll do what I can to help."

It sounded like a daunting task and Granite shrank back a little. She wasn't quite as happy as a minute ago, but she swallowed a lump and nodded. "I'll help, too. I'm sure we can do something!"

Not against the monsters, but the mare didn't say that out loud. Maybe she could leave that scary military stuff to Lodestone and focus on something else. Even farming, though she blushed at herself, how quickly she had flipped from her alleged annoyance with the job back at home.

“I trust we are in capable hands then.”

His anger quelled, Rohan took the lead as the group left the way they came.

CH4: Showing Off

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Between the tension of what had happened and Rohan wishing to reflect on the meeting, the walk was quiet and uneventful. By the time that everyone arrived back at the village, it was just past midday.

The pegasus was deep in thought as well. His breakdown had lost him the respect of the chief and probably the others to some degree. He needed to do something to help now, before he and Granite left for Ponyville. Thinking on each of the four leaders' roles, an idea struck him that should help both Rohan and the Chief think better of him.

When they stepped outside, he was relieved to see large, low-flying clouds in the sky. Since the Everfree wasn't controlled by the weather patrol, he knew that was simple luck.

He waited until they were back in the village proper and he could see the wide wall more clearly before he made up his mind. Now he just had to get their attention.

"Uh... Rohan, sir? And... the others?"

Smooth, Lodestone.

"I have an idea for a way I might help right now, at least in some minor way."

“Oh? Don’t keep us in suspense then! Show us your big plan!”

The chief pat him on the back, but unlike Rohan it was quite a bit more powerful.

His ears folded back at the clear contempt in her voice, but he continued anyway.

"Okay, just wait here for one moment, I need to fly high into the sky to show you something or you won't understand."

He turned to the small mare, sure his sudden absence would frighten her, but he also wanted to make a show of leaving Granite behind, as that would help keep them from thinking he was just running away.

"I'm just flying straight up and back down, I won't even be out of sight, okay? Don't worry, I would never leave you behind."

The ears went instantly flat on Granite, too. She swallowed, but then forced a fake smile as transparent as glass.

"Oh, sure. Do your thing, fly boy," she managed.

The mare took one look at the humans left around her and then lowered her gaze to the ground. "I'll just, uh, wait here, okay?"

He took a step back and spread his wings, then looked around nervously and took one more step away.

"I might be a bit clumsy after my injury," he said apologetically.

His wings pumped once experimentally, then he carefully lifted himself off the ground. He hovered in place for a few seconds to make sure his injury wouldn't trouble him, then tilted back and rose powerfully into the air. He always did love take off.

Once he was above the rooftops, he began spiraling upward since it was easier than flying straight up... it would look better from the ground, too. The trees were several times the height of the buildings, but as he rose above the canopy line, he quickly got his bearings and figured out which direction was Ponyville. He focused on the village below and took note where it was within the forest and which direction Ponyville would be from the ground, just in case he needed to fly away during the night.

After that was firmly in his mind, he returned to the reason he came up here. He leveled out and flew straight toward a cloud, separating a piece about twice the size of a pony, careful to stay in sight of the ground. He'd only be a dim grey speck by now, but he was sure they were watching him carefully, in case he slipped away.

He spun the cloud into a dense ball. It was easier to move, could be expanded once he reached the ground, and would be less likely to break apart from the wind. Finally, he angled into a shallow dive and spiraled down to the village again. He touched down almost exactly where he stood earlier and maneuvered the piece of cloud to float in front of him.

“By the gods! You can literally pluck the clouds from the heavens!”

Rohan wasn’t the only one shocked, as many of the people at the edge of town saw it clearly as well. Even the Chief was made to wear a dumbfounded look.

“Wait, you can control the clouds! Does that mean you can stave off the storms that Thunder Rocs bring? That would be immensely helpful in protecting the village!”

"Oh, that's nothing for a pegasus!" Granite said, suddenly an expert on the topic. "They can do all sorts of crazy things with the weather!"

The mare hadn't doubted her friend, but she still went to him and gave him a hug, grateful he was back. "Thanks!" she whispered just for him and smiled.

It occurred to her that she would soon have to prove her worth as well. IT caused her to go all quiet and thoughtful.

Lodestone returned the hug, then hesitated before responding. He supposed it was expected they would need more explanation, but he'd hoped to avoid giving an impromptu lecture on weather control. Granite's comment would make that difficult. The others were getting impatient with his silence, he knew, but finally he thought he could summarize it without taking too long.

"Short answer: probably not. We pegasi control the weather where ponies live, but the Everfree Forest has always been impossible to control and we never knew why. I assume it's because of the Thunder Rocs - I had never heard of them before yesterday."

He barreled on before they could distract him with more questions.

"I can explain more later if need be, but for now, Rohan, look."

He expanded the cloud until it was as thin as it could be while still being opaque, then shaped it into a large flat square, wide enough to cover two humans standing side by side. He worked one small hole about the side of a fist into the middle at about the height of the human's heads. Finally, he stepped forward and stood with the cloud intersecting his body and spoke to the humans on the other side.

"Obviously since it's just a cloud any guards could walk right through, but spun this way it would prevent any creature from seeing in or out, save through this small view port." With as casual a smile he could manage, he said, "It occurs to me such a thing might be useful around the gate or the lookout towers."

“Towers? Such things have been too dangerous in the past, they aren’t worth the resources. Your cloud could be useful on the wall though.”

That was always an issue for them. Anytime they wanted to look out, they had to make a significant opening to really peer through, but this could negate the problem entirely. With the idea of his ability to control weather out of the way, the group now turned to the mare.

“So what can you do?”

"Uhhhhh," Granite said, backing away a tiny bit. She blushed some more, but said it anyway. It was her best-practiced skill. "I can... f-farm..."

She sought to add more. "Also I know all about minerals and digging, and earth ponies are very strong!"

The mare looked around for some way to demonstrate, but there was nothing nearby. Except...

"Here! Sit on my back!" it would be comical with how small she was, but the mare insisted: "Go on!"

The priest was almost too eager to oblige the request as she sat down on the mare as one would a chair. While she did Rohan scratched his chin in thought.

“Farming is useful, we could always use more food. Mining as well, resources can help us protect the village better.”

Meanwhile, Lodestone simply sat down and watched them idly, somewhat disappointed his little demonstration had gotten such a lackluster response.

Granite held up easily. She didn't even have to widen her stance. Just to prove her point, the mare lifted up a foreleg, effortlessly supporting the woman on three.

"See? Barely even feel that!"

She fell silent for a moment, then said in a very worried voice. "I'm not going to carry you around, okay?" she sounded very insistent. "This is for stuff only! I'm not a riding pony, like they do over there in Saddle Arabia!"

It sounded as if Granite had heard some rumors.

The group clapped at the little “show” that Granite out on to demonstrate her strength. Even the priest decided to give the mare a quick hug before hopping off to stand up.

“So you can make food, gather stone, and can carry things larger than yourself! Sounds like the spirits knew exactly what they were doing when they chose you to help us!”

She didn’t mean that the Pegasus was useless, but she hadn’t realized that hidden meaning in her words either.

Whether it was intentional or not, the pegasus couldn't miss the implication that Granite was much more useful than him. While they fawned over her, he looked over his shoulder and flapped his wing experimentally. He hadn't felt a twinge of pain earlier, not even as he pulled out of the dive when the wings are under the most strain. He set his jaw in a determined line. Time to show them why he was a skycrane!

He waited patiently until Granite seemed finished, then quickly took off and hovered at head height.

"Farming and mining will be useful I'll grant you that, but there's a reason I'm the one who flies the heavy loads around. You and you," He pointed at the Chief and Rohan, then hooked his forelegs underneath him, "Both of you grab a foreleg."

Granite for her part just calmly stood there, being a living stool for the priest for as long as the woman might want one. If the mare didn't walk, then it wasn't really a pony ride, right?

For the moment, she was happy to have found something useful to do. This meant the humans wouldn't turn her out into the dangerous forest, which was one of Granite's top fears for the moment.

She shuffled around so she could watch what her pegasus friend was doing with at least as much interest as the humans, if not more.

Hesitantly, both grabbed a foreleg like he asked and waited.

“So... you’re gonna lift the two of us, him with his armor on. That’s a lot of weight for a little body.”

He only smirked in response. His wings accelerated, widening to catch even more air. The lean flight muscles in his barrel, normally masked by his short fur, suddenly popped out in stark contrast as a small dust cloud began to form around them. He worked the air and the two humans were suddenly lifted off their feet. Lodestone winked at Granite - he hardly even seemed to be trying!

They probably expected him to lift a couple inches then collapse back to the ground, exhausted. Instead, he grinned and lifted them straight up several feet, then lurched forward, flying them in a surprisingly quick circle around the others. He felt Rohan's grip slacken with surprise and he quickly angled back, swinging their momentum forward, dropped rapidly, then gave a quick burst of power to bring them to a near perfect standstill just as their feet touched the ground.

Granite sat on her haunches and clapped her hooves on the ground in the traditional pony sign of approval. She smiled hugely at the stallion. "Wow! You sure you're a pegasus, fly boy? Probably some earth pony in there, too!"

She glanced at the humans and winked.

"I could probably lift two of you, too... just not as high."

Rohan shook like a leaf when he landed, while the Chief seemed mostly unfazed.

“Lots of power in that little body, I give you that. I suppose your flight would make transporting materials faster, plus we might be able to find the closest edge of the forest.”

Both of those were truly useful in the chief’s eyes, but now her gaze turned towards the mountain again.

“It seems like you two are a pair destined to work in our mine. I wonder if the spirit knew your talents would lead you there...”

He settled to the ground beside Granite and tucked his wings to his side, doing his best to keep a straight face. At that final burst of power he had felt a sharp pain, but he didn't think it was serious. They needed to impress these folks, especially after his embarrassing performance in the spirits' cavern.

"Well I don't know about her but uh, my workplace is literally a mining facility. That's why I'm used to lifting such weight." He gave the Chief a small smile, "Compared to a pallet of quarried stone, you two and your armor isn't much."

"Yeah! And I was looking for a new job when I met Lodestone yesterday!" Granite confided. "I wanna try mining! I know all the minerals and everything!"

Now that the stallion was in reach, she went to give him a quick nuzzle, mostly out of sheer excitement. "That was really impressive!" she said, as if he hadn't known or heard that yet.

“Alright then, we’ll take you to the mines soon, but first... I’m starving! I could do with some of that wolf meat from last night!”

Both the shaman and priest gave their leader a sigh and shook their heads.

“Ya be always wanting ta fill da belly! I’d be more surprised if ya said ya weren’t hungry for a change!”

Rohan could only laugh as the trio ended up in what felt like a sisterly quarrel.

“What about you two, hmm? About time for a meal, I would say.”

"Uh..." He froze mid-nuzzle, suddenly worried for Granite, "I don't mean to be rude, but like I said last night, we ponies can't really eat much meat." Glancing meaningfully at the mare, he hoped to ease the awkwardness with humor and spoke in a friendly, teasing tone, "Some ponies get sick from the smell alone."

"Oh yeah?!" Granite took the bait and whirled to stare the stallion down. "Well, some of us don't go all woozy and barf if we lightly tap our head!"

That reminded her and she looked at the humans with her ears down. "Um, on that note... can we get fresh hay? The fly boy puked in ours and now it's starting to stink!"

She emphasized the name because the mare couldn't come up with a different jab.

He stuck his tongue out at her, "Hey! Concussions are serious business, okay?"

“Of course, we’ll get that fixed at once. Also, I never said anything about meat. I simply asked if you want to eat.”

It was the chief who spoke about the meat, though it made Rohan curious. Clearly the Pegasus had his mind on the stuff, so he wondered just how true it was that he didn’t eat the stuff.

“You know, we don’t have the spices we would like for cooking. Maybe we could make more delicious... non-meat meals if we had something to flavor them with. You wouldn’t happen to know how to obtain and grow some of the herbs for that, would you?”

Granite was happy to be able to answer, even if it was technically farming. She nodded.

"Mm-hmm! I think I saw some wild parsley around the river, and I'm sure I smelled basil."

The mare pierced Lodestone with a glare. "That was while that pervert was watching me pee!"

She closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. After all, she did ask him to come with her. "I'll look around the village for stuff, okay?"

The unsaid implication was that she wouldn't leave the village walls. Who knew what sorts of danger lurked out there?

"Wha--" Lodestone gaped at her, "But, I didn't--" He sputtered awkwardly as she trotted away looking smug, then looked at the humans, eyes wide and muzzle rapidly turning pink, "I did not watch her pee, alright!? She just... uh... started peeing with no warning while I was watching. I turned around as fast as I could!"

By now the damage was done and all three women looked at him in mild disgust. Given that they wore clothes, it might actually even be worse in their minds than in any other pony’s.

“Riiiight... I’m going to go eat. Rohan, take them to the mines whenever you’re done getting them what they need.”

With that said, the trio took their leave and left the man with the ponies.

Granite realized she might have gone too far. After all, the stallion was the only pony there and her only way out of Everfree if they had to leave in the hurry. She walked closer and have Lodestone her sorriest look.

This included a special trick where she splayed her ears so they resembled nothing so much as cow ears. There was also the slight pout and the downcast eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean it like that. It wasn't your fault - besides, it was completely dark.*

She offered a tentative smile. "Still friends?"

Even as adorable as she looked, Lodestone still managed to look upset, crossing his hooves petulantly and glaring.

"Don't apologize to me, go talk to them." He waved a wing in the general direction of the departing leaders, "They're the ones who think I'm some sort of disgusting pervert now."

“If you don’t hurry, the Chief will end up busy trying to work with villagers to improve the town in some way. It’s now or never.”

Rohan leaned against the nearby stone building and waited to see what might unfold.

Granite took a deep breath, then flashed Lodestone a small smile. "You owe me for this!" she said and rushed off after the three leaders. Even from the distance she was calling out to them, trying to get their attention.

Lodestone and Rohan would see the mare come up to the women and briefly speak with them. She looked down at the ground while she explained, pawed at it a little, then fiddled with her hooves. It was obviously something uncomfortable she had to say.

Her way back was a lot more subdued, but she seemed relieved.

"There, happy now?" she asked the pegasus.

"Yeah, I guess." He looked away from her and still looked pretty glum, "You're lucky that cow-print coat of yours is so cute."

He got to his hooves and turned to face Rohan. As he had been avoiding Granite's gaze, he didn't even notice the dark thunderstorm in her eyes.

"So, food?"

“Err, yes, this way.”

He led them out of the village and along the inner wall till they reached an area with several trees and some depressing looking vegetables growing around. It was obvious that these people had a limited understanding of farming at best and would end up losing the ability to use the plot of land for any growing eventually.

“Pick anything you’d like, though there isn’t much. Those who wanted to farm here have... struggled a bit.”

There were no tools or any place to store tools in sight, nor did the land look properly worked. It was as if these people had zero understanding of farming to begin with.

Granite was ignoring the sight for now. She hadn't spoken a word during her trip and she made sure not to let Lodestone see her face.

Now she spoke up, in a deceptively friendly voice: "Um, Lodestone, sweetie? What did you just say? What kind of coat? I don't think I heard it - can you repeat it?"

Maybe the stallion wouldn't spot just how dangerous the ground he was treading was, because he didn't know the mare. Her nostrils flared as she blew air out, but she quickly caught herself and forced the smile back.

So stunned by the sight of this pathetic excuse for farming, Lodestone was hardly even aware of the words coming out of his muzzle.

"Yeah... your coat. It's cute. Didn't I say that yesterday? I like it."

They were trying to feed a whole town with this pitiful little patch of dirt? He'd never farmed a day in his life and even he knew this was terrible!

Rohan, having noticed the look in the mare’s eyes, took a moment to back away from the pair.

“I’ll be over here so you two can... talk. It seems you need it.”

Granite laughed pleasantly. She was still smiling, but it was obviously forced. "Cute, is it? Cow-print, you said?"

The mare was smaller than Lodestone, but she fluffed herself up and advanced on the stallion until she was pressing her nose against his.

"Listen, you!" she growled. "I'll let that one slide because I kinda like you, but say 'cow' in the same sentence with me again and you can kiss that pretty face goodbye, got it?! I'm sick of having to bloody Sherbet's snout every single bucking day for making those cow jokes, but I will! I've had it up to here with cow jokes, get it?!"

By the end there the mare was shouting. She indicated 'up to here' with a hoof above her head.

As she finished, she kept staring for a while longer, breathing heavily and swishing her tail madly around. At that moment she resembled a bull more than she did a cow, really.

At first the pegasus was merely surprised, but as she got more and more angry, he became shocked, then he felt hurt, then he himself started to get angry.

When she stopped screaming in his face and stood there, nostrils flaring exactly like an angry cow, Lodestone waited for the space of a breath. Then like a tree branch snapping back into place, he launched into the air and hovered far above her. When he spoke, he did not shout. His voice was low and harsh, sounding more like a growl than anything else.

"I don't give a buck what anypony did to you back in your little farm town. I just complimented you, and you spat it back in my face for no other reason than I happened to use a word others have used poorly. In the past day you've hardly done anything but cause trouble and I put up with it, even laughed at it because you're so fun and adorable."

He angled his body down and lowered himself so his head was only a foot or two away.

"But if you explode on me for honestly trying to say something nice again, I'll fly away right that instant and leave you here in the middle of this forest. Your cow-print coat is adorable. Get over it."

The mare just stared in impotent rage, eyes nearly all white and steam coming from her nostrils.

"I'll go back to the hut. Don't wake me up when you get there," Granite said quietly. She turned with as much dignity as she could muster and walked away, carefully and slowly.

Only once she was around the corner did she lose control , gave just one sob, and ran for it as fast as her hooves would carry her. She probably didn't realize that Lodestone had a higher vantage point and would see her fleeing even once she was behind the building.

Lodestone watched her until she was out of sight, then dropped to the ground and sat on his haunches, looking very, very tired. He let out a deep sigh and waited for the anger to subside.

Rohan finally felt fine to come back to the side of the stallion as he watched the mare run. It was a little awkward at first, since he knew nothing of their relationship, but he somehow managed to clear his throat.

“I’m not sure I fully understand what is happening that made her so upset. Is she not happy with her appearance?”

Before he responded, he closed his eyes, inhaled slow and deep, held it for a few seconds, then his whole body relaxed, the air gently rushing out of him. He looked up at the warrior and almost laughed at his bemused expression.

"Do you know what a cow is? Their fur is colored just like hers and she was apparently teased mercilessly for it as she grew up."

He let out another deep sigh.

"I guess I'll go and apologize. I shouldn't have gotten angry in the first place, she had every right to be upset... just caught me off guard."

“I have seen one, but I still do not understand what is wrong. Go ahead and go see if you can rectify this situation while I pick out your food. I won’t be more than a moment.”

Rohan, true to his word, began to pluck a few of the various fruits and vegetables for their meal.

Before he left, he turned back to the man.

"We'll be back to talk about this plot. It's obvious no one in the whole village knows a thing about farming... I've never farmed a day in my life and I could still improve the quality and yield dramatically. Granite, an actual farmer, could probably quadruple your output."

When the man only shrugged in response, Lodestone turned and trotted back into town. All the huts looked pretty much the same, but he knew roughly where theirs was, and once he got close, he could make out Granite's faint sniffling.

"Well," he muttered to himself, "here goes nothing."

As he approached the doorway, he knew his first words were crucial. Granite would just snap at him and get even worse if he didn't start this off right. He took a deep breath, then stepped up, knowing his silhouette blocking the sunlight was more effective than any knocking. He kept his voice gentle, but he spoke quickly, certain she would interrupt him almost immediately.

"You were right to be upset, Granite, and I'm sorry. I would never abandon you here."

The inside seemed darker than it had any right to be, especially with no curtains on the window. The mare was curled up in a corner, on the bare ground, with her muzzle tucked away and covered with her tail.

She was indeed sniffling, but that was just the aftermath of everything. When she spotted Lodestone - heard him, rather - she fell silent and still, as if waiting for him to leave.

After a while she figured she wouldn't get such luck and turned away again.

"Just go. Fly back home if you want. I'll stay. Maybe they need a milking cow!"

As much as he wanted to comfort her, he knew that would be a terrible idea. He sat right by the door, his hindquarters not even inside the hut.

"I'm not leaving you, Granite. I know you've been through Tartarus because of your coat and it's horrible how everypony treated you. I was wrong to simply brush that aside in my anger. I'm sorry."

This time the mare was shocked at the change of tone. Her head shot up and she stared at the pegasus. "What do you know about it?!" she demanded angrily. Before he had a chance to answer, she went on, much more sadly, as if talking to herself.

"My parents - my actual parents thought it would be funny to teach me to moo when I was little! Everyone in the village laughed, except I was too stupid to understand."

Granite heaved a sigh. "They said my mom bucked a bull and that's why I look the way I do. One time, colts from the senior class tied me to a tree trunk, upside down with a sign 'free milk'!"

Now the anger was back, but not directed at Lodestone.

"I broke their legs the next day. Well, two of them. The other one just got bruised. They suspended me from school for a month..."

While she ranted, he stood and cautiously approached. He knew she simply needed to vent and stayed quiet. When he was close enough, he sat down beside her and as she was talking about getting suspended from school, he gently touched her fetlock with a hoof.

Granite just sat silently for a while, then sighed. "I guess I'm scared if I don't nip it in the bud this time, you'll start making the same jokes. It's why I ra- left."

She almost said 'ran away', but corrected it in time.

When the mare looked at Lodestone, there were streaks down her face from her eyes, shining in the faint light. "I- I just can't stand it. Please don't ever call me a cow, even if it's a compliment."

She almost whimpered, but caught it in the bud. "Please," it came out as a whisper. "I'm sorry."

This time the sobbing was entirely silent, the kind that might go on for hours.

"Shhh..." He wrapped his wings around her and pulled her to his chest.

"Even if I ever say it again, I promise I would never tease you."

He tilted his head down and gave her a weak smile.

"I know you've always been teased for it, but I mean it when I say it's cute. It's like... you're all sorts of shapes but always familiar." He looked down and gently touched her chest with a hoof, "The black patch here looks like a heart..." Then he glanced up to meet her eye again, "And since your whole coat and mane and everything is black, white, or grey, your blue eyes are always so bright and vivid. It's like the clear sky in spring bursting out through the clouds."

Granite stopped shuddering as she stared with wide, blinking eyes at the suddenly poetic stallion.

"Dangerous," she warned. "I know what you're trying to do, but don't. I'm fine with it, just don't bring it up."

In fact, the mare had joked about it herself, every now and then. She just couldn't stand to hear it from others.

She was silent for a bit, then blushed extremely pink and looked away.

"Ycantalkaboutmyeyes," she muttered, almost too fast and low to understand.

Her gaze went to the window, where the day was basically just starting. "I guess I should go and teach them how to farm?"

When she turned away, he almost seemed to snap out of a trance. He blinked, wondering how in Equestria he had ever thought up such words, even if the metaphor was fitting for a pegasus. Suddenly self conscious and still holding the mare, he just froze awkwardly for a moment.

"Uh... well, I guess. Are you... okay? They'll leave us alone for now... I-I mean if you need a moment."

Granite considered it, then heaved a sigh. She still didn't move from how the stallion was gripping her. She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something else, but then thought better of it and closed it again.

"I'm fine. I'm not going to break your legs. This time."

Some of her old bravado was back and the pony disentangled herself from the feathery hug.

She spent a bit of time fixing her mane as best as she could with just hooves, then stretched a little. She took a breath and looked at the outside.

The human villagers had seen her run away, crying, but maybe they would pretend they didn't.

Granite paused in the doorway and looked back. "Oh, and Lodestone," she said, flashing an almost-smile, "Next time you you grab a mare and recite her poetry, you should also kiss her."

She tried to vanish before he could reply, but ended up smacking her face right in the wall beside the door. It was so unexpected that she gave a surprised little moo as she landed on her rump.

Lodestone took a breath and stood, carefully ignoring her... 'squeak.'

He slowly stepped past her and out the door, "Well... it's not like we're dating or anything," He turned his head and winked over his shoulder, "right?"

Thoroughly embarrassed, but this time unable to blame the stallion, Granite didn't meet his gaze. She mumbled something affirmative as she picked herself up.

"Not. One. Word," she hissed, unnecessarily as it would be.

Then, still blushing, she followed Lodestone out and back towards the meager farm.

CH5: Teasing

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Rohan had just finished picking some carrots and adding it to the pile of apples he had set aside. Unless the ponies were to head to the river, there would be no way to clean them. As the two returned, he wiped the sweat from his brow.

“You’re back, just in time too. I have some stuff picked for you, though we’ll need more if your mind doesn’t eat any meats.”

Granite took a deep breath to collect herself, before offering the human a very faint smile. Her muzzle was still decidedly red and she couldn't meet Lodestone's eyes at all. In fact, the pony acted as if her friend wasn't even there and focused exclusively on Rohan.

"A-Actually," she said in a voice that was slightly too squeaky, "I'd like to work on your... um, garden. We should get started as quickly as possible. It takes time for the plants to grow."

Whatever nervousness was in her expression at the start, it was gone by the time she finished talking. It was firmer ground and Granite had a lot of experience, so her confidence quickly showed.

"I'll try and explain a few things to your people, is that okay?"

As he approached the tiny plot of dirt, he stared at it disdainfully, then shrugged to himself and turned to Granite.

"I can tell it's bad, but I don't doubt you know better than me. I'll follow your lead."

Stepping closer, he murmured under his breath, "If farming starts to get to you, talk about how you used to farm watermelons. I'll get us an excuse to leave."

Rohan gathered the few farmers that they had. The people who ran the farm were all fairly scrawny compared to Rohan, or even some of the others that you had run into in the village. Most of the people were lean, though a few were bulky from their muscles, but these guys looked like they didn't quite eat enough all the time.

"Before we get started, we have some things we've found in the forest that we figured we would try to plant, but had no clue about any of it."

One of the farmers had a couple wild potatoes with him that they gathered the day before the ponies arrived, a tomato that one of the hunters mistook for an apple, and a small handful of herbs they had been wanting to grow. While they had enough land to plant the variety of foods and feed plenty, the main problem was that they didn't have the right tools, nor any experience to know what kind of conditioning the land needed.

Granite took it all in, even going so far as to sniff the proffered vegetables. She nodded to herself, then asked to see what tools they had.

The selection was truly meager - little more than sticks. The mare shook her head sadly, then brightened up.

"Okay, first we need to get you some hoes and spades. Maybe a shower and a rake. You-" she pointed to the weakest-looking couple of humans. "Get some more sticks, about as thick as these."

She faced the remaining people. "The rest of you, find me some stones. Big, small, round - it doesn't matter. Oh, and some rope."

After a moment she remembered herself and glanced at Rohan, already blushing. "Um, if that's okay. I think I can make us some simple tools from stone, but you should really get your blacksmith to make metal ones. They'll be a lot easier to use."

She looked at the people, but then remembered another thing, which made her ears flatten and her blush deepen. "Um - sorry. I didn't mean to be bossy..."

"Ahh it's fine," Lodestone said with a chuckle, "You've been farming damn near your whole life, right? You have the right to be a bit bossy."

He turned to give the humans a significant glance, "They'd better follow your orders if they want to have any chance of growing a decent harvest."

Without waiting to see if they agreed, he turned back to Granite.

"Now... what do you want me to do? Remember, I'm no earth pony - you might be small but I wouldn't be surprised if you're stronger than me on your hooves." He rustled his wings a bit, "I'll be flying any heavy loads around, not carrying them."

The humans took to her orders and ran off towards one of the buildings nearby. More than a few times, they'd have to use rocks for some sort of job, so they had plenty of many varying sizes and shapes to give the mare. Meanwhile, the scrawniest human of all, went towards one of the trees that had no harvest to offer and climbed up to gather branches close to what Granite had asked for. Rohan, watching all of this, turned back to the mare.

"Pretty soon we'll have to chop a tree or two down for wood, hopefully it'll be that one he is on. We don't like to go out of the walls to chop, it attracts too much attention. As for those metal tools... if you can accurately describe what they should look like and do, I'm sure Stalig can make it."

"Hmm, could you get me some buckets of water?" the mare asked her pegasus friend, before addressing the humans again.

Granite was realizing she was in the center of attention and blushed some more. Her eyes strayed downwards and she played a little with her hooves, pushing dirt around. At least until she had an idea.

"I can probably draw them!" she burst out. "Do you have any paper?"

Somewhat to her relief, the first people were back and Granite went to examine their rocks. It took almost no time at all for her to pick some good samples and almost effortlessly split them apart with a few kicks. "Okay, now just the rope," she said, cradling one of the pieces that turned out well enough.

Lodestone grinned and saluted with a wing, "Yes ma'am!"

He looked around for some buckets and was a bit surprised to find several large metal pails, complete with handles. From how primitive everything was he had half expected to find nothing more than clay pots. Water wasn't very heavy compared to the pallets of stone he typically carried and he didn't want to make multiple trips, so he grabbed the sturdiest branch he could find and looped the handles of all six buckets onto it. Then he turned back and watched Granite for a moment, just to make sure she seemed to be okay on her own.

Satisfied, he carefully took flight, wiggled the stick a bit to make sure the pails wouldn't slide off too easily, then accelerated toward the river. Several humans gave him odd looks as he passed overhead, pails rattling noisily. When he approached the river, he repositioned his grip, then hovered low over the water and scooped with all the buckets simultaneously.

He pulled up with a bit of effort and carefully repositioned his grip again, reasonably sure the buckets would stay in place, then turned and began flying back to the farm.

"Paper? What is that? Whenever we need to draw, we place ink upon clay or a hard, smoothed surface. We found a way to take certain parts of an animal and mix them with rocks we found while mining to make a thick, black ink, though we do not have much of it."

The human in the tree dropped a bunch of the branches down and made his way over with at least fifteen good sticks, meanwhile one of the others looked for something similar to rope and gathered a large amount of twine they had in the village for tying things together. It wouldn't be quite as thick as rope, but it would do. The farmers though, watched the pegasus in awe as he flew back with six buckets of water.

"Good job," Granite said to Lodestone, even though she was a bit red in the muzzle as she watched the display of strength. Luckily, the tools needed her attention. "Oh, never mind then. Paper's just like- um... white rectangles for writing on. I guess if I make the tools from stone..."

The mare scrunched up her muzzle, then hazarded a guess at the name she hadn't thought to commit to memory: "Staggy?"

She shrugged a little and focused fiercely on the crude hoe she was making. It was just a flat stone tied to a stick, but it would work in a pinch. "There..." Granite said at last. "Here, lemme show you how to use it."

The biggest problem was that the tool was small enough for a pony, which would make it less useful for a human. Despite that, the mare went and dug a few burrows in the ground where nothing was growing.

"You gotta overturn the earth. I guess plowing is bit advanced, but this'll do. Dig it quite deep so you get the darker earth up on the surface. You-" she pointed at random, "get me some seeds..."

It looked like it would be a long and busy afternoon, now that Granite had started inexpertly teaching.

Realizing several humans - and Granite too - were all staring at him as he carried the water, he suppressed a grin and made a show of casually touching down near her, obviously not even winded. The mare was taking to her role as foreman well and soon he was hauling water and various supplies all over the field.

That evening as the sun was setting, he and Granite stood side by side, watching the scrawny humans tend to their new tasks. They had taken to it slowly and frequently needed instructions repeated, but hours later they had finally begun to really get the hang of it.

Lodestone grinned and bumped the mare with his flank, "Not too shabby! If I didn't know better I'd think you were used to ordering everypony around."

"Uh...." Granite fell silent now that she was reminded of how she was acting. "Sorry."

She was staring at the ground again, but every now and then glanced up when she thought the stallion wasn't looking.

"It's just... I think they're getting the hang of it. We'll need to water every other day, unless it rains, but it should be fine."

He turned his head to respond, then noticed the fighter Rohan was coming down the path and nodded in his direction. They turned to face him as he approached.

The man wore a smile and no longer bore the tools he had taken across the village to the smiths. It seems that in between here and there, he had taken time to get into his “comfortable” clothes rather than stay in his armor and keep his sword nearby.

“Stalig took on the job! We have enough metal to make two of each, so he’s focused on that.”

"Great!" Granite said and smiled. She even pranced a bit, until she lost her balance and almost landed on Lodestone. "S-Sorry!" the mare squeaked, probably more surprised than the stallion, who must have seen it coming with the way she was flailing.

"Anyway, now what? I guess we still didn't get... um breakfast."

At least Granite hadn't, having been too busy to do more than catch a nibble or two of grass here and there while she explained the basics of gardening to her audience. As if to prove her point, her stomach growled loudly.

Lodestone nodded. They hadn't eaten since the tiny meal during the night and he had done a lot of work.

"I'm glad we'll have some metal tools, they'll be a lot easier to use, but Granite's got the right idea - I'm starving! I think I'd eat just about anything right now..."

“We still have the stuff picked from earlier, but I believe the village is making a stew tonight as well. I can make sure a small portion has no meat, if you’d like.”

One if the farmers nearby who had finished and had the other veggies was already headed that way and volunteered to do just that on the ponies behalf.

“Well, I guess that solves that. Maybe take an apple or two in the meantime.”

"Oh, that sounds good," Granite agreed readily. "Which way? Oh, I almost forgot!"

She nudged the stallion with a hind leg. "Go change the hay in our hut, will you? It's you who barfed in it!"

She winked at Lodestone. "Bossy enough? I'll save you some stew!"

"Yes ma'am, right away ma'am!" He gave her a snappy wing salute as he had earlier, then laughed as he dodged a swat from her, trotting away happily.

He was starting to get used to the village's layout and found their hut easily. Careful not to get any on himself, he scooped up the hay around his mess and then hesitated, realizing he had no clue where it should go. After a moment's thought, he carried it to the nearest... 'outhouse,' dumped the hay into the hole, then backed away rapidly, sucking in a deep breath of fresher air.

Rather than try to find where they made the food, he simply returned to the hut and waited for Granite.

Rohan was faster than she was at getting food, though he didn’t have a “special order.” His stew carried the scent of meat with it, but which meat, Lodestone wouldn’t know. As he sat against the wall, the Pegasus would be able to see the little brown chunks clearly.

“So, you both are going to end up helping in the mine as well? Shall we go tom- the day after tomorrow? I almost forgot that there are some duties I must take care of outside the walls tomorrow. It’s my turn to hunt.”

Lodestone tried to keep his eyes on Rohan, but kept glancing at the steaming bowl as he spoke. "Sure. Tomorrow we'll keep working on the farm, next day the mines, the after that we'll probably return to town, get some additional help."

He sucked in a deep breath of the stew and his stomach growled loudly. Craning his neck out the door, he muttered just loud enough for Rohan to hear, "Ugh... that mare had better get here with my food soon."

As if speaking about her summoned the pony, Granite stepped inside with a smirk on her muzzle. "Well, that mare," she said, using the same words, "is here."

She was expertly balancing two clay bowls on her back and stopped in the middle of the hut to let the stallion grab his. Only then did she grab her own.

"Not bad. Could use more salt," She commented, then froze for a second and glared at the human.* "I am not teaching you people how to cook, got it? Gardening, yes - because I like to eat, too. But I'm not a maid!"

“There isn’t much salt in there because there isn’t much salt. We know how to cook, we would cook better once we have the proper ingredients as well.”

At least the stew had some flavor, but to Rohan, it was rather bland. Nonetheless, he went through the bowl without much of a complaint and set it aside.

“I would say we know how to hunt as well, but this forest is testing that idea at every turn.”

"Oh," Granite said, "well, in that case we should bring back some salt and maybe some other spices when we get help from Ponyville."

She shrugged a little and went to lie in the hay pile to eat in peace. After a while, she stared at the stallion, swallowed her mouthful and said in a quiet, measured tone: "It's kinda chilly. Any chance I could get a pegasus blanket tonight as well?"

She added hurriedly: "This doesn't mean we're dating, by the way!"

It looked like that would become a permanent joke between the pair. "Night, um, Rohan."

---

The next morning found Granite up before the stallion. Of course he woke up, but she told him to sleep in while she went to check on the crops and that she'd come wake him up if anything interesting was happening. Luckily the two were becoming quite at home in this strange village of weird creatures, so the mare was 'allowed' to go out on her own.

She paused in front of the hut to stretch and yawn, then made her bleary, sleepy way towards the meager farm plots.

She was just in time to see the smith hauling what looking like metal farming tools through the area and towards the farms. Having noticed her as well, he gave a wave and smiled through his thick beard.

“Mornin’ lass! I hear these were of yer own design! Come n see em yerself, ye might like em!”

He arranged them for her so she could more adequately check if she wanted. Instead of making it fully metal, he made the long handles out of treated wood.

"Hmm," the pony said, still sleepy. She walked unsteadily over and peered at the implements. "Yeah, it-" she began, but was interrupted by a yawn, "looks right. I'll try them in a minute."

The pony looked around and smacked her lips a little. "What do you people do for breakfast around here? Any chance for a light salad?"

She leaned her head to the side and grinned wistfully. "Mmm, with some mayo and garlic?"

The pony was starting to drool noticeably.

“Mayo? Not really sure what that is, but if yer, looking for green stuff then I’m afraid ye’ve seen it all.”

He huffed as he got back in front of the cart to be ready to pull it once more.

“We’ve had most of our focus put ta safety and huntin’, so we’re a wee bit pressed for food. Can’t even get a decent drink! What I would do fer a pint right now...”

"Oh," Granite said, ears lowering in sadness. "Oh well. I'll go and see how the crop is doing. Probably won't be much to see yet, but..."

The pony didn't finish the thought. She loaded up a couple of the farming tools on her back, deftly balancing them without apparent effort. "I'll take these and show the people what to do with them. Thanks! With any luck we'll have some veggies in a couple of weeks."

She muttered the next part to herself, but it was audible enough for someone standing nearby to understand. "Gotta remember to bring some greens from Ponyville too... Hope the fly boy is as strong as he says he is..."

He ended up putting the ones the mare had taken back into the cart and pulled it up to the farm without much trouble. Rohan was nowhere to be seen and the farmers that granite worked with before were only a few minutes behind her. Stalig, who decided to stay for a little while, started to hand out the tools.

“Alright, I need ta see how these things are used right and proper. If I know what they do exactly, then I can begin ta think about improvements.”

"Oka-" again the pony had to yawn. She was obviously not a natural early riser, but she shook her head a couple of times and then pranced in place to get the blood flowing. "Let's give that one a try!"

It looked like the stick would be too big for the pony, but she deftly stood on two hooves so she could use her forelegs to guide the tool. "I'm gonna get started on the furrows for today's planting. Here:" Granite deftly raked the ground, overturning it and flicking away stones. "Need to give the earth a good airing. Normally I'd plow it, but this is a small patch and not worth the effort to get harnessed up."

She worked efficiently for a while, until she made a good start, then dropped to all four hooves and let the tool clatter on the ground beside her. "How's that?"

“I see, maybe a bit wider...”

Stalig was easily able to tell how to reshape tools based on what he was seeing. For this particular one, he noticed the metal was too long and not wide enough for what the mare was wanting. He wasn’t really super interested in the farming portions, though he half-listened to get an idea of what the job was.

It took Granite the better part of the morning to get through all of the critical tools and what you did with them. She was quite able to demonstrate how a biped would use them, too.

At long last, she stopped, panting and sweat dripping from her. She had been working in the full sun for a while now, so eager was she to help as best she could. "There-" the pony panted.

"Um... could I get maybe..." she swayed a little on her hooves, but caught herself just in time. "Maybe a glass of water?"

There was a large ominous growl from her stomach. "Oh, and I'll have that salad now, thanks..."

The mare barked a laugh at her own, weak joke. She dragged herself to the shadow and just lay down on her side. "Ugh... I remember why I left home..."

“A glass, hmm? Seems ye’ve gotten used ta some right fancy things haven’t ya?!”

Stalig barked a laugh and passed her a waterskin that he had with him, then went to see about good produce. While he wasn't much of a green thumb, he did at least manage to find a good carrot for her to munch on.

“We’ll be able ta pay ye back proper once this wee village is on its feet. So eh, what’s it like? Where yer from I mean.”

The pony grasped the waterskin gratefully and chugged until it was empty. It looked like she wasn't even breathing until she was done and gasped for air. "Oh, wow. That hits the spot," she said. "I guess I get why Dad's always telling me to hydrate..."

She didn't seem to have registered the 'fancy living' remark, but she was happy to talk about her home. Some parts of it.

"It's just a farming village. My Mom and Dad have the biggest farm. We grow practically everything. Pumpkins, corn, lettuce..." Her eyes fell on what was left of her meal. "Carrots," she added.

She went thoughtful for a bit. "It's not a big town like Ponyville or Appleloosa, but it's... nice."

For a moment it looked like she was going to be homesick, then her muzzle scrunched up in distaste. "Except for all the jerks and busyponies..."

“Bein’ busy ain’t a bad thing! It just means ye’ve got something important ta be doin! Buuut, I’d be lyin’ if I didn’t say I wish I could stop fer a bit. Relax a little.”

Even sitting next to her, she would see how huge Stalig was. No doubt due to the nature of his job, but he was easily as big as three of the farmers combined.

“Heh, we’ve been lucky ta have people like the chief and Rohan around. Dunno how we would have mustered up the guts ta plant our feet and make a stand here.”

Granite was shaking her head. "No no no," she explained with uncharacteristic patience. "Not busyponies like they do a lot of stuf. I meant busyponies like they stick their noses in where they don't belong!"

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "I might as well tell you. They keep calling me 'cowpoke' and 'cowgirl' and make moo-ing sounds when I walk around... and- and milking jokes!"

The poor, distraught mare groaned a little. "That's what I meant about 'busyponies'!"

He raised an eyebrow at that and looked out at the village.

“Lass, when I was a wee thing, others used ta joke about my size. I thought fightin’ back would stop it, but they kept on. So I thought “I’ll leave, that’ll show them!” You know what happened?”

Turning his body, Stalig faced the mare and gave a serious look.

“I was attacked in the forest. Not this one, thank the gods, but still. It was a big, vicious bear. Gave me a right nasty scar too!”

He only had to move the fur on his arm a little to show her where the claws had left their mark.

“My parents came fer me and ended up driving the bear back. My point is: Ye can’t just run from yer problems, ye’ve got to face them and come to terms with em. If that means ignoring others, then ignore em, but ye might want ta start with a tougher skin.”

It obviously wasn't what Granite wanted to hear. She was already on edge about her decision to leave and now this human was making too much sense and telling her she'd made a mistake. The pony looked for something to argue in her favor and her eyes landed on the plot of land she'd been working.

"Well, if I hadn't run away from my problems you wouldn't have a farmpony showing you how to grow you food, so there!"

She felt very smug in herself for having figured that out and even smiled a little. "And I'm not running from my problems. I bloodied a lot of muzzles - they just won't stop."

She heaved a sigh and stood up. "Uh, which way to the nearest outhouse?" she asked.

“Like I said, I fought too. Fighting ain’t the way, it just gives em a reason ta tick you off more. As far as an outhouse... we have a uhh... waste hole right over yonder.”

He pointed past the farm, but from where they were, granite wouldn’t be able to see much. It would only be once she got closer that she would realize he meant it was literally a hole in the ground that they filled with their waste.

"Oh. Should have smelled it..." the mare muttered to herself once she realized. "So... I just? What?"

She was a bit confused as to how it was supposed to work. "Squat or something?"

The pony looked around at the people walking unconcernedly nearby and swallowed. It wasn't the kind of privacy she was used to. "M-Maybe I can wait until night..."

Stalig had moved on, headed back towards the smithy and Rohan was nowhere to be seen. The village chief, however, was walking about the town, seemingly inspecting things and checking in with various people.

Back at the hut, Lodestone had watched the mare leave and found he rather enjoyed the view. After that, he had trouble falling asleep again so he decided to distract himself by exploring the village a bit. He doubted Granite needed his help on the farm and he might find some other way to make himself useful.

He rolled onto his side and stretched his legs where he lay, then stepped outside and warmed his wings with an easy hover, his hooves barely even off the ground. Idly, he wondered if Rohan and the Chief actually cared about adding some cloud to the wall or if they were just being polite.

People were already up and moving about the village, with some moving towards the nearby rock face. More than a few had some shoddy, run down cart that looked like it was its last legs. Rohan was nowhere to be seen amidst the crowd, nor any of the more prominent figures. There was, however, the smell of meat in the air, and Lodestone’s sensitive hearing might even detect the sound of sizzling nearby.

As soon as he caught the scent of meat, his head snapped around and he began hovering in that direction without thinking. When he realized what he was doing, he froze and dropped to the ground, feeling deeply ashamed, but just then his stomach rumbled loudly and a slight breeze intensified the smell. He could even hear it now... this was no week-old dried jerky, this was being cooked fresh over an open campfire.

He hesitated for a moment longer, then shrugged to himself. It was obvious vegetables were in short supply, he reasoned. It wasn't wrong if he hardly had a choice, right? With these justifications in mind, he pointed his muzzle to the breeze and his hooves followed.

He found the humans at a campfire using a makeshift stone pan of sorts to cook strips of meat, with another that looked like a leg of some small animal spinning on a stick over the fire. When they saw the Pegasus, they weren’t exactly sure what to say at first.

“Uhhh, you... need something?”

These two hadn’t really spoken, or seen much of, the two ponies since they came into the village. At the very least, they had heard enough to know the two were intelligent guests, as well as blessed creatures.

The humans wouldn't think it unusual to ask for meat, of course, but a lifetime of pony taboo was hard to simply ignore. He rubbed his neck awkwardly as he spoke.

"Uh... just looking for some breakfast, that's all. Did a lot of work yesterday, figured I could use something... well, more hearty than, y'know... just carrots."

He swallowed, but wasn't sure if it was from nerves or salivating.

“Ohhhh, you’re one of them that helped at the farm aintcha! Pull up a log, take a seat. It’ll be done soon.”

The man was using a stick he had cleaned in the fire to flip the strips of meat. They crackled, glistened, and smelled divine, something the human was innately aware of. In fact, when he caught the stallion staring, he gave a little chuckle and pushed some of the strips onto a stone “plate.”

“We call it bacon. Whenever we find a hog in the woods, we take good care to get it in the village and keep it around a bit for food later. It’s hard and we can only ever keep one or two at most, but damn if it ain’t worth it! Go one and take a few, I’ll get more strips going!”

Lodestone could hardly breathe. The smell was almost intoxicating and the thin strips of meat still sizzled and popped faintly on the simple plate. The human guffawed louder, startling the pegasus, and he realized he had been gawking for several seconds, mouth hanging slightly open. He snapped his muzzle shut and grabbed the stone with a wing with an overly casual disinterest.

"Sounds good, thanks," he glanced at the plate then met the human's eye again, "It smells great but there isn't really much here. Anything more... uh, substantial, I guess? Maybe some potatoes?"

“Potatoes? This isn’t a stew, it’s a quick meal! But I guess you can wait for the good stuff.”

Getting his second pan, he cracked six eggs into it and began to stir them with the stick.

“You’d not believe the trouble we had to get a reliable source of eggs! Even then, there aren’t enough for everyone, so this is a bit of a special treat. Here.”

About a third of the scrambled eggs were pushed onto Lode’s plate and the rest were split between the other two.

“Now don’t go asking for more cuz we can’t afford to give a whole lot, you hear?”

While the eggs cooked, he nervously tried a small bite of the bacon. The explosion of flavor in his mouth was... well, let's just say that even many years later, Lodestone would still struggle to describe the sheer bliss he experienced in that moment. The humans were surely having a good laugh at his expression but he was hardly even aware of them.

He scarfed down the first and second slices within seconds, then realized what he'd done when he got to his third and final slice. Seeing the humans had already divided the remaining bacon between themselves and he wouldn't get more, he forced himself to take small bites of his last slice, savoring each bite thoroughly before swallowing.

When he finished, he waited patiently for the human to finish. Eggs were not uncommon in Equestria and he already knew he liked them. As the human passed him his eggs, he nodded graciously.

"This will be plenty, thank you. I know how much this village struggles for food, but it's like my dam always said: 'if ya don't ask, the answer's always no'."

"Ha! Guess that's true! Course, there'll be a lot more food come nightfall, just you wait and see."

When he saw the confusion on the stallion's face, he muttered the words "hunting party" and turned back to his eggs. Whenever Rohan talked about it, there was a bit of negativity to it, but this human seemed excited over hunters going out.

"Err, we got more cooking to do to feed others, so you should probably move along. Look for the chief, I'm sure she'll guide you to wherever you need to go today."

The pegasus nodded and thanked the man again, then took a few steps away to munch on his eggs. He briefly considered bringing some food for Granite, but from the way she demanded food before, he figured she'd already found something for herself, and he doubted he could convince the human to give him any more anyway.

When he finished, he returned the plate, then since he preferred not to fly after eating, he walked through the town and tried to familiarize himself with the layout while hoping to stumble onto Rohan or the Chief.

At that moment, the village chief was over by a small building with a bunch of "WARNING" signs nearby. She had another man with her and they appeared to be checking the structure for any damage. When she finished, she turned and saw the pegasus.

"Ahh, it's you! Taking a little look around, or you looking for something in particular?"

He gave the Chief a quick wing-salute before replying.

"A bit of both, Ma'am - exploring the village but also looking for anything I might help with. If you need some cloud cover or something heavy carried a large distance, let me know."

"Probably not the wisest to put clouds right over the town, so just at the gates and anywhere we see through would be nice. As for-"

A loud series of banging, hissing, and yelling came from the building behind the chief, making her sigh. She rushed over to the door and grabbed the small bell and hammer, giving it one good clang to make it ring. After just a second, the sounds stopped.

"Damnable things aren't like chickens. They can't get along and they're too dangerous to allow outside of their little pen."

If Lode were to walk around to see the other side of the building, he would see it was a stone encasement, and flying up would reveal that it had some kind of bronze grate over the top so the animals inside would get sunlight and fresh air, without being able to escape.

Lodestone didn't recognize what creature made such noise, but the sound of it raised his hackles instinctively. His ears folded back and his wings half opened as he felt the sudden urge to run.

"Uh... what have you trapped in there?"

“We don’t know what to really call em. Head like a chicken, body like a lizard, they got some stony gaze thing going on with their body. We figured out how to reverse that though! It’s just not an “all the time” deal.”

What she was describing was something that seemed to only roam around in the Everfree forest. As a result, not many outside of the bordering towns even knew about the little devils.

"The Mayor warned me of those before I flew out here... Cockatrices, I think she called them."

He slowly stepped up to the Chief, relaxing somewhat now that the danger was known.

"She said their stone gaze is really their only threat and that they rarely actually attack with their claws, despite their fierce appearance. How do you reverse those turned to stone?"

“There’s an herb that reverses the effect. One of our hunters saw a wolf chow on some of them and the stone flaked off. They’re a little hard to grow, but we have a small plot of them by the river, just in case.”

The little things could be heard moving out to the bigger area surrounded by the stone walls to stretch its legs. Whatever they were doing inside seemed to be totally over now.

“Only got a few of them, they make the eggs we eat here, so we feed em and give them water. They get a little feisty with each other though, so we ring the bell and that seems to snap em out of it.”

"Ah. I guess that means you have to eat it before you're completely stone or you're screwed? Still, that's very useful."

He would have to take a look at those plants later so he could describe them to the Mayor.

"...But I'll see if I can bring back a hen and rooster from Ponyville when we return so you can breed some ordinary chickens."

“That would be fantastic! We wouldn’t have to worry about someone turning to stone anymore, plus more eggs!”

She rubbed her belly at the thought of more food to go around.

“Course, you don’t want to do that today if it’ll rob you of your day. Once night comes, we’re going to have enough food to fill our bellies. At least, that’s what I’m anticipating!”

Lodestone looked at her curiously.

"Why, you have something specific planned today?"

He had thought hunting was an uncertain thing, with the amount of meat brought home each day varying wildly with the relative success of hunting parties.

“You could say that! Rohan is out hunting today. That man is too determined not to come back with a big catch!”

She roughly pat the stallion’s back as she barked out a laugh.

“Too bad I couldn’t be out there with him! Would have loved to wrestle one or two of the things he always talks about. He just makes it sound so fun! All that talk about deadly animals and hyper-dangerous environments.”

He shook his head, bemused at how casually they accepted the danger around here.

"Well, I'm sure you have work to do. I'll get out of your mane and get to work clouding the gates - anything else you want clouded? I can cover a space small as a peephole or large as a field and it should hold up against anything short of a tornado."

She rubbed her chin and looked about at the village, wondering what all could be done.

“Lets keep it simple for now. The only ones that get inside this place are the ones that fly and use the clouds anyway. The rest of the threat is the small amount of time the gates open up or whatever we take with us inside.”

The chief placed the bell and hammer back where they sat and stretched out. Before the Pegasus could take off, she gave his tail a gentle tug.

“Hey, be careful flying around, okay? I like a good fight and all, but if a thunder roc shows up... well, it might be a bit more than I think you can handle.”

She had no way of knowing you only grabbed somepony's tail if you were very close - she may as well have smacked his flank. Lodestone tried not to blush as he turned and nodded seriously.

"I might be a slow flyer, but diving is fast no matter who you are. I'll be on the ground within seconds of any threat appearing."

He shuffled his hooves awkwardly.

"And, uh... please don't grab a pony's tail. It's very... forward."

“Eh?”

It took her a second, but she broke out into a fit of laughter that had her nearly on the ground. By the time she started to recover, her eyes were all watery from laughing so hard.

“So that’s what I do when I want to pick up a pony, eh? Just a little tug of the tail gets em going?! I’ll have to keep that in mind if we ever find a way to get drinks and get drunk!”

Now Lodestone couldn't help but blush. He waved his hooves hurriedly.

"No no, it's not like that! It's more like a slap on the flank. A dam might do it to her foal or very close friends might do it to each other, and it can be, uh... intimate, but doing it to somepony you don't know is like staring at their dock."

“Sounds like ponies need to lighten up a little! Course I can already hear Rohan nagging me about being proper...”

For a chief, she was definitely a free spirit. Something he had said made her look at the point where his tail meets his dock.

“Not sure what’s supposed to be special about this part though. It’s just the part your tail connects to. Aaah, whatever, we can talk another time. Go ahead and get working on those clouds while I continue my duties. Seems like people are already wanting me.”

At the end of the space you were at stood a few of the people who made the various items in the village, all waiting on her.

Shifting uncomfortably at her staring, he found himself wondering what it would be like to sleep with a human and imagining what they might look like under all that armor. Suddenly, he realized he was beginning to grow with excitement. His ears folded back, his blush deepened, and he forced the thought from his mind before his arousal became too obvious, tucking his tail close to his hindquarters.

"Yeah yeah, I should get to work... wouldn't want to hold you. Up, I mean. Hold you up."

He backed away slowly, trying to shuffle behind a nearby hut without turning his body. His condition would be obvious to anypony that saw him from the side.

The Chief either didn't notice or didn't care and turned away to talk to one of the several other humans waiting nearby. Lodestone didn't waste any time; as soon as her eyes left him, he spun and galloped back to their hut, his tail plastered to his rump. He desperately hoped Granite was still busy on the farm. The Chief would have been bad enough but if Granite saw him like this, he might just die on the spot from sheer embarrassment.

The mare wasn't far behind. She walked a little unsteadily, partly out of exertion, partly out of hunger and partly out of sunstroke. Without her parents to remind Granite to take breaks and hydrate, she worked at her tasks as if she had a grudge and wanted them over as soon as possible.

She swayed her way to the little house and then through the door without looking up from the ground. She didn't notice the stallion at first, but spoke up on general principles, as if to herself: "Luna's rump - what the buck is wrong with these people and crapping out in the open?"

The river thing was her own mistake, but the mare was too tired to remember it properly.

Even with the advanced warning of her approaching hoofbeats, Lodestone was at a loss for what to do and, slightly panicked, couldn't think of anything better except to curl up in the hay bedding against the wall, his back to the doorway.

As Granite entered and muttered something about Luna crapping, he lifted his head and glanced back at her over his shoulder.

"Oh... hey. Apparently nopony needs me to do anything right now... I hope your morning was a bit more productive?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Granite said. She dragged her hooves to the stallion and simply fell down into the hay, partly beside him, but mostly over him. "Celestia damn it, I need a nap..."

She - a bit loopy from her ailments - wiggled a bit to get more comfortable against Lodestone's feathers, then sighed in luxury.

"Gotta get me one of these pegasus pillows..." Granite murmured and chuckled a bit. "Sorry, by the way."

Despite apologizing, the mare didn't move, not even a bit.

When Granite collapsed onto him, her morning of hard work in the field made her body feel like a blazing inferno against his coat, and the smell of her sweat threatened to overwhelm him entirely. He began to throb uncomfortably and, under the pretense of shifting her weight, attempted to twist and get his hindlegs underneath him.

After an awkward pause, he managed to weakly stammer, "N-No worries," as he tried to focus on anything other than the warm body pressed up against his entire backside.

Granite was still and quiet for a minute, then apparently grew bored. She shifted around again until she was somehow able to look into Lodestone's face.

"So, how was your morning?" she asked, mostly for something to do.

She stretched her muscles, which made her accidentally kick... a place. "Whoops. Sorry about your leg," the pony apologized. Then, still looking in his muzzle, Granite grinned. "You know, for a featherbrain you're not half-bad-looking..."

"My morning was mostly unevent...ful..."

He trailed off as she accidentally pressed a hoof into his groin and the contact sent a tingle shooting up his spine. He tensed and tried to suppress the sensation, but with diabolical timing, his body shuddered just in time for Granite to finish speaking. It was no more than a light tremor, but pressed so close against him, it was impossible for her to miss it.

"Huh?" Granite said and lifted herself up. "You okay?"

She was about to slide off the stallion so she could inspect him more properly. Of course the mare jumped to an entirely wrong conclusion. "Have you even gone out yet? I told you eating meat was a bad idea!"

Her voice and her expression softened. "Sorry, I didn't mean to press on your belly. I didn't know."

“You calmed down in there yet, big boy or-“

The Chief walked in and saw the two ponies, both very close and looking at each other. It wasn’t hard to see the embarrassment on the stallion’s face, which caused her to grin as she leaned against the doorway.

“Sooooo, you two are shacking up, eh? Caught a sight of him strutting his stuff and decided to pounce? Can’t blame ya, he certainly gave me an eye full earlier.”

With a boisterous laugh, she stood upright and turned to walk away. Before she could fully leave though, she turned back to address them.

“Once you two are done I need some help with something.”

"Y-Yeah, I... What? N-No that's not...!"

He had been about to jump on the convenient excuse of an upset stomach, but the Chief's sudden interjection layered confusion with embarrassment and he just stammered helplessly. His wide-eyes darted to Granite, then to the Chief, then he simply collapsed, his muzzle thumped into the hay, and he covered his head with both forehooves.

"Um, Lodestone?" Granite said quietly as she shuffled off the stallion with exaggerated care. Her body said she wanted to leap off, but she kept herself under control to appear casual and disinterested.

"You've been doing what with the Chief? Here, roll over..."

The mare unceremoniously shoved at the stallion, attempting to roll him to his back so they could see what was happening. There was hardly any doubt for the mare, but she was shocked enough so that she wasn't thinking clearly and just a bit curious - not that she'd admit that, other than by blushing a vivid red.

Her hoof found purchase and despite the pegasus struggling, she casually flipped him over from her advantageous position.

"Oh.... So - you're not feeling ill then?" was all the mare could say, staring fixedly.

“Oh no, not at all. In fact, he was exploring around earlier. Told me the name of one of the beasts we got locked up here. Didn’t know what to call it, but apparently they’re called ‘cockatrices.’ Who knew.”

She shook her head and turned back around to look at the sight that granite made available.

“So uhh, you’re not doing anything with him?”

The awkward silence stretched for several long moments, but Granite got her wits back first. She snapped her eyes back to Lodestone's muzzle and forced a very sheepish grin.

"I'll just- um, I'll-" she stuttered, then made a slight moo-ing noise in her embarrassment before she got her voice under control again. "I'll wait outside!"

The earth mare walked backwards, as if afraid to turn her back on the stallion, until she was beside the chief.

"Um, let's- let's go see what you needed help with!" Granite said to the woman with almost frantic cheerfulness, before backing away out of the hut entirely.

“Come to the smith when you’ve “calmed down,” lover boy.”

She gave one more glance before following the mare down the place and towards the smith.

“You’ve been working all morning, haven’t ya? I’d hate to run you ragged on something like this. Sure you don’t want to just take a break?”

Granite looked back at the hut, then firmly shook her head. "Nah. I just need something to drink and then I'll be fine. We're strong, uh, us earth ponies. We can go all day..."

She quickly realized what she'd said and that Lodestone had probably heard her and gave another low moo of shame. "Buttocks!" the pony swore. "I'll just shut up now. What do you need?"

Granite looked very eager to leave the immediate area, but she didn't want to worry the stallion, so she called back: "Um, Lodestone? I'll- I'll just go with the chief. I'll take care of this smith thing. We'll- um, we'll talk later, okay?"

“Well, our cart that we use to move stone around has broken down. We’re getting it fixed, but we figured maybe you could help us in the meantime.”

At the smith, Granite saw the cart in question. Even an inexperienced miner would know they cart they were using couldn’t hold super heavy loads, maybe not even a thousand pounds of stone.

“We’ve been meaning to make a better means of moving resources, but... well, safety and housing took all our focus for a long time.”

"Oh! No problem! Do you need me to carry some stuff? That's easy!"

The mare was all too happy to forget about the recent awkwardness and focus her mind on something else.

"Just get me some wood and rope, I can put together- um... like a platform for my back."

Only then did Granite think about the problem in any kind of depth. "So- how much stuff there is to haul?"

“Yeah... about that...”

She led granite down the path not leading up the hill, but one that led towards a cavern in the bottom of the mountain. It wasn’t close, but not very far either, yet they had a pile of rocks the size of a home by the cavern.

“Apparently they worked in the night without the cart and managed to pile it all up here. It’s... it’s a lot for us to haul around.”

After a moment, Lodestone recovered from the deep shock and embarrassment and realized that pretty much the worst had happened, so...

He set his jaw, stood, and walked out after the Chief, his 'excitement' on full display. He meant to walk proudly, as if nothing was wrong in all of Equestria, but instead settled for a tense sort of march. It was a bit stiff and awkward, but at least he wasn't slinking around trying to hide anymore.

It had only been a couple minutes since the Chief left with Granite, so when he approached the smith, he caught sight of the pair walking down the path toward the cavern and followed them, stepping firmly enough that they would hear his hooves approaching.

"Oh, hey!" Granite said, pointedly not looking. "Looks like you're walking with a limp, Lodestone..."

The mare couldn't help giggling at her own amusement. "You sure you don't want a cold bath, first?"

A human wouldn't spot it, but her ears were splayed, she was a bit flushed and her tail swished every now and then. She also shuffled her hind hooves closer together.

"Anyway, that doesn't look like a big problem. Get me a plank and some rope, and a couple of people to load and I'll have those rocks moved in no time!"

She walked over to the stallion and carefully nudged his rump with a hoof. "Think you can help, stud?" She said and winked at him with her best, most insolent grin.

“If his muscles are as big as his dick, I’m sure he’ll be plenty useful!”

She barked out a laugh and pushed past them to get the supplies. With the smith already have planks of wood and thick twine to tie everything together, it would be a relatively short task to get the mare what she needed.

Lodestone ignored both their comments, but Granite's body language was another matter entirely, and he struggled to maintain his stoic composure as he spoke to her.

"No need to carry all that after working in the field this morning, too. Heavy lifting is pretty much all I'm good for around here, I'll move the stones."

He hesitated, then his ears folded back and he averted his gaze.

"Besides, working is a pretty good... uh, distraction."

"Oh come on, I can help," the mare said, suddenly enthusiastic and cheerful beyond reason. She wanted to be around Lodestone, but it wasn't sure whether she wanted to get a few more laughs, or was somehow enticed to stay in his company through other means.

"We'll each do half, okay?"

The mare didn't wait for the chief but rather went to pick up one of the bigger rocks and marehandled it onto her back. "You coming, fly boy?" she asked and smacked Lodestone right in the muzzle with her tail as she walked past.

Her enthusiasm was infectious and he snorted at her, his own tail flicking playfully as he approached the pile of stone.

"And exactly which half are you going to help me with?"

He casually stacked two large rocks onto a third even larger one and slid them onto his back with a hefty grunt, then lifted easily into the air, a fine dust billowing around him.

Before the two could get too far down the path, the muscular woman returned with the requested materials on her back.

“Getting a little eager, huh? I can’t have ya leaving me with all this by the pile y’know, C'mon.”

Her gaze shifted just enough to see the stallion taking three rocks of his own.

“Look at that! He’s not just for looks after all!”

"Don't worry," Granite said with a smug grin, "he's just trying to impress me."

The mare leaned closer to the woman and lowered her voice, but it was still a piercing whisper. "I think he likes me, you know?"

After a hearty laugh, Granite hurried after the stallion. Her expression went from amused to contrite. "Um, you know we're just teasing, right? We should probably stop now," she said, remembering her own experiences. "Don't worry, I don't think any less of you, 'kay?"

"Think less of me?"

The pegasus pumped his wings so he 'bounced' slightly in the air and glanced sidelong at the mare as she stepped up beside him.

"Well, I certainly hope not."

Of course, he had been trying to show off a bit, but he'd also intended to get a bit of a workout from the heavy lifting, hoping to distract his mind and pull a bit of blood flow away from his nethers. Instead, all the attention was making him flush and, if anything, he was even more swollen than when he walked up.

“Careful now, you keep yourself up like that and we may have to relieve you.”

She gave a little wink only he would notice just before turning to set the items down by granite.

“I’m assuming you want some kind of flat surface out of these boards, but I’ll try not to get ahead of myself here.”

Granite hurried to dump her rock and came back to inspect the goods. "Yeah - take those two flat boards and put them on my back, then just tie them with a rope around my barrel, okay?"

The mare stood still, preferring the human to do it with her hands - it was done much faster this way. She ended up with a flat surface across her back, which Granite easily balanced thanks to the rope. "Okay, now we just pile it up. Come on!"

She went back for the rocks and stood, concentrating, while a few humans loaded up rocks. She barely had to direct them where to place each stone to keep the load even on both sides.

By the time she told them to stop, it was an impressively heavy cargo, but Granite didn't seem too troubled. She walked very carefully and slowly, but nothing fell down as she trudged back to the drop-off. There were no more jokes or talking - it seemed like now was time for work and any joviality would come later.

After dumping his own load, the pegasus hurried back to the pile, "Now do the same thing, but loop the rope around the ends of the board so I can hook it with my forelegs while I fly."

Soon he had a pile of similar size hanging from beneath him. He looked up the hill and saw Granite was approaching the smithy and chuckled softly to himself. Then he accelerated in a straight line up the hill, ignoring the curving path beneath him, and zoomed over Granite's head just as she crested the top of the hill.

His wings flared and the thick cords of flight muscle in his back strained against his coat as his cargo swung out in front of him at a steep angle, slowing rapidly. With practiced ease, the board touched the ground at exactly the same moment it slowed to a halt.

He dropped the rope, landed lightly on the ground, and smirked over his shoulder at the little mare waddling carefully up behind him.

The Chief watched slack-jawed as a small, winged pony carried not only an absurd amount, but an absurd amount in mere seconds. If she had a team like him, she could probably mine the whole mountain in a matter of weeks! As he made a return trip, she gave him a whistle.

“Alright, I’ll admit, you’re not just for show. I can see why the spirits said I’d need you and your friend’s help. You could save precious man power, which means more stone to build and more metal to craft.”

She half chuckled and rubbed the back of her head.

“Guess the folks wouldn’t need me out here helpin' as much either.”

Granite was also impressed. She knew fancy flying when she saw it, and having been around pegasi for most of her life, she could certainly appreciate it. Once her current load was done, Granite walked over to the stallion with a very bright smile. "That's really impressive," she said, but quietly enough for just the two of them. "Good job. You put most earth ponies to shame when it comes to hauling, I'll give you that..."

She looked around and bit her lip a little with nerves. Her ears went back and she couldn't quite meet Lodestone's gaze. "Maybe one date, okay?"

Lodestone affected an air of relaxed indifference, but truth be told, he had pushed harder than necessary to beat Granite to the summit and his chest heaved with the effort. However, it had finally drawn the blood away from his upright organ and, free of that embarrassment, he broke into a brilliant smile at the compliments.

"Well, maybe I can put earth ponies to shame again later tonight."

He winked and, without waiting for a response, leapt into the air and glided quickly down the hill toward the mouth of the cavern. There was still a lot of stone to move and he intended to show everypony what a skycrane was really capable of.

The afternoon passed quickly as the rocks were shifted. It was almost as if the ponies were competing against each other for who would carry more. Of course the result was that the two equestrians lay on a bit of soft grass, panting and sweaty. Granite still had some rope tied around her barrel - she hadn't bothered to remove it.

"There..." she gasped, "all done."

The mare managed to lift her head so she could look at Lodestone. "Nice job, by the way. If I ever go back, wanna come live on our farm? We could use a pony like you..."

They probably couldn't afford to pay him, though. At least not a fair wage.

Granite lifted up a hoof and watched a drop of sweat fall from it to the ground. "This what working for Flim and Flam is like?"

Lodestone's breath heaved with what might have been a chuckle on a better day.

"Nah, I rarely work for so long. Most of the time I'll just have one big haul, carrying about three times as much weight about twice as far, but then that's it for the rest of the day."

He rolled toward Granite until he was back on his hooves, then sat up and held a hoof out for her.

"Come on, we should drink some water and rest for a bit before we eat."

"Oh... water... yeah," the mare remembered. She never got the drink she needed and it was starting to show. When she climbed awkwardly to her hooves, it wasn't long before she flopped back down. "Whoops. Balance, girl..."

She tried again and this time managed to stay upright. She nodded her head in approximately the direction of their hut. "I don't wanna hold you up. You go on ahead, I'll grab a drink and come in."

He shook his head. Her unsteadiness worried him and he stepped close to rub her side with a hoof. When it came away completely dry, his eyes widened in shock.

"No sweat...?"

He looked around, as if to glare at the heat of the day around them, then his eyes focused sharply on her. His face had gone pale and his expression was deadly serious.

"Tartarus, Granite! When was the last time you drank anything?"

Without waiting for a reply, he took flight and unceremoniously scooped her up, cradling her in his forelegs and making a beeline for the river.

"Hey! Lemme- moo!" Granite yelled in surprise. She started to struggle, but went limp as soon as they were airborne. "I said a date, Load- uh, Lodestone! One date! What are you doing? Where are we going?"

The mare reached up and patted the pegasus on his foreleg. "You even listening me too?"

"Stop struggling. Relax."

He spoke softly but his voice held a weight she wasn't used to hearing. Within seconds they had arrived and Lodestone gently lowered her to the ground so close to the water's edge her forehooves actually dipped into the river. Before she could even turn her head to look at him, he spoke again in that same calm and somber voice.

"Granite, you aren't sweating. Do you know what that means? You're suffering from heat stroke. You need water, Granite."

He laid a hoof on the side of her head and gently pressed it toward the water.

"Drink slowly, in small sips, but drink as much as you can stomach."

"Mmm... 'kay.... whatever you say..." the mare said quietly. She had calmed down during the flight and now she obediently dipped her muzzle.

There was a snort and she coughed out some water. "Whoops!" she giggled.

Her second attempt went better. She probably didn't remember the instruction about small sips, but Granite did fill herself up.

It took a few minutes, but then she straightened out and blinked. "'Atta do it." She hiccuped, then burped. "Anything else?"

The mare was still swaying a little, but she was able to keep her footing. "Think... think I'm gonna go to bed now," she proclaimed and peered at the sun which was setting in the distance.

"Yes, that's probably for the best."

He turned toward their hut and bumped the mare gently with a wing to get her moving.

"How do you feel? Let me know if you feel nauseous or dizzy."

As they walked, he extended a wing over her to cover her from the remaining sun and give her some shade. She was too distracted to notice, but he was obviously worried and anxious, showing more concern than she might have guessed he would.

They made it to the hut without major incident and with only an occasional whimper or groan from the mare. Once inside, she kept walking at the same pace until she was standing on the haystack, then Granite just fell over.

"Ow," she whined quietly, "my head hurts..."

Her belly heaved and she burped again from all the water sloshing around in there.

"Lodestone?" the mare asked, not quite meeting the stallion's eyes. "Um, could you stay with me for a bit? I don't feel too good- um, well."

The stallion followed her and settled down beside her. He gave her a small, worried smile and fanned her gently with a wing.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere until you feel better. Just lay your head down and relax for a bit. You need time to cool down and digest all that water."

As her head settled onto the hay, he reached up with a hoof and slowly massaged the back of her neck, just below the skull. He hoped it would ease her headache a bit, but didn't really expect it to.

After a few moments of this careful massage, Granite lifted up her head again and rather leaned it against Lodestone, like pony-shaped pillow.

"I always do this," she said quietly. "Dad has to keep telling me to take breaks and drink. I dunno how many times Mom had to carry me to bed..."

The mare gave a sad sigh, then shuffled closer against the warm pegasus. "Why do I always do this?!" she asked mournfully.

Laying closer like this, it was awkward to continue massaging her neck, so he gently rubbed her shoulders instead, easing the tension out of her.

"You just get too focused on your work," he murmured softly. "It's like you have to prove yourself by working harder than anypony else and won't stop until there's no doubt left."

"Nuh-uh, 's not that," Granite replied. "I think it's because I hate farm work just so much that I wanna get it over with as quickly as possible."

The pony laughed for a moment, but there wasn't much amusement in it. Then she heaved a sigh. "Lodestone? If you get- um, if you're..."

it took her a moment to find the right words. "If it happens again, just point it away from me, 'kay? I won't mind, just don't take my pillow!"

As if to prove her point, Granite licked the nearest bit of pony hide she could reach.

Turned slightly as he was, she had licked the side of his neck just below his head and he hadn't seen it coming. It startled him slightly and sent a pleasant jolt down his spine. He shivered slightly.

"Keep doing stuff like that and it'll definitely happen again."

He turned his head to look at her and became suddenly aware of how close they were. He had stopped fanning her and his wing simply draped across her withers and rump, and her upper body was tucked under his foreleg, her face only inches from his.

"But... you really don't mind?"

"Nah, it's normal..." Granite said. She sounded quite relaxed now that the water was beginning to do its magic.

"It'd be weird if you didn't. Just make sure you keep it to yourself, mister, okay?"

A very quiet giggle escaped from her lips and she added in a barely audible whisper: "At least until I tell you."

The mare fell silent for a few moments, then asked in a plaintive voice: "Lodestone? It's gonna happen, isn't it? We're gonna spend a lot of time here, together. Filly and colt. Am I going to crush super hard on you? That's how it usually goes, isn't it? In stories, I mean..."

Lodestone stared at her and thought for a long moment before he spoke again.

"That's up to you, Granite, I won't push... but I think if you were going to, you'd feel something already. If you don't by now, I... don't think anything will happen."

He averted his gaze and looked down awkwardly. He was no stranger to mares, but something about her eyes made him all shy and nervous in a way he wasn't used to feeling. It was uncomfortable and slightly exhilarating.

"Hah," the pony barked and turned her muzzle away before the blush could get too obvious. "Wouldn't you like to know it..." she muttered quietly.

Then Granite was quiet for quite a while, apparently mulling something over. Her ears flattened and she fiddled with her hooves as she spoke: "I'm not... um... very experienced with this stuff. Sometimes I dunno what to do."

She gave the pegasus one of the most self-deprecating grins ever and added: "Go on. You can laugh if you want."

"From what I've heard of your childhood, I'd have been surprised if you did have experience. It's nothing to be ashamed of, Granite."

Unsure how much he should say, he hesitated.

"I... do have some experience, but not much, if I'm honest. I'm not much older than you, remember?"

He flushed as he realized he was beginning to swell again. He shifted awkwardly and tucked it under his body, pointing well away from her.

"Okay. Good. That's- okay," the mare said, sounding much relieved. "Let's just see where it goes, okay? Oh, and..."

The next bit was extra quiet and Granite was looking away, with her ears pressed flat down. "I do like you..."

Now long after that, the quiet moment was spoiled by a very distinct and loud grumble. It made the mare groan in exasperation. "Ugh," she grunted, "not this. Way to go and spoil the moment, cowpoke..."

She turned her gaze on the stallion. Her eyes were big and sad. "I think I'd like some dinner now... i-if you don't mind?"

It wasn't quite clear why she was asking the stallion, rather than going outside and asking one of the humans instead.

Lodestone hesitated, his ears folding back. A moment ago he'd have hopped up immediately to get some food for her, but if he stood now things would be so much more awkward. He shuffled uncomfortably where he lay.

"I'm... uh, really tired... Maybe I could just yell and get a human's attention, get them to bring us some food?"

It sounded pathetic even to him and he resisted the urge to wince as he realized Granite would immediately realize why he didn't want to get up if she had even half her wits left.

"Oh. OH!" the mare exclaimed. She tensed, as if wanting to move away from the stallion, but then remembered her own words. She put her hooves around him and hugged him instead. "I don't mind. Yeah, yelling is fine..."

At long last her mischievous streak reasserted itself and she nipped the poor stallion on his neck. "Mmm, I love me some nice, strong stud," she murmured.

Then, raising her voice, Granite yelled: "HEY! ANY HUMANS OUT THERE? WE COULD USE A HOOF!"

There was a commotion outside as the sound of the gates opening could be heard from the hut. Many of the people rushed to head towards it, but one of the nearby villagers stepped into the hut to make sure the ponies were fine.

"You two alright? I heard yelling."

"Y-Yeah, sorry to uh... bother you."

The pegasus struggled to speak despite the rapid shift of emotions Granite had just forced on him.

"We're just... you know, really really tired after carrying all those rocks around earlier. Could you have someone bring us some food? Uh, please? And water."

"What's happening outside?" the mare asked. She was starting to feel better and was now getting curious. Luckily, she remembered Lodestone's problem. "Oh, you can wait here, I'll go check," she said. "... lover."

That last bit was added in a lower voice and with a big grin. She really was feeling her old self again, it seemed.

Despite her words, Granite didn't stand up just yet, waiting instead for the human's verdict.

"Rohan's hunting group is back and I heard they caught something big! But uhh, I can still get you food and water..."

It was clear the slightly younger looking villager really wanted to see what the fuss was at the gates. More than likely, whatever he brought at that moment was going to be rushed over without care too.

"Lover, huh...?" he murmured under his breath.

With a mischievous grin, he shifted slightly and released his pinned member where it had been bent away from the mare. It swung under him just far enough to lightly tap her hind leg before straightening.

At the same time, he spoke to the man again, covering any reaction she might have.

"Oh there's no rush, just when you can get around to it." He gave the man a knowing stare, "I'm sure you want to go see Rohan's catch first, yeah?"

"Uhh..." Granite was very flustered at the sudden change in cards. She got up and took a step towards the exit, but paused to face the stallion. "Don't push it, okay? I can still buck your muzzle so hard you'll be grinning on the other side of your head."

Just to prove her point, the mare flexed a little, displaying those bucking muscles. "See?"

She looked at the exit wistfully. "I think I'll go and see what's happening." The noise was getting very noticeable.

Just before leaving, Granite's mischievous streak came back in full force, though, and she winked back at the stallion. "Oh, and don't look so smug - I can play this game, too! I'm not used to it, but I know how it goes!"

Her version of 'this game' was to sway her hips as she took a step and swish her tail around with an unnecessarily exaggerated gesture. It would give poor Lodestone a very good glimpse of it all, without it looking intentional. Which it obviously was.

CH6: Sweet Release

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As the ponies followed the humans toward the gates, instead of great cheers, the villagers were deathly quiet. Granite, who was too short to see through the crowd, was allowed by untill she could see what was happening. Rohan, leader of the small group, limped through the gate with the assistance of one of the other hunters. It was obvious they took some of their makeshift clothing to try and patch him up, since the man looked like he was on the edge of death. His right arm hung limply at his side, broken, battered, and useless. His left leg looked like it had been mangled by a large cat, and the metal plates on his torso were either cut open or heavily dented. The look in his eyes gave the impression that he was only half-aware of where he was headed. After only a few steps in, some of the villagers stepped forward to carry him off towards one of the huts. Two of the other hunters dragged two of their kills along. A gigantic looking fish, probably from the large swamp, and a scaly, four legged beast that was home to the forest alone. While the hunt was successful, there was no cheer to be had with one of their own so damaged.

"Oh no!" the mare exclaimed, a bit queasy from all the carnage. She hurried after the people who were carrying Rohan and pushed her way into the hut, which wasn't too difficult for a strong earth pony.

"What happened?!" she demanded of the human nearest the center. Now that she was this close, the mare was afraid of going and nearer, for fear of causing more problems than helping. Instead, she looked around for anyone she knew, like the Chief or the Shaman or the Priest.

The hunter who had been supporting Rohan glanced down at the mare.

"Hunting always carries this risk. We went out by the river leading towards the swamp when we caught sight of that fish. We figured it would be easy, just spear it and be done."

With a loud sigh, he clenched the bridge of his nose between his pointer-finger and thumb.

"That... Drake, or whatever it is, came up on us as we were pulling it out of the river. Rohan fought it so we could either get somewhere safe, or surround it. This is the result of that fight."

"Eep!" Granite squeaked, trying not to look at all the blood and swallowing nervously at the associated smell. "W-What can I do to help?!"

Hopefully, the mare thought, it would be something that required her to fetch something or someone, which would take her away from here.

Despite the scary sight, she made her way closer to the bed where they'd laid the hunter and gave his face a lick. She grimaced at the blood-taste, but tried not to show it. "It's gonna be fine!"

"We're going to need a few buckets of water, to wash his wounds. Otherwise, this is a job for our priest and shaman. When they start, we just need to give them space."

Neither of which were in the hut yet. The building in question was one that had both the voodoo items that the shaman required, but also had simplistic things like prayer beads carved from wood.

"Okay! Water! On it!" the mare babbled, and, giving Rohan another lick, rushed off. She was fast on her hooves and by now had somewhat recovered from her earlier heat stroke. Adrenaline did the rest.

What seemed like moments later she rushed into the hut with Lodestone, already yelling: "Rohan was hurt! Get the priest and the shaman there as quickly as you can!"

Unfortunately she didn't know how to explain which hut, but the stallion would undoubtedly see the people milling about. As for her own part, Granite ducked out before the poor pegasus had a moment to reply and ran to the farm, where she last remembered seeing buckets, then to the river.

Lodestone was sitting upright with his back facing the entrance to the hut when Granite burst in. He hadn't actually been doing anything but he'd been thinking about it. He started guiltily, stammering an excuse, but she was already gone. Then he realized what she said and swore under his breath.

He twisted around and bolted out the door, galloping down the path. At first he grumbled, not understanding why it had to be him to get the shaman, but then he rounded a corner and blew past one of the humans running as fast as he could - still far slower than him and he wasn't even straining.

Not sure where the Priest stayed, he went to the Shaman's hut instead, since he knew where it was. He hesitated for the briefest moment, glancing warily at his throbbing member, before banging a hoof on the Shaman's door.

"Shaman! Rohan's badly hurt, you're needed near the main gate and I don't know where the Priest lives!"

"What has da fool boy done dis time?! Iffin he need da priest, I'll need ta gather me tings. She can be found in a stone buildin in da middle of where people be livin'."

She took to gathering up a few of her trinkets and ritual items and pushed the stallion out as she left. She waved him off in the direction he would need to go in order to find the priest.

Granite was just walking quickly, but carefully with a couple of buckets of water on her back and one in her mouth, held awkwardly and making her head bend at a weird angle. She almost ran into someone, but stopped in time.

"eeh oh o' 'e 'aay!" she said and pushed past, not caring that it was unintelligible. In moments, with a few more headbutts and muffled yelling, the mare was back in the hut with the water. She put the bucket in her mouth down first.

"There! Water! Lodestone is getting help! Anything else?"

While she waited for further instructions, the pony carefully unloaded the other two buckets from her back.

"Yes, I only just got his armor off, we need to wash him up a bit so they can see exactly where the wounds are."

The hunter took a waterskin pouch and thrust it into the bucket. Once it was a little over half full, he took it out and handed it to the pony.

"Here, try to rinse the blood away while I wipe with these fur scraps. He should be good by the time help arrives."

"Okay!" Granite said and gripped the thing in her mouth. She was skilled with using objects this way and it only took her a minute to understand how to do it properly. Other than this, the mare would make herself useful by fetching and holding any small items and comforting the patient as best she knew how. This mostly included licking and nuzzling.

At the Shaman's urging, Lodestone began to turn toward the center of town, then hesitated and looked back, speaking quickly.

"If she's in the middle, surely somepony's made it there already? Maybe I should help you get there faster instead - I can carry your gear... or hay, you could even ride me and I'll fly you there direct."

"I no be flyin on yer back! What you want to do, give me a heart attack?!"

Realizing she would need an armful of items or so, she opted to grab a fur bag she has and tossed the items in. With that, she grabbed a cane and gave the pony the bag.

"Take it an go, der be a table in da hut he'll be at if he was near da gate. Lay da stuff on it on I'll be right der."

He nodded and grabbed the sack with both forelegs, then flew off as quick as he could manage. Just to make sure, he flew over the center of town and saw a human standing anxiously by the door to the priest's house. Satisfied, he angled his wings and turned toward where he saw humans gathered around a small hut near the gate and glided in a tight circle over them. He shouted at them to make room for him to land, then tossed the sack to his back and landed, keeping his forward momentum to rush inside.

Luck would have it that Granite was standing in the way so the pegasus smacked right into her as he swooped in. All the mare had time for was a strangled yelp, before the ponies rolled on the floor and came to a stop against the far wall.

It was only through sheer luck that the Shaman's items weren't damaged as the sack landed on the floor.

As for Granite, she found herself straddling the pegasus, who was lying on his back, panting. Despite the confusion and the seriousness of the situation, she couldn't suppress a small grin.

"Aww, did you miss me sweetie?"

Then she leaned down and gave him a light peck, right on his muzzle, before sliding off the poor stallion. "Are the priest and the shaman coming?!" she asked, turning serious once again. "What's in the bag?"

The pegasus lay there for a moment, stunned more by Granite's actions than the crash, then scrambled to his hooves.

"Y-Yeah, they're on the way. Uh, I don't know exactly but it's stuff the Shaman needed. I figured she'd get here faster without lugging her stuff around."

He shuffled back against a wall and sat self-consciously, trying to ignore the renewed throbbing in his loins.

The priest was first of the two to join. Like before, she had on a fancier robe than what most of the village had available, and she had some kind of ceremonial bronze staff with her.

"Oh my gosh! Rohan! You can't keep doing this..."

As she moved to his side to check the damage, the old shaman stepped inside and huffed at the appearance of the man.

"Ya never change! Always be putting ya own self in da way to save da others."

The hunter, having seen the two appear, started to nudge the ponies out of the building.

"Alright, we did was we needed to, rest is up to them. Let's get out of their way."

"Are you s-sure?" Granite mumbled, staring at Rohan with some concern. "I can stay and h-help if you like? There must be something we can do!"

Finally remembering that Lodestone was there, too, Granite stepped closer to the stallion and nuzzled him.

Her muzzle was covered in blood from her giving the human comforting licks and she was trembling in fear and excitement.

At the hunter's words, the pegasus hopped up, almost eager to leave.

"Come on, they've got it from here. We'd just be in the way."

He pushed her gently ahead of him with a wing.

Once outside, the hunter looked at the crowd and took a deep breath.

"Clear the area! Rohan is being healed as we speak! Do not sully his name by letting the quarry he fought for go to waste! Make ready for night and keep him in your prayers if you must!"

His voice was loud enough for the entire crowd to hear and the people slowly started to disperse. The village chief, who was near the back, stayed leaning against a nearby hut and stared at the ponies while lost in thought.

Granite allowed herself to be pushed out, only flinching a little at the yelling. She caught the chief's eyes and gave her a bright, hopeful smile. She really hoped their hunter friend would make it.

She turned back to the pegasus nudging her along. "I'm going, I'm going! Jeez. I can see you're impatient, but you're not getting any tonight, okay? I agreed to one date!"

He stopped short at that. His ears flopped down and his tail swished in agitation.

"What? N-No, I just... you--they were..."

Noticing the Chief staring at them, he trailed off with a groan. There'd be no end to the teasing for this, he was sure of it. He sighed and started trotting toward their hut, not waiting for Granite to catch up.

The lady barely noticed when they came closer. When she had finally realized they were just in front of her, she gave a faint smile.

“He’ll pull through. Always does. Reckon that it would take a full blown dragon to finally kill Rohan!”

She tried to laugh at the little joke, but just didn’t seem to have the energy for it.

“You mind if I join you for dinner tonight?”

"Sure!" Granite said without even consulting with Lodestone. The stallion might have preferred some alone time, but it seemed he wouldn't get it. "Actually, we were just about to go find something to eat," the mare explained incorrectly, "before... um. Before all of this."

She looked worried for a moment, then shrugged and relaxed. "I'm sure Rohan is in good hoove- hands."

Lodestone merely grunted noncommittally and continued toward the hut, though he did slow to a walk. He doubted he had any real choice in the matter and wasn't looking forward to the teasing he was sure to get while he ate. Earlier he had been game for it, but he was tired, hungry, stressed, worried for his new friend, and he felt sure his groin matched his mane by now. He simply wanted to eat, sleep, and move on to tomorrow.

“Right, food. I know you said you were strictly grown foods, no meat. But you...”

She looked to Lodestone curiously, as if something didn’t make sense.

“I heard you ate bacon. Can you stomach fish? Cuz that’s what we’re going to be eating tonight. The other animal is going to be stored so that he’ll last to the next set of meals.”

"You've been... what?! What kind of meat is bacon?!" Granite demanded, turning on the stallion. "You never said you ate meat. Why are you eating meat? Ponies aren't supposed to eat meat!"

She was completely befuddled by the sudden revelation and didn't even know what to say, so she just kept going in circles. "We don't eat meat, Lodestone! Ponies don't eat meat. You eat meat? Why do you eat meat all of a sudden?!"

Stopping where he stood, he let out a long sigh and spoke in a weary tone.

"Ponies shouldn't eat meat, but we can. You saw that pathetic farm. They barely have enough vegetables to feed one pony, nevermind two."

He looked up at her then and, though he tried to look grim and annoyed, his expression softened as soon as he met her eyes.

"I've been eating meat so you don't have to."

“Oh, didn’t realize that was how it was...”

Clearing her throat, she held an awkward, unsure expression and looked away.

“Yeah, uhh, so I should just get you roasted vegetables then. I’m sure some people won’t mind an excuse to take a little more fish and a little less veggies.”

Granite had a suspicious look on her muzzle as she regarded the stallion. "So you've been eating meat to spare me, is that it?" she asked, voice all sweet and polite. It was clear that something was brewing, but at this point the mare managed to keep it somewhat hidden.

"That's very nice of you. How come you never mentioned it?"

As if suddenly remembering the chief was there, Granite faced the woman and gave her a bright, grateful smile. "That'd be wonderful - just a bit. I'll graze a little in the morning to pad it out, so we don't eat your entire supply, okay?"

The pegasus huffed slightly and made a show of trying not to roll his eyes.

"Because I remember how you reacted that first night. I've been avoiding eating meat around you because I knew it disgusted you and I didn't want to make you uncomfortable."

It was a plausible excuse and clearly he had been rehearsing this conversation in his head.

"Hay, I've even been rinsing my mouth out afterwards to mask the smell on my breath! I thought you'd appreciate it."

He looked away from her gloomily, showing the barest hint of an indignant pout.

"What I'd appreciate, Lodestone," Granite said slowly, but with an icy-cold tone of voice, "would be if you told me stuff. Let's give this a shot, okay?"

The mare sat on her haunches and spread her forelegs theatrically, before taking a breath and making her voice all gruff and low in a crude mockery of the stallion: "Say, Granite, I think I should try this meat stuff so we don't wipe out the humans' food supply between them, how's that sound like?"

Then her voice took the falsetto tones of a mare: "Sure thing, buddy - give it a try, just please don't make me smell it!"

The mare watched her pegasus friend, then took another breath. "Now, let's try it like this..."

Again she did the stallion-impression: "Oh yeah, I've been gobbling down ... bacon and- and meat and all this stuff."

In her normal voice, Granite finished: "How am I supposed to respond to this? Any ideas?"

Lodestone sat suddenly and rubbed his forehead with a hoof.

"For Luna's sake, Granite, I had one meal! You watched me try that jerky and then this morning after you left for the farm, I went to get some breakfast and all they had was bacon, eggs, and this tiny pile of potatoes."

He turned away, no longer needing to pretend to be upset.

"And just when exactly during all the shit that happened today was I supposed to poke you and go 'oh by the way, I ate some fried strips of pig meat this morning, hope you don't mind'."

The mare realized very quickly just how she's been acting. The ears went instantly down and the blush crept it. "Oh," was all she could say.

There was some silence and then Granite walked over and hugged the stallion from behind. "I'm sorry. I was just shocked when I heard it from the chief..."

Looking around, she spotted that the woman had gone. "... who we drove away with our arguing..."

She heaved a sigh, which meant she blew a very hot breath right down Lodestone's back. "Sorry..."

Then, unable to help herself, the pony asked: "You really don't mind eating meat?!"

He was glowering now, half upset because there was actually a fair bit of truth to his words, and half because he was deeply embarrassed of how much he had enjoyed the bacon. He shrugged off her hug and continued walking toward the hut, but he didn't want her to think he was giving her the cold shoulder, so he turned to mutter over his shoulder as he walked.

"You almost puked just by watching me eat some old dried jerky. You can't eat meat. I can. It doesn't matter if I mind, it's just necessary."

Granite was feeling just a tiny bit snubbed, but she didn't bring it up now of all times. Instead, she hurried until she caught up to Lodestone and slowed down when she was walking beside him. "Well, okay. If that's what you feel you have to do. I'm not gonna stop you."

She giggled a little. "So, our dinner will be fried broccoli for me and this... bacon stuff for you? That could get interesting. We could make faces at each other while we eat."

She laughed a bit and slapped the stallion lightly with her tail. "Cheer up. I said I was sorry, okay? Or do you want me to do something else?"

"Sorry is nice, but..."

He glanced sidelong at her. His muzzle was still set in a slight scowl, but his eyes danced with faint amusement.

"I wouldn't say no to 'something else'."

They turned a corner and saw their hut ahead of them. As they walked up, Lodestone was disappointed to see no food had arrived yet. He sighed, but wasn't really surprised. With all the confusion around Rohan's injury, he hadn't really expected the man to remember he asked for food.

Granite scrunched up her muzzle in thought. "Something else like what? Should I bake you an apology cake? I heard that's what they do over in Ponyville."

She shook her head. No way would she find all the necessary ingredients in the village, so it couldn't be that. "Hmm, no, that's not it."

The mare went to sit down in the pile of hay and leaned her head to the side. "I could dance for you a bit, but my sister always told me I suck at it. Or maybe you want me to kiss and make up?"

The last one caused her eyes to widen and the pony to gasp in shock. "Oh..."

Her ears went flat and Granite looked away, swallowing. "Well, I guess I could lend you a hoof, maybe?"

That got a chuckle out of him and he flicked her playfully with his tail.

"It's okay, Granite, I was mostly teasing."

He stepped into the hut and laid down in the hay, then looked up at her, his face somber again.

"Being sorry is plenty, I just wanted you to understand. Don't do anything you aren't comfortable with. Like I said, I'm not going to push you."

Then he was overcome with a yawn and stretched where he lay. He didn't mean to, but he gave Granite a good view as he did so. As he relaxed, he turned to look at her again.

"What do you say to calling over another errand boy like you did before and see if we can finally get some food?"

"Actually, I'll go fetch it myself. Chief said it's fish. I think I can stand bringing you fish."

Granite was getting an eyeful of stallion belly. "I'm glad you got over that at least. Otherwise I really would have to help you."

The mare didn't intentionally tease, she just didn't think her words through carefully. "Heh, I once heard if... that goes on for a long time it can fall off. Wouldn't want that to happen, eh?"

She leaned down to give the stallion a nuzzle, right in the chest fluff. "If it's ever an emergency, I'll help, okay?"

Before she could leave, The Chief made her way into their hut. She was balancing the plates of food on her arms, two for the ponies and one for her.

“You two done arguing? I didn’t want to interrupt your lovers quarrel, so I stepped away to grab some food. Had them roast the last of our potatoes and cook up some of the other green stuff we have.”

Their two plates were set down in front of them, while she kept her own and sat by the wall. From what they could see, she didn’t have any veggies, just fish on her plate.

“So I know Rohan brought you here cuz nobody lived in those one, but you’re just laying in hay. You could always stay with me and share my bed.”

Her eyes were mostly on the stallion, though she looked between them enough that they would realize the offer was for both.

Lodestone was immediately suspicious of her offer, expecting this to turn into some joke at his expense.

"I... don't mind it here. The privacy is nice."

He turned to look at Granite.

"But it's up to you. If you want to move to her place, I won't argue."

While he waited for her response, he began munching on his potatoes, doing his best to hide his disappointment at not getting any meat.

Granite, on the other hoof, didn't mind in the slightest a fully vegetarian option. She swallowed about half her plate in a hurry before giving her own answer. "I... think I'd like to stay here. Um - you can go, if you like, Lodestone?"

The blush betrayed her thought. Granite had seen the chief and the stallion flirting a bit and it would give him some relief from her own, clumsy, fearful and inexperienced attempts. It would also be a huge disappointment, but Granite was willing to live with that.

"After all, you both like meat and... um. Well, I think you could have fun living together."

It ended up sounding far lamer than she'd imagined in her head and Granite sighed sadly. "Don't mind me, just being silly. Silly, silly cowpoke..."

“Or, you could both come and I could pull out an extra blanket for whoever. It’d be a heck of a lot more comfortable, plus it’s just me over there.”

She paused to take a bite of the fish. She didn’t realize that she let out a small moan of delight at the flavor of the fish she was eating. When she finally swallowed it down, she looked more to granite.

“People also think twice before just barging in, like I’ve seen Rohan do here. Might be nice for you, hmm?”

Lodestone looked at the Chief and imagined how much nicer her home must be compared to this dank little hut, and thought of the way she looked at him earlier and the things they could try together...

He turned to Granite and saw the way her face fell and she slumped where she sat, munching half-heartedly at her leafy greens. He imagined leaving her here alone while he had some 'fun' with the Chief, then remembered all Granite had done and said today.

"No," he said firmly, causing Granite to look up at him, surprised. "I'm not going over there without you. If you want to stay here, then I will too."

He looked back to the Chief and bowed slightly where he sat.

"Though I deeply appreciate it, ma'am. You flatter us simply by offering."

Granite quickly brightened up at this choice. She was immediately smiling at the news. "Oh. Okay! I mean- I wouldn't mind if you wanted to go. I think I'd be fine..."

She gave up the pretense and put her empty plate down so she could rush over and hug the stallion around his barrel. "Thanks though. I really appreciate it!"

Only then did the mare realize the chief was still there and faced her, a bit red in the muzzle. "Um, if that's okay? Yeah, we're flattered, but I t-think I wanna stay here. The hay is very comfortable!"

She clucked her tongue and bit into the last piece of fish she had on her plate.

“Alright, your choice I guess. Can’t say I’m not disappointed though, would have loved to see if you’re as soft a cuddle as you look.”

Pushing her own plate away, she stretched out and stared through the window.

He winced and tried to look apologetic.

"I'm sorry to disappoint, ma'am."

Then a thought occurred to him and he voiced it cautiously, watching to see how Granite would react.

"Though... there's plenty of room in the hay here, if Granite doesn't mind joining in the cuddling."

The mare in question gave this some thought, then shrugged a little to herself. "Sure. That's okay with me."

She paused and the glint came back to her eye along with a suggestive grin on her muzzle. "Just- if you two get busy tonight, let me know so I can go for a walk or something..."

“If that was the case, then why refuse taking a bed? It’s plenty big enough for all three of us. You two don’t have to stay forever, just the night is fine. Besides... hay is really itchy for people.”

She looked at it with concern and figured that the ponies coats were probably what made them able to enjoy it.

“C'mon, try it once at least. Don’t make me carry you over there!”

Glancing rapidly between Granite and the Chief, Lodestone seemed to realize what he had just suggested and suddenly became very nervous. He wouldn't last ten minutes between them without... 'poking' one of them.

"Uh... on second thought, maybe it's not such a good idea..."

His anxiety caused his imagination to run rampant and his ears flopped as he began to grow again. He was pretty sure neither could see from this angle, but he shifted a bit all the same.

Granite, meanwhile, was all for it, now that she'd had the idea in her head for a bit. "Actually, why not? A bed would be a lot more comfortable and it's not weird if it's all three of us, right? It's just cuddling. Everypony likes cuddling!"

The mare got to her hooves and went to stand beside the human. "You coming, Lodestone? Hay is great, but I wouldn't mind sleeping on some proper sheets for a change!"

Lodestone stared wide-eyed at Granite, then sighed deeply, seeming to deflate. There was no way out of it now.

"Alright, let's go then..."

He swallowed the last of his potatoes, then slowly stood. This close, and with them still sitting, his erection was impossible to miss.

“Exactly! C'mon, you’re gonna enjoy a bed tonight.”

She led them through the town and almost to the bazaar, where her home sat. It was wooden, though much more well constructed than the huts. Leading them inside, she sighed happily.

“Built it myself. Figured it would save manpower if they didn’t have to focus on things I wanted. Beds over in the corner. I say lode gets middle spot.”

Her bed was a lot simpler that maybe Granite expected. It had a somewhat familiar wooden frame, but was longer than ponies normally needed. The covers were fur, probably from an animal, and the mattress was some leather that seemed to be filled with a soft material. Her pillows also seemed to be similar, though it was definitely filled with feathers.

"Um... okay," Granite said carefully, eyeing the bed things. She hadn't expected it all to be basically made from animals, but she was too deep to complain now. The mare stole a glance from the stallion to gauge his reaction - after all, he liked meat, why not this?

Despite her misgivings, the pony carefully climbed up on the bed and shuffled to the far side. She made herself comfortable, even while trying to touch as little of the bed as possible. Her eyes sought out Lodestone hopefully - if she held on to a warm, pony body, she might forget about the fur and the leather.

"Come on! It's... um, it's fine...," Granite called and tapped the mattress with a hoof.

Of course she had seen his recurring 'problem', but didn't draw attention to it.

Somewhat reassured that neither of them were teasing him for it, or even seemed to care, Lodestone stood up and placed his forehooves on the bed. With the Chief behind him, he didn't bother to hide his disgust as he thought of how many animals had died just to make this bed. Yes, tomorrow night he will happily return to the hay!

He met Granite's eyes and saw she was similarly disgusted but hiding it well. If she could tolerate it, he would too. He hopped up onto the bed and laid on his belly directly next to Granite, immediately blanketing her with a wing. The fur was marvelously soft and he shuddered slightly at the sensation.

The lady was the last to get up on the bed and she immediately snaked her arms around the stallion. Her hands began to scratch through his fluff and into his chest, though she seemed to be searching for spots that he liked rather than keeping them in one location. Like Granite, she pushed as close to the stallion as she could.

“Night you two. Sleep well.”

A bit later in the night, as Granite started to snore, the Chief sleepily let her hands wander the stallion. One stayed in his fluff, scratching the spot she saw he liked, while the other moved down his belly to give long, slow scratches there.

“You still awake?”

Her voice was barely a whisper. Even with granite snoring as she was, the lady didn’t want to accidentally wake her by talking loudly.

He had been sleeping but he'd always been a light sleeper, and the pleasant feeling of her fingers in his fur was helping to rouse him.

"Nnnnhuh? Now I am..."

Realizing it was still dark and Granite was gently snoring behind him, he quickly dropped his voice to a soft whisper.

"Why? Is something wrong?"

Worrying helped clear his sleepy mind and his ears perked, immediately alert for any unusual sound.

“Not exactly...”

Her hands kept getting tantalizingly close to his nether regions, but always managed to pull short in the end. His body turned away from the woman, he would feel her breath on his ear as she spoke.

“Just have a lot on my mind and can’t sleep. I-I probably shouldn’t have awoken you... sorry.”

Lodestone shifted awkwardly as her fingers approached his groin again, as if he couldn't decide if he wanted to pull away or press in closer. He slowly turned his head to meet her gaze.

"It's alright, I'm just a light sleeper."

He hesitated for a moment, an ear twisting toward the sleeping mare, then brought his muzzle closer to the Chief's ear.

"I'd ask if you wanted to talk about it, but I'm worried about waking Granite. She had a hard day and badly needs rest."

Her hands stop for just a moment and just by his groin as he says that. Shuffling just a tiny amount, she pressed her breasts more into his back.

“Just... do you think I’m pretty?”

From the tone of her voice, this was definitely something bothered her and luckily something that could be given a short answer.

Lodestone hesitated, but only for a second. He wasn't brilliant with mares, but he knew there was only one right answer at a time like this.

"Well... of course. Even being a different species I can still see you're very attractive."

Sitting up on her elbow, she angled Lode’s face so she could pull him into a little kiss as her hand slowly moved further down his belly and finally into that area she’d been teasing.

Only the fact that he had already been concentrating on not disturbing Granite kept him from jerking in surprise. Even so, a small grunt escaped his muzzle and he broke the kiss, whispering urgently.

"What? You... Really!?"

He tried to silently squirm back and away from Granite, but all he really accomplished was pressing himself into the Chief's bosom. He hissed into her ear, trying to sound angry and nervous, but his hips shifted almost of their own accord, pressing into her hand and he was already starting to swell.

"Now? With Granite right there!?

She flinched but kept her hand in place when she felt him not only press into it but also grow.

“I-it was- umm...”

She tried to get the words out and for the first time, the stallion wouldn’t see a big, dependable leader, but a shy, meek woman.

“I-I couldn’t- your answer... umm... most... men avoid me. Cuz of my physique and role...”

He gawked at her, both confused and surprised. When he spoke again, his tone was gentle.

"Really? I assumed you pretty much had your pick of the men in town..."

If what she said was true, she might be even more desperate for this than him. He glanced at Granite laying directly in front of him and began to blush.

She could still feel him in her hand and soon her other went down to join it. Her eyes stayed locked on him and she even half smiled as she felt him.

“You need relief too, don’t you? We could step outside. If she wakes, we can say you are going to relieve yourself.”

It wouldn’t be untrue, by any means, but maybe not what the mare would think he meant.

Somehow the thought of going outside where all the guards would see was even more embarrassing than in here. His ears flopped back anxiously as he tried to pick the lesser of two 'evils.'

"Outside? Uh... couldn't we just... I dunno, go over there and be quiet?"

He pointed the tip of a wing at the far end of the hut. It was larger than their own, but they would still be awfully close to where Granite lay sleeping.

With a huge grin, she walked over to the far corner of the room and sat against the wall. Waving a hand, she beckoned him to follow and sit in front of him. Lucky for them, Granite was faced the other way and it would be easy to see if she turned.

Feeling nervous but a little excited, Lodestone carefully rolled away from the mare and slowly approached the Chief. He thought about how she reacted earlier and decided she would probably appreciate some flattery and boldness.

As he drew near, he made a show of eyeing her and grinned, then cautiously leaned forward to nuzzle her neck, just under her ear.

She bit her lip and pushed her face against the side of his head.

“Tonight, let’s focus on your relief, hmm?”

She knew he was a little pent up, given what she saw earlier in the day. Using her hands, she turned him around and guided him so he sat with his back against her chest. It was an awkward position for a pony, but manageable with her supporting him. Like before, she brought her hands down to his crotch and began to feel up what she had to work with.

Almost instantly, a shiver ran up his spine and he struggled to suppress a moan. He leaned back and laid his head on her shoulder so he could meet her eye and whisper.

"And yet I don't even know your name..."

He sighed as she stroked down again and pressed his face against hers.

“Barbara.”

She gave him a quick kiss and while one hand pumped his length slowly, the other reached down to his sack. Her dexterous hands had no problem fondling him, and somehow they turned out to be softer than her muscular physique let on.

So pent up was the poor stallion, he could already feel the climax building, though it hadn't even been a full minute yet. He licked her cheek and gasped as a bit of pre-cum leaked out.

"Barbara? It's a... p-pretty name."

His leg shook with a light spasm as he said the word 'pretty,' and he knew he wouldn't last much longer.

She presses her face against his cheek and looked down at the rod she was handling in her hands. Feeling him throb, she picked up the pace.

“You’re near, right? Let it all go. Just let it all out.”

The hand that was fondling him moved so that if he spurt, she would be able to catch at least some of it instead of making him coat himself.

It was too much. Her increased speed, her hot breath on his cheek, her sensual voice in his ear...

His hooves flew to his muzzle and he choked down a groan as he began to shake. He arched his back, thrusting into her hand, pressing back against her chest, her neck, rubbing the side of her face with his. One hoof released his muzzle to wrap around her head, hugging her closer as he practically exploded onto her hands, a hind leg curling around her thigh.

He struggled to keep silent but still, a shuddering gasp racked his lungs. He turned and buried his muzzle in the crook of her neck, nostrils flaring as his chest heaved.

She could feel the large amount of seed spill out on her hands. It was lucky for him that she kept a filled waterskin in her house, since he would need to rinse off whatever she didn’t catch.

“So much...”

Bringing her hand up to her face, she gave the stuff a tentative lick. When she noticed the stallion looking at her out of the corner of his eye, she smirked and licked up the rest of it till it was all gone.

“Feel better?”

All he could do was slump against her and smile weakly. He took a moment to regain his breath, oddly fascinated by the way she licked up his seed. Nopony had ever done that before.

Finally, he managed to whisper, "You're incredible," and twisted slightly to nip at her ear.

She held the stallion there for only a little while before gently pushing him off.

“We should rinse this stuff off my hands and your fur outside. C'mon.”

When he was off of her, she stood and made her way to the waterskin by the door. Even full, it wasn’t a whole lot of water, but she figured it would be enough to do the job.

He stumbled slightly as he followed her out the door and scrubbed his belly with a hoof as she poured some water over him. When she turned away and began rinsing off her own hands, he leaned forward, wrapped a hoof around her thigh and licked a bit of exposed skin near the side of her hip.

"What about you?" he murmured, looking up at her surprised expression.

“Another night. When we’re not worried about waking someone and have the time.”

Of course, this was all assuming Granite didn’t become possessive or otherwise keep it from happening. When she felt her hands were clean, she rinsed her mouth out and took a small drink, then dried her hands on her clothes. For the stallion, she handed over a fur scrap.

“In case you want to feel dry. Up to you though, the bed should be fine to handle your damp fur.”

Rather than rub himself down with a bit of dead animal's pelt, he politely waved the scrap away and instead flew straight up into the sky, circled once, then dove down at the Chief again. His wings flared to slow him at the very last second and he came to a halt mere inches off the ground.

The whole maneuver only took about fifteen seconds, and once he touched down he stroked his belly with a hoof. It came away damp, but only just. He smirked up at Barbara.

“Huh...”

She hadn’t thought of something like that, though she never had wings herself. Regardless, she followed the stallion back in and both found the mare still snoring away. As they got back in bed, her snoring wavered a bit, but the mare soon fell back into her pattern and the two breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good night... again.”

Lodestone, feeling immensely more relaxed than when he had first laid down, happily snuggled down between the mare and the woman. He gently tucked a wing around Granite to make her a bit more comfortable, then snuggled up against the Chief, sighing contentedly.

"Good night. And... thank you, Barbara. I needed that more than I realized."

CH7: A Plan Begins

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Morning rolled around in time and the ray of sunlight happened to hit Granite right in the muzzle. The mare fought it for a while, but then gave up with a sigh, which turned into a yawn.

She stretched her hooves out luxuriously, but then froze and wrinkled her nose.

Her eyes opened and the pony looked at the stallion and the chief sprawled beside her. Then she put her muzzle against the pillow and inhaled deeply, a calculating look on her face.

"Um, Lodestone?" she whispered and nudged the stallion, hoping to wake him up but not the human. "These leather things smell weird. I think I'd rather sleep on the hay in the old hut tomorrow, okay?"

Despite that, the pony seems to have gotten a good night's sleep and was feeling cheerful.

Always a light sleeper, Lodestone had already begun to stir as Granite stretched and yawned. When she spoke, he cracked open an eye and nodded sleepily.

"I can't deny it's comfy," he was interrupted by a huge yawn, then continued blearily, "...but I'd rather not sleep on something else's skin."

As his head cleared, he suddenly remembered what he and the Chief had done last night and nervously glanced down at his belly, but it looked clean. Then he sniffed warily, and could only make out the faintest whiff of his spunk. Hopefully the odd smell of the leather would throw Granite off, but he'd have to wash in the river soon.

Responding to the movement in the bed, the chief wrapped an arm around the stallion and extended the other one out so it landed in the fluff of the mare on the other side. Eyes still closed, she took a deep, content breath.

“Mmnnnn... not yet... few more minutes...”

"Hmmm," Granite murmured, not entirely comfortable now that the pegasus had brought up the whole 'dead animal' thing. She stayed put for the moment, but was obviously itching to get up.

"One minute, but only if I can do this," she finally agreed, grabbed Lodestone around his barrel and buried her muzzle in his chest fluff. ""on't 'anna 'mell it," she explained in a muffled voice. Moments later she pulled away. "Ugh, you stink of it too. I'm getting up..."

Granite didn't wait for permission, but rather slipped from the bed and stood, stretching for a while. Her muscles were obviously sore and she moved them with exaggerated care until she tested their full range. It ended up with the mare dropping her head to the floor and pushing her rump as high as it would go in an almost cat-like stretch. The swishing of her tail was either unintentional, or she didn't realize her back was facing the bed and Lodestone.

With the Chief's arm draped across him and the mare nuzzling his chest, Lodestone would have been happy to doze back off to sleep again, but he was disappointed when Granite quickly left him. He scoffed indignantly at her comment.

"Hey, you smell like it too! We've been laying in it... all..."

The stallion trailed off as Granite began her stretch. For a few seconds he was too stunned to respond and simply stared at her rump, then hurriedly looked away. He sat up and turned around to face the Chief, stretching his forelegs and wings both up above his head.

Whether he realized it or not, he’d accidentally smacked her in the face with a wing. While it didn’t hurt, it definitely caused her to jump back in annoyance.

“Fine, fine I’m up! Didn’t have to smack me...”

Granite yawned again and straightened up. "There, that's better. I'm gonna go check on the plants. You wanna come?"

The mare addressed her question to both of them, but she was watching the stallion in particular. Something was making her feel funny and Granite hadn't yet put her hoof on it exactly. She was eager to be out and doing, despite the previous day's hardships.

"I'm feeling lucky. We might see the first shoots today! Oh, and I wanna plant some of the other things I saw your people bring!"

That last bit she had said to the chief.

Lodestone winced when he felt the impact with his wing and reached out with a hoof as if to rub where his wing hit. Realizing she'd probably be more annoyed by such a gesture than by the smack itself, he stopped himself at the last moment.

"Oh gosh Barbara I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, I was just stretching, you were closer than I thought."

His ears folded back as he realized he had just said her name and he resisted the urge to glance at Granite to see if she'd noticed.

“Just be more careful next time.... if there is one. I caught a little of what was said a moment ago. You don’t like the beds because they are made of animals, huh?”

She sat upright and let the blanket fall. With the sun out as it was, both ponies would see the meager amount of clothes she wore during the night. It was basically just a bra and panties, allowing them to see her abs and powerful legs a bit more.

“We tend to think of it this way: it would be disrespectful to the animal to not use all it can offer. If we need to eat it to live, we may as well, right?”

Luckily what the chief was saying preoccupied Granite and she didn't notice Lodestone's slip-up, at least not right away. She blushed a little and looked away. "Well, I-"

She fell silent, thinking about how to reply in the most respectful way possible. "I guess... I mean, maybe? Most of us ponies don't eat meat, so I never really thought about... skin and... stuff."

The mare visibly shuddered at the thought, but kept herself mostly under control. "Look, I'm not gonna judge. What I will do is get your vegetable farm going so you don't have to eat... so many animals anymore, okay? Deal?"

"That's what I was thinking," Lodestone said, nodding slowly, "You only need to eat animals because your farm is... well, terrible."

He glanced apologetically to the Chief, then hopped down and stretched more thoroughly now that he had a bit of space. He continued talking through his stretch.

"But I guess I agree, if you have to kill an animal, may as well put as much of it to use as you can. Anything less would be disrespectful to the life you took."

He sniffed disdainfully, then added as an afterthought.

"Though I think I'll sleep in the hay tonight all the same."

“Exactly. More vegetables means less killing, which also means more focus on things within our walls. Speaking of, after you check out the farm, we should probably properly introduce you with the mine and our storage areas.”

Barbara stretched her whole body upwards and groaned slightly in the process. Within a few moments she had another fur outfit, different from the prior days, on and was ready to step out.

“I’ll meet you over by the smith, since I know you’re familiar with that by now. Go on and check out the farm.”

Granite was only too happy to oblige. She walked around the bed and to the door, but paused a few steps away to sniff around a little. "Huh,..." she murmured to herself, then shrugged and went on. As she was leaving out the door, the pony stuck her head back in. "Coming with me, or would you rather check out the smith?"

Before Lodestone could answer Granite's belly grumbled. "Hmm, might take me a bit - I think I'm gonna graze today so I don't eat all their food..." she said altruistically.

Lodestone hurried to the door before she could rush off without him.

"I'll come with you. When I was flying around earlier I noticed all the grass in the village is trampled by everypony walking around. The only good grazing will be outside the village walls."

He turned back to the Chief.

"It should be safe if we're only just outside the gate, right? There will be guards nearby?"

“They’ll be close, yeah, but safe... well, you might not wanna get your hopes up. I can come with, if you want. Protecting you two is part of my responsibilities as Chief.”

She had a gleam in her eye like she wanted him to say ‘yes’ so she had an excuse to go out. Before an answer could be given though, she held up a finger and then rushed inside. When she came back out, she had a large, imposing battleaxe that looked like something only the strongest Minotaurs might have used.

“Eh? Eh? How bout it?”

"Oh, wow... that thing is huge!" Granite praised, at the same time uneasy in the presence of such a weapon and somewhat reassured about going outside. "Yeah, I guess if we stick close to the gate... that should be okay, right?"

The mare addressed her question to the pegasus: "Yeah, that sounds fine, right? Just a quick breakfast of some fresh grass. Um, do we need that much protection? Lodestone?"

She wasn't overly enthused by the idea, but it would feel rude to just decline, so she left the poor stallion on the hook instead.

While he appreciated the Chief's eagerness to protect them personally, he was a little put off by it too. It felt more like she was hoping there'd be a fight out there.

"I... think we'll be okay, that's why you have guards, right? I'm sure you have important... uh, Chief-y stuff to do. No need to watch over us little ponies."

Granite didn't wait for the two to make up their minds. She was too hungry for that so the mare just headed in the approximate direction of the main gate. It was easy to find - the roads were better traveled.

He almost changed his mind at the forlorn expression on the Chief's face as she slowly lowered her enormous Battleaxe, but he didn't want to lose sight of Granite and with a final apologetic wave, he hurried off after the little mare.

As he caught up, he gestured to the nearby river with a wing.

"Mind if we splash in the river a bit first? I want to get the stink of leather out of my fur."

"Oh. Okay! Good idea!"

Granite twisted her neck around and sniffed her own coat. Then she grimaced. "Ugh, it's on me, too! Yuck. I never knew leather smelled this bad."

She gave a guilty giggle. "I didn't wanna say in front of the Chief, but... well, using all of the animal is slightly better I guess, but it's still.. morbid. Isn't it morbid? I thought it was kinda morbid, the whole thing. Um, don't tell her I said that, okay?"

As if driving her plea home, the mare stepped closer and bumped her rump against Lodestones, before laughing and breaking into a gallop. "Last one in is a rotten egg!" she yelled over her shoulder.

"Ha, you said it!"

His wings snapped out to give him a boost of acceleration and he shifted instantly from walk to an all-out gallop. Aside from the initial burst of speed, he avoided using his wings, as hoof-flying was incredibly tiring.

Earth ponies are faster and stronger on their hooves, but he was larger than Granite and in good shape. It was a good race and the two of them splashed into the river at almost exactly the same time. With no referee around, there was no way to tell who was first, but Lodestone hung his head in defeat anyway, sure that Granite actually really wanted to win.

"HA!" the mare yelled excitedly as she splashed around, "So much for fly boys! Earth ponies rule!"

She ended up laughing, until she drew some water into her mouth and gargled for a moment. After she spat the mare sighed. "I need to get a toothbrush or something..."

She did it a few more times but it wasn't the same. In the end, Granite just drank her fill and relaxed, floating in the water for a minute. "It's nice. Lodestone?"

The pony didn't wait for a reply. "Sorry I'm such a... well... cow sometimes."

As soon as he entered the water, Lodestone began scrubbing his belly, just in case. The motion looked somewhat indecent so he was careful to mostly do it when Granite wasn't looking. When she turned back to him, he quickly lifted a hind leg and began rubbing the dirt from his frogs. At her words, he hesitated, giving her a confused stare.

"You... what?"

He lowered his hoof and stepped closer to her, draping a wing over her shoulder.

"Hey, none of that, okay?" He waved his other wing out toward the village, "This is one hay of a weird situation we find ourselves in. All things considered, I think you're doing great."

Granite knew it was a little white lie, but she smiled anyway. The blushed showed up prominently on her white patches. "Thanks... Um, wanna get out?"

Without really waiting for an answer, the mare began to trudge to the shallow end, but she waited for Lodestone to join her before going out completely. "Water's great and all, but I think I need something more solid in my belly," she explained. Right on cue, there was another grumble. "I mean now, Lodestone!"

"You act like you haven't eaten for days!" he said with a chuckle, "Do earth ponies have a stronger appetite, too?"

He reared and spread his wings, flapping them twice to fling the water from the feathers, then snapped them down hard. He thrust into the air and his wings smacked the surface of the water, flinging bits of water in a wide arc to either side, spattering Granite lightly in the muzzle.

"HEY!" the mare complained, but she was smiling so it wasn't a serious complaint. "Us earth ponies do extra work so we need extra food, okay?"

She didn't bring up how Lodestone had easily carried more rocks around than herself the previous day, but she also didn't bring up her morning spent working the farm. Granite wisely just left it at that.

"Now come on before you have to carry me!"

She didn't have his wings, so the mare shook herself like a dog would. It didn't get her all that dry, but at least it stopped her dripping water everywhere as she walked towards the main gate, resolutely ignoring the curious humans watching their antics.

"Yeah..." he sighed wistfully, "it must be hard work, always using your hooves to go everywhere."

He was hovering directly above her as she walked, her damp mane fluttering in the wind from his wings. He lowered his head and made an exaggerated sad face.

"You poor thing. Do you want a ride? I can show you the wide ocean of clouds from above!"

Granite decided wisely not to take the bait. She just poked her tongue out and walked on, ignoring the hovering stallion show-off. Quite soon they found themselves on a little clearing just outside the gate where the grass wasn't as trampled.

"Oh, Lodestone?" the pony said sweetly, "one cow joke and I'm bucking you through the wall, okay?"

At that she walked a few paces along the wall, then bent down to get at the sweet, young grass there. Lodestone would quickly see why she had warned him. This action drove the image of a grazing cow home . Even her tail swished around. The only thing lacking was a bell around her neck.

Suddenly somber, he landed a couple feet away and took a few steps closer.

"Come on, Granite, you know I'd never."

He lowered his head and began to munch on the grass as well, their heads only inches apart. He let out a pleased whinny as the grass was surprisingly good here - crisp and sweet, without too much stringiness or dirt.

"Oh, you wouldn't?" the mare said cautiously. She quickly hid her grin. "What if I do this?"

She plopped right down on the grass, legs tucked away underneath her. Then she began chewing with exaggerated motions. It wasn't cud - Granite couldn't do that, but it damn sure looked exactly like it.

"Hmm?" she said, waiting for the verdict with her ears folded down and a blush starting to form.

He hesitated and chewed thoughtfully for a moment, well aware that while she was comfortable making the joke herself, she'd be furious if he took the bait.

Instead he grinned, then adjusted his posture, looked nervously around him, and cautiously extended his neck to nibble at a leaf hanging from a nearby large bush. It was a reasonable imitation of a timid deer... albeit an unusually stocky one. He primed himself to leap away like... well, like a startled deer, at the first sound or movement from Granite. He hoped it would startle a laugh from her.

The mare didn't get the image, so she just leaned her head to the side and watched for a moment. "Um, what are you doing?" she asked at long last.

Giving up on baiting the poor stallion, she smoothly stood up and went back to nibbling on the grass. "Whatever it is, I don't see it. What's that bush by the way? Is it edible?"

She didn't recognize the variety.

With a grimace, he spat the half-chewed leaf into the bush it came from, then decided to try a different mimic, one she'd be more likely to catch.

He reared onto his hind legs, dangled his forelegs down along his barrel so they almost completely blended into his fur, and let his wings hang open by his side. He took a couple clumsy steps on two legs, then reached out with his wing and grabbed some different leaves from a nearby tree. Holding them in his 'hand,' he munched them thoughtfully. Then, pretending he just realized Granite was there, he smiled and lifted his other wing to wave his 'arm' at her.

"Hmm, nope. Still nothing," Granite said, but then paused and grinned. "Wait! You're a human, right? You're trying to pretend like you're a human?"

She came closer and curiously poked him with a hoof to see if she could tip him over. "Do all pegasi have this kind of balance?"

As if to test a theory, the mare stood up herself and tried walking around, but couldn't manage much more than a couple of steps before falling back down.

"This looks like it takes more practice than I'm willing to put in..."

Lodestone dropped back to his hooves with a chuckle.

"I don't know, maybe flight requires better balance? I never thought about it"

Still grinning, he folded his legs like Granite had earlier and started to graze again, but stopped and looked back up at Granite.

"Actually this is surprisingly comfy. I've only ever grazed standing normally before."

Granite rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh, but she came over and plopped down right next to the stallion, so their sides were touching.

She took a few more nibbles on the grass, but it was mainly for something to do. The mare had her fill, it looked like, so she just enjoyed the sun drying out her damp fur and the warmth and the peace. After a while she leaned a little on Lodestone and gave him a nuzzle. "Thanks, though," she said quietly.

Some explanation was called for, so Granite added: "I mean for... taking care of me... and everything."

She nudged the stallion a little with her muzzle. "So you fixed your... um 'problem'? When? I didn't hear you get up in the night..."

He had turned to grin at her and was going to say it was no problem, then the sudden shift of topic caught him so unexpected he tensed and almost choked on a bit of grass in his throat.

After a reaction like that, there was no hope of pretending otherwise, so he just sighed and looked away, feeling embarrassed.

"Yeah... the Chief kinda... surprised me in the middle of the night. We stepped outside and she... uh, used her hands."

No way he'd tell her they had actually sat just at the foot of the bed while she slept. He shifted uncomfortably, conscious of every inch of her body touching his.

Granite stiffened and her breath caught. After a few moments she let it out, very carefully. She didn't meet Lodestone's eyes. "Oh. So- I guess you and her?" the mare left the question hanging.

She remained where she was, but not for very long. Taking another bite of the grass, Granite stood up and shuffled her hooves. "I think I'll go back and check on the farm now. You gonna graze some more? Well, you know where to find me..."

The pony turned very carefully so she didn't accidentally bump into the stallion, but she didn't quite start walking yet. It felt as if she was uncertain about something.

"Me and...?" Lodestone stared at her, then waved his hooves violently in front of him, "Oh, no! No no no, we are absolutely not together! That was definitely a one-time thing."

Now that it was out, he was talking quickly, as if it had been pressing on his muzzle the whole morning.

"I think she was just trying to help me cope or something. Ponyfeathers, I figured she'd want the favor returned afterward but she just got up and went back to sleep, didn't even seem to want me to touch her."

He realized he was rambling and clamped his muzzle shut before he dug his hole any deeper. He was sitting on his haunches and his wings were popped half-open in his distress.

"Well," Granite said, her tone calm and very tightly controlled, "I think I'll stay the buck away from all that for now, okay? It sounds like you need to work it out with the Chief..."

The mare managed a tiny smile, but it was very obviously fake. "We'll talk later. I need to think..."

With that, she started walking back to the encampment and - presumably - her gardening effort.

"W-Wait, Granite! You... I'm... "

Lodestone was standing now, frozen in place, unsure what he could say, and even less sure what he was trying to say anything for. It felt like there was a whirling tornado in his brain. He stammered to a halt and could only stand there, dumbstruck. Numbly, he lowered to the ground again, his face a mask of confusion and worry.

The mare did pause and looked back, head leaning slightly to the side as if curious. "Yes?"

She walked back and sat on her haunches so she stared the bewildered pegasus right in the muzzle. "What? I'm just saying I'll back off until you work out whether you wanna... do anything with chief or not. It's that simple."

Granite managed a small smile. "I mean- I'm not the kind of pony to hit on you while you're trying to decide between two mares- well, a human and a mare."

She got up and poked his muzzle with hers, just for a moment. It wasn't a kiss, but maybe it was a slight, friendly peck. "You just do you, okay? I'll be fine!"

That last was meant to convince herself. It looked like Granite really had her heart set on the stallion, and now she'd decided there was no chance, so she was trying to put on a brave face.

Her words confused him even more, but as she leaned close and their muzzles touched, it was like all the wind in his mind dispersed in an instant. His mouth hung open slightly and as she looked at him, her eyes brighter than the blue sky behind her, his thoughts were clear.

"There's nothing to work out."

He closed his eyes and took one long, slow breath, and when he opened them again Granite was watching him curiously, expectantly.

"I'm done with her. I'd already long since decided I'd be sleeping in our hut tonight."

His chest was pounding so hard it almost hurt.

"I'm only here for you, Granite."

The mare gave Lodestone such a look of incredulous hope that it looked almost like a second sunrise. "Y-You mean that?" she breathed out in a whisper.

Then Granite shook her head and took a grip on herself. "I mean- tell that to the Chief. Not gonna get my hopes up until that's settled."

It was obviously too late. This time the tentative smile was real as she watched her pegasus flame. Her stoic self-control didn't last.

"Aw, what the hell!" Granite exclaimed and leaned in for a very quick, but also a very definite kiss. No real action, but their lips did touch for a second. "Don't read too much into this, please!" she begged.

A sudden laugh burst out of him and he stepped forward, giving Granite a solid nuzzle along the side of her face and neck. His wings were still half open but they were trembling with excitement now.

"I can't read you any more than I can read the wind!"

Then suddenly shy, he stepped to the side and looked away nervously.

"We should probably get to the farm soon but... I wouldn't mind grazing a bit more."

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, a small hopeful smile playing about his muzzle.

Granite looked thoughtful, but only for a moment. Then she smiled and walked over to a fresh patch of grass. "Sure. C'mere..."

She waited until they were side by side before leaning down and taking a nibble. "So - tell me about yourself?" she prompted. "I feel like you know my entire life story, and here I don't know anything about you except that you work for those Flam and Flim fellows."

She bumped his rump as if to try and get him talking some more.

He settled in beside her, almost giddy with his near miss with disaster. Before he could answer her, he chewed thoughtfully for a moment.

"How much do you know about Flim and Flam? And I suppose Neighagra Falls in general?"

"Um, the Flim and Flam guys," Granite corrected her incorrect naming from earlier, "not much. You just said you work for them. What kind of bosses are they? What sort of business do they run? Is it just mining, or is there other stuff?"

She gave some thought to the other part of the question, but shrugged. "Dunno much about Neighagra though. Isn't it a big famous waterfall or something?"

Granite continued grazing while he spoke. He hadn't really been that hungry but he didn't think she had grazed enough and he enjoyed being near her, so he was content to talk while she ate and listened.

"I'm only working for them because I couldn't find anyone else that needed a Sky Crane like me. It's a surprisingly niche job... most pegasi tasks need fast flyers, not strong ones, and I'd tried a dozen other companies first."

He shifted awkwardly before continuing. He knew what his bosses were and didn't like it, but felt he had no choice.

"See, Flim and Flam... they're sorta infamous. They're scammers, see? They go around tricking ponies into giving them money with false promises and products that seem good but are actually horse manure."

He could see Granite was surprised and not very happy about it, but she kept her judgement to herself for now, for which he was grateful.

"I don't like 'em, but I didn't have much choice in the matter. By the time I got to Neighagra Falls, I was getting desperate, and when I heard a local mining operation had been looking for a Sky Crane, I leapt to it and signed on before I even knew Flim and Flam were involved - it was months before I even saw them."

He sighed and shook his head wearily.

"Look... I could go on about them all day, but long story short, their mining operation is ninety percent honest mining and ten percent stuff I try not to think about. I've never had to do anything wrong myself, but I know it happens. They sent me here to see if there's a good place to mine in the forest, but now that I've seen this village, there's no way I'll bring them here. They'd exploit these poor humans in a heartbeat."

He fell silent for a time and munched halfheartedly on some grass with Granite. Eventually, he stood up.

"We should be going. Don't want those humans mucking about the farm without guidance for too long, right?"

The mare really wasn't overly enthused about the whole prospect. She had to work a bit to get rid of her disapproving frown, but the pony managed. "Well, okay. It sounds complicated. I just hope you know what you're doing..."

She had stopped eating and looked back to the encampment's main gate. "Yeah, let's go back. Oh, by the way," Granite looked back with a mischievous grin, "you owe me a date."

At the farm, the ponies noticed the humans taking weaved baskets of things towards a cart. With their extra height, it would be hard to tell what it was, though it became clear as she noticed a group pulling different vegetables from the ground itself. Not only that, but the fruit bearing trees looked greener as well.

It was completely unexpected, so Granite stopped and stared for a moment. She watched all the bustle, then walked over to the first familiar human she saw. "Um-" she didn't remember the name, but talked anyway, "what's all this? What happened?"

The pony looked around for her little garden and her tools. "I was going to check on the plants..." the mare said helplessly.

As he approached, Lodestone took to the air and saw it was true across the whole field. Plants he had helped seed just two days ago were suddenly full and ripe as if they'd had months to grow. He alighted next to Granite as she stepped up to one of the humans.

"I'm gonna guess the Shaman had something to do with this," he gestured with a wing, "If she can grow my damn wing back together, growing a few plants is probably a trot in the park."

"It was a miracle, thas what! We came 'ere in the morning and it was all grown!"

One human, a man who was clearly not one of the farmers, scoffed as he began to examine the dirt. Granite would be able to tell the quality of the dirt was quite high, based on how finely it trickled out of the man's hand.

"It was her, you dolt. She brought out the magic in the earth and it caused this food to grow nearly overnight."

At that, all the human gathered around the mare and knelt in front of her. Though they were all speaking different words, it seemed like they were thanking her and praying for her to continue being blessed.

"Um..." Granite began and stepped back, ears laid completely flat as she looked helplessly at Lodestone. "Ummm..."

She couldn't take a lot of such 'praising' and darted to hide behind the stallion, as useless as that was. "Help!" she whispered to him. "Get me outta here and you get a big, sloppy kiss, okay? I mean it! I dunno what happened here and I need to think!"

Just to be clear, she added: "I didn't do it, I swear!"

While he didn't care so much about the 'big, sloppy kiss,' though that would probably be nice, he could already see the whites in Granite's eyes and she was clearly on the verge of simply bolting in sheer panic.

Lodestone didn't waste any time. He spun around and grabbed Granite around the barrel, popping his wings out and back in a tight arc. The humans startled slightly as a significant dust cloud burst out behind him, creating a small space in the crowd. Scooping Granite up easily, he flung his wings forward, lurching back into that open space and a half second later they were off, the strange monotonous chanting following them up into the sky.

The people, annoyed that the pegasus took Granite away, grumble and go back to their harvest. After all, there was still more to collect and be stored. Those vegetables, paired with what was left of the meat, would make a decent meal over the next couple of days. With his height advantage, Lode would see the Chief waiting out by the smith while talking to Stalig.

Flying was a little better for Granite, but not much. Her grip around whatever part of Lodestone she could grab was like a vice and the mare was whimpering a little.

After a few moments she closed her eyes and tried to relax so she didn't bring them both down by wiggling or twisting.

By the time they landed she would be noticeably paler and wouldn't let the poor pegasus go even after her hooves touched solid ground. Very slowly she opened her eyes and managed a small smile.

"T-Thanks!" she said shakily and carefully loosened her grip. She thought for a moment longer, then darted back for a quick peck on Lodestone's muzzle. "Big kiss later, okay?" she whispered, but unfortunately she was nervous and said it too loudly.

Lodestone ignored the Chief for a moment, sitting in front of Granite and marehandling her to the ground.

"Sit down, Granite. It's okay, the humans didn't follow us, you're safe now."

She was twitching nervously, her gaze darting around like she expected a new swarm of humans to pop out any second.

"You need to calm down. Close your eyes and take long, slow breaths, in through your snout, out through your muzzle."

He lightly flicked one of her ears with the tip of his wing.

"Hey, you listening? Close your eyes, Granite. Focus on your breathing."

Once Granite was much calmer, the chief bent down to match their heights and studied them closely.

"People following you? Must be what our runecarver went to check out at the farm earlier today. Ehh, don't let em bother you. Those farmers are scrawny, just knock em over and go. Now... You want to get truly associated with the mines and our storage areas?"

Rising back up to her full height, she gave the pair a smirk and awaited their answer.

Anything would be a relief from all the attention at that point, so Granite nodded happily. "Yes, please!" she said in a small voice, still standing too close to Lodestone. Every time her tail swished it smacked the poor stallion, but Granite didn't seem aware of that. Her ears were poking back up as she got curious about this time.

After all, the mare had wanted to get away from farming and try mining instead. "Um - what kind of ore do you dig for?"

"Yes," he said, nodding to the chief, "Please lead the way."

He glanced worriedly at Granite and twitched an ear as her tail flicked him again. He flicked her rump with his own tail, hoping she would get the hint.

"And sorry for ignoring you. I hope you can see I had little choice."

Now that he'd decided to keep this place safe from his exploitative bosses, he didn't care so much about the mining operation here, but after seeing their crystal chamber of the gods, he was still curious on a personal level and stepped forward eagerly.

"We look for three things. Copper, Tin, and large chunks of rock we can easily mine out."

The storage area ended up being two large stone buildings that were cleverly built against a rock surface. Without knowing it was there, one might easily pass it up. The stone doors took even the Chief some effort to move, but she opened up each.

"This one on the left is for things we find that we don't have a use for, the one on the right is unused materials, typically the metals that we turn into what we use around town."

With the light behind them, both ponies would see the glimmering from the left storage building. It was undeniable as to what was stored in it. Gold. Heaps and heaps of it, enough that the humans could easily pay professionals to remake their town from the ground up.

"Oh, wow!" Granite exclaimed. "You dug all of that up? That's a lot of bits right there!"

She didn't make a move for it, though. However silly the mare might be, at least she wasn't greedy. She watched the treasure for a few moments more and her tail almost whirled in excitement, repeatedly smacking poor Lodestone. Every time he tried to move away, Granite would simply follow, without even realizing she was doing it. Right next to the stallion, that's where the mare wanted to be in that particular moment.

"You think we could use it to get some supplies over here?" she asked her pegasus friend.

The Chief seemed confused by their interest in what was effectively their waste bin, so he turned to explain.

"This soft yellow metal you're just throwing away doesn't have many practical uses so it makes sense you wouldn't care about it, but it is incredibly valuable to ponies. It's mostly used to make beautiful jewelry and ponies would pay a lot of bits for..."

He trailed off, suddenly realizing he'd never seen them reference any sort of currency.

"Wait hang on, you probably don't even know what money is, do you?"

At the Chief's blank stare, he resisted a chuckle and stepped up to the bin, grabbing a piece of raw gold ore about the size of his hoof.

"Let me put it this way: see this tiny bit of gold here? This is so valuable you could trade it for hundreds of eggs, maybe thousands. You could trade this one chunk of gold for a dozen spears of higher quality than you've ever seen."

He gestured a wing at the massive pile of glittering ore.

"With this much gold, you could probably buy an entire city."

"Reeeallly? That's good to know! Only problem is that we're still stuck in this forest that you've noted as dangerous. It's not like we can actually reliably get out and trade the stuff, right?"

In fact, knowing it was valuable only made her that much more annoyed. It made it seem like there were goods that were just out of her reach as a result of where they were forced to dig themselves in for so long. With a sigh, she led them into the other that, as she noted, was filled with the metals they needed, as well as a few they were trying to figure out. Among them, the humans had a small amount of iron, though not enough to be helpful.

"Least we have the stuff to make Bronze for a good while. We could probably make more things out of stone too, if only we didn't have to fear them being destroyed now and again."

Granite finally stopped slapping Lodestone with her tail, but only because she had wandered around the pile of gold to inspect a few more nuggets embedded in rocks. She experimentally stomped one, hard.

It made her hiss in pain, but the rock crumbled and left just the lump of gold, which the pony picked up. "I guess a hammer would be a better idea," she commented, but didn't seem any the worse for wear.

Dropping the nugget back, the mare made her way back to the two and sat on the ground in front of the Chief. "So, what do you need us to do?"

Lodestone raised a hoof to interrupt before the Chief answered her.

"Honestly, at this point I'm starting to think we'd be more useful to you by simply flying some of this gold back to Ponyville and buying you a plotload of supplies. There are things we could bring back from civilization that we couldn't make here on our own even if we worked non-stop for a year. Medicine, tools, clothing, building materials, weapons... hay we could even hire some extra hooves to move in here and help."

He trailed off and considered the ramifications of this discovery. This was so much gold they'd actually have to be careful not to bring in too much at once or they would just crash the Equestrian market and tank the price to a fraction of its current value.

The chief sat and crossed her legs as she went into deep thought. The spirits had directed the ponies to help, though not how. This wasn't like before, where they would be abandoning their task to someone else, namely ponies the humans had never met, yet it still worried the woman.

"We can't... leave. Those spirits up there, they help us, they guide us. I know not everyone will agree. Our people want to feel safe and not have to worry about their next meal, which I agree on that part. But I feel like if we leave, we abandon what we've been working for."

Not to mention, them leaving would leave that priceless gem vulnerable, should Flim and Flam try to take the area after hearing about it.

"However, I also can't turn down the help."

Granite looked as if she was thinking about something. She shook her head and gave the human a bright smile. "Well, we could take some of this gold and go buy supplies like Lodestone said. We don't have to just leave..."

Her tone suggested that personally the mare would like nothing better than to get out of this insanely dangerous forest and back to civilization, but she was too polite to say it.

"I'm sure some businesspony would be happy to organize trade caravans for this much gold... With guards and all. Unicorns and maybe even griffins."

Lodestone shook his head.

"No, we're not going to set up a trade route, not for a long while. Not only would it be an overwhelming culture shock for the people here, it would be shirking the task given to us by those spirits."

He turned toward Granite, his face somber and serious.

"It's not going to be easy, and it's not what either of us wanted, but we are responsible for this village now. You and me, Granite, we have no choice but to stay in control of this situation. We're effectively the primary ambassadors for this species now. Whatever help we bring, you and I must remain the ponies in charge."

"Exactly. The spirits tasked you, which is why we trust you so. They can look inside you and see things you might not know about. If they say you're good, I believe them. The whole village will believe them."

She places a hand on Granite's shoulder and gives a soft smile.

"Doesn't mean the whole of our people is on your shoulders though. So don't go thinking if you "let them down" that we're doomed."

The mare was just starting down that train of thought, but now smiled bravely. "Oh. Okay! Thanks!" Despite herself, she leaned a little into the touch. "So, what's next?" she asked. Then she remembered.

"Something weird happened with the farm. I'm not sure how, but all the vegetables were fully grown. How is that possible?"

Again, Lodestone held up a hoof, giving Granite a look of apology.

"Should we maybe go back outside and meet with the other leaders before we discuss this anymore? The Priest, Shaman, and Rohan?"

Barbara nodded thoughtfully, "We'll need to talk to them about opening trade. As well as maybe get the smiths to turn these nuggets into bars... I'm sure it will be easier to figure out their worth like that."

CH8: First Flight

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On the way back towards the healers hut, the Chief gave Stalig his orders. Strangely enough, he seemed thrilled to finally do something with the shiny rocks, even if it was something simple. In the hut, Rohan lay in the same place as before, though he was sweating profusely. The priest did her best to clear it away as much as she could, while interweaving her magic, same as the Shaman, but he didn't seem much better outside of the wounds themselves having closed.

"He doesn't look so good," Granite commented from the doorway. She gave it a bit of a thought, then firmly strode forward until she was right at Rohan's side.

With a glance at the two attending humans, she leaned in to give the hunter's face a good lick. "Don't you go dying on me, understand?!" the little mare demanded. "I'm not through with you yet!"

"Oh Tartarus..." Lodestone muttered, "I'm no medical pony, but I knew a mare that looked just like that a while back..."

He turned to face the Chief, looking worried.

"His wounds are sealed but he's burning up means he's infected. It's... complicated to explain, but if your magic hasn't helped yet, I doubt it ever will. He needs antibiotics - advanced medicine back in Ponyville - or he'll be dead within a week."

He seemed to droop as another realization hit him.

"...And it's not something we can bring back here. He needs to stay under medical care for the duration. I'll have to carry him there."

"Great... well that takes the discussion out of things."

The priest, having worked tirelessly with Rohan, excused herself as the shaman sat nearby.

"What be happenin'? Ya be taking him out trough da forest for help now? He die for sure if ya do!"

Shaking her head, the Chief took a breath and sorted out her thoughts.

"These ponies stumbled upon our home and came from outside the forest. They can get him to their village so their healers can do what we can't. Plus, we can trade with them and get the things we need."

Granite wasn't paying much attention to what the others were doing. She was focused on the poor, ill hunter and trying to give as much comfort as a pony could. In general that meant licking and murmuring soothing nonsense.

She heard what Lodestone had said and it sounded about right. The cowpony was starting to get quite worried. In the end she gave up and walked slowly back to the pegasus, ears flat, hooves dragging and tail hanging limp. She just hugged Lodestone and heaved a sigh. "He's not waking up," she admitted, as if it was her own failing.

"It's not your fault," he soothed, nuzzling the side of her neck. She probably knew that, but he guessed she needed some comforting all the same.

After a moment, he stepped up to the Chief and Shaman.

"Here's how I see it. I have to bring Rohan back immediately, I have to bring Granite back eventually, and I don't particularly want everypony's first meeting with your species to be a warrior on the brink of death, so I probably have to bring one of you along as well."

He paused for a moment to let all that sink in.

"Now I can carry all three of you for a little while, but not clear across the whole forest all the way to Ponyville, so we have two options. I can take Granite to a clearing just outside Ponyville where she'll be safe to wait while I come back and bring... whichever of you would be coming along to wait with Granite. Then finally, I bring Rohan with a harness and meet up with the others, carrying him the rest of the way to Ponyville. It would probably take all day and there'd be a lot of sitting around and waiting."

Again, he waited a moment to collect himself.

"Alternatively, I can carry all three of you as far as I can manage, land hopefully near the edge of the forest, Granite carries Rohan from there, and we walk through the remainder of the forest and into Ponyville. It's more dangerous, but much, much faster."

"We can't put his life in further risk, so I'd say let's get him his own flight there. I'll go to this other village, I'll even see if I can't bring some of that gold with me in case they ask to trade for whatever they use on him."

The Shaman, whose gaze is stuck on the man, waves a hand in dismissal and moves to the corner of the hut.

"Do what ya tink is right. Dats what da spirits want anyway. But I be warnin ya: If he dies, I put a curse on you all!"

Granite suddenly understood what Lodestone was proposing and she gasped. "Fly all the way across Everfree?!"

The notion was making her dizzy while standing on the ground. She swallowed and her ears fell flat. "There's no other way, is there?" she asked timidly. "Can, um- can we stay kinda low? I don't think I like heights. I'm not a pegasus..."

Lodestone couldn't help but chuckle, despite the seriousness of the situation.

"Don't worry. Actually I think you'll like it after bit, but we'll go slow and gentle. I'll need to conserve my strength after all."

He looked around the hut but everypony seemed decided. Without much in the way of possessions, it seemed pointless to stand around and wait.

"Alright well, I guess we'll leave right away. Skalig should have at least one gold ingot cool enough to carry by the time I get back. Chief, dress for travel and bring an ingot," he remembered her gigantic battle axe and hastily added, "And please don't bring any huge weapons. Not only are they heavy but they'll also frighten other ponies."

Suddenly he became acutely aware of how commanding he had been and had to resist shrinking back as he turned toward the Shaman, but he took a deep breath to steady himself. It was probably too late to back down now... hay, maybe they would respect him for it.

"And Shaman, please arrange something that can carry Rohan and hang from my barrel without me having to hold it with my hooves or worry about him falling off. I'll be tired by the time I get to him, so try to keep it light - maybe lash together a raft of sticks or a net of ropes."

After each each agreed, somewhat begrudgingly, they set off in different ways to accomplish their tasks. Lodestone wasn't prepared for what he would see when he told the chief to "dress for travel" though. She soon came back wearing her own armor, much like what Rohan had before. At the very least, it did end up looking more formal than what she typically wore, but it would also easily show the difference in culture between the ponies and humans.

"How is this going to work, by the way? I can't see myself sitting on your back as you fly."

"Um, I think I'll go get the next crop started," Granite said, trying to put off the moment she'd have to fly such a distance. "That way there'll be food when we come back, okay?"

She gave the Chief a worried look, then shuffled past the woman and out of the hut.

He'd intended to already be in the air by the time the Chief got back, but there were minor delays and she was quicker than he'd expected. When she showed up armored as if for war, he sighed.

"Dress for safe travel, Chief. We're going to a town, not trekking through the dangerous forest. Wear something lightweight so I can carry you easier and try to pick something comfortable - it might be days before you get to change clothes."

He eyed her thick fur vest and helmet that looked to be made partly from bones.

"...and try to avoid anything clearly made from an animal, please? I know that's probably all you have, but just try to avoid exposed fur or anything with obvious body parts visible. Smooth leather and fur only lining the inside if possible."

Finally, he considered Granite's question. He actually hadn't thought about that... she was light enough to ride on his back and Rohan would obviously need a sling of some sort, but the Chief was in between the two.

"And uh... Hmm." he said as he turned to the mare, "I'm actually not sure the best way to carry you. I'll think about it while I'm flying back. If you have any ideas, I'll hear them when I return."

Lodestone's wings twitched in anticipation of the long flight. It had been days since he'd had any good airtime and he was eager to be off. He turned away from the Chief without waiting for a response, ignoring her faint grumbling, and was just in time to see Granite backing slowly out the open doorway, watching him nervously.

"Hey, get back here, filly!"

She let out a horrified 'moo' and spun around to flee, but he was already facing the right direction and lunged out the door, taking flight in pursuit. He scooped her up around the barrel and she let out a long, high scream that lasted several seconds before she finally realized Lodestone was just hovering there, holding her only inches above the ground.

"Put me down!" the mare demanded, struggling weakly. "I wasn't ready! You don't just pick somepony up, mister!"

If he wasn't careful, Lodestone would get a hoof in his belly for the trouble. Granite glared indignantly. "Okay, let's try this one more time," she demanded. "Land!"

After he did so, she awkwardly climbed up on his back, gripping as best she could around his withers and rump. "There," she said, suddenly sounding out of breath. "Y-You can g-go now..."

He chuckled gently as she ordered him around and was still grinning when she managed to get up onto his back.

"That's all I wanted you to do, girl. Now listen, earth ponies are almost always terrified of flying at first, so I'll go easy and talk you through it the whole way, alright? I'm gonna hover here first for a moment so you get the feel of being airborne without worrying about any movement, okay?"

She squeaked something that might have been an answer and he took off as carefully as possible, moving his wings softly, then slowly accelerating them to take more and more weight until finally they left the ground, bobbing gently in the air.

"Okay! Okay! I got this!" Granite squeaked, trying to convince herself more than the pegasus. Her grip tightened, threatening to cut off some important circulation. "Just take it s-slow, okay?!"

She gulped and pressed her muzzle against Lodestone's neck to shut out some of the worrisome sensations. "What do I do if I get- urk sick?"

Before responding, he wiggled his forelegs under hers and pushed her forehooves up until they wrapped around his chest, then he hooked his own forehooves around hers, further securing her. He knew the thing that scared ponies most was feeling like they might slip and fall at any moment.

"It's okay, and pretty normal to be honest. Just turn your head and try to avoid my wings. I'm going to start moving now, okay?"

He dipped his head slightly and began hovering forward, slowly picking up speed. He was staying close to the ground, not even above the rooftops, flying through the street and ignoring the humans' confused and curious expressions.

Granite seemed to be handling this well, so he accelerated a little more and raised just a short distance off the ground, barely high enough to clear the huts, but still sticking to the roads so they wouldn't have any near misses with rooftops. He turned his head back to check on the mare.

"You alright back there? We're about to start a slow upward spiral to tree level. You comfy?"

All Granite could give was a strangled moo, as the architecture seemed to rush at her and she squeezed her eyes shut, as if that would save her from smacking face-first into a wall.

"Crazy fly boys!" the mare shouted in lieu of an answer.

Truthfully, though, she was feeling a bit more secure and even dared to peek through her eyelids every now and then as they rose. It actually became easier when they were above the trees, because at least she didn't fear flying headlong into an obstacle anymore.

The mare even managed a question: "Why do you guys love this so much?! What's the appeal!?"

They may have been above the tree level, but Lodestone was not comfortable flying too close to the trees after the things he'd heard from the humans, so he was still simply circling the village, staying in the open air space. He'd always planned to do this, but now that it came to it, he felt nervous. If she panicked and fell, he could catch her, but she would be so petrified afterwards he'd have no choice but to carry her in his forelegs the rest of the way.

Lodestone responded to her question with a reassuring grin.

"I want to show you something, but you have to promise me something first: I'm going to do something that I know would scare you if your eyes were open so I need you to promise me you'll close your eyes and keep them closed no matter what until I say you can open them again."

He turned back to look her in the eye.

"Do you trust me?"

"NO!" Granite yelled and her grip tightened some more. If it went on like that, she would end up flying with two halves of a pegasus. Or he would suffocate if she kept compressing his chest like that.

After a moment's silence, Granite heaved a sigh. "Yes. Here, look at me..."

When he turned his head again, she gave him a light peck on the cheek and giggled. "I won't say I like it, but it doesn't feel as if we're gonna fall..."

Maybe it was his over-active imagination, but he could have sworn when she kissed the side of his muzzle, she had wiggled her hips against his back. In any case, he gave her a shy smile, then strained his neck around to look her squarely in the face.

"Promise me. Don't open your eyes until I say. Can you do that for me, Granite?"

"Yeah, yeah, I promise. Jeez. Now I'm starting to get worried," the mare replied. She squeezed her eyes closed and relaxed her grip a tiny bit. "Go on, do what you have to..."

"Okay. It's safe, I promise, but it'll feel really weird. Just relax. I've got you."

Suddenly he straightened and surged forward, accelerating toward the stony hill where the village mined. The stone was a dark slate gray and had been soaking up the sun all morning. The moment he passed overhead, the thermal updraft caught his wings and began lifting them powerfully into the sky. He resisted the urge to whoop with delight - he'd always loved thermal surfing - and squeezed Granite's forehooves reassuringly as they lurched upward, knowing it would feel strange and unnatural to her.

They ascended rapidly into the sky, the village almost immediately becoming an indistinguishable mass of stone against the tiny trees below. Lodestone turned to check on Granite.

The mare was pale, but she was true to her word and was keeping her eyes firmly closed. All the movement and the wind was making her worry a bit and her muzzle was scrunched up in fear.

Every now and then, especially if they lurched or turned, she let out a small, quiet 'moo', but otherwise she seemed to be holding up fine.

He smiled, pleased that she was keeping her word, and began surfing more seriously, trying harder to spot and ride the eddies within the updraft to rise faster and more efficiently.

Less than a minute later, Lodestone punched a hole through the cloud layer with a satisfying 'PUFF.' He heard a faint gasp behind him - to Granite it would feel like a cold mist against her face, but only a second or two later, they were through. He pumped a bit more, rising a bit above the clouds, then turned toward Ponyville and leveled out into a gentle glide.

Above them was a vast expanse of pure clear blue sky, like a perfect day in autumn. Below them, spreading out in every direction, was an endless mass of slowly curling white ocean. There was the occasional patch of Equestria far, far below, but the cloud cover was good today.

The first time a pegasus beholds the cloudy sea is a magical experience, and most unicorns and earth ponies felt the same sense of wonder and beauty when they first experience it, but rarely, maybe one time in ten, the pony would lock up in terror, realizing how far away everything was.

Lodestone took a deep breath and prepared to whip into a dive should Granite panic and slip from his back. He turned back to watch her expression as he spoke.

"Okay, Granite. Open your eyes."

The mare did, then blinked in the strong light. "Where the buck?!" she exclaimed, looking all around them. "Is that snow?"

She peered a bit closer at the cover until she spotted a hole and the land far below. The grip became like a vice and the mare gasped.

"Clouds?! UNDER US?!"

It looked for a moment that she would freeze up, but Granite just needed a few seconds to take it all in. Then she let her breath out slowly.

"Actually, it's kinda nice. Doesn't even feel as if we're all that high up. Is that weird? Everything's just so... peaceful."

Strangely, the mare seemed to be losing her fear. She even loosened her hold on Lodestone so she could point with a hoof. "Can you take us down? I wanna touch a cloud! What does it feel like?"

Relief flooded through Lodestone and he burst into laughter, a bright jovial sound that immediately released all the worry and tension he'd been holding for this exact moment. He swooped down and drew close to a particularly tall bit of cloud, then slowed to a hover just above it.

"Watch this," he said with a wide grin, and immediately tucked his wings against his side. Instantly they dropped like a stone but Granite barely even had time to gasp before his hooves struck solid cloud beneath them and then they were just... standing there. The sense of stillness and silence was more peaceful than anything Lodestone had ever known.

He was careful though. Every pony's first instinct when a pegasus tried this was to try and slide off to stand on their own. Lodestone kept one hoof wrapped around Granite's where it hung loosely around his neck and tightened his grip in warning, ready to spring out a wing on whichever side she tried to slide off.

Lodestone's instincts were correct. Of course Granite immediately tried to slip off and stand on her own, but she paused just in time. "Wait, wait, wait," she said quickly and gripped the stallion again. "Earth ponies can't walk on clouds, right? I remember that from school!"

Instead, she reached over to pat the wall of mist with a hoof. Of course it went right through. "How is that possible?!" she said, staring at the 'floor' where Lodestone was standing easily. "It doesn't make any sense! It's holding up both our weights, but if I went off I'd just fall through, wouldn't I? This is so weird!"

The relief about flying and height was apparent in Granite as well. She giggled a little and gave her pegasus friend a very friendly nuzzle.

Still feeling almost giddy with relief, he actually giggled in response. "You earth ponies have your strength and stamina... we have flight and this!"

Now that she understood, he released her hoof and stood on all fours, then pranced in place a bit. The cloud puffed out to either side and they sunk ever so slightly as he broke away some material. Then with another bright laugh, he scooped some cloud up with a wing and flung it at Granite's head. She flinched purely on instinct, but as soon as his wing stopped, the bit of cloud simply drifted to a halt and hung there motionless beside her head.

"Ass," the mare grumbled, but she was smiling. She tried to prod the cloud back, but all she did was disperse it. "It's still pretty weird. I mean- you guys can sleep on a cloud. How weird is that?" This time her expression went all wistful and pleading. "How does it feel like? Is it soft? I bet it's soft. Softer than a feather mattress?"

Granite looked around at the fantastical landscape around her and sighed. "If we end up dating for real, you'll take me up here sometimes?" she asked quietly.

He grinned and nodded. He felt as if he might burst with happiness - he loved the cloudy ocean, even more than most pegasi, and had been more worried than he'd realized that she would be the one in ten that hates it.

With an excited whinny, he shoved her to the side with a wing and simultaneously twisted underneath her so she shifted onto his side. She let out a little startled yelp that was almost a moo, then he wrapped his forelegs around her neck and squeezed her in a tight hug.

"I'm so glad you like it up here too. Not everypony does."

"Well, then some ponies are crazy. It's beautiful," Granite replied. She seemed a little cross at being ponyhandled like that, but quickly forgave it. After all, it did bring their muzzles close together.

"Um..." she tried to say, but blushed a very vivid crimson. Then she closed her eyes and leaned forward, lips already puckering.

Of course she missed completely and ended up smooching Lodestone's nose before he could react.

The unexpected sensation made Granite squeak and jerk away. "Sorry! Sorry!"

Lodestone, overflowing with good feelings, grinned up at her and laid a hoof on the back of her head, then pulled her into a proper kiss.

Granite was really inexperienced. It was too obvious that this was probably her first real kiss. It was sloppy, wet, inaccurate, over-enthusiastic... but ultimately exhilarating. The mare was trembling at it and letting out small squeaks with each breath.

Too late she realized she was slobbering a little too much, so she tried to clean up, but all that did was end up with her licking Lodestone's muzzle all over.

At long last she gave up. "Sorry. I'm- not very good at this."

She wouldn't meet his eyes and her fur looked red with patches of dark brown, rather than its usual white.

Now he was blushing too and he smiled gently at her.

"I think it was wonderful."

There was a moment of silence while Lodestone just held her gaze, his smile fading to an expression almost of awe as he laid beneath her. Just as Granite was beginning to feel uncomfortable under his stare, he let out a faint whisper.

"How are your eyes even bluer than the skies?"

Granite quickly looked away. "Oh, hush," she said, trying to feign annoyance. To prove her point, she batted lightly at the stallion with a hoof. "Are all fly boys this charming? No wonder you get all the fillies. A view like this and some romantic talk..."

She gave Lodestone a sly grin. "It would make any young mare... damp."

It was an attempt to get him a bit unsettled as well and Granite watched curiously if it had worked.

Lodestone was so drunk on happiness he did something far more bold than he'd ever normally consider... he smirked and shifted slightly. That's all. It was a subtle movement and Granite might have even brushed it off as an accident had she not just said what she said, because his tiny wiggle made his thigh lightly grind between her legs.

"Eep!" the pony squeaked and her eyes grew wide and slightly frightened. "You're not- um... are we gonna-"

She swallowed and looked away. Her hind legs drew together and Granite moo-ed a little. "I don't think this is a good time to-"

The blush was legendary. It threatened to flash the cloud to steam. "-right now. Um, Rohan... we should get him to Ponyville quickly..."

Despite her fear, Granite seemed a bit sorry their cuddle-time in the clouds would end, so she added quickly: "I wouldn't mind coming back sometime. I'd like to practice kissing some more- eep"

She clamped her muzzle shut with her hooves and looked absolutely mortified at what she was suggesting.

With another bright laugh, he wrapped his hooves around her in a tight hug.

"You're so bucking cute, you know that?"

He relaxed and, more gently this time, slid her up onto his back with a wing.

"But no, you're right. We have important things to do right now."

As he rose to his hooves, he gave her a sly grin over his shoulder.

"I bet you'd love it even more under Luna's moon and stars though..."

Granite's eyes went large with wonder. "Ooooh..." she gasped softly, completely oblivious to them taking flight again. "I'd loooooove that!"

Her own enthusiasm made her laugh softly. "You know- if you get me up here in full moon, you might just, uh... get some."

Even that allusion was enough to cause more giggling. "I mean- they say you should only have your first time with a special somepony, but... buck if that doesn't sound plenty special to me!"

Just thinking about that was causing Granite a bit of discomfort and she shuffled a little. "Uh, Lodestone? We- we might have a problem," she said in a quieter voice.

He was about to ask if something was wrong when he felt something hot just above his tail, directly under her hips. In the silent gentle breeze that was almost constant up here, the heat quickly faded and became chill and damp... then he felt it warm again.

With a start, he realized that his attempt at courting had been far more effective than he'd expected and now he was blushing furiously, his ears flopping back. Sweet Celestia he could even smell her now, and it was doing things between his legs as well.

He realized there was only one way out of this now. They really couldn't take a buck in the clouds so his only choice was to distract her... and himself, to a lesser degree.

Giggling nervously, he immediately lurched forward, gliding down off the pillar of cloud he stood upon. Granite moo'd in shock and her hooves wrapped around his neck so fast he thought they would slam together with a thunderclap. Taking hold with his own, he banked down and accelerated rapidly toward Ponyville.

Granite was aware of it, and she knew Lodestone had to feel it too. It felt almost like a personal failing and she fell silent and a bit glum, almost half-expecting jokes about how 'easy' she was.

The sudden dive helped distract her and the mare was feeling almost her usual self by the time they were low enough to see the ponies in the streets.

"Um, can you drop us off there at the lake?" Granite pointed. She wanted a good wash before going into town, just in case. She didn't want everypony in the streets to smell her.

He nodded silently and swooped low over the trees before pulling up short. She slid off easily - almost like she was lubricated - and Lodestone stood there awkwardly for a second. He could tell she was incredibly embarrassed and he didn't want to leave without saying anything, so he shuffled his hooves and spoke quickly.

"Uhm... it's okay, Granite, don't feel bad. If anything, I'm flattered."

Then, his ears burning, he wheeled around and spread his wings to leave.

The mare mumbled something noncommittal as she walked towards the water. "Yeah... sorry," she apologized anyway. "I'll see you later today? I'll wait around the town somewhere...."

She didn't watch the stallion leave because she was getting herself in the water to wash up... again.

Lodestone froze mid flap and turned back to the mare, not meeting her eye.

"Uh... w-well, I figured you'd just wait here for the Chief and Rohan... but if you wanna go into town, I have a room at the Golden Pony Inn. Just... Just tell them you're with Flim Flam Mining."

He turned away awkwardly and rubbed his mane with a hoof.

"I won't be done carrying people for several hours anyways..."

She seemed to be waiting for him to leave so she could start cleaning herself, so without another word he flew off toward the forest.

The way back was a little harder as there were no convenient rocky outcrops with their powerful updrafts, but he found a couple of decent thermals before long and was able to spend most of the flight gliding comfortably toward the village. From here the forest looked solid and absolute, but he had taken careful note of the surrounding landmarks and knew close enough where it was that he should find it easily enough.

As he flew, he considered the problem of carrying the Chief. She was easily three times Granite's weight, but he doubted she would be content to hang beneath him in a harness of rope. Eventually he decided the best way would be to simply rest a thin wooden board along his back for her to sit on. He hoped they had a plank of the thickness he desired: thin enough that it would bend and conform to the curve of his back, but thick enough that it would still shift some of her weight away from his back and onto his stronger withers and rump.

When the pegasus arrived back in the village, the Chief was dressed in as little fur as possible. Of course this meant wearing practically all leather, not that there was much she could do in that department. She had with her something that looked like a net, lined with one of those fur blankets that he had slept under the night before. Waving her hand as he approached, the lady held it up for him to see.

"I thought of something while you were gone. Whatever we carry Rohan in should be tested out first. I'm not exactly the same weight, but it should be close enough for us to see if this idea will work and keep him somewhat comfortable. Once we have him safely at the outskirts of your village, I can carry him myself to wherever he needs to go to be healed."

Lodestone eyed the net curiously, then shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh... yeah, I guess that works. I figured you wouldn't want to hang in some kind of harness beneath me, but I guess it's fine."

He trotted over to the nearby river and took a long drink, then flopped down beside the stream and heaved a great sigh.

"Mind getting me a bit of food before we set out?"

"Go ahead. There are plenty of veggies for the next day or two, so feel free to scarf 'em down. Though, between you and me, I can keep a secret if you wanna try a bit more meat."

This time she would know it was supposed to be a secret. Of course, this time was fish and some type of lizard. At least one of the two would be considered more acceptable to be eaten. It wouldn't be like eating a fellow quadruped.

His ears folded back at her words but he remembered the taste of bacon and quickly caved.

"Well... alright. I suppose the protein will do me good."

He still felt hot from his flight so he stood up and waded into the cool water, then laid down again with a satisfied whinny so only his head remained above the surface.

It was a good fifteen minutes before a plate of food was brought over. This time the fish and vegetables were completely separate. The meat was on its own plate and the veggies were made into a kind of soup that would be filling, in case he didn't like the fish.

He waded out of the river without bothering to dry off and immediately lapped up half the soup. He had a small taste of the fish and decided not only did he like it, he also didn't feel guilty about it and quickly ate the rest. Licking his lips, he stood up and brought what was left of the soup back to the Chief.

"Thanks, that was perfect, but I don't want to eat too much before flying. Think anyone will still want the rest of this after I stuck my muzzle in it?"

"Ehh, I'm feeling a little hungry. Fork it over."

She quickly sucked up the rest of the soup like it was no more than a snack for her and wiped her lips with her arm.

"Phew, okay. So Stalig managed to make three full gold bars. Not sure how much that's worth exactly so I'll leave it up to you how much I should bring. It's all at the hut with that net."

Still dripping slightly, Lodestone stepped into the hut and saw three large, brilliant ingots of gold. He froze and gaped openly at the sight. The massive pile of dirty, raw gold ore was one thing, but seeing even a fraction of it pure and clean like this was stunning. One ingot alone was worth more bits than he'd ever seen in one place in his life.

He shook his head lightly and turned to the Chief with a weak smile.

"Ah... o-one ingot should be plenty."

How in Equestria would he even spend it? He'd probably have to trade it with Princess Twilight herself!

"Well ok then, guess that's settled. Stalig will be working on turning the rest into these bars to be stored. Let's get this trip going."

She laid out the net with the fur lining and laid down in it like Rohan would be. From there, Lode would be able to fly over her so the ropes could be attached to his barrel, and legs if he thought it was better. She was then tied to the netting so she couldn't slip forward or back. When she finally looked up, the Chief realized she would have a very nice view of the stallion for the whole trip.

"I think I'm good to go. Take us away."

"You, uh... how about you turn over instead? Flying is a pretty impressive sight and besides," he grinned awkwardly, rubbing his mane with a hoof, "You've already seen me, anyways."

When she didn't immediately move, he grimaced and continued more seriously.

"Also I don't want any serious distractions while I'm flying. Maybe once I've settled into a glide but it'll be a little while 'til we get to that point."

"Look, I'll turn my head, but I'm tied down to this now. Rohan will be much the same way and we have to make sure it will accommodate him laying like this. Or I'll close my eyes till you give me the go ahead."

She actually did both, just for him, though she was right. This was a test first and a luxury after. If her being on her side changed how the net handled weight, then she didn't want to be the reason it snapped mid-flight.

As much as he didn't like it, she was right. More annoyed that he hadn't realized sooner and said something before she was tied down than anything else, he sighed and slid the harness out of the hut, then looped it over his withers and rump. He took flight and hovered experimentally, making sure it wouldn't slip off in either direction, then accelerated and lifted the Chief into the air.

"Does it feel secure? Think anything needs to be changed before we go?"

"I-I don't think so! I'm not slipping, I don't feel like the net has any extra holes in it either. Go ahead and go!"

With her eyes closed, and tied down as she was, she was gripping the fur out of the fear of it possibly snapping. All she could do was trust that the net itself would hold.

Lodestone wasn't sure if she was scared or just being careful, but either way, he took care to keep in control of the swinging weight beneath him just like he was carrying a pallet of stone.

"Before we gain any real altitude I'm going to swing you around a bit to make sure it holds. If it's gonna break, we want it to happen now, close to the ground, not way up in the clouds."

He was pretty sure she wouldn't like it, so he didn't wait for a response and lurched forward, accelerating as quickly as he could manage. He aimed for a place where the river widened, then banked into a turn overhead, swinging her out to the side in the direction of the water. There were indistinct sounds of distress coming from the net, but he straightened and turned more sharply in the opposite direction, to avoid getting dizzy. He repeated this several times in tighter and tighter turns until he was sure the net was under much more strain than he'd ever have to put it under normally, then slowed to a halt and glanced down at the Chief.

"Sorry about that, but we needed to be sure. Should be pretty smooth from now on. You alright?"

"You ask me that after I grab my axe! Then we'll see who's alright!"

She was clutching the fur more tightly than before. It was a necessary part of testing, but it didn't mean she had to like it, just as her view was something the stallion might not have liked. Once she had a moment to calm down from the "near death" experience she endured, she managed a weak smile.

"I'm good now. I'm good. Go ahead and start taking us towards the village. If there are no tears in it when we get there, then we know for sure that Rohan'll make it."

He gave her an apologetic smile and nodded, lifting her above the rooftops and accelerating toward the same stones he'd used to rise before. This time he let out an exultant whoop of delight as he entered the thermal and immediately began swooping around, reading the wind to find the most vigorous updrafts. Not long after, he punched through the cloud just as before and oriented on Ponyville, far below him.

Lodestone settled into a glide and gave the Chief a wide grin.

"Smooth flying from here on out. You should try and twist around to see this, the view up here is spectacular."

She tried to look, but immediately regretted it when she caught sight of how high up they were.

"Nope, no thank you, nuh uh. Down. Down is good, I like it down where the ground is. Solid earth. Heck, I'd even be ok being dropped in the southern forest with the spiders! That sounds much, much nicer."

If lodestone were to look, he would see she now had her eyes screwed tightly shut. While granite may not have liked flying, the chief was definitely terrified of heights.

"Oh alright, I guess I won't show you my pegasus magic."

He chuckled and angled his wings in a bit, puffing the Chief's face with a burst of air.

"And here I thought Granite was gonna be the scaredy colt up here."

"I can still hear you! We still have to land sometime you know!"

She growled up at him and tried to shift to be more comfortable, only for that to cause the net to sway more wildly than she expected. The end result: she screamed like a child that was trapped in a room with a flying cockroach.

Lodestone quickly countered the swinging with a careful lurch, then decided she might actually appreciate seeing his 'magic' all the same. He swung down to an enormous flat section of cloud and gently lowered her into it. She gasped at the cold mist and looked like she was about to say something decidedly unladylike when he slowed to a halt and gently touched down, standing easily on the cloud surface above her.

As before, a sudden and intense silence settled over them. Lodestone had even carefully maneuvered her so that her swinging was almost perfectly nullified by the time he landed. The result was she was left hanging perfectly motionless in a sea of stillness.

As one final touch, he used his wings to scoop out a section of cloud underneath where he stood, creating an open space of air around her but leaving a sort of overhang for him to stand on. All she had to do was move her hand a bit to disperse the last bit of mist around her face.

For a moment, she dared to open her eyes in the hopes that she would be on land or close to it. All she could think of was getting untied and kissing the ground comically. How she would never, under any circumstances, fly again. Instead, she saw the sea of white and realized very quickly that they weren't just in the air. They were in the clouds. With that fact dawning on her, she fainted. Her head went limp and her body completely relaxed. With any luck, she would be out for the rest of the flight.

"Chief? You okay?"

He jiggled the net slightly and when he realized she had straight up fainted, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. He can't wait to tell Granite about this! This massive hulk of a mare fainting in fright over what Granite could hardly wait to try again... Oh yes, little Barbara had better not tease him now!

Still chuckling, he took flight again and flew more freely, having a bit of fun through the cloud formations and taking sudden dives to swoop down through a gap in the clouds, only to swing up again and through with that same satisfying 'PUFF' he loved so much. Eventually he neared the lake where he'd left Granite and flew in a steep downward spiral, leveling out with the net mere inches from the surface of the water. He neighed with delight as he zoomed over the lake. Being a strong and slow flyer, dives like this were the only time he got to experience true speed.

He hadn't seen Granite as he spiraled down, so as he bled speed from his dive, he approached the edge of the lake and pulled up right at the edge of the water. He then unceremoniously dunked the Chief in the cold water for just a split second to wake her up before quickly swinging her onto land and dropping the net with a light 'whomp'. He remained hovering in case she tried to chase him.

As she took in her surroundings, she found herself focused in on the stallion. Like he predicted, she took off after him, though he was easily able to out-maneuver her.

"You ASS! Get down here so I can choke the life out of you! I'll make you wish that the spirits hadn't called on you to help us!"

With no way to get to him, she pouted and sat on her butt so she could face the other way.

"You tell anybody and I will do whatever I can to make you regret it. Got it?!"

"Aw, come now," he teased, "Granite needs the confidence boost! Ya gotta let me tell her at least!"

"Nope, nuh-uh. Not even - no - especially not your little girlfriend!"

With her sitting down he landed some feet away and gave her his best sad eyes. After all, it's said no force in Equestria can stand up to looking at a sad poner for long. Hopefully she wouldn't notice the laughter twinkling in his eyes.

"I landed in the clouds cause I really thought you would like it!"

She was mad enough to not care about his puppy-dog eyes or a fake quivering lip. But it did manage to help her calm down somewhat.

"Not a word about it, okay? Think of it this way, I'm supposed to be a leader. If you told her and then she told someone else, then I would lose credibility as a leader. I would be a joke! So don't tell.

Now she had turned to fully face him proper and sat in a more relaxed way with one leg stretched out.

"Now what's the plan? Obviously you have to go get Rohan, but I can't just stroll into your village by myself. What if they think I am an intruder or something?"

Lodestone slowly lowered himself to the ground, the very picture of distress and lost hope. His head drooped so low he could hardly even meet the Chief's gaze.

"Well... I was just gonna bring all three of you in at the same time," he let out a long, weary sigh, "Use Rohan's obvious injuries to shove past anypony that asked questions until we got him to the medic..."

He could see he wasn't having much effect so he used his final weapon. He flopped onto his side and released his breath in a forlorn huff of disappointment.

"Then bring you to meet the Mayor and Princess I guess..."

"Guess that makes sense. I'll have to hang out here and hope none of the villagers come to the lake though. We probably shouldn't wait too much longer, we don't know how bad Rohan really is, right?"

She didn't understand even basic medicine like Lode might. For her, any symptom not curable by shaman or priest was death, no ifs, ands, or buts.

Without responding and without even lifting his body from the ground, he spread his wings and lifted himself up, hanging limply in the air. For all that though, he flew off quickly, knowing she was right. Rohan would likely be fine once he got some real medicine, but there was no point pushing their luck.

Lodestone had a bit more fun on the way back but he was beginning to feel the strain of flying for so long, even if it was mostly gliding, and he knew the last flight would be the hardest. Rohan was a big colt and it was getting late, so the stoney mountain will have cooled somewhat, robbing him of the powerful thermals he had relied on so far. He'd mostly have to power his way into the clouds this time.

When he returned to the village, the Shaman helped him secure Rohan's body to the net, warning him one final time of the curses she would bestow if anything happened to him. He had a bit more to eat and a long drink in the river, then a simple, uneventful flight with Rohan in tow. He didn't want to even chance the net tearing with him - he could certainly catch him with a dive, but the strain on his body might put him over the edge.

Finally, he glided lazily down to the lake and dropped Rohan carefully next to the Chief, shook off the ropes, and tucked his wings in before he even touched the ground. For once, he was glad to be back on his hooves. His sides ached and his feathers were frazzled. He needed a long bath and an even longer preen, but Rohan came first.

CH9: Ponyville

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Barbara untied him from the net and scooped him up in her arms. While he wasn't small compared to her, she had enough muscle to carry him, though maybe not for too long or too far.

"Okay, lead us towards their healer. The sooner he is healed, the better for our village."

She did her best to keep up with the stallion, though the weight slowed her down significantly. With the sun setting, there were less ponies about. Those that were out looked on in curiosity and maybe slight fear of the muscular creature jogging through the town.

Lodestone had taken it somewhat easy while they approached Ponyville, but once they got into town, he put on an anxious expression and started rushing forward, forcing the Chief as fast as she could manage with all the weight. If anypony got in his way, he flared his wings out and shouted something about a medical emergency. Eventually he spotted somepony that looked important and he pointed a wing at them imperiously, using his most authoritative voice.

"You there! We urgently need to go to the medic, but it's important I speak to the Mayor at once. My name is Lodestone, tell her I found a new sentient and friendly species within the Everfree Forest. Go now!"

Then he marched hurriedly past the confused onlookers, making a beeline for the clinic.

Granite, who had taken a nap in Lodestone's room and - guiltily - wrapped herself in his blankets and scent, was woken up by commotion outside. It wasn't hard to guess what might be happening so the mare rushed to the window.

She tried waving, but of course the pegasus and his human escort didn't see her, so she tumbled over herself in her haste to get down to the street with them.

The pony stopped in the middle of the steps and ran back to lock the room, then she legged it outside.

"Hey! I'm here! How can I help?"

A few passers by glanced around and the mare smiled nervously. "I'm with them. Excuse me!"

She had to push past a few ponies to join the little procession.

Lodestone saw her coming and said, "Keep... uhh, keep our path clear! We need to get to the doctor as fast as possible!"

With Granite now able to help, they were much, much faster at getting towards the local Ponyville hospital. The pony that had ran ahead to get help had warned them, but it didn't truly prepare the medical team for what they saw. When Rohan was plopped on a gurney, they sat in stunned silence, at least until the chief clapped her hands.

"Excuse me? I don't mean to be rude, be he needs your help!"

That seemed to get them moving, as well as blushing with embarrassment as they rushed the man into the hospital.

Assuming the medical ponies knew an infection when they saw one, Lodestone relaxed once Rohan was taken in. He stopped Barbara from following them and reassured her they would take care of him and that they could visit him shortly. As he eased her into one of the larger chairs, he gave Granite a friendly wave and started toward her when Mayor Mare burst through the door.

"Lodestone? I came as quickly as I... oh dear..."

When she spotted the large human she quailed for just a moment before getting control of herself. She stepped closer and extended a hoof in greeting.

"Why hello there! I am Mayor Mare. Let me be the first to formally welcome you to Ponyville. Please, everypony, follow me. We should continue this in my office instead of crowding this little clinic."

The group proceeded out of the building and the mayor led them down the street and toward City Hall.

"Um mayor?" Granite said quietly as she followed the delegation at the tail. "As in, the actual mayor? Does Ponyville even have a mayor?" She leaned her head to the side and gave it some thought. "But why? Doesn't Princess Twilight live here?"

It didn't make sense, but the mare shut up once they were in the office and the formal part was about to start. She made sure to stay near Lodestone, just in case something would be expected of her.

Everypony was just getting settled in when the door burst open again, glowing purple in a magical grip. "Sorry! Sorry! I came as quickly as I could!" yelled a purple, winged and horned pony who had just joined the meeting. There was a press of others outside, but Twilight Sparkle deftly slipped past them and shut the door again.

The bustle was dampened somewhat and the small group in the Mayor's office could relax.

The newcomer walked over to the Mayor, apparently oblivious to the strangers. "So - uhm, Mrs. Mayor, somepony came yelling to my castle that we have strangers in Ponyville. Some kind of tall, two-legged creature from the forest? I couldn't gather much more than that."

A book floated in the air beside the alicorn and was leafing through it even while she spoke. "I know I never read anything about bipeds in Everfree in either Zephyr's Zoology, nor in the Mythical Creatures of Everfree!"

Her eyes landed on the human, then slid up to Chief's full height and the mare fell silent. "Oh..." That was all she could manage.

Barbara smirked at the pony's antics as she said, "Well, to be fair, humans aren't really from the forest originally, it's just where we're stuck now."

The lady looked between the two leaders with uncertainty. One, at least, had a familiar form in that she was an earth pony, while the other had a horn and used magic outright. The thought of a flying, magic wielding pony from a "superior" civilization was enough to worry Barbara.

"I am the chief, the one who runs the village and ensures their protection. These two have promised to aid us and have brought me here."

Holding out a hand, she tried to shake the mayor's hoof first, since she didn't get the chance earlier, then the princess's. Mayor Mare shook her hand eagerly and grinned up at her. Her tail was twitching nervously but that was the only sign of the fear she felt for the giant creature before her.

"Um, hello Princess Twilight. This is Lodestone, he visited me a few days ago to get permission to enter the forest to prospect for a mining site. He's the one who discovered these people." She hesitated for a moment, then turned to address Granite directly, "And, um... hello, dear. I don't recognize you from Ponyville. Are you a friend of Lodestone's? What's your name?"

"Granite!" the mare says, suddenly bashful in the presence of royalty. She flashes the mayor a brief smile, then went to openly staring at the Princess. It's pure luck the mare is too cowed by an alicorn that she doesn't keep babbling on.

For her part, Twilight didn't seem to notice the extra ponies as she gapes at the human. "You can talk?!" she asks, lifting up a notebook and pencil which seemed to magically appear from somewhere. "This is so fascinating! What else can you do? Are there different varieties of-" She leaned her head to the side and the pen stopped its scribbling. "What did you say you call yourselves? Hummus? Hoo-gan?"

"Human. Uhh, is she always like this?"

The lady turned to look at the mayor, figuring that one leader would know the other well. The way Twilight looked at Barbara only freaked her out more, though she wouldn't allow herself to appear intimidated or frightened.

"Oh yes, this is quite normal." The Mayor leaned forward and continued in a stage whisper, "To tell the truth, I think she'd rather be a scientist than a Princess." She stepped back with a giggle and nudged Twilight with a hoof, "Stop analyzing her dear, you're scaring the poor creature!"

Barbara shrugged, "Now may not be the best time to learn about us. Lodestone, you brought me here so I can get things I need for the village. I'm gonna need your guidance here."

Lodestone finally stepped forward and spoke, "Princess Twilight, Mayor Mare, this is Barbara, Chief of a primitive tribal village of people called humans that Granite and I accidentally stumbled onto while exploring the forest. Princess, I think you'll want to hear about something I found there." He hesitated, hoping the Chief would understand him sharing their secret. "They have a cave with a massive crystalline structure containing the spirits of some ancient deer-like creatures who claim to have once given advice to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna themselves."

"Deer?" Twilight exclaimed. "I know I read about that at some point! Blast, I don't have my books with me! Hold on, let me go check quickly!" The mare crouched and her horn glowed brilliant as she readied a teleportation spell, but then she caught the Mayor's eye and relaxed. The glow winked out. "On second thought, it can probably wait." She gave the human a nervous smile and finally offered a hoof. "Hi. Um, my name is Twilight Sparkle and of course you're welcome in Ponyville. If there's anything we can do to help, please just ask!" That was about all the diplomacy Twilight was capable of in the face of the discovery and her weird, obsessed grin quickly reasserted itself. "Do you think I might be able to go meet these deer spirits?"

"No." It was firm and resounding. The woman crossed her arms and took a step back so she could lean against the wall. "We took these two there because we felt there may have been a reason they were guided to us. The spirits of the forest are not to be summoned on a whim, certainly not because someone is curious. The only time we commune with them is when we have great need of their guidance."

Barbara kept her gaze to make sure that what she said was clear. It may have come off as somewhat rude, but these were parts of the very fabric her culture was being based around. Revered beings that should be treated as such.

Twilight's ears flopped down instantly, but she rallied. "Oh. Yes. I un-understand. Of course. Yes."

She collected herself and the smile was quickly back. "I'm sure we can still learn a lot from each other! Would you mind stopping by my castle when you're done trading so I can ask you a few questions?"

The alicorn turned to the mayor next: "So - I think you have this all in hoof, Ms. Mayor. Please show them our full hospitality and then send the bill for anything they need to Spike. It's no trouble - we have diplomacy funding for a reason!"

With that, the pony took a few steps away and lifted up her notebook again. She scribbled for a moment, then lowered it and looked at Lodestone and the human. "Um - you don't mind if I sit here and take a few notes, do you?"

When Twilight brought up the subject of funding, Lodestone spoke up again.

"Princess, I uh... I don't think funding will be an issue. The village has a large mine they've been working with and they've found a fair amount of raw gold," he gestured for the Chief to bring out the ingot, "Which they have no need for, being a very practical people. Of course, we can't just give shopkeepers a whole gold ingot and expect them to make change, so I'm hoping you'll be able to trade us it's equivalent value in bits."

The Mayor leaned forward with an appreciative gasp and said, "My goodness, and this is just some of what they have? Well anyway, I don't think we'll need to trouble the Princess with that, our treasury ought to be able to exchange you some bits easily enough."

She pulled out a little notepad and fell silent for a few seconds, then glanced at the Princess.

"I think twenty-five hundred bits sounds fair, don't you?"

Twilight sparkle nodded happily. "I'm sure that'll be fine!"

With that, the Princess went back to her notes, muttering a little to herself: "mine... raw gold..."

Barbara smiled and said, "Twenty-five hundred? Sounds like a lot! Maybe we'll be able to get what we need to expand our farms out. Only issue there is having to move the wall to increase the amount of land available."

That would take them a long, long time. Building the wall in the first place was rough, but now they needed to make sure to have enough stone to build the wall outwards.

"I'm getting ahead of myself though. I'll need to see what else there is that we can use to improve our village first. Mayor, what would be the best place to do that?"

Lodestone politely held up a wing and when the Mayor nodded to him, he turned to the Chief.

"I don't think we need to trouble the Mayor with our little shopping list, Granite and I should be able to handle it."

"Oh, it's no trouble!" The Mayor said quickly, "Half my job is Diplomacy, after all."

The pegasus bowed his head graciously, "True, but there's more to the story about the spirits. When Granite and I entered the cave..."

Lodestone went on to explain the story as best as he remembered. He occasionally asked Granite for confirmation of various details, but her responses were short and almost too quiet to hear. She was clearly intimidated by the big goings-ons around her. He explained about the task the spirits gave them and how the Chief was offended by his initial suggestion to shirk responsibility to other ponies, which the Chief reiterated firmly to everypony. Mayor Mare seemed to only be listening to be polite, but the Princess looked as if she might explode, she was so full of questions.

As he was nearing the end of his tale, his speech slowed and he began yawning frequently. He was exhausted and starving after all the flying today and was eager to get back to his room at the inn, but he continued as long as he could manage.

Granite seemed about ready to slink off quietly when nopony was looking, but she remained beside the pegasus even while all this attention was on them. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was done, only to freeze up again when Twilight walked over with an inquisitive look on her muzzle.

The Princess nearly pranced in excitement. "Oh, this so so cool! You have to tell me more about this rune magic! And you said their plants grew in a couple of days? One of you should come to the castle - that way we can get that gold bar exchanged and you can answer some more questions for my notes!"

She looked from Lodestone to Granite, as if deciding who it should be. The mare gave a small whimper when the look landed on her.

Resisting another huge yawn, Lodestone said, "I don't suppose it can wait until tomorrow?" He glanced back at Granite and saw the fear in her eyes. "We've both had a long day and would like to rest up. I'm sure Barbara is worried about her injured friend as well."

Barbara shrugged, "Healers always need their concentration, right? I was never allowed in a hut for more than a second while our Shaman and Priest were working. I figured I'll see him in the morning." That was how they had to do things in the village, at least. Maybe in this one instance, it was useful, since she probably shouldn't be without a guide. "I can go to this castle and exchange the gold for these 'bits.' You get your rest, Lodestone."

"That's a great idea!" Twilight exclaimed and almost danced to the door. "This way, please!"

She opened the door and the crowd automatically made way, even while still gawping at the stranger.

The alicorn waved goodbye to Mayor Mare, but she was visibly excited about the prospect of some questions answered and some research started, especially when it came to a new, talking species to make friends with!"

At least it dragged attention away from Lodestone and Granite, who were able to sneak off in the other direction unnoticed.

The flashing of cameras as the door opened had Barbara on edge. She didn't know what those strange things were, she had no clue why they were all trying to talk over each other or sticking strange metallic sticks in her face. It would have shown on her face too, but she decided maybe the best approach was to ignore them like the princess was doing and simply move past.

Twilight was so used to the attention and the press by now that she didn't think to shield her guest from it. It was sheer luck that ponies eventually got the idea and eased up. A crowd still followed them all the way to the castle, but at least they didn't push in once the two were inside and the door was closed.

"Now! Walk this way! Um, can I offer you tea or something to eat? SPIIIKE!"

There was a grumble from somewhere inside and approaching footsteps.

"Tea? What is... uh, sure. I'll take whatever you have to offer."

Barbara had a feeling she wasn't going to understand much of what the ponies had. The palace itself was only further evidence of that. It was a smooth, crystal tree, yet it was filled with lights that weren't torches. She did find herself wanting to touch every fabric she could see though, if only because she had grown weary of fur and leather.

"Splendid!" Twilight looked around for a small, purple dragon who had just appeared with an annoyed look on his face. "Oh, there you are, Spike. Tea for me and our guest, please! Oh, and some ginger biscuits, if you would!"

The dragon nodded and happily rushed off again. "Sure thing, Twilight!" he said as he was leaving.

That done, the pony turned down the hall and pulled a door ahead of them open with magic. "Through here, please! Make yourself comfortable, I'll just go and grab some more paper for my notes!"

The Princess herself galloped down the corridor and into a different room.

The place she had ushered the Chief in was a nice, lavishly appointed meeting room. The chairs were a bit low, being pony-sized, but the cushions were thick and comfortable. There were some paintings on the walls and some bookshelves lining the room. A large window let in plenty of evening sunlight so that magical light was not yet needed.

She inspected every inch of the room while she had a chance. The paintings, the books, even the chairs were all made from materials either out of her realm of understanding or out of the scope of her people to make. That would be a problem for the chief. Her people should not have to rely on others to get what they need, they should be self-sufficient enough to make anything, but also have the ability to trade for extra resources. But she immediately knew that wouldn't be the case. She was out of her depth.

It wasn't much later when Twilight burst back into the study, laden by many scrolls, blank pieces of paper, books, quills and pencils. It all floated in a kind of cloud above her as the mare shoved her way into the room and to one of the chairs. Her supplies landed on any flat surfaces that were available and the pony immediately opened a few books before her. "Please, have a seat!" she offered, albeit absentmindedly.

It took the pony a few seconds to organize herself, then she looked up at the Chief with a big smile plastered across her muzzle. "I guess we should start at the beginning?" she said and chuckled at her own weak joke. "What can you tell me about the history of your people? Have you always lived in the Everfree forest or did you move from someplace else? Do you have any books on your history? Or-" she took in the woman's appearance, "maybe scrolls? Cave paintings?"

"As Lodestone said, we didn't actually come from the Everfree, or anywhere from this land, in fact. We lived in a larger village and had many trade routes with other humans before. As for how we got here, well..." She leaned forward and rubbed her hands together as she thought back. "We believed that our gods had forsaken us. That we had wronged them in some way. The ground shook, the winds howled and uprooted trees, and a light blinded us. when the light cleared, we found we were in an unfamiliar place. What little shelter we had was soon destroyed by the beasts in that forest and we began to wander."

She talked about how they struggled to survive with almost no stored food, very little weaponry, and no knowledge of the closest river. A voice called out to them, guiding them towards the rocks, where they made there home. Eventually it called some of the people up the mountain, where the spirits blessed them with wisdom and guided them. Though that did not mean their troubles were over.

"Oh my," Twilight said a few times. She listened in rapt attention, only breaking her stare so she could scribble down notes. Soon she was accumulating pages and pages of tiny, neat script. She asked a question here and there for clarification, but mostly let the Chief continue at her own pace.

"We have a wall to try and keep out the beasts, but still the monsters of the forests come. We have not had a thunder roc attack in some time, but we always know they will come, eventually."

At long last, the story wound down, and the alicorn gave the human a bright smile, then asked the obvious question: "Have you ever thought about relocating? I'm sure if we talked with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we could give you some land someplace to make a new village. Everfree forest isn't really a good place..."

"And forsake the spirits that saved us? We owe them our very being, this is a matter of respect and honor. The people of our village who wish to leave are allowed to do so. If you want to help them to a safe place, I have no objections, but I will not abandon the spirits of the forest."

In that respect, the chief was showing the signs of the beginning of a true religion. If nothing else, she may even die as a result of that dedication the respected dead.

"Oh," Twilight said, ears folding down in apprehension. "I didn't realize. Sorry. Um..."

She looked for a safer topic, but was saved by the small purple dragon who brought in a tray with a tea set and some - by the smell of them - freshly baked cookies. That was probably the reason it took so long, but Twilight wasn't complaining. She levitated one and bit into it to hide her embarrassment.

"Please try some!" she offered the guest while she was carefully pouring two cups of tea.

She sniffed at the things curiously before taking a bite. Eyes widened in delight, she began to scarf down the cookie. The tea, however, was hot enough that she knew not to simply take a sip without testing it. Unfortunately, it tasted bitter without any sugar added and after the sweetness of the cookie.

"I miss having herbs, spices, and honey. We used to have a steady supply, when we were a trade village, but now we barely have the room to grow crops, not to mention our farmers barely knew how to farm until those two came along."

"Well, ponies would be happy to trade for those things, especially if you have gold. I don't think any of that should be a problem."

She held up a bowl in her magic. "Sugar?"

Spike, ostensibly waiting around in case Twilight needed something was staring at the newcomer until the pony noticed. "Um, that'll be all for now, Spike."

He raised a claw: "But-"

"Thank you!"

Grumbling, he left the study, closing the door behind him perhaps a tad too strongly. "Now, where were we?" Twilight went on. "You can mine - I guess that means you know how to work metal. Do you have writing of any sort? Runes? Pictograms? Hieroglyphs?"

The mare levitated up one of her books to show an example of each.

"Runes... yes, we have runes. We do not use them for records like you do, instead they are used for inscribing magic. We have a runecarver in the village, but some people have worked out how to cast spells. That had never happened before the forest, nobody had magic."

The lady took a few of the sugar cubes and watched them dissolve in the hot tea. Like she had seen from Twilight, she used a spoon and stirred it in before taking a sip. The once bitter tasting drink was now a delight for her.

"Oooh! Rune magic!" The alicorn exclaimed, clapping her forehooves together with delight. She busily scribbled for a while, then couldn't hold it anymore.

"How does it work? Is each rune it's own spell, or they do just contribute an effect? Oh, oh! Or do the runes need to be in certain combinations for each effect? How long does the magic last? What do you write the runes with? Does it matter if it's different materials?"

The pony was all but bouncing on her seat as she poured a seemingly endless tirade of questions out her muzzle.

"I don't know about all that..." Hands held out, Barbara wore a nervous look that told Twilight to calm down with the questions. "We're still learning about it ourselves, but it seems like there are combinations of runes that do specific things. It doesn't seem to matter what they are inscribed on, but the runecarver actually channels magic into the symbol either as they are carved or after."

"Oh..." the mare visibly deflated, but then quickly brightened up. "Do you think I could speak with this... runecarver? Magic is my specialty, you see? Maybe I could help you get better results!"

The pony stood up to show Barbara her flank where a picture of a star almost glittered in the light. "Oh, this is so exciting! A completely new form of magic... well, maybe."

She got thoughtful for a moment, then corrected: "Well, it may be similar to early second century northfolk runic magic, but it's still so exciting! You came up with it yourselves?! That's amazing!"

It looked like the dialogue would continue in this manner until one or both of them dropped from exhaustion and it didn't look like it was going to be Twilight. The alicorn completely lost track of time, food, sleep and all other obligations when she was like this.

"Princess, listen, I'd love nothing more than to keep answering your questions, but a lot of what you want to learn is something you'd learn better by going to the village. But for now it's already night time and I'm fairly tired. I... don't know where lodestone or granite went..."

With that, she realized she wouldn't have a proper place to sleep. She couldn't ask the princess for a place to sleep, not when she was trying to display good leadership qualities to these ponies.

Twilight deflated a little and looked out the window where the sky was almost completely dark. "Oh! You're right! I kept you up this late - where are my manners!"

The mare went to the door and opened it, then yelled out: "SPIKE! Please get the guest bedroom ready!"

Just like that, without even asking, Twilight seemed to have decided to set the Chief up in the castle for the night. "There- I'm sure the bed in the guest bedroom will be perfectly fine! We'll go to the bank tomorrow morning and sort out your gold bar, okay? And maybe you can answer a couple more questions?"

Judging from this day, 'a couple more' would mean answering questions all day.

"How about this instead: For your hospitality, I will give you a tour of the village... minus meeting the spirits, of course. That way you can see for yourself how we live."

She always was more of a hands-on learner, so she rather hoped that the princess would accept that offer and leave it at that. With a promise to think it over, probably due to the dangers of the forest, Barbara shut the door and made her way towards the bed. It was, without a doubt, the softest bed she had ever laid upon. No doubt, once she had stripped her clothes, it would be a simple matter to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, Lodestone was trying desperately to get back to the side of town where he was staying, despite Granite's constant excitement over this 'enormous city.'

"Yes, Granite, I know we just passed a market. This is another one, for a second residential district over there. I think there's three altogether."

Just then, he spotted a familiar building and turned in that direction, waving for Granite to follow.

"C'mon, the Golden Pony is over here. We can have a quick bite to eat then talk all you want as soon as I can lay down."

"Ooooh, okay!" the mare said, excited about what she imagined would be a romantic, candle-lit dinner in an exciting strange town. "Yes please!"

Moments later her steps faltered yet again and the girl gasped. "Is that a clothing boutique?!" She looked about ready to bolt for it, but then caught the pegasus' glare. "Oh, sorry. Yes. The dinner. Right. After you!"

She still watched it with longing as they walked past.

He trotted up to a small café he had found the night he flew into Ponyville. It was cheap and simple, but the interior was cozy and the food was surprisingly high quality.

"I promise we'll look around the town before we leave. I doubt Barbara will want to leave until Rohan is better and that will be a couple days at least."

He smiled reassuringly to her as he pushed open the café door.

"Besides, the whole point of coming here was to go shopping, right?"

"Well..." Granite began, but then deflated a bit and lowered her ears. "I don't have any money..."

She blushed as she admitted it, even thought it must not have been a big secret. The pony had nothing on her when she wandered into the Everfree forest and she hadn't picked up anything in the human village.

"I don't think I can pay for this," she admitted and started backing out the door.

Lodestone chuckled and batted her rump with his tail, halting her backward progress.

"It's going on the company account, don't worry. Plus this place is cheap, but still tastes good. I tried it when I first got here in Ponyville."

The server mare was waiting patiently and Lodestone finally turned to address her. Soon the two ponies were comfortably sitting in a booth in a quiet corner of the room, sipping on their drinks and waiting for their food to arrive.

Granite couldn't stop looking around. She knew about going out for dinner, of course, but she'd never had a chance - at least not alone. These were always a family affair, full of relatives.

"This is nice," the mare said brightly, trying to make up conversation where she had zero experience. "I like the... um. The..."

The cow-pony looked around for inspiration. "The lights! The lights are nice!"

She pointed at a couple of enchanted lanterns in the middle of the room. "And the seats- um, super comfy!"

After that, her inspiration seemed to dry out and she just ended up opening and closing her mouth for a few moments.

Chuckling gently, he patted the air with a hoof in a calming gesture.

"Relax, Granite. Wait 'til you try the food before you start complimenting anything... though I could always ask for a bottle of wine and turn this into a real date if you like." He tried to give her a sly grin but it came out a little more nervous than he'd hoped.

"Um, okay!" the mare was game. Mention of wine got her strangely excited for some reason and she was grinning in anticipation. "I like wine!"

She plugged her mouth, but not in time. Then the blush followed, as if she had said something deeply humiliating. She wouldn't meet Lodestone's eye.

"It's funny," she tried to cover her blooper, "we've been sleeping in the same bed for days now, but this is our first real date!"

"Well, it's not like we had a choice," Lodestone added quickly, "I don't think they had room anywhere else. Besides, it was cold."

He flagged down the waitress and asked for a reasonably priced bottle of pink wine that wasn't too dry. There was an awkward lull in the conversation until she returned and Lodestone took a careful sip, then nickered pleasantly, pouring Granite a glass.

For her part, Granite emptied her glass greedily, as if it was a race. She swallowed the last bit, then stood up to pour more, tongue poking out as she concentrated. "It's good! Better than-" her words were interrupted by a small moo and she nearly dropped the bottle. "Better than... some other wine I tried," the pony finished lamely and colored. She downed her second glass just as quickly, but this time didn't pour a third. "Um, where's that food? I'm starting to get a bit hungry," Granite asked nopony in particular.

The wine wasn't very strong, but Lodestone slid the bottle away from her all the same. "Since it's slow, I expect it'll arrive any second. Drink some water," he added, nudging her glass toward her, "You should always balance alcohol with plenty of water or you'll regret it in the morning."

'It'll also slow down the alcohol,' he thought to himself, 'keep it from hitting you too hard, too fast.'

Granite obeyed and gulped down a glass of water, but then she got right up and reached her hooves for the bottle. "Another, please?" she begged.

Lodestone poured her another glass but kept the bottle on his side of the table. "Just sip that one, alright? Take your time to enjoy the flavor, don't gulp it down so quick. I've carried enough today, I don't need to carry you to bed, too."

There didn't seem to be any sign of stopping her, but luckily the waitress came with their plates and the cowpony was momentarily distracted by her boiled veggies and hay fries. "Shame they don't serve meat here, eh?" Granite said, again too loudly, causing a gasp or two from nearby tables, which of course she didn't notice. "Are there any pony restaurants that serve meat?" That last bit was with her mouth half full.

He munched some hay fries, then said casually, as if it wasn't a big deal, "Keep your voice down about meat, yeah? We're not in a wild village of hunters anymore."

Then as if brushing off the topic, he gestured to her plate.

"So how is it? I haven't tried that yet."

"It's good! Eggplant and lettuce and peas," Granite began listing. She paused for a moment to take a large gulp of the wine, but at lest she didn't drain the whole glass this time.

Her eyes were already starting to get a bit unfocused, since she had started drinking on an essentially empty stomach.

Then she waved a hoof dismissively. "Don't worry, you won't have to carry me. I can walk just fine!"

The fact that she had answered his questions out of order didn't seem to register. "I can handle my wine just fine, don't worry about me. Don't worry!"

"Yeah, that's what they all say," he said with a laugh.

There was a long silence while the two of them focused on their meals. Simple as it was, it seemed especially tasty after a day in the primitive human village. Granite quickly finished her third glass but Lodestone flatly refused to give her a fourth until she finished her food. As soon as she did so, she drained the glass again and had now drank about half the bottle by herself by the time Lodestone had finished his first glass. He insisted she drink nothing but water from then on, claiming it wasn't 'fair' that she get more than half the bottle.

Finally Lodestone put the bill on the company tab and, holding the bottle in a wing, slipped out of the booth to stand next to where Granite sat. He thought she would be okay - it was a fairly weak wine after all - but he wanted to be ready if she stumbled just in case.

"Alright come on, I'm ready for sleep."

"Oh, my! Such a gentlecolt, helping a filly to the bed!" Granite exclaimed, then giggled a lot. She slid from the seat and landed on all four hooves. She seemed quite steady, if swaying a bit, but then she took a single step and stumbled badly. She nearly bonked her muzzle on the floor, but caught her footing just in time.

She ended up standing, barely, with all four hooves quite far apart, all the better to help her balance. "Um... what was in that wine?" the mare asked suspiciously. "It didn't taste all that strong. M-Maybe a glass to steady my hooves?" she pleaded.

Lodestone eyed her suspiciously.

"It wasn't all that strong, but I guess anything hits hard when you drink half a bottle of it. Definitely no more tonight, though."

He steadied her with a wing and helped her outside. Thankfully the Inn was just down the street and Lodestone got her upstairs without much incident, though she did get a nasty look from another pony when she giggled and commented on her hat in what she had thought was a whisper.

Some of her clumsiness left Granite when she was in the room and she galloped, then leapt, landing spread-eagled on the bed and bouncing a couple of times from sheer momentum, causing the mare to laugh happily. "It's so soft! Now this--this is what a real bed feels like, Lodestone! Come feel!"

She patted the fabric beside her, then hiccuped as her sudden antics caught up to her stomach. "Oh. Sorry!" the pony giggled. "C'mere and lesz have another kiss!"

He just stood there by the door, staring at the pony. He glanced down at the bottle again to double check that it was indeed a very mild drink, barely stronger than your average beer. Glancing back at the mare, he sipped some wine straight from the bottle and swished it in his mouth. Yep, barely even alcoholic.

"Uh... I think maybe I'll just sleep on the couch."

"Nooo!" Granite moaned and reached out her hooves. "At lea- luh...least gimme some cuddles!"

She was trying to look forlorn and sad, but was only making herself go cross-eyed. "I'm fine! I'm not drink, here, I'll prove it!"

Granite rolled off the bed and deftly caught herself on all four hooves . She was swaying a bit, but managed a couple of steps towards the stallion. "Come one, loosen up. I thought we were- um... we were- uhh.. dating.. since the thing in the clouds, right?"

"Well... yeah, I guess," he said hesitantly, "But Granite, this stuff really shouldn't be hitting you this hard. I'm getting a little worried." She started to scoff at him again but he waved a hoof. "Look, we can cuddle, alright, but if you want to do anything more it'll have to wait until you've sobered up some."

That seemed to mollify her at least temporarily, so he climbed up into bed and made her lie down facing away from him. He wrapped a wing over her and around her front, then hugged her from behind, trying to avoid any more contact than necessary.

While she was being marehandled, Granite frowned again and waved a vague hoof. "You sayin' I'm a lightweight?!" she demanded almost angrily. "I can take a drink, like... like any-anypony else!"

She calmed down nicely once she was being cuddled. "Sorry... sometimes I'm... get carried away," Granite admitted.

The 'no contact' policy was never going to work. As soon as they were still, the mare shuffled backwards and pressed against Lodestone's belly. Even that wasn't enough and she flailed until she was on her back. A hoof went down to pat the stallion's flank. "Small kiss?" Granite suddenly asked.

Lodestone hesitated, feeling extremely aware of the contact between their bodies, then he shrugged to himself. One kiss should be fine, and maybe it was all she wanted, then she would go to sleep.

He lifted his head slightly and pressed a hoof into the side of her muzzle, drawing her into him. There was the faint scent of alcohol on her breath, but she mostly just smelled like... her. He couldn't describe it, it was just her scent.

The kiss lasted significantly longer than he had intended, but damn if it didn't feel amazing. It was only her second smooch but she was already much better at it. 'It's probably just because of the bit of wine I had,' he thought.

When he pulled back he felt a little out of breath and simply held her gaze, holding himself up on one foreleg.

"Mmm," the pony murmured, smiling. "D- dat was niceee."

She seemed to shudder all over, then somehow squeezed herself even more tightly against the pegasus. The hoof went up and forward, starting to clumsily fiddle with his wing and at the same time she pushed her muzzle down to - apparently - taste his chest fluff.

"Sweet fly boy," Granite sighed, apparently more to herself then anything else. She seemed to be moving quite a lot and her tail swished up every now and then. "One more?" she begged. "Y'really know how to- to..." the sentence was interrupted by a yawn, but Granite just went on when it ended: "to make a filly fall for you..."

Breaking eye contact to nuzzle his chest almost seemed to snap him out of a daze. He relaxed, lowered himself back onto the bed, then chuckled quietly.

"Oh no, I'm not falling for that one."

He gave her a little peck on the side of her muzzle, then firmly pressed a hoof into that same spot, gently pressing her head down until it sank into the pillow.

"Go to sleep, Gra--," he was interrupted by a long, jaw-cracking yawn, "Uuuugh... yeah. Go to sleep. Try again in a few hours I guess, if you really think you want to."

Then his head plopped down onto the pillow and he adjusted his breathing, pretending he had almost immediately fallen asleep. Hopefully that would be enough to convince her...

For some reason, the mare seemed a little out of breath. Now that they were both lying down, relatively still, Lodestone would become aware of a rhythmic motion and a look of concentration on Granite's muzzle. She lowered her ears and pouted her lips. "Please? I just need a bit more..."

Her tongue poked out and her eyes half closed. "Al-almost..."

Granite was getting really hot. As in, Lodestone was starting to sweat and needed more air to try and stay cool. Shuffling slightly as if he wasn't comfortable, Lodestone pulled away from her, rolling most of the way onto his back. His wing slid halfway off her but one foreleg was still tucked snugly under her neck.

Just in case, he pretended to catch his breath in a snore to drive home the act, then shifted a bit more, turning his head to the side. His wings were throbbing slightly from the days efforts and now that he could actually relax, he found the comfortable bed far too distracting to notice Granite's tiny movements.

The mare, for her part, kept trying for a bit longer. She followed the stallion, at least with her head and experimentally smooshed their lips together a few times. "Come ooon," she whined. "Wake uuup! I want kisses!"

When there was no reply, she slumped down and stopped fiddling with herself. Then she heaved a long-suffering sigh. "You got me drunk and in a bed, what more does a filly have to do?!"

Even that got her no real response, so Granite grunted in annoyance, turned away from the stallion and plopped herself down. Another sigh turned into a yawn.

It was remarkable how quickly she had gotten inebriated and also how quickly it had passed.

He had to resist the urge to laugh. He didn't know how or why the alcohol hit her so hard, but it was definitely something to remember next time. Assuming she would forget about it by morning, he allowed himself a small grin as he began dozing off for real.

CH10: Pegasus Charm

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Tired as she was from all the excitement and the flight, Granite had no trouble whatsoever in falling actually asleep. She didn't try any more funny business, at least not intentionally. A few hours later saw her sprawled over Lodestone's chest after she'd pushed the sleeping stallion to his back. One of her hind legs moved every now and then, grinding in a presumably very sensitive place.

Granite slept quietly, except for letting out a very faint moo every once in a while when a particularly vivid scene in a dream made her shift.

Suddenly she gasped and jerked awake. It took her a moment to realize where she was, then the pony smiled and brought her nose in contact with Lodestone's. It looked like the poor pegasus wouldn't get all that much sleep that night.

Though he was a very light sleeper, Granite had been moving so much throughout the night that he had been forced to get somewhat used to the movement and that, combined with how tired he was, meant that for once he didn't immediately wake up at the contact, though he did stir slightly and mumble something that might have been Granite's name if you tried hard enough.

Grinning to herself, Granite licked her defenseless friend right on the lips. Then she tried for a simple, non-invasive kiss.

It was apparently good, because she ended up moaning slightly to herself. There was no use trying to get back to sleep, so the mare, out of desperation, called out: "Lodestone? Are you awake? Please wake up!"

It was a whisper, but a loud one. While she waited for any result, Granite gave the prone stallion another peck.

It seemed that was finally enough to rouse the poor stallion. He groaned and twisted away slightly, then cracked an eye open.

"...'Ranit? What time izzit? Somethin' wrong?"

As he regained consciousness he became aware of three things: that they were both lying on their side facing each other, one of Granite's hind legs was between his own, pressed up against someplace sensitive, and his muzzle was damp. So far he lacked the wits to decide how he felt about these realizations.

"You're awake!" the mare exclaimed happily. "Come on! Kiss! Please!?"

She didn't wait for an answer but just went for it, hoping confusion would be on her side. Of course she missed and just ended up licking his cheek, but that was also good. Her giggle made her move and her hind leg... rubbed.

"I know you're happy to be here, you can't lie to me Lodestone!" Granite giggled. She became a tad more serious and lowered her ears - just a silhouette against the moonlit night outside. "Sorry about earlier. I get drunk easily..."

Lodestone shifted awkwardly, trying and utterly failing to pull his hips away from the leg that was pressed up against him, but in his half-asleep confusion, he also pressed his muzzle closer to hers without really realizing it.

"Oh, yeah... it's fine. A little warning ahead of time woulda been nice but no harm done."

His head tilted back as he yawned and that quickly turned into a full on stretch, with all four legs reaching out above and below him and both wings arching out behind him, though he had to twist slightly to get one wing out from under him. When he finally relaxed, his blood was flowing strongly now and he felt much more awake... then he suddenly realized how closely Granite pressed up against him, even while he stretched.

The mare took her chance and almost jumped on top of Lodestone, pushing him fully on his back. This way she could straddle him, which meant her essential... warmth would be radiating down. "Aha!" she whispered and went for another kiss.

"We're dating, right?" Granite asked when it was over. Suddenly she sounded worried, even though she didn't quite move from her position on top of Lodestone. "It's not... wrong, right? I mean, if we-" She trailed off and refused to finish the sentence.

She had caught him entirely by surprise and he just stared up at her for several seconds before he could sputter out a response.

"Uh... n-no, not wrong, I suppose. Uh, just... I dunno, a little fast, maybe?"

As if realizing that might make her stop and also that he didn't want her to, he quickly added, "N-Not that I mind, of course. I'm just a little... surprised, is all."

"Yeah, me too..." Granite whispered. She slid off, brushing him, but this time entirely by accident. Once she was away, the mare just sat on the bed and stared out the window. Her ears were lowered and she was looking down at her hooves.

"I'm sorry... maybe I should take the couch." Suddenly Granite sounded on the verge of tears. When she turned to look at Lodestone, her eyes were full of tears.

"I'm just a stupid filly. I'm sorry." With that, she starts sliding to the edge of the bed. Luckily it's dark, so she isn't all that fast about it.

"Whoa what? Hang on now..."

Lodestone quickly sat up and tenderly wrapped her up in a wing. After how she had been acting, Lodestone had been rapidly warming to the idea, but it had all been so fast he wasn't really that worked up yet.

"Hey, listen filly, if you're unsure about doing this, that's okay. I wouldn't dream of pushing you."

Inside his wings, he gently rubbed her withers with a hoof.

"But if you do want to, that's okay too. There's nothing wrong with it. Oh," he added as an afterthought, "and maybe this is TMI, I dunno, but you should probably know I'm not, er... hard. Uhh shit, what I mean to say..."

He took one long breath before he continued.

"Sorry. I mean I'm not just saying this to try and get some tail, alright? If you were some whorse I was expecting to rut and run, sure, but... I really like you, Granite, y'know? I want... I want this to work."

He had slumped somewhat, his head drooping low while he said more than he had ever intended, so he couldn't see her face. His voice was beginning to trail off, getting more and more quiet until it seemed he was more talking to himself than to Granite.

"If I pushed, sure I could probably get some tonight... but what of tomorrow? Would I push and push and then just push you away?"

The mare sniffed a little, but eventually relaxed in his grip. She still seemed on the verge of tears, but it hadn't started yet. "I just don't kno-know," she said with a quiet little sob there.

"I really like you-" this part made Granite look up, eyes shiny in the moonlight. She even smiled a little. "I never thought this would happen to me. I always thought all those lovey-dovey fillies were faking it to get some..."

She shook her head and tried another line of thought. "I really wanted it. But then I realized what I wanted and I got scared. It felt like I was just a hussy..."

At this point, the mare was rambling about what was in her mind at the moment. She made herself stop, then took a deep breath. "I..."

She tried again: "I think I want this, but I don't know. I just feel horny. Maybe I should go and-"

What she was about to say made her clamp her mouth shut, but not before a small moo escaped.

"Well," he said, "I dunno if it applies to mares too, but everypony tells stallions to... well, do that before they make any decisions of the heart, just to make sure we're not thinking with our... you know."

In the moonlight, Lodestone noticed something odd in the way Granite was holding herself. He stared at her for a moment before realizing it wasn't embarrassment she felt... it was shame. Considering the topic and remembering she came from a small po-dunk farm town...

He scooted a little closer and nuzzled the side of her neck reassuringly.

"Granite, what you're suggesting... I'm gonna guess you were raised to believe it was something wicked, maybe even unholy, like Princess Celestia herself would know and come to smite you down if you tried it."

She stiffened slightly in his hold and he knew then he had guessed correctly.

"Well listen, that's an ancient belief and completely rump-backwards, hardly anypony thinks that way anymore. It's perfectly normal, natural, and very, very common. You would be hard pressed to find anypony that had never tried it, and almost everypony does it from time to time, mares and stallions alike."

The only reply Lodestone got was a sob, before Granite hid her muzzle in her hooves from embarrassment.

At first it didn't look like she would reply, but then she tentatively felt the air, so to speak: "Y-You wouldn't t-think less of me if I..."

She swallowed and hunched up her shoulders, as if expecting a whip across her back for just suggesting it. "Go in the bath-bathroom and..."

That seemed to be it, but it was clear enough what she meant.

A moment later the mare barked a forced laugh. "Not that I really feel like it anymore. Buck, can you forget everything I said please? I dunno if I can look you in the eyes again, not after this..."

Lodestone chuckled softly.

"No, of course not. It's really okay, I promise. I mean, I'd rather not know while it's actually happening, but not because it's shameful or anything... just because my imagination would be run wild and I'd probably need to do it myself."

He grinned and winked at her, then realized she probably wouldn't even be able to see it, so he squeezed her shoulders instead.

"And no, I won't forget, but I won't bring it up again if it makes you uncomfortable. I just... just wanted to make sure you knew it's okay."

An idea flashed in his head and he experimentally stretched his wings out behind him. His flight muscles were tight, but already felt much better. It had been a lot of work, but he did fly whole pallets of stone around for a living.

"Hey... would you like to go up in the clouds again? There's good cover tonight and the moon is almost full, so the view should be wonderful, but more importantly, going up there at night has always calmed my nerves and helped me to think through any difficult problems I'm having."

Even as he suggested it, he wanted to bring her up there more and more. His wings began to tremble as his excitement grew.

"I'll even stay silent if you want. You can just lie up there and think and pretend I'm not even there until you decide to talk. I really think you'll like it."

The gaze Granite turned on Lodestone looked brighter than the moon. Her eyes were just thin rims of color around enormous black pupils. "Oh, yes please!" the mare breathed. "I think I'd love that, actually!"

Before she really knew it, Granite was hugging the pegasus for all she was worth. "Thanks," she said right into his fluff. "I promise we'll... someday. Soon, I think. I just have to get over it in my head, okay?"

This time, when she pulled back, the blush was visible even in the dark. "I really... um, l-like you. Like, really."

"Great! It might be a bit cold on the way up though, wrap up in the blanket."

The pegasus practically bounced toward the door, then stopped and turned toward the window instead.

"Actually, this'll be quicker and less ponies will notice."

He opened the window and climbed out, hovering just outside the window so Granite could step easily from the windowsill and onto his back, gesturing at her with a hoof.

"All aboard! Last call for the cloudy sea!"

His joy was infectious and Granite giggled at his invitation. She did as instructed and wrapped the blanket around herself before gingerly stepping out the window and flopping against Lodestone's back. "Okay, ready!" she said, voice tight with excitement.

Already her hind legs were gripping around his rump and her forehooves were crossed under his neck. She also nuzzled him a little as they pulled away from the building.

"You know, a filly could get used to this. You better watch out, or you'll have to take me up all the time."

"Well I already go up there all the time," he said as he surged forward, "I love it up there."

He was still a little slow and careful, but he didn't baby her on the way up like he did the first time, hoping that she trusted him well enough to brave the ascent. He pushed a bit to rise straight up above the rooftops, then swooped forward, beginning a slow upward spiral. He spotted a large, flat building with a black roof and was pleasantly surprised to find it still carried enough residual heat to give him a decent updraft. He whooped as they began to rise quickly and he turned his head to grin back at Granite.

"You alright back there? This is when I had you close your eyes last time."

"I'm fine!" Granite assured the stallion, but her voice was small and shaky. She was holding on to him for dear life and her limbs were quite stiff, but the mare wasn't panicking. This part of the journey, it seemed, would take some more getting used to.

"Fine," she repeated, mainly trying to convince herself. "It's n-n-not so bad!"

She pressed her face against fur so she didn't have to look, but other than that Granite seemed fine with the situation. "Tell me when we're above clouds, okay?" she asked, voice muffled.

With a light chuckle, he eased back on the spiral and reached back to rub the side of her head with a hoof.

"It's okay, thermals take everypony some getting used to."

He continued more gently and before long they rose through a large empty patch of the sky and he turned to glide toward one of the larger clouds nearby.

"Alright, here we are."

Granite lifted her head to look and immediately gasped. "Oh..."

It took some time for her to find words and even then it was just: "Oh wow!"

She bounced a little on Lodestone's back and urged. "Land! Cloud! Land land land, quick! I wanna kiss you!"

He'd been so sure she would love it up here but it was still nice to have it confirmed. He twisted back to look at her, his muzzle spread into a wide smile.

"Hang on, not yet, I wanna try something. It's gonna be a bit scary at first... we'll be spinning around and flying faster than you're used to for a little bit, but no more than a minute. Trust me, if I can pull this off, it'll be worth it, okay?"

Granite visibly swallowed, but then nodded, if a bit hesitantly. "O-Okay."

Just in case, she gripped Lodestone extra hard with all four legs and laid her head down right next to his, even though the mare didn't know how much that would help.

Lodestone would need all four hooves for this, so he released her forelegs, even though Granite clung almost painfully tight around his neck without their reassuring pressure. He swooped low over the cloud and scooped up as much material as he could manage, then eased into a spiral around the floating lump. He slowly accelerated until he was going pretty much as fast as he could manage - significantly slower than most pegasi, but hopefully it would be enough. They were angled more than halfway to the side but he knew the centrifugal force would make it feel like Granite was still being pressed straight down onto him.

As he spun, he wove the lump of cloud into a dense ball, then lowered it to the surface of the larger cloud, still spinning around it. This had the effect of sucking up more substance and Lodestone had to concentrate to weave the incoming material into the lump of reinforced cloud he was building.

Finally, he thought he had crafted a dense enough lump for his purpose. He slowed down carefully and wrapped his hooves around Granite's again, knowing she would be incredibly dizzy after all that. When he came to a stop, Granite would see what looked to be a very solid blu-ish white orb floating just above the surface of the cloud.

"Huh? Wha'?" the mare asked, having real trouble focusing on anything for the moment. If she weren't holding on to the pegasus, she'd be spinning in place. "What is it?"

Something struck her as funny and the mare laughed. "You were so worried I'd get dizzy from the wine and now you're doing it yourself!"

At least she wasn't too shaken from the strange flight. As they hovered Granite slowly 'stabilized', then inspected the cloud before them. "It's pretty, but what is it for?"

"Ah, yes," he said dramatically, "Now for the good part!"

He approached the orb and squeezed it between his forehooves. It deformed very slowly, as if it were a thick taffy. After a couple minutes of effort, Lodestone had a flat ovular disc about the size of a pony. He lowered it to the cloud, then held his hoof up beside him.

"Your blanket, madame."

Bemused, Granite handed it over and Lodestone folded it three times into a thick cushion of about the same size as the disc. He grinned over his shoulder again and swung the blanked through the normal cloud, showing that it still passed right through, then the blanket struck the disc he'd made with a soft 'whomp.'

Draping the blanket over the disc, he finally landed on the cloud beside it and turned to Granite.

"This is what we call cloudcrete, like concrete. It's how we keep stuff like beds and furniture up here in the clouds. The thicker you weave it, the longer it lasts."

He gently pulled one of Granite's hooves from around his neck and pressed it onto the cushion.

"And it's not like it'll just drop you suddenly - it'll just slowly start to sag and eventually begin to dissipate, but it's very slow - there's tons of time to climb off and back onto me."

His face beamed back at her, overjoyed that it had worked properly. He wasn't the best of cloudcrafters and cloudcrete was tricky stuff, but this had turned out better than he'd hoped.

"Oh. Okay," Granite said, a lot less impressed than she should be. She gingerly put weight on her leg, then, when she saw it was holding, added another.

In short order she was standing, if a little wide-spread and nervous. "This is actually kinda cool," she admitted, "but I'm really up here for the view."

The mare sat down on the blanket, a little bit to one side so Lodestone would have room, then she looked at the moon and the way it illuminated cloud tops.

"Almost perfect," she whispered.

"Ah," he held up a hoof, "but you see, now we can do this:"

He settled down on the cloud beside her, slid the cloudcrete down a bit so they were the same height, this scooched closer to cuddle up beside her.

"Now you only have to straddle me if you want to," he said with a sly wink.

That made Granite snuggle up against her pegasus darling. "This is nice," she said. "Now it's perfect.*

A stray thought made the mare gasp. "Lodestone! Is it weird if I want my first- um... time," her voice trailed off as the pony blushed, but she forced herself to finish the sentence. "... to be up here?"

For a while she wasn't able to meet his gaze. "Does it work with all the fillies or just earth pony ones?" she finally asked in mock annoyance, more to cover her bluntness than anything else.

Lodestone wrapped a wing around her and laid his head down near her hooves, looking up at her with one eye. He decided to ignore her awkward question for now, thinking she'd rather forget the embarrassment.

"You know, coming up here at night, I always thought this was the best place in all of Equestria... but no, you're right. Now it's perfect."

He snuggled a little closer so the side of his head now rested directly on top of her foreleg.

"And I wouldn't know. I've never tried this with anypony else... not even another pegasus."

"Oh," Granite said, sounding flattered. She leaned down for a quick nuzzle, then lifted her head once more to watch. The scene didn't change, but she still couldn't stop looking at the splendor.

"So quiet, too. I never realized how much I liked quiet. The farm was always so noisy, even at night..."

After a few moments of that, Granite laid her head down and drew in a deep breath, which turned into a luxurious sigh. "How long can we stay?"

"As long as we want, really."

He nudged the disc with a hoof, taking note of how it was beginning to bend under her weight.

"This will probably only hold for another half hour before it starts to really sag, but I can just make a new one before it begins to disperse and without your weight slowing me down, the next one would be even stronger."

Normally Lodestone could do little else but stare up into the infinite specks of light above them, but tonight he was having trouble looking anywhere at except at Granite. He closed his eyes and pressed his muzzle into her chest, giving her a tiny nuzzle before falling still.

The mare didn't seem quite aware, but the pressure made her turn to her back. She was careful not to fall off. "Here," she said, patting her belly. "Pillow."

She didn't seem to realize just what kind of a view it would give Lodestone, mainly because she was enraptured by the sight above her. So many stars, so twinkly. The pony was smiling up at all that splendor.

Not sure what she meant at first, Lodestone lifted his head to see and his face immediately began to burn hot with blush. His eyes lingered on her for just a moment before he wrenched them away and turned to her face again, trying to ignore the now familiar stirring in his loins. She hadn't even noticed - she was held rapt by the lights above.

An almost wicked grin spread across his face as he realized the perfect way to get her back for that. Casually he rolled onto his side and laid his head on her chest so he was facing the underside of her muzzle. He wrapped his forelegs around her and stretched his hind legs out comfortably behind him, kicking up a bit of cloud to better suit his needs. All she had to do was glance to her side and she would have a perfect view of everything he had to offer.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? I can stare at them for hours."

Unfortunately, the view above kept Granite's attention. She seemed almost to be counting for a while. "Lodestone?" she asked at last. "How many do you think there are?"

It was an idle question and the mare didn't really expect and answer. While she thought, her hoof went to the stallion's head and started patting. For a while, all movement came from her belly rising up and down with the rhythm of her breathing.

Lodestone lay silent for a long moment before replying.

"They say the first Wonderbolt once spent one hundred nights laying up here, just counting. Other pegasi would bring her food, clean her chamberpot, refresh her bedding. By day she would sleep, by night she would resume where she left off. On the hundreth night, she had counted over ten million lights. Then she looked around her and realized she had only covered a minuscule fraction of the sky, one hundreth of one hundreth of a percent."

He paused for a moment, then added almost as an afterthought, "She never was very good with numbers after that."

"Oooh. Wow," Granite said softly. She was enamored for a moment, then chuckled. "Lovely story. True?" Her tone said she doubted it, but it was still a nice tale.

"I think I'll be on a night like this I tell somepony I love them..." She hadn't meant to say that bit out loud and gasped when she realized she did. "Oh! I didn't mean-"

She mooed a little in apprehension. "It'll probably be you! Oh, cowbells..."

Granite would have curled up in a bright red ball, had she not been playing a pillow for the stallion. She was trembling a little as it was.

He turned a bit to look up at the mare's head. She was still focused on the stars above. Lodestone's voice was barely above a whisper.

"I think it'll probably be you, too."

It had meant to only be a thought and he would have sworn his muzzle moved of it's own accord. A chill that had nothing to do with the temperature ran up his back and he shuddered slightly, vibrating against her chest for a fraction of a second.

Granite stiffened, but after a bit started chuckling to herself. "Heh, look at us," she finally explained. "Why do I keep putting my hoof in my mouth all the time around you?"

She sat up, which would make Lodestone's head slide lower, until she caught it. Just before it strayed to a naughty area. Then she lifted him up for a kiss. "One day, okay? I think I wanna enjoy this a little longer. There's no hurry, right?"

She sounded a bit unsure, as if at the same time eager to move to the next stage, but also afraid of it.

"Maybe we should go down and get some sleep soon. I think it's gonna be a busy day tomorrow."

Thoughts raced through Lodestone's head as he watched her. There were a thousand things he wanted to say and none of them felt good enough for her. They simply stared at each other in silence for a moment, but eventually Lodestone broke eye contact and it almost seemed the two ponies were released from a spell then. They stirred and shifted almost in unison and the pegasus finally found his voice, but still couldn't choose his words, so he took the easy way out.

"Yeah," he said, unable to keep the disappointment from his voice, "You're probably right. We should head down and get some sleep... me especially."

"You don't sound too happy about it," Granite noticed. "Aww, poor thing. Did you want more?"

She giggled in mischief, her old self reasserting itself for a moment as the spell faded. "Tell you what - up here, where nopony can hear, you can call me a cowpoke. How's that?"

From her voice it sounded like this huge, privilege and a grand gift.

He eyed her suspiciously, unable to tell if she was baiting him.

"...I think I'll hold on to that card for now."

Her expression was marvelous and he silenced her protests with a kiss.

"Besides, you're far more adorable than any bovine I've heard of."

It took her breath away, but only for a moment. "It's only valid up here, understand?" Granite said with a dangerous gleam in her eye. "Try and say it where anypony might hear and I'll-"

She couldn't immediately think of a threat, which made her give a quiet moo of frustration. "I'll..."

The mare looked around the cloudscape for inspiration. Then she got it. It was like a small light had come on above her head and the pony smiled nastily. "Oh, that's a good one!"

Just as the light bulb came on, Lodestone shifted and her exclamation died away as she was suddenly very distracted by the stallion pressing his body against hers. He leaned in close, eyeing her suggestively as he brought his head closer. There was a tiny peck on her lips, this his snout slid up the side of her muzzle with the lightest of touches, just barely brushing her fur. He leaned further, tracing the line of her jaw with his nose and giving her cheek a tiny lick as he passed, making her twitch and let out a high-pitched moo. The sensation continued and a tingle shot up her spine as he past the side of her head and she felt the tickle of his hot breath against her sensitive ears. In the supreme silence around them, she could hear the faint click of his muzzle opening and the faintest hiss of air as he inhaled. Then, in the most gentle whisper imaginable, a single word trickled out and into her ear.

"Cowpoke."

At first Granite was unable to respond, but then she giggled in delight. "Oh..."

She didn't quite find the words on her first try, at least not until she tore herself away. "Well..."

Third time seemed to be the charm and the mare let out her breath and relaxed. "Do that again and we'll be doing it in five minutes- eep!"

The pony shook her head, as if to clear it, then finally managed to look at Lodestone's face. "That was... nice," she said, completely needlessly, "but now we really should go before I do something completely stupid and end up hating you for it. Okay? Mr. Charmer?"

She was already standing beside the stallion and put a leg over him in preparation of riding him back down to the hotel.

At her flabbergasted response, Lodestone broke into such a fit of giggling that he couldn't even respond. Granite let out a little 'hmph' and dropped onto his back a little harder than necessary but that only made him laugh harder. He swooped the blanked up with a wing and pranced in place over the cloudcrete he'd made, rapidly dispersing it.

Choking back another laugh, he hopped into the air and angled down into a steep spiral. He accelerated until Granite's limbs started to tighten around him, then he backed off and maintained that speed nearly all the way to the ground. Still bursting into a huge dumb grin every couple of minutes or so, he leveled out well above the ground and began to bleed their speed, then carefully maneuvered down to their still open window.

He smirked as Granite climbed roughly off his back and through the window, then scrambled clumsily inside himself. He climbed up onto the bed beside her and began to settle in to hug her snugly from behind.

CH11: Boutique Magnifique

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As morning came, Barbara donned her clothing once more and stepped out into the hall. She expected the strange princess to be there when she woke, but all was quiet. As she traversed the halls, searching for anyone, she ended up running into the small purple-green dragon that is spike.

“Looking for Twilight, am I right? She stayed up all night studying different kinds of rune magic and looking through her books for answers about, well, you! Cuz of that, she’s still sleeping.”

That meant Barbara was out of the plans she had with the pony. That said, there were other things she wanted to do, till she noticed the dragon sniff the air and close his nose.

“Phew! How bout we get you a shower first! Here, follow me and we’ll get you to a bathroom.”

He ended up having to explain how to work the shower for the human so she could wash up. She would be left with a few towels, but he had asked her to leave her clothes just outside the door so he could clean them in a washing machine.

Meanwhile Lodestone, for reasons beyond his understanding, managed to wake up before Granite. He gently shook her shoulder to wake her and was nearly rewarded with a hoof to the face, so he left her a note instead and trotted off to find the Chief and have some breakfast. She was going with Princess Twilight to the castle last he had heard, so that's where he'd try first. After that, the Mayor's office, and after that... well, fly around town and look for the large crowd of fascinated and slightly scared ponies.

Lodestone tapped a hoof on the massive front door to the Castle of Friendship and waited patiently for what he assumed was the Princess's mareservant to greet him.

He ended up having to knock a couple times before the dragon actually arrived.

“Give me a second will ya? This is a big castle!”

Flinging the door open, he looked over the stallion and realized he didn’t recognize him.

“You with the press or are you a tourist that just really wants to meet the princess. Cuz if that’s the case, I have bad news for you.”

"Uh..."

He was somewhat taken aback by the tiny dragon addressing him in such a condescending manner, but he quickly got control of himself.

"Neither. I'm Lodestone, the pony who found the humans in the Everfree Forest. I'm trying to find Barbara, the human that Princess Twilight brought back here last night. Did she sleep here or was she sent somewhere else?"

“Ooooh, yeah, she’s in the shower right now. She’ll be done soon, come on in!”

The dragon shut the door behind Lodestone and began guiding him towards a waiting room that was close to the one Barbara was using. When she finally joined them, all she had were the towels around her body and hair, rather than the leather clothes from yesterday. As soon as she saw the stallion, she began excitedly moving closer.

“That was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. Lodestone, why didn’t you tell me that ponies can make hot water on demand without fire?!”

Her expression made him chuckle and he waved a wing in a grand gesture around them.

"Barbara, there are so many things I can show you that are just as impressive, if not more. How would I choose where to begin?"

He hopped up and started walking toward the door. "Go ahead and get dressed, we can see more wonders while we're out shopping."

Spike walked in and said, “I tried to get that smell out of your clothes best I could.”

He led her back to the room so she could change and come back. This time, instead of smelling like someone from a tribe who bathed irregularly, she smelled of lavender.

“Ok, we never got that gold bar sorted out. With the princess out, we have to go to that other pony? The... “mayor” of this village?”

"Ah yeah, that's kinda important I guess. Alright, follow me then."

Lodestone set off at a brisk trot toward the Mayor's office. It was late morning and the town was much more busy than when they had arrived last night. Additionally, news of the strange bipedal creature's arrival had spread through the town like wildfire, so nearly everypony they passed would stop and wave, point, gasp, comment, follow, or simply stand in confused awe at the strange sight. The Chief didn't seem particularly bothered by it, but he took flight and hovered near her head so they could talk in relative privacy anyways.

"You're probably gonna have to get used to this sort of attention. Now that they know you aren't dangerous, everypony will want to see you, maybe even speak to you, but it's easy to get bogged down in an endless parade of curious muzzles, so it's best to just ignore all but the most persistent ones."

“Yeah, you had ponies with these flashing lights and metal sticks trying to talk to me last night. I still don’t have a clue what they were doing.”

She listened as Lodestoneexplained news, cameras, and sound devices in the most simplistic of terms. In the end, she took their technology as highly powerful magic, while imagining ways she could implement a formal written word. Soon they would find themselves at the mayor’s office, though the trip felt short thanks to her questions. Stepping inside, they would see the receptionist, a pony who had not been present the night prior.

“I-I was told there was a non-pony that might stop by. I guess that’s you! Umm, the mayor is in her office, you can head on in!”

Thanking the receptionist, Lodestone knocked gently with a hoof, then stepped into the Mayor's office. As soon as his head poked through the door she greeted him warmly.

"Oh hello, Lodestone! Is your human friend with you today?"

"Yes, and good morning, Mayor," Lodestone entered the room and Barbara followed close behind him, "It seems Princess Twilight was so focused on learning about a new species, she forgot to exchange the ingot."

Barbara produced the ingot for the mayor and set it on her desk.

“Sorry if that causes any trouble. I didn’t expect her to work through the night like I was told she did.”

Looking around the office, she could tell there were plenty of records and other important information. She wasn’t about to mess with it, but Barbara wondered if maybe she should keep precise records of things within the town.

The Mayor laughed and shook her head, "Oh no, dear, she's always like that. I wouldn't be surprised if she has a whole book of notes on the most efficient way to clean her hooves!"

She grabbed the ingot in her mouth and stepped outside. There was a heavy 'thunk' followed by some murmuring, then the Mayor returned empty hooved. She faltered when she saw the Chief's expression and made a calming gesture.

"Don't worry! I've just passed it off to my staff, they'll return with your bits momentarily." She giggled nervously. "I mean, you didn't expect me to carry that down to the Treasury and count out your bits myself, did you?"

“I suppose not. 2500 was the number you gave, correct?”

The lady sat on the floor, since the chairs in this particular office were a bit too small for her. As she was, an important question crossed her mind.

“Before living in that forest, my people were traders. Is there any way to establish trade between our village and yours? Or is it simply too dangerous to get a caravan headed our way?”

The Mayor nodded pleasantly, "Absolutely! If you just put together a list of stuff you will need regularly... um, yes, Lodestone?"

The pegasus had been politely holding up a hoof, "With all due respect to you both, I think any trade route we set up should start out very slow. These humans are incredibly primitive and too much technological progress too fast would be a massive culture shock. I'm worried about alienating some of them."

He gave the Chief an apologetic look.

"Um... no offense, Barbara."

She looked at him with a bit of shame that her kind were so limited. “I-I suppose you can’t really help it. Maybe to begin with, we should consider farming supplies. Tools, seeds, things to help growth, that shouldn’t be too bad.”

With how little of their world she understood, she started to feel a little stupid. She understood why he said what he did; even she was overwhelmed by what ponies could offer, and she hadn’t really seen anything yet.

Her expression made him feel a little bad so he stepped closer and nuzzled her hand to make her feel better.

"Don't feel bad, there's nothing wrong with ignorance as long as you're willing to learn. You're obviously smart, Barbara. You're asking questions, learning constantly, and adjusting quickly to life here. No, I'm worried about some of the other villagers who might react to all this with fear and suspicion."

The Mayor held up a hoof and said, "Barbara, I'm sorry, but I need to know what we're dealing with here. Just how primitive are we talking here?"

“Well, I just learned today that ponies can heat water without fire. You have this paper stuff in abundance, though I’d never seen it before. What is this stuff anyway?”

She stood up to walk towards a window and tapped the glass curiously.

“Never seen something like it before. Not to mention you have metal beams with light all over the place. Not even a metal I’ve seen before, best we have is copper, tin, and bronze.”

The Mayor eyed Lodestone and he nodded seriously. "I was surprised when they didn't have toilets... then I learned they don't even have outhouses."

She brought a hoof to her muzzle in thought, "I see your point. Lodestone is right, you yourself are clearly intelligent, there's no denying that, but you're a leader. Your fellows may not take to such strangeness so easily. We'll have to proceed in stages - one leap forward then a resting period while the village adjusts to the change before the next leap."

The Mayor stepped behind her desk and began making notes.

“I guess I understand. There was some backlash when people learned some of us had magic, after all. Now it’s a necessary part of our lives.”

It was slightly frustrating for her, since she wanted so many things for her people, but she really did understand. In a somewhat dangerous environment, the worst thing they could possibly deal with was civil unrest.

Mayor Mare looked up from her notes, "I think the easiest first stage will be replacing your tools with the modern equivalent. We'll upgrade your bronze tools with steel and plastic. They'll be lighter, stronger, and more effective, but otherwise identical to what you're used to." She tapped the desk thoughtfully, then continued, "We can also slowly bring in modern clothing. It'll be lighter, warmer, and more effective in general, but I'll talk to Rarity, our local seamstress, and see if she can make it look similar to your current clothes, so your people accept it more readily. Be sure and stop by her boutique before you leave."

“Ahhh, about that, what I am wearing is not actually what we are accustomed to, so much as what we are limited to. That’s... probably something I should talk over with her.”

It wasn’t something the mayor needed to know. The chief just didn’t want the ponies to think too little of her. She glanced over at Lodestone for just a moment, only to lower her gaze to the floor.

"Oh yeah, that's right," Lodestone said, "The spirits said you aren't from this world... I guess what I've seen of your people is a bad estimate, then."

The Mayor nodded in agreement, "Yes, you should explain what you humans are used to rather than what you are stuck with now. That would be a better baseline for how quickly we can help you. We may be able to save a significant amount of time with no risk of the villagers becoming unhappy."

She flipped to a new page in her notepad and looked at the Chief expectantly.

“Our town was a hub for trading silk and spices. We never had our own farms, since we could trade for what we needed reliably. Now we have farms, but people that barely know how to tend them. Hunting can only fill in the gap so much and is dangerous.”

Taking a breath, she tried to consider what they didn’t have now that they used to have. Their level of understanding hadn’t really improved, only what goods they had or didn’t had changed.

“We used to also tend livestock. Cows, chickens, and horses, though I doubt we could keep them now. If the thunder Rocs came... well, those would be lost.”

"Interesting," the Mayor muttered, making a few notes, "You know of silk and can smelt bronze but have never seen glass and don't even use simple outhouses..."

She looked up again, "Can you tell me more? So far you're just sort of an odd mix of moderaly advanced and strangely primitive."

“Part of the reason we don’t use outhouses is because space is limited and anything could be destroyed in a moments notice. We can’t afford to waste our space on anything that isn’t a home, shop, or storage.”

She explained, in greater detail, about their blacksmith and forge, as well as their system for trade before. She wasn’t leader then, but she still understood it well enough. Gold was not a common item used in their tradings, though they had known of it. Their village preferred to barter items directly rather than use any currency, ensuring everyone got what they wanted. She was able to describe in detail about how her village was also famous for its foods, given the amount of spices that came through. None of the methods they used were particularly advanced, though it showed the people had a way of being ingenious with so little understanding of their own world.

When she finished, Mayor Mare scribbled for a minute or two longer, then looked up at the two of them.

"Alright, so I still think we should proceed slowly, but we can send a little more with this first shipment. Go with Lodestone and find some simple tools like what you're used to, then pick up some spices and a wide variety of seeds, and finally stop by Rarity's boutique to have some clothes made to fit your unique bodies. Here."

She tore off a page from her notebook and passed it to Lodestone, who saw it was that same list, with some specific suggestions with little question marks next to them.

The Mayor continued, "You only need to grab a small sample of each thing you need. Once you've collected everything you want, bring it back here and I'll arrange a shipment loaded with enough of each item to supply a village."

Since he hadn't picked up some saddlebags yet, Lodestone handed the note to Barbara, who glanced at it then tucked it away in a pocket.

“Thank you. We’ll be back as soon as possible.”

Seeing herself out, Barbara took a breath of the fresh air and smiled.

“It’s like a fresh start. Maybe we can make ourselves the center of trade again somehow!”

That was an exciting thought for her. If her village could establish strong trading ties, then they would eventually get on par with ponies. Better yet, they would flourish, but she wondered if they could give a service or good nobody else had.

The pegasus nodded and started to reply, then stopped suddenly.

"Ah ponyfeathers, we forgot the bits. Just wait here, I'll be right back.*

He trotted back inside to fetch them and the receptionist pointed him toward the Treasury. The clerk mare inside was suspicious, but after sending a runner to confirm with the Mayor, she handed over a hefty sack of bits, which Lodestone carried between his wings as he returned to Barbara. Hopefully she had been alright by herself for the short amount of time he had been inside.

She hadn’t wandered off, but neither was she alone. A small crowd of ponies gathered to inspect the strange creature. One in particular, a minty-green unicorn with white in her mane, was quite close to her. Though he couldn’t hear it from the door, it was clear she was pestering Barbara with questions.

The Chief had handled the crowds easily enough when she had somepony to follow and a purpose in mind, but Lodestone could see she was clearly uncomfortable now that she had to just mingle with all the curious muzzles. He hurried out and took flight, hovering above the ponies and whispering in her ear.

"You okay or do you want to get out of here?"

A couple other pegasi had misunderstood his action and were now cautiously approaching through the air themselves. She would have to decide fast.

“Let’s go, before your winged friends start getting in my face.”

She could see them closing in and absolutely did not want them getting close from up above. It was more bearable on the ground, where she could easily step over them or move them.

Lodestone nodded once and swooped suddenly in front of her, flaring his wings out and spreading his hooves wide, raising his voice with as much authority as he could muster.

"Alright, alright, make way. We're on official business from the Mayor. We'll be here for a while, you'll have plenty of time for questions later."

Several ponies shouted questions, desperate to get even one solid answer so they could get a story out before the other reporters.

"Why was the other creature injured?"

"How have they survived in the dangerous forest?"

"Are there more of these creatures?"

"Does Princess Celestia know of this yet?"

Lodestone ignored them all and pumped his wings powerfully, angling his wings so most of his efforts simply created a powerful breeze in front and behind him, without creating any lift. The ponies were forced to back away as the wind garbled their microphones and blew dust in their eyes and the pegasus surged forward, Barbara following closely behind.

With them out of the way, Barbara was able to push forward and get through the group once more. The ponies seemed to get the message, mostly, and kept some distance from the human.

“Can we visit the... what did she call it? Seamstress? I would like to see what they have to offer. I-I really miss the feel of proper silk.”

"Sure!" he said happily, "Just as soon as I get some food in me. I dunno about you, but I'm starving."

As the crowd dispersed, disappointed, he landed and walked alongside the Chief instead. His feathers were beginning to get seriously frazzled now and it was increasingly difficult to maintain a steady hover. He was days overdue for a preen, but there was just so much to do!

"Besides, the note I left for Granite said to meet me in the café we tried last night. Since I found you quickly, she might not even be up yet, but hopefully she'll pop in while we're eating."

As it turned out, the mare was not only up, but already waiting at the cafe. She had ordered dessert for herself and was now doing her best to put away the last bits of fruit and ice cream when she spotted the pair in the distance. Her shoveling of the spoon took on a more urgent manner and Granite chewed and swallowed almost desperately. She managed to finish before the two came, but then her eyes strayed to the bowl.

Her tiny whimper would be audible even to Lodestone and Barbara, just before the mare lifted up the empty porcelain cup and licked at it furiously. She slammed it down barely ten seconds later and pushed it away from herself, then attempted to look completely innocent in all this.

Barbara watched the whole thing with an amused smile as they approached. Unlike the chairs of the office, this outside seating area had cushions on the ground to sit on. Something that Barbara was actually fairly used to. Taking her spot at the table, she noticed a piece of paper with scribbles all over it.

“You just have paper and writing everywhere you go? What does this even say?”

"Yep. Writing down a spoken language is incredibly useful."

He took a moment to explain how a menu saves the server from spending several minutes explaining all the different meals available, then flagged down the waiter colt to order. He faltered when he saw the new arrivals, but quickly put on his customer service face and approached.

"I'll have a hayburger with cheese and some black tea. For the human here, let's try the vanhoover omelette and an orange smoothie."

Once the waiter left, Lodestone finally turned to Granite.

"And good morning to you, sleepy filly. You know you nearly bucked my snout off when I tried to wake you up." He smiled to let her know he wasn't upset about it.

"Sorry!" the mare said, muzzle going red but not from what Lodestone said. She kept glancing at her empty bowl, then at the newcomers. More than once the mare opened her mouth to say something, but then changed her mind and closed it again. Each time her ears lowered some more.

"I had breakfast!" she suddenly exclaimed. "It wasn't just ice cream! I had a proper breakfast before that, I swear!"

She wasn't exactly lying, but it wasn't the whole truth. Dishonesty wasn't her strong suit and the cow-pony knew it, which was why she refused to meet their gazes.

“By this point, I’ve learned it’s going to be a fruitless effort to simply ask what everything is. So Granite, we were thinking about going to see your silk-weaver soon.”

An elbow from Lodestone made her turn in confusion and as she thought about what she said, she realized it.

“Sorry, your “seamstress.” I’m sure you’d like to join us, right? Maybe also help me keep some of those ponies at bay when they come around asking questions.”

"Um, okay. Sure!" Granite was only too happy to move the conversation forward from her eating habits. She was about to get up, but then flashed a sheepish grin at Lodestone. "Can you, uh, get this? I don't really have any bits..."

Her ears were splayed and if she had a sombrero, she would be turning it in her hooves. "I'll make it up to you, I promise..."

Lodestone chucked, "Of course, Granite. Even if we didn't have the company tab..."

He nudged the hefty sack of bits now hanging from Barbara's waist.

"I think we can afford to cover a simple meal."

He caught the Chief's sour look and waved a hoof dismissively.

"Don't worry. While I bet you'll be happy to pay once you try your food, I won't waste your gold on trivial stuff like this. I've got it covered."

“Good. Far as I’m concerned, it’s not even my gold. It’s my people’s gold, it’s to make the village better.”

She pulled a single bit from the stack to examine it. It was a simplistic thing, but also very smooth and finely crafted. Each one looked exactly the same, telling her there was a mold involved. The image of a pony, Celestia on the front and Luna on the back, were so well cut into each one that it took her a moment.

“Your coins... they get shaped first... then the image would be placed on while it is soft, right? But how? Do they have some sort of device that etches the image into the coin? Or something metal they use that had the outline of the image carved into it?”

"Uhhh," Granite didn't have a clue, but didn't want to appear dumb. "I think that's right," she said, looking pleadingly at Lodestone. At the rate he was accruing 'favors' from the mare, he should have no problems getting her in bed later tonight.

Luckily, the pony was saved by the waiter, who brought out the food. She looked at everything wistfully, but then firmly shook her muzzle and focused her attention elsewhere.

"Nice day, anyway," she commented. "Looks perfect for flying..."

Realizing what she had implied made the poor pony let out a very quiet moo of surprise.

The pegasus was perfectly content to admit his ignorance, especially with the smell of burger filling his snout. He gave Granite a little wink that made her blush, then greedily chowed down. Seeing the way she eyed their food, he nudged the plate toward her and motioned toward the fries. Then, as if suddenly remembering she was there, he glanced up to check if the Chief was enjoying her food as much as he'd hoped.

She tore off a piece with a fork and examined it. She could recognize the egg, even take a good guess at how it was cooked, but didn’t know all of what was inside it. Taking her first bite, she felt the crunchiness of the peppers and the flavors seemed to explode in her mouth. While meat was good, it had been a long, long time since she had a properly seasoned meal. Despite her desire to simply devour it all in seconds, she forced herself to go slow and enjoy the meal as thoroughly as possible.

“Spirits above, that is delicious. I can think I could make something like it that the people would enjoy back home. Add in some chopped up bacon... yum.”

Next was her smoothie. A cold drink that didn’t come from a river was amazing in itself, but this was a frozen delight. It wasn’t even winter, yet these ponies made something frozen that had been finely mixed with fruit!

"Jeez, you're making me wish I ordered one of those as well," Granite said, having completely obliterated Lodestone's fries. She reached to grab more, found emptiness on the plate, looked at the stallion and hung her head. "Sorry- I didn't realize."

She quickly brightened up. "I can get you another serving!" she offered to the pegasus. "And maybe another omelette?" this part was to the Chief. "Maybe one for me too?"

Her choice of ice cream for breakfast didn't seem as clever as it had a mere half-hour ago.

The pegasus burst out laughing and had to cover his still-full mouth with a hoof. Between Granite eating half his meal and Barbara being twice the size of a pony, it seemed another course was in order.

Once the Chief had realized how good the food was, she had tasted a bit of every meal they got. Everything that didn't have hay in it was met with the same level of adoration, and Lodestone was reminded of a foal on Hearth's Warming Eve.

An hour later, all three were pleasantly stuffed, and Lodestone had it all put on the company bit. He was beginning to worry his superiors would notice his unusual spending, but brushed it off carelessly. He had bigger storms to wrangle now.

"So," he said, clapping his hooves together eagerly, "How would you mares like to shop for some clothes?"

“Finally!" Barbara exclaimed excitedly, "I can wear the softest fabrics again!” She pumped a fist in victory and was quick to stand up, despite not knowing where to go. It didn’t matter though, she was tired of leather and fur. “Do you think they’ll have all sorts of different shades of purple and golds? Those were always reserved for the most elite in my village. The people with the most influence over trade and the major nations that came to do business.”

"Oh, pony tailors have all the colors!" Granite said, even though she had exactly zero first-hoof experience. Her only encounter with a dress had been for her school's prom night, when the mare had 'inherited' a worn dress from her mother for a single night.

"I heard the seamstress in Ponyville is one of the best! I'm sure she'll fix you up, especially with all that money!"

The cowpoke was thrilled to get going and pranced a little in place as she waited for poor, rushed Lodestone to finish paying. Even before he was done, Granite ran off, but then ran back, like an excitable filly.

Lodestone had been expecting them to be excited, but even so he couldn't help smile at their enthusiasm. He wrapped up quickly and trotted off in the direction of the boutique he and Granite had seen last night. Hopefully Ponyville only had one boutique...

As soon as it came into view, Granite was off like a dart and Barbara wasn't far behind her. He chuckled ruefully and broke into a trot to catch up.

Rarity looked up from her sewing machine, startled by Granite bursting in, but she knew a customer when she saw one.

"Oh, just a moment darling, I'll be right with you!"

The machine whirred again as she hurried the hem she was stitching, and just as she finished and looked up again, Barbara stepped through the door. Rarity gasped. The Mayor had sent a runner so she had been expecting the human, and she had heard the rumors of course, but nothing prepared her for the monstrous sight before her. She pressed a hoof to her chest and cried out.

"Sweet Celestia, you look absolutely horrid! Oh my dear, please, you simply must come into the back at once and remove that ridiculous outfit and... is that leather? Stitched with twine?"

She looked as if she might faint.

"It's not that bad," Granite rushed to her human friend's defense. "I'd like to see you do better in the middle of Everfree with no tools!"

Despite the snark, Granite was staring around the shop with wide, fascinated eyes. Her legs trembled and she obviously itched to feel up some fabric, or examine a dress or two. If she would be allowed to try a couple, she'd squeal with delight.

In moments the mare forgot both the human and the pegasus who had brought them, and was admiring an unfinished dress on a pony manikin.

“Best we could do. Well, that and fur, but it pales to the silk robes of before.”

Eyes wandering around the room, she noticed the fabrics and different colors. Rather than follow Rarity, she walked over to touch them. Each had their own texture, since some were made from wool, or some were a new fabric altogether that the human, maybe even other ponies, had never seen. In all cases, it was much softer on the skin than anything they had available.

“These are amazing... such vibrant colors too... I bet you could easily make the most comfortable of outfits. Things made for kings and queens alike.”

"Well, I suppose if I had been trapped in the Everfree..." She shuddered at the thought, then approached the Chief as she marveled at the works of art around her, "You clearly have a good appreciation for craftsmanship, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you did the best you could with what you were given."

She sighed, then her horn glowed and she grabbed the Chief's hand with her magic, tugging her gently toward the back room.

"But nevermind that now. Come along, you couldn't wear any of these dresses even if you tried, they're for ponies. I'll need to take your measurements and build a whole new set of patterns before I can even start on clothes for your species."

Granite watched the two leave with some curiosity, but then went back to the dresses on display. She found one with a frilly yellow thing and posed next to it for a disinterested Lodestone. "How about this one? You think it'd look good on me?"

The mare had no sense of fashion, but she liked pretty colors. "Ooh, how about that one!" she pointed to a mostly green dress with white trimmings.

"You know- I could look pretty for you," she teased the stallion, walking over to him and giving him an all too-friendly nuzzle.

Returning the nuzzle, he grinned at her.

"You already look pretty, Granite, but I'd love to see you in a nice dress like this one day. I bet you'd look good in this one."

He stepped up to a long, flowing dress of bright silver, with blue accents and thick, black stitching in an intricate pattern. He'd chosen it because the colors matched her coat and eyes and it hadn't occurred to him how closely it resembled a wedding dress.

"That one?" Granite said, a little unsure. "It'd look good?"

She came over and stood beside it, then felt up the material. "Maybe..." she agreed.

A few more uncomfortable seconds had her splaying her ears and giving the pegasus a self-deprecating grin. "I'm not actually very good at dresses. They were never a thing on our farm."

Her smile crept back when she got an idea and looked around. There was that mischievous twinkle back. "Do you think I could try a few of them on?!"

"As much as I'd love to see that, we should probably wait until Rarity is back."

Lodestone smiled nervously and studied the dress more carefully.

"I can't even figure out how to get this off the mannequin, much less how it's supposed to go on you."

"Hmm," for a moment it looked like Granite was going to try it, but then she thought better of it and shook her head. Instead, she went to look at a few unfinished ones on the other side of the room.

"I bet these will look nice, too," she said wistfully. "Oh..."

There was something else, but the pony didn't know quite how to say it, so she changed the topic. "Did I really hoof you this morning? I don't remember it. Sorry..."

He stepped up beside her and gave her a quick hug with a wing.

"No, you just waved a hoof at me, but it missed. You weren't even really awake I don't think."

There was a sudden exclamation from behind the door and he chuckled wryly.

"I get the feeling they're going to be a while. Do you want to go someplace else for a bit, or are you happy just looking at these dresses?"

Granite looked around the shop once more, eyes a bit wistful, but then she shook her head and her smile came back. "I could... maybe do with another ice cream?" she suggested. "And..."

Again, there was that something at the tip of her tongue which she couldn't get out.

"I think I heard someone talking about an apple orchard. I'd like to see that. We just grew wheat and vegetables."

"That sounds nice. It's been so hectic around Barbara, since everypony's so eager to see her."

He lifted his wing from her shoulders and two of his primaries actually caught with an audible click. A long grey feather fluttered lightly to the ground. Lodestone winced at the rough rustling as he folded his wing.

"...On second thought, can we just go back to the hotel for a bit? My wings are in desperate need of some maintanence."

He smiled apologetically at her.

"Sorry, it'll be kinda boring for you, but I just haven't had the time."

Granite watched the feather flutter down. She reached down and picked it up in her mouth, then she awkwardly tucked it into her mane.

She looked around until she found a mirror and went to inspect the result, angling her head this way and that. "Fetching," she said. "Mind if I keep this?"

She didn't seem sad about the orchard - on the contrary, her eyes lit up at the mention. "You're right, though," she confirmed, "you do look kinda scruffy. I'll go keep you company."

There was a bit more and she giggled into a hoof. "Besides, I've never seen a fly boy fiddle with his wings. Ought to be interesting, mm?"

Lodestone held up a hoof as the mare tucked the feather into her mane, but she continued talking before he could speak up. He awkwardly lowered his hoof again and a blush began to color his muzzle.

"Uh... yeah, I guess. Listen, you shouldn't--"

But the mare was already trotting out the door. She had no idea what that feather signified and the pegasus could only stand there frozen for a second, feeling confused, embarrassed, and a little aroused. Then he suddenly broke into a canter and chased her toward the hotel.

Meanwhile, Rarity casually pulled Barbara by one hand over to a small room divider where ponies would have a little privacy while they changed clothes. Unfortunately, it barely reached up to the Chief's shoulders, but at least it covered the important bits.

"Right, now get those scraps of leather off and we can begin."

She turned toward a wall almost completely covered with shelves and began pulling various tools from them - some measuring tape, of course, but also a stack of thick, uncut cardstock and a pencil, to sketch out the beginnings of patterns to match the human's unique shape.

Barbara shed the armor up till her very last two garments. There was a measure of hesitation to fully disrobe, though she figured there were no males, pony or otherwise, around that would see her naked body. The last two bits hit the floor and she began to pile it up and set it neatly to the side.

“Thank you for doing this on short notice. I know you must have many requests, based on all those pieces you had in the other room.”

"Oh, it's no trouble at all! I'm always eager to--" She stumbled slightly over her words as she turned to face the naked human, "ah... try something new. Oh my... you humans are awfully exposed."

She tried not to stare at the large teats on the human's chest as she stepped closer, measuring tape hovering near her head.

"I take it you humans wear clothing on a regular basis?"

“Yes, all the time. We even had night clothes, though many prefer to sleep naked during the summer months.”

She raised her arms out for Rarity as she moved on to that portion of things. It was a strange feeling whenever magic would grip her in any given spot. Like a slight tingling sensation that ended up almost feeling ticklish in certain areas.

“I know many of us will be happy to be back in robes. Or to even have the ability to make our own clothes again. I had always longed to wear the blues and golds of the grand trade master.”

Of course, they had no such title anymore. Their cultural structure had changed vastly since they were forced into the forest.

"Hmm..." The mare hummed thoughtfully, "That means you'll need far more outfits than I would normally need to provide."

She mumbled to herself as she continued taking measurements and noted them down in a tidy chart, gently pushing or pulling Barbara into various positions. She paid special attention to her arms and legs, so different from anything else she had worked with.

"I assume your people will be wanting something simple and practical for everyday use? Then I think it would be best if I have a... ahem, 'less experienced' tailor make several copies of some simple tunic in various sizes."

Her eyes gleamed as she began sketching out rough shapes on the cardstock, occasionally holding it up to compare it to some part of the Chief's body.

"Thinking of these strange and unique patterns is already flooding my mind with such inspiration... I couldn't possibly make anything as humdrum as work clothes with such fascinating shapes to guide me!"

“As traders, we always strove to make a good impression with our looks. Though, now we are laborers. Simple, practical, and enduring would be the best way to go.”

That thought frustrated her a little. She wanted to at least be able to wear a reminder of their rich past. But that was the problem with change: it doesn’t mind leaving people and ideas in the dust.

“At some point or another, I need to find a way to bring skilled ponies, like you, to the village. I think it would benefit us all, though it seems it won’t happen soon.”

Rarity giggled at the woman's expression, "Don't look so dour, darling! Yes, most of your new clothes will be practical, but if you think I'm letting you go back to that dreary village without first seeing you resplendent in a dress, you are sorely mistaken!"

Several bolts of thick, richly colored cloth flew over from a nearby shelf and Rarity began rapidly comparing colors to the color of Barbara's skin, hair, and eyes. She took several more notes, then unrolled a large section of deep, royal violet cloth. The thick, finely woven fabric wrapped around her torso, pressing against the curve of her sides as if it was already tailored to fit her. The Chief would be able to see herself in a set of three mirrors nearby, though they were almost square to fit the ponies that would normally be using them.

“That would be wonderf- oooooo, I like this color!”

She looked down excitedly at the idea of wearing a royals color. Even if it would not have the same designs as her people were used to, it wouldn’t matter.

“I’m afraid I’ll end up being here at least till tomorrow though. Maybe I should save a beautiful piece for when I return. I’m sure my people would end up wanting to come to you and only you if I did! Oh, but I should also see about getting Rohan some clothes. How do you feel about making men’s garb, err... I apologize, I’ve forgotten your name.”

"Men? Oh, is that what you call human stallions? Well of course I'll make clothes for them as well! The other human, the one at the medic, is he a 'men'? I would like to see him as soon as possible to take down more measurements and compare your proportions."

She scratched down a quick note and wrapped up the violet cloth again, setting it apart from the rest of her fabric.

"And don't worry about the name, I completely understand! I'm sure your head is already spinning with all the muzzles and names you've met already."

The unicorn casually took a step back, turned slightly to the side in a flattering pose, then lightly flicked her head and brushed her mane back with a hoof.

"I am Rarity. The note from Mayor Mare only said you were the Chief of the humans. What shall I call you?"

"Barbara. To be honest, I'm not used to going by that anymore. Once I became the chief, everyone started calling me "Chief." I always figured it was a sign of respect."

Her eyes stayed glued on whatever Rarity's magic was used on. The idea of a simple levitation spell fascinated her, if only because their own magic was not developed enough to do such things.

"Oh, before I forget, I should warn you about Rohan. As a man, he's quite... uptight. He's basically my village's champion, our most powerful warrior. His role before was something akin to a head guardian. He oversaw the protection of our trade town and made sure that things ran smoothly and fairly."

Rarity turned and looked into a bin, then frowned and opened another, rapidly searching through the various pieces of fabric inside.

"Well, would you rather I called you Barbara or Chief? Ah yes, here we are!"

A long, thin strand of silky gold ribbon flowed out of the drawer and Rarity casually tossed it over the Chief's shoulder while she continued looking for more pieces of the outfit she imagined.

"Barbara is fine. I like being the chief, but it's nice to have places I can go where I'm not as worried about it."

"And what exactly do you mean by 'uptight'? Do you mean he's the type to always need to feel like he's in control?"

She tried to think of a better term for his way of living. "He's not a control-freak, but he's very duty bound. He's... stoic, I guess you could say. He takes charge when he needs to, but mostly he just goes around making people feel safe because they know he's watching out for them. He has everyone's respect as a result."

The way she was describing him, Rarity could almost imagine a knight in a fairy tale. A well beloved hero that keeps monsters at bay with his sword and wit.

Rarity paused in her searching and glanced back at Barbara.

"So he's a skilled fighter but he only fights when he needs to protect others, never in anger or for fun? He sounds like a royal guard..."

She trailed off, looking distracted for a long moment. The human was just starting to get restless when she looked up suddenly, seeming to snap out of it.

"Well in any case, my inspiration has left me for the moment, so I'll have to return to this later. I have all your measurements, but I should really get the measurements of a 'men,' so I suppose we should go and see this Rohan. Come along, I'll lead you to the medic."

She began to trot away, then stopped when she saw the Chief hadn't moved, looking awkward and embarrassed.

"Oh! Of course - you always wear clothes so going out naked is probably uncomfortable for you. I'll give you a moment to... ah..."

She eyed the crude leather clothes disdainfully.

"On second thought, let me throw together a simple garment for you so you don't have to put on those wretched things again."

"That would be appreciated, Rarity."

She watched as rarity took some soft fabrics that she had in abundance and began to make a loose fitting outfit out of it. Unlike the other, this was an emerald green fabric that had little accents on them, as well as a lace bra and panties. All in all, it reminded Barbara of the traveling caravan from the deserts. With that out of the way, she prompted rarity for one last thing. It came as a very slight shock that human feet were so sensitive, but of course Rarity was able to throw together some simple shoes. She settled on some sandals that matched the robe, which were also reminiscent of desert wear.

"Much better! By the gods, I had forgotten how it felt to wear such wonderfully soft clothes." She didn't dawdle for too long, however, since she could see that Rarity was ready to go.

"And this is hardly more than a bolt of cloth with some holes for your forelegs!" Rarity giggled, "I can't wait to see you try on a true ensemble."

Rarity closed up the boutique and set her 'be back later' sign, then turned to leave and noticed ponies were already beginning to crowd the human. It seemed everypony was much more willing to approach her now that she wasn't wearing another creature's flesh. The unicorn raised her muzzle with a haughty 'hmph!' and trotted directly into the middle of the crowd.

"Come along, darling, we have things to do and not enough time to do them!"

The crowd rapidly parted, though more out of respect for one of the Elements than for her posturing. In any case, the way was cleared and the two of them found their way to the medic with little trouble. Once inside, it was only a moment before a nurse escorted them down a series of short hallways to the room where Rohan was being monitored.

Despite his attempts to get up and roam around, they somehow managed to convince him to stay in the bed for the most part. When Barbara and Rarity stepped in, he smiled and sat up. The blanket fell to his lap, though it was quickly clear he had no clothes of any kind on.

"I was told you had Lodestone bring me here, Chief. I apologize for having caused so much trouble, it was not my intention to return so... beaten."

Like the lady, he was an incredibly muscular man under all that armor. Years of training had done him well, but the years of battle against man and beast had left no small amount of scars on him either. His eyes, a deep, dark blue, turned towards the other guest in the room.

"No matter. Rohan, I would like you to meet Rarity. She is something similar to the silk-weavers that we were used to before."

Rarity hesitated when those deep eyes settled onto her. A blush lightly colored her muzzle as she gave a little bow and returned his gaze with a shaky smile.

"Hello, darling. I, um... I'm making a new set of patterns for your human bodies so we can send you some clothes. I got most of the measurements I need from Barbara here, but I need to measure you as well. Your... masculine physique requires a different shape around your shoulders and hips, for example."

Her measuring tape hovered just beside her head and she stepped forward, seeming eager to get started.

He gave a slow nod and looked down at the bed sheet. They would probably immediately guess that he was completely nude under it as well.

"I'll just turn around for this." Barbara, not wanting to see anything by mistake, turned so she was facing the other way. Without many options, Rohan wrapped the bedsheet around his waist so he wouldn't be showing anything unsightly to the lady.

Rohan said, "Let me know what you need me to do exactly and I'll do what I can, miss."

Now that he was standing, she would notice how tall he was all well. He had to look down at her, making him appear a bit more intimidating, but Rarity was unfazed.

"Ah... yes, just stand there for now."

The length of his legs was quickly jotted down but when the measuring tape wrapped around his waist, it pressed the sheets close to his groin, which was almost exactly at eye level for Rarity. Her blush darkened slightly but she took down the measurement professionally, then slid a bit of the sheet away to measure around his inner thigh as well.

When it came time to measure his shoulders, she hesitated for a moment, then simply hopped up onto the medical bed and continued from there. She seemed to be going slower than usual and took more measurements around his chest than either of the humans expected, but surely she knew what she was doing.

Finally, Rarity rolled up the measuring tape and nodded to Rohan.

"Alright, that's all I need. I expect to see you at my boutique before you return to your village - I'll need to test my prototype garments on you to make sure the patterns work well..." She started to hop down from the bed, then added as an afterthought, "I'll be doing the same for Barbara too, of course, I just don't know how long the doctor will keep you here."

"From what I was told, tomorrow is the earliest they will consider letting me go."

He took his previous spot on the bed and let out a sigh. He didn't like being confined to one place, unable to do as he pleased. He would have much rather patrolled the village, talked with the people, anything. But, unfortunately for him, Barbara wasn't going to stay in that room for the day.

CH12: The Cloudy Grounds

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Barbara ended up following Rarity outside, but the relentless press ponies were there waiting. While they were fine to stay out of her way other times, Barbara was growing tired of them being everywhere she went. She was close to an outburst, but after taking a deep, calming breath, she looked at the small crowd.

"I will answer a few question, but then I would ask that you leave me in peace."

This of course immediately sent the press ponies into a near frenzy, each of them hoping their questions would be one of the precious few. A dozen voices called out simultaneously but as soon as the Chief spoke, everypony would fall deathly silent, too desperate for information to really care if it was their question or not.

"Are you of high rank or just sent here by your superiors?"

"Have you ever seen ponies before you came to Ponyville?"

"How has your people survived in the Everfree?"

"Is it true you actually hunt and kill wild animals in the forest?"

"Do you have any hostile intentions toward ponykind?"

There were so many overlapping voices, it was hard to focus on one face long enough to understand a full sentence.

"Quiet, everyone please!"

Once they had stopped, she tried to consider some of the questions that she caught and then just decided to explain as much as she could regardless.

"I am the chief of my village. I am considered its leader, though I do answer to others within my village as well. Recently, a couple of ponies stumbled upon our village and were attacked by a dire wolf. We saved them, brought them in, and they began to help us."

With them writing things down and relatively more calm, she was free to pick out a few of the reporters to get them to repeat certain questions.

"Yes, we hunt and kill wild animals in the forest in order to survive. Humans eat meat, but we would not hunt if we had more crops available. As you know, the forest is dangerous, which means both our land and what we can find are very limited. In order to keep ourselves safe, we built a stone barrier to keep most creatures out."

Finally, she got to the last question she heard. It shocked her that they asked such a question, given she had not harmed a pony as of yet.

"And no, we don't have any bad intentions with ponies. In fact, we wish to eventually establish trade ties with your kind. There is still much we have to learn from each other before we can get there though. Now, I've answered your questions, I ask only that you give me some peace."

Some of the ponies thanked her and backed away, but other reporters simply shoved into the spaces they left and tried to press the human for more information.

"Can you tell us more about the creatures of the forest?"

"What happened to the other one being treated here?"

"How long have you been here?"

"Where did your people come from?"

From the expressions on their muzzles it was obvious there were dozens of more questions waiting to be asked and it would take a long time to satisfy their curiosity.

"I will be giving your princess all of that information, which she can then give to you in detail. It would take too long to explain and I need to get things done for my village."

Rarity, who had been with her when they stepped out, was now lost to her. As she tried to step through the crowd, a couple pegasi flew into her face, causing her to shield herself as if being attacked. To anybody else, it would look like the chief would need a hand.

As the Chief struggled to make sense of the growing chaos around her, she eventually realized one of the pegasi was not behaving like the other reporters. Rather than shouting questions in her face, this pony was shoving the other pegasi away from her and calling to her. She tried to concentrate on this pony and saw a blue form zipping back and forth, shoving pegasi and earth ponies alike. The crowd was beginning to notice as well and was breaking apart under the constant impacts.

Suddenly a path became visible through the crowd and the Chief lunged forward, wasting no time. The crowd suddenly became a writhing mass of confused limbs as a dozen ponies tried to run through or even over the others to follow her, succeeding only in tripping up their fellows and ensuring nopony could follow at all.

"Phew!" A nearby voice suddenly said, "That was pretty crazy, huh? Good thing I noticed the crowd as I flew by."

With all those pesky reporters gone, the lady started to examine her savior. A small blue Pegasus with rainbow mane and tail stayed floating in front of her.

"Thank you, I'm getting so tired of those ponies! They've been hounding me since they heard about me being here."

Holding out a hand, she gave the pegasus a smile and ended up having to pull some of her blonde hair out of her eyes.

"I'm Barbara, thanks again for the help."

The pegasus gave her hand a quick tap with a hoof.

"No problem! There's been a lot of rumor around so I've been looking forward to meeting you. When I saw a chance to dive in and be a hero for you, naturally I couldn't resist."

She gave the Chief a playful grin then suddenly zipped around her head, leaving her signature rainbow trail in a wide circle and stopping just as quick.

"Name's Rainbow Dash. I'm a Wonderbolt, the Element of Loyalty, and all around an awesome pony to have on your side."

"A 'wonderbolt?' You'll have to tell me what that is some time. For now, uhh... I don't really know my way around town and I have to gather some things from your bazaar, market, or whatever name you have for it here."

Thankfully her new outfit had a pocket with which she had stuffed the note and her bit bag into. She couldn't read it, but maybe the pegasus could.

"I need these things, if you could point me in the right direction please!"

Rainbow Dash leaned close to look over the list, then met the Chief's gaze with a smirk.

"So all you wanna do is shop? Booooring. Word is you're not leaving until at least tomorrow, right? You got plenty of time! C'mon, lemme show you some cool stuff around town. I'll show you where the market is too, obviously, but I got a few ideas I think you'll enjoy."

She leaned close and lowered her voice conspiratorially.

"I can even show you a thing or two that even most ponies living here don't know about, if you're into that kinda stuff. Y'know, exotic foods from the griffons, some less... 'public' ways to have fun, that sorta thing."

"Sure, why not."

She wasn't sure what Dash was getting at exactly, but the pony had helped her out once and offered to help her out again, so she couldn't really complain. With the pegasus flying slightly above her, she was able to duck slightly and look her over.

"You've got more muscle than some of the ponies I've seen. Does being a "wonderbolt" have to do with that? You some sort of fighter or..."

"Nah, it's the other way around: me being so fast and fit is the reason I was able to become a Wonderbolt."

Before the Chief could even properly register what was happening, Dash exploded forward, leaving a long rainbow trail curving into the sky. Her gaze followed the line up, then she tried to step to the side when she saw the blue streak flying straight down at her from above, but before she'd taken more than a step, wings flared and a powerful blast of air buffeted straight down onto the Chief. There were little exclamations of dismay as the gust sprayed dust at some other ponies nearby, but at the center of the gale, Barbara was left unsullied.

The pegasus beamed at her.

"That's what being a Wonderbolt is about. Technically all we do is complex aerial maneuvers, but even if nopony says it out loud, everypony knows we're training for special air combat in the event it's ever needed. It never has so far, but... just in case, y'know?"

"Oooooh, I see. A bit of show and a bit of fight. Interesting, we never really had anything like that. Closest we had was maybe a pit fighter? People trained to fight in a showy way for amusement. Nobody really left severely injured though. Heh, maybe that's cuz I never stepped in to give them a real challenge."

She flexed her arms, showing off the powerful muscles in them and grinned up at the blue pony.

"I was told not to bring it, but my weapon of choice is a battleaxe."

"An axe just for fighting? How does that work? Isn't it all big and awkward?" Despite her description of the Wonderbolts, she had little concept of what combat was really like "If I had to choose a weapon it'd be something fast and nimble, like knives or darts. Play to my strengths, right?" She feinted at the chief's face, making as if to slash at her with a pretend knife in her hoof.

She could see that it was a feint and gave a small grin. "Most do, and you're not wrong, big weapons can be clunky. Really, it's all in how you use what you have. Reach, power, balance, sometimes you can throw an opponent off by intimidating them with a big weapon. Other times you back them into a corner with it."

She gave a shrug and tossed an arm over the shoulder of the floating pegasus.

"You ever want to see a fight, you can come down to the village. I'd love to show you how we spar. Maybe we could even get you in on a fight so you could show people what a pony has to offer."

"I just might take you up on that, but I doubt you got anypony that could keep up with me!" Dash chuckled and gave the Chief a friendly hoof to the shoulder. "But anyways, come on, let's get going. The closest place that's actually cool is this little bar reserved for the Wonderbolts and their friends. It'll be a little slow this early in the day, but it's still a good place to chill for a while."

She hovered slowly down the street, occasionally swooping in front of the Chief to alternate sides. She hadn't touched the ground even once since they met.

They continued in companionable silence for the most part as Dash led them into a residential area and then into an area that seemed to be the closest Ponyville ever got to shady. The buildings were a bit more shabby, the road was a bit narrower, and the ponies looked around with a bit more suspicion.

The pegasus flew over to what looked to be an abandoned house that had been boarded up and finally landed in the dirt patch that was once a lawn. She walked around to a door on the side of the house and knocked gently in several different places on the door, each spot producing a slightly different sound. It opened almost instantly and a burgundy earth stallion with a white mane smiled out at them.

"Well howdy, Dash, weren't expecting to see you here so early." He looked over at Barbara, then his eyes widened, "Oh Tartarus, y'actually got her! Come in, come in, let's have a proper greeting!"

The inside of the bar was far nicer than you would expect from the shabby exterior, which was now obviously just a cover. It was well lit and had quality furniture and flooring, a wide, well-stocked bar, two billiards tables, and a half dozen small tables much farther from each other than in most restaurants.

Dash kicked the door closed behind them and the stallion turned to give them a wide smile.

"Well this's it! Welcome human, to the Cloudy Grounds. I'm Cinder, owner of this 'ere fine establishment... an' usually the bartender, too. Only Wonderbolts are allowed free access - everypony else needs an escort or they're, ah... escorted from the premises. To tell the truth, I'm mighty pleased to see ya in here."

"To see... me? Why?"

Some of the things were unfamiliar to her, but the smell of alcohol and the sight of ponies sharing a drink made sense to her. She remembered many trade deals where a cup of wine was used to get things going.

"Wait, before that, I need a drink. I haven't had anything good in ages and my new friend here just dangled a big treat in front of my face."

He guided them over to the bar where another pony sat. Cinder started pouring some drink Barbara had never heard of before and she noticed that it came in a large, fancy glass. From what she could tell, it was some mixture of fruit and alcohol, not quite like wine, but still damned good.

Cinder was all smiles as he leaned across the bar toward Barbara, his hooves spread wide on the countertop.

"I been excited to have you here 'cause you've been the talk of the whole dang town since the second y'all ran up, screaming 'bout some medical emergency for some creature ain't nopony's ever seen before!"

Beside her, Rainbow Dash was slowly sipping a strong cider, and she tapped the human's chest with the back of her hoof.

"Yeah, you're the newest and coolest thing to enter this town since I moved in! We just wanted to meet you, see what you're made of. Hay, maybe help you out around town if you need it."

On the far side of the room, three ponies sat huddled close together at one of the small tables. They were watching with interest, but not enough to actually get up or say anything. One of them looked like he'd had enough to drink that simply standing would have posed a significant challenge.

"Well, here I am! I'll gladly take an invitation to any place selling a good drink!"

She chugged back her drink and gave a content sigh. She didn't just want to sip at it for hours, she wanted to feel a buzz and truly enjoy the good stuff while she was there to have it!

"This fruity stuff is nice, but how bout something with a bit more kick to it, hmm?"

With a bit of a smirk, the bartender started to whip up a house special, known to really take the edge off any wonderbolt, guaranteed!

"You wanna join her, Dash? I seem to remember you having a good time after one of these!"

Dash leaned forward, her wings spreading excitedly, then suddenly slumped back with a long sigh.

"I can't, I have practice in an hour. Spitfire'll buck my rump if I show up drunk again."

She glanced at the Chief and opened her mouth to say something, then looked past her to the far table. She half stood from her stool and gestured with a wing, raising her voice angrily.

"Go suck a storm cloud, Thunderlane! You know I'd drink you under the table if I could!"

Laughter rolled out from the table and Dash sunk back into her stool, but she was grinning. These were old jabs, worn smooth and familiar with frequent use.

Barbara chuckled, “Ha, I could do that for you now if you wanted. How bout it?! Think you can out drink me?”

Two of the stallions with Thunderlane both “ooo’d” at the challenge and nudged him over. Since he actually finished his drink and stood up, the bartender started working on three more of the same drink he had just handed to the chief.

“Two of these should be a good start." Thunderlane said, "Who do you put your bits on, boss?”

He looked to Cinder as both he and woman sucked down their drinks.

The stallion rubbed his muzzle thoughtfully, staring at Barbara for a long moment. Finally, he nodded and turned away to pour more drinks.

"Pardon me Lane, but I'm a gonna bet on the newbie this time. This here's a lot of mare an' she's got the look of somepony that can hold a cider."

He placed two small whiskey glasses in front of them, half-filled with a dark brown liquid that seemed to keep swirling long after the liquid had settled. He held a hoof up before the Chief could pick hers up.

"Now this 'ere's zap apple cider. Ain't hardly ever made an' it's expensive as all get out, but it's somethin' special, alright? Take it slow. Enjoy it. This ain't a shot to just throw back an' grimace at, y'hear?"

Rainbow Dash let out a low groan and flopped sideways onto the counter.

"Ciiiinderrr, why do you gotta torture me like this? You know I'd kill for a glass of that stuff."

He just chuckled and shook his head, watching Barbara expectantly.

"Hardly a drinking contest if we can't chug 'em, right?"

She didn't do it, but she wondered if this stuff would be far stronger than what she was anticipating. She ended up taking in about a quarter of the shot glass on her first sip. It was... indescribable. Incredibly sweet, with a hint of that sourness green apples had. It was a smooth drink, but the aftertaste told Barbara that this wasn't your run of the mill drink. Two shots of this would put any lightweight in a blackout. But her? Never.

"Damn that's good! Makes ya feel warm inside! How you doing over there?"

She saw the pace that Thunderlane was taking the shot, much slower and much more steady, so she figured she would match him in that aspect to keep things fair.

Thunderlane grinned at her and raised his glass in a toast.

"I'm always doing well with a glass of Zap Cider. Ponyfeathers, with a glass of this stuff, I wouldn't even mind losing to a beaut like you."

Dash, still slumped over on the counter, suddenly focused her eyes into a sharp glare at Thunderlane, but his eyes were back on his drink and he paid her no notice. She huffed dejectedly and sat up, taking another sip of her cider and seeming disappointed by it now. Cinder had watched the whole thing and burst out laughing at her expression.

"Aw, don't be like that, Dashie. C'mon, if'n ya cheer up, I'll buy you a shot of Zap Cider tonight, fair?"

She brightened almost immediately, "Aw, hay yeah! Cinder, you're the best, y'know that?"

He casually waved the compliment away and turned back to the human.

"How ya feeling, darlin'? That stuff goes down like water I know, but it's got more'n a kick to it than anythin' else ya see here, an' it hits fast. Y'all alright?"

"Hah, I feel it, but it'll take more to get me good and gone!"

She pounded her chest and the pair continued to nurse their drinks. The pony kept an eye on them, even as he moved away to go serve others. Soon enough both shot glasses were empty and put on the table.

"I would have killed to have something like that back home! God, couple'a these would have made any trade go down sooth as silk."

Patting Dash on the back, Barbara barked out a laugh.

"You'll have to escort me in whenever I come back to this town, next time'll be my treat though."

Thunderlane chuckled and looked down at his empty shot glass.

"Mare, you know how long it's been since I had me some of that? Reminds me of the good ol' days."

He was about to continue when somepony knocked on the door. It wasn't the complex pattern Dash had used earlier, but just three loud knocks. Everypony in the room looked up expectantly and after a couple seconds there was one more knock.

Instantly there was a subtle shift in the room as the atmosphere changed. Dash and Thunderlane straightened in their seats, ears perked forward. There was a shuffle from the far table as the sober one knocked the drunk one hard over the head and mumbled something, and he attempted to bolt upright and almost fell from his seat. Cinder caught Barbara's eye and winked before he stepped to the door and opened it.

As a leader, Barbara would instantly recognize the air of command around the yellow pegasus as she entered and whipped her sunglasses off with a wing. She stepped inside, swung the door shut behind her, and immediately locked eyes with the human. She showed not a flicker of surprise and wordlessly nodded in an acknowledgement of respect.

Barbara gave a nod back, acknowledging the authority that she brought with her. After mulling it over for a moment, she stood up to go and greet the pegasus properly.

"I take it you lead these 'wonderbolts' I've been hearing about. I'm Barbara, chief of the human village in the forest." Barbara had to kneel slightly to shake her hoof properly, since she was so tall compared to them.

The pegasus watched Barbara shake her hoof curiously, then gave her a small smile.

"Yep, Spitfire, head of the Wonderbolts, that's me. Though I'm closer to a wrangler than a leader, most days."

She walked past the Chief and eyed Dash's cup suspiciously, "That had better be your first and last glass, Crash."

She nodded, "Yep, sure is ma'am. I'll be ready for practice, promise."

Spitfire passed Barbara's spot and slid into the stool beside Thunderlane, giving him a wry smile before turning to Cinder for a mug of honey mead.

Barbara grinned as she took her seat again. "Ha, that's always what it's like being leader. Someone has to keep the knuckleheads from doing something stupid... or from slacking off when they shouldn't be."

She had the bartender pour another drink, though this was a lighter one than the zap apple whiskey, something he called a screwdriver.

"So if you're the top of the wonderbolts, that must mean you're a pretty mean flyer and fighter, hmm?"

Spitfire took a small sip of mead then responded without turning her head.

"Obviously. Contrary to common belief though, I'm not the best flyer we have... I'm just best at keeping these foals in line."

That much was obvious from the subtle show of respect from everypony in the room. She sipped her mead again, then gave Barbara a sidelong glance and smirked.

"So you gonna show this colt what holding a drink looks like or what?"

Thunderlane let out a deep sigh, his wings flopping partway down his back, "Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Cap."

"Hah! I guess he had enough of a break to let that earlier shot go through him! Let's get some more going. Oh, get him one of these to chug down so we're even first."

Barbara gulped down her drink and watched as Thunderlane did the same. Only once his was down did the bartender set up a series of nine shot glasses. Three different whiskeys, vodkas, and sake's were poured into them.

"Ahhh, now this is more like it! Toss 'em back and see how far we can go!"

They started with a honey whiskey. Not quite as smooth as the zap apple, but still sweet with a bit of burn to it.

Getting back into the spirit of competition, Thunderlane chuckled and tossed back the first whiskey with a satisfied sigh.

"Damn Cinder, you're just spoiling us now."

The stallion glanced up from the glass he was drying and smiled, "Ah, I'm just tryin' to show the human what Ponyville has to offer, is all. I'd be mighty pleased to see her back again."

The pegasus laughed and raised one of the shots of vodka, "I'll toast to that!" He threw the glass back and immediately chased it with two shots of sake, then turned to the Chief with an expectant grin.

"There ya go short stack!"

She matched him, then quickly went for the third and tastiest sake of the group. The sour of the green apple sake contrasted the other two sweeter ones, but she had no problem with that. By now, her cheeks were starting to show a little red, but that would only tell Thunder that she was starting to feel the effects of all the drinks.

The next thirty minutes were spent much the same, though they slowed down somewhat after they finished the line of shots. Thunderlane held his ground well, but after a dozen shots and a hoofful of glasses, even Rainbow Dash would have been wobbling. Thunderlane screwed up his eyes and twisted to stare at the human, glanced back at the latest glass of wine, then groaned and reluctantly tapped the counter with a hoof.

"Alright, alright, you win, ya buckin' maniac. Luna blast me down if you don't look like you've hardly started."

He attempted to bow where he sat and almost fell right out of the seat, flailing wildly to catch himself and nearly smacking Spitfire with a wing.

Her face was a deeper red by then, but she held a wide grin as she watched the stallion almost fall out of the seat.

"I'd be lying if I said I was! I could hold more, but I think that's enough while I'm here. Loser pays for the drinks, right?"

She watched his face as it turned to shock and then horror. All of those shots and drinks for the game, plus the other three drinks she had before? That was going to be a nice chunk out of his bits.

"Hoooo, I'm gonna need to start drinking some water before I head out to shop. Don't want the whole town thinking that humans are just drunkards!"

Rainbow Dash laughed and leaned over to pat Thunderlane's shoulder with a wing.

"Don't worry champ, you'll outdrink somepony one of these days."

He laughed, hiccupped, then slowly slid from his stool, seeming as if he wanted to look amused but couldn't quite get his muzzle to work right.

"Note to self... humans aren't just drunkards... they're really buckin' good drunkards."

He shuffled slowly to the restroom and Spitfire chuckled ruefully.

"Poor colt's gonna fly like shit tomorrow. Anyways... Dash, Blaze, get in gear. Practice in ten minutes."

Spitfire hadn't raised her voice even a bit, but the sober pegasus at the far table where Thunderlane had been sitting saluted with a wing, then trotted quickly out the door. Dash also straightened in her seat and saluted as well, then turned to Barbara.

"You wanna just hang out here and sober up? I'll be back in about an hour and a half."

"If they'll let me, then yeah I'll wait here and put some water and food in me."

That raised a question for her, she'd had time for her breakfast to digest and now it was getting close to lunch time. Turning back towards Cinder, she took a few sips of her water and waited for him to finish with another patron.

"'Scuse me, what do you have for food here? I uhh... I assume you have it written, but we don't really have a similar way of writing to you so I can't read it..."

Cinder nodded at Dash and she zipped out the door, then he turned to the Chief, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Not a problem, miss. It's a wonder we can even talk the same language, nevermind writin' the same. How's about I just start ya off with some eggs an' toast? It's a little late for breakfast but some bread an' protein'll do ya good."

He didn't wait for a response and disappeared into the back. Spitfire threw back her last dregs of mead, tossed a couple bits on the counter, then turned to give Barbara a wide, friendly smile - a sight rarely seen on her stern face.

"You're an interesting mare, Barbara, and I think you're a fine Chief. I'll be glad to see you again."

It was unclear how Spitfire had determined her skill as a leader from this short, casual encounter.

"I'll look forward to it." Barbara now faced the bar fully and kept taking slow sips of her water to enjoy it. She tried to hide it, but she was still fascinated that ponies could make cold drinks, despite the temperature of the room. With Spitfire gone, the atmosphere of the place relaxed and one of the other drunk stallions did his best to walk in a straight line towards Barbara.

"Hey there, I-I been wonderin' shince ya got 'ere h-hic how a human mare feels. Care to show me?"

He went into a giggling fit and the lady simply turned her head just enough to look at him out of the corner of her eye.

"You're drunk and I'm gonna have to pass."

For a moment, he looked as if he were getting angry that she said no.

Cinder returned and handed her a large plate of eggs with two slices of toast, then nodded to the other pegasus.

"Now Soarin, I know ya didn't come over here to pester this here mare, right?"

He leaned casually onto the counter, his grin warm and friendly.

"Cause unless I miss my mark, she's a gonna be havin' a long chat with Spitfire later, an' a leader always values the opinion of a newcomer."

A pristine, white rag appeared from nowhere and Cinder began methodically wiping down the counter.

"Y'see, newcomers can see all sorts a things that get overlooked by ponies accustomed to the ways 'round here, an' Spitfire'll be mighty curious if Barbara here notices anythin' unsavory about the way her Bolts behave... especially if they happen to be officers."

He shuffled further down the counter, hardly even paying attention to Soarin anymore.

“Oh come off it shindy! I’m jusht tellin’ her she looksh pretty!”

He puffed out his chest to look extra fluffy, spread his wings, and stepped closer to the human. The others in the bar barely contained their laughter as the very, very drunk stallion tried to do a mating show on the human. For her part, she at least looked over and grinned at the display.

“How bout this, Soarin’ next time I’m in town I’ll let you buy me a drink. This time, you’ll have to wait.”

He listened to the woman and switched between elated, angry, and finally a dopey giggly mood.

“Thash not a no, sho I’ll take it!”

As he spun back around, he found himself making a face first arrangement with the floor.

“Poor fella is way beyond his limit” Barbara muttered with a wry grin.

Soarin had been too drunk to care about Cinder's warning, but everypony else in the building had heard and several other eager muzzles suddenly became significantly less interested in the human. Cinder seemed not to have noticed or cared about the effects his words had had on the room, but when Barbara caught his eye he gave her a sly grin and winked.

She spent the next hour and a half slowly enjoying her meal and trying non-alcoholic drinks. In the end she paid him quite a few bits, though it was bits well spent in her opinion. There were, however, a few trips to the bathroom in which Barbara simply had to figure things out on her own. The toilet itself made enough sense, and fortunately they were cleaned well. The toilet paper was an odd experience, but given its softness and availability, she figured it was probably to clean herself up down there. Lastly, a sign on the wall reminded her to clean her hands and even came with little pictures that helped her figure the sink out.

Other ponies slowly trickled in and while many had shown a curious interest in Barbara, Cinder subtly deflected them all, allowing her to enjoy her meal in peace. Eventually Rainbow Dash returned, sat in the same seat as before, and waved Cinder over.

"Hey, gimme the hayburger special and just a water for now."

He poured her a tall glass of iced water and she immediately took a long drink, then turned to grin at Barbara.

"So, did Soarin try and hit on you?"

Cinder, who had just been walking into the back to give the chef her order, barked out a short laugh at her words.

"So that's normal for him, huh? Or is it just when he's so drunk he can't walk straight?" Barbara snickered at the memory of how he fell on his face when trying to simply turn around. "I turned him down, he was too drunk for anything to have been enjoyable anyway."

"Pfft, he's probably too drunk to even get it up!" Dash shrugged her shoulders and took another long drink before she answered. "He's actually not like that most of the time, but somepony bet him he couldn't get under your tail before you left, and he's a damn fool for bets." She shook her head ruefully. "Poor colt had no idea you weren't a pony until just a few hours ago. That's why he's so drunk... word is it was a pretty hefty bet."

"Ouch, had I known I probably would have tossed him a bone." As she took a sip of her tea, she looked over at Dash.
"Say, what about you? Got a umm... "stallion" that's caught your eye?"

The pegasus suddenly looked away, her wings shuffling awkwardly. "Well... uh... no, no stallion. Not as such."

She rocked slightly in her chair and glanced nervously at the Chief. It looked like she was about to say more when Cinder returned with an unusually short and wide hayburger. Dash practically snatched it from his hooves and hardly had time to mumble thanks before she was stuffing her muzzle like she hadn't eaten in days.

"Really? Kinda figured as a skilled show pony that you'd have snagged at least one, but then I'm one to speak. I haven't got anyone vying after me, well... not till I came to ponyville at least."

She laughed a bit as she thought about soarin' and the potential other ponies that might have looked at her that way.

"Is it that none of them fit your interests or...?" She swallowed her bite and flicked a hoof dismissively. "Well plenty have tried, especially once I became a Wonderbolt, but uh... yeah, I just wasn't interested." Again she glanced sidelong at Barbara and sort of wiggled in her seat a bit. "It's just... I've been busy, y'know? A-And it's not really my thing. Uh, the lovey-dovey sappy stuff, I mean."

She could see something was up with the way the mare acted and decided to lean into the bar and look at her more closely. "What, really? Busy I get, but you don't want someone to love? Someone who's just there to make your day a little bit better?"

By now her face was pretty close to Dash and she was squinting at her in disbelief."Shit, not even someone to come home and just have fun with?"

Dash's muzzle began to color slightly and she leaned forward over her plate, trying to focus on eating her hayburger, but she was eating slowly now as if her appetite had left her. After a moment, she glanced to her side and saw Barbara was still leaning close, an expectant look on her face. Dash dropped her burger and threw up her hooves.

"Fine, I like mares, alright! Yeesh!"

She hadn't said it very loudly, but her exclaimation still carried well in the small, quiet room, and Dash realized this immediately. There was a sudden lull in the conversation, a couple of curious glances, and the poor mare could only hunch over her burger again, blushing furiously.

Barbara was a bit taken aback by that. Some of what she had done before, as well as how she was regarded by the small blue pony clicked in ways that were probably not true in the slightest. The end result was a grinning blonde human sitting next to an embarrassed mare.

"Ooooooohhhhh, I see. So then, let me fix my earlier mistake. Are there any "mares" you've been interested in? Or Maybe you have a particular type?"

Her only reply was to hunch her shoulders and lower her head to take another bite of her burger. If either of them had looked up, they would notice Cinder leaning casually against the wall nearby, a curious half-smile on his muzzle.

"Hmmm, alright, fine. We'll do it this way. I'll arm wrestle you for the information."

Barbara had a feeling she was looking at a very competitive pony and, if her guess was right, there's no way she'd turn down a challenge like that. She also knew that ponies were excessively strong, at least if what she saw of Lodestone and Granite meant anything. Even then, she had a bit of her magic and some muscles to even that score, or so she'd hoped.

"We'll do it over at that empty table. I win, you tell all, you win... well, I'll let you decide."

Though she tried to resist, an ear perked up at this, betraying her interest. Without any fur, anypony could easily see the lean muscles on the Chief's body, and Dash had been wondering just how well a human would stand up to Equestria's fastest pony. Her wings rustled excitedly and her muzzle curled into a grin that was almost a grimace.

Her burger plopped to the plate and she glared at the human.

"Fine. If I win, you have to tell me somepony you're crushing on."

She beat her wings twice and was suddenly standing beside the table Barbara had indicated.

"Now come on and get ready to have your plot handed to you!"

“Yeah right! I’m gonna take you down!”

Barbara gabbed her hoof and waited for Cinder to come over and be the official judge. As soon as he gave a signal, both she and the pony started to try and overpower the other. At first, it seemed like Barbara had the upper hand. Her powerful muscles were just too much for the little Pegasus, though she was clearly straining herself to gain every little inch towards the table.

Dash's face scrunched up in effort as her hoof was forced back. She looked up from their shaking limbs and met Barbara's eye and saw the look of triumph already peeking through her strain. Dash just grinned.

Then she bore down with all her strength - until then, she had only been testing the human to see what she was capable of. Barbara's eyes widened as her hand suddenly switched directions and her face contorted with effort as she struggled against the gale that was Rainbow Dash's Hoof.

Unable to hold back the pony, her fist slammed against the table, announcing her defeat. Had she not relaxed her arm at the end, it’s very likely she would have broke it from the strain.

“Well damn, that’s a hell of a... leg you have there. Alright, it’s my loss and your terms were that I’d have to tell you “somepony” I’m crushing on?”

She smirked and looked at the Pegasus, then down at her arm.

“Anyone that can beat me in a contest of strength has officially woo’d me. Plus I don’t know many ponies yet and you are quite possibly my favorite so far.”

The pegasus whooped and reared in triumph, then flew up and began strutting in the air, but froze mid-strut when she heard the Barbara's words. She relaxed and stared down at the seated Chief.

"Wait, what? You mean... huh. That was... straightforward."

She slowly lowered back into her seat and just stared across the table at her, her muzzle beginning to redden once more. As if on cue, Cinder stepped over and wordlessly set out a bottle of wine and glasses for each of them. It seemed Dash and Barbara had a lot to talk about.

CH13: Preening

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While the Chief was drinking Wonderbolts under the table, Granite and Lodestone came back to his hotel room. The mare was wearing a very curious, interested expression on her muzzle. She sat right on the floor and looked at the stallion expectantly as soon as the door was closed. "So... how does this work?"

If she had heard rumors that preening was a very private thing for a pegasus, Granite didn't show it. She was just incredibly interested. "Need me to help - I dunno, hold your wing or something? I can do that!"

Lodestone hopped up to sit on the bed and gave Granite a little shrug. "It's not really something you help with, it's... kinda personal, you know? You preen a foal until they can do it themselves, but among adults it's as intimate as sex... hay, maybe more."

He shuffled awkwardly, not meeting her eye. "Even doing it near other ponies is very forward... though I don't mind if it's you."

"Ooooh!" Granite said, suddenly unable to meet his eyes and blushing furiously. "So that's why you never see pegasi doing it out in the public!"

She let her mouth run on automatic, just for something to distract them both: "I saw a very, um... frazzled mare a while back in the town square and I thought 'why doesn't she fix her wings'? I guess that's why..."

Granite fell silent and finally looked at Lodestone. Her ears went instantly flat, but she managed a weak grin. "You really don't mind if I watch? Um, where do you want me? Should I move further away?"

"No, it's okay. You can come up here if you want."

Blushing slightly, he rubbed his mane awkwardly with a hoof, still not meeting her eye.

"...You wouldn't be able to see anything from over there anyways."

"Okay!" the mare said, none of her usual candor or joking. She walked over to the bed and jumped up. It looked like it was going to be one of those super awkward, can't-meet-each-other's-eyes kind of things, but she decided against it and suddenly gave the stallion a nuzzle.

"Hey, relax. I won't judge, okay? I don't even know what to judge here. If it gets weird, just tell me and I'll go, yes?" She was nervous, even trembling a tiny bit, but the pony stood her ground. "Here, maybe this will help: Moo!" That made her giggle. "There, that's probably the most embarrassing thing anypony is about to do up here."

Chuckling, he relaxed slightly and returned her nuzzle. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's only as awkward if we make it awkward, right?"

He laid down and rolled slightly to one side, splaying his wing out between them. It was easier to preen with the wing vertical, but Granite would be able to tell what was happening easier this way. Trying not to block her view too much, he bent his head low and started with a preliminary pass over his primary flight feathers. He quickly combed his muzzle through each feather to set it approximately in the correct position - he would fine tune the angle in the second pass.

He got to a loose feather and pulled it out automatically, then suddenly remembered the one she had tucked into her mane. He dropped the feather and slowly looked up at her.

"Oh yeah, uh... you shouldn't keep my feather in your mane like that. I mean, it looks really cute and I'm flattered, but in pegasi culture that's basically announcing you're... in a relationship together."

"Moo!" Granite panicked for a moment and reached up to pull the feather out, but then she froze. Her gaze went to Lodestone and the mare slowly began to smile her mischievous little smile that said she had something sneaky on her mind.

"Oh, it does, does it?" she asked, voice all sweet and innocent. Before Lodestone could react, she darter her muzzle forward and snatched his newly removed feather right from his muzzle. Of course she misjudged the distance and have the poor stallion a slight bump, but it worked in her favor. While he was distracted, she added it to her mane so now she had two.

"How about now?" Granite asked. "I thought we were dating, you dummy! I mean - moonlit walks in the clouds? Kissing? Or do you need to pull out some more feathers for me to wear before you get it?"

"N-No, I mean..." He trailed off, his blush darkening as he looked away, suddenly awkward again. After a moment, he continued.

"It's more than dating, Granite, it's a sign things are 'getting serious,' so to speak. Any pegasus that sees that will assume we're engaged... or at least lovers."

Finally he managed to glance sidelong and meet her eye, a shy smile playing about his muzzle. "And I don't think we're quite there yet... do you?"

Granite lowered her gaze and it looked like she would pull the feathers out again. She paused and looked back up, muzzle incredibly red and radiating heat like a small sun.

"D-Do you wanna b-b-e?" she said, almost too quietly to hear.

His ears turned back slightly and he was silent for a moment.

"I already told you," he said quietly, "I won't push. I've pushed before and always wound up ruining things soon after. I want this to work."

He bent over and continued working through his primaries, more to distract himself than anything else, straightening each feather and twisting them into alignment.

Granite didn't know what to say for a while - it wasn't something that happened to the mare often. More than once she opened her mouth to speak up, but shut it again with an audible click. She still didn't remove the feathers.

"Well," she managed at last, but there was still nothing useful coming out of her muzzle. "So..."

The pony heaved a sigh and lowered her head down to the bed. "You could push a little," she mumbled against the fabric. It was muffled and she probably didn't intend Lodestone to hear it, but there it was.

A few moments of this self-reflecting quiet and then Granite was up again with a fresh smile on her muzzle. "Yes," she told the pegasus. "I mean- I wanna take it slow, but I don't mind if people think we're... y'know... doing it."

She looked away and her blush threatened to set fire to the bed, but she forced the rest of her thought out. "We'll be- uhm... d-doing it someday, right? I kinda like how the feathers look."

Lodestone didn't reply, hoping the act of preening was enough of an excuse. He started a second, slower pass over his primaries and took some time to think.

He'd noticed all the hints she'd been dropping the past couple days of course, but as he had hinted to the mare, Lodestone's previous relationships had all quickly jumped to sex and failed miserably soon after. When he and Granite first met, he had thought her too young and thus hadn't even considered bucking her, but as they spent time together, he found himself caring for her more and more. He'd eased into this affection almost accidentally and had never cared for the other mares like this. Together, these two facts made him extraordinarily worried that sex would ruin the relationship that seemed to be bubbling just below the surface of their every action.

He snuck a glance at her as he moved to the next feather. She was watching him, but seemed deep in thought herself, not really paying attention. She was so close to him, her head tilted down to see better, only inches from his muzzle and wing. The things she'd been saying... she clearly wanted it, but didn't know how to proceed. Maybe she was right. Maybe he could push... just a little.

Lodestone lifted his head and her eyes seemed to refocus themselves on his face. Absently, he noticed his pulse was racing.

"Uh... you seem really fascinated by this. Do you want to... to try?" His ears were folded back and his muzzle glowed bright pink, but he stretched his wing slightly toward her to emphasis his meaning.

Granite's eyes grew large in both wonder and amazement. She pressed a hoof against her barrel and breathed out: "Me?!" As if there was anypony else there. Her ears went completely flat and she looked around nervously. "I d-dunno what- I don't even know where to start."

Despite her self-deprecating words, the mare shuffled closer yet, eyes glowing with excitement. "What do I do?" she asked. Before Lodestone could give her any guidance, Granite pushed her muzzle closer and carefully ran it over the feathers - trying not to move anything, but rather just to feel the texture.

She was awfully close and leaning precariously over the stallion, so of course the cowpoke lost her balance. "Whoop!" she squeaked and gripped the pegasus around his belly to steady herself.

Even the light brush of her muzzle sent a tingle through his back and he suddenly realized why pegasi regarded this as so intimate. She fell against him and he held her up gently with a hoof.

"Just... lay down next to me so you're steady, then you sort of... poke the base of each feather with your muzzle and slide toward the tip." He grew a bit more comfortable as he explained. "It'll straighten easily enough but you have to make it twist yourself. Line each one up like these ones here, so they're angled a bit and overlap this way." He gestured with the tip of his muzzle to indicate what he meant.

"That sounds complicated," Granite said nervously, "I'll mess it up. How about I just feel them a bit more?" She closed her eyes and ran her muzzle through the wing again, sighing in pleasure. "So soft..."

It took her a bit to remember where she was, but then Granite smiled at Lodestone. "Why'd nopony tell me wings were this soft?! That's so cool!" And back she went, just feeling with her nose and muzzle.

After a bit it gave her enough confidence to try something. She spotted one feather obviously misaligned. "Um, this one?" she asked, but didn't wait for a reply before very gingerly tugging it to try and get it into place.

There was a tiny twitch of his wing and she stopped instantly, obviously worried about hurting him. He leaned his head in closer and spoke in a gentle, reassuring tone.

"Don't worry, they're tougher than you'd think. You don't need to push or pull it into place, just slide down the side and it'll move into place by itself." He met her eye and felt his muzzle grow hot. She had laid down beside him and was so close he could count each strand of her mane.

Granite nodded silently, holding Lodestone's gaze, but then suddenly darter forward to give him a still somewhat sloppy kiss. She was getting better at it, though and this time she didn't end up licking most of his muzzle in her enthusiasm.

"Okay," the mare said breathlessly once they parted. "Lemme try another."

She felt around again - of course Granite could simply look for misaligned feathers, but this way was a lot more fun. It sounded like it was fun for the pegasus, too. Eventually she chanced upon another, smaller feather and slid her muzzle down it a couple of time until she'd patted it into place. "Like this?"

Her voice was still too soft and almost a little bit choked up. "Yeah," he murmured, "That's right. Now just twist it a bit so it overlaps the next one."

She did so then looked up again, looking almost eager. "...A-And I just do that a bunch. I have to go through the whole wing and straighten every feather like that."

He met her gaze and shuffled uneasily. 'Push!' he told himself, 'She even told you to, just do it!' But he could only stare dumbly into her eyes, so bright and brilliant against her dark muzzle.

Granite waited for a moment longer, but then smiled and said brightly: "Okay!"

She bent down to her task, even if it wasn't all that methodical or precise. It ended up being more about the mare feeling up her pegasus coltfriend than any kind of serious grooming, but eventually it ended up done.

By the time she was finished with that one wing, Granite was breathing heavily and looking decidedly sweaty. "Boy," she said with an embarrassed grin, "this stuff is hard work, isn't it?"

It was a small lie to hide why exactly she was this flustered, but a single glance at her wildly swinging tail would make it very obvious, even if Lodestone couldn't smell it by now. Unfortunately Granite didn't seem to realize she was making a mess on the bed.

"Uh... yeah," he said, obviously flustered, "I guess maybe I'm just used to it."

He was feeling somewhat heated himself. Her muzzle had felt amazing as she'd dug through his feathers, and some places she touched had been even more sensitive than he realized. He looked her over under the pretext of examining his wing, realized the state she was in, and slowly inhaled her scent, relishing the way it was making him feel.

"So... wanna help me out with the other wing?"

"Um," Granite said, lowering her ears and looking down. "Would you mind if I... went to the little fillies' room first?" She shuffled uncomfortably and her hooves twitched, obviously wanting to move down and try to extinguish that fire. The mare managed a brave, almost-nonchalant smile for Lodestone. "I'll just be a minute and then I'll help you on the other wing, okay?"

She hadn't said it, but it was obvious what she would do in the bathroom.

Lodestone hesitated, inhaled again, then gave her a sly grin. "No, I don't think you can. I'd much rather you stay here and work on my other wing."

He tucked his wing in and rolled toward her onto his side so his belly was facing away from her and he had to twist his head back to look at her upside down. The messy wing was folded against his side directly under her muzzle so he spread it slightly, which had the effect of obscuring anything between his legs.

"Eep! Okay," Granite squeaked, but didn't resist being marehandled. She apparently realized about the bed, because her tail clamped firmly against her backside to prevent any more 'spills'. "Okay, here we go. I know how to do this," Granite babbled, more to reassure herself than Lodestone.

Ste started nuzzling along the wing, but this time her movements were a bit more jerky and uncertain, and she kept letting out small gasps or tiny, barely audible moans. There was no way her ears could go any further down, nor could she get any more pink in the muzzle - at least in the white parts.

A particularly strong jerk had her tug on a feather, which made the mare hiss through her teeth, even if it wasn't her who would feel the sharp pull. "Sorry! I didn't mean to do that! Sorry!" she quickly apologized.

She was so distraught, Lodestone couldn't help but chuckle at her expression. He twisted his head around and nuzzled the side of her neck reassuringly.

"I said they're tougher than you'd think. They take a lot of force when I, say, pull out of a dive."

He was breathing a little harder than normal and his blush had returned. He wasn't doing anything to himself behind the cover of his wing, but her scent was definitely starting to affect him down there.

"You're amazing, Granite," his wing shivered slightly, "I'd like it if you kept going."

"Okay!" the mare said, again in a squeak. It seemed all she could do lately was squeak or moo, or that 'moosqueak' that one time. She still gave Lodestone a brave smile and plunged on.

After a few minutes of numbly fixing the wing with no adverse effects, Granite began to relax a bit. She went back to feeling the feathers and enjoying the sensations. A few times she even nuzzled her face against the wing with a very comfortable sigh.

"I think I'm in love," the mare said, but realized a moment later what she had just uttered so she completed the sentence in a rush: "with your wings! Wings! I love how this feels! Oh, buck..."

She heaved a sigh, then gathered her resolve to look Lodestone right in the eye. "I love your wings, and I think I'm falling in love with you, but I don't wanna say it yet, okay? Wait, that came out wrong... ugh!" Granite buried her head down under a foreleg, completely forgetting the fact that she was essentially pressing her muzzle into Lodestone's wing.

A flush that had nothing to do with the physical contact spread through Lodestone's body and he felt nearly drunk with the myriad of good things he was feeling. He lifted his own foreleg and wrapped it around her neck, pulling her gently toward him. She lifted her head a bit to peek at him and he pulled a little more until she finally lifted her muzzle and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Granite, I..."

His breath caught in his throat and he felt her gasp more than heard it. He looked away, took a deep breath, twisted his body slightly so he could face her without twisting his neck so much, then tried again.

"Granite... I think I do love you."

"Aww!" was the mare's first reaction, followed quickly by a deeper blush. "So I suppose we should... y'know?" The poor pony was at the same time thrilled about it and scared as Tartarus. She didn't want to say no to Lodestone, but she kept licking her lips nervously and looking away.

"H-Here," she said almost in a whisper and quite out of breath, "I should finish your w-wing..."

It would give her a minute or two to pull herself together and get ready. Right now, Granite had trouble thinking, what with the way they were embracing and with what was happening to her... down below.

He squeezed her closer, not letting her pull away, but his expression turned slightly anxious. "I mean it. You said I should push a little... well, this is me pushing. I love you, Granite." It came easier now that he'd said it once, but he couldn't hold her gaze anymore and looked away, embarrassed. "I won't mind if you want to wait, as long as I'm still with you. I just... The way you look at me and touch me..."

He trailed off, his wing rustled slightly and his blush intensified. His forelegs were still wrapped around her neck and withers, pressing her against his side.

"Okay. Yes, good. That's what I asked for," Granite said, then swallowed and tried a faint smile. "Um, I think I love you too..."

Again she realized what she was saying and ended in a distraught 'moo'. "Dammit!" the mare swore. "Look, I just have to get used to saying it."

Her eyes were as big as saucers and the pupils like pinpricks. "I love you too."

The smile instantly returned. "There, that wasn't so hard, you cowpoke," Granite berated herself, then chuckled weakly. "Um- I can be honest with you, right?"

He'd covered it well, but he'd been deathly nervous after he first said it. Now that she responded in kind, he could only spin around where he lay and hug her tight against his chest, gently nuzzling the side of her face.

"Of course," he murmured, "you can tell me anything.*

"Okay, um, this will probably sound weird," Granite admitted. Her ears went up for a moment, then back down as she began talking. "I really, really like you, okay? Um, I wanna see where this goes - like really see."

She was getting to the hard part and started averting her eyes and fiddling with her hooves. "I'm just- I don't-"

Granite let out a breath and gave it another go: "I don't know any of this. I'm n-new..."

Lodestone would get a nice, self-deprecating grin from the mare for his patience, while she swallowed again and sought for more words. "I wanna... y'know... do it. J-Just maybe not now. I gotta get my mind around it first. Um, you probably can't see, but I'm- moo-"

This next bit would be super embarrassing, judging from her legendary blush. Granite even lowered her voice to a whisper, so nopony would overhear. "I'm really... um, horny right now. That's why I wanted to go to the bathroom..." Then she looked at the stallion expectantly, as if he was supposed to magically understand what exactly she wanted.

Lodestone pulled his head back and smirked, "You think I didn't know that? I knew that's why you asked, but I wanted to see you squirm a little instead."

He gave her a tiny kiss to silence any moos or squeaks in response. When he met her eye again, his muzzle was bright red but his expression was serious.

"Listen... if you don't want to do it yet, go ahead and get up, go to the bathroom, I don't mind. But," he interjected just as she tensed to stand up, "if you do want to do it and you're just avoiding it because it's new and scary... no, I won't let you go." He grinned and tilted his head questioningly. "So... which is it?"

"Umm... Uh... Um," the mare was severely flustered. Which was it, really? She didn't have an immediate answer that. "I guess," she began, but fell silent when no further words presented themselves. "Actually-" the poor, distraught pony tried again, except this time she powered through it. "Please don't laugh," she implored. Taking a very deep breath and focusing her gaze out the window to avoid distractions, she continued. "I think it's too fast. Buck, how do I explain?!"

She stalled for another minute by giving the stallion a very enthusiastic kiss. "I really like where we are right now - does that make sense? The- um, moonlit nights. The, uh, kissing and stuff. Dating. I kinda wanna do that a bit more- before we, um, start doing... the next bit. Am I making sense?" The mare heaved a sigh. "I guess if we- um, right now, that'd be fine, but I'd always kinda wonder what I might have missed out on."

Granite shook her head and put a foreleg over her eyes. "I'm probably just being a stupid filly, right? Just some silly, inexperienced country cowpoke..."

"No, you're not stupid, Granite," he said, chuckling gently, "You might be inexperienced, but you learn fast." He nuzzled her foreleg lightly and she peeked at him from underneath it. "But what makes you think any of that stuff is going to stop? I love going into the clouds and I'll bring you up there any time you like. We can keep dating as long as we like. Doing more doesn't change that."

Her foreleg had lowered completely and now he gave her a long, gentle kiss.

"I understand if you think it's too fast. Really, I do. I just... listen, I was afraid to push before because that's always gone badly for me before, but... I've never felt this way about anypony else, Granite. I've never loved anypony before. If you feel the same... doing more should make things better, not worse. I think that's why they call it 'making love'."

The mare teetered on the edge for a while, held back mainly by her fear. Of course she had heard all sorts of rumors, which were now going through her mind.

At long last, she lowered her muzzle into Lodestone's fluff and peered at him from the corners of her eyes. Her voice came out muffled by the fur. "You'll be gentle?" she asked, the final few walls breaking down.

Mere thought was enough to make the mare shrugged and exhale, her breath hot against Lodestone's belly. "What will it feel like?" she wondered quietly. "W-Will it hurt?" At the word 'hurt' Granite gripped her coltfriend more tightly, then barked a short laugh. "Tartarus, it almost hurts now and I'm only thinking about it."

She was warming to the idea now, but he was still worried about pushing her, so Lodestone decided to back down a bit and see if she wanted to wait. If she didn't want to wait and started pushing herself, it would reassure him this wasn't too soon. He nuzzled the top of her head before he spoke.

"I'll be gentle, I promise... but let's not rush things, okay? You think it over, make sure you're really okay with it... and maybe we can try something in the clouds tonight. How does that sound?"

Having the option really helped. Granite's smile became a bit more self-assured and there was even some of her old mischievous grin in there. "Mmmm, moonlit romance? Sounds lovely. It's just-" The mare stood up and stretched a little, which incidentally caused her to wave her tail about a little and spread the scent around some more. "I got all worked up and everything. I still gotta take care of this, or else I'll leak all day..."

The pony climbed off the bed very slowly, meaning her forehooves were on the floor and her rump was still pretty high up. "Wanna, uh-" despite her act, Granite wasn't quite as suave as she tried to portray. This was evident in her blush as she fumbled the next invitation: "Uh, with me- wanna. Moo! Wanna w-w-watch?"

Lodestone openly appreciated the show as she climbed out of bed, rolling over to get a better view. Her offer surprised him, but after a moment's consideration, he shook his head sadly "Tempting as that is, there's no way I could hold myself back... Honestly I'm having a hard enough time with it as it is." He hesitated, then looked down in embarrassment and continued in a quiet voice, "You smell really good, Granite."

Granite put some extra sway in her hips as she walked away. She kept glancing back with a grin that was a mix between nervous and sultry. Her tail flicked away on her third step and she paused, looking back and grinning fixedly at Lodestone. She was fully on display in all her wet, naked glory. Some of it had leaked down the inside of her back legs. It seemed preening in company wasn't erotic for pegasi only, after all.

Just then the mare winked. Her bits happened to be a darker patch of her skin, so it was especially noticeable, flashing pink for a second. She wasn't quite expecting it and it made Granite blink and shudder down her entire body. "Mmm," she moaned quietly and took one more step which brought her to the bathroom door. "Sure you don't wanna watch?"

She didn't wait for a reply, but she left the door open just in case as she went in. At first there was quiet, but slowly Lodestone would start to hear sounds - slight grunts as Granite put some effort into pleasuring herself, the slick motion of her hoof and an occasional gasp when she winked and hit an especially sensitive spot. The speed gradually increased and the grunts were no longer subdued. They became interspersed with quiet moans. The mare was openly panting now.

The pegasus had no choice. Her little show as she walked away had driven him well past the point of no return and by the time her first moans were trickling out the door, he had already fetched a small rag to catch his mess and began to stroke himself with a hoof. Almost without realizing it, Lodestone timed his motions to match her grunts and squeaks. He glanced up at the open door and could see a bit of her outline in the shadow cast on the ground. His imagination filled in the rest and a small moan escaped his muzzle. As if in response, Granite's movements intensified and he had to slow down or he would finish too quickly.

Soon it was obvious she was getting close and Lodestone switched to a wing, stroking furiously, intending to finish at the same time. He didn't realize it, but he was grunting deep in his throat and Granite would easily hear him. All his attention was on her soft moaning and the small section of silhouette he could see. She tensed and shuddered and Lodestone squeezed tighter, rapidly sending himself over the edge. He let out a long, low moan and just barely grabbed the rag in time to catch the mess as he convulsed and shuddered, then collapsed back onto the bed, his chest heaving.

As he came back to himself, he realized he'd been quite loud and looked to the bathroom door, but it had closed and the shower was running now. He wondered what she was thinking as he wiped up a small spill and placed the dirty towel somewhere out of the way. He could rinse it off in the bathroom sink later.

The mare was a bit red-faced when she finally exited the bathroom and came over to the bed. Her nose wrinkled and she seemed to explore the scents with some curiosity. She hadn't smelled a stallion's... results yet, so it was something new.

"Had fun? I hope I wasn't too loud and bother you..." Granite asked, blushing despite her attempt at a confident tone. "Wanna shower, by the way? Maybe if we're going out again..."

She spotted the rag, but then purposefully ignored it.

Instead, she stepped on the bed and brought her muzzle to Lodestone's for a quick kiss. "Anyway, that was kinda fun. We should do it again sometime. Then, maybe..."

The mare looked away and turned completely pink on her white patches, "... for real?"

She put her head on the bed and sat down on the floor, relaxing until they would have to leave.

"Yeah... maybe."

He leaned over to give her another kiss, then hopped off the bed and walked toward the bathroom. He was still somewhat swollen from earlier and he assumed she would look as he walked away, but he didn't embarrass her by checking. He grabbed the rag he'd soiled and closed the bathroom door behind him.

It wasn't long before he stepped out again as he'd always been quick and efficient in the shower. Granite was lying on the bed and watching the town out the window, so he hopped up with a casual flick of his wings and snuggled up beside her, resting a wing over her withers.

"Y'know... we should probably go and find Barbara. I'm sure Rarity is done by now. Hopefully she hasn't run into trouble without us..."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Granite confirmed. She shuffled a bit closer yet and leaned her head on Lodestone's withers for a moment. "I like this. This is nice," she said, unrelated to the conversation.

A few quiet moments later, Granite heaved a sigh and stood up. "We'll cuddle later. Now I've... done it I wanna go out and see stuff. It always makes me so energetic, dunno why..."

She was getting better and only blushed slightly when alluding to her activities in the bathroom. "How about you? Somepony once told me stallions get real sleepy... y'know... after. You can take a nap and I'll go find Barbara and check on Rohan."

As if to prove her words, the mare leaned down and gave Lodestone a peck.

"Nah, I'm alright. It's not the same by myself."

He winked at her and chuckled at her expression, squeezing her with his wing. They sat in amiable silence for a moment, just staring out the window, then Lodestone turned to face her again.

"I just realized if Barbara isn't waiting at Rarity's, we'll have no way to find her. If that's the case, you want to go check on Rohan? I bet he's already much better and he might be lonely and confused, wondering what the hay is going on."

"Yeah, that's a good plan!" Granite agreed. Now that the plan was set, the cowpoke was eager to get going. She shrugged free from Lodestone's wing and jumped from the bed, then pranced a little in place. "Come on, come on, slowpoke!" she teased, sticking out her tongue for emphasis.

As soon as she saw Lodestone moving, the mare cantered out the door, full of some new, manic energy. "OH!" she exclaimed loudly and rushed back and right into the bathroom. She emerged a moment later with both Lodestone's feathers stuck in her mane. "Whaddya think?"

Without waiting for an answer, the pony giggled and ran back outside, not caring what the townponies thought about her having the stallion's feathers. She hadn't known about the significance until he told her, but it seemed close enough.

Her enthusiasm was infectious and Lodestone chuckled, trotting out the door after her. When he caught up, he quickly snatched one of the feathers before she could stop him and held up a hoof apologetically.

"Sorry, Granite, but two feathers is just obscene. It's like walking around with your tail hitched up." He nuzzled her to try and quell her protests, then began trotting casually toward Rarity's boutique.

"Huh? I didn't know that!" She blushed a little, but then she stared at the pony in curiosity. "What exactly does two feathers mean? Tell me, tell me!" Apparently the mare didn't care about the stares they might be getting as they passed townsponies - either that, or she was purposefully ignoring them to keep from blushing even more than she already was.

Their easy trot took them through the town relatively quickly and they were soon mostly alone again. The cow-pony took the opportunity to steal a kiss.

"It's... complicated." Lodestone smiled and blushed lightly as she snuck him a kiss. She was doing that a lot now and while Lodestone was pleased by it, he was also a little worried that she was only so eager because it was her first experience with any sort of relationship. It had been less than a week since he'd stumbled onto her in the forest and he was concerned the multiple rapid shifts in lifestyle and culture around her would cause problems as time went on.

Granite's tail flicked his rump and he started slightly, then gave her an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry, got lost in my thoughts for a moment. Anyways... there's a whole system of customs around wearing somepony's feather. Even the placement can change the meaning - like right now, you have it placed behind your left ear, facing up, which means we're dating and happy with each other--usually implies we're sexually active, too. There's another meaning if it's in the middle on the top, in the middle halfway down your neck, if it's behind an ear but angled backward instead..." He rubbed the back of his mane awkwardly. "And then two feathers are even more complicated and can vary wildly depending on who you ask, but most of the time it's some variant of saying we're very sexually active and open to threesomes or other group activities."

"Oh. OH!" Granite exclaimed, turning from black and white patches to black and red instead. "I don't want that! Sorry, I didn't know. We're not looking for a third..."

The mare shuddered a little as she imagined the sheer awkward embarrassment. "We are... um... 'active,' right? I mean- just now. Does it count? I'm saying it counts."

Granite angled her gait so she came close enough to brush herself against the stallion briefly just before they reached the famous carousel boutique. A very brief knock and a chat later, it became obvious that Barbara was no longer there and the pair decided to follow their plan and go see Rohan.

Granite continued chattering nervously as they made their way to the small hospital and Lodestone mostly just listened amicably, as she usually didn't even give him time to respond before moving to a new topic.

When they entered the medic, the receptionist led them back through a maze of twisting hallways longer than Lodestone would have thought possible for the tiny building, finally opening one door identical to the others. Lodestone thanked her, then turned and raised a wing in greeting.

"Hey, how're you feeling? Sorry for leaving you here alone so long, but things have been pretty crazy since we arrived."

“I had a feeling. The “nurse” told me most of what I needed to know. How I got here, why I’m here, why I should stay in this bed. I also saw Chief and another pony here earlier, one who makes clothes.”

Rohan shifted in the bed so he could better face the pair of ponies, though stayed mindful of his lack of clothes.

“She left a little while ago, actually. I’ve been wondering why it is that you aren’t with her. Will she be alright without a familiar face around?”

"Uhh..." Granite said uncomfortably and looked at Lodestone. Then she brightened up. "Yeah, sure. Everypony here is very nice. Um, Barbara will be okay. How are you doing? We were so worried!"

Granite walked over to the bed and gave Rohan a very relieved nuzzling. She was obviously happy he was feeling better, as demonstrated by the enthusiastic licking of his face. "Thank Celestia you're okay!"

Too late the mare remembered that Lodestone might be jealous, so she looked back and gave the stallion a panicky smile, trying to gauge his reaction.

Her affections were more adorable than anything else and Lodestone wore a big grin on his face as he watched her.

"Yeah, I'm sure she'll be fine. The reporters might bug her but worst case scenario, she can always run back to the Castle of Friendship or City Hall."

He reared and set his forehooves on the edge of the bed, looking him over more carefully. It was obvious he was nude under the cloth but neither of the ponies seemed to care much about that.

Rohan gave the mare a few pats on the head for her affections and sat back against the headboard.

"I've only seen a small part of your home, and yet I can tell that it is leaps and bounds ahead of our own in terms of knowledge. I can only hope that Barbara is not upset by that, as I'm sure many in the village might be."

He hadn't realized that he continued to stroke Granite's mane while lost in thought of what could be.

The mare in question didn't move away - it seemed to be giving human some comfort so she didn't mind, especially if Lodestone didn't mind either.

"I dunno about that... we can probably teach you everything you need to know, right? I bet in a couple of years, your village can look just like Ponyville!"

What Granite didn't say out loud is that this was a much larger and fancier place than she herself was used to back home. She was quietly impressed and a little bit awed. Maybe it was a good thing they didn't go to Canterlot.

The pony at least had a lifetime of hearing about such things, whereas for the humans it would be quite a cultural shock.

She snapped out of her contemplative silence and smiled again. "Me and Lodestone are dating now," she explained, shooting the statement completely out of the blue.

Lodestone's ears flopped back as he suddenly felt awkward and self-conscious.

"Oh... uh, yeah, I guess we are. That's probably not really important to you though."

He tried to quickly change the subject back.

"Actually, Barbara's been taking the change pretty well, from what I can tell. She seems eager to embrace the advances and technology we can offer. Though when we talked to the Mayor, we decided we should move slowly to avoid upsetting the villagers with too much change too fast."

"Yes, I can't imagine if the people in our village were subjected to another series of changes so quickly. Having food and safety is one thing, having your entire culture changed as a result of knowledge is another."

Rohan finally stopped petting the mare and looked between the two as he thought about what she said.

"I suppose I should congratulate you two. When will you be wed?"

"Uuuuh... ummmm," Granite was suddenly embarrassed and backed away a little. She blushed a vivid red and looked at Lodestone. "I dunno... we're not quite there yet."

It made her think of the longer-term future and suddenly the cow-pony was afraid. Marriage and then... gulp foals. She obviously wasn't ready to think of anything like that and shook her head to clear it.

"We've got time, right Lodestone?! We can decide later..."

Her nervous hoofsteps brought her right next to the stallion and Granite pressed her side against his, as if for comfort. "H-How much longer do you have to stay h-here?" she asked the warrior. "Do you want us to find the Chief and bring her over?"

Laughing nervously, Lodestone rubbed her side with a wing to comfort her.

"Yeah, uh, Rohan... I guess maybe humans are faster about this sort of thing, but ponies uh... we take these things slow. Even if Granite and I were very confident in our relationship, it might be a year before we even started thinking about foals."

He tried to shrug casually.

"Maybe it's because we're not in constant danger? I guess you can't afford to be slow and careful."

“I suppose that’s true now, but people were quick to marry even before. I suppose you could argue that those were arranged and were to continue strengthening ties with other nations though.”

He shrugged that off and looked away from the two.

“Since that probably isn’t part of your customs, we may need to teach people in the village not to try such a thing if trade is established. I don’t quite know how your kind would handle men using their daughters or sons as bargaining tools.”

"You used your daughters and sons as..." Granite gasped, covering her muzzle with a hoof. "That's awful!"

She realized she was disparaging the man's culture and quickly changed it: "I mean, maybe sometimes it's okay for... um..."

The pony gave up and hung her head. "Sorry."

Now she was extra uncomfortable in the room and clung to Lodestone for courage. "I guess we should go look for the Chief. Any-anything we can bring you, Rohan? Maybe some fruit or s-something?"

"Sorry, Rohan... you're right. The idea of trading your foal like they're just property will definitely shock ponies."

He looked away and sighed, then gave him a cautious grin.

"But hey, that's what we're here for, right? The spirits chose us to help you assimilate into pony culture. We'll help you learn our ways and you and Barbara can help us learn your ways, then together we can work out the safest way to mesh everypony together."

“I suppose that is true. They probably knew that your leaders have come far since they asked for guidance.”

He’d never thought of it that way before but it made sense to him. The spirits had to have known the ponies could do more from their own civilization than directly for the people within the village. Halfway through his thoughts, his head shot up.

“The chief, where is she now? I know you said she will be alright, but she has a rather straight-forward personality. I would hate that something happened while nobody was around to help her.”

"Yeah, we really should go find her," Granite agreed. She was still shaken a bit from the marriage idea and the 'selling your foals' trading strategy. She stepped from hoof to hoof, gently bumping Lodestone's flank without really realizing it.

"Where do we even search? Do you think she might be with Princess Twilight?"

Visiting royalty in their own castle seemed to have caught Granite's fancy and she looked eager to go check. "Or- or," she added hurriedly to hide her enthusiasm a little, "maybe the Mayor will know?"

Lodestone knew Rohan was trapped here at the medic and didn't want him to worry, so he discretely flicked Granite's rump with his tail and knocked her hoof with his before he spoke, trying to smooth things over.

"Oh no, I'm sure she's fine. Princess Twilight is keeping close tabs on her - and probably you too, I'm sure. Leaders from a brand new civilization that's obviously capable of war? I'm sure she'll do everything she can to make sure she's treated kindly and diplomatically."

"I see. That does make sense. I will be here until tomorrow, but I regret that I don't have a lot I can do but wait. Perhaps, if you would like to keep me company for a bit longer, I wouldn't mind that."

Rohan crossed his legs so that the pair could sit on the bed with him if they wished.

The mare flashed the human a nervous grin. "Y-Yeah, I suppose that's okay..."

She looked around the hospital room, then went to push a chair closer. She wasn't going to sit on the bed with a naked human - Granite had spent just long enough in the village to understand a little about how they viewed clothing - or lack thereof.

"Anything we can talk about? Maybe we can explain, um... about writing?"

She remembered how curious Barbara had been about that. "Or maybe I could go fetch something to eat, like some fruit or maybe something else?"

That was the only chair in the room, so Lodestone simply sat on his haunches beside her, slowly rubbing her withers with a wing. He worried she was still a little freaked out about the mention of foals. Hay, he had been a little shaken himself, but he did his best to brush it off, hoping it would help to relax Granite, too.

"I don't mind waiting around here. I'm sure Barbara will stop by here eventually, with or without Twilight's help."

Granite went to fetch a fruit bowl from the cafeteria and they settled in relative comfort. They mostly talked about pony technology, but occasionally would just chat about minor stuff or something important to the village. It was several hours before anypony disturbed them.

CH14: Unfortunate Timing

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Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was gently rocking in her seat, staring awkwardly at her untouched glass of wine. The Chief interested her but now that it had come to it, Dash was nervous. She'd always had trouble talking openly about her feelings. She jumped slightly when Cinder spoke from beside her.

"You'd best drink some o'that wine, Dashie. It's a fine vintage, an' it'll help loosen your tongue, too. Now can I get y'all anythin'? I know it ain't been long since either of y'all ate, but ya both put away your food awful quick, so I thought ya might want somethin' small to munch on."

"Thanks, but I think I'm fine."

Barbara took a sip of her wine and hummed in delight. The flavor was something closer to what she had known before, if a little sweeter.

"So, Dash... I'll be clear. I think you're fun to be around, just based on how you hold yourself, your attitude, the few things I know you're interested in. Life being what it is in the village, I can't exactly afford to go super slow when it comes to a relationship. No... beating around the bush, you could say. Would that be a problem for you?"

The pegasus waved a wing at Cinder and he stepped back graciously, then she looked curiously at Barbara.

"It's different, that's for sure... I might have to get used to it, but no, I think it'll be fine."

She finally leaned forward and took a sip of wine. Her eyes widened slightly and she immediately took a longer gulp. Over by the bar, Cinder smiled to himself. He couldn't hear them, but he could see between them what they themselves perhaps couldn't. He had very deliberately chosen that wine because he thought would help them talk things through the most.

Dash smacked her lips happily, then continued speaking.

"Everypony is so damn slow and cautious when it comes to relationships, but c'mon, I'm Rainbow Dash! I do everything fast, but apparently nopony is awesome enough to keep up with me."

"See, that's one thing I like about you. You're so confident in yourself and your abilities. Everybody back in the village is always second-guessing themselves or are too afraid to stand up and fight!"

Barbara tossed back more of the wine and relaxed into the chair with a smile.

"I can't imagine how much better the village would be with more people like you."

"Heh, yeah," she grins, "maybe I can help you whip those lazy plots into shape."

She giggled nervously and took another long swig of wine. The two of them sat in silence for a moment, then Dash decided to try and break the ice.

"So... what's it like living in the Everfree? The weather patrol doesn't dare cover it and even I don't go there very often."

“Sucks. Great big spider lair to the south of us, giant lizards and such to the north. If those don’t bother us, Thunder Roc’s will.”

Shaking her head, she finished off her cup and set it back down in the table a bit more forcefully than she intended.

“They bring thunder storms and can use them to attack us. If that’s not bad enough, the things are as big as a house and they do not give up easy. Last time they came in force, bout half of the homes were destroyed before we could run em off.”

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait a sec," Dash interjected, "Thunder rocs? You mean the Everfree has giant bucking birds that bring storm clouds with them?" The Chief nodded and Dash slumped back in her seat, looking shocked. "I've never heard of them before, but that must be why we can't control the weather there." She sat up suddenly, staring passionately at the Chief. "I wanna see one! No, I need to see one! If I can gauge it's strength and report back to Spitfire, maybe the Wonderbolts can come in and flush 'em out, then maybe we might be able to patrol the forest too. Omigosh I could actually be the Bolt that finally brings weather control to the Everfree!" Her wings were spread wide, practically vibrating with energy she was so excited.

"If you can take one down, be my guest. Things are tough as they come, thick skin underneath all those feathers. Rohan stuck six spears in one's chest before it finally fell from the sky. Another kept fighting even when it got stabbed in the throat, ended up cutting it's head off with my axe."

Barbara couldn't help grinning a little at the memory of such a wonderful fight. She didn't like what the birds did but neither could she ignore the thrill it gave her. "Either way, I'd steer clear of them in most cases."

Dash whistled appreciatively and relaxed back in her seat again. "Well rocs are already pretty tough, so I figured these thunder rocs would be too."

She stared up at the ceiling, rubbing her mane thoughtfully. "What confuses me though is how we've never seen them before. Even if thye're always surrounded by storm clouds, we should've seen them at some point, right?"

Barbara leaned forward, downed the rest of her wine, and immediately refilled it again, gesturing to the Chief's glass to see if she wanted more as well.

Sliding her cup over, she let the mare refill it and gave a sigh.

"I dunno, could be only around our forest. From what I gather, ponies don't really go there since it's dangerous, right? If they all lived in that one forest, maybe that would be why. Whatever the case, I'd love to see 'em go."

As she took another sip, her eyes fell back on the mare. "We're getting a little off-topic though, huh? So, what is it you like about mares specifically?"

"Oh!" Dash blushed suddenly, her ears folding back, "Uh... I dunno? I just get along with them better, I guess." She hesitated, drank some more wine, then paused again before finally saying a bit more. "Also cause I really don't like dicks, I guess..." She shifted awkwardly in her seat.

"Really? I've never properly been with either, so I guess I can't say for sure. Tell you what though, I do like how soft ponies seem to be. Especially you winged ponies."

She gestured down towards dash's chest with the cup and gave a little chuckle. "Wouldn't mind having that fluff to myself."

"Wait, what? You've never been with a stallion? ...Er, a human one." She gawked openly, not being the best at recognizing when she's being rude. "But you're the Chief, right? For Luna's sake can't you just like, pick a colt and be like, 'yeah, you'll do'?"

"Okay, see, Lodestone said the same thing. No, I can't just grab someone and have fun anytime I want. As a leader, I need to uphold a certain image. Capable, thoughtful, no distractions allowed. For another, most of the men have their own wives. Rohan may be one of the very few that is of age, but he is my older cousin."

Barbara groaned and leaned forward to rest against the table. Her hands sifted through her blonde hair and she tried not to be frustrated at her position in the village.

"It leaves me little to no choice for what I can do. I end up spending all of my nights alone and whenever I go into the village it's all business. I make sure things run smoothly, I walk about so people can see I'm active, I talk with others to give them input on their job."

Through a few strands of hair, she watched the pegasus and finally gave a smile.

"But here, here I can get with someone, even if it's not another human. Nobody will question it since they think I'm doing it to improve our trade relations."

"You'd better get used to sleeping with mares, then!" She chuckled, "The closest you'll find to a stallion in charge is Big Mac running Sweet Apple Acres."

Her smile faded and she looked down. She felt bad for the human and intensely sympathetic. "Still, I know what you mean, 'cause I got my own image to maintain. Rarity might tease me about hooficures and proper care of mane and tail but... well, just look."

One of her wings gently ruffled her mane and suddenly it became obvious that the solid chunks of rainbow colored hair were not solid at all, but thousands of individual hairs, like anypony else. From the way it resisted coming apart, she had obviously worked a powerful holding agent thoroughly into her hair, but it was clear now that without careful grooming, her mane would rapidly become a tangled mess of randomly colored strands of hair all mixed together until the colors blended into a ruddy brown.

She smiled grimly when the realization spread across Barbara's face.

"I'm an Element of Harmony, one of the most popular Wonderbolts, and the only pegasus in all of Ponyville with her own fan club... and my name is freakin' Rainbow Dash. Every morning I spend over an hour arranging my mane and tail before I even dare show my muzzle in public."

"I... see. So in a way, you work on your appearance maybe more than anyone gives you credit for. Might be nice if you had someone to help you with that then, hmm?"

Barbara scooted her chair around the table to be a little closer so that she could inspect it. She didn't quite get how it was done, but if she ever wanted to help then she would just have to learn.

"Think about it, I could even cut your prep time down. More time to sleep in and enjoy the company of whoever you're with."

"Uh, I, umm..."

Dash looked away awkwardly. The Chief hadn't even moved that much, but that combined with the suggestion she was making and Dash was left stumbling for words. It wasn't just helping with her morning routine, of course; Dash could see what the Chief was implying. Part of her wanted what she was implying and part of her was terrified of it, and that mixture of feelings was making it really hard to concentrate.

"It's, uh... not really... it's kinda tricky. A-And I've been doing it so long now, I'm pretty quick at it these days."

Her wings started to spring out as she imagined waking up next to Barbara and she pretended to rub her head in thought with a wing to cover it up. "Besides, I'm sure you've got more important things to do, right? And you'll only be here another day or two, won't you?"

"You're right. Guess I better get to the point then, huh?" Barbara grabbed the small pegasus on either side and pulled Dash into her lap. With a slight blush, she craned her neck and brought the stunned mare into a kiss. Her tongue poked out, tasting the wine on Dash's lip and making her hum in approval.

The poor, stunned pegasus let out a little squeak, then a long moan through her muzzle, her wings slowly unfurling to their full spread. When the kiss broke, she fell back with a satisfied little gasp and stared up from the Chief's lap in shock and wonder.

"Y-You... That w-was..."

She shivered slightly and her wings trembled even more. If Rarity's robe was not such a thick material, Barbara would have felt a slightly damp spot spreading over her thigh. Across the room, somepony whistled appreciatively and Dash suddenly averted her eyes, ears flattening and her muzzle burning with embarrassment. Mere seconds later, Cinder was there at the table that had whistled and though nopony else could hear what he said, his expression of contempt and disgust was plain to everypony in the room.

Rainbow Dash slowly leaned forward until her muzzle pressed into Barbara's bosom. The human had to lean down to catch her pained whisper. "I've never even kissed anypony before."

Barbara felt a little bad about that, since it sounded like Dash wanted it to be more special. With no real way to fix that, she simply held the mare against her boobs. "Didn't think you'd have such a reaction. I can make it up to you tonight, if you'd like. I'm... ahem A guest at that castle for now, but I'm told you're friends with the princess anyway. We could meet there and talk more privately."

Of course, while Barbara wanted more, having now felt the softness of the pony against her, she could tell that pushing too much might be bad.

The Chief's disappointment and concern was clear in her voice and Dash looked up, starry eyed and blushing hotly. "Yes! I m-mean... it's okay, I'm okay. It was... nice. Just surprised me, that's all."

She shifted awkwardly in Barbara's lap, then she squeaked and her hooves flew to her muzzle because she hadn't meant to grind against the human's leg and the sensation sent a jolt of pleasure up her spine. Her blush deepened even further and after a few seconds, she managed a few words. "I should... get down?" She hadn't meant it to come out like a question.

Barbara could already feel something wet seeping into the clothes and on her leg. Even thick clothes felt different when only slightly dampened. With a slight smirk, she slowly drew her hand down Dash's back and just under her tail to find proof of what she was feeling.

"Huh... you're really sensitive, aren't you. Guess that means we'll be having a lot of fun later." She kept her voice down for dash's sake if nothing else. Her finger, still under the mare's tail, gently caressed the contours of Dash's marehood.

The feeling was electrifying and Dash's entire body went rigid as she tried desperately to resist the urge to arch her back and moan. She managed to reduce it to a light shudder and another little squeak, then she hooked a hoof around the back of Barbara's neck and hungrily pulled her into another kiss.

With startling suddenness there was a flash of light and a loud bang as a certain purple Princess materialized in the middle of the tavern. "There you are!" she exclaimed even before she could really see in the dim light.

Twilight turned in a circle as the magic faded away, searching. A quick scan on the room found Barbara and it seemed that at first the alicorn didn't notice the startled blue pegasus sitting in her lap. "I've been looking all over for you! That was really unprofessional, leaving before even giving me a chance to-"

At long last realization came, and Twilight stopped in her tracks. Her purple hid the blush well, but not completely. "Are you two...?"

She couldn't even finish the question, before she gasped. "Rainbow Dash?!" Already the pony was taking small steps back, as if reeling. She opened her mouth to ask something else, but then her nose wiggled and her jaw dropped open even as her eyes bulged. "D-Don't tell me you two are..." She sat heavily on the floor. "Here? Now!?"

Barbara cursed under her breath and rolled her eyes at the alicorn. "Calm down. We were sharing a drink and talking, one thing led to another and we kissed. As for you calling me unprofessional." Barbara returned dash to her own seat and slid hers back away from the table. "I'd hardly call it professional to sleep through half of the day when you have an "important" guest. Where I come from, that is like a slap in the face, though I decided I would overlook it an went out to meet with others so I could take care of some of the things I came here to do. Just so happens that Dash helped me with some of that, plus a little extra."

Twilight looked really intimidated by the woman, even if she was only sitting down. She shrank back, little by little and her thoughts went quickly from what Dash and the Chief were doing to her own defense.

"Well, um... Okay, yes, you're right," she mumbled defensively. "I might have stayed up reading and trying to find out about your people, and I may have overslept just a tad..." She pointed an accusing hoof. "You could have left a note or something!" she said triumphantly, completely forgetting that Barbara couldn't read or write.

Twilight looked around for any help, but the ponies were just stunned and staring in silence. Even Dash was refusing to meet her gaze, so she fell silent and her ears went down. "Okay, maybe I could have knocked. And I probably shouldn't have yelled." The blush increased. "Sorry."

Cinder had stepped out from around the bar but nopony had heard his polite interjections throughout this exchange. Finally he cleared his throat loudly and Twilight turned to face him. His expression was calm but there was an intense fury in his eyes that only she could see, being directly in front of him. Though his accent was thicker than ever, he spoke slowly and quietly, precisely enunciating every syllable.

"Princess Twilight. Ah was under the impression that we had an agreement here. This 'ere is one of only a hoofful of places in all of Equestria where the Wonderbolts can expect to find any privacy, an' y'all teleportin' in here unannounced, Alicorn or no, is in gross violation of that expectation."

He had slowly stepped out from around the bar to approach the purple alicorn, and if it were not for the horn and wings, anypony looking on might think that he was the royalty and she was a mere earth pony.

"Need ah remind you that the Wonderbolts are an organization under the direct command of Princess Celestia herself? Do ah need to send a missive to her majesty, explaining precisely why her special corps feel oppressed an' restricted despite bein' under the watchful gaze of her number one student?"

"And before you respond to that," Barbara added haughtily, "Let me remind you that you have a small, purple servant in your castle who helped me this morning. I also cannot write or read pony-kind's written language. It should have been his duty, not mine, to inform you that I went to the mayor this morning while you slept." Her arms crossed and she stared down at the alicorn.

In that moment, the terrified and mortally embarrassed Rainbow Dash was simply trying to decide who she loved more: Barbara or Cinder.

The Princess opened her mouth, but all that came out was a whimper. Between their joint assault, she looked like a sheep about to be slaughtered. "Meep!" She began backing away towards the door, and almost bowed to the bartender, whom she decided to reply to first. "O-O-Of course, sir! Of course. Wonderbolts! I know!" Her rear hit the wood of the door and she jumped up in the air in fright. "I'll just be-! I'll wait in the castle!" the alicorn squeaked and her horn glowed. "No r-rush, of c-course!"

There was that bang again as she vanished, and then another pop from outside where she reappeared on the street. It looked like the poor Princess was too shaken to manage any kind of serious distance. Moments later somepony outside gasped: "Princess Twilight?!"

There was no reply, just the sound of hooves galloping away as quickly as they could.

Cinder spun around and beamed at the room before giving everypony a long, dramatic bow. Somepony whooped and a few of them stomped their hooves in applause, but mostly the room simply dissolved into helpless, relieved laughter. He straightened and walked up to the petrified pegasus, still perched on Barbara's lap but now far, far from aroused.

"I'm sorry that happened to ya, Dashie." He took another step forward and gave her a little nuzzle, trying to help her relax a bit. "...But to tell the truth, I'm glad it happened. I been needin' a good excuse to mouth off to that purple filly for some time now. This ain't the first time she's popped in here like that just within the last week." He looked up at the human and grinned. "'Sides... ain't every day ya get the chance to talk like that to a Princess. If nothin' else... was just plain fun."

Rainbow Dash made a sound that might have been a giggle, then hiccuped and buried her face against Barbara's chest again, wanting nothing more than to disappear.

"Can't say I agree, but I definitely won't take lip from someone who wants to criticize me for their mistakes. Buuuut..." Barbara looked down at Dash and gently pushed her back so they could look at each other. "I really should do what I came here to do. I seem to remember you promising a tour that would include taking me to the market and helping me buy what I needed."

Suddenly, again, there was a smaller pop and a flash of light, which deposited a rolled-up scroll on their table. It wasn't too hard to guess where it must have come from, although it seemed a bit too soon - Twilight had just run away.

Dash's ear flicked when the note appeared but she ignored it and just stared up at Barbara for a moment. Her muzzle trembled slightly, then she closed her eyes and took several slow, deep breaths. Her body relaxed and her wings slowly folded up against her side again. Conversation tentatively began to roll through the room and things began to feel normal again. She opened her eyes and her gaze was hard, but it contained a faint twinkle of amusement and the corner of her mouth twitched into a weak smirk.

Cinder had fetched the scroll from the table and was holding it out for Dash. There was just a brief message, scrawled in a hurry and very shaky writing, as if somepony wrote it while running: "Rainbow Dash--so sorry. Please come see me so I can apologize prprpll-" There was no signature.

"T-That stupid egghead has the w-worst timing I've ever known... Well, c'mon, then. We'd better go yell at the Princess some more."

She turned and dropped somewhat stiffly from the human's lap, then nuzzled and wrapped a wing around Cinder in wordless thanks. “So that was from her then. I suppose it wouldn’t do if I let her think I was really upset with her.”

Sighing, she dropped a couple more bits down on the table to pay for the wine and stood to follow Dash out. Other patrons snickered when they saw the slight damp spot on Barbara’s leg, but a look silenced that quickly.

It wasn't necessary, but Cinder opened the door for them just to be polite and Dash stepped outside, turned, and froze for a split second before snapping a stiff wing salute. Once Barbara followed her out, she saw Spitfire had just landed in the yard out front. She nodded to them both and Dash relaxed. "So you're leaving already, huh?" Spitfire's muzzle quirked slightly in disappointment, "Damn, I was hoping to talk a bit more."

Dash straightened again and said, "Sorry ma'am, but we need to see Princess Twilight, then we have some business to complete for the human village."

Spitfire waved a wing dismissively, "Yeah yeah, Crash. Anything that can drag you away from this place must be important." She held a hoof out for the human, "Maybe tomorrow night, eh? It'll be nice to chat with a leader other than Mayor Moneybags or Princess Bookshelf for once."

Barbara gave the little hoof a bump, since it felt like that was what she was looking for. “If possible, sure, but I can’t be away for too long.”

It was hard to ever say no to an excuse to drink, but the village really would need her. Especially with what she was going to be providing for them. As Spitfire entered the bar, the chief looked down at Dash and began walking beside her. “She has a nickname for everyone, hmm? Just hope mine doesn’t end up being something bad or embarrassing.”

The pegasus shook her head, "Not everypony, it's just we Bolts give each other nicknames, usually 'cause of a funny story from training. And, well... apparently other leaders." Dash rubbed her muzzle with a hoof, "I wonder if she has a nickname for Princess Celestia..."

She shrugged and relaxed quickly in the fresh air and with some movement, and was soon looking like her usual self again. "It took me a while to get used to it... at first I thought they were being mean, but really it's a sign of trust and friendship. No matter how good you do in training, you don't really join the herd until you earn an embarrassing nickname."

“Oooooh, is that it. Guess it’s a good thing she wasn’t around when I was learning to fight. I’m sure she’d have a whole arsenal of names for me.” The woman was becoming used to the states of ponies whenever they went into a more populated area. More than a few were very open in their gawking, though some at least tried not to stare.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said regarding weapons. You know, we could probably put a small blade that attaches to your wing. With your speed, you could cut someone down before they could react, right?”

Taking flight to better fend off the overly friendly onlookers, Dash began to nod excitedly, then she looked troubled. "I could, but... I've never actually attacked a creature, nevermind killed. We usually act to capture or trap threats... that's why speed is so important."

They were making good progress and the Castle of Friendship was beginning to loom over them. If Twilight was watching out a window, it would only be another moment before she saw them approaching. “It’s just an option. I’m sure you can cut without killing anyway.”

Now they were at the door and Barbara gave three hard knocks. Within just a few moments, Spike flung the door open and stepped aside. “I think you two should hurry to the book room. Twilight was trying to bury herself under a mountain of books earlier, so I’m guessing she’s upset.”

Now that the embarrassment had faded, Dash was feeling sorry for her friend. She hovered closer to Barbara to whisper in her ear as they hurried down the wide hall. "I was just joking earlier when I said yell at her some more. I think she had more than enough at the bar... we should try and be nice. She doesn't handle this sort of thing well on her own, okay?"

Twilight stopped in the middle of pacing up and down the room. There were indeed piles of books strewn around, as if the mare had tried to get herself interested in something, anything, but failed.

Now that the pair entered she blushed a vivid pink and couldn't look them in the eye. "OH! It's you!"

She tried a grin, but it came out all crooked. With splayed ears the Princess just kept talking, where it might have been smarter to shut up: "Two... mares. You're a mare, and you're a mare. I'm a mare! We're all mares. Yep. Nothing wrong with that! Absolutely nothing wrong with two mares being...." She gulped. "Friendly."

Twilight still couldn't look directly at them. "Yep! Everything's fine here. We're all just friends. Some better than others, of course, but..." She finally plugged her mouth with a hoof, then gave Dash a very apologetic look. "Sorry. I didn't mean to burst in on your two like that."

Barbara folded her arms and said, “Before we start getting mushy, I want to make sure you know that I am not angry at you. I won’t sit by and be baselessly accused of wrongdoing, but I’m not mad at you.”

She plopped down on the ground with her legs crossed and spike ran towards the kitchen to grab something for the group. "I guess in all fairness, I was warned of your... personality when learning about something new.”

Rainbow Dash zoomed forward and hugged her with a wing before she could respond. "Besides, it's fine, really, you just surprised us is all! And Cinder likes you, promise, he was just trying to help me any way he could. He's awesome like that. It... just so happened that he thought the best way to help was to make you get the hay out and not return for a while."

She poked a hoof into Twilight's cheek. "It's pretty funny actually... We'd just been sitting there talking for like an hour, then Barbara just snatched me up and started doing... uh, stuff... and right then is when this egghead thought it'd be a good idea to pop in!"

With a hearty laugh that was only slightly forced, she gave Twilight a vigorous noogie, struggling to hold her in place with the wing around her withers.

The Book Princess relaxed a little, but she still sounded uncertain. "I was just looking for the Chief! I must have turned half of Ponyville upside down and then someone said they saw her with you and I just - reacted!"

The alicorn smiled a little and returned the hug. "I'm so happy you're not mad at me! I think it's... um, sweet that you finally found somepony, even if that somepony isn't a pony!"

That made Twilight giggle at herself and it only sounded a bit manic. "I'll stop teleporting into that place, I promise. It's just that I get worried, or curious, or that one time I was sure you took my Daring Do book by mistake..."

The Princess had been all but oblivious to the human, but now remembered Barbara's presence and looked up. "Um, sorry. I shouldn't have been asleep this morning. That wasn't very princess-like of me."

“I don’t mind you sleeping in, just don’t get mad at me for not waiting. My village is my top priority. Speaking of--I should give you this.”

She produced the note with the list of things she had meant to buy.

“I have to get these for my village so we can grow more food. We have a little bit stored, thanks to Granite, but not enough and certainly not enough variety. I also gave the mayor more details about my people.”

"Heeey!" Dash tried to snatch the note from her hand, but fast as she might be, unicorn magic was near instantaneous. She crossed her hooves and pouted at the human. "I thought I was gonna help you with your boring shopping list!"

"How about - we both help Barbara?" Twilight offered as a compromise. She floated the note a bit away so they could both read it at the same time, then quickly scanned the list and nodded to herself with the trickier items. "None of these should be a problem," the Princess proclaimed at last. "Shall we get started?"

Unfortunately, poor Spike had just brought a tray with tea and cookies, which would now go ignored if the group went out. He bustled into the room and deposited his refreshments on a rare bit of flat surface, which happened to be a stack of books.

“That was my plan. Both of you helping, it’s less boring with more peop- err, ponies!” Patting Dash on the back, Barbara uncrossed her legs and stood up. “Oh, and think of it this way Dash, I’m helping your friend’s reputation by making it seem like she’s the primary helper. Takes some of the attention in town off of you for a bit. Nice, right?”

Dash gasped and her ears flattened. "What!? Take attention away from me? Buck no! I'll do all the shopping myself in ten seconds flat, you just watch!"

She flew off at top speed and stopped suddenly, glowing in Twilight's magic. She thrashed and yelled and laughed as they all slowly left the castle, leaving Spike's cookies forgotten and untouched.

CH15: On Cloud 9

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Lodestone laughed and waved a wing in farewell as he and Granite exited the room. He'd decided he liked Rohan. The human was gruff and straightforward, but only spoke when necessary, never saying more than was needed, and had a surprisingly witty sense of humor.

As they stepped out onto the crowded street, Lodestone turned to Granite.

"So... I guess we can make our way to the Castle? If Barbara didn't come here, that's my best guess where we'll find her. We could stop at a shop or two on the way and see if there's anything you like?" He smirked and bumped her with a hip. "Ooor you could hop on my back and we can go relax in the clouds for an hour or so. After all, if Barbara's with the Princess, she's fine, and if she isn't with her, we won't find her at the Castle."

"Clouds," Granite said instantly and quickly. "Cloud thing. Flying. Come on, come on, giddyup!" The mare stopped, blushed and then lowered her gaze. "Sorry," she said and giggled. "I got excited."

She still expected to go and pranced from hoof to hoof in excitement. "I promise I won't moo this time when we start going up!"

He loved seeing her all excited and giddy and his muzzle split into a wide grin. He gave her a quick nuzzle and laid down beside her. "You wanna save time and go up right here, or would you rather find someplace where we won't get funny looks as we take off?"

"Bah! Buck funny looks, I already have your feather. They can assume whatever they like!" In truth, Granite was acutely aware of several ponies glancing their way and was blushing intently under their scrutiny, but her excitement to be going let her push past it. She all but jumped on poor, unfortunate Lodestone, then kicked his flanks for good measure. "Come on, go!"

It was a joke, so the mare lowered her muzzle down to his ear and gave it a lick. "I'm joking. You know I'm joking, right? Whenever you're ready, fly boy."

Lodestone knew it was a joke, but he gave her a mischievous grin over his shoulder. "You wanna go, huh? Well let's go!"

He launched into the air and flew almost straight up, then, spying a fast current, leveled out suddenly and angled to join it. There was a sudden buffeting wind at their tails and his wings instantly angled to catch it, making them lunge forward far faster than he could fly with his lumbering wings alone. Almost immediately the current brought them near a dark outcrop of rock and he tilted slightly to join the thermal instead. When they left the current, it seemed as if a sudden wind blasted in their face but he was already streamlining his body to minimize the drag, and then they were in the updraft, billowing powerfully up and up into the wide cloudless blue sky. Lodestone bubbled over with laughter and joy at the thrill of such a wonderful take off. Only then did he turn back to check on the poor earth mare clutching his back.

Granite started out by giggling in joy - having gotten used to this part of the journey. She still gripped the stallion tightly, afraid of the height and of falling off, but by this time she trusted him not to drop her. The sudden acceleration and lift made her squeal - it sounded as if she was terrified at first, but as they leveled off and began circling it changed to excited laughing. By the time they were high enough for Lodestone to look, the mare had relaxed her grip a tiny bit and was grinning.

"Hey!" she yelled over the wind her muzzle, "I guess I'm starting to understand why you guys love this so much. The pegasi, I mean!"

With a happy whinny, he squeezed her forelegs around his neck and tilted his head as far back as it would go to nuzzle the side of her head. "To tell the truth, I got caught up in the moment and when we leveled out I thought that must have terrified you. I'm thrilled you're beginning to enjoy this properly now."

The sky was clear today, but Lodestone spotted a small cluster of clouds some ways off, just past Sweet Apple Acres, and pointed that way with a hoof. "We've got some ways to go. Care to try a little more fancy flying on the way, or have you had enough of the air for now?"

"Um," Granite sounded a bit uncertain at 'fancy flying'. "Nothing too crazy, okay? I like this, but my stomach isn't quite there yet!" She still giggled when she saw the ground, far below. "Look how small everypony is! I can see all of Ponyville!"

The mare remembered Lodestone's question and brought her muzzle to his ear again. "Oh, and if you go too fancy, I might widdle myself, okay? Just a warning." She was sorry she hadn't thought of the joke threat before, though.

Lodestone grinned and patted her forehoof. "I'll start out gentle and you just shout when you've had enough and I'll tone it down."

He drifted slowly to the side, then angled back the other way, curving a lazy S through the air. After a couple of these, he swooped more vigorously, angling his body almost completely sideways at sharpest part of the turn. He heard Granite giggling behind him and he straightened out, angled gently upward, then curved back down in a slow arc. His belly lifted slightly and he repeated the movement, a little faster. She made odd, happy noises at the peak and laughed at the bottom.

After that he combined the two motions, flying in a sort of horizontal spiral through the air. She actually whooped a little in her excitement, so he decided to try one step further and as he reached the side of the spiral, he sharpened the curve and spun them in a quick upside down corkscrew, careful to make it tight enough that she would still be firmly pressed into his back. Still, he felt her tense with alarm and was already leveling out before she even shouted for him to stop.

He grinned back over his shoulder at her.

"Yeeaah I thought that might be a little much, but I wanted you to try it at least once."

"Ugh!" The mare said, a little green around the muzzle. "Yeah, fun, but I'm an earth pony. The important word there is 'earth'!"

She smiled and leaned in to give the stallion a quick kiss on his ear. "It'll take some time to get used to, don't worry," she told him. "But for now... um, straight please."

It sounded as if she was beginning to be unsure about holding on to the few pieces of fruit she'd eaten in Rohan's room.

The pony was silent for a while, then she squeezed Lodestone tightly with all four hooves and whispered right into his ear: "I love you, fly boy!"

Though it wasn't the first time she'd said it, it had caught him off guard and it was novel enough to make his heart skip a beat. His wings faltered and they lurched awkwardly, falling a foot or two before he steadied himself again. Almost immediately, his muzzle turned bright red, partly from her words and partly from embarrassment at stalling like some inexperienced filly.

"S-Sorry!" he said, knowing that would have been horribly uncomfortable for her, "I... wasn't expecting it." She was a little green around the muzzle and didn't seem able to respond just yet. After a moment's consideration, he tilted his head back and murmured, "I love you too, cowpoke."

The green turned to pink and Granite splayed her ears, only slightly embarrassed by now. She grinned and opened her mouth to say something, but her expression turned to one of absolute terror and she unclasped the stallion to point a trembling hoof. "Cloooooud!" Granite yelled.

Her terrified expression startled him more than her words and he flared his wings automatically, his body angling almost vertical to keep her planted to his back as he strained to stop them as fast as possible. Then his brain caught up to what was happening and he barked a short, sudden laugh and tilted back into a glide as they 'PUFF'd harmlessly through the small cloud. He flapped a bit to regain some speed and angled up and out of the cloud before settling gently into a bowl-like depression, white billowing up on all sides. He said nothing, just turned his head and smirked at her, waiting for her to explain why flying into a cloud had so horrified her.

The mare coughed a little and wiped at her muzzle with a foreleg to clear the fog out. "Ugh!" she yelled, then opened her eyes. It took her some seconds to realize that clouds weren't dangerous at all, and then she turned a very nice, warm shade of red. "Umm..."

She gave the stallion a crooked grin and shrugged a little, at a loss for words. It looked like that was the best he was going to get, until she lowered her gaze and her ears and admitted: "I thought we were going to crash into it."

Rather than laugh, his expression softened when he saw her embarrassment. He nuzzled her gently, then took flight again, heading toward a larger cloud nearby that had a thick, puffy tower in the middle where they would have a nice view of everything around them. He landed again and rolled slowly onto his side, helping Granite to shuffle over him as he had their first time up here.

"Unfortunately we have no blanket, so spinning you some cloudcrete won't be much use. Grounded ponies can stand on cloudcrete, but only for a minute or two before it starts to dissipate under the direct force of hooves."

"Oh," Granite said, but she wasn't really disappointed as it meant more cuddle time. She easily stayed on top. "This feels a bit like I'm walking all over you, you know?" she said with a bit of a smirk. "They say stallions shouldn't allow that." The grin went full mischievous. "So, you gonna do anything about it, fly boy?"

The mare wasn't technically 'walking', but she was lying on Lodestone and she could stand up of she wanted.

"Hmm..." he responded with a miscevious grin of his own, "I guess I should, huh?" He suddenly twisted onto his back then latched all four legs around her and squeezed tight. Before she could even blush, he rolled over onto his belly so she was plunged into the cloud and hung upside down beneath him, pressed tight against his body.

Lodestone hadn't thought further ahead than the joke and immediately realized exactly which parts of her were pressed against exactly which parts of him and instantly he began to swell. Realizing this, and also realizing that she easily could feel every inch of it, he blushed intensely and began to stammer an apology as he spread his wings to flip them back around again.

The mare came out of the cloud gasping for breath, then glared at the stallion before turning red. "I thought I couldn't breathe under there," she mumbled by way of explanation.

It seemed he had reacted quickly enough that Granite didn't realize what was happening between them, or maybe she had been preoccupied with her other senses. She gave the pegasus a reluctant smile. "Okay, you win this one. I promise I won't walk over you, okay?" She even went as far as to stick her tongue out at him - Granite was obviously a sore loser. "I'll forgive you for a kiss, okay? A proper one."

She was still straddling his belly as he lay on his back and he couldn't tell if she hadn't noticed or just didn't care about his rapidly hardening member pressing against her hips. Still, he wasn't going to refuse a request like that and, ignoring his better judgement, simply pulled her head down for a long, satisfying kiss. By the time it finished he was fully erect and he was certain she must have noticed the firm lump underneath her.

Granite didn't mention it, but the red in her muzzle and her splayed ears told the whole story. She was also starting to breathe more quickly and every now and then she shifted, ever so slightly. "Want me to move?" she asked at long last. She didn't have to say why exactly. "I didn't mean to- to cause you to..."

Just to show willing, Granite shuffled forward a bit which would put her straddling Lodestone's belly, although it wasn't far enough to give him all the room he needed. "Or- m-maybe you turn around? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." She didn't finish the sentence.

She'd shuffled forward in an attempt to get off of him, seemingly unaware that she had simply brought her own body into perfect alignment. One small thrust of his hips and he'd be inside her. He could almost feel the warmth of her, pulling at his tip like a magnet pulls at a lodestone. He could only stare up at her, his mouth half open, his chest heaving despite not feeling winded. Somehow he grew even harder, his member swelling almost to the point of being painful. It grew just one more inch and, even though neither of them had moved a muscle, the tip just barely pressed against her marehood... then it throbbed.

"Oh!" Granite squeaked and tried to shuffle some more, but that just caused her to fall forward and mush her chestfluff right into Lodestone's muzzle. "Sorry!" the mare said as she clung to the stallion. "What do I do?" There was an edge of panic in her voice. Granite was worried she'd slip off if she stayed like that for any longer, but if she lowered herself they'd be doing it, which was something she was in no way ready for. Her tail clamped down as best it could, but it wasn't a good barrier. "Help!" Granite gasped. "Moo!" That last one was completely involuntary in a moment of panic.

Lodestone recoiled, arching his back to pull his hips as far back away from her as he could manage and grabbing her hips with both hooves, pulling them slightly up and away. The contact had been a surprise for both of them to be sure, but her reaction immediately filled him with the absolute certainty that this was not the right time.

She was not ready.

"Shhh..." he soothed, "It's okay, Granite. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I swear. Look, just slide onto my side again and everything will be fine."

He gently pressed into her side to reinforce the idea. He was careful not to just slide her over - he wanted her to do it, so she felt like she was still in control of what was happening.

Granite did so, still breathing heavily. Once she was firmly situated, she started to relax and even managed a slight, ears-down smile. "Sorry," she said. "I got worried we were gonna..." she gulped, "and then I panicked I'd fall off. Sorry."

The pony took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Truth time?" she proposed, but then just went ahead. "I thought I wanted it for a moment, but then I got scared. M-Maybe a cloud isn't the best place to... y'know. For the first time."

She was obviously very worried about something and leaned down to give Lodestone's muzzle a few kisses. "Please don't think I'm a tease!" Granite begged, real fear in her voice. "I didn't mean to come off like that! It was an accident! Oh, moo..."

The mare felt secure enough that she was able to put both forehooves on her eyes to block out the world. "I'm making this so complicated... Maybe we should just- get it over with? It's not a big deal. Why am I making it a big deal? All the fillies in my school have done it..."

"Hush now, none of that." Lodestone hugged her tight to his side, trying to ignore the almost painful sensation of pressure in his groin. "You're not a tease, Granite. That was entirely my fault, I'm sorry. It's okay."

He turned pressed a hoof into her cheek and made her meet his eye. "And I would never let you fall. You'd be terrified of coming up here again and I won't ever let that happen. I love bringing you up here... and I love you, Granite."

That last made the mare smile again, and her ears lifted up. "I'm just worried..." she began, but got choked up and had to cough before trying again. "I'm worried I'll keep working myself up like it's this big, important thing, and we'll never end up actually moving forward because every time I'll be afraid that it isn't the right time, or the right place, or whatever."

Granite closed her eyes while turning something around in her mind and slowly she began smiling. "I think I want it," she said at last, quietly. "Yes," this was more certain. "It's beautiful up here, we're alone, I love you, you love me. I don't care if it's fast, or if it's not perfect." She leaned down and gently nibbled Lodestone's ear. "Hurry before I get all chickenshit again and change my mind."

As if to prove it, She ground against the stallion a bit, which made her gasp, then let her breath out. It was very hot against Lodestone's ear. "Please..."

Still thinking of her panicked reaction, Lodestone almost said no, but she was so warm and soft against him... and if this wasn't consent, he didn't know what was. Even so, he turned to meet her eye first, his ears turning down nervously. "Well... if you're sure..."

He slowly reached down with a forehoof, stroking down her side until he stopped at her flanks. She seemed to quiver slightly and at the look in her eye he quickly slid the rest of the way down and gently began to stroke her. She was nearly dripping wet already and he nuzzled up her cheek to nip at her ear. "Yes," Granite breathed, barely audibly. "Now."

She ground a little, which made her moan in pleasure. "Yes," she repeated after getting her breath back. "Yes yes yes..."

Her eyes were closed and her ears went flat and the mare leaned down so that Lodestone didn't have to hold his head up. She kissed him, messily but passionately. "Oooh, what do I do?" she asked. "How do we...?"

He silenced her with another kiss, slower and deeper than her messy attempts, then pressed his hoof into her flank, spreading her just a bit wider. Her tail was trembling high in the air already but he grabbed it with a wing anyways and gently tugged it further up her back, knowing from past experience the kind of sensations that gave a mare's dock.

Remembering this was her first time, he eased up on the kiss and laid his head alongside hers to murmur in her ear.

"Okay cowpoke, now be a good girl and relax for me..."

Then, listening for the slightest hint of fear or discomfort from the little mare, his hips slowly curled forward and her pressed against her again. There was a tiny pause, half a breath of tension, then her body gave and warmth enveloped his tip. He gasped sharply and every fiber of his being screamed to thrust deeper, but he held himself back, waiting for her reaction.

Granite bit her lip as she waited for pain - she'd heard stories about the 'first time' - but there was none. After a moment she smiled tentatively. "Ah," she squeaked and froze as Lodestone hit a sensitive spot, but then the smile was back and the mare firmly pushed herself down, until she was basically sitting on the stallion.

"Oh..."

The cowpoke didn't know what exactly to say, or do. She was concentrating inward. As nothing bad happened, she let her breath out, but to her own surprise it came as a moan. "Yes..." she whispered to no one in particular. "Don't stop..."

As she slid down, he shuddered and laid his head back on the cloud with a low groan. Her hips pressed against his, he stared up at her straddling him, and framed against the clear sky behind her all he could see was her brilliant blue eyes. He gazed into them, squished his muzzle against hers, wrapped his other hoof around her withers and pulled her up and nearly off. Her breath was like fire in his nostrils and he couldn't hold back any longer - he thrust deep into her with a loud smack that nearly drowned out her high, startled 'moo' and let out a long, blissful groan deep in his throat.

It took Granite a few false starts before she was able to move smoothly with the rhythm. A few times they very nearly parted and the mare squeaked in alarm and slammed back down urgently. It was pure luck Lodestone wasn't hurt.

She'd given up on words and simply alternated between gasping, squeaking and mooing as they went. Every now and again those were muffled when she remembered to share a kiss with the stallion.

Very soon the moos became more urgent and Granite drove herself down with more force, as if wanting as much of Lodestone insider her as she could get. It didn't seem she would last very long like that, but the pony showed no signs of wanting to stop.

Lodestone was hardly even aware of his own movements. Everything he knew was her warmth, her moans, her muzzle, her eyes. Their bodies slammed together with such intensity and passion that it was mere moments before he felt a shudder overwhelm him.

"Ohh... Granite..." he moaned involuntarily and his wings sprang out and wrapped around her. He was pressing her so close he thought he could feel her heart in his own chest. His torso convulsed and he slammed into her, locking them together as a powerful orgasm racked his body.

Seconds or hours later, he relaxed into a throbbing, twitching heap beneath her, wings still wrapped tenderly around her barrel and forehooves resting on her shoulders. He smiled weakly and stared up at her in awe, and all he could whisper was, "You're so beautiful..."

"Mmh..." Granite managed, a drop of saliva escaping her muzzle before she could lick it up. "Wow..." She smiled, gave the stallion a kiss, then repeated: "Just... wow." She shuddered as a last remnant of a powerful orgasm shook her and the motion made her aware. "Um," the mare said, blushing and averting her eyes, "I may have... leaked." Having his thoughts drawn to it, Lodestone would feel his midriff and legs soaked in warm, but rapidly cooling fluid.

"It feels so much better this way!" Granite suddenly burst out and started peppering the stallion's muzzle with small kisses. After a short while she began giggling, but didn't stop the kisses for quite some time. It seemed, for now, Granite was content to just lie there on Lodestone, still... connected.

He just lay there under her relentless pecks for some time but eventually he wrapped a hoof around her mane and pressed her solidly into a long, slow kiss. His muzzle tingled as she moaned again and she wiggled eagerly against him, pulling away only to squish his rapidly softening member between them. He broke the kiss with a short laugh and pulled away slightly.

"Easy, mare, we gotta wait on the recharge now!"

He chuckled and touched his nose to hers, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "I might be able to go again in a few minutes though, if you really want."

A slow grin spread across Granite's muzzle. "Yes! Again." She froze thoughtfully for a moment, then shrugged a little. "Why didn't I try this before?! I'm glad I didn't wait any longer..."

The mare gave a self-deprecating chuckle as she brought a hoof up to stroke Lodestone's muzzle. "I would have just kept working myself up for no reason. I'm glad that's over." She wanted to say another thing, but it made her blush a little, even now. "I love you," she finally managed. "I mean- if it isn't obvious."

"Maybe it is obvious, but it's still nice to hear." He gave her a wide smile and leaned closer, "And of course I love you too."

They simply held each other for a time, content to relax in each other's hooves, but too soon Lodestone had to break their embrace and shifted uncomfortably.

"Well... I know I said I could go again, but I'm starting to feel kind of crusty now. Don't feel bad," he added quickly, seeing her nervous frown, "It's totally normal for mares, I promise. I'd just rather get back to the hotel and wash up."

He hesitated for a moment, then grinned and added, "How about round two under the stars later tonight?"

Granite got an idea and it was a bad one, judging from her suddenly mischievous smile and deep blush. "How about round two in the shower?" she proposed, a bit timidly, but managing to keep Lodestone's gaze. "I need to wash up, too. Your- um, stuff is dribbling out. Does that always happen?" The pony obviously wasn't too experienced with stallions, although she looked eager to learn now. "Oh..."

Her ears went flat and Granite gave the pegasus a rueful smile. "I'm gonna mess up your back, too..." A quick glance down and he realized they were even messier than he'd realized.

"Okay, there's no chance in hay we're making it to the hotel without half of everypony in town realizing what we did. Let's just swing by a lake on the way into town."

There was no real alternative so she nodded and, after one more long kiss, they twisted around until she was on his back again. He glided off the cloud and immediately spotted a lake just off the path about a minute's trot from Sweet Apple Acres. He looked back at Granite and patted her hoof around his neck.

"Alright, now for some real fun flying. Keep your head low and pressed alongside mine, squint your eyes against the wind, and wrap your tail around my hindleg so it doesn't whip around and hurt your cute little dock."

While she situated herself, he stretched his primaries and prepared to dive. Granite obeyed immediately, but she did give Lodestone's ear a quick nibble. "Hee hee, sorry."

She seemed a lot more relaxed, even about fancy flying. Just as he ordered, though, the mare managed to get her tail around the pegasus' hind leg. "I think I'm ready," she whispered, then gave Lodestone another light peck as best as she could reach.

He knew she wasn't really, nopony was ever ready for their first dive. Still, he shifted his wings, twisted in the air and his belly lurched as they pitched straight down and began to freefall. In under a minute they were approaching the trees at an incredible rate and he grinned with exhilaration as the wind howled around him. His wings twitched delicately to slowly pull them out of the dive and they angled up at a painfully slow rate, but any faster and he could flip into a wild tumble or even tear the wings from his back - every pegasus knew the dangers of dive shear.

Lodestone had pulled up a little early so they wouldn't get too close to the trees and they were still a fair way up when he finally leveled out into a gentle downward spiral to bleed away the speed. Finally he skimmed the surface of the lake with his hooves and flared his wings, gently dropping them into the shallow water near the bank with hardly a splash. He turned to check on Granite with a playful wink. "So. Were you ready?"

All the stallion got in reply was a terrified moo and four legs trying to squeeze him into three pieces. It took some time after they'd slowed down for Granite to be able to talk again: "You're crazy! Totally bonkers! Fly boy trying to get me killed..." Grumbling meant she was feeling better, but just then the mare fell silent as she tought of something. Her voice, when it returned, was lower and barely holding back laughter.

"Well, at least you gave me a good romping before I die," she said and giggled. "Warn me next time, okay? I almost wet myself!"

Lodestone chuckled and lowered himself into the water, getting the mare on his back wet again. "Warnings don't work for dives. Next time I can say 'prepare to dive' and you'll know what to expect, but nothing I could say would have prepared you for it - you just have to experience it for yourself."

Granite seemed content to stay on his back in the lake, or in such a state of shock she was unable to climb off. Either way, Lodestone pushed off deeper into the lake, his head just barely above the surface due to her extra weight, and paddled gently with his wings, letting the simple flow of water rinse the gunk from their coats.

The mare really was content to relax there for a while. She did, however, keep giving the stallion little kisses and nuzzles. "I actually love this. Swimming, but effortless..."

She wiggled a little and ran her hooves down her belly to clean it up some, but for the most part she didn't seem inclined to leave her perch. "So... that's sex?" she finally asked.

He gave her an inquisitive look over his shoulder, then nodded. "Yep, that's sex. At least, that was intense, urgent sex from ignoring your burning desire for me for too long."

She blushed and he chuckled before continuing, "It doesn't have to be so fast and crazy... sometimes it's slow and tender, like a cuddle but infinitely more intimate... though it's pretty much always that messy."

He felt reasonably clean now and headed for the shore. It was possible to take flight directly from the water, but it was very difficult.

"Mmmm, I think I wanna try it that way," Granite said dreamily. "Actually, I wanna try it every way."

That made her giggle and the mare was glad Lodestone wasn't looking back to see her blushing. On their way back she even helped paddle some and when they were finally on the bank she climbed off the stallion.

"Aww," she complained softly, "now I'm gonna miss touching you." She stepped back and pressed herself against Lodestone to alleviate the pain of that.

"Who says you have to miss it?"

He leaned into her and pressed their barrels together, then a thought occurred to him and he stepped back again and smirked, casually laying a foreleg across her withers.

"Besides, the pegasus carried you through the air, shouldn't the earth pony carry me across land?"

The mare giggled at the preposterous idea, but she acquiesced. "Sure!" she said and happily accepted the weight. Lodestone shouldn't too much trouble keeping his balance with the mare helping.

"Which way?" she asked, but headed off towards the town.

She lifted up her head for a quick nuzzle every now and then, but otherwise stayed quite focused on her task.

"Feels nice, actually," she commented, "big, strong stallion on my back. Doesn't it?"

He spread his wings out to either side as if he were gliding, stretching his neck forward so his head was under her muzzle. She giggled and snorted in his face and he pulled back, laughing merrily.

"So it feels nice, huh?" He wiggled against the base of her tail, "Wait 'till we're back at the hotel and I'll ride you for real."

Without waiting for a response, he slid from her back and trotted alongside her. It was a nice gesture but they were nearing the path now and Ponyville was still a fair distance. They definitely would have attracted some funny looks.

"Aww, you were so warm!" Granite said in mock-disappointment. She didn't act glum for long - the promise of 'more' back at the hotel had her unconsciously lifting her tail up again. "Since you mention that," she asked, voice all businesslike and innocent, "would you like to grab some lunch before that? You know you gotta romance a mare first, right?"

It wasn't a real proposition, she just wanted to know what Lodestone would say. Granite kept looking ahead as she trotted at a leisurely pace, but every now and then she glanced at the stallion from the corner of her eye.

"Oh sure. I don't think the company will mind buying you lunch." He chuckled and they trotted down the path, talking about nothing and frequently stopping to kiss or nuzzle, hardly even aware of the world around them. It would take a long time to get to Ponyville but to them, engrossed in each other's company, it would seem no time at all.

CH16: Special Treatment

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Rainbow Dash hovered near Barbara's head and playfully poked her with a hoof. She tried not to think about Twilight standing just a few feet away and gestured at the display case.

"C'moooon, you know you want it! It'll be so much better than just using your hands... besides, you owe me! For, uh... stealing my first kiss. Yeah."

“I’ve already spent enough on myself though, I need to make sure all of these coins go towards my village now.” She sighed and looked at the case longingly. She really, really wanted to be able to splurge on things SHE wanted, but she couldn’t manage to convince herself to do so. “I mean... I couldn’t, right? What if I end up two coins off of enough supplies...”

"Ahh, you'll be fine!" Dash waved a hoof dismissively, "Seriously, you have SO many bits. Tell ya what, if you somehow manage to wind up exactly two bits short after going through that whole pouch, I'll give you two bits."

Twilight looked from them, to the display case, and back at them again. She seemed confused and finally asked, "So... you're arguing over a shovel?"

“No! No no no, it’s not a shovel it’s a trowel. It’s not really useful for much in the village, but I could use it to make a little garden with flowers outside my home. Add some colors to the scenery, make it look nice!”

With Dash’s promise, she forked over a few bits and took the trowel in her hands. The metal it was made out of still perplexed her, but she was more happy over what she could be doing with it when she got home.

"Exactly! And just look," she held both her hooves out toward the Chief, "She's so happy about it, too! See I knew buying this was a good idea."

She turned back to Barbara, "Now what else do you need? So far we got... uh... Twilight, what do we got so far?"

The Princess rolled her eyes but she was of course happy to pull out her checklist again.

"Let's see... we've bought about a dozen different seed varieties, those fancy salts and spices you liked so much, a hoe, wheelbarrow, shears, pitchfork, and a scythe. Remember, we only--"

"Yeah yeah," Dash interrupted, "Just buy one of each tool so the Mayor knows what to put on the shipment. You've said it like ten times already, we got it."

“I’m sure my smiths could probably recreate tools so long as they understand them. Some of what you’ve shown me wasn’t too complex and others... may need to be reworked to be useful for us.” Without hands, some of the tools ended up having wildly different grips made for ponies only. Some tools could even be classified as being for unicorns only. “We will also need to gather herbal seeds. Things that grow into food is great, but herbs can become medicines and flavor enhancers. Our shaman will be able to tell which is which.”

The Princess nodded and scribbled something on her list while Barbara paid the shopkeep a handful of bits. "No need for herbal remedies anymore, Barbara. Here, I'll walk you through the Pharmacy. This way!"

Rainbow Dash groaned, hovering dejectedly behind them both, "Uuugh, I hate that place. It's so... plain inside. It's like they sterilzed all the fun from an entire building!"

Twilight ignored her and trotted across the street and down a block to a small, square, white building. Inside was more white and everything was quiet and white, with a couple rows of shelving packed full of pills, ointments, bandages, and every other sort of medical supply your average pony was expected to understand. The labels were plain and to the point, the shelves were logically organized and uniform, the shopkeeper was mild-faced, quiet, and polite. All in all, it was a truly mind-numbingly boring place and Rainbow Dash felt as if it was oppressing her, an almost physical force that bore her to the ground with the sheer magnitude of its plain-ness.

“Not to be rude, but... didn’t your mayor say we should start slow? You don’t think people in the village will have a big reaction to changes in how they are healed?”

Barbara tried to get interested in what she was seeing, but Dash’s attitude was rubbing off on her. There was no energy or life to be seen there. Even the other ponies in the pharmacy seemed plain in contrast to how lively ponies were out in the marketplace. Grabbing a clear bottle filled with pills, Barbara found herself annoyed.

“What even are these things? Small pebbles in an orange-ish container? How could these heal people? How do they do it? How would I explain this to people?”

Twilight hesitated and her ears flopped back nervously.

"I... guess you're right, the Mayor did say to take it slow. We aren't going to have any of the medicinal herbs you're used to though... this is our medicine." She sat on her rump and quietly began to explain, "You know how you can take a dirty rock and slowly filter it down until all you're left with is a tiny nugget of... say, iron? These medicines are the same concept, except we filter down the original herbal plant until all we're left with is just the part of the plant that actually does the healing. Swallowing one of those little 'pebbles' is like a concentrated batch of the purest--"

A loud, rasping snore echoed through the quiet building. Rainbow Dash's hooves were pressed to her head like she was laying on her side and she was peeking at Twilight through one eye, a smirk playing about her muzzle.

The alicorn sighed. "Yes alright, we're going. Barbara seemed interested in my explanation at least."

“Only once you started to tell me that you turned herbs into pebbles.” Put that way, the process did sound more interesting. Almost like the idea of turning lead into gold.

“So if we just get the herbs, then we’re good. We’ve gone through the other tools that were marked as acceptable. Even all the spices, salt, honey, seeds... I can’t imagine there’s much else till we get to those “appliances” I heard about.”

As soon as the party turned toward the door the pegasus leapt to her hooves and zoomed outside, hovering and seeming to relish the sensations around her. Twilight was still talking to the Chief as they walked out.

"Well there's still a couple things left on my checklist, but I guess we're already introducing a lot of strange things to your people, so this should do for now. Appliances are still a long way off. I mean, do your people even know what electricity is?"

Rainbow Dash zipped in front of Barbara, forcing her to stop walking.

"Here's an idea: so far all we have is a bunch of boring work stuff and some spices. How about we throw in a couple of things from the modern world that are just for fun. Like, I dunno... chocolate and and... beach balls. Y'know, stuff like that."

“Or proper alcohol like I had at the bar. Do you know what people would give to have some wine? Let alone any of that other stuff that I had, though we can’t make it cold.”

As Dash hovered close to Barbara, she would feel a hand scratching through her chest fluff. The woman seemed to mean it as a ‘thank you’ for the suggestions and being around to help.

“Oh, actually, there is something else we could use. Well... something Rohan could use. We have some animals in the village that we take care of or train and it might be helpful to have an expert that can give us tips. Rohan especially, since he has trained some of the wolves to be companions during our...” She leaned down to whisper the words “...hunting trip,” since ponies seemed to be adverse to the idea. While the humans couldn’t help it, Barbara could at least be respectful about what others thought.

The two ponies exchanged a nervous glance. At first Barbara thought it was because she mentioned the hunting, but then Twilight said, "Well... we do have an animal expert in town, and she loves meeting new species, but..."

"She won't like the hunting thing," Dash continued bluntly, "Like, not at all."

Twilight nodded, "She's very sweet, gentle, and timid. From what I can tell she doesn't mind carnivorous animal friends, but I don't know how she'd react to an intelligent creature choosing to kill another creature."

"Worth a shot though," the pegasus shrugged, "What's the worst that could happen, she hides in her hut for a day or two?"

“To be fair, Rohan doesn’t like to hunt or fight. He just also really hates to see others suffer.” Barbara grabbed Dash and pulled her over so she could rest on the woman’s head while they walked. Really she just wanted an excuse to feel the fluff against her. “That said, there’s no one else I’d rather have by me in a fight for my life. Man’s as capable as they come.”

Dash let Barbara pull her close then sat on her shoulders and leaned forward to rest her chest and forehooves across the top of her head. Her tail dangled down the Chief's back and bounced around slightly as she carried her. She tilted her head down and gave the Chief a little smirk. "I guess you did want to get between my legs, didn't you?"

Twilight blushed and tried to focus on where she was trotting, "Well... m-maybe if we just, uh... don't mention the hunting? At least, not at first. Does he tend to any creatures other than the hunting dogs?"

“Hmm... I’ve seen him check on the boars before. He also tends to be the one to keep the uhh... shoot, what did they call em...” She scratched her chin for a minute and finally snapped her fingers when it came back to her. “The cockatrices. Those little lizard birds that turn people to stone. We caught a couple and keep em so we can get eggs.”

"What!?" Dash pulled back on Barbara's forehead to look in her eye, "You actually farm those little demons?"

Dash yanking her head back caused the woman to come to a full stop in order to avoid falling back.

Though she seemed uncomfortable with the idea, Twilight nodded slowly, "After one petrified me in the forest I did some research on them. There wasn't very much to tell the truth, but I think Fluttershy might be able to tame them... maybe even befriend them."

The pegasus turned to give Twilight an incredulous look, still holding the Chief's head tilted back.

"You really think she could stand to be around those things after what happened when she fillysat the crusaders? The only way she saved them was with the stare, and you know she hates using that!"

Barbara said, “Yeah, that’s my head Dash. It’s also attached to my neck, which doesn’t like being jerked back violently. Well, not that way at least. I’d let ya pull my hair once.”

She gave a smirk as Dash let go and freed her up to move her gaze back down to Twilight. The pegasus blushed and sat back, spreading her wings out for balance. She then realized everypony was staring at them as they walked by and her muzzle darkened even further. She hesitated a moment longer, then leaned back and flipped as she fell, landing neatly on her hooves behind the human.

“We’d actually much rather have chickens, but we have found herbal ways to stop the petrifying gaze so it’s not too bad. Some of them are actually a little nicer than others.”

Twilight had slapped her muzzle with a hoof. "Of course! Obviously there's no need to work with the dangerous cockatrices when we can just send you some chickens!" She pulled out her checklist again and began scribbling. "I don't think we can fit much more on this shipment, but we should be able to squeeze in a hoofful of hens and a rooster. A couple more small things maybe, but this is a lot of weight for just one pegasus to pull."

Lodestone could probably carry twice the weight she had listed so far, but of course Twilight had no way of knowing that.

“Let’s finish up so that we can relax for a bit. I wanted to try your “tub” as spike called it. A heated bath any time you’d like...” The idea sounded amazing to her, since the closest she had ever heard of were from large civilizations. Even then, that was large bodies water heated in the morning through fires or hot stones to be shared with many people.

"Oh right!" Twilight grinned up at the human, "I'd forgotten just how significnat heated water was for primitive civilizations. Let's head back and I'll have Spike prepare it for you." She started to walk away, then hesitated and turned back. "...Actually, I'd like to show you something, Barbara. You've seen plenty of what earth ponies and pegasi can do... I want to show you what a unicorn is capable of: magic."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes but Twilight held up a hoof before she could protest.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do some silly drawn-out demonstration. I'm just going to teleport us to my castle. We're clear across ponyville and it will take a long time to walk all that way."

She flew up and hovered in front of Barbara, smiling gently.

"You probably don't even know what 'teleport' means, but don't worry, I'm very good at it. I promise you won't feel even a twinge of jerking or dizziness - which can happen if the unicorn is inexperienced. The only thing you'll feel is a bright flash of light, then we'll instantly be standing in the castle, okay?"

"Uhh, yeah, sure. Sounds fine, Twilight."

Even despite saying that, she felt the need to at least press part of her leg against Dash to feel her there. If Dash wasn't scared, she knew she wouldn't have to be, but if the spell was as amazing as Twilight was trying to make it seem, then it was only natural to be a little cautious. As the horn lit up, she hear a pop and saw the flash that she was warned of. When her eyes adjusted, she found they were standing in the castle library.

"Woah woah WOAH WOAH! WHAT WAS THAT?! You meant we could literally just pop and appear in the castle?! PONY MAGIC CAN JUST DO THAT?!"

Twilight had been expecting fear and confusion, so Barbara's pure astonishment made her giggle, partly with relief.

"That and a lot more! Most unicorns can only cast telekinesis," she floated a nearby book between them to demonstrate, "and one or two spells related to their cutie mark, but I've been studying magic since I was a filly."

She set the book down, then with the same pop and flash, instantly shifted a few feet to the side, staying in Barbara's line of sight.

"I learned to teleport a while ago and have been practicing it daily to improve my range and precision."

Dash, getting impatient, flew up to a nearby shelf and quickly snatched the next Daring Do book in the mini-series she'd been working on recently. She was back beside Barbara within seconds and tucked the book under a wing, casually pretending she hadn't done anything at all.

"Dash! If a unicorn can do this then that means you have to have been holding out on me! You control weather and fly fast, wait- don't tell me..."

She plopped down and pulled open a wing to look at it closely, causing the book to fall on the ground. She wasn't quite as concerned about that, rather than sticking her face close to Dash's wing.

"Hmm.... super muscular wing, you said you fly fast.... I got it! You didn't show me just how fast you really are. See, now I have to see you do something so awesome that blows unicorn magic out of the water!"

"Oh I got something awesome alright," Dash said, a gleam in her eye, "It's called a sonic rainboom and I'm the only pegasus that has ever done it... but I can't just fly around leaving explosions of color everywhere I go... ponies would get bored of it and it wouldn't be awesome anymore!"

Twilight grinned to herself, then stepped closer wearing an innocent expression.

"It has been an awful long time, though. Are you really sure you can still manage it?" She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "I mean... last time you almost couldn't do it at all, and you rarely even fly close to those speeds these days."

Dash looked away self-consciously, stuttering indignantly, and the princess used the opportunity to shoot Barbara a knowing wink.

"Oh! oh, oh oh! OHHHH! GOTTA SEE!"

Tucking the small mare under her arm, Barbara ran for the door of the castle and back outside. With all of the grace of an over-excited child, she tossed Dash into the air and watched with heavy anticipation.

"Do the thing, Dash!"

Twilight hurried after them, trying not to giggle too loudly, and poor Dash squawked in surprise but righted herself instantly and glared at the human.

"What, now?" She looked around indignantly at the ponies casually milling about, "I can't do it NOW! There's no build up, no performance, no justification... i-it'd just be some obnoxious mess that would startle and annoy everypony around!" She pointed a hoof imperiously down at Twilight, "And why the hay are you giggling!? You should be trying to stop this, not egging her on!"

When Twilight just snorted and laughed harder, covering her muzzle with a hoof, Dash folded her forelegs and pouted, refusing to look at either of them.

"It's perfectly justified!" Barbara said excitedly, "You have to show the leader of the humans what ponies can do so she can brag to her village about how awesome, friendly, and inviting ponies are! As for the performance, I can give you that later!" With a wink, Barbara grinned again and sat by Twilight with her eyes fixed on the blue pegasus. "Oh, oh! I got it! I will buy two of those zap apple drinks the next time we go out!"

Dash's head whipped around, her ears perked up, and for a second it looked like she would blast into the sky right then and there. Then a thought seemed to strike her and instead she hovered closer and tapped the Chief's nose with a hoof. "Fine, but just this once, and I gotta go do something first, alright? I'll be back in a bit."

Twilight looked up, still grinning, "Wait, why, where are you going?"

She waved a hoof dismissively, "No way I'm doing a sonic rainboom right off the bat, even with the promise of zap apple cider. I gotta prepare something first."

Before either of them could interrupt her again, she zoomed off through the sky, a bright rainbow streak trailing behind her only to vanish almost before you could see it.

"She had better hurry, cuz now I'm all excited." Laying back in the grass, Barbara stared up at the sky and let her mind wander. She thought of how different things were and just how different things would end up being. While that scared her, it also excited her. Change meant new and bright opportunities and she wanted to meet such a challenge head on.

"You know, I wouldn't mind living in a place like this. You ponies are nice company and things are a heck of a lot safer out here. Maybe we could make a proper home outside the forest someday."

Twilight was dying to know what her friend had under her hoof, but she wouldn't dream of leaving this fascinating new creature, so she settled into the grass beside Barbara and began idly floating pebbles in an intricate pattern just above the ground.

"I thought you said you would stay in the forest with the ancient spirits?"

"True, I'm just imagining a world that could be, I suppose. Though, if the spirits could be moved so that we can continue to revere them and seek their guidance, that would be great. I would have to see how they feel about that, but I can't imagine being stuck to one place with nobody there was fun."

She didn't quite know how she felt about moving them. The cave was where they decided to place themselves, after all. But if they could be moved, and didn't mind being moved, then why stay in that forest? Excluding the spirits, the forest had already brought so much death and pain to the humans.

The alicorn fell silent for a moment, then turned to glance at the human. "How big is the spirits' crystal anyway? Depending on its size, maybe I could just teleport them to safety." The Chief frowned slightly and Twilight continued hurriedly. "I wouldn't dare without your permission, of course! A-And I'd only teleport them somewhere you had seen and agreed upon previously... It's not like I'd just move them to a vault in Canterlot and never let you see them again!" She chuckled nervously and the pebbles clattered as her focus wavered.

"If that's the case... About the size of a large boulder? It's hard to be specific on such a thing, we don't go into the cave often enough, nor do we really waste any time when we need to go."

She kept her gaze set on the alicorn long enough to be sure that her intentions were as she stated. With that, she watched the darkening sky above. "They said they had aided your leaders in the past. They're probably long dead, but can you tell me anything about them while we wait?"

Twilight gave her an odd look "Long dead? Oh no, they're quite well and are still ruling Equestria today! In fact, Princess Celestia is the one who made me an alicorn in the first place." She smiled sheepishly and set down the pebbles. "I've only been Princess for a little while, you see. To tell the truth, before then I didn't even know alicorns were made, I thought they just... were, you know? Only later did I learn Princess Cadance only ascended just a few years before I was born."

Suddenly her ears folded back and she looked away, mumbling awkwardly. "Wait hang on, I'm doing this all wrong, saying this all out of order, no cohesion, no lesson plan... Oh ponyfeathers!" She shook her head in frustration, "Where does a filly even start!"

"Still alive? But the spirits made it sound like it was ages ago! That castle is in ruins! It had to have been there for so long! But, well, we were told not to go there so I can't say for sure."

She never knew why, but the spirits probably felt that the evils of the forest were taking hold in that castle. Or that Nightmare moon was forever tied to the place. Barbara didn't really care enough to think about it deeply.

"I'll have to meet them sometime then. Maybe the moon one first, I always liked nights back home so maybe I'd get along with her better."

"Well it was ages ago," Twilight said, turning away to watch some nearby townsponies, "I mean... nopony knows exactly how long they've lived, but Princess Luna spent a thousand years imprisoned in the moon, and they were already the definitive rulers of Equestria before her imprisonment began."

She couldn't see Barbara's shocked expression.

"Celestia won't confirm even to me if all alicorns are immortal or if only they are due to some special magic, so I don't yet know if I'll live as long as they have, but most estimates put them at around fourteen hundred years old."

"Fourteen hundred...? As in one thousand and four hundred? Holy.... crap..."

Barbara fell flat on her back and watched the sky once more. It was hard to take in the thought of living for so long. How would they keep interested, how would they deal with the constant stress of being a leader for an eternity? But with that thought, she finally cracked a grin. "You know what, that's a bit too heavy of a topic for me to think about tonight. For now, I just wanna see Dash do this sonic thingy."

Twilight shrugged casually, "I'm not worried about it... which would probably surprise my friends. Some think Celestia and Luna made me and Cadance princesses because they want to step down, but I doubt it. Even if it were true, Celestia is my life-long mentor and I trust she wouldn't--"

She was cut off by three crackling blue streaks aimed straight at her and Barbara. They were moving so fast she hardly even had time to open her muzzle in alarm before they were upon her and in a flash of color they angled up sharply. Twilight realized the middle one bore Dash's signature rainbow-colored streak and grinned. The two blue streaks on either side angled slightly away so they spread apart in the air and everypony around turned in surprise, then whooped in delight at this unexpected surprise.

"It's the Wonderbolts!" Twilight shouted happily over the noise of wind, "She must have begged them for this impromptu show to lead up to her rainboom!"

"That girl is getting the best treatment I can muster." Barbara kept it at a whisper, though Twilight's sensitive ears probably still picked it up. She watched the seemingly impossible flips, dives, twirls and theatrics of the pair that had decided to help Rainbow Dash. Of course, they were probably just a distraction so that Dash could continue to climb for the upcoming dive. "Daaaang, this is what Wonderbolts do? It's... actually impressive! Doubt another person could ever hope to match such a show!"

The trio slowly rose higher and higher, weaving an intricate pattern in perfect sync, sometimes flying far apart, sometimes snapping together so quickly ponies would gasp, certain they had collided, only to sigh and cheer when the seemingly solid mass of blue separated again. Then there was a subtle change in the way they were flying: rather than all three working together to weave some invisible tapestry, the two blue flyers began to very specifically spiral and weave around the rainbow streak. They emphasized its turns, highlighted its straight bursts of speed, and almost seemed to be pulling it up.

Twilight, who had seen this particular performance before, nudged Barbara with a wing and whispered, "Here it comes!"

The rainbow streak, now only a distant splash of color against the perfectly clear sky, began to arc slowly downward. An excited murmur rippled through the crowd of ponies as the blue streaks whipped around the rainbow, spiraling faster and faster... and then the rainbow slowly began to drag away from the lines of blue that chased it. The other two straightened into a faster dive but the streak of color continued to pull away, its lead gaining rapidly.

Up in the sky, Rainbow Dash felt little pops breaking over her hooves as tiny bursts of color began to pulse out from her trail, leaving faint ripples behind her. She narrowed her eyes and, thanks to her goggles, could faintly make out the strange shape of a human lying in the grass near the castle. With the faintest twitch of her wings she corrected the angle so she was flying directly for Barbara and pushed for the last little bit of speed required. The dome of compressed air before her stretched into a point, and then a blade, and then...

The vast quantities of pegasus magic collapsed into itself and detonated into the burst of color everypony knew and loved. Dash fell instantly into that curious post-boom state where she flew far faster and yet there was almost no wind resistance at all. She cackled with delight and zoomed in a gigantic spiral around the entire castle, looping lower and lower over the Chief until she was as close as she dared. Finally, she showed Barbara the part few ponies ever got to see: breaking out of this super-speed.

She angled into a tight loop and entered her own rainbow stream from behind. The excess magic enveloped her and layered onto itself, rapidly becoming so thick she could actually feel it around her and she knew it was time. Then she stopped.

The dense concentration of pegasus magic imploded, absorbing the force of her impact with the air and nullifying her speed in an instant. From the outside, it would seem as if she had stopped dead in the air, been surrounded briefly by a swirling mass of colors, and then the air would ripple slightly and she'd simply be hovering there, perfectly stationary.

Barbara watched with huge eyes as the sky exploded around Rainbow Dash. She had never seen colors literally streak through the sky like that, let alone burst in a circular pattern from where Dash hit mach 10! The wind whipped her hair around violently as Dash passed by, in fact it was almost enough to push her over. Even Twilight had to hold her ground, and she had earth pony strength. Still, the show wasn't over till Dash stopped and she made sure to stop in the most dramatic fashion possible

"Her magic is FREAKIN' AWESOME! Did you see that?!"

At this point, Barbara scooped up Twilight and bear hugged her, squeezing her till she felt like a stress ball. When Dash was finally close to the ground, the woman rushed over and tackled the mare to the ground to bring her into an equally fierce hug.

"Holy hell, that was amazing!"

"I KNOW, RIGHT!?"

Rainbow Dash was beaming with joy, just overflowing with it. She'd been sure she could do it, of course. Never a doubt in her mind, nope. Still, she was relieved it had worked and returned Barbara's hug, laughing helplessly.

Two blue streaks zipped to the ground nearby and Spitfire lifted her goggles, stepping toward them.

"Good show, Crash, but don't forget, you're on back duty to make up for dragging me out here."

Her tone was harsh but there was a smile playing about her muzzle. Back duty simply meant she'd be in the rear of the formation for a while, sticking to the standard blue trail and letting other Bolts have a chance at the spotlight for once.

Dash tried to wiggle free of the human's bear-like hug and managed something that resembled a wing-salute.

"Yes ma'am, thank you for doing this for me... and you too, Fleetfoot, of course! I owe you one."

"Oh hey, the leader herself! So this is what you meant by not the fastest flyer, but one of the more trained ones. I'll have to treat you to a show in my village sometime!"

Extending out a fist, they gave each other a bump and then the pair of pegasi parted ways with Dash. Barbara, having seen her go above and beyond, pulled the little pegasus into a deep kiss before whispering into her ear.

"And you're gonna get a lot out of me for this whole show, lady-killer."

A cheerful voice sounded, approaching: "Hey guys! We saw the show and it was- whoa..." Granite had come just in time to see the kiss and was now hurriedly averting her eyes and blushing.

"Hush, don't embarrass them!" Twilight whispered, of course loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Trying to salvage the situation, Granite went on in a too-loud-and-careful voice: "Um, so uh- why the sudden Wonderbolts show?" She realized it might sound wrong and quickly added: "Not that we mind, of course. It was amazing! We saw it from the window!"

Lodestone rolled his eyes and chuckled at their attempts but was too giddy to be properly embarrassed. He'd known about Rainbow Dash of course, but to not just see her in a real Wonderbolts show, but to experience one of her rare rainbooms AND meet her afterwards? He was practically vibrating he was so excited.

"Oh gosh, uh... Rainbow Dash! So sorry to interrupt... uh, hi Barbara. Yeah, I mean, um... ponyfeathers, I'm-such-a-huge-fan-you're-my-favorite-bolt-and--" He shoved a hoof in his mouth and sat hard on his haunches.

Rainbow Dash, having rapidly shifted through joy, relief, horny, embarrassed, flattered, and finally feeling sorry for this pegasus, fell back on her most reliable behavior that she'd done so much she could probably do it in her sleep: tending to an eager fan. She had no idea who Lodestone and Granite were, of course.

"Oh awesome, thanks so much! I always appreciate my fans. Here, you want a signature? Uh... oh, here," she pulled a small marker out of a pocket in her uniform and looked up expectantly, "whatcha got and who am I making it out to?"

Barbara grinned and said, "His name is Lodestone, and the mare with him is Granite. They are the ones that stumbled into my village and basically ended up bringing Rohan and me here!" She sat beside Dash and studied the stallion. It was easy to see he was star-struck and her grin only grew wider. "But I dunno.... He was kinda rude to me this one time. You might not want to give him anything, Dash, not till he earns it."

Granite made it past her own embarrassment and joined her lover, lightly touching his flank with hers. She wasn't even aware of doing it, really. "Sorry- about just now. I didn't mean to say that. N-Nothing wrong with it, of-of course." She wasn't quite meeting anyone's gaze and stared rather at the ground where she pushed a bit of dirt around with a hoof. The chief's accusation made Granite all defensive, though and she stepped protectively in front of the stallion. "Nuh-huh! Lodestone is a really nice guy, you gotta believe me! He totally deserves an autograph!"

The mare herself didn't seem quite as star-struck, but that was probably because she was an earth pony from a small village where the Wonderbolts were just a story. "If- if that's alright, Miss Dash..."

Rainbow Dash did a quick double-take, then understood what was going on. She gave Lodestone a thoughtful stare. "Hmm... Finding humans: awesome. Bringing them here: awesome. Being rude: not awesome. Being a huge fan of me: awesome." She looked up and shrugged at Barbara with a grin. "Sorry, seems like the tally's in his favor!"

Lodestone finally pulled himself together enough to form a complete sentence. "I'm sorry, Barbara. We didn't mean to abandon you, we just... got distracted. A lot. But, uh... oh gosh, Rainbow Dash, it's just... see, I'm a skycrane, really slow and really strong, yknow, but even in a straight dive I'm slower than you can fly in a straight line, so it's like, we're opposites, see? And I just really wish I could experience true speed once, but I guess maybe you might wish the same about a skycrane's strength and I thought maybe I could show you what I was capable of and if even you were impressed then it'd really mean something unlike all the grounded ponies that don't really understand what I'm doing, but, uh... w-well..."

He suddenly realized the Princess, the Wonderbolt, the Chief of the humans, and his new Lover were all watching him... and he'd been rambling. He blushed intensely and quietly muttered, "...Sorry, I'm done now."

"Pfft, you abandoning me led me to Dash, so I guess I can forgive your rudeness this one time. Same goes for you, Granite. Buuuut, do it again and we'll have to resolve this the old fashioned way: Trial by combat."

She knew that both of those ponies had seen the axe she would be wielding. It was a big, scary thing that would likely end a life in a single good blow, while also dealing more than a small cut with a bad one.

"You won't get much of a chance to leave me alone tomorrow, since we'll be getting ready to leave. Just gotta make sure that Rohan meets a certain pony before we end up going."

"Oh. Um. Oh." Granite stuttered, unsure how to respond to threats of combat. "Sorry." At long last she spotted the other ponies around her and she gave a small gasp. "Oh! I didn't mean to barge in like that P-Princess! I didn't realize you were having a- um, meeting!" She was pressing against Lodestone as if he was the only solid pony in the world.

The Princess didn't seem to mind, so she just smiled vaguely and waved a dismissive hoof. "It's okay. We were just... watching Rainbow Dash show off a little. Just another day!" She grinned at her own little joke and stood up. "Okay, so what's next on the list?" The paper in question floated over and the alicorn started going down it. "We've got that. Done that. Hmm, I think we got that. Ditto..." It looked like she would double-check everything.

Dash stepped up and wrapped a wing around Lodestone in an attempt to help him relax, talking low so only he could hear, though Granite probably picked up on it too, being so close.

"Hey colt, don't worry about it. Everypony gets like this first time they meet me. Well, my fans, at least. You're the one helping Barbara right? Well, I needed an excuse to visit the village so I was already gonna help whoever the poor pegasus was that would have to carry all this junk, so we can hang tomorrow, aight?"

Lodestone nodded quickly, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Yeah, okay. Thanks Rainbow Dash."

She released him to return to Barbara's side and he stepped over to Twilight, somehow more relaxed around a Princess than he had been with his favorite Bolt.

"So, anyways... what all is going on this shipment?" He quickly glanced over the list and scoffed quietly, "I could carry twice that much weight if you want. I'm not a skycrane for nothing... I fly whole pallets loaded with solid stone for a living."

"Well then, I think we know what we're doing all of tomorrow. You're going to pick out the rest of our list until we meet your carrying capacity while we go to see Rarity over cloth and simple garb."

With Dash back by her side, Barbara let her hands wander over the mare and delivered some idle scratches. In truth, she was partly paying attention to Dash's reactions to see what she would like later on. Seemed the mare had a soft spot right in front of her left wing.

Granite tried not to stare too hard. The idea of two mares was completely new to her by itself, but then there was the fact that they were different species. She kept looking over curiously, then blushing and averting her gaze. The others weren't paying her much attention - at least that's what the mare hoped.

Nearby, Twilight got through the list and let out a satisfied sigh. "Okay, we've got nearly everything. Next up is a pegasus-cart: you..." The Princess frowned a little as she tried to remember the name, "Lodestone, was it? I could use your help on this."

There was never any doubt that the pegasus would follow, so Twilight simply set off. She paused to look back after a few paces. "Oh, you should go check on your friend and I'll see you back at the castle when you're done, is that okay?"

From his folded ears, Lodestone obviously didn't want to leave Granite so soon. "So, uh... I guess you'll go with them to Rarity's then?"

He looked back up at Twilight, who was watching him expectantly and a little confused that he wasn't already following her, then he brightened and looked back at Granite. "Oh, wait! You'll need to look over the farm supplies, right? W-What if they got seeds for a crop that won't grow this time of year or something?"

Rainbow Dash watched this exchange curiously, then leapt up to hover near Barbara's ear. "So... what's up with those two, are they like siblings or something? Looks like they're afraid to be apart from each other..."

"Oh no no! Rainbow Dash, those two are looooovers. He won't do a thing unless he has that mare nearby, cuz she's got him wrapped around her fing- uhm... hoof! Wrapped around her hoof." Barbara made little kissy sounds in their direction and barked out a bit of a laugh. "So Lodestone, did you finally decide to ask Granite to help you deal with that big problem you were having at the village?"

The guess was right on the money, at least judging by the very nice pink patches on Granite, which replaced her usually white parts. "Eep!" She said and tried to crawl almost under the stallion. "It's not- we're not-" she attempted to deny, but couldn't lie about it. "Oh, Moo..."

Twilight looked uncomprehendingly from the pair to Barbara, then at Dash. "They're- oh. OH!" she exclaimed and also went a bit more pink in the muzzle. "Well, um- you can both come, of course. That should be fine. Um. Good for you..."

She obviously didn't know what to say in a situation like this, so she just put it out of her mind and focused again on her list. "We'll get the cloth from Rarity - I'm sure you can pay her later, and then we'll rent a cart. Come on."

Granite wasn't willing to look at anyone at all, so she just walked demurely beside Lodestone. "Sorry," she whispered to him, "I didn't mean to give us away..."

Lodestone sighed and trotted wearily after the Princess. "It's alright, mare, it would have come out eventually. I just wish some ponies were a little more tactful."

As they trotted away he could faintly hear Barbara's hearty chuckle and picked up the pace a bit, flicking his tail disdainfully, even though he knew she wouldn't recognize the gesture.

Dash meanwhile, having anxious and dirty thoughts about what the Chief had in store for her, then picking up on her rather blunt innuendoes, couldn't help but sneak a peak under Lodestone's tail as he trotted away and was now blushing furiously. Despite her claims earlier, she was in such a state that even thoughts of a stallion were making her a bit wet in the dock. She turned to Barbara, looking a little flustered and more than a little heated.

"So, uh, about that Zap Cider...?"

"Right now? Ehhh, maybe I shouldn't be too shocked, it was a damn good drink after all." As she turned, she noticed Dash's expression and redness and decided to place a hand against her forehead. "Jeez, you sure you wanna drink? You're burning up you know. Might be better to go lay down for a bit."

"Yeah, sure!" She said too quickly, then bit her lip and continued more slowly, "Uh, I mean... you're probably right. But you'd better get me at least one of those shots before you leave tomorrow!" Eager to get going, she started to hover away, then stopped and looked back sheepishly. "So... I'd take you to my place but it's kiiiiinda made of cloud. W-Wanna show me where you're staying instead?"

"Yeah, just look left."

That would mean staring straight at the castle they were still outside of. Dash should have known that Twilight wasn't going to let a specimen stay at a hotel when there was a perfectly good guest room in her castle.

"I would show you around, but I have a feeling you're well acquainted with what's inside." Pushing the door open, Barbara looked back at Dash and waved her in. "Cmon, let's get you in bed so you can rest up a bit."

"Oh. Right. I guess that makes sense. Good ol' Twilight, making sense and all that. She's pretty good at that."

She followed Barbara inside, her nerves making her jabber endlessly about everything and nothing. Within seconds - at least it seemed that way to Dash - she saw a large, fancy bed and heard a door click shut behind her. She stopped suddenly and just stared at the bed, then her tail vibrated slightly as it tried to tuck down nervously and raise up excitedly at the same time.

Like before, Barbara tucked Dash under her arm and hoisted her up, only to set her down on the bed. Stripping free of her clothes, save for bra and panties, the woman plopped down on the bed and watched Dash carefully.

"So, how's this gonna go? You wanna just lay here and cuddle, or do you want me to get down to it and help you relax?"

The poor pegasus had gone stiff with embarrassed shock, but she looked down and took a deep breath, trying to regain some of her usual carefree nature. Nopony ever realized how much effort it took to always appear relaxed and she didn't have anyone she could truly let herself go around, not even her closest friends. Surely she couldn't do so now, in any case. So she focused intensely and visibly relaxed into Barbara's arms, eventually letting out a long, content sigh.

"I'm fine with either right now. Cuddling is nice. It's up to you, I guess."

"Well then, if it's my choice..."

Barbara laid rainbow dash down on the bed so she was laying on her belly. Moving to stand behind her, she placed her hands on the mare's left hind legs, just above the hoof as she started massaging the muscles. Though she was unfamiliar with equine anatomy, she was good at finding tension and her digits did wonders to actually dig in and force them to truly relax.

"I can tell you don't like to express what you really think or feel, Dash. Comes with expectations, I get it. But... try to let that go if you can, hmm? Just let loose and enjoy yourself for a while."

Her head plopped weakly onto the bed as those fingers dug into her leg. She turned her head and tried to reply, but all that came out was a low groan. She chuckled weakly, then focused and tried again. "I... don't get massages very often, and... oh gosh... those things you have instead of hooves feel amazing."

She slowly spread her wings and raised them above her head. "Think you c-could do that to my flight muscles? Just... try not to touch the wings too much, mkay?"

"I'll be sure to be delicate around them, Dash."

As her hands traveled up Dash's body, she leaned forward and gave one of the wing joints a small peck. Her strong hands rubbed up and down the muscles surrounding her wings, which was just the preliminary for what she wanted to do. It served to give her an idea of which muscles were tense, as well as acclimate the muscles to a gentle touch before the fingers would really dig in.

"You have a couple knots around the underside of where your wing is attached. You really should try to get someone to work out that tension more often."

One of the knots was almost as big as her thumb and required her to roll it with her palm to start unwinding the tense muscle. As it grew small, she switched to her thumb, then her pointer, till the knot was gone. For each one she found, she went through that same process, meticulously working to get those muscles to relax and sit right.

When she kissed the wing joint, Dash had jumped slightly and her wing rustled a bit, but since Barbara didn't touch them beyond that, she didn't say anything about it. At first, the pegasus merely laid there, occasionally squeaking or moaning quietly as she worked on a particularly sore spot, but soon she turned her head so she could watch the human over her shoulder. It was several more minutes before she said anything, but she kept her tone carefully casual.

"There isn't really anypony I can get this kind of massage from. Everypony knows I'm chill... gotta keep up appearances, right?"

"Mmm, maybe? I don't think anyone could hold it against you that your body gets sore sometimes. Training is supposed to be tough, not just on your mind but on your body."

With the flight muscles all worked out, her hands found themselves in the middle of her back. Here she could feel how the muscles would affect the spine and before long, she would feel something abnormal compared to the rest. Forming her hands into an upside down V, she cupped that part of her lower back and applied pressure, causing a very loud pop.

"Woah, didn't expect that much. How'd that feel for you?"

Dash hadn't even heard of cracking joints before as it wasn't very common among ponies. As the sound rattled her skull and she felt the spike of pain she gasped sharply, but the pain faded almost instantly and it felt like every muscle in her back relaxed all at once in ways she hadn't even known they were tense. Her ears splayed out and her wings shivered as she let out a long, quiet moan.

"Ohhh gosh, what was that? For a second I thought you broke something but... oh, Celestia that felt good." She arched her back and wiggled appreciatively, not really considering what that would look like for the human standing behind her.

"I popped your back, that's all. People do it all the time, especially with our knuckles, watch." Coming around, she formed a fist with one and and used her palms to press against the knuckles. Four rapid pops emanated from it and then she stretched them out. "Dunno really how it works exactly, but I think when your body has enough pressure, stuff gets slightly displaced and needs to be popped back into its proper setting. I'll try and learn more about it for you so I don't ever accidentally hurt you."

"Huh... that's weird. I wonder why Aloe and Lotus don't do that..." Her ears folded back and she looked away hurriedly, then rolled her shoulders and sighed. "Well, thanks... I feel so much better, like you wouldn't believe. That rainboom is a lot of stress on the flight muscles... honestly that's most of the reason I do it so rarely. I tried once too soon after the last and straight up couldn't. Had to make up some excuse..." Again she fell awkwardly silent, avoiding the Chief's gaze.

"I see, so you put your body under enormous stress for me, hmm?" Crawling into bed, Barbara pulled the mare closer and let Dash rest against her chest. "I'm glad you did it though. It really was a beautiful thing to see. All those colors and lights, plus how you work with your team. The amount of effort you put in really shows. You should be proud of yourself for that, just don't forget that you can take breaks from it too."

"Thanks, Barbara, and I guess I am proud of it, really." She turned her head slightly to peer at the human out of the corner of her eye. "A-And really, 'take breaks'? I mean, have you met me? Ask anypony around and they'll tell you I spend half the day sleeping in the clouds I'm supposed to be clearing. If anything I need to be working more!" She made a sound like a wet cough or maybe even a choked-off sob, then forced out a dry chuckle.

Her hand scratched at the base of Dash’s neck as she shifted to better face the mare. “Well, maybe I’ll just have to hold my tongue till I get to know you more, but it seems like you need something you aren’t getting.”

Both arms wrapped around the mare to make sure she was as close as she could be to Barbara. In a way, it was like a wing hug, but different.

“No matter what though, you don’t have to hide yourself from me. Cool, nerdy, sappy, whatever you feel and think is a part of who you are and I just happen to think you’re amazing no matter what.”

Dash didn't respond for a long while. If Barbara hadn't been listening to her breathing, she might have assumed she had fallen asleep, but she was just laying there, throat tight and teeth clenched so tight it hurt. Eventually, she forced her muzzle to relax and had to fake a yawn to stretch out her aching jaw and throat.

"Well, that's nice and all... but really you just think the rainboom and my floof is amazing."

“And those are intrinsically attached to you. Only you have those, Dash. But even then, no, that’s not true.” Craning her neck, she kissed Dash on the forehead and stared down into her eyes.

“I’ve already come to know a few things about you. You’re a hard-worker, you’re light-hearted with your friends, you don’t like to burden others, and you are extremely self-aware. I think all of those qualities make you an amazing pony, Dash.”

Saying she was a hard-worker and light-hearted just made Dash prepare another snippy response, but as she continued those words died in her throat and Dash bent her head down, too embarrassed to hold Barbara's gaze. The only pony who had ever noticed how much attention she paid to how her actions affect ponies around her was Twilight, and that egghead had brought it up like it was a flaw she should try to fix.

Unfortunately Dash wasn't sure she could open up to anypony yet, nevermind this strange creature she'd only just met, so the only response Barbara got in return was a slight tremor of the muzzle and an almost unconscious attempt to snuggle deeper into her arms.

Pulling the covers up, she nestled in so her face was level to Dash’s and smiled warmly. Her arms stayed around the Pegasus, keeping her in a good snuggling position.

“So, I am kind of curious... what is it you like about me, Dash? Both umm... both physically and personality wise.”

The pegasus froze, staring wide-eyed at Barbara's face so close to hers. "Uh... I, um... y-you have..." Her muzzle began to darken and she averted her eyes, no longer able to turn her whole head away. Any other time and she'd have had a snappy come back for sure, but this human somehow knew exactly how to knock her off balance every time she tried to get ahold of herself again.

When she finally spoke again, her voice was almost a whisper and she never once raised her gaze to meet Barbara's. "You just... do stuff. Anything. W-Whatever you want. Like, you see something you want to do, you just do it. Doesn't matter if it's silly or embarrassing or stupid or downright crazy... no bucks given."

“Maybe here I do, sure. Ponies don’t seem to be as judgemental, they’re easier to be around.” One of her hands went down to Dash’s belly to rub the soft spot as her smile widens. “But what about physically? What... makes me pretty in your eyes?”

Dash hesitated, took a deep breath, then finally looked up into Barbara's eyes, a trace of her usual smirk on her muzzle. "Yeeaah, I'll keep that one to myself for now."

She wiggling down and in, pressing right up against her chest, then slowly draped a wing over her hip. Finally, she angled her head and tucked her muzzle right up under Barbara's chin, slotting into place like she'd been designed to fit there.

“Oh well, another time I guess.”

With a powerful yawn, Barbara shut her eyes and relaxed herself. Dash’s fluff was plenty warm, making her feel nice and cozy in bed. The night hadn’t gone like she had thought, but there wasn’t anything wrong with that. In fact, she rather enjoyed where she was. Soon enough sleep took her, pulling her into the land of dreams.

Snuggling up with the human was quite comforting and soft, but Dash lay awake for a long time, deep in thought. She needed to decide how she felt about Barbara fast, as she had already said she was going to the village tomorrow, but quick as she was in the air, her mind was far too troubled to come to any rapid decisions. Eventually her mind spun circles in her head long enough to wear itself out and she finally, truly relaxed.

CH17: Prepare for Travel

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On the opposite end of town, Fluttershy had come into town to buy Angel some fresh arugula leaves since he didn't like them after they started to wilt, but she'd overheard somepony mention a new creature had arrived in Ponyville and snuck closer to listen in. When she heard it was friendly she got excited, and when she heard it was recovering in the clinic, she immediately set off to buy it a little present to make it feel better. She had no idea what kind of creature it would be, but everypony loved cupcakes, right?

With the confectionery basket balanced between her wings, she stepped up to the receptionist at the clinic.

"Hello! Yes, I'm here to meet the new creature everypony is--"

The receptionist rolled her eyes and called to a nearby nurse, "Another one for the human!"

"Oh, um, thank you!" The pegasus turned to follow the other pony to a door in the back of the building, thanked the nurse as well, then slowly opened the door, making sure to wear her brightest smile.

She had come just after Rarity dropped off some new clothes for Rohan. He may have been confined to the room, but he was well enough to stand up and try on what she had given him. He had managed to get the boxers and jeans on, but Fluttershy happened to be walking in as he was putting on the shirt. Since he was faced away, he didn’t notice her immediately. She would see his rippling muscles as he raised the white T-shirt over his head to slip it on. It hugged his body to the point that it hid none of his physique.

“Holy-!”

He jumped when he noticed the mare standing in the doorway. Typically the nurse would announce herself, but this time the nurse had just left since it was only Fluttershy.

Fluttershy startled slightly when he shouted, but she recovered quickly and smiled up at the creature. He wasn't like anything she'd ever seen before, except maybe a bit like a minotaur.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you. I, um... I thought you would see the door opening."

She lifted the basket with one wing and slowly held it out to him, careful not to make any sudden movements and keeping her voice calm and soothing.

"I heard you got hurt and I just wanted to bring you a little get-well-soon present. My name is Fluttershy, what's yours?"

She had already learned several things about him just from examining his build and the way he carried himself, thanks to her familiarity with animals.

Carefully taking the basket, he set it aside on the nightstand.

“I am Rohan. Truthfully I am already feeling well though. Thank you for the gift nonetheless.”

He gave a short bow, though he was still much taller and the gesture may have lost some meaning as a result.

Fluttershy was more surprised by his formality than anything else and returned the bow with a little curtsy of her forelegs, bowing her head demurely. When she finished she stepped a little closer, even though it meant craning her neck a bit - she wanted him to be comfortable around her.

"Oh yes, you're looking very well, but sometimes things can suddenly go wrong again with no warning and it's nice to be sure. I'm sure you'll be free to visit Ponyville soon!"

She was reasonably confident she had his measure now and slowly spread her wings, floating up to hover just below eye level.

"Would you like to try a cupcake with me? I wasn't sure what you would like so I tried to find something I know everypony loves, and Pinkie really is quite good at cupcakes, but I haven't tasted these ones yet."

He studied her for a long moment. She had softer features than some of the others he had seen, a kind smile, and she was very soft-spoken. There were only a handful of reasons one might be like that, though he didn’t want to assume anything about her.

“I suppose I could, I haven’t eaten very much yet today.”

Pulling one out of the basket, he found it was different than what he had smelled. He figured it would be a pastry like he was used to, but the frosting gave him pause. After smelling it more closely, he realized it was some sort of sweet topping and took a small bite of it.

“Mmmph, this is even sweeter than honey bread. It’s quite nice, thank you.”

She fetched one for herself and ate a delicate nibble at the same time he tried his, then beamed at him.

"You're very welcome! I'm glad they're as good as always. I'm always tempted to try them first, just in case, but then anypony would see there's a cupcake missing and that might make somepony feel bad."

She took another small bite and slowly settled onto the bed beside him at a respectful distance, judging his reaction.

"...If you don't mind my asking, what should I call your people? I know almost all the critters living in this part of Equestria, even most of those in the Everfree Forest, but I've never seen anything like you before."

“Humans. I take it that one of my guesses was right and you are a caretaker of sorts.”

It made sense to him that a soft, quiet mare would take care of animals.

“I suppose it’s probably a good thing that I met you then. Our village has a few animals that we try our best to take care of, but it’s still quite difficult. Maybe you could give me some tips to take home.”

"Oh! You have some creatures of your own?"

She sat up, spreading her wings partially in her excitement and one brushed Rohan's arm, making her blush and pull the wing back timidly.

"S-Sorry... they have a mind of their own sometimes. But oh, I was just so excited! Can you describe them for me, please? If they're new creatures like you I would just love to meet them, but even if not, I've never heard of any creature trying to tame and domesticate wild critters except for ponies."

She stopped suddenly and looked at him pensively.

"...I think maybe I was wrong to think you were a new critter I should befriend and take care of. You're polite, intelligent, well spoken, kind... why, you're more like a pony than some civilized creatures I've met!"

“Thank you, I’ve found ponies to be nothing if not hospitable thus far. Now, let’s see... we have the wolves I found as pups within the forest. Their mother had been killed by a serpent. We have some boars, great big ones at that. And lastly we have something like a chicken with lizard-like features that can turn others to stone with a gaze.”

The last one seemed to shock and scare Fluttershy. She knew well what kind of harm a cockatrice could bring, as did the man. Though her expression had caused him to chuckle a little.

“Worry not, we have found an herbal mix hat cures “petrification,” as our priest calls it. They are still hard to deal with, but we have no hens for eggs.”

Fluttershy still seemed a little shaken and almost seemed to shrink into herself.

"That's good... I had such a scare not long ago when three fillies I was taking care of managed to sneak out at night and were being chased by one of those cockatrices on the edge of the forest."

She shivered and wrapped her wings around her torso.

"I managed to get the thing under control in time, but it was so close... the fillies and I were almost turned to stone."

“It’s not a pleasant process, I know. That’s why I’d rather be rid of them and have proper hens, but we take what we can get. Much like everything else in the village...”

Shaking his head, he pushed away those thoughts and focused back on the animals in his care.

“There are two wolves in my care currently. Skoll and Hati, named after a couple of wolves from our smith’s homeland. They can be quite the handful and don’t allow many people near them. In fact, the only seem to respond positively to me. Some others they tolerate and the rest are not allowed anywhere near.”

The pegasus brightened immediately, ears perking excitedly.

"Well that's perfectly normal for wolves. They're pack animals you see, so their instincts tell them to latch onto the alpha wolf and follow that wolf's lead in all things, but most of that is directed by body language. Skoll and Hati obviously consider you the alpha, but since you're not a wolf they can't make manes or tails of your body language, so they can't tell who you want to be friends! Here, stand up and face me."

The bemused human did as she said, a little surprised at the sudden torrent of information. Fluttershy eyed him critically, then directed him to make several small changes in the way he held himself, the way he looked at her, and most importantly, where he directed his eyes. She made it clear his eyes were very important.

"Yes, there you go. Just like that. See how you're sort of smaller and acting a little meek, almost like you're intimidated by me, but being careful not to do that fearful thing with your eyes that I was talking about? You approach any creature looking like this and little Skolly and Hatty will be best friends in no time!"

“That would be very helpful, I need them to be able to work with others.”

His demeanor shifted and he deflated as he sat back down. With a sigh, he rubbed his face.

“Because they don’t trust others, nobody can take them on hunts but me. Wish I didn’t even have to do that, but it’s hunt or starve...”

Rohan stared down at his hands in quiet contemplation. He cursed that fate, having to kill so many animals in order to feed the village. It was never like that before, only in the forest where it felt like nature was out to get them at every turn.

"Oh... I see. You raised them to help you hunt. Yes, of course..."

She had quickly realized that Rohan was accustomed to fighting from his upper body muscles and the scars she had seen as he donned his shirt, and later she had noticed his sharp canines when he smiled, so she knew he must be at least omnivorous like Harry the Bear. If he had casually stated 'it's hunt or starve' she might have distrusted it, but the weary lines across his face made it clear he hated killing to survive.

Fluttershy thought what she might do in such a world. What if she mysteriously found herself in a world with no grass to graze on and no land to farm? Could she kill to keep from starving? She didn't think she could, but then, she wasn't starving now... Even worse, what if it was a whole GROUP of ponies and they all turned to her to use her knowledge of animals to keep them all from dying? She couldn't let all her friends die, too, she'd HAVE to kill!

So distressing was the thought, and the human looked so weary and tired that Fluttershy felt her eyes begin to brim over. Before she knew what she was doing she had wrapped the human's shoulders in a cocoon of wings and hooves, trying to hold back the tears as she nuzzled the old, sad human, murmuring nonsense apologies for what he had had to do to save his people.

He didn’t fight the embrace, not with his thoughts where they were. It had been so long since he and his mind were able to live in relative peace. It was different back then. Back then all he had to do was protect.

Raising a hand, he pat her shoulder and sighed deeply. He was going to do what he always did: pick himself up and keep going. At least now his people had something to hope for and work towards.

“Thank you, Fluttershy. With any luck, we will eventually return to a life where we can live off our crops. Where we don’t have to worry about the monsters outside our walls or a lack of food.”

Fluttershy sniffled and relaxed a little but she stayed close and kept a wing draped over his shoulders because he still looked like he needed it.

"Don't you worry Rohan, I just know Twilight will figure out a way to help you. Oh, she's so smart, really... If anypony could help you live in safety, it's her."

She laid her head on his shoulder and tucked her muzzle up against his neck. She knew how nice it felt because Rainbow Dash did just the same for her whenever she was feeling truly horrible - and when nopony else was around to see, of course.

"And I'll do my part, too, helping you with your animals as much as I can. We'll all help you, Rohan, me and my friends..."

The touch felt comforting to him, if for no other reason than she had a warm, fluffy body. Tentatively, he brought his hand up to scratch behind her ear the way that he did with his two pups, though he stopped quickly.

“Sorry, it reminded me of what Hati does and I always scratch him behind the ear for it,” he explained hastily.

Now that he was thinking of it, he had a female that was all over him in an attempt to comfort him. While he wanted to tell himself that ponies were different than people, cultural upbringing was not easy to toss aside. Had he been seen like this with a woman, anyone would have guessed he was betrothed to her. As a result, he started to blush deeply.

She felt it was time to let him go almost before he shifted in her hooves. She knew from experience the rush of cold air after a downy wing hug could be very unpleasant so she released him slowly, then quickly realized she had somehow embarrassed him and got flustered and froze in place. She couldn't decide whether to let him go to avoid making it worse or hug him again to apologize properly!

Finally she snapped her wings shut and let out a nervous, "Eep! Sorry!"

“N-no, it’s not your fault, it’s entirely my own.” With her no longer clinging to him, Rohan was able to calm the storm of thoughts swirling in his head. It didn’t completely finish his blush, but it allowed him the ability to think clearly. “Am I right in assuming ponies are a bit more... physically affectionate?”

"Um, well... I don't really know. I know as much about your culture as you do about mine," she made a tiny gesture to the room with one hoof, "...probably less, actually."

Her mane had fallen across her face and she smiled abashedly through it, her ears splayed apologetically.

"Don't you humans hug and comfort each other when you see somepony needs it?"

“W-well, that’s actually reserved for family and married couples. Humans, ah... typically do this...”

He places a hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder and simply sat there. It was supposed to tell the other person that one might be there to help them, should they need it. Unfortunately, to a culture that nuzzles, hugs, and has a multitude of ways to show simple affection through touch, Rohan’s display was close to nothing.

“I didn’t mind your hug, mind you, I had realized that it may mean different things and then I started to think about what other people would think and-“

It had been years since he found himself flustered enough to ramble. Nobody seemed to get the better of him in that way, yet this kind pony brought him there in an instant. Finally, he simply shut up and muttered an apology for rambling.

Fluttershy looked down at his hand on her shoulder and her ears began to droop at the thought of a whole species that never touched more than this... but then she looked up into his eyes and felt an odd sort of connection she'd never experienced before. It was as if some inner piece of her private self was being drawn out along his arm and into the open, only instead of feeling exposed, his gaze only instilled in her a deep sense of calm and safety. She blushed and slowly lifted a hoof to her shoulder, laying it over his hand.

She held his gaze like that until he broke it, looking away and mumbling something about rambling, and she couldn't help but utter a small gasp at the sudden loss. She looked away then, too, the pink around her muzzle spreading all the way to her ears.

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from her, though a grin spread across his face. Soon he was laughing to himself and it was a good couple of minutes before he calmed himself.

The mare had been so flustered by that strange sensation that she couldn't help but giggle helplessly with him and the tension between them shattered. When their fit of laughter finally subsided, Fluttershy was surprised by how close she was to Rohan.

“I apologize, I found it amusing that I accidentally dragged you into my silly thoughts about cultural taboos. That was probably not a good topic for our first meeting, no?”

His smile stayed, which seemed to make her smile too. As he sat there, he looked up at the door and an idea hatched in his head.

“Fluttershy, you are well known in this town for taking care of all manner of creatures. Do you think it possible to get the healers to release me into your care?”

She smiled shyly and nodded to him. "I could probably convince them, but I should warn you..." Her tone seemed to shift subtly, somehow gaining a sense of authority without getting any louder or harsher. Rohan was reminded of an elder he knew as a child who never rose his voice above a low murmur, yet would instantly have the undivided attention of an entire room the moment he spoke.

"If you become my patient I will be taking this seriously. You will most likely fully recover with no issues, but if anything does go wrong, I expect you to do as I say immediately and without argument, even if you don't understand why. Is that understood?"

“Understood, I will do as you say, when you say it.”

It was lucky for him that Barbara wasn’t there, otherwise she would have a few teasing words for the man. He stared into Fluttershy’s eyes, ensuring that he was not lying and that he fully understood the consequences. Like the elder, her authority wasn’t just some idle threat. No, he could feel that she would be fully capable of ensuring the promise was met.

It seemed as if her very presence in the room relaxed, though Rohan hadn't initially noticed anything change except her voice.

"Wonderful! Just wait here, I'll be right back."

She trotted casually down the hall and spoke with one of the nurses, who fetched Rohan's doctor. He immediately recognized Fluttershy and was happy to release Rohan into her care, as monitoring patients simply for protocol's sake when everypony knew well enough he was fine simply wasted their time and their rooms. He quickly showed her Rohan's charts and formalized the patient exchange.

Fluttershy returned to his room and tucked his papers into the side of the basket she'd brought earlier.

"All done! Now as your doctor, I'll stay with you and actively monitor you out in the town, so don't leave my side for more than a moment until at least moonrise. Additionally no strenous activities for one full day and take special care that you stay well hydrated for at least three days."

She hovered up beside him and gently laid a hoof on his shoulder, as he had done earlier.

"Aside from those three rules, we're free to do whatever you want."

He smiled at her touch, and the laughter from before threatened to come back again. It wasn’t something that was even particularly funny, yet it still made him grin like an idiot.

“Of course, though I know close to nothing of the place you call home. With that being the case, I’ll gladly follow your lead, Doctor.”

She mirrored his big, dorky grin and turned away before she broke down giggling again, dropped to her hooves again and slowly leading them out of the clinic. She wasn't quite sure what they would do together, but from the way Rohan stared in wonder at something as simple as a lamp post, it didn't seem like they'd be bored anytime soon.

Lodestone sighed, struggling not to lose his temper with a bucking Princess of all ponies.

"Yes, Twilight, I promise I really can carry that much weight, just like the last five times you asked me that."

He decided to change tactics, thinking perhaps she would respond better to an appeal to logic.

"Surely you must have heard of skycranes? I work on mineral digs and routinely carry an entire pallet of solid stone for nearly an hour straight. I'm not trying to brag or anything, I just don't want to waste any more time with you not believing me. I mean, just look at my barrel!"

He stretched his wing up and forward, making his abnormally dense flight muscles ripple and bulge against his skin.

"Well, yeah,... obviously," Twilight said, but it sounded like she wasn't quite sure. "But that's still a lot! Isn't that a lot?" She examined her calculations of weight and then looked at the pile of stuff again. "I think that's a lot..."

Granite, who had been watching their exchange at first with a somewhat awed, reverential expression and then with more and more amusement, giggled quietly. "No, Princess. Lodestone really can carry all that. I've seen him fly. He's amazing..." That last part was a bit quieter while the mare was making starry-eyes at the pegasus.

"Are you sure?" Twilight said, still a bit disbelieving, "It wouldn't be a problem to ask a few more pegasi for help." She sighed and apparently gave up. "I mean, if you're sure..." Her eyes wandered over the pile again. "That still seems like a lot for one pony."

"Alright, here, maybe this will help." He pointed to where she had calculated the total shipment weight, then grabbed her a fresh sheet of parchment. "Remember that weight. Now I don't know any exact numbers, but I can give you some rough estimates to calculate from... Hold out your hoof please. Now this weight that I'm pressing into your hoof is approximately the weight of a cube of marble as wide as my hoof. A pallet of marble is a square about as wide as from here... to here, and about half as tall. I'm crap at math, but I'm sure you can do some back of the envelope calculations to get a rough idea of what that pallet weighs. Compare the weight you get to the weight of the shipment, then remember I said I routinely carry a pallet like that for nearly an hour." He sat back and waited, hoping to the twin sisters she'd believe him this time.

Twilight stared, wide-eyed, at her hoof, even after Lodestone had let it go. "That's... wow. I don't know if I've ever seen a pony who could fly with all that!" She brightened up immediately. "You have to come to my castle and let me run some experiments!" It looked as if her weight problem simply vanished with that, now that the alicorn had a new project and research to pursue.

He stared at the still-blank parchment for a moment and seemed like he would say something, then shrugged to himself. "It's not that special... I'm not much stronger than your average skycrane."

Her abrupt change of tone made Granite laugh again. "Yeah, sure! Tea with the Princess! We'll be there, won't we, Lodestone?" The young earth pony just had to make a half-step so she could nudge the stallion's rump with her own.

His wings shuffled awkwardly and he flicked Granite lightly with his tail.

Mayor Mare, who had been wishing she had some popcorn, stepped up to Granite and reached toward Twilight for the shipment checklist, which immediately floated into her hoof.

"Now then, this is your area of expertise, little mare. We know the weight limits of the shipment now, we just need you to look over the list so far and make sure it's a good selection."

She gave the mare a friendly nuzzle as she was obviously nervous about the attention suddenly focused on her.

"I'm sure you know better than I do, but I imagine you don't want any seeds that are planted in Spring since we just entered Summer, and you want the right tools for the crops they have now and will plant next, not tools that they won't use until Autumn. Can you do that for me, Ms. Granite?"

"Oh... o-okay," Granite mumbled, suddenly the center of attention and not liking all that much. She blushed a bit, but hurriedly grabbed the paper and started reading it with fierce concentration.

Twilight watched for a moment, with a slight grin of approval - anypony who used lists was a good pony in her book. "Okay," the Princess went on to explain, "that means we only need to rent one carriage, rather than two-"

Her quill floated up to make an adjustment on her own to-do list. "Actually, scratch that- we can use the other one to transport the humans."

The alicorn looked around vaguely, thinking. "Maybe Rainbow Dash will want to pull that one with maybe another pegasus. We'll have to see - or we can hire somepony. Aaand-"

She scanned the paper, then smiled. "I guess that's everything. Mrs. Mayor - can you arrange for the carriage while I find Rainbow Dash and ask her?"

"Well of course! I'll have everything prepared and ready at noon by the southern road."

She sat beside Granite and gave her another nuzzle, just in case. She didn't want to be some intimidating authority figure behind a tall desk, she wanted to be a pony you could trust and be honest with if you had a problem with the town.

Lodestone politely caught Twilight's attention as she turned away. "Um, I don't think you're going to want to disturb Rainbow Dash until the morning." He tapped his hooves together awkwardly. "I think she and Barbara have a... a thing now, and last I saw they were headed to your castle for a bath and presumably, uh... 'sleep'."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, even before engaging her brain. A moment later realization dawned and she turned slightly more pink around the muzzle. "Oh! OH!" She giggled nervously and faced away, as if inspecting the horizon. "Yes, I understand. Okay, so we'll ask Rainbow Dash later, but I think it's a safe bet she'll want to come. That only leaves another pegasus." The alicorn was all thoughtful again, now that she had a problem to solve. "I wonder whom we could ask?"

Meanwhile Granite has finished her list and cleared her throat nervously. "Um," the mare said, managing a voice very much like Fluttershy's. She coughed and spoke up with her normal voice once more: "I think this is all okay, except maybe we should take another couple of trowels and maybe some more wheat. Another pack of carrots wouldn't go amiss, too, even if it's getting a bit late for them. The way stuff grows in their village looks almost... magical."

"No need for all the 'maybe's, you're more knowledgeable than anypony else here. Even if you're not certain, it's better than our blind guesses!"

The Mayor gave her a reassuring smile, then marked down the changes she had suggested, adjusting the ratios of a couple other things to fit within Lodestone's allotted weight.

"And that's it, we're all settled. Just need Barbara to pay for it tomorrow before they leave and they're good to go."

Lodestone bowed his head politely, though he knew neither of them required such formality, and set a wing around Granite's withers.

"Alright, we'll see you then. If you need us, I have a room at the Golden Pony paid for by my bosses."

"Oh," Twilight said, but then appeared thoughtful. "What was your employment, Lodestone? I don't think you'll be able to keep doing it, especially if you will be helping these humans. Maybe I can write to Princess Celestia and get you on the Castle payroll for the duration of this... hmm, 'project'."

She was about to walk off, then thought of another thing. "Maybe I should also write a letter to your - bosses, was it - and explain things, so they don't worry. Is it a joint company or something?"

Granite quickly grew disinterested by this business talk, so she amused herself by nuzzling the pegasus and occasionally licking him on withers and muzzle.

"Just tell me the name of the company and I'll explain everything, so you don't have to bother. I know how tricky bosses can be!" Twilight said, even though she didn't, not really. Her only 'boss' had been Celestia and that was a different dynamic.

Lodestone waved a hoof dismissively.

"Oh, I'm not worried about staying with this company; they're total scumbags. They wanted me to come and scout out the forest as a potential dig site but there's no way in tartarus I'm letting them find out about the humans' crystal cave, they'd exploit the hay out of it... might even leave the humans to die."

He trailed off thoughtfully and hadn't seemed to notice how intensely Twilight and the Mayor had focused on him. He shrugged his shoulders and looked at Granite.

"Second we stepped hoof in that cave, I knew I was done at that company. First chance I got once we returned here, I prepared a report that meticulously describes exactly how little solid stonework the forest contains. Oughta keep those stormclouds at bay for a long while."

The Mayor couldn't wait any longer and barked out, "Their names Lodestone. What are their names!?"

He looked sharply at her, confused by her sudden shift in tone. "Uh... Flim and Flam, why?"

"Fl..." Twilight shook her head and tried again: "Flim and Flam?! Those two good-for-nothing confidence-tricksters?!" She looked like she was about to explode in range and it made Granite moo in alarm and try to hide behind Lodestone.

The alicorn spent several long seconds just trying to breathe deeply. "Flim and Flam have been a... problem for Ponyville on numerous occasions, Lodestone. Do not have any more dealings with them. In fact-" The Princess pointed a trembling hoof at the stallion, "I insist you move to the castle right now! You won't get further indebted to- to those two, understand?!" Twilight rubbed her muzzle with her hoof and let out a sigh. "Stay away from them. That's the best advice anypony can give you about Flim and Flam!"

It was painfully obvious that there was some bad history between the unicorn duo and the Princess of Friendship.

"Y-Yeah, of course, yes ma'am," Lodestone stammered. He knew better than to argue a direct order from a princess, no matter how well he knew the company. "So... you mean to tell me Flim and Flam have already pulled their shit here?" The looks on their faces was answer enough and he continued, his expression confused, almost disbelieving, "...and they managed to avoid any serious consequences after pissing off a bucking Alicorn Princess!?"

The Mayor scowled and practicaly spat the words at Lodestone, "They're rotten through, but they know their stuff. They were very careful to never technically break any laws."

"Believe me!" Twilight said in an exasperated voice, "If I could find anything... One single thing, I would have them in front of Princess Celestia before you could say 'foul play'! There's nothing, even with how they acted..." The alicorn really seemed distressed. "I mean- I know they're bad, but I can't throw them in jail without proof. That's just tyranny."

She forcibly relaxed and even managed a small smile. "Just stay away from them and - you were right - never tell them about the humans and their village. Who knows what those two might get it into their heads to do!"

Twilight still looked a little upset, judging by the way her wings rustled every now and then and her tail swished. "I'll- I'll go check on your human friend in the hospital," she finally proclaimed and walked off. It seemed that was it for the day - like Twilight had said, everything should be prepared for tomorrow's flight back.

"O-Okay... I'm sorry, Princess!" He called out after her then turned apologetically to the Mayor, but she cut him off with a wave of her hoof and gave him a tight smile.

"You've nothing to apologize for, it's just... bad memories, is all. Your heart's in the right place and you've already done exactly what I'd have wanted with that false report of yours." She sighed and slumped to her haunches. "And don't worry, Twilight feels the same. In fact, she'll actually think even more highly of you after the way you've handled them... but she'll need some time with her books to calm down. Feel free to move into the castle, I'm sure Spike or Starlight will be happy to show you around."

"Castle?!" Granite gasped suddenly, as if she hadn't understood the invitation until now. "You mean- we move out of the hotel and into a friggin' castle?!" The mare hugged Lodestone in a grip like vice and peppered his muzzle with small kisses. "That's so cool! Guys at home will never believe I stayed in a castle! With an Alicorn Princess!" She even did a little prancing jig. "This is so amazing!!"

They couldn't help but laugh at her enthusiasm and Lodestone was glad Mayor Mare looked more relaxed after a bit of a giggle. He waved farewell and let Granite pull him excitedly outside, then chuckled as a thought occured to him.

"You know... you and I are basically ambassadors to the human species now, and they think we're practically holy beings. We probably should be in the castle, not some dingy hotel."

He adopted a casually snooty manner and looked down his muzzle at Granite, speaking with an over-exaggerated posh accent and barely holding back his laughter.

"For that matter, perhaps tomorrow we should have a discussion with the Chief and have our sleeping quarters moved somewhere a little more befitting our status, yes?"

The cowpoke laughed at the impression and the face Lodestone was making until her eyes watered. "Quit it!" she managed to gasp out between breaths, "Too... funny."

She even had to lean against the stallion to stay upright, snorting as the giggles subsided.

Since Granite was already holding the stallion, it was a simple matter to steal a kiss. "I don't think I'm good at aristocracy. I don't know how to speak, or how to act. If you put me in front of a salad with more than one fork, I wouldn't know what to do and probably starve to death."

This time the mare giggled at her own joke, before shaking her head. "Nah, I'm just a cowpoke from the rump-end of nowhere. I don't think fancy life is for me. I'd get bored."

He had broken down laughing as well and responded to her kiss with a quick nibble of her ear.

"Well, maybe you wouldn't like all the snooty dress parties and such, but we'll see what you think of the fancy life after spending a night in the Castle of Friendship."

They meandered through the town in the general direction of the castle, stopping occasionally to window shop or grab a small snack that caught their fancy, but mostly just idly enjoying each others' company. Lodestone told all his stories from being the night security at Flim and Flam co - which was a total of two stories - and Granite managed to dredge up some stories from her home town that actually sounded kind of nice. Lodestone was a little worried about eventually bringing her back to visit, but at least she was doing something important now and wouldn't need to stay.

At the rate they were going they probably wouldn't even get to the castle until almost night time.

CH18: Crumbling Defenses

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When Fluttershy and Rohan left the hospital, they were met with the gazes of many curious ponies. However, since the press knew Barbara was the leader between the two, they opted to simply take their pictures and give him some room rather than pestering him with more questions. Fluttershy, needing some supplies for dinner, took him through the market as quick as she could, since it was getting rather crowded. Rohan was used to the markets of his own home and noticed all the eyes on him, some curious, some "curious," and some in open awe. It was only once they left the market that Rohan began to feel at ease again.

"There are quite a few ponies living here, it seems. Is this a famous trade town, perhaps? Or maybe it is because of that great big crystal tree that ponies want to live here..."

Fluttershy shook her head with a giggle, "Oh, Ponyville is just a small town, kind of like suburbs for the royal city of Canterlot."

She pointed with a wing to the nearby mountain, where the royal castle could just barely be seen jutting out from the side of the mountain.

"We do have our castle of friendship of course, but that's kind of new... everypony is still adjusting to it. Manehatten and Fillydelphia are much bigger and louder and there are so many more ponies... and they all move so fast..."

Her voice gradually slowed and weakened as she spoke, lowering her head until her mane covered her muzzle like a protective mask.

"I can't imagine... This is about as big as my home was before the forest, and ours was a trade hub. Nearly five hundred people in it."

His eyes wandered over the town, taking in the architecture and the beautiful flowers that adorned most of them. In truth, it was far grander than either of the homes he had come to know. There was something missing in ponyville though.

"Fluttershy, I've not seen any guards throughout this whole town. Who protects this place?"

"...Um, guards?" She looked up at him, her confusion distracting her from fearful thoughts of the big city. "Why would Ponyville need guards? The royal guard protects the Royal Palace in Canterlot... I think because it has a lot of artifacts, maybe... and they guard the Crystal Kingdom Castle, but... I'm not really sure why, since King Sombra is safely locked away." Fluttershy hesitated, looking a little doubtful, then shrugged. "I guess even if we don't really need guards, it's good to keep them around in case we ever do..."

"Exactly. Someone may break a law or you may be attacked by a beast from that forest. It would be better to be prepared than not." He noticed that they were headed out of the town fully. Within minutes, they would be on a path that led towards a rather remote area. He assumed it was because of her animals, whatever she had. "Ponies are helping humans, so maybe there is a way that we could send some men to guard ponies from all manner of beasts."

"Break a law?" Fluttershy frowned thoughtfully, her muzzle scrunching with distaste. "I've heard of ponies that will do stuff like that... like maybe sneak in at night and steal somepony's bit pouch, but those are just rumors from Manehatten and other big cities. I don't think anypony here would do that."

She looked around her at the little houses on the edge of town. They were old and a little shabby, but the road was clean and the ponies they passed seemed friendly enough. She shook her head stubbornly.

"No, I can't even imagine somepony doing that in a place like this. The worst thing I've ever heard of is a little bullying among the foals. Mares and stallions know better than to trot all over somepony else."

"Perhaps ponies are simply different, but humans who were in bad situations would do many things they might not have otherwise. Still, the beasts in the forest could come through, no?"

It wouldn't be the first time. The ursa-minor was one such time when something truly dangerous from the forest came to Ponyville. If guards had been watching, they may have stopped the foals from going into the forest to get the bear in the first place.

"Regardless, we will have to find a way to repay your kind properly for the help it is giving so far. Had I no need to stay and protect the village, I would see to that myself."

"Oh, please don't feel like you owe us for this!" She flew up in front of him, making him stop and meet her gaze, her expression earnest. "We're not helping you to force you into any kind of debt, we're helping you because you're nice and it's the right thing to do." She drifted closer and pressed a hoof into his chest, smiling gently. The sun reflected brilliantly off her coat and she almost seemed to be radiating a tender warmth at him. "We just want to be your friends, Rohan, and you're supposed to help friends when they're in trouble."

"That's exactly why I must repay the kindness bestowed upon me. If everyone learned to be kind for the sake of being kind, then you would find a world where everyone helps each other. It's my belief that it starts with repaying acts of kindness. Not because you owe them, but because you can make their life better, as they did for you."

Rohan's friendly smile faltered as he stared at her longer. There was something about her that he couldn't make sense of. A kind of beauty all her own that was not like he had imagined as a younger man. Far too late, he realized where his thoughts were taking him and that he had been staring for too long.

"Ahem, Yes, well, all the same, humans should find a way to get closer to ponies too."

When he broke his gaze away from hers, she lightly floated back away from him, feeling strangely breathless. For a brief moment there had been a look in his eye that she couldn't place. It had almost felt like he was hungry for her... but that couldn't be, could it?

She settled onto her hooves and they walked in an awkward silence for a while, but then her musing was interrupted as a distressed looking squirrel leapt out of a nearby bush and began chittering frantically.

Her wings twitched nervously, empathizing with the critter's anxiety, and she held out a hoof as if to ward off the flurry of information.

"Oh! Oh my, um, wait... please, slow down, what?"

The squirrel stopped, shook itself, then in a slightly more controlled chitter, it explained that just as its mate had leapt from one tree to the next, a gust of wind shook the tree and she had grabbed only one small leaf and there wasn't a branch below to scramble to so she had fallen from very high up and hit the ground badly and was laying twitching and wouldn't get up and begged her to come quick, help, please save his mate and oldest friend!

Fluttershy blinked, slowly processing everything it had told her, then tensed and stared up at Rohan fearfully.

"I n-need to go! Um, follow me if you want."

Then she turned back to the squirrel and whispered urgently, "Run!" and she tore through the bushes after it.

It took him a moment to even process what he had just seen. The mare seemed to have talked to the squirrel! That made him question so many things, but he shelved the questions for the moment and followed after her. After all, her cottage was on the edge of the everfree and he could not, in good conscience, leave her alone. Even if he didn't have his sword, he would do whatever it took to protect her should something happen.

The squirrel was much faster than them in the dense underbrush at the edge of the forest but it stopped every few seconds to poke its head up from inside a bush or around a tree trunk to make sure Fluttershy was still following. It didn't seem bothered by the massive creature lumbering along behind her - if it was with Fluttershy, it was safe.

Within a minute, the pegasus nearly stumbled over the poor creature. She squeaked with alarm and flared her wings and to keep her balance as she suddenly pulled up short, then immediately bent low over the broken little thing to coo soft words of comfort while carefully assessing the damage.

To Rohan, who had been struggling to keep up and could barely see her through the leaves, it would look as if she had reared up in sudden alarm and was now cowering with her hooves over her muzzle.

"What?! Is something there?!"

Rohan readied himself to fight and stood over her protectively. Looking around, he didn't see anything that should have caused her any fear, nor did he hear anything unusual. When he finally looked down, he noticed that she was actually bent over an injured squirrel. Relaxing himself, he stepped to the side and stared down.

"If you would like, I can easily carry it without jostling it much. It would be safer at your home than out here, no?"

Fluttershy slowly raised her head to look at him, ears drooping, muzzle trembling, and Rohan knew there was no use carrying it. Tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes as she turned back to the first squirrel, who was watching her anxiously, his little paws clasped at his chest. A sob silently shook her tiny frame, then a pathetic little voice choked out of her muzzle.

"I'm so... so s-sorry... I c-can't..."

The squirrel looked down at the twisted, twitching body of it's mate, then back up to her. She flinched from his gaze and hiccupped quietly.

"S-She... she's already... oh!"

She flung herself away, bursting through the leaves beside Rohan and galloping back the way they came, her wretched cries echoing through the forest behind her.

It was a good while before Rohan left that part of the forest to head back towards Fluttershy's cottage. From the look of things, she had rushed through the door and left it ajar. He was a little surprised to see that the inside of her home was basically dedicated to animals, what with all the bird houses, food bowls, and the mouse hole in the wall. But as he walked through, he noticed all of them gathered at what he assumed was the door to her room. Birds, rodents, snakes, lizards, and even a bear, of all things, barred his entrance. Upon smelling Fluttershy's scent on him though, they stepped aside to let the strange creature go by.

Putting his ear to the door, he could clearly hear the sound of her sobs. With a deep breath he pushed the door open and made his way inside. He made sure to keep the other animals back, at least for the moment, as he shut the door behind him and approached the bed. She didn't immediately face him when he sat on the bed, but she did react to the feel of his hand on her shoulder.

"Fluttershy? I'm sorry about the squirrel, I wish there had been a way to save him but I don't think that even the best healers could have done anything. The fates... simply decided that it was time."

If she were to look back, she would notice that his hands were covered in dirt and his nails were cracked. Small drops of blood oozed just under the surface of them, though he was careful not to rub that into her coat.

The poor mare sniffled and wiped her muzzle with a hoof, then lowered her head and nodded slowly.

"I know... it's n-not the death that b-bothers me. When you're around this m-many animals, some little critter dies every other day."

She hiccupped and let out a pitiful little squeak, wiping her muzzle again.

"You just get used to it eventually. No... the hard part is looking into that p-poor squirrel's eyes after he t-tried so hard to s-save her and... a-and saying..."

It was too much. Her whole body tensed up into itself, eyes closed, jaw clenched, hooves curled, wings trembling. Then such a horrid cry tore out of her throat and she threw herself at Rohan, clutching desperately with hoof, wing, snout, anything, seeking whatever comfort she could find in the warmth of his body.

He tensed when she grabbed him at first, but slowly he wrapped his arms around her and pulled the mare into his lap. Gently, and with the less dirty hand, he stroked her mane and rocked her back and forth.

"Shhhh, sh sh shhh, I'm here for you."

He didn't really know how to respond to what she said. He'd told so many people about the death of a hunter that was outside the walls, or when people died during a roc attack.

"When I, uh... I have to tell people their family member died, I always leave them with some kind of prayer. I know... that you're still hurting, but would you follow me back out there? Please?"

She didn't respond for a long while and simply laid limply in his lap. The sensation of his fingers flowing through her mane was so nice it almost felt wrong to enjoy it in her current state, but it gradually eased her tension and helped her bring her breathing under control.

Finally she murmured, "I don't know... what if he's still there? What if that little squirrel is still just standing there, clutching his l-little paws..." She broke off and took a long, shuddering breath, then raised her head to meet his gaze. "No, you're right. Even if... we should show respect and I should apologize and do what I can to help him." Her eyes fell back to her hooves. "Because right now that poor squirrel must feel even worse than me..."

"I'm hoping he is still there, I asked him to stay, not knowing if he could understand me like he can you."

Holding Fluttershy in his arms, he lifted her up and carried her so that she would continue to feel his supportive embrace. For her, it might have been reminiscent of stories where a princes carries the damsel in distress away. As he drew nearer and nearer to the forest, he set her down and let her walk alongside him. The squirrel was indeed still there, as well as a little mound that made up his mates grave. Fluttershy would know that she squirrel wouldn't have been able to dig the hole to bury his mate in.

"Thank you for staying, erm... Mr. Squirrel. As promised, I will let you part ways with her more properly."

Rohan knelt down by the grave and clasped his hands together. When he spoke, it was in a tongue that neither Fluttershy nor the squirrel would recognize. His hands held a faint glow to them and magical runes appeared on his chest under his shirt. As they formed together, it made the shape of the face of a wolf. Once his chant was complete, he placed his hands on the grave and it lit up. The very spirit of the squirrel rose from the grave to stand in front of her mate.

"There, you have about a minute to properly say goodbye."

Fluttershy gasped and fell heavily to her haunches, causing the spirit to look up at her. Recognition flashed across its translucent features and it turned to the squirrel with an apologetic smile. The squirrel sniffed the air and reached out tentatively with a paw, but it passed through the spirit and distorted the ethereal shape like mist. It seemed to concentrate intensely and only just managed to hold its form together. It stepped forward and gently laid a hand on the squirrels cheek with a tender, forgiving smile, holding that smile as it began to drift slowly apart, dispersing into the breeze.

The squirrel followed the floating particles through the air long after they had vanished from sight, but eventually it stopped and just stood there, staring in the direction it had flown. Fluttershy choked on a little sob, then got to her hooves and stepped up behind the squirrel and touched its shoulder with the tip of a wing. It turned around and they gazed at each other for a few seconds, then Fluttershy scooped him up in her hooves and hugged him tightly to her chest, both of them making little squeaks of distress.

Finally, Fluttershy set the squirrel down and flew up to Rohan. Her eyes were still brimming with tears, but she smiled at him, set her hoof on his shoulder as she had done in the clinic, and silently mouthed, 'thank you.'

Nodding, Rohan watched the squirrel for a moment longer. He wondered just how much the squirrel understood of what just happened. He didn't have to wonder for long: it hugged his leg fiercely before sitting back down in front of the grave. Taking that as his cue to leave, Rohan started to make his way out of the forest. He didn't know what to say, or even if he should say anything about what had just happened.

With nowhere else to go, the pair headed towards the cottage. Rohan's gaze kept shifting over towards the pegasus, both to make sure she was okay and that she was still there. Each time their eyes would meet, he would avert his gaze immediately, feeling supremely awkward in a way he'd never felt around anyone else.

Fluttershy was silent as they walked to her cottage, but she watched Rohan intensely, as if he were a puzzle she couldn't solve but stubbornly refused to give up on. She didn't really know what she was looking for, but the way he kept glancing at her then averting his eyes was oddly flattering, and she couldn't understand that feeling either.

He followed her into her cottage and she gestured a wing at her little couch, then gently nuzzled some of the more worried critters, murmuring her reassurances. She left Rohan as she put a small kettle on and put some bread, cheese, and apple jam on a tray and silently brought that into the living room. The kettle was already beginning to whistle so she fetched that and pulled out her favorite tea for calming nerves and set two mugs to brew and added sugar to both, assuming Rohan would be too polite to ask for as much as he would want.

She was really just fussing and busily distracting herself from the thoughts that pressed at her mind. Angel, always keenly aware of her mood, hopped from the counter to her shoulder and pulled sharply at her ear. He scolded her for dodging her problem, pointing out that she had been specifically trying to get better at exactly this sort of awkward avoidance. He was right of course and she sighed and nodded, then gave him a little hug as thanks, promising him fresh grilled watermelon later, his favorite.

Finally, she took a deep breath, steeled herself, then brought the tea out and sat on the couch next to Rohan and...

She didn't know what to say. All the thoughts she had about Rohan were a confused jumble of emotion she couldn't make manes or tails of and as a result, she simply fidgeted nervously, desperately wanting to say something but not knowing what to say.

Sensing there was an awkward tension, Rohan sipped from the hot mug of tea. It was soothing, though a little too hot to fully enjoy right away. With that option gone, his eyes darted about the room until they fell on the hallway that had led to her bedroom.

"I just remembered--you have a pet bear here? I've never known them to be particularly friendly, is there some sort of-"

As he spoke, he realized another thing: She could speak to animals. All of his previous questions floated back to the forefront of his mind.

"Wait, no, before that, You can speak to animals? Is it all animals then? Like... if you met Skoll and Hati, would you be able to understand them as you understand me?"

"Well... not like I understand you, no. It's not like I can hear words in a bear's roar or a bunny's squeaks, they're still only animals."

She blew on her tea and sipped it gingerly. It was still too hot but she wanted its calming effects now.

"I just sort of... feel what they're trying to say. The stronger their emotion, the better I can understand. I don't know if I can explain it any more than that."

She tapped her flank with a hoof and smiled.

"I guess it's because of my cutie mark more than anything else. After all, it appeared right when I touched the ground for the first time and felt what all the creatures around me were saying."

"Cutie mark... I wonder if that is something like our spirit signs. When we use magic, the symbol of the clan that blessed us becomes clear. We're... still learning more about how it works, but mine is connected to the "soul." It's one of the reasons I can do what I did in the forest."

He brought a hand to his chest and ran it over the spot that he was referencing. The thought of what his spell did brought a smile to his face, though it wasn't how he usually used it.

"Still, it's amazing to have a deep connection to the lives of others around you. It seems like you've used it to make many fuzzy friends."

"Maybe... it sure sounds a lot like a cutie mark." She stared at his chest where she knew the runic marks lie dormant on his chest and sipped her tea again, feeling herself flush a little at the thought of his bare chest.

"Cutie marks only appear when you discover your true talent, but they usually go even deeper than that... like how they tend to be related to a pony's name, even though your parents choose that without even knowing what kind of pony the foal will grow up to be. Maybe it has to do with the 'soul' you mentioned?"

Her eyes flitted up to his and she realized he'd been watching her stare at him and averted her eyes self-consciously. "Though, um... I've never heard of any other creature than a pony having a cutie mark... even if they speak and have towns and music and all that..."

"Your mark is related to your true talent and name... I fear ours may be different to yours then. Here I was hoping ponykind could help us hone our magic." His gaze shifted to her cutie mark and then abruptly away. It was on her flank which made him feel like he was staring at her butt any time he wanted to look at it. He couldn't seem to catch a break with those thoughts and decided it best to simply down more of his tea and focus on something else.

"Ah, so... there are other types of creatures that have their own towns and such? Is that part of why ponies are so... accepting of humanity?"

As he spoke, Fluttershy set down her tea and ate a small cube of cheese, then began spreading some jam onto a slice of bread. "No, I don't think so... we weren't friends with some creatures like the dragons until very recently. You can thank Twilight for that... she is the Princess of Friendship after all."

Her ears perked and she looked up at him with bright eyes. "Oh, speaking of Twilight; don't think ponies can't help with your magic just because I couldn't help. My special talent is all about animals, and you've seen how much it helps that... Well Twilight's special talent is magic. Just, all magic. She's amazing at it! Though it does mean she gets a little kooky from time to time."

She giggled nervously and held the slice of bread out toward him, laden with almost too much jam for one slice. He didn't seem to mind as he took the slice and bit into it. For the faintest of moments, his eyes lit up and he looked like he was on top of the world. "Hmm, thank you, it's quite good."

Just like that, he slipped back into his reserved, polite self and took smaller bites to savor the meal. As he thought about what she said, he realized that he was probably a little late on finding that particular pony.

"That's the one that I hear ponies whispering about, yes? The one with my chief. If that's the case, then she will have already enlisted your friend to help us, which means I can... er, relax."

The uneasy way he said that last word made it seem like he didn't like the idea... or perhaps that he didn't do it often enough. Fluttershy giggled at his expression.

"You sound just like Applejack. She always acts like relaxing is a waste of time, but it's not really. It's like my dam always used to tell Zephyr, 'Too much relaxing is bad, and not enough relaxing is bad. You have to relax or you'll go mad, but you can't only relax or I'll get mad'."

She rolled her eyes, the sarcastic expression seeming out of place on her kindly features.

"He never listened though and she never would get mad... I guess that's why he turned out the way he did..."

She trailed off and stared blankly into her tea.

He stared into his own drink and gave a small chuckle.

"I've never had the luxury of letting myself relax for long periods of time. If I ever stopped, I would lose everything I was working so hard to achieve, but now... I suppose things are different now."

His thumb traced the tip of the mug as he continued to fix his gaze upon it. He didn't even realized he had started to frown, then the reflection in the cup reminded him and he go himself back under control.

"I suppose now I have to work towards different things. Maybe I can give myself just a moment to relax and contemplate."

They sat in a companionable silence for some time. Fluttershy slowly drained her tea and spread significantly less jam on a slice of bread for herself. The animals generally knew not to bother her when she had a guest and were keeping a respectful distance, but Angel, always welcome, hopped up onto her lap and glared at her, folding his little arms across his chest. She still hadn't mentioned what she'd been burning to say earlier.

Her eyes widened and she tried to subtly shake her head. 'No, not yet!' she wanted to say, 'I don't even know what to say yet!' but Angel knew better. His little black eyes glittered with intense disapproval and he hunched his shoulders, pointing a harsh finger at Rohan. Fluttershy's ears drooped and she let out a quiet sigh. He was right, of course. He usually was. It was time to talk or time to say goodbye.

She still remained silent for a while to think about how to broach the topic, but Angel could see he had convinced her and relaxed, curling peacefully on the armrest beside her.

"Erm... your rabbit friend seemed... bothered... by me?" All he could make out of it was an angry scowl and the pointing. Unlike Fluttershy, he knew he was not the animal translator that she was. "If I'm doing something to upset it, just let me know. I'm just a guest while he is a permanent resident."

Fluttershy stiffened, her thoughts interrupted, then forced out an awkward giggle. "Oh, no no, that's just how he is, nothing to do with you." Angel cracked his eyes open, squinting his disapproval of her lie, and she let out a little 'Eep!'

She hadn't really meant to lie, but she was all flustered and didn't know what else to say, so she whispered 'Sorry!' to the little bunny, then turned to Rohan and blushed, trying to reassure him with a smile as he only looked more concerned now.

"Mhmm... You know, one of my specialties back home was picking out a lie, Fluttershy. Thieves liked to do it often, so I'm fairly confident in saying that that was a lie." He turned to face her fully and set his mug aside. Now she had the full, undisturbed attention of Rohan. "So, would you like to tell me what your friend really said?"

With disapproval on both sides of her now, she could only try to shrink down onto the sofa and hide behind her mane with a faint, "Ohh!"

Angel rolled his eyes and gestured at the man to tone it down, don't push so hard. He waved at himself and then at Fluttershy, indicating that he knew how much force she needed to get stuff done but if anyone else jumped in and made her feel worse, it usually threw her over the edge and made her close up. Finally he held up a paw and nodded toward the trembling pegasus, telling him to wait for her to calm down before he tried anything else like that.

Rohan understood none of this, of course.

"I... don't understand you, but... let's try. Do it one more time more slowly."

He watched the first gesture, the paws moving down and away. Simple enough, the only time he had ever seen people do that was when they wanted someone aggressive to back off. Then himself and the mare. That one was tricky, since it could mean anything followed by "back off."

"I need to back off.... I am getting in the way of you and her? Ohhhhhh, I get it now! She didn't want to tell me because it might sound rude if one of her animal friends told me to back off. You have nothing to fear there, I won't take her from you."

Angel sighed heavily and passed a paw over his eyes, clearly frustrated at the lack of communication. He tried to keep it simple and held out his open paw telling him to wait, then covered his mouth asking him to be quiet. This the man seemed to understand--or at least he realized he hadn't understood something and was frustrating the bunny. Angel hopped down and carefully stepped over Fluttershy's foreleg and through her curtain of hair.

He began by apologizing, realizing that the man had seen their conversation and misunderstood his intent. He could see she cared deeply about the human, but he knew she was cautious in even the most casual of friendships, and the way this man was slipping past her defenses and has somehow instantly become like a close friend was scaring her.

Fluttershy began to calm down and gave Angel a tiny nod of agreement, but now he hardened his gaze again, just a bit. He made it clear that if she didn't bring it up now, whatever feelings he had would probably vanish the instant he returned to his village, and this sort of initial flush of feeling can never happen again. In other words, he concluded, if she didn't do something about it now, she'd probably never get the chance again.

He let that sink in for a moment, then gently set a hand on her muzzle. It was okay if she didn't want to do anything about it; he wouldn't be disappointed or pout and groan about it for the rest of the night. He just wanted to make sure she understood this was her only chance and didn't accidentally waste it.

Fluttershy nodded and smiled at him, whispering her thanks. Tonight he wasn't just getting grilled watermelon - she was going to bust out the honey this time!

The whole conversation had taken less than a minute, and when Fluttershy looked up at Rohan, he was still convinced the bunny just wanted him gone. In an attempt to correct this, and as a sort of apology, Angel climbed over her other forehoof and up onto the man's leg, curling up in a sleepy little ball in his lap.

"Oh, I see that whatever is wrong has been resolved."

He stared down at the rabbit with only one thing consuming his thoughts: the need to pet the fluffball. It just looked like a small, white ball of cloud sitting on his lap. Tentatively, he reached out with a hand and very, very gently began to scratch behind Angel's ears and also at the base of his neck. Angel twitched an ear, then rolled onto his side and curled up tighter, pressing the back of his neck against the man's fingers. Fluttershy let out a little "d'aww," as he was especially adorable in that pose. He peeked an eye at her and she knew what he meant. He might have claimed it was okay if she didn't do anything about it, but he knew as well as she that if she didn't, it would only be because she chickened out.

She ate another bit of cheese, stalling for just a few more seconds, then turned where she sat to face Rohan more properly. She spoke quickly, occasionally glancing up at him, but mostly averting her gaze and fussing with her wings, running her hooves through the feathers.

"So... Angel looked angry, but he only does that to help keep me in line when I'm making a mistake. Sometimes it feels like he knows me better than I know myself. I, um... got flustered and lied a little when I said it wasn't about you... b-but it's not what you think! He was just reminding me to tell you something that I'd been avoiding, a-and so it kind of had to do with you but not really, but he still scolded me for lying, and then you did too, and I couldn't... oh..."

Angel had lifted one ear straight up and aimed it directly at her, making her wince. She was rambling, avoiding the issue even as she talked about it.

"S-Sorry... um, I just... oh..."

Rohan waited patiently as she struggled to find the words, and eventually she took a deep breath and sat up straight, staring him full in the face.

"Listen Rohan, I don't make friends very easily. I've gotten better at it over time, but usually my first conversation with anypony new is spent being quiet and hoping nopony asks me a question. But you?" She was slowly leaning closer without realizing it, watching him intently. "You're different. Talking with you is so easy... It's like you're an old friend and we're simply catching up after years apart, but still just as close as ever."

Her voice had dropped almost to a whisper and she was so close he could feel her warmth on his cheeks and lips, but all she could see were his eyes. "A-And maybe I'm just being a silly filly and you don't agree at all, which is fine, it's okay... but I just had to find out because... because if you do feel the same, isn't that... special, somehow? What would that mean?"

He stared back at her nervously, given how close she was. If anything were to nudge either of them the right way, they would be forced into one of those corny, comical accident-kisses.

"W-Well, uh... I can't say I disagree, Fluttershy. It is much easier to talk with you than much of anyone else,. It probably is special, but I'm not sure what it would mean... exactly."

He tried to back up ever so slightly, and she subconsciously followed him. She didn't notice that he had leaned away but she certainly noticed herself leaning forward when she suddenly lost balance and stumbled forward. Her squeak was cut short as her muzzle banged into his shoulder and she reflexively lifted both forehooves to her snout, which only made her fall even more. Her wings automatically flared out to catch her but her left wing only slapped against the sofa, though her right wing did extend. The half-asleep bunny had startled and leapt away instinctively, pounding Rohan's inner thigh painfully and slamming into Fluttershy's right wing with a dull "POMF."

Angel tumbled to the floor in a puff of yellow feathers and Fluttershy flopped sideways into Rohan's lap with her belly pressed up against his. Even with her forehooves covering her muzzle, her blush was obvious all the way up to her ears.

Rohan tried to catch her as well, but between getting kicked in the thigh and the left wing that ended up smacking his face after it hit the couch, he was effectively useless. By the time he recovered enough to see, he found her laying across his lap which only served to stun him further. The fabric of the shirt he wore didn't help matters any either, since it was thin enough that he could feel exactly how soft and warm her belly was. Given that she was blushing too, he couldn't seem to make himself do anything.

It was Angel that saved Fluttershy, as usual. Her wing had slowed his fall enough that he hit the ground relatively lightly and only dashed halfway across the room before getting a hold of himself. He looked back at the couch and immediately sprang back, leapt up to Fluttershy's muzzle and rapidly tapped her between the eyes. It was something he only did in the most urgent and dire of circumstances and her eyes flew open at once. He gestured frantically then hopped away, hoping he'd been too fast for the stunned man to notice. The last thing he wanted was to make things worse.

Fluttershy slowly lowered her hooves and her muzzle grew even redder as she looked up and gave him a tiny shy smile that was utterly adorable.

"W-Well... um, I was planning to ask it was okay before I, um... you know, climbed into your lap..."

Her wing was pinched uncomfortably under her barrel and she shifted slightly to get more comfortable, not really conscious of the way that pressed her body into his.

"So, um... is it okay?"

"Uhh..."

He struggled with that question, since the human equivalent would have been wholly inappropriate. But he wasn't with a human right now, he was with a pony. Shutting his eyes tight, he took a deep breath to calm his mind and get words flowing again.

"Y-yes, that's fine, you may just want to adjust for a bit. I-I'll just... uhh..."

He tried to put his arms up across the couch, but that made him feel sleazy. Putting them at his side made him feel awkward and he had all of zero clue whether or not to touch her with his hands and where.

Fluttershy just stared at him blankly for a few seconds. She genuinely hadn't expected him to say yes and when her brain finally caught up to his words she let out a little "Eep!" of surprise. She rolled onto her belly and tried to curl her legs under her, but she was too big for that. She stood up and turned, accidentally brushing his face lightly with her tail, and tried to curl up in a ball like a cat, but his knees pressed painfully into her side.

Her last attempt was to simply sit sideways in his lap and lean against his chest, twisting slightly to rest her head on his shoulder. She had to shimmy around a bit and tuck one foreleg around his waist or it would be an awkward lump between them. It was surprisingly comfortable and she let out a contented sigh, careful to speak low as her muzzle was very close to his ear.

"Mmm... you're really warm... are all humans this comfy or is it just because I like you?"

His face had gone beet red when her tail brushed against it. Not only was it as silky smooth as it looked, but it was the only layer between him and her mare-bits--she may as well have rubbed her panties across his face. Things only got worse when she had settled in though, since she was breathing her hot breath on his ear and sending a shiver down his spine. Not to mention that her words sounded all too forward.

"Uhhh, w-well, uhh... Y-You... ahem."

Now he was a stammering mess, though he wasn't exactly happy his pants were not as loose fitting as his armor. In an attempt to conceal himself, he shifted and tugged at the pants just slightly.

"Oooh, are you getting even warmer? Can you do that?"

She tucked her muzzle into the crook of his neck, pressing her lips and snout against his bare skin and laying her other foreleg over his shoulder.

"Rohan," she mumbled against his neck, "your skin feels amazing. You humans are probably used to it, but every creature I've ever hugged has had scales, fur, or feathers... well, or been a pig covered in mud. I've never felt just... skin. It doesn't warm you like fur, it's actually hot, like... like a heated bag of water..."

An idea struck her and she gasped. "Oh Celestia, what if you took off your shirt!" Her excited face pulled back suddenly and stared into his. "I bet that would feel INCRE...dible...."

She trailed off as she saw Rohan was nearly as red as Big McIntosh's flank and his eyes seemed as wide as her hooves. She looked down and saw his hands held awkwardly at his side, then her eyes snapped up to his, suddenly worried.

"Oh no, what's wrong? Rohan, are you okay? Am I too heavy, did I hurt you!?"

"N-no, Fluttershy, you uhh... you just...."

It was becoming frustrating to try and stay calm and reserved with her pushing so many of his buttons. She acted like she didn't know, but he felt like she had to with how much she kept pressing her face and lips against him, especially around his neck.

"You're-just-making-me-feel-really-awkward!"

It came bursting out of his mouth in one rapid-fire sentence. Once it was out in the air, he found he was able to think clearer.

"Listen... do you remember what I told you in the... healing place? About how much human contact there was? I know I said you can sit on my lap, but you have your face and lips pressed into my neck and you brushed your tail over my face and I have no clue what any of that means to a pony so I just double back on what it means to a human and it's exactly what a woman would do if they wanted to court me but I tell myself that's indecent and that there's no way and... and now I'm just rambling which I never do around other people so it's even more awkward and I just--"

Angel was the one to help with that via throwing a slice of carrot at him that hit him in the face. It was just enough of a distraction for Rohan to clamp his mouth shut.

"Oh." She stared at him for a couple seconds, then gasped. "OH!"

Her ears flopped back and she immediately pushed herself away, ignoring the sudden shock of cold all along her torso.

"Rohan oh my goodness I am so sorry, I completely forgot! I tried so hard to remember all day but then you were just so warm, I couldn't help myself! When you explained earlier you didn't say it was a... a m-mating thing! I... I never meant to imply we should... um, n-not that I'd mind, but--"

As soon as she said it, her eyes went wide as dinner plates and she squeaked in alarm. Her hooves slammed into her muzzle and she just stared at him, horrified.

Rohan said slowly, "The other thing wasn't courting... but you were basically kissing my neck, Fluttershy. What... could that possibly mean for a pony? If I picked you up and kissed your neck, what would you think I was doing?"

He decided it was best to just treat the last part of what she said as a slip and to try and understand what her actions meant instead. At the very least, if he knew, then he could tell himself that's what it was.

"I... Ponies nuzzle each other all the time!" There was a bit of indignance now too, and it was helping to burn away her embarrassment and speak her mind. "I was just going to rest my head on your shoulder, but I could feel the heat on my snout even from there and I just thought a nuzzle would feel nice, and it did, but then I held it a little longer than normal a-and maybe pressed up against you a bit m-more than I should have..."

Her voice trailed off as she realized he had a point and the emotional fuel she'd been riding suddenly flickered and died. She was still sitting across his lap and she turned away, lowering her head. "No, you're right... I'm s-sorry, Rohan... I've been s-so s-s-stupid!"

Rohan felt her shudder and a hot tear dropped onto his arm, then Fluttershy lurched, flung herself sideways, glided to the floor, and galloped upstairs for the second time this hour.

In the corner of the room, Angel slapped his face with a paw, letting out a tiny, frustrated squeak.

Rohan sat quietly contemplating things for a while. He wanted to give Fluttershy a moment, but he also wanted to think about what he should do. He was coming up empty on a good plan to fix things. She was pressing his buttons in ways no other woman ever had, and it almost scared him. Why was it that he had always been so disinterested in the women that he had met before? Was it because they were just not what he ideally wanted? Had they never shared the right interests with him? Or was it because his status was always a factor before?

After questioning things in his head over and over, he finally stood up and sighed deeply. No matter what, he had to set things right. He would explain himself, explain his culture's ways, then perhaps look for a bridge between the two. Almost before he realized it, he was frozen at her door. If he failed, he would lose one of the only people to have ever brought him out of his shell. Time seemed to stop as he brought his hand up to the door and knocked.

There was no sound from inside, but Angel simply hopped up and swung on the door handle, bracing himself against the wall to throw the door open to let Rohan inside. Fluttershy was sitting up in bed, wrapped in her blanket and staring silently out the upstairs window at the head of her bed. Her ears drooped to either side and they twitched slightly at the sound of the door opening, but otherwise she didn't react.

Angel quietly hopped onto the foot of her bed and climbed up the blanket onto Fluttershy's shoulder to give her a little nuzzle. After a brief moment he hopped back down and met Rohan's eye, pointed to the bed beside Fluttershy, pantomimed slowly sitting down and laying a hand on her shoulder. He hoped that was straightforward enough for the man to understand. Then he bounded to the corner of the room and laid down in his little wicker bed, his whiskers quivering nervously, but it was out of his paws now, he just had to leave them alone and hope for the best.

Rohan had already planned that part out, so he had no problem in sitting beside her. The gentle touch of his rough hand pressed against her shoulder as he sighed.

"Fluttershy, I think maybe we misunderstood each other in there. I wasn't trying to reprimand you--quite the opposite actually. I liked the touch, I just didn't know how to deal with it or what to think. Our kinds are.... different, after all."

His hand slowly shifted down her back to give her a comforting rub. Seeing that she stayed silent for the moment, he decided to reach down and lift her up and back into his lap. With a nervous blush, he craned his neck and pressed his face into her neck to nuzzle her the way that she had done to him.

"Th-that's how ponies do it, right?"

As he pulled Fluttershy into his lap, the blanket slid down her shoulders and pulled at her lower back, forming a sort of chair around her. A rush of cold air had enveloped her shoulders as the blanket slid down, and he was shockingly warm against her side and she began to press hungrily into him, turning her muzzle toward him and spreading a wing over his shoulder.

Suddenly realizing what she was doing, she froze, wing half extended, her snout dug into his hair. Then she let out a little "Eep!" of shame and drew back into herself.

"S-Sorry! I just... um, I didn't mean to... you're just so warm..." Her hooves shuffled awkwardly in her lap, causing the blanket to rustle suggestively around her waist.

"Like I said, it's ok. I'm more prepared for it now." He pulled her back in and let her stay there while one of his hands ran along her back. "I just don't want to be left guessing at what you are doing. I am a guest in your house and in your village. I was raised to respect other cultures and to learn their ways, so if you tell me what you are doing and explain what it may mean or why you are doing it, I can accept it without incident."

"Oh... um, ok." She stayed where Rohan placed her and rested her cheek on his head. Despite his words, she tried to resist the urge to cuddle more vigorously, worried about pushing him too fast again. She sniffed quietly and when she rubbed her muzzle with a hoof, she realized it was still wet from her tears earlier and hoped she hadn't gotten his hair wet.

Laying her head on his again, she let out a little sigh, but it caught in her throat and a little whimper escaped. She tried to relax but she felt like she was supposed to say something, though she didn't know what.

"Um... t-thank you, Rohan. I know... well, I've had to do some strange things in other cultures... It's not easy when something is strange at home but normal to the creatures you're with."

She sat up again, pulling away from his face. She was a little worried holding the nuzzle for too long would make him uneasy, but really she just wasn't sure she could resist cuddling him more thoroughly for much longer.

"You know, a little while ago I was trying to befriend a family of birdies I found at a lake nearby... but they had this tradition of preening each others wings just as a kind of friendly greeting... Well, I guess you wouldn't know... Um, for pegasi, preening another pony is..." The thought of those rough, gentle, warm fingers running through her feathers made her blush vigorously and her wings trembled slightly. "It's, um... very, very intimate. Even more so than, um... s-sex," she could only whisper the word, then hurried on in a rush of words, "B-But if I didn't let them preen me, it would have been so very rude in their minds, so I had to let them, even though it made me... um..." Remembering the experience and unable to stop thinking about his fingers, she turned away and shuffled her legs uneasily, pressing her thighs together.

"What?" Rohan exclaimed. He had to make sure he was hearing things correctly, since she just talked about doing something more intimate than sex. At least before, she was only "courting" him, that was something he could decline and didn't necessarily lead to sex. But something like she was describing? Would he go that far if it meant not enraging the ponies that were helping his people?

"L-let's avoid that topic, shall we? It's a little... intimate for the two of us at this stage, I think. Maybe instead you can... teach me more about what ponies do together that would be more befitting our circumstances. What do two friends do together in the privacy of one of their homes?"

Her shoulders hunched and she rubbed her neck awkwardly with a hoof.

"O-Oh! I-I didn't mean... I was just trying to relate... b-because you said what I did earlier was like courting to you, so it's kind of like what I went through with those little birds..."

She lowered her head, shamefaced and glowing up to her ears.

"S-Sorry... I made you uncomfortable again. M-Maybe you should just go..." her voice caught in her throat, "T-Then I won't b-bother you anymore..."

Rohan let out a little sigh. "No, Fluttershy, I want to learn more about pony culture. I understand why you said what you did, but it's just something we'll have to avoid for now. How about instead you teach me more about what ponies do together that would be more befitting our circumstances. What do two friends do together in the privacy of one of their homes?"

He repeated himself more slowly and clearly, hoping she would take in all of what he was saying and what he wanted to accomplish. That is to say, he wanted to do something with her still.

She hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath and slowly brushed her mane back over her ears. It was a huge effort for her, but she was trying to stop hiding behind her mane so much, and Rohan's voice was so nice to listen to...

"Um... w-well, usually we just eat and talk like we were doing earlier, but... oh, I can't send you away, you're my patient now..." she sighed gently, "Some doctor I've been..."

She could almost feel Angel's disapproving frown on the back of her head and shook her head a little to break that line of thought. "S-Sorry... that means we have a few hours together which is too long for just a little lunch."

With a bit of a shock, she realized she had no idea what they could do. "...I'm not really... used to, um, having guests..." she perked up suddenly, "Maybe we could do something you humans do with friends? After all, you've been putting up with a lot of pony customs... maybe I can do something for you instead?"

“I- well... hmm...” There were things he knew that people liked to do, but none of t was something Fluttershy would enjoy. He doubted they could watch trained warriors fight, he wasn’t much of a drinker or smoker, there weren’t a whole lot of options. “To be honest, men and women don’t typically spend time together unless they are family or betrothed. And none of what other people like is very appealing to me, so... hmm...”

Instead he tried to think of what he learned from ponies thus far. While there wasn’t much, one thing did stick out. “Actually, a pony in town gave me an idea. A lady named Rarity told me that she was impressed by my physique and expressed an interest in a training routine. Would that be something we can do together?”

Fluttershy glanced sidelong at him, then covered her muzzle with a fetlock and giggled lightly. "Oh, I don't think she meant anything you would want to do with me." Her wings puffed out slightly and she averted her gaze, still smiling.

"Rarity quite fancies a well-built stallion. She doesn't believe she'll ever find one ranked highly enough to suit her, so she's not interested in actually dating one, but she'll take any opportunity to watch a big, strong colt at work, and sometimes she'll even... um, well, you wanted to avoid that topic." She giggled again. It felt good to laugh after all the emotional turmoil she'd gone through and her mood was rapidly improving.

“Oh. Oh! Ohhhhhhhh” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at his clothes. It was suddenly clear to him why she had chose something that hugged his frame. He couldn’t complain, since it was a gift, but that made him feel a little... dirty. In fact, it left a question in his head.

“Wait, are the purpose of these clothes to draw a woman’s attention? Have I unwittingly been teasing mares while I was in town? And you as well? It’s no wonder they were all watching me so closely!”

"Oh no no... er, well, not exactly. These clothes aren't specifically supposed to draw a mare's eyes, but ponies usually only wear clothing for special occasions, so any clothing is going to draw some attention."

She turned and playfully pulled at the fabric of his shirt with a hoof. "It's not the shirt that's drawing the eyes of every mare in town, it's you." Her eyes widened and snapped up to his. "Um, I-I mean... w-well you do look good in it, but... eep!"

She tried to cover her face with a wing, then stopped suddenly and slowly lowered it again and sighed. She set a hoof on each of his shoulders and stared at him with huge, imploring eyes, her ears splayed out sadly. "I'm sorry, Rohan. I'm not trying to embarrass you or anything, really, but... oh, I don't know, I just can't seem to concentrate around you! Everything just keeps going fuzzy in my head..."

“Any clothes will draw attention... so that was part of why you mentioned something about me without my shirt earlier. Hmm...” If it was just his shirt, that wouldn’t be too much issue. Other ponies and even people had seen him like that before. Reaching down, he pulled the shirt up slowly until it was off of him.

“That is an easy enough request. As for your concentration, I’ll admit that I’ve been a little flustered, but that may just be because we are... compatible with each other. I’ve not known anyone else that can get me to be so expressive.”

Fluttershy lifted her hooves from his shoulders as he slid the shirt up and over his head and stared openly at his bare chest. She tentatively reached out and pressed a hoof into his breast and gasped at the surge of warmth in her sensitive hoof. Hardly even aware of what she was doing, she slid her hooves under his arms and around his back, pressing her chest against his and laying her head on his shoulder.

"Ohhhh goodness..." she exclaimed softly, "So waaaarm..."

Armed with a bit more knowledge, he focused on the sensation instead. As her fluffy body pressed into him, he realized he had never felt something so soft. In her eagerness to press into him she ended up pushing him down so he lay on his back. Like that, she was laying on top of him with her underside pressed into his chest and her face tucked up against his neck.

“If- If you give me a moment to get comfortable, I will be more than happy to let you go about this... pony ritual”

It sounded stupid even as he said it, but he didn’t have a better way to call what she was doing. Full-body nuzzling? Could this be considered a cuddle? He didn’t have the answer, so he decided to trust Fluttershy.

She shuffled slightly, pressing her chest against his and tucking her face into the crook of his neck, then her body tensed and she whimpered faintly. She slowly lifted her head to look at him with worried eyes. "I've... made you uncomfortable again, haven't I?"

The side of her hip pressed into his thighs, both hindlegs off to one side, but she was twisted so her torso was facing him, forelegs under his arms, mane hanging down to lightly brush his neck and chest. The sun was getting low in the sky and cast its light at a sharp angle through the window, and her coat almost seemed to be glowing from within.

"Not this time you haven't."

Rohan was a little in awe of the way she looked when the light hit her just right. His hand moved to brush a little bit of mane out of her face and cupped her cheek afterwards. He couldn't deny that there was something familiar about her, like she pointed out. A kindred spirit, albeit in a completely different form than what he might have expected. His free hand moved along her body but flinched when it brushed against one of her wings.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to touch your wing, I know you said those are special." The wing he touched twitched slightly but she smiled at him.

"It's okay to just touch them or even hold and move them around, it's only preening that's special, so don't carefully brush any individual feathers around." She turned her head and stretched her wing out to press the wrist joint into his hand, letting it relax in his grip. Then she bit her lip nervously and gently laid her head down again, careful to keep her voice low. "Um... are you sure this is okay? I'd really hate to make you uncomfortable..."

"I've gotten used to it now, Fluttershy. It's how you ponies spend your time, right? Close together, only worried about specific touches. I think maybe humans should be more like that."

He let his hand pass over the wing, feeling the limb from tip to base. There was just something so interesting about the way it felt powerful, yet vulnerable. Obviously it needed to have a good amount of strength to lift her without a breeze, but he could tell that it wouldn't take much, just a bad hit, to really hurt her wing.

"Why is preening more intimate than handling your wing like this? Wouldn't you have to put trust in the other, um, person in both scenarios?"

Fluttershy didn't answer immediately. He couldn't see, but she was blushing furiously. The only other time she had cuddled somepony like this was at a sleepover with Rainbow Dash when she was young, and that was only because they were both half asleep and it had been cold. He was just so warm...

She tried to ignore that problem and answer his question instead. She knew it was wrong, but she wanted to enjoy this a little longer before she told him the truth, because she was certain he would want to stop if he knew they were being fairly intimate even among ponies.

"W-Well... it's just that preening involves holding and adjusting each feather one by one, so one little twitch could twist, crimp, or even yank the feather right out." Talking about preening made it impossible not to think about it, and her wing trembled in his grip. "Um, that's all it is for most feathers, but the primaries are different. They're very, very sensitive in order to feel and move according to each little eddy of wind, so letting somepony adjust them would be like... I don't know, are the ends of your fingers really sensitive too? I suppose it would be a little like letting somepony lick them clean."

She couldn't stop herself: she imagined his fingers delicately brushing down the length of her wing and gently pressing a primary into place and couldn't suppress a tiny shiver and gasp. If this continued much longer, she was going to leave a damp spot on his lap.

"I see, I suppose that makes sense. I have to say though, I really like the way your wing feels in my hand."

With his other hand, he opened up her other wing and moved up from the base all the way to the tip and back down again. He was trying to see if there were any differences between the two, since he knew that some people's preferred arm sometimes tended to become more muscular more quickly. But with her, there was no difference in either, most likely because she had to use both to flap at any given time.

"I'm not really sure there's a human equivalent to what you were explaining though. I suppose it would be rather intimate to have you "lick my fingers clean," as you put it. Though, it might be more intimate to ask you to... well uhh... to suck my fingers."

The way he was stroking her wings was much closer to preening than to simply touching and holding, and combined with the direction her imagination had been going, she was quickly becoming overwhelmed with sensation. Fluttershy tried to stay quiet, she really did. She clamped her muzzle shut and held her breath, and for a moment she thought she had succeeded in suppressing all but a tiny shiver Rohan might not even have noticed.

Then she winked.

An electric shock ran up her spine and she gasped sharply as her wings popped open. She panicked and tried to muffle the sound by pressing her muzzle into the closest surface, but that happened to be Rohan's neck and only made her involuntary moan all the more suggestive.

The sensation ended almost as quickly as it had begun, but the damage was done. Fluttershy just laid there, petrified with terror, holding her breath as she waited for him to react with shock or even disgust, push her roughly away and storm out her bedroom, cursing her filthy body.

Rohan's hands stopped as he heard the moan. With it right by his ear, he was forced to listen to a very, very feminine voice ring out with pleasure. His own body reacted and he ended up sitting stock still. In that moment, he realized that what he had been doing had to still be a somewhat intimate gesture. Maybe not quite like preening, but close to it.

"I... Fluttershy, did... did I- erm..." He was trying to focus with all of his might, but she was breathing heavily with her face buried against him. "S-sorry, I... did something I shouldn't have, right? I-I guess I'm the one who pushed it too far this time. Umm... how... do I make it up to you?"

Fluttershy could hardly speak, she was so surprised by his response. She squeaked out a nervous laugh, then struggled and failed to close her wings. "M-Make it up? Heh... hehehe... um... p-pretend it didn't happen?"

She shuffled her thighs together and her horror grew as she realized she was already becoming damp. If she hadn't been sitting on her tail, she would have already leaked onto his leg, and it was only a matter of time before she soaked her dock through and began to drip. She let out a little whimper. "I'm s-sorry, Rohan, this is all my fault... I n-never should have started this cuddle."

She made no move to rise, only mumbling pitifully into his neck. "Ponies don't... really do this. We, um... we hug and nuzzle, m-maybe even lie down beside each other... but cuddling like this... even for ponies..."

She couldn't continue. Another whimper leaked out and she curled up onto her side, covering her muzzle with a hoof. Her movement had pressed her weight into his groin and even in the state she was in she felt the hard lump in his pants rub against the side of her flank. Some small part of her mind realized that could only mean he was similarly aroused and she felt a distant flicker of hope.

He flinched when she had put pressure into his groin, which only made it more clear that his body had reacted to her. Looking away from her, he cleared his throat and gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder.

"W-well, if it's all the same to you... I quite like cuddling. It's new for me though, so I apologize if I make you uncomfortable."

He tried to outright ignore the feeling in his nether-region, instead opting to simply hold the mare in place . Of course, he began to feel the need to shift into a better spot, which only ended up pushing the mare's body more against his growing erection.

To Fluttershy, it simply felt as though he had pressed against her in response, and the way she was laying on his chest meant she could hear his heart pounding just as rapidly as hers. She could hardly believe it... despite all his formality and awkwardness, he - or at least his body - actually wanted this!

Her imagination began to run wild as she remembered the way his hands had felt on her wings and she winked again. This time the jolt that ran through her body only left her feeling empty and desperately craving more. Without even thinking, she blindly licked, expecting to simply lap up a bit of the sweat on his chest, but completely by accident she had just happened to place her muzzle in the exact center of his breast.

She was nearly as surprised as him when her tongue gently flicked his nipple.

He barely managed to contain his gasp in response to the sensation fluttering though his body. No matter his thoughts, his body was determined to betray him as his lower half began to grind against her. While one hand gripped the bedsheets, the other went to his face so he could stifle a groan. Whether it was because of his movement or a desire to see his reaction, she looked up at him.

“Fluttershy...” The word came out in a husky voice as he stared into her eyes. Like her, he held a hunger, though he was trying to restrain it. “You... are you sure about this? Really sure?”

She stared up at him, her chest pounding and her breath coming in short, quick bursts. He was breathing quickly too and she could feel he was beginning to sweat. For a moment, she just laid there and watched him, her mind gone blank with the taste of him still fresh in her mouth.

"No," she eventually whispered, "No, of course I'm not sure... We've only just met and... and I've never even k-kissed anypony before!" She averted her gaze and she could feel him tense with alarm, suddenly unsure if he should continue. "But... oh, Rohan, I don't know how or why but somehow you just... this just feels so right."

Her eyes flicked back up to his and she shifted her hips against him again. Her dock felt slick and she was sure she must have dripped on him by now. "Am I going crazy? I... I don't even think I can stop now, it's like I need this, but... I don't understand, I'm scared and it's all so sudden but I... oh, Rohan, I want you."

He opened his mouth to start to say something, but he just couldn’t. It wasn’t like he was anymore of an expert in these situations, maybe even less so than Fluttershy. Down below he could finally feel something drip into his pants and his eyes widened in alarm.

“Oh, oh gosh, you’re really serious about that. Uhh...”

Everything about this was so against what he knew his society had demanded of people before. But that was his old society, a place that he was no longer a part of. With that, he threw caution aside and pulled Fluttershy closer till her face was barely an inch from his.

“Maybe we can fix the kissing problem then, hmm?”

Her muzzle trembled and she softly gasped. His voice did something exciting under her tail and she tentatively licked his face. His lips parted in surprise and something broke inside her. She hungrily jammed her muzzle against his mouth and twisted until she straddled him, her wings spread wide and trembling. Her hooves thrust between his arms and hooked around his shoulders, pressing their bodies together. Her hind legs slowly slid up and down his thighs, the movement causing her flanks to gyrate slowly on his pants, soaking them rapidly.

In the far corner of the room, Angel climbed out of his bed and hopped through the door, silently pulling it shut behind him with a satisfied smile. He wouldn't be getting his grilled watermelon for a while now, but somehow he didn't mind.

While the situation had quickly gone out of Rohan’s control, he found himself strangely fine with it. He let her set the pace and parted his lips to allow her eager tongue inside. His hands now explored her body more openly. One ended up at the base of her wing to rub at the sensitive limb, while the other snaked down towards her flank to grope. His erection pressed painfully against his pants and her grinding was only serving to tease him.

Her wing shuddered at his touch and a little moan squeaked out of her when he grabbed her flank, her lips vibrating against his. Sweet Celestia he actually felt hot, as if he was on fire and she couldn't get enough of it. Her hooves scrabbled against his side and pressed into the curve of his lower back, her barrel slid across his chest, her hind legs squeezing against his hips and hooking around his thighs. One of her hind hooves caught in his pants and slid them down a little, but slipped free as his waistband caught on his member and caused it to angle up.

She hadn't actually meant to do that, she was just sort of... moving, not really knowing what to do. She broke the kiss and stared down at him, a string of saliva still connecting them. Holding eye contact, she slid down slightly and pressed her marehood directly against him through his pants, making her gasp and bite her lip.

Her face lowered to his again and she stared into his eyes. Her gaze bore down on him, into him, her bright, teal blue eyes filling his mind. Her voice was soft but it resonated through his skull like it was the only sound in existence.

"Rohan... Rut me."

It both scared and aroused him to be commanded like that, her need and desire made plain for him to see. Pushing her off, he stood up and yanked his pants down, freeing his member. She only had a few seconds to study it before he moved her into position. He pushed her front end down and leaned over her so he could whisper into her ear.

“Just so you know, I plan on being here with you for a while.”

The brief time apart had somewhat brought her back to her senses. What was she doing? She barely knew this man... and he wasn't even a pony! Then he bent over her... and oh, that voice sent such a thrill down her spine!

He stood back up and wrapped her tail around his hand to pull it out of the way. Her marehood was wet with arousal and he could see the little nub as she winked. Smirking, Rohan ran his member along her folds and she jumped, a little squeak forced from her throat. She stared up at him with wide eyes, torn between her body screaming for his warmth inside her and her mind screaming for her to slow down, stop, what was she thinking?

Rohan let his instincts take the reigns as he slowly pushed his way inside. He never expected there to be so much resistance, but then he didn’t know what to expect. His eyes screwed shut as he managed a couple of inches, yet something stopped him from pushing further. He tried to gently prod his way through, but his frustration only grew as his attempts failed. Finally, he decided to put in some force and felt the barrier finally give way so he could slip in further.

Fluttershy tossed her head back with a small yelp, effectively stopping any of Rohan’s movements.

“Fluttershy? Are you alright?”

Fluttershy hadn't even made up her mind yet when he pressed into her. She understood it all quite well from a medical perspective, but she had no idea what it felt like and was a little disappointed by how little sensation there was, just a vague sort of pressure. Then he pressed harder and the pressure spiked into a sudden, sharp, stabbing pain as he punched through what a distant part of her mind recognized was her hymen. Her startled yelp made Rohan freeze, but the pain was rapidly being replaced by pleasure and a more intense sense of closeness than she had ever dreamed possible.

She gasped and even as the words formed on Rohan's lips, she was raising her hips and leaning into him. Her flank pressed up against his hips and she moaned deep in her chest, the sound seeming to vibrate her entire head. She pushed herself up by her forelegs, arching her back until her head was beside Rohan's and she could just turn her head to look into his eyes. She slowly gyrated her hips and smiled at the sounds she could force from his throat.

His free hand went up to rub the side of her face and than shifted down to her shoulder for a grip. Now that he knew she was fine, he was able to match his thrusts with her slow, steady motions. He almost regretted having taken her from behind now, since he would have loved to embrace her properly. It did allow him to focus on the feeling of her warm walls hugging his member. On how each time their hips met he was greeted by the soft smack of her rear.

“You’re so beautiful, you know that?”

The only response she could manage was a soft "Mmm," followed by a high squeak as her flank pressed into him again. The way his hand pulled her tail up and pressed into the small of her back excited her in ways she didn't fully understand and soon she was slamming into him, grunting and moaning as he thrust in time with the motion of her torso. Something was rapidly building up inside of her and her movements began to grow more urgent, almost desperate. Her flanks slapped loudly against him and she felt as if she might burst...

Pleasure exploded inside of her, coursing through her with such intensity that her forelegs collapsed and she was left squirming helplessly as Rohan leaned over her and pounded deeper, faster, clutching a fist in her mane and growling in her ear. Every part of her was vibrating and she tried to scream his name but all that came out was a long, shuddering moan. His arm wrapped around her hips and he thrust into her, his blazing chest pressed into her back, his face warm against the side of her head, and he began to shake violently. She twisted around to jam her lips against his as he shuddered and twitched inside her, both of them grunting and moaning as orgasms overtook them both.

Eventually her trembling eased and Rohan slowly relaxed his grip around her waist and in her mane. Chests heaving, soaked with sweat, stinking of several different bodily fluids, they flopped onto the bed and held each other, gazing into into each others eyes, more happy than either of them could ever remember feeling before.

It was several minutes before either of them could catch their breath and come down from the high of their orgasms. Rohan inched closer to give her a quick gentle kiss before bringing his forehead to hers and shutting his eyes with a smile. He didn't have the words to describe how it felt or how he felt after everything, but he somehow felt more complete. Like he had been missing something in his life--and that something might have been a yellow pegasus that talks to animals.

As time passed, they slowly pressed their bodies back together to cuddle up on the bed. Fluttershy used one of Rohan's arms as a pillow and in turn she draped a wing over his torso. A grin began to form on his lips till he started to chuckle to himself, something he could see had confused the mare. "I was just thinking that you told me earlier not to do any "strenuous activities." I thought you wanted me to recover from sickness?"

It was just a tease, of course, and his face mirrored the humor in his voice. "You're right! Oh dear..." She feigned a worried expression, studying his body intently, then nodded seriously. "Yes, I see no alternative. If you insist on ignoring your doctor's orders and continue to engage in strenuous activities, I have no choice but to keep you bedridden overnight so I can be present to observe any further activities."

A dainty fetlock covered her muzzle as she broke into a little giggle, but her eyes betrayed her anxiety. She had effectively just asked him to stay the night and wasn't sure what she would do if he refused.

"I think I can follow those orders, Doctor Shy." He pulled her hoof to his mouth and gave the end of it a little kiss. "If it's ok with you, I actually wouldn't mind a nap now, unless you have things you need to be taking care that is."

Fluttershy twitched and squeaked a bit as his lips touched her sensitive frog, then blushed and gave him a small, shy smile. "I would love a nap, but..." She gestured down at her flanks and the nearby bedsheets, which were soaked and spattered with various fluids. "First I think I would like a shower."

“A shower? I assume that is something like a bath. Allow me to join you, I can carry the buckets we will use for bath water.” She had to explain to him that it wasn’t quite how things worked In Ponyville. Instead they spent the better part of the next ten minutes with him in awe of heated water seemingly in an endless supply.

Eventually Fluttershy simply shut off the water again, smiling fondly at the dumbfounded man. Maybe she hadn't scrubbed herself down as thoroughly as she liked, but at least the bulk of the mess was rinsed off them both. She nudged him out of the shower with her muzzle and quickly toweled herself off. Fortunately Rohan at least knew of towels and soon she was neatly folding the dirty blanket into a hamper and Rohan was covering the bed with a clean comforter she had pulled out.

As they finished, Rohan began getting ready to lay down, but Fluttershy hovered in front of him, her ears splayed out nervously.

"Um, Rohan?" She set her hoof on his shoulder and smiled, her eyes glistening in the fading sunlight, "...Thank you."

"I feel like I should be thanking you, Fluttershy. I haven't felt this relaxed in ages."

He left a clear spot for her to jump up onto the bed and waited for her with a gentle smile. As soon as she was up, he guided her so she was laying with her back to him and they both started to close the gap. Once her back was against his chest and belly, he pulled the blanket over them and wrapped an arm around her barrel and under her wing. A small hum of contentment escaped him as he buried his face into her fruity smelling mane.

CH19: Thunder Rocs

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For the first time in a long time, the two humans in Ponyville had a truly peaceful night. Each held their own fuzzy pony against their body, both enamored with the mares they had met. While they were usually at least somewhat alert in their village, they had not a single care during this night. When the morning light finally reared its head, they were well-rested and not ready to give up the warm body they were holding. Eventually they had to get up though, for one reason or another.

After having showered, Barbara went to a window to peer out of it, only to be shocked at what she saw. Rohan, who was on the opposite side of town, ended up sharing a shower and an easy breakfast with Fluttershy. The plan was to head towards the castle to see the princess, but as Rohan stepped out of the door, he saw something he didn't like. While both he and Barbara were in different locations, they both saw the same unsettling thing: Large dark storm clouds flying unnaturally low over the forest.

Fluttershy had stepped lightly out her door. They were headed to Twilight's castle and she noticed the forest was stormy today, but that didn't bother her; it just did that sometimes. She walked to the end of her garden and stepped onto the main path, then suddenly realized she was alone.

"...Rohan?"

She looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen. She heard a distant thump from her cottage and trotted lightly back to her door.

"Oh, did you forget--EEP!"

A towering shape hurled itself at the door and she barely scrambled out of the way as Rohan barreled past her, vaulted over her garden fence, and sprinted directly into the Everfree Forest. She sat stunned on her haunches for several seconds, then her eyes widened and she leapt to her hooves.

"R-Rohan!?"

She broke into a gallop, leapt over the fence, spread her wings and followed as fast as she could, calling out after him nervously.

"Rohan, wait! What's wrong, where are you going? Rohan, please, it's dangerous out here, wait!"

He either didn't hear her or didn't care, moving frightfully fast, plowing over bushes and tearing through branches as if Nightmare Moon herself was nipping at his flank. Horrified, Fluttershy suddenly realized he was running straight for a Hydra den. It wasn't very near, but at the rate he was going and with the noise he was making, he'd lure the monster onto him within a minute!

Fluttershy slammed onto all four hooves, her chest heaved, and the forest echoed with her thunderous scream.

"ROHAN!"

Rohan turned back to her with a start, but the panic was written all over his face. All he knew was he knew he needed to get to his village as fast as possible and he was fully prepared to run head-long into danger to do it.

"Fluttershy, go back to ponyville! I have to get back to my village, they'll need me! Those clouds are Roc's clouds! I have to go!"

He turned back to go in his original path, then he noticed why she had stopped him. This was the area in which forests gave way to the swamps, a home to the large lizard-like creatures such as the hydra. Only problem was that Fluttershy's scream would have alerted every monster in the area to their presence though, which meant it was time to move, in one direction or another.

He had turned away from her and the pegasus advanced on him slowly, her voice soft but intensely sonorous.

"How is getting yourself killed going to help your village, Rohan? Take a deep breath and think." She was close enough to lunge and grab him if needed, but she hoped she wouldn't have to. "We have about thirty seconds before several Hydras rise from their dens and spot us. Come back to Ponyville, Rohan. We can help your village. Your death will not."

Silently, she begged him to listen. He would never forgive her if she used the Stare, but if it was the only way to save his life...

"I-I can survive the forest, I have survived the forest for years... I-" With a deep sigh, he turned back towards Fluttershy. She was right, as reckless as he was being. He was probably going to get himself killed. This wasn't like a hunting trip, where he was slow and careful.

"We have to get there somehow. I can't just leave them. The priest, shaman, and all of our guards might not have it in them to fend off a flock of those monsters..."

She beamed up at him, then her eyes darted around and she bristled nervously. "We'll help them, I promise, but we need to help ourselves, first." An ominous growl rolled out from their left and was answered by two more on their right. They had only a hoofful of seconds to get behind the cover of the nearby trees. Fluttershy sprang into the air and backed away rapidly, her eyes pleading Rohan.

Suddenly one of the heads lunged out to try and snap its jaws around his body. Rohan ducked and, picking up a stone, he lodged it into the beast's nose and and took off for the trees as it yowled in pain. If nothing else, it had bought them time to get further into the thick of the forest where it would likely not try to chase them.

"What do we do, Fluttershy? My people don't come this far out for a reason, so I'm at a loss as to how best to navigate back. Unless you know a way, then we have to enlist aid, but I'm worried that may take too long."

Fluttershy's only response was to rush down the trail of half-destroyed vegetation Rohan had left in his wake. Hydras were just below dragons on her list of creatures to avoid and now that she'd turned Rohan around her fear was rapidly overwhelming her. Most beasts she could lull and calm down and most of the rest she could Stare into submission, but she couldn't look at three heads simultaneously.

There was a loud crunching, cracking noise from behind her as the hydra clawed and tore madly at the densely packed trees and the poor pegasus squeaked and accelerated into a full, reckless gallop, branches whipping at her face. She didn't even dare look behind her and a short moment later she burst out of the trees and plowed headfirst into the thick belly of Harry the Bear, who had heard her whimpering and crashing and come to investigate.

Instincts kicked in faster than thought and Rohan tackled the bear. No sooner than he had his arms around Harry's neck did he realize it was Fluttershy's and he loosened his grip. "I'm going to have to get used to you having a bear for a friend, Fluttershy. The ones in the forest are... not so friendly." He gave Harry a quick scratch for his troubles and slid off of his back to stand by the bear and Fluttershy.

Harry had fallen heavily to his haunches and glared at Rohan, hugging his favorite pony close to his chest. Rohan was forced to wait nervously for one painfully long minute before Fluttershy calmed down enough to hug Harry back and convince him to release her. As soon as she was free, she slammed into Rohan's chest and hugged him fiercely, a tiny half-sob of relief leaking out of her. He wasn't quite ready for the burst of speed that was a worry filled Fluttershy, so she had managed to knock the wind out of him.

"Oh Rohan... don't ever do that again, I thought I was going to lose you!" Almost immediately, she pulled back and stared into his eyes. "We should hurry to Ponyville, I'm sure Twilight will know how to help."

At the castle, Barbara had already gotten Dash and Twilight up out of fear of something happening. Now they were in the map room and Barbara was standing at one end with the two ponies sitting at the other.

"Those clouds are not natural clouds, not natural to that forest at all! I'm telling you two that it's the Roc's and if they go to my village without Rohan or myself, then it will be severely weakened. People will die, Twilight! We have to do something!"

Twilight sighed and rubbed her head with a hoof, "But Barbara, those clouds are normal. The Everfree Forest does exactly that every couple of weeks, and always has!"

The Chief looked about ready to strangle the alicorn so Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and flew up to set a calming hoof on her shoulder.

"Look, Barbara, I'll fly out there, see if they're normal storm clouds or not. You know I'm fast--I'll be back in two minutes, tops. Try not to kill her without me, okay?"

She gave Barbara a little peck on the nose, then zoomed off toward the high ceiling, slipping out a door in the roof designed for easy pegasi access. She knew her human was seriously upset about this so she narrowed her eyes and put on an extra burst of speed toward the distant storm clouds.

As Dash neared the clouds, a bolt of lightning suddenly shot out of it in her direction. While she had the speed to dodge, she hadn't been ready for a large, crow-like monster of a bird to fly out of the cloud. Like Barbara had said, it was easily the size of a house. It's wings crackled with electricity that seemed to surge from its wingtip to its core and back. It snapped its beak at Dash, trying to peck and bite at her. Given its size, she wouldn't have expected it to be fast but it proved her wrong; no matter what she did, it stayed right on her tail.

While it chased her around, Dash would see the big bundle of clouds continuing its path through the Everfree. Either the birds were smart enough to use group tactics, or only this one bird happened to notice dash and decided it wanted to ruin her day while the rest continued on their path. The only time it let up on its chase was to hurl a bolt of lightning from it's wingtip at her in hopes it would hit.

The pegasus was agile enough that she could reliably dodge the enormous bird's attacks. However, she couldn't maintain a straight line without risking a hit from those lightning bolts, and she knew she needed to build up a bit of speed and then she would be free; the Roc was far too large to be aerodynamic, no matter how strong and agile it may be.

"Alright..." she growled under her breath, "Try this on for size!"

She angled sharply up, continuing to dodge and luring the bird higher and higher into the sky. It pecked at her relentlessly, but soon they were as far above the clouds as the clouds were above the ground. Dash watched the beast carefully for her moment, then in a flash, her wings flared and she reversed direction at the exact moment it lunged forward. She zipped between its legs, thick as tree trunks, and burst through its tail feathers to distract it for just one more precious second.

Rainbow Dash poured everything she had into accelerating into a dive. She tore through the air and within seconds she felt the air piling up before her. She eased up ever so slightly, maintaining her speed just below the threshold for another rainboom. The ground approached rapidly and she hoped the Roc was far, far behind. She couldn't turn her head to check - the wind would snap her neck in an instant.

Then Dash heard its distant bellowing and breathed a short sigh of relief. She made an almost undetectable adjustment of her wings and she began slowly leveling out, bleeding minimal speed in the broad curve. By the time she'd slowed enough that she could flap her wings freely she had nearly made it back to the castle.

Twilight Sparkle fidgeted nervously. Barbara was clearly furious at her and she desperately wanted to befriend this strange species.

"Look, if Dash confirms what you say is true, I swear I will do everything within my power to help, but... I'm sorry, Barbara, but I just can't believe Ponykind has never encountered these Thunder Rocs before. There's no mention of them anywhere! I just need some confirmation, that's all."

Slamming her hands on the table, Barbara's frustrations came to a boil. She could no longer keep anything contained, especially not when being told "I don't trust your word" in a round-about way.

"My people could DIE, Twilight! Instead of trusting me and sending help NOW--" With a deep breath, she tried to calm herself at least enough to not yell. She didn't want to hate ponies either, but Twilight was not making things easy.

She jabbed a finger at the alicorn princess, "If a single person dies, I'm holding you personally responsible, since you could send help on the "off chance" that these monsters do exist, yet you don't. We have a saying, Twilight: Better to be safe than sorry."

Twilight faltered for a moment, her ears folding back, then she narrowed her eyes and placed her forehooves on the wide table. Her wings flared angrily but she kept her voice under control.

"Barbara, I cannot simply brush aside the collective knowledge from all of Equestria just because you say so. You know how fast Dash is; a minute or two will not significantly alter the outcome of--"

Rainbow Dash burst through the door, slammed Twilight to her back and stood over her, pressing their muzzles together.

"SHE WAS BUCKING RIGHT, TWILIGHT."

Barbara thumped a fist into the stone map, "I fucking told you!"

Twilight ignored the human. She saw real terror in her friend's eyes, and Rainbow Dash never showed fear. She shoved the pegasus aside, got to her hooves, and took one short breath to steady herself. Then she raised her head, spread her wings, and addressed her friend seriously.

"Then this is a threat to Equestria, Wonderbolt. Get a hold of yourself and give me a sitrep."

Dash's eyes widened. Twilight only got all formal like this when she was deadly serious. She shook her head, then focused sharply on Twilight's face, straightened, and nodded to her Princess.

"Y-Yes ma'am. It's a flock of dark grey birds, about five to eight times my size, same proportions as a crow. Extremely strong and agile in close quarters, slow in straight lines, but they shoot lightning from their wingtips after about a half second wind-up period. At least four, no more than twelve, couldn't tell as they shroud themselves in dark clouds. One separated and chased me. I barely escaped - two could probably kill me."

Twilight nodded curtly, "Thank you, Dash." She turned to Barbara and said hurriedly, "I apologize for doubting you, but no time for that. Quickly, how dangerous are they from the ground and how well can your people handle them ordinarily?"

Barbara took a short breath to get herself under control, then responded in the same tense concise tone the others were using, "We've learned that some metals can draw their lightning to an extent, so we try to use that to force them to come to us. Once on the ground, they are still quite tough. A spear doesn't easily penetrate and they can harden with wing feathers to protect themselves. It takes our heaviest hitters to take them down, and even then its a struggle."

Barbara looked at the map with worry in her eyes. Two of their best fighters were gone, nowhere to be seen. She had to hope their their people saw the clouds and evacuated to the tunnels for safety.

"I don't think I've ever seen a group bigger than six or seven of these at once. When it gets that big... well, best way is to ground them and only commit to one or two, while trying to annoy the others without being killed."

"Thank you." Twilight closed her eyes and lowered her head for the space of three breaths. When she looked up again, her eyes were hard.

"SPIIIKE!" she yelled, then immediately turned to the pegasus, "Dash, fetch Spitfire and Thunderlane, all three of you suited up. Tell her I said it's a signal 3, she'll understand. Go."

Dash nodded and flew off immediately just as Spike poked his head inside.

"Spike, tell Starlight to bring Kalshaen's Galvinizer. It's an emergency, RUN."

His eyes widened and he scampered down the hallway. She suddenly flew up and hovered in front of Barbara. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it and lowered her gaze, eyes glistening.

"Barbara, if anyone dies, I--"

Rohan crashed his way into the map room to find Barbara and the princess with her. On the map he could see them zoomed in on the storm clouds, making it obvious what they were doing.

"So you already got help? Good, we don't have a moment to lose, we need to get to the village before the Rocs do or they will destroy the village!"

Barbara, who had already been part of the planning, beckoned Rohan over in a calm manner.

"We're preparing for battle as we speak. I'm sure Twilight and Dash won't keep us out of the fight. I'm itching to teach those birds a lesson they won't forget!"

Fluttershy trotted into the room behind him, took one look at Twilight, and immediately gave her a big hug. When they released, she looked up at the two humans, quickly reading Barbara's physique as she had done to Rohan in the clinic.

"So, um... I don't suppose we could try making friends with the rocs?"

Before Barbara could start laughing, Rohan grabbed the woman's shoulder and shook his head. She could tell that he didn't want her to take light of the situation, despite the outlandish idea.

Twilight sighed and wrapped a wing around Fluttershy's barrel, "If we found them alone, maybe, but our first task is protecting the humans. I'll focus on stunning, blocking, and scaring off the rocs, but if they're as dangerous as Rainbow Dash says, we may have no choice to use deadly force."

Rohan added, "If they had a friendly bone in their body, I'd think we might have seen it by now. They've always attacked us unprovoked, probably seeing us as prey. You would think they would back off when attacked or when there is a lot of resistance, but they are tenacious and don't like to leave until forced out or until they feel sure they can't get a meal of any kind." Rohan looked to the map and furrowed his brow. He'd wished he could just talk to the birds and tell them to leave, or at least figure out why they were so aggressive but he didn't have Fluttershy's animal talents. "I'm sorry, but there's going to be a fight for sure and someone, whether it be human or Roc, will most likely die today."

The pegasus sighed and nodded sadly, then seemed to come to a decision, turning somberly toward Rohan. With an air of ritual, she slowly extended a wing and nosed through her feathers almost as if she was preening. Twilight gasped softly and raised a hoof to her muzzle as she recognized what she was doing. Fluttershy carefully took hold of one of her longest primaries, tensed, then yanked it sharply from her wing with a wince, her fur bristling. She stared up at Rohan and spread her wings wide, the empty space jarring in her delicate, neatly groomed figure. She released the feather, flapped once and, as if guided by an invisible hand, the feather floated gently up and pressed itself to Rohan's chest.

He held out a hand to stop her once he realized she was going to yank it, but it was too late. Instead, he pressed the feather to his chest as it floated up to him and felt it in his fingers.

"But... your wing... You need these precious feathers to fly. Why are you..." His mind came to two conclusions before he could really ask the question. With a small smile, he knelt down next to Fluttershy and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Hey, I'll be coming back. Rocs are dangerous, but I've come through before. I will keep this with me though, as incentive not to mess up out there."

Fluttershy blushed and averted her eyes, not able to speak. Twilight stepped forward, rubbed her withers with a hoof, and spoke in a hushed, almost awed tone.

"You wouldn't know... of course not... That was an ancient pegasus tradition, Rohan. What Fluttershy just did... she just pronounced herself utterly and entirely yours, pledging herself to you and you alone for the rest of her life." She stared up at him, dumbstruck. Fluttershy had never even had a crush and yet this man had won her heart so completely in one day? "It's... it's the most devoted expression of love known to Pegasi kind. W-Wear it in your mane, if... if you accept."

Twilight's ears twitched. She could hear Starlight's hooves coming down the hall.

Rohan looked to the mare, wanting to ask if she was really sure, but he already knew the answer. Something like that wouldn't come without thinking about it at least a little. He, like her, had never experienced the kinds of feelings he had the day before. So, with a giddy expression, he stuck the feather behind his ear and in his hair.

"I hope this will do, I'm not sure where else I can stick it that it will stay. I could let you pick the spot though, if you'd like."

Her teal blue eyes glittered up at him and she silently reached up to pull him into a tight embrace, then without another word she turned and galloped out the door. Starlight skidded to a halt as she barreled past, rolled her eyes, then turned into the room and froze again. Her magic winked out in surprise and Twilight yelped, catching the small amulet she'd been carrying a mere inch from the floor.

Starlight looked down, aghast, "Twilight, oh my gosh, I'm sor-"

She waved a wing impatiently, "No time, come here," then she pointed to a spot on the map. "As soon as the Bolts arrive, I need you to use this to teleport them, me, and both humans to this precise location. Can you do that?"

The unicorn blanched slightly, "I... maybe? That's awfully far..."

"You know the amulet will give you more than enough magical energy, all you have to do is direct it. It's an emergency, Glim, lives are at stake." Twilight pressed a hoof against her muzzle, "I trust you."

In three bright flashes of blue, Spitfire, Thunderlane, and Rainbow Dash landed sharply in front of Twilight and saluted with a wing in perfect unison. Then Dash's eye caught the pale yellow feather tucked behind Rohan's ear, met his gaze, and her eyes widened, composure slipping for a brief second.

Twilight stepped toward them and her horn flashed, zapping each of them harmlessly in turn.

"Okay, that should help you avoid the lightning. It's not perfect, but it'll help."

She turned to the humans and took a sharp breath.

"Everypony ready?"

Rohan and Barbara both nodded and shared a glance.

"We'll need to rush into our homes to grab our weapons. If anyone needs a spear, they are in the smithy, a stone building that's at the end of the road. The spears can easily draw lightning away from you, it's good to simply toss one when they try to fire at you."

The Wonderbolts nodded curtly, but they shared a glance and knew they'd only be slowed down by spears, and Twilight didn't expect to need anything but her magic. She collected everypony together and turned to her friend and pupil.

"Tell Lodestone and Granite to come to the village once the shipment is ready, okay? Teleport us now."

Starlight Glimmer nodded seriously and floated the amulet's thin, silvery band over her head. The moment it settled around her neck, it began to glow vividly, the exact color of her magic shimmer. Her eyes widened and she gasped as her horn began to glow - not surrounded by an aura as when using her magic, but glowing from within, as if it had become translucent and a steady flame was set in her skull.

She turned to face the group and lowered her horn, concentrating intensely. The inner glow of her horn flickered, dimmed, then suddenly burst out, surrounding her horn in a familiar magical aura, but so bright they had to squint to see her. Their skin began to prickle as energy built around them, Starlight began to slowly float into the air, her mane and tail billowing in a breeze none of them felt, then her horn flashed, they heard a sharp CRACK, and all six figures vanished.

They reappeared on the pathway the led towards the mines behind the village. It was the least likely to be populated and also wouldn't draw unneeded attention. The storm clouds were still a small ways off, but not far enough for people to not be worried. Horns were being blown and people began to panic and run towards the mines for shelter. Most paused as they noticed the group, but the chief was quick to answer.

"INTO THE MINES! IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIVES AND THAT OF YOUR FAMILY, RUN INTO THE MINES FOR SHELTER!"

Her bellow was all it took to get the people moving again and both she and Rohan ran towards their homes with the ponies in tow. Once they had their gear, they brought the ponies to the middle of the village where much of the guardsman were located.

"Men! The ponies will be helping us fight off this threat! They have come from the other side of the forest to act as saviors! Any who take an issue with them, takes issue with me!"

All of the guards put a fist to their chest in a salute and grabbed spears for themselves.

After a brief moment of shock at the scene around them, the Wonderbolts launched into the air, keeping to a tight formation. Spitfire scanned the village and noted the Rocs' location, then hurried back to Twilight, who was hovering a few feet in the air so no humans would stumble over her as she made her plans.

"Princess, the Rocs are flocked together and in that direction, about a minute away, maybe less."

Twilight nodded, "Where's the nearest wide area clear of many homes or trees?"

"Just past those huts is something like a small plaza or market."

"Thank you, Captain. Dash described her encounter? Good - don't risk anything more than one on one odds. Avoid lethal force but if it's needed do not hesitate. If any of you are injured, get to me and I'll 'port you home. Be safe out there."

Rainbow Dash met Spitfire's eye and at her nod, hovered forward and gave Twilight a quick, tight hug, "You too, Twi."

She fell back into formation and they flew off in a relatively slow patrol around the immediately vicinity, mostly ignoring the humans but occasionally giving a wave or a salute when one called out.

Twilight landed beside Barbara, who was barking out an almost non-stop string of commands to every human in sight.

"Chief, I'll be in the plaza over there, I need space for my magic. Here..."

She held out her hooves and, as her horn flashed, a tiny orb of what looked like glass appeared in each hoof.

"Give one to Rohan, put them in a pouch. If things become desperate, touch it and say my name."

"Got it- WHO TOLD YOU TO STOP MOVING! GO GO GO!"

She had happened to see a human who lollygagged when he saw the princess. Most of the guards did when they saw any pony they saw, since it was still a new thing to see larger groups of ponies. While Twilight wouldn't know what they were doing exactly, she could see that they were sticking longer spears into the soft dirt. From her knowledge of how electricity works, she figured that the humans had thought to create something to act as a lightning rod that would ground most of the bolts harmlessly.

All too soon the storm clouds loomed over the village and lightning shot out from the sky. Several huts were hit, causing them to burn, but some of the bolts were redirected at the spears acting as lightning rods.

Twilight immediately teleported to the room of the hut Spitfire had pointed at, then to the ground of the plaza. Several humans gawked at her sudden appearance, but with the Rocs upon them, they quickly ignored her. The alicorn hovered in the clearest space she could find, closed her eyes, and focused intensely on casting the spells she had planned, first of which would alert her if any Roc's attention turned toward her.

As the Rocs drew near, the trio of pegasi flew off in a wide arc away from the dark clouds. They almost seemed to be running away, but when the lightning struck, they accelerated at an incredible rate directly toward the center of the storm. At such a speed the Rocs hardly even saw them before they were gone, the Wonderbolts plowed into the center of the storm and a significant chunk of the clouds vanished, dissipating in an instant and revealing the five enormous birds.

Spears were hurled up at the beasts as two of them descended upon one group. While one stuck deep into its body, another bounced off it's chest as the bird grabbed two men in its talons. They tried desperately to get it to let go before they were too high but were too late. They were dropped about fifteen feet from where Twilight focused, their bodies making a sickening crunch as blood splattered around their lifeless bodies.

Twilight had cast the attention spell and another to weaken all flames within a large area around her, but the third spell fizzled as the bodies hit the ground near her. She startled but flew to them quickly, then grimaced and turned away when she saw the unnatural angle of their necks. She returned and quickly cast one of her spells out of order: within a wide range of her, approaching the ground beyond a certain speed would rapidly slow you down. She was proud of the kinetic transfer in that one.

The other roc tried the same thing with Barbara, though she was much more prepared. As it swooped down, she ducked and swiped at it with her axe, chopping off a talon and making it screech in pain and anger. Landing beside her, it tried to peck at her, only for her to catch its beak in her hands. Her arms began to glow and soon she pushed it back, allowing Rohan to leap in and take a stab at it. The spear went straight into its chest, though it wasn't enough to kill the beast, just wound it.

In the air, the Rocs took to chasing the pegasi in a vain. They were faster than the birds, but that didn't stop them from pecking and slashing at them, nor did it ease the lightning bolts coming their way.

The Rocs had done exactly what the Wonderbolts wanted: separate. Their first task was to distract and delay, easing the pressure on the princess and humans. They stuck to a loose formation, spreading their trails extra wide so their forms were blurred by the overlapping blue beams, so a good half of the lightning bolts passed harmlessly through open air between them. One beam of lightning managed to graze Thunderlane's flank, but Twilight's protective ward dissipated most of its bite... though it did nothing to soften Spitfire's harsh rebuke.

The bird fighting Rohan and Barbara kept at its assault, pecking and lashing out at them. They were skilled enough to dodge and stop its attacks with their weapons, angering it to the point of shooting a bolt of lightning at them. With no small amount of panic, they jumped away, causing its lightning to hit another human before jumping into one of the lightning rods nearby. Barbara raised both hands above her head and, with all her fury, launched her axe at the bird with tremendous force and lodged it in its head, killing it instantly.

With no luck in the air, the three rocs retreated to their clouds and seemed to reform what was missing with a smoke they emitted from their beaks. This time it was larger than before, nearly covering the sky above the village. A terrible caw broke through the clouds as lightning began to rain down chaotically. People scrambled to get closer to the lightning rods, but many were being struck by lightning before they could reach.

The last of the rocs, having already killed a few people nearby, spotted Twilight further down the path and started to fly her direction. It tried to shoot a bolt, only for a spear to fly between them and for one of the guards to step in its way.

Twilight felt the Roc's gaze on her but her next spell was very important--it would make the attraction of the lightning rods far more powerful, and she only needed a few more seconds! Her focus held as it drew nearer, her horn glowed with energy and she prepared to loose the spell... then a guard stepped into the Roc's path to protect her.

She gasped and her magic wavered but she just barely managed to control the fluctuation. The man held up his spear, roaring defiantly as the Roc bore down on him. The spell flowed out of her and freshly thrown lightning bolts suddenly turned sharply in the air, each angling toward the nearest rod. The spear deflected harmlessly off an impenetrable beak and as if in slow motion she saw those terrible jaws descending toward the man's head.

Abruptly something snapped inside the alicorn. Pure force of will emanated from the tip of her horn and a thin violet line materialized, connected her directly to the creature's life force. With a casual flick of her thoughts, she dismissed its life and the body instantly collapsed, thudding to the ground and narrowly missing the man.

Princess Twilight Sparkle was now floating several feet in the air. Her eyes had turned solid white and gazed unblinking at the world. Her mane and tail had stretched out and thinned, becoming translucent, but through it the sky looked like dusk.

With lightning no longer an option, the rocs swooped down to try and attack the humans directly, but the one thing they didn't count on was an angered alicorn. Their bodies fell quicker than they imagined and when they hit the ground they found they were too heavy to stand. Twilight was literally manipulating gravity around them, forcing them into the dirt with such force that it was almost crushing them. Even then they persisted, trying to peck at whatever was near, firing smaller bolts of lightning from their wings only for them to hit the lightning rods. Before long they were unconscious and no longer a threat to anyone.

The Wonderbolts stopped dead in the air, watching the Rocs fall as if the very concept of flight had been taken from them. From above they could see a faint purple aura rippling out from where Twilight had been casting her spells, invisible from the ground. Rainbow Dash saw something was wrong and immediately dove for her friend, ignoring the shouts of her captain.

Dash had only just made out the solid white orbs of the alicorn's eyes when there was a bright flash and Twilight's unconscious body suddenly thudded to the ground, looking exactly as she ever had. She was at her side in seconds, shaking her shoulder.

"Twilight? W-What happened, what's wrong? Twilight, wake up!"

Spitfire slammed into the ground and roughly shoved Dash aside, then pressed a hoof to Twilight's neck.

"She's alive, Rainbow," her voice held a thinly restrained fury, but she didn't want to appear unprofessional around the humans, "We'll discuss your subordination later. Form up around her."

Spitfire only called her 'Rainbow' when she was genuinely furious. Dash gulped and silently fell into place as the three of them stood in a protective triangle around Twilight. Guarding the fallen princess was now their sole responsibility.

Barbara and Rohan rushed over to see Twilight on the ground unconscious. They knew from experience that magic took a lot of energy and she had just defeated the rocs with ease. Once they heard she would be fine, however, the breathed a sigh of relief.

"What will happen to those birds there? They are still alive and are likely to attack when they manage to free themselves."

Spitfire shuffled her wings, unconcerned, "Hay if I know."

Dash timidly raised a wing. Her captain nodded permission but she knew behind those goggles was an icy cold glare.

"I saw Twilight just before she, uh... collapsed. Something is strange here, she's never done any magic like that before... at least, not without the elements."

She rubbed her mane awkwardly and wished she could take her own goggles off, but she knew Spitfire wouldn't give the all clear until Twilight was safe, even if the Rocs were no longer a threat.

"But since this one here is dead, I'm guessing she wanted those other ones alive. If it were up to me I'd see about binding them... or maybe bury them up to their necks."

Spitfire waved a wing dismissively, "Do whatever you want with them, it's none of our concern. Our orders were to simply to neutralize the Rocs. Without new orders our duty is solely to the Princess, no more. If she doesn't wake within a minute, we're flying her back to Ponyville for her own safety."

"That makes sense, she should be-"

Both of their clans symbols began to glow on their body as they drew nearer to Twilight. Magic literally flowed from them and towards Twilight, causing her eyes to flutter.

"Or... maybe you can give us a little time. Rohan, take her to the cave, please. I'll stay out here with Dash and the others. The spirits of the cave might want to meet her, I think."

Nodding, Rohan stepped toward the princess to pick her up. Spitfire immediately took flight and her crew followed suit an instant later, the three of them hovering around Rohan. Spitfire's voice was quiet but so tense her neck actually bulged with the effort of speaking.

"We will not be separated from our Princess. If she goes anywhere, it will be on my back. Put her down. Now."

There was a tense silence as Barbara bristled angrily and Rohan waited for her order. Spitfire tensed, subtly adjusting her hover in a way that ordered Dash and Thunder to prepare for combat. In the absolute stillness that followed, Twilight's weak, whimpering voice was clear as a silver bell.

"L-Let him... carry... Dash comes... t-too..."

Her breath wheezed out as she lost consciousness again. Instantly, Spitfire backed away from Rohan and Thunderlane moved to her side. Dash hesitated, unsure what to do and Spitfire waved a hoof flippantly.

"Go on, Crash. Princess beats Captain, right?" She turned to Barbara and gave her a tiny, polite bow, "My apologies, Chief. Protecting a fallen Princess is our highest protocol, we must protect her at all costs. Rohan can carry her into the cave, but Dash will stay with her at all times. I hope you understand."'

“I get it, she’s hurt and it’s your duty. Don’t have to explain to me, but next time...” She patted Spitfire’s shoulder and stopped beside her to say one last thing before passing. “Next time remember your tone when speaking to friends, especially those you already know are on your side and don’t necessarily know the exact rules you play by.”

Once they were down the path a ways, Barbara looked to Dash with a grin and gave her a nudge on the shoulder. “You and your friends made that fight much easier! It’s just too bad I didn’t have more time to show off my stuff to you.”

Dash chuckled, "Well, I'd say maybe next time, but... hopefully not, huh?"

As the group approached the entrance to the cave, Dash fell back and hovered near Rohan's shoulder, occasionally glancing at the yellow feather still carefully held behind his ear. After a moment, she drifted a bit closer and spoke quietly, in a friendly tone, as if trying not to openly embarass the man.

"So... you and Fluttershy, eh? I'm happy for you two... she needs somepony besides her animals."

“Her gesture did take me a bit by surprise, though I share the sentiment. She’s a wonderful mare and life is short. I only hope I can make her happy in life.”

Barbara looked between them and almost made a comment to Dash, but held her tongue on it. Instead she stepped closer to Dash to speak softly.

“Before I forget Dash, I would like for you not to talk bout this place. The spirits housed within are special to us, they gave us the ability to protect ourselves and have provided guidance far beyond what we expected. If something were to happen to them... well, I’m fairly certain everyone would lose hope.”

The pegasus nodded seriously, "Don't worry, I got tons of secrets already and haven't spilled a single one."

Barbara seemed satisfied and stepped forward to grab a torch from a nearby bin. She cursed as it flickered and spat, refusing to light without a struggle.

Dash finally removed her goggles and hovered over close to Rohan's head again, though he was a bit confused when she didn't speak and only watched him with a mild interest. When she finally did speak, her too-calm voice made him vaguely uneasy.

"So she gave you her Primary after the first day, huh? Must have been one hay of a night..." She looked up at Barbara, who had finally gotten a small corner of the torch to catch and was trying to carefully spread the tiny flame.

"If you break her heart I'll bucking kill you."

Her voice was casual, almost flippant. She sounded as if she were commenting on the weather, or reading a fact from a book. When he looked, her expression was calm and friendly, but her eyes... her eyes were like dark coals of a forge that had burned low but would flare up instantly with one press of the bellows. Her hover seemed to falter briefly, her wings hesitating at the top of their swing, feathers spread wide to catch the air... and for just a second, Rohan could clearly see a gap, a space in her feathers where there had once been a long, blue Primary.

“I wouldn’t expect any less of one of her friends. If I break her heart, I deserve it.” His eyes flicked to where her primary was missing and he wondered if she lost it in battle or if she gave hers away just recently. He didn’t see Barbara with one, yet they seemed oddly close, especially when Barbara came to collect the Pegasus and let her ride the woman.

“I wonder if we’ll see all the clans this time. Feels like it’s been ages since all of them came out at once! Oohhh, I wonder what clan you would belong to? Maybe the wolf clan prides itself on being fast and working well in a team.”

Dash was all smiles again and wiggled closer to Barbara's neck, hugging her head between her forehooves and chest. "I dunno, maybe! Wolves are awfully slow compared to me though, I should be... maybe falcon clan or something." She spread her wings behind her and echoed a falcon's scream, making Barbara giggle. Rohan could now see how carefully she spread her wings, manually spreading the feathers to flush out the hole and make the wing appear almost perfectly smooth again. She had let him see the missing space!

She glanced back over her shoulder, wings still spread, and her smile vanished, her eyes dull and weary. As she held his gaze for a brief moment, he noticed her eyes were budding with tears. She turned away, casually flicked her wings in such a way that they just barely brushed her face, then tapped the Chief's head, sounding as cool and cheerful as ever.

"You have got to give me a tour after this, Barb. I mean... what even IS that?"

CH20: Quite the Mess

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Lodestone and Granite slept through all the commotion over the thunder rocs - partially thanks to the thick castle walls, but mainly because they had stayed up far too late in the night. Granite, being freshly introduced to intimacy was eager to try everything, over and over, and Lodestone - with all the teasing and near-misses over the past few days - was able to keep up for a long while.

The morning sun didn't even fully wake them and just caused Granite to turn around and bury her muzzle in the pegasus' chest. What did eventually bring her back to the world of the living was a growing pressure she couldn't keep ignoring, no matter how comfortable she was.

Granite didn't even open her eyes, but she smiled and gave Lodestone a lick on his muzzle. Then she made a face.

"Ew... shower..." she commanded. The poor stallion wasn't sticky all over, if only because some patches have dried up by now and were crusty. Still, now that the mare was up, she couldn't get back to sleep. Her hind hoof kicked feebly and she pushed herself to the edge of the bed.

"G'na... haff-" she tried to mumble, but a yawn interrupted her. "Got t' pee..."

She finished her roll out of the bed and landed heavily on the ground. It took her a couple of tries to climb to her hooves and then, peering blearily, located the door and headed there, dragging her hooves. For the moment she didn't seem to realize she was in a castle with multiple occupants, but she did remember which way was the bathroom and headed there.

Lodestone was worn out, tired, exhausted, spent, and fatigued. He was sore all over and had never been so thirsty in his entire life. The pegasus was filthy, crusty, disheveled, disoriented, and stank worse than that old Griffon he met in Las Pegasus.

In other words, he had never felt better.

As Granite flopped out of bed, he concentrated and lifted his head just in time to see her walk out the bedroom door.

"...Uh oh."

Starlight Glimmer was trotting happily down the hallway, having just finished her second panic attack about whether or not she'd just teleported the Princess of Friendship a mile underground by accident. She just needed to return Kalshaen's Galvinizer to it's pedestal where it would slowly recharge itself with trace amounts of excess magic in the area, ready to overload the next unsuspecting unicorn which was totally not going to be her.

One of the bedroom doors ahead of her slowly opened and a filthy mass of crusted fur that once might have been a mare named Granite lurched into the hall. Starlight smirked and slowly approached the mostly-asleep mare.

"Hey, filly! Showers are this way. Have fun last night?"

"Mmmphpm," Granite commented and kept going towards her destination for a few steps before Starlight's message got through to her. She adjusted her direction and gave the unicorn what she hoped was a friendly smile. "Mmmm, fanks..."

It was only once she was inside the pristine crystal bathroom and shower did Granite realize what had just happened. Her eyes flared open and she hurriedly leaned on the door, as if worried that Starlight might follow her.

"Buck, buck, did she see?! I hope she didn't smell it!"

The poor pony rushed at the mirror and peered into it. "Oh, buck, oh buck... tell me I didn't go walking around looking like that!"

Only then did Granite think to sniff her own flank "Sweet Celestia, gah!"

Yes, she had definitely walked right past somepony who lived in the castle with the bucking Princess of Friendship, looking exactly like she'd been up all night having all kinds of sex.

The fact that it was true didn't help.

Granite spotted the encrusted stuff all over her muzzle and, with a sinking feeling realized Starlight had probably also seen it.

Oh, bucking... moo..." she swore quietly.

The unicorn in question had been a bit disappointed by her lack of reaction, so she trotted down the hall and into the lower basement, depositing the amulet and locking the room behind her. Next she fetched several clean towels and an extra bottle of shampoo for good measure and gently tapped the bathroom door with a hoof. There was a tiny mooing noise from the other side and Starlight suppressed a giggle.

"Granite? I brought more towels and soap."

She eased the door open a bit, then when there was no protest, slowly pushed it open the other way.

"It's okay, really, nothing to be ashamed of. Tartarus, I'm a a bit jealous to tell the truth."

Starlight was casually floating the towels to the counter beside Granite and moving the towel she'd already turned brown into a nearby hamper.

"Really the only issue was Spike, cause he's just a baby dragon, you know... You have any idea how many times I had to renew the silence spell on his bedroom?"

She gave Granite a wink, somehow oblivious to the poor mare's utter horror.

"I didn't really mind though. Normally I'd be embarrassed to admit I listened in, but, well... I didn't have much of a choice. Hey, speaking of - you want a few toys for round two tonight? Now that he's had a taste you could have him wrapped around your... ahem, 'hoof' if you wanted."

Granite stood petrified, terrified, mortified and probably other things ending in "-fied" which she couldn't think up just at the moment. "L-L-Listened?!" she managed a squeak, and then a bit later: "B-Baby dragon?!"

She was quickly turning into a red-and-black pony, rather than a white-and-black one and started taking half-hoof steps away from the too-familiar unicorn.

"W-We weren't- I wasn't- moo!"

Her ears couldn't go any flatter and her gaze was on her forehooves. It seemed like Granite had only heard the embarrassing parts of what Starlight had said and none of the encouraging.

"I didn't realize we were being l-loud," she admitted quietly. "Sorry..."

It looked rather like the unicorn would have to repeat at least some of what she'd said. For that matter, Granite didn't look like she had any strength left to get in the shower by herself. The cowpoke seemed just... frozen, out of sheer embarrassment.

Starlight finally realized the little cow pony was, for some reason, horribly embarrassed about all this.

"Hey... come on, don't be like that..."

A damp towel floated over and tenderly pressed against Granite's neck, rubbing a fraction of the filth out of her mane.

"It's alright, filly... I mean it, nopony minded in the slightest. We're all adults here - well except Spike, but like I said, I took care of him."

Granite was slowly edging away from the towel, but Starlight wasn't really paying attention, gently rubbing her neck and mane with the towel without straying to more familiar parts of her body.

"We're all just happy for you two, really. When I said I was jealous I was talking about having a relationship like what you have."

Starlight stopped fussing the the towel and looked away uncomfortably.

"It's not about the sex, I can get that whenever I want... You're just both so... precious with each other, you know? He obviously cares about you a lot... That's what I'm jealous of."

The towel was limp on the floor, her gaze had drifted, and she was sitting loosely on her haunches. She might not notice Granite sneaking away, but she looked so terribly sad...

Granite was indeed trying to sneak away and find a different shower, but she paused when she caught Starlight's faraway look.

The cowpoke had to take a deep breath, but she managed to stay in the room, even if she was trembling a little and her ears absolutely wouldn't come up.

"Um... sorry?" It seemed the only thing she could really say. "I'll, uh- I'll just go shower real quick..."

Rather than bolting out the door, Granite fled to one of the showers and gratefully slid the door shut behind herself. Moments later the water started, making the poor mare yelp as it came out freezing cold.

That was soon followed by a luxurious sigh as it warmed up and started to take some of the soreness out of her muscles.

Maybe the fact that she wasn't looking at the unfamiliar unicorn made it easier, but Granite attempted a bit of conversation: "Um, I'm sure you can... find somepony... no?"

She started scrubbing herself, at first just with hooves to get most of the filth out, so her voice was strained and interspersed with grunts. "Me and Lodestone just kinda... met."

"Well... I used to think so. Tried an awful lot of stallions now though. Instead of nine out of ten stallions simply not being interested, now nine out of ten are ex-coltfriends." She fell silent for a moment, then sighed, her breath catching slightly in her throat. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you. Just... don't be shy about what you have, Granite. It's more precious than you realize."

Granite heard her hooves click as she stood up, but no other sound. For all she could tell, Starlight was still just standing there.

Lodestone, meanwhile, hadn't even mustered the energy to climb out of bed yet. He had at least attempted to open his wings, but the crunching crust that glued his feathers together would have made even a harpy wince. He wouldn't even bother trying to get up except he was so bucking thirsty...

"I h-hope it works out... in the end," Granite said, feeling a little bit for this strange unicorn. "Um, what's your n-name?"

She'd been lost deep in thought and jumped slightly at Granite's words, "O-Oh, um... I'm Starlight Glimmer."

Granite quickly finished her coat and started on her mane. Luckily, the shower was well-stocked with shampoo and soap, for which the cowpoke was immensely grateful. She turned the knob a bit more, making the water hotter still, which made her sigh luxuriously. "Mmm, this is nice."

Maybe after sharing a few love-related problems like they had, she could face the mare outside without too much blush? It was worth a shot, before Lodestone also came wandering around and met a similar fate.

"Um, could you do me a favor?" Granite tried, even though she wasn't quite friendly with the unicorn enough for this, "could you, um, get Lodestone in here? I bet he'd like a shower too and I don't want him to meet the- um, the b-baby dragon."

The unicorn blushed as Granite's little happy noises at the hot water reminded her of similar sounds last night. Oh, buck... she was gonna need her toys again, wasn't--

"W-What? Oh, sure. I'll go and get him..."

She giggled, then murmured just barely loud enough for Granite to hear.

"Would you like some lubricant that will still work in the water?

"Moo!" Granite suddenly realized what she'd said. "I didn't mean this shower! Jeez! We're not doing it all the time..."

She fell silent, realizing just how it probably seemed to Starlight. She'd known the couple for all of twelve or so hours and they'd spent most of it moaning and thrashing around the bed.

"Not all the time..." she repeated more quietly. "Hey! I thought you said it was a beautiful thing!"

Not being able to see Starlight or look in her eyes was doing wonders for Granite's self-confidence.

Starlight burst out laughing and quickly tried to get it under control as the mare was sure to take it the wrong way.

"Oh, it's beautiful alright!" She stiffled another giggle, "If I was in your hooves I'd have kept going until my dock was rubbed raw and then a little longer just because I could."

"Who said I didn't," Granite murmured, but unfortunately the shower made it echo a bit more than she'd intended. "Eep!" She hurriedly went back to the shampoo and her mane, mostly to hide the fresh wave of embarrassment.

Starlight shook her head and chuckled lightly again. "But fine, I'll take him to a different shower. In fact, I'll take him to the one right across the hall, just in case you get bored..."

"Also, um, is there something to drink here? I don't think I realized, but I'm really thirsty." The shower took her mind off it, but Granite was starting to feel just as parched as Lodestone was. That reminded her. "Oh my gosh, Lodestone is probably about to die of thirst! Um- I know I'm asking a lot, but I'm not leaving this shower for some time... could you?" The cowpoke made her voice as pleading as she could without being able to look at Starlight and splay her ears in supplication.

She heaved a huge, over dramatic sigh. "Oh alright, I'll take care of your colt for you. You owe me for this, though." Starlight finally trotted out of the room, ignoring Granite's stuttering protests.

Lodestone had finally decided that more sleep was worth being thirsty and began to doze off again when the door suddenly opened and a bright voice pierced his head. "Riiiise and shine, stud! Your marefriend asked and I deliver."

The pegasus croaked as he was suddenly floated off the bed. His wings instinctively tried to open but it sounded like he actually managed to snap a feather in half, they'd stuck together so firmly. "Wha... who..."

"Starlight Glimmer, Granite's newest sort-of friend I guess. Here, drink up..." She'd flown him through the hall so fast he felt dizzy, but a large cup of water was thrust into his hooves and he greedily sucked up half the cup before it was yanked from him again.

"Okay okay, you'll make yourself sick, more later. Off we goooo!" He zoomed down the halls again and turned sharply into a large, ornate bathroom. He was unceremoniously dunked into the water, which was already running and quite warm, and he groaned deeply as he collapsed in a little pool of relaxation.

"Alright, you can probably handle it from here. Granite will proooobably be here shortly. Think you're still functional down there, lover-boy?"

She laughed merrily and the door thudded shut before he even attempted to respond. He was left dazed and reeling, barely even awake, unmoving under the flow of water.

Starlight trotted across the hall and tapped on the door, speaking much more cautiously now, "Granite? Hey, I'm coming in..."

Again she slowly opened the door in stages, then finally closed it behind her. She grinned wickedly.

"Okay, he's had some water and a bit of nutrients I mixed into the glass with it and he's lying half-dead in the shower across the hall. Here..."

She floated a small tube over the open space at the top of the shower and heard a little squeak of surprise, then a gasp and a bit of stammering.

"Hush hush, don't worry about it. Just try it out in his shower if you want. Fair warning though, it takes a lot of soap to feel truly dry again after you use that stuff."

"Eep!" was all Granite could get out for a moment. The tube of whatever-it-was clattered on the floor as soon as Starlight let it go. "I'm not gonna- We're not gonna... now!" the mare protested.

Then she realized what the unicorn had said. "H-Half-dead?! I better go see him!"

Granite reached for the handle, but paused. "Um- I'm coming out," she announced, as if it was something important or embarrassing. Then she finally pushed the door open and stepped out, dripping.

"Towel..." she muttered, more to keep making noise than to actually say anything. She found one and draped it around her back. It didn't stop the dripping, but it helped a little. "Where is he?"

Starlight stepped to the side of the door and used her magic to open it and the door directly across, where Lodestone could faintly be seen slumped against the wall in the shower. The little tube floated up and balanced on top of Granite's head.

"Trust me, Granite. You'll thank me for this stuff later... that is, if you can get him up again."

She lightly tapped the mare's snout with a hoof and giggled.

"I'll bring you two some sustenance when you quiet down again. Oh, and don't worry, the castle is empty for once, aside from me: Spike's out with Big Mac and Discord so he'll be gone until well after dark, and Twilight and the others went to some emergency at that human village."

She pressed a clean towel into Granite's flank, urging her gently toward the barely-conscious pegasus.

Granite made it halfway across the hallway before she realized what the unicorn was saying. "Twilight is what who where?!" She didn't pay any attention to the bottle of lube which, once again, fell to the floor. "Oh no, why didn't anypony wake us up? We should be helping!" The cowpoke ran for her coltfriend. "Lodestone! Get up! Get up quick! We gotta go help! Emergency at the humans' village!" She stopped when she reached the poor pegasus and saw in what a state he was. "Um, I'll help you shower first, quick."

The mare glared back at the sniggering unicorn and pointedly pulled the shower door closed. She didn't seem to mind that she was getting wet once again herself. What Granite didn't notice was that Lodestone's feather fell out of her mane in the shower and was now lying forlornly on the floor.

Granite had been acting a little strange toward the end there, but Starlight paid it no mind. She headed off to the kitchen to prepare a simple meal she could quickly reheat later, then returned to her bedroom, which by some interesting coincidence just happened to be two doors down from the shower where Lodestone lay. Fancy that. Starlight pulled out a large box and considered the toys inside... after all, she'd finally gotten a good look at Lodestone now. Yes... Granite was quite the lucky mare.

CH21: Spirits and Princesses

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Back in the humans' cave, the group had made it to the gem chamber after several minutes of walking. Barbara placed the torch in a small pool to douse the flames, allowing the brilliant light of the gem to glow till it lit the room on its own. This time, instead of the deer being the only to show, a single representative of each clan appeared. Upon seeing the bear, Barbara ran up and hugged the ethereal looking spirit.

"My child, I am sorry I could not be there last time you came. I hope you were not too disappointed."

Rohan knelt before the leader of his clan: A wolf two or three times the size of a dire wolf in the forest. It's cool, sharp eyes gazed down at him for but a moment before his tail gave a small wag.

"I have seen your deeds, my warrior. To fight such a beast while protecting your pack is no small feat, I am impressed. I know that my descendants adore you as well, you have proven to be a fine member of my clan."

He couldn't help grin at that, but the last two clans did not hold their silence as they stepped towards the ponies in the room. While the deer was as tall as Celestia, the ancient turtle next to him was easily the size of a boulder. The deer was the first to speak between them.

"Alicorn, marked by the sister of the sun and bearer the element of magic, we thank you for protecting our children during a dire hour."

It was directed at the barely conscious Twilight, who was being pressed more firmly against the fighter when he knelt. She took the opportunity to nuzzle at him a little. "Mmm, you smell like Fluttershy," she murmured.

Her distraction lasted only for a moment, before she came to. "Oh. Sorry!"

Maybe she put a hoof in the wrong place, or kicked a little, or smacked Rohan in the face with a wing in her urgent struggle to free herself, but the mare ended up panting and standing upright, even if she was a bit unsteady.

"Yes! That's me! Alicorn and all that!" she said manically to hide her obvious, blushing embarrassment. "I guess you're the forest spirits? How come I haven't read anything about you?! Princess Celestia never mentioned anything like it!"

It seemed like the alicorn would take it as a personal affront, the way her nose wrinkled.

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but snicker at Rohan's expression, then wrapped a wing around Twilight's withers to steady her.

"So does this mean you're feeling better? You had Spits pretty worried."

Then her brows furrowed and she looked up at the translucent deer shape, looking mildly indignant.

"Hey, wait a minute, we Wonderbolts were the real heroes here! If we hadn't distracted half of those Rocs they'd have overrun the village AND stopped Twi from casting her spells!"

Staring stubbornly at the large spirit, she failed to notice either Twilight's horror or Barbara's fury at her blatant disrespect. "Rainbow dash! I-" The deer held out a hoof to stop the woman staring down at the pegasus.

"I do not deny your help, blue one. Indeed your teamwork helped to keep the battle from becoming chaotic and saved many lives. But this is not the time for bickering over who has earned what praise."

All the clan's eyes found themselves on Twilight as they all moved to stand before her. Rather than the deer, this time it was the turtle that spoke.

"You are not the appointed ones, yet maybe you can help, Element Bearers." For such a large creature, it was a little shocking to hear her speak with the soft voice of an elderly woman. "Your influence yet grows within Equestria, and our children need more aid than we had anticipated. Through them, we were able to glimpse at your home, and now know we have slumbered for many more years than we thought. Please, aid our appointed ones in their quest to help the humans."

"Looked through them-?" Twilight began, but then remembered her friend. "It's okay, Rainbow Dash. I know how much you helped. Thanks."

She had meant to be a bit more quiet, but the cave made her voice echo deceptively and the alicorn blushed a bit. "Ugh," she groaned and rubbed her head with a hoof. "What was that magic?! I never felt anything like it before. It was kinda like the Elements, but... different." The pony looked at the assorted spirits. "Was that you?"

As if by magic, a parchment and a quill appeared as the Princess started taking notes. "I have to write it down while I still remember it. What do you call this kind of magic? Where does it come from?" It seemed that in her desire to learn and catalogue, Twilight completely forgot the spirits' request. "Can you use magic yourselves, or do you just channel it through others?"

The pegasus shook her head. "Wait wait wait, did I hear that right? You didn't say help the humans, you said help your 'appointed ones' help the humans." She raised a hoof and rubbed her mane, looking confused. "What appointed ones? Do you mean you want us to help somepony else help the humans? Wouldn't it be better to just help... uh, directly?"

The wolf huffed as Twilight barraged them with questions. While not angry, he looked mildly annoyed. "We gave you aid only because you would not unleash your own potential to stop the winged menaces. Our magic is deep and old, far older than even pony magic, as your leader learned in the past."

Rohan, sensing the confusion, cleared his throat to gain the groups attention. "The appointed ones are called Lodestone and Granite. They were the ones who found us first, though I had not seen much of them since my last hunting trip."

As Rainbow dash spoke, the turtle listened and shut its eyes in thought. "No, your destiny lies elsewhere. Providing our appointed ones aid is the best way to help them realize their destiny. A destiny that they have been secretly searching for, without even knowing it."

For a moment the only sounds were of Twilight's pen scritching across the paper. "Mhm... destiny, not knowing. Lodestone and Granite? Oh, right, I remember them. Why them?"

She didn't seem to mind the spirits' pick, the alicorn was just genuinely curious about it. "What kind of aid should we give them? Right now, it was just some trading and organizing. Can we do more?"

The Princess pranced a bit in place. "Oh, this is so exciting! I can't wait to send a letter to Princess Celestia. I have so many things to ask her!"

At long last the mare happened to spot the mood in the room and her ears, as well as her parchment, lowered. "Oh. Sorry," she said, shame-muzzled. "Okay, destiny, help, appointed ones, got it." The alicorn looked around at the glowing crystals and opened her muzzle to ask another question, but realized it and clamped it shut again.

Dash leaned her head in close to Twilight. "...Hey Twilight?" she whispered, "Who are they? I swear I recognize those names but--" She widened her eyes and snapped her gaze back up to the turtle. "Wait, you mean that dorky fan-colt and the little cow pony that kept fawning over him? What's so special about them?"

Then Dash's face shifted as something seemed to click in her head. "You... you gave Twilight the power to do that... glowy-eye-thing and..." She looked rapidly back and forth between Twilight and the spirits, "Oh... oh my gosh are you..." She cringed and dropped her voice to a whisper, as if afraid to even think her idea too loudly, "Are you more powerful than Princess Celestia?"

"And far more ancient," the wolf spirit said agreeably, "It would also be wise of you not to dismiss the potential of others through so little interaction, young one."

For a moment the pegasus simply sat on her flanks, ears flopped down and stared up at the spirits. The idea of a being both older and more powerful than the seemingly all-powerful Princess Celestia had thrown her for a loop.

They looked amongst each other with a small touch of amusement at their reactions to the spirits. Even the humans had been rather interesting when they first began to guide them. Finally, the deer broke the silence they had held for those moments.

"Element Bearers, you can help them through resources and eventually through greater guidance. We have sensed that the winged-one knows aspects of your world that would be less than kind to the humans, while the spotted one was in search of who she truly is. Through helping the humans, they will realize their greater potential and use that to better shape the world, that is why you must aid them and allow them to grow."

"Okay! Got it!" Twilight said happily, lifting up the parchment and giving it a few more hurried scribbles. "Well, this is certainly interesting. Will you answer a couple more questions?" she asked hopefully.

There was a fresh gleam in her eye. If she wasn't allowed to learn directly from the spirits, Twilight's expression said, she would go scour the libraries for what she wanted. She'd get to the bottom of everything, one way or another.

"If not, I think we should go back and see if... um, Lodestone and Granite, right? See if they are okay and if they need anything. We also have to send the shipment of goods over. Oh, and we need to start thinking about the long term. Will we need some kind of a contract, do you think? For how our peoples interact?" that last part was intended for Barbara, but Twilight was hoping the spirits would offer a bit more guidance.

After a moment, Dash rubbed her forehead with a hoof and took a deep breath, then stood up and looked serious again.

"Alright... okay. What do you want me to do?" Her ears drooped a little lower and she glanced at Twilight before continuing. "I mean, I'm pretty awesome no doubt about that, but I'm no alicorn Princess... I'm not even the Captain of the Wonderbolts. What did you want me to do about all this?"

"You and the other element bearers can aid both the humans and our appointed ones in their endeavors. Exactly how you wish to contribute is not for us to say, but for you to decide. We merely guide others onto the path of their greatest potential."

At this, they finally backed up and looked to the humans in the group. As the two clan members neared their respective human, the symbols and markings of magic on Rohan and Barbara began to glow.

"It seems that you two have only just scratched the surface of your potential though. Reluctance, self-doubt, fear, these things will hinder your path moving forward. Never forget that."

As the two nodded, all four of the clan leaders backed away and headed towards the crystal in the middle of the room. While three of them began to disappear, the deer stayed for just a moment longer. "If you ever get the chance, tell the Two Sisters that we would like to see them once again. It has been too long and I am certain that much has transpired between them since we last spoke."

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe!" Twilight said. "Princess Celestia had to banish Princess Luna to the moon when she was taken over by Nightmare Moon! There'll be so much to catch up on!"

She almost sounded gleeful telling them all this news about their once-pupils. "I'll send my letter today, I promise, and tell them all about this!"

There was an unspoken hope that Twilight Sparkle would be allowed to join that meeting, if only to make notes and learn some of her mentor's history.

"Okay, I think I feel well enough to fly back home. I'll send Lodestone and Granite this way when I get there. Are you staying a bit longer, Rainbow Dash - just to make sure everything is okay?" Dash thought about it for a moment, then she remembered she was in trouble with her Captain and sighed. "No, Spitfire'll want to debrief after such a major outing... and I did tell Lodestone I'd help out with the shipment so I can see him strut his stuff."

She flew up and hovered in front of Barbara, looking apologetic. "Sorry, Chief. I think I'll have to take the tour some other time. If all goes well I should be back later today though!"

Once the last spirit faded the light started to disappear from the room. As if by magic, the torch relit itself so they wouldn't be left blind in a dark room.

"Maybe if you can get things here faster than anticipated. I'm sure you can probably convince your captain to give you heavy lifting as a punishment so she can say you've done some muscle and endurance training, right?" It was a solid plan in the woman's mind. If Dash was really pushed hard, then it certainly shouldn't be an issue for a military mare.

"Well," Twilight said happily, "that was interesting. Want me to have a talk with Spitfire, Rainbow Dash? I'm sure she'll listen to me..." The Wonderbolts captain hadn't in the past, not really, but there was a first for everything, wasn't there? Twilight patted her friend with an absent-minded wing, then followed the humans out of the cave. "Okay, so I have to make sure I don't forget anything for my letter to Princess Celestia..." she muttered, mainly to herself as she started scribbling on her parchment again. "Then she'll probably want to meet. Hmm, are we going to need Cadence? An entirely new people, living in Everfree... would we need Cadence in on this?"

Her voice faded to incoherent mumbling to herself as the alicorn started to make plans. She wasn't really watching where she was going with her nose in the paper, trusting her peripheral vision and the humans to guide her. The pegasus kept a wing on her friend's withers to guide her left and right as the group made their way through the tunnel.

"I appreciate it Twi, but I definitely bucked up this time. Breaking formation might be forgiven but ignoring her shouting to halt?" She shook her head sadly. "No, Spitfire's gonna chew my flanks big time for this." Her gaze met Twilight's and she smiled nervously. "Though... I wouldn't exactly complain if you tried anyways."

Barbara kept looking back at Dash any chance she got. She half-wondered if there was anything she could really do to help, though she knew she couldn't. Breaking orders that came from a more experienced warrior could have meant death in most battles.

"Would it be possible that I spend another day in Ponyville? I want to let Fluttershy know that I got through the battle fine and that most of the village was saved."

Rohan was standing on the other side of the two ponies. While they might have thought it addressed to Barbara, a glance would tell them that he was asking for their help to get back to Ponyville.

Twilight gave the warrior an appraising look, but she wasn't really sizing him up. She was focusing inward. "I guess I can teleport us both back - though it will give me a headache..."

Not one to shy away from a magical challenge, the alicorn grinned fiercely. "What the hay, let's do it! It'll be faster than flying anyway!"

She turned to Dash and gave her a very obvious wink. "I'll put in a good word with Spitfire, don't worry."

"Well... good luck, I guess."

Since Twilight seemed to be finished with her notes for now, Dash leapt into the air and hovered casually nearby.

"Just be prepared for her to insist you return to Ponyville... even if the village obviously needs our help."

She swooped forward and bumped Barbara's shoulder with a hoof.

"You gonna come back to Ponyville with Rohan too? Or do you need to stay here and help after the fight, y'know, do... Chief-y stuff?"

"I have to stay for at least a while, Dash. Make sure my people know it's safe, help clean up, prepare them for the shipment and our new lives. Buuuut, that doesn't mean I can't be convinced to spend some time with you tonight." With a smirk, she turned her head and kissed Dash's cheek since the mare was so close to her already. "I enjoyed having you with me in bed."

"Oh, m-my..." Twilight said quietly, blushing. She knew, but it was still something to see. "Okay. So... I'll go have a chat with Spitfire and then I'll come find you, okay?"

As soon as the group was outside the Princess took to hovering in the air, like Rainbow Dash had been doing all the time. "Try not to get into too much trouble!" she said with a gleeful wink and flew off in search of the other Wonderbolts. They shouldn't be too hard to find. Then it would be time to see how much Princess Twilight's word meant with their Captain...

Twilight flew over the humans busily tidying up the village toward the two Wonderbolts and Spitfire immediately rounded on her. "Princess? Where is Dash!? I ordered her to stay by your side at all times!"

The alicorn landed and raised a hoof in a calming gesture. "Spitfire, please relax... these humans are friends. I left Dash with Barbara, we've been apart for less than a minute."

The pegasus sighed, looking annoyed, but then she nodded, "Alright, fine." Twilight shuffled her wings nervously and opened her mouth to respond, but Spitfire interrupted her, "No, Princess, I will not go easy on her just because she's your friend."

"But she-"

"She knows better than to break formation, especially during an active engagement."

"Active?" Twilight furrowed her brows, "I thought the Rocs were, uh..."

"They were on the ground but not unconscious and we didn't know if that was all of them. Disregarding orders could result in somepony's death." Spitfire lowered her goggles and met Twilight's eye. "We are not some ragtag group of trick flyers, Twilight. We are effectively the Royal Guard of the skies, appointed by Princess Celestia herself. We have extremely strict rules for extremely good reasons."

Twilight balked slightly, sounding not at all like a Princess, "But... isn't there anything I can do?"

"Oh, of course," Spitfire sat and tapped her hoof as she listed the options, "You could remove her from the Wonderbolts, you could make her the new Wonderbolts Captain, or you could simply order me to ignore her subordinance and make every other Wonderbolt resent her unfair privileges." Her gaze turned cold, "Any of those sound like good options to you?"

Twilight sighed and lowered her gaze, "No..."

Spitfire visibly relaxed, "Thank the wind, I was a little worried you would do that. I'm glad you understand those are all bad ideas."

"Yes, well... much as I love her, I don't think she's ready for your responsibility." Twilight sighed again, "Alright, fine... lets go find Barbara and see if we can help repairs or injuries a bit before we return to Ponyville."

Spitfire nodded, slipped her goggles back on, then she and Thunderlane flew attentively on either side of Twilight as she returned to the Chief of the humans.

Rohan left the woman and pegasus to watch over the rocs and make sure that they stayed unconscious. If they were to wake, his job would be to call for others to either help knock them back out or to kill them. As he stared at the beasts, he felt saddened that he had to think that way, especially now that he knew there was one who may be able to talk to them. Feeling the feather on his ear, he smiled sadly at what could have been if the Rocs had never been enemies to begin with.

Barbara led dash towards the forge to gather some things to bind the rocs. Once inside, and out of anyone's gaze, she decided to give Dash a proper kiss and let her hands wander through the mare's coat.

"Consider that the start to me paying you back for your help. In fact, if you have something you want to do with me at some point, you name it and we'll do it. No matter what it is, ok? Anything at all."

She rested her head against Dash's own and held her up so that the mare wouldn't have to keep flapping to stay up. It was nice to have someone near like that and she truly meant that she would do anything to pay dash back. Once she was satisfied with hugging, touching, and smooching the blue mare, she gathered up some chains from the forge and began walking towards the birds.

"We always planned to try and catch a few and see if we could get them to be more friendly to us. I guess these chains can finally come in handy for that. Maybe you ponies can figure something out with them to do... what was it you wanted? To control weather in the forest once and for all?"

Barbara had the chains bundled up for the most part, but she wore chains around her wrists that, in her armor, made her look kind of like a bound slave girl.

Rainbow Dash followed her toward the unconscious birds, feeling slightly out of breath after Barbara's efforts. The woman almost seemed desperate for the physical affection and Dash wondered if the Chief might somehow be lonely despite all the humans nearby.

"That's what we pegasi would like, but I'm sure Twilight will just want to study them or something."

She decided not to comment on Barbara's offer and blushed at her not-so-subtle implications, glad her uniform was waterproof. She was about to say more then her ears drooped when she saw the trio approaching them through the air.

"Aaaand from the look on her face I guess she didn't convince Spitfire to go easy... didn't really think she could do it, anyways." Dash flew close and nuzzled Barbara's cheek. "Hopefully I'll be allowed to return with Lodestone later today."

"Like I said, try to convince her that some hard labor would be a good punishment. Might work wonders."

Barbara set about chaining down the birds while Rohan used the spears from the battle as nails. By the time they were done, the birds would be basically chained to the earth so that they couldn't move. Thanks to all the metal pinned into the ground, their lightning would also be ineffective in helping them escape. Once the job was done, both humans moved towards the group of ponies.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we need to get those birds out of here before they wake and before we tell our people it's safe. Do you have some way to transport them? Maybe magic or... can you carry them somehow?"

Spitfire took up position near Twilight and Dash began to lower her goggles and join formation, but Spitfire waved a wing curtly so she relaxed and remained with Barbara.

Twilight blanched slightly, "Aheh-heh... umm... I could probably move one if I tried, but even if I could move all three, I don't know where I'd put them..."

Spitfire cleared her throat, "Princess Celestia has a way of transporting a threat over extreme distances."

Twilight sighed glumly, "Yes... I'd hoped to avoid asking for her help but I suppose I have no choice." She pulled out the letter she'd been forming and added a few more lines, then rolled it up and sent it off with a flash. Rainbow Dash looked surprised.

"I didn't know you could send letters all the way to Canterlot, Twi!"

The alicorn giggled, "Oh, I only sent it to Owlicious. He'll bring it to Spike and he'll send it to Celestia." She turned to face Barbara, looking a little anxious, "If she takes my letter half as seriously as I expect, she'll probably be here in moments. She can be surprisingly light-hearted and casual, but please show her the utmost respect. She's the oldest, wisest, and most powerful pony in all of Equestria."

"Is she this "sister of the sun" that the spirits have been holding in high regard? If so, she'll see nothing but the highest of respects as a deity of this world."

Rohan nodded his agreement and stood nearby to watch the group of ponies. His curious nature took hold as he looked over each of the ponies' wings, trying to see if they had done a similar ritual to Fluttershy and Dash. With them folded, he had no such luck telling if any of them did, nor did they wear a feather in their manes.

Nearly a minute passed by before the princess of Equestria arrived. To the pair of humans, she appeared every bit the goddess that they had expected and it was immediately apparent she was the one the spirits spoke of. Tall, imposing yet gentle, and practically glowing with a godly light.

The brilliant glow of sunlight around Celestia faded and she hesitated, looking around her in awe. Spitfire immediately took position near her, leaving Thunderlane with Twilight.

While Rohan knelt to her, Barbara gave a deep bow. "We are pleased to welcome you, Sister of the sun. I apologize that it could not be in a more festive manner." Barbara held her bow, not knowing exactly how the princess would react if she gave only a short bow of greeting.

The Princess turned her gentle gaze onto Barbara. "Oh no, please, you must stand. I should be the one apologizing to you."

Barbara and Rohan slowly straightened and were surprised to see the massive alicorn had bowed to them. There was a moment of stunned silence and Twilight gaped openly in astonishment, then Celestia lifted her head and smiled sadly.

"You may not be my little ponies but you are still inhabitants of Equestria and thus, my subjects. Though the ancient spirits have guided you, I should have noticed when you were thrust across dimensions into this world and sent aid and protection. You have my deepest regret and apologies for each and every life that has been lost due to my negligence."

Both the humans were as stunned as the ponies around Celestia. They had not expected her to apologize or to try and deem herself responsible for the misfortune that had befallen the humans. In that moment, both Rohan and Barbara found themselves at a loss for words, at least until one of the Rocs let out a weak caw.

"I hate to ask this of you, but we have no way to remove these birds from our home safely. The thunder Rocs have plagued us on and off since we arrived to this land and are incredibly dangerous. Only with the help of these ponies did we manage to capture these with minimal losses."

The one that had woken up was still weak from battle and couldn't break the chains that held it. That did not stop it from trying to fire a bolt of lightning, only for it to be drawn to the metal and become grounded.

Celestia rolled her eyes and casually waved her horn at the weakly struggling roc. A bright yellow hemisphere appeared around it and the roc fell suddenly still, the only movement coming from its slowly heaving chest and eyes that cast about wildly in fear and hatred. It's caw had begun to rouse a second roc and Celestia let out a short sigh before encasing it and the still unconscious third roc for good measure.

"That should hold them until sundown at least... I'll decide what to do with them in the meantime."

Her expression grew somber again, "Truly, I am sorry for what your people have suffered in this forest. I know you don't blame me nor did you expect such an apology, but upon my crown, your future shall be brighter."

Finally, her face lifted into the gentle happiness Twilight was used to seeing and she smiled brilliantly at the humans.

"But come, enough melancholy. If my suspicions are correct, one of your spirits is an old friend of mine and I am simply dying to see him again."

She turned toward the small mountain containing the spirit's crystal. She could feel their magic and could probably even teleport directly there, but she kept her gaze on Barbara and waited for her lead.

Twilight bit her lip nervously, worried what might happen if the Chief refused to 'bother' the spirits again so soon, but she held her tongue. She may not trust in Barbara's diplomacy yet but she was sure Celestia could handle even the most blatant disrespect with courtesy and grace.

But the Chief seemed content as she said, "Rohan, go and tell our people that it is safe and that we have guests. They are to be given space and to be treated with the utmost respect, as we have done for Lodestone and Granite."

He nodded and ran towards the path leading to the mines, while Barbara turned her attention back towards the princess.

"Before we go, I must introduce myself properly. I am Barbara, chief of this village. While it is not usual for us to call upon the spirits again so soon... I believe that they will meet your request, given what they had said earlier. This way please."

Barbara was doing her best to keep a more respectful tone with the princess, rather than act as her normal easy-going self. She knew well that her way of life would not befit true royalty and she did not want to cast her people's image in a negative light. As she led her way up the mountain though, a question kept coming to mind.

"If you don't mind me asking, did your sister not also want to see the spirits again? It's my understanding that they aided you both in the past."

"Oh without a doubt," Celestia said pleasantly as she walked beside Barbara, "But my dear sister, as Princess of the Night, goes to sleep not long after I raise the sun."

She gave the Chief a slightly apologetic smile, "She would be thrilled to visit sometime in the night, with your permission. I will also alert her to your people's presence and see if she can guard you against nightmares as she has done for ponykind."

Dash was hovering on Barbara's other side and she nudged her shoulder with a wink and whispered. "Think you can resist joining me in bed long enough to greet Princess Luna?"

Celestia giggled and her wings shuffled slightly, apparently having still heard the whisper. "Oh! I saw the feather in the other human's mane but I didn't want to assume... Well, I suppose it's true, then. I'm glad you're enjoying my ponies' ah... company."

Dash averted her eyes, blushing furiously and Celestia giggled again. "Do not be shy on my account, Rainbow Dash! I have been around for a long time after all... certainly I have been around as well." Then to everypony's amazement, the Princess of the Sun swished her tail suggestively and winked at Barbara. "However, I think I shall keep my hooves to myself for now."

Barbara blushed at the idea of a goddess speaking so brazenly. Though it did help to get Barbara to relax some and drop the formality for something more friendly.

"Yeah well, I never would have thought Rohan would go straight for a pony. He's had women who were interested in him, yet he never seemed to want to be with them. Guess this mare must have been something special, like you Dash."

Her signature grin came back as she pulled Dash close for a one armed hug.

"I would love a chance to meet your sister, especially if she can fend off nightmares. My people have trouble resting due to the dangers of the forest, so having knowledge of two goddesses watching over them would surely put them at ease."

As Barbara eyed the princess over, she imagined having to rule over many, many more subjects. Barbara already found it tough to be an effective leader and they numbered in the hundreds, how many thousands must Celestia rule? With that thought, she realized the mare must be at least a little stressed from time to time.

"Oh and Princess, if you ever need to relax, we do actually have a few "entertainment" specialists that live in town. I'm sure that they would make sure you have a wonderful visit. That offer would extend to your sister too, in case her duties become too stressful."

Celestia seemed to ponder this for a moment, then wobbled her head side to side uncertainly.

"I suppose I could try it out, but I suspect those days are long behind me."

As they neared the entrance of the cave, Barbara approached the bin of prepared torches, but Celestia simply walked forward into the darkness and soon her constant radiance became obvious. She wasn't shining, per se, but rather shone on. It was as if sunlight simply ignored the trees and stone above her and flowed down to reflect off her coat and mane. Ironically, the effect was most reminiscent of the way the moon glows in the night sky.

Twilight followed nervously, silently praying nopony would tell her to wait behind and give her mentor some privacy - there was nothing she wanted more than to witness the reunion of these ancient friends. After all, it was her jurisdiction in a way.

She did, however, gesture to the Wonderbolts and explain they should probably stay behind. It took some convincing, but eventually Spitfire relented so long as Rainbow Dash came along as before. Twilight and Dash hurried to catch up to Celestia's glow fading around a bend in the cave.

Once more they proceeded towards the middle of the cavern, only this time the crystal was lit before they had arrived. There, in the middle of the room, sat the leader of the deer clan who was patiently waiting for them. A small smile graced his muzzle as the alicorn stepped into his area.

"You have come sooner than the others had anticipated, though your arrival is most welcome. I see that you have led your world to the era of peace you so desperately sought when you were younger, dear one."

As he neared the princess, his gaze swept over her. She had changed in many ways since he last saw her, yet she was still as familiar as ever. He was, however, shocked that she had almost managed to reach his height.

At the sound of his voice, Celestia stopped dead in her tracks and gasped.

"Oh... Thistlefur!"

Then like an overenthusiastic filly, she rushed forward and threw her forehooves around the spirit's neck before Barbara could do more than widen her eyes in shock, but the ethereal deer smiled warmly and gently nuzzled the alicorn. They embraced for several seconds before Celestia stepped back and dropped heavily to her haunches, her eyes brimming with tears.

"When I received Twilight's letter I'd hoped... oh, but it is you! My goodness it is so good to see you again, Thistlefur! Where is your mate... um, Withersnow I believe? I always admired her gentle beauty and unending joy for the world."

Twilight held Rainbow Dash back and stayed near the entrance of the cave, observing silently, not daring to even look away and take notes, else she risk missing some small gesture between these ancient beings.

His smile shifted to one of nostalgia as he thought about her.

"Withersnow has passed into the next life. I do not fault her for her decision, but I miss her presence. She had such an amazing talent for bringing out the best in others."

He dared not reminisce about her for too long, lest he become choked up with emotion. He had loved her dearly and her decision not to stay had hit him hard, yet he knew that this was his destiny.

"It appears she was right about you as well. You've grown into a fine mare, Celestia. One radiating grace and power, yet acting with compassion and wisdom. I had not dared to believe I would ever see the day when you would reach these heights. But what of your sister? Did she heed my advice, or did she fall prey to the beasts that whispered to her in the dream realm?"

Celestia's own smile faltered now.

"Alas, she succumbed to the nightmare and I was left with no choice but to banish her to the moon, where she stayed for a thousand years. However, when she finally managed to escape her imprisonment, I had found the successor to the Elements, and just as you predicted, it was successors, plural, which was the key."

She looked over her shoulder and beamed at Twilight and Dash.

"These two and four other friends each worked together to wield the elements in such harmony as I could never achieve and saved Luna from her demons. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash... You could have imprisoned her again with the elements or even destroyed her but instead you saved her and returned my sister to me. For that, you have my eternal gratitude."

Dash blushed and mumbled something as she rubbed her mane, but Twilight simply smiled faintly and continued watching wide-eyed and fascinated. Celestia turned back, still struggling to contain her tears of happiness.

"Well... I could keep us here all night reminiscing the pains and the joys of my rule, but I think we will have time for that later. What of these humans, Thistlefur? And what of the ponies Twilight mentioned in her letter, Lodestone and Granite?"

She tilted her head and smiled playfully.

"After all this time, have I finally earned a glimpse of your plans or will you 'teach' me as before and as I have taught Twilight, allowing me to work it out myself in time?"

"It is ever my goal to open others to unseen possibilities and allow them to grow naturally. The ponies you have mentioned have a destiny all their own, which they will find through aiding the humans. Yet it is the destiny of humans that worries me."

He looked over to Barbara with a knowing gaze and gave a small sigh.

"We will continue to watch over them from our crystal, yet it is possible that our guidance will not be enough. Your pupil has already begun on the path to bring them towards peace, yet I sense darkness brewing still. Keep careful watch, Celestia, as they will most assuredly need the help of ponies if they are to move forward."

The old alicorn bowed her head and Twilight thought she looked very little like a goddess in that moment. "I hear what you do not say. I will keep an eye on these people but I will guide them indirectly, as you would guide me."

She stood and tenderly nuzzled the deer's neck, wrapping her wings around his shoulders. "I can feel your magic waning, old friend. You've been busy today and cannot remain outside your crystal much longer... but oh there is just so much to share! How long must you rest before I can return? Ooh, a-and Luna will be visiting tonight! Oh, Thistlefur... she has grown so much these past few years, you will be so proud of her."

Celestia leaned back and set a hoof on his cheek, holding his gaze with joy in her eyes. "You don't know how happy I am to have found you again, my friend and mentor."

Slowly his body became more and more see through as he began to fade, yet his smile never wavered as he nuzzled into her hoof. "I will be able to see her tonight, but the crystal will need a few days to recover before we can truly speak. I am proud of the path you walk, dear one, and I will continue to watch over you, as I have done in the past." Then, with a tender kiss on the cheek, his form finally faded away.

Barbara, never having seen that side of him, stared at the princess in awe once more. "You... you knew his true name... even we had not been told... That's... that's amazing!"

Celestia nodded weakly toward the human then sat down again and stared up at the crystal, overwhelmed with emotion and letting the tears flow freely. Twilight popped in beside her and, feeling a little nervous, slowly wrapped a wing around Celestia's withers. She immediately leaned into the hug and bowed her head, her barrel shaking with silent sobs of relief, of joy, and of memory.

Rainbow Dash flew up to Barbara and pulled her away. "Come on," she murmured, "lets give them a little space."

Human and Pony sat holding each other at the entrance to the cave and stared into the darkness, their backs to the two Princesses in the center of the crystalline cave.

Everfree Village

by Maonyman

CH1: First Contact

CH2: The First Night

CH3: The Spirits

CH4: Showing Off

CH5: Teasing

CH6: Sweet Release

CH7: A Plan Begins

CH8: First Flight

CH9: Ponyville

CH10: Pegasus Charm

CH11: Boutique Magnifique

CH12: The Cloudy Grounds

CH13: Preening

CH14: Unfortunate Timing

CH15: On Cloud 9

CH16: Special Treatment

CH17: Prepare for Travel

CH18: Crumbling Defenses

CH19: Thunder Rocs

CH20: Quite the Mess

CH21: Spirits and Princesses