Chapter 01 - A Strange, New, and Terrifying World

ACT I

I didn’t ask to come here. I was happily walking along, minding my own business, in the freezing rain; in other words, the perfect British weather for a Thursday evening in the summer. Out of nowhere, I heard an earth-shattering thunder crash, along with a flash of lightning that collectively was enough to knock me to the ground.

As I tried to get back up to my feet, my hands registered grass and mud, rather than the cold pavement slabs I was walking on not a moment before. It was darker now, with no sign of the rain that not seconds earlier had been pummelling my jacket and backpack, the latter of which still hung heavy on my back. I looked around and could no longer see a road at all… or even any sign of civilization. All I could see were trees, and a large expanse of grass bathed under a crisp moonlight from the skies above.

The moon is already out? Did someone just abduct me and leave me in a field somewhere? I should probably check to see if they’ve taken a kidney…

My pockets were as full as they had been, a wallet, two phones (because my work needed one), keys, earphones, and my house keys. Everything was present and correct… my wallet even had a twenty-pound note that I’d withdrawn from an ATM earlier. I found it odd that thieves would be responsible for something like this if they hadn’t at least shaken me down for some easy cash. I undid the encoded locks on the backpack, slid my personal effects inside for now, and then resealed it.

Adjusting my jacket and once again donning the backpack, I started walking, and continued for what felt like hours, seeing no signs of human life or even civilization at all. My initial confusion had now given way to a mild sense of panic, punctuated by flashes of fear and being acutely aware that something might be watching me… and not in a good way. I was hopelessly lost, and by now the hours were starting to twist and contort together, my sense of timekeeping now thoroughly disrupted. My legs were aching, but more importantly, my bladder was announcing that it was seriously starting to get full and that I might want to find somewhere private to unleash The Fucking Fury™.

Fate seemed like she was feeling rather generous today, and it was not long until I spotted a structure, the stone formation reflecting just enough light from the moon for it to be visible against the backdrop of sheer black. As I got closer, my nose detected wafts of something burning that grew richer as I pressed on.

Moving between the trees, I was preparing to judge whether or not the people up ahead were friendly… when I got a good look at one and immediately concluded that they were decidedly not even human. It was almost equine in nature, with a shining suit of armor on that betrayed his position beneath the moonlight above. To one side was what looked like a spear, menacing in its simplicity, and to the other was a shield, which looked sturdy enough to knock me to the ground.

And it is here, ladies and gentlemen… multisex, undecided, or robot, that I made one of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made.

I gasped. And then I ran. I heard only loud shouting sounds in my haste to get away, but my plan’s fatal flaw revealed itself almost immediately; I was encumbered with a really heavy backpack, and I still had on my bright red jacket, both of which drastically slowed down my movement and my maneuverability. To say the resulting skirmish was one-sided is a bit like saying that the Great Hurricane of Nineteen-Eighty-Six was just a bit windy. It did not take long for me to be overwhelmed; first, I was ensnared by a web of rope, and then something grabbed a hold of the end of it and started dragging me away, causing me to become far more intimately acquainted with what the ground tasted like. I didn’t much care for it, truth be told. I then recanted my earlier assessment of Fate and concluded that it was a lying bastard.

And then they got the idea to start jabbing at me with those spears of theirs. Like, seriously, those things fucking hurt; I begrudgingly admired their craftsmanship while my helpless body was under attack.

Actually, that was a good point. Being hurt and feeling pain meant that I wasn’t dreaming. This was probably going to be much worse.

The journey to wherever they were based had taken long enough that dawn had now broken. I was further taken to a small outbuilding, loosely constructed of animal hides and not even close to keeping out the elements. Unceremoniously, I was dumped inside, and a door of interlocking iron bars was closed behind me. Each creature walked off, leaving just a lone sentry keeping watch at the door. After a few seconds of stunned silence, I rustled and started to get my bearings back. After I’d cast off the web of rope, the backpack and jacket came off next, and I started to assess my surroundings.

My eyes first met the creature at the door. He, and yes, that bulge near his undercarriage was a dead giveaway, was built similarly to the creatures that accosted me earlier, but his… fur, I guess, was white, and evenly reflected the orange light from the embers of some nearby torches. At his sides were a pair of what looked like folded wings, and he was sporting a protective suit that looked like it was made of leather. He didn’t immediately meet my gaze, but I guess that he was as curious about me as I was about him, and he eventually gave in to temptation.

I am no expert at reading facial expressions, but I can tell a shocked expression when I see one. He did his best to hide it, but by then, the cat was out of the bag, and he knew that his face had betrayed him. He walked over to me, and I could more clearly discern his features. He was shorter than I was, his muzzle reaching my abdomen, while his ears instinctively twitched as I made involuntary noises from my cell, like my shoes crunching the loose twigs and dirt on the floor as I paced back and forth.

With no warning at all, he bolted from the room and took off at a fair rate of knots into the distance. Exhaling sharply, I sat down on the ground and just waited. I closed my eyes and took in the sounds around me; the flickering and spitting of the lit torches, indistinct and hushed conversations outside of the dwelling, the occasional tweeting of a bird in the forest behind us, the loud demands of an impatient cu-.

“You! On your feet now, or I’ll feed you to a woodchipper legs-first!” she bellowed, which scared the shit out of me enough for me to forget where I was. Glaring at my unintended non-compliance, I managed to regain control of my faculties and rose to my feet shakily. I came face to face with another creature; this one had a coat of a rather dark shade of purple, with their hair accented by a lighter hue of purple, but in contrast to her guards, she was sporting a horn on her head rather than a pair of wings at her sides. She was clad in an intimidating black suit of armor, adored with spikes at various points. Regardless of how she was dressed, she looked pissed, and right now, I guessed that I was squarely at the top of her shit list.

Now fully on my feet, I regarded her with a weary and tired look. “Can I just say first of all that I love that I can understand you? It’s wonderfully sporting of my psychotic break, don’t you think?”

In five seconds I had my answer, and that was “no” because her guards opened my cell and started wailing on me with their hooves, crushing blows being landed to my sides that consoled me that I didn’t, in fact, have my kidneys stolen, because stolen kidneys couldn’t hurt like a motherfucker.

She raised one of her hooves, and the others relented from their combined assault, a small smile creeping across her face. “You’ve got some nerve showing your face again after the damage you've caused. Here’s what’s going to happen: I’m going to hurt you; I’m going to enjoy hurting you, and when I’m finished, there’s going to be precious little to remind everypony else that you’re a stallion.

My bladder announced that it was done with this shit, and started leaking into my jeans to complete my humiliation at the hands of this absolute fucking psychopath. With a swift nod, the guards on either side of me forcefully hauled me up from the ground with their wings. “Bring him.” She ordered, coldly.

Being shorter than I, the guards were not able to fully lift me, and my feet dragged behind me in a constant reminder that I was not in control of this situation.

My eyes blinked several times at the morning's light, and I was met with a scene that wouldn't have been out of place in a war documentary; several tens of creatures were toiling away at what looked like subsistence farming, with other creatures standing or walking between them.

It did not escape my attention that the ones that looked like they were in charge sported wings, with whips being firmly held in what I could only assume was a prehensile wing grip. The ones toiling away lacked wings, or a horn for that matter. As I was dragged further along, I started to get a sense as to the sort of creatures I was dealing with; the creatures without appendages had very clearly been subjugated, but the relationship between the ones with wings and the ones with a horn eluded me for now.

I was brought to a stone fort, and taken down to a musty, damp basement with mossy stones for walls. Another creature with a horn was already here and saluted the other horned one. “Ma’am! Tricky Canvas reporting, the situation is normal here.”

As I caught wind of his (judging from his rather masculine accent) name, my eyes caught that his fur was a deep, almost black color, with his hair almost an equal, if not darker shade. Only now did I notice that both my captor and her likely subordinate were sporting something on their armor that was covering their flanks. The one already in the room had what looked like a blank piece of canvas with a paintbrush in front of it while my more immediate problem had a top hat with a spotlight being shown upon it.

At the end of the rectangular room lay a contraption very obviously designed to hold something with limbs in place. In my weakened state, I could offer no meaningful resistance to their attempts to lock my arms and legs in place, with the straps around my torso being tightened rather expertly by the one who was by now almost certainly going to be my torturer.

My eyes flit across the room in search of something, anything, to help me escape, but my pursuit proved as impotent as my position. The guards unceremoniously stripped me naked, my family jewels on display, as my captor started to preen.

“I expected more from a human like you, Alex.”

Record scratch.

“Uh… I think you have the wrong person, who or whatever you are. My name isn’t Alex.”

She regarded me with an incredulous look. “We all know that you disappeared. I know on very good authority that you said that you would return, and I quote. ‘When ponies faced their darkest hour’. You’ve taken a look out there; if I was coming back to protect something, I’d pick now.”

I shook my head, a fleeting thought being expelled from my brain as just plain ridiculous. “I don’t think you heard me the first time, I am not who you think I am. Also, you mentioned ponies, is that what you call yourselves?”

“Only the chosen deserve to be called ‘ponies’, such as the unicorns, like myself, or the pegasi, like my guards. Filthy earth ponies don’t deserve to be called even that.” She spat on the floor in disgust.

The situation became clearer to me, and if it wasn’t clear beforehand, it was crystal clear to me now that I was in a new and very dangerous world. “Okay, and I take it the ones working the fields are earth ponies since they lack wings or a horn. You don’t look like ponies that I’ve ever seen, but it’s not like I’m in a position to argue. You haven’t even told me your name yet.”

She sighed. “My name is… Show Stopper. That’s Captain Stopper to you, by the way… and speaking of names, if you really aren’t Alex, you haven't mentioned yours at all either.”

It was my turn to spit on the floor in disgust. “In fairness to me, I've been manhandled, brutally assaulted, and dragged to a torture chamber. Forgive me if this hasn't encouraged me to be entirely forthcoming with you. But, in the interest of clearing up this little misunderstanding, I'll be cooperative. My name is Stuart Robinson, Stuart Dennis Robinson if you're my mother. Just where the fuck am I, and who is this Alex you keep accusing me of me of being?”

Her expression betrayed the fact that she was finally starting to believe me before her mouth followed suit. “You really don't know… do you?” She shook her head. “He… was a Prince of the Realm, and his actions led to what you see out there. We used to think that we were all equal, but that idea died a long time ago. Now, we exist, and we do what we must to survive. If that means that ten earth ponies have to starve tonight so I can eat, so be it.”

I narrowed my brow, and I could see a flash of something in her eyes. “You don't just hate him, do you? You despise him.”

A look of weariness briefly overcame her muzzle before she realized, and she regarded me once again with a neutral expression. “Despise him? No, no, my little human… I despise what I became, because of him.”

At that moment, my blood ran cold, for I had looked into the abyss of her crimson-ringed eyes and the abyss had stared back at me. I had in front of me someone who had already come to terms with the fact that they were a monster, and I now understood that they did not need a pretext to do whatever pleased them.

I desperately tried to salvage my situation. “Since it's abundantly clear that I'm not the one you seek, how about you let me go, hmm? I'm sure you can see from my hands that I can be very useful if put to work.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You would willingly work for us?”

I scoffed. “I don't want to die. It's as simple as that, really.”

Show Stopper smiled; not quite a full beam, but she was definitely pleased. “Very well… but after my fun.”

“Your what? Listen, I don't have any useful information for you to extract.” I pleaded to deaf ears.

“I am not interested in information!” She raged. “The only thing I am interested in now… is your breaking point. Tricky, bring me the device,” she commanded.

The other unicorn saluted, and briefly journeyed upstairs, returning shortly with a small, cone-shaped object that he… hoofed, I guess, to Show Stopper. From my vantage point, it looked like a polished, shaped gemstone, and it radiated a bright blue light against the decrepit conditions in the chamber.

“This, my little human, holds the power of my ancestors. I care not what it was for, but I know what it does: it will cause you agony beyond compare; it will singe your senses and make you wish for death… and yet your body will be unharmed. It is the ultimate example of dominion over the weak, and now you will learn to fear the power of the unicorns!”

I had mentally steeled myself for something painful to strike me, but I was woefully unprepared for the assault on my body that was about to take place. It was as if I was being set on fire, while being electrocuted, in the middle of the Antarctic. I tried to hold back, to not give her the satisfaction, but to my eternal shame, she broke me; my screams filled the halls, occasionally punctuated by repeated pleadings for this… senseless brutality to end. Time passed and blurred together as agony and despair joined hand-in-hand to inflict upon me the cruelest nightmare possible.

At some point, it ended, but I wasn't coherent enough to register it. When I came to, I was again in my original cell, my jacket draped over me, and my clothes tossed uncaringly to one side still reeking of my earlier shame. As I wearily dragged myself back to the waking world, I couldn’t help but notice that no guard was posted at the entrance. My ears were now also beginning to pick up that outside was considerably noisier than earlier. I got dressed as quickly as I could, and after noting that my backpack was still there as well, I inspected my cage.

With the events from earlier, I didn’t get a chance to properly inspect the door of interlocking iron bars, but now that I wasn’t under pressure, I could see a latch on the opposite side. Now that I thought about it, they only really had to contend with preventing someone with hooves from opening the door from the inside, and it clearly had not been built to contain someone with opposable thumbs.

The noise outside grew louder in intensity, and to satisfy my curiosity, I opened the latch of my cell and took a peek outside the entrance.

Ponies were running in all directions, and numerous small explosions went off in the distance, the rising smoke tainting the air with an acrid, foul stench as it wafted into the outbuilding.

I went to grab my jacket and backpack when that same alabaster pegasus from earlier barged in. “Your Highness! Follow me!”

I wasn’t about to argue with the kind of shit that was kicking off outside, and I ran after his sprinting form as best I could as pitched close-quarters melee battles took place all around us. However, it was not long before someone was giving us a chase.

Show Stopper.

We had the advantage of distance, but she clearly had the advantage of endurance. Looking forward to the horizon, I could see that my escort was leading me to something that looked like a hastily constructed chariot, with numerous ponies all around it. Without warning, a hailstorm of spears rained down from above and abruptly barred Show Stopper's way behind us, albeit temporarily, but it was enough of an obstacle that she could no longer overtake us before we reached our goal.

We stopped a short distance from the chariot, and Show Stopper was now upon us, sporting an outright menacing expression. “That’s as far as you go, coward.” She baited, unsheathing a blade attached to her hooves.

The ponies around me readied themselves for a fight, but something in the distance caught us off guard. “Hey, look! She’s helping him get away!” bellowed a soldier from the cacophony.

Her expression crumbled, and I helped myself into the wooden chariot while her world shattered behind her. I looked at the formerly overconfident mare, and I made a choice.

“She comes with me.” I pointed to my former torturer and curled a finger at her in an instruction to get on board.

The others around me were visibly taken aback, but said nothing; I felt like they were deferring to me, but I could not fathom why. The most I got was a glare from whom I could only assume was the squad leader based on her attire, clad as she was in metal armor with matching helmet, with the rest sporting leather, but the pegasus elected not to battle with me or my demand, her dark grey coat shimmering in the sunlight as she got back in position. Like Show Stopper, she had something branded on the armor covering her flanks, an iron shield with two swords crossed in front of it.

Show Stopper did not need to be told twice to get with the program, and apprehensively boarded the chariot, both of us looking rearward as the four ponies in front of us covered our escape.

“Shields up! Protect the chariot!” the grey-furred pegasus in front of us shouted, and three of the four ponies raised rounded, wooden shields as the chariot picked up speed from the three forward ponies. The one that didn’t have a shield was my earlier escort, and he promptly dived into the chariot once it was safe to do so.

My former captors gave chase briefly, but eventually realized that they had been beaten, and flocked back to the battlefield in a hasty retreat, upon which the ponies in front climbed into the chariot with us as we resumed the journey at a more relaxed pace, which for them was still at a breakneck speed but with weapons and shields no longer bared. Show Stopper remained rigid where she sat, not daring to make eye contact with me or anypony else in there with us. I was emboldened by my new position, and I wanted to let her know it.

“Do not mistake this for altruism, my little pony. You have information, information I am extremely interested in obtaining, and that is the price you will pay me and all these other ponies for saving your arse.”

She nodded after a brief moment of hesitation, it was only then that I allowed myself to let my guard down as my eyes followed the landscape on the way to… well, I wasn’t sure where exactly, but I was willing to bet that it was for sure better than being tortured.

That had now been twice in one day that I'd been mistaken for royalty. If I'd had a penny for every time that had happened… well, I'd have two pence, but it's fucking weird that it's happened twice.

—

The journey to their settlement had been silent, save for the noise of squeaky wheels and rumbling tummies, the latter of which was fast turning into a noticeable problem. Over time, we'd been intercepted by one of the parties to the battle earlier, a legion of battered and bruised soldiers who belonged to the settlement we were heading to, and they too joined us on our expedition back to their home.

As we pulled into one of the settlement’s outer camps, I was greeted by what I can only describe as misery incarnate. As far as the eye could see were ponies of every hue and size, struggling to survive in what was now very a bleak and cruel existence.

The grey pegasus mare saluted me before addressing her squad. “Take this mare below and clap her in irons!” She ordered, pointing to Show Stopper, her subordinates following their instructions unquestioningly before she turned her attention back to me. “I'm glad we found you. You must be exhausted, do you need rest?” She inquired, in a caring tone of voice that I'd heard precious little of since my arrival.

“We need to talk… in private,” I stated. She motioned for me to follow her, and I was eventually brought to a large building again made of animal hides, with enough floor space to allow for a degree of comfort. She finally allowed herself to remove her helmet and invited me to take a seat.

“Now, what's on your mind?” She asked.

I took a deep breath after unloading my jacket and backpack onto the floor, aware that I might cause yet further problems with what I was about to say next. “First off… who do you think I am?”

She gave me a puzzled look but answered honestly. “My intelligence says that you're Alex, Prince Consort of Equestria. We've been waiting years for your return, sir.”

I knew at that moment that I would have to let her down; I did not intend for my appearance in this world to be tainted by lies or dishonesty.

“... I am not Alex.”

Those simple words caused the mare in front of me to kick a table in furious anger, the flimsy wood construction crumbling as it sent stationary everywhere. “Bucking hell! I lost a hundred soldiers today getting you here; not only did you make us take an enemy combatant with you, but to cap it all off, you’re a nobody!”

I sighed and leaned back on the chair. “Do you have any pictures of this ‘Alex’?” I asked, very interested in the results of such a query.

She raised a hoof in the air for a moment. “Wait here.” She instructed. After several minutes, she returned with some papers clutched under a wing, which she then thrust into my hands.

I thought back to earlier when I’d heard the name ‘Alex’ mentioned; the thought I’d dismissed was an intrusive one, of a man with the same name who had gone missing a year earlier in my world. That man had been a close friend of mine and had been since my first day at university. He studied biology, while I studied computer science, our interests peaking together with a shared love of cybernetics and transhumanism. I remember the day I heard the news that he had just disappeared without a trace; to say that I felt empty inside was an understatement.

I grasped the photograph before me tightly… and I sobbed. Ugly, but relieved tears streamed down my face, utterly ecstatic that my friend had not just disappeared, but had instead been brought to this world. He was alive!

I blew my nose onto my shirt, to the clear disgust of the pony not two feet away, and I felt myself fully relax for the first time since I'd got here. I then remembered something important. “Say, um, my apologies, but I don't know your name. Mine's Stuart, by the way.”

“Battle Scarred, but you can call me Scar. Everypony around here does.” She nodded. “I'm sorry for my outburst earlier, we're all feeling a little on edge at the moment.”

I nodded too. “No apologies necessary. Who's in charge around here? Is there something like a mayor or a council I could speak with?” I asked, genuinely interested to see if I could make a difference.

“We… used to.” She replied. “We had a mayor, Chancellor Gumdrop. Up until three weeks ago, he'd been advocating for us to lay down our arms and surrender to the settlement we just freed you from.”

I was now beyond curious. “And… what happened to him?”

“A ‘Severe and Self-Inflicted Injury’ with a pair of pruning shears. It was the damnedest thing.”

I honestly didn't know if that was true, but my gut said it wasn't. I didn't think I was in danger at the moment, but the ponies here, in their own way, were just as dangerous as the previous settlement. “Who commands the armed forces here?” I asked.

She looked me dead in the eye. “That would be me. I’m the one who signed off on the operation yesterday, and I’m the one who decided to lead the extraction squad that got you out. Anything to do with our defense has to go through me. Are we clear?”

I nodded silently in agreement. With pleasantries now out of the way, my thoughts turned to my next most pressing question.

“What the hell was Alex doing here… and if he’s still here, where the fuck is he?” I asked, semi-rhetorically.

Scar looked down at the floor but answered me all the same. “We… don’t have a lot of information. It’s been over fifty years since he disappeared, Stuart. Since then, there’s been an almost total breakdown in society. A lot of information just hasn’t survived.”

I got up from my chair and headed for the exit, turning back to address her once more. “I have a hunch that your new prisoner is going to be able to fill in a lot of blanks for us.”

The pegasus raised an eyebrow at me, “How’d you figure that?”

“Because if she doesn't, we’re screwed.”

Scar chuckled to herself and walked with me as we made our way to the makeshift jail, with her leading the way. I was not prepared for the mental quandary I was about to be exposed to.

Show Stopper had been chained to the floor, and her range of movement had been extremely limited. She’d also been fitted with a face mask, presumably so she couldn’t bite anyone unfortunate enough to go near her. My earlier escort was now standing guard next to her cell.

Allow me to address you directly for a moment, dear reader. We’ve all had fantasies about what we’d like to do to people who have wronged us; maybe you were bullied in school, maybe you had a boss who didn’t care whether you lived or died, or maybe you had a family that was indifferent to your achievements and suffering alike. I am no stranger to these thoughts, and I suspect that neither are you. I think we often wonder to ourselves how we would react when faced with that choice, and that choice would now be thrust upon me.

The pegasus, who’d been my initial escort earlier, reached out to me and hoofed to me something. I took a step back as I realized what he had given me. It was the magical device that the chained-up unicorn had used on me.. she stripped me of my clothes to first rob me of my dignity, and then she used this device to strip me of my humanity. And now, here she was, our positions reversed, the power of our future interactions now resting in my hand. The pegasus turned to Scar and me, sensing my hesitation.

“I interrogated her, and we found this in one of her armor’s pockets. She said that she used this on you… and that it hurt.” he explained.

Scar was aghast. “Did she… torture you, Stuart?” she inquired, but the subtext of her words belayed that this was so much more than that; it was a plea, for her, on my behalf, to inflict severe, violent, but above all, righteous justice to her new prisoner.

I grasped the pulsing gem tightly in my clenched fist, the soft blue glow radiating from its core warming my hand. I turned to look at Scar. “Yes… she did. She stripped me naked and used this on me. I can’t even describe the pain to you; it was the stuff of nightmares, and I suspect it will fill my nightmares for some time to come.”

She saluted me again. “You have my word, sir, that she will be severely punished, and if you’ll allow me to use that gemstone, I’ll make sure that she-”

“No.” I interrupted.

She now started to bear her anger toward me. “You can’t be serious! You know the danger she presents, we can’t just let her-”

“Unshackle her and bring her with me.”

Venom was now dripping with my every word, underlined by the sort of calm, cold rage that you’d expect to hear from a parent after they’d told you how disappointed they were with you. Begrudgingly, Scar nodded, and the alabaster pegasus freed the unicorn from her bondage but kept the face mask intact. I walked with purpose outside, and made a beeline for the smithing area, easy to see due to the wide array of armor and weapons on display. The smith present, a lone earth pony stallion, was surprised to see me, flanked by two pegasi and a unicorn. As I approached him, I admitted to myself that his sky-blue coat and light green hair were not something I was expecting to see when I thought to myself what a pony blacksmith would look like, but his furred flank sported a design of a gleaming metal shield with an anvil inside it, which I had to admit was pretty cool. It also made me realize that while the designs I saw earlier were on armor, they might very well be a reflection of what was actually present on their bodies.

“I want the biggest hammer you have. Now.” I sternly asked the flustered, looking into his teal-ringed eyes. He stammered incoherently and went to the back of his tent, and after a minute or so, he presented me with a sledgehammer. Taking it into my hand, I was impressed with its sturdy construction, admiring its solid wooden shaft and head that was very visibly made from steel. It was then I realized that I still held the gemstone in my other hand, a situation I resolved by placing it on the anvil in front of me.

Scar finally realized what I was about to do, but her cries for me to stop went unanswered as I swung the hammer onto the gemstone in one swift and powerful movement.

The stone instantly disintegrated from the sheer weight of my rage, as shards and fireworks radiated outward in a brief pyrotechnic flash. Everypony around me was now in stunned silence. I took several steps back and addressed everyone present as a group.

“You don't know me. You don't know the life I have lived. I have hurt people around me, and I have done unspeakable things to people for selfish gains. Do you know what happened after that? I met Alex for the first time. He has… an infectious personality, and it makes you want to be the best person you can be. In fact, we made a promise to each other in our second year of study… well, more like a pact I guess; from that point forward, neither of us would tolerate injustice, nor would we use people for selfish ends… and nor would we inflict pain or suffering upon someone, for any reason.”

Nopony knew what to say. That was fine by me.

I turned to the now-unshackled unicorn and closed together my fingers in front of her until nowt but a small gap remained. “I came this close to breaking my promise in that room because of you, and I hate that you made me even consider it. I destroyed the stone so that nobody would ever have to suffer at the hands of it again.” I looked back at the blacksmith and sheepishly handed back the sledgehammer, then realized that I’d forgotten my manners. “Sorry, I guess I got a bit carried away there. My name is Stuart; what’s yours?”

“U-Uh, my name is, C-Crushing Shield, sir.” he stammered as he put the sledgehammer down beside him. “Are you okay?” he asked with what sounded like genuine concern.

I shook my head. “Honestly? No. But, I’ll get there. In the meantime, however, I think we should retreat somewhere for us all to talk together.”, I said, my hand waving over Show Stopper, Scar, and my former escort. All of them nodded, and Scar led us all to the same outbuilding I had been in earlier. I took a seat in the same chair I used earlier, while the remaining three used various other seats scattered around the room. Scar then removed Show Stopper’s face mask, sensing now was the right time to do so. After we were all seated, my former escort was the first to speak up.

“It’s so good to meet you, sir! We’ve heard stories about-”

Scar cut him off. “It’s not him. He might be a human, but he’s not Alex,” she said with no small amount of disappointment in her voice.

I stretched out a hand to my impromptu bodyguard. “I've already been introduced to Battle Scarred here, but I'm afraid we haven't been. What’s your full name? Mine’s Stuart, it’s good to meet you, and thank you again for your help earlier. I’m guessing from you running off after we first met that you were only pretending to be a guard for them?”

“My name’s Aerial Ace, but you can call me Ace, and you’re quite welcome. Yes, I’ve been spying in their camp for the last few months on the orders of Scar here. When you showed up, I could’ve sworn that you were Alex… I didn’t even think that a different human could be here.”

I rubbed my hands together as a chill wind swept through the open entrance. “I’ll level with you all, I’m extremely tired, extremely hungry, and I’m probably going to be mentally out of it for the rest of the day, so here’s what I’d like to happen: Firstly, Scar, I’d like for our prisoner to be set free.”

Scar immediately objected, “Sir, I must protest! She has shown herself to be dangerous, and I cannot allow-”

I raised a hand in the air to cut her off. “Yes, she has, but if we hand her back to the other settlement, they’ll kill her. I can’t and won’t allow that to happen. I’m not expecting a complete one-eighty in her attitude, but I see no reason to deny her the chance of redeeming herself.” I said, now looking directly at Show Stopper. “Secondly, Captain Stopper, as I believe you told me to address you, you are going to be debriefed on everything you know, and I mean everything, right down to things as mundane as your morning routine and how frequently you take a shit. You’ve mentioned being an intelligence officer, and I expect you to contribute any information you can to help this camp survive, that will by extension help you to survive. Are we clear, Captain?”

Briefly making eye contact with me, she nodded in grim acceptance of her new role, as a traitor to her former cause and comrades. I could see it cause no small degree of discomfort in her, but I was done caring about that today.

“And, lastly: I need a full debriefing on this world’s history, and every scrap of information from everyone at this settlement on what Alex has done, what his plans were, and what he’s up to now. In the meantime, while we gather this information, I’ll help the settlement as best I can with whatever you need, no matter how menial… and Captain Stopper here will also lend a hand. Consider it community service for being a pain in my fucking arse.” Once again, the unicorn mare nodded hesitantly.

With no objections, I got up from my seat. “Now, I know we’re only into the afternoon here, but I think it’s time I got some rest, otherwise I’m going to fixate on something trivial and it won’t end well for anypony. Can you help me with some accommodation, Scar?”

Nodding, she headed for the exit and signaled for me to follow, “I have just the place in mind!”, she semi-shouted at me as she headed outside. Keeping up as quickly as I could with Ace and Show Stopper in tow, she led us to a similar outbuilding to the one we just left, but this one had a number of beds inside, tended inside by another pony, an earth pony mare with a light pink coat and a gorgeous flowing mane and tail of the purest golden color I’d ever seen, accentuated by a design on her flanks of a peach surrounded by flames. She was currently flitting about the room performing what looked like spot inspections, and humming a tune to herself while she did so. “This is our guest lodge”, Scar continued, ”It’s supposed to be used for visiting dignitaries, but we haven’t had any of those in a while. You’re officially a guest of the settlement, so you can use one of these beds for now.”

I walked up to a bed, and I ran my fingers over the mattress and covers before turning to Battle Scarred. “Scar… when I first arrived here, I saw ponies living in little more than tents, in conditions that I would charitably call ‘barbaric squalor’. This, by comparison, is luxury. I… don’t know if I can accept this generosity.” I hesitated.

The earth pony in the room had clearly overheard me, and leaped onto the bed I’d inspected to meet me at eye level. “As Scar here said, you are our guest, and we take care of our guests. Everypony out there, if I asked them, would gladly give up something to help somepony in need. That’s really what we’re fighting for; for equality between all ponies, for a right and just world, to be able to live in harmony with one another… and to be able to be kind and charitable to others. Please don’t feel guilty about accepting our hospitality.”

I stared into the earth pony’s eyes; each had a hazel brown swirl with the occasional twinkle, and I realized for the first time that, while some ponies here might very well be dangerous, I had for now at least found an oasis of calm amongst an ocean outside of violent and turbulent waters. Before I knew what I was doing, I hugged the mare in front of me, and with tears in my eyes, I whispered “Thank you.” into her ear. As we broke the hug, she responded with “You’re welcome”.

I turned my attention back to Scar. “I’m going to get some rest, do you mind giving me a wake-up call tomorrow morning?” I asked.

Scar nodded. “Sure, I’ll be here at oh-eight-hundred. Sleep well, Stuart,” she said, saluting again, and then ushered the other two stragglers out.

I flopped onto the bed, finding it surprisingly comfortable. I focused my gaze once again on the earth pony mare in front of me, “Say, my dear, I didn’t catch your name. I’m Stuart.”

The earth pony zipped back over to my side, “My name is Flaming Peach, but everyone else around here just calls me Flame. I do mean what I said earlier, you know, and if you need anything at all, please don’t be afraid to ask.” she beamed with a rather infectious smile.

I smiled back at her. “Thank you Flame, and I mean that sincerely. I’m going to get some sleep now, but if I need anything, I’ll let you know, okay?”

Nodding her head, she departed to give me some space, and I closed my eyes in anticipation of my upcoming rest.

Unfortunately, that rest was not going to be forthcoming.

—

My prediction about my torture affecting my sleep sadly proved accurate. I woke up several times during the night; I screamed so badly that Flame was scared out of her skin, although she did run over to me to see if I was okay. Scar had given me my agreed-upon wakeup call, and by the time morning had fully broken, while I was still bleary-eyed and hardly bushy-tailed, I felt like a million quid compared to yesterday.

That morning I discovered that the settlement essentially runs a soup kitchen for meals after Scar pointed out the logistics of it all to me. I'd had an idea for this morning enter my head, and I ran it past my impromptu entouragé, who agreed to organize it. I headed back to the earliest building I was taken to, my backpack and jacket still on the floor exactly where I’d left them. I took one of the long, rectangular tables near the wall, and moved it to the center of the room, thereafter positioning four chairs around it. Before long, Scar had returned with Ace and Show Stopper. Behind them was another pony pushing a cart with four steaming bowls of what sounded like vegetable goulash from what I was told, as well as a loaf of bread. I invited the three of them to sit at the table with me.

“Thank you all for coming. You’ve shared your hospitality with me, and I don’t think mere words can truly convey how thankful I am to you. Thus, I have invited you here so that I may share a tradition from my home country with you all.” I nodded to the teal-furred earth pony manning the cart, who happily served us our breakfast and goblets of water at our table, and then deposited the loaf of bread in front of my portion. With a nod and a gesture of thanks from me, they wheeled the cart out and left us to begin our breakfast.

“My country has a history that spans more than a thousand years. Over those years, many ideas and traditions have taken root, flourished, and then changed over time. What I’m about to share with you all is one of those traditions.” I took the loaf into my hands, and gently applied pressure to both ends, causing the crust to split in the middle; I continued with this until the bread had been separated into two halves.

“This is called ‘breaking bread’, and it dates back to a time when this gesture was first and foremost a way to give thanks to God for the food that a family was about to eat. As we’ve grown and evolved as a people, the gesture has taken on a deeper meaning. Nowadays, it is traditional, although not widely practiced, when dining with one’s prospective friends, or even one’s adversarial enemies, to ‘break bread’ with them like I just did with you. It is a gesture of friendship, and that is something that I wish to extend an offer of to you all. And yes, that goes for you as well, Captain Stopper.” I gestured to her, as I broke the two halves into quarters and passed them out to the group.

“I… don’t understand you.” the unicorn replied. “Anypony else would have gladly thrown me to the wolves back there… but you didn’t. Nopony has ever done something like that for me.”

Ace was the next to speak up. “I would have done it… and it makes me ashamed to admit it. I don’t know how you do it, Stuart, but I’ll be honest, I’m in awe at your resolve.”

“Well, she hasn’t tried to kill anypony else yet, so for now I have no problem with her. But, with you, Stuart, I’ll gladly take you up on that friendship offer. You might not be who we planned on having, but you seem pretty chill… when you’re not pissed off like you were earlier that is, because, damn.”

Ace nodded. “I agree, and I’ll also more than gladly accept that offer of friendship from you,” he said, with a wink that was very clearly aimed at me for reasons I couldn’t fathom.

All eyes fell upon Show Stopper, who was obviously quite intimidated at being put on the spot like that. “I… accept your offer. Maybe we can both learn something from each other.”

“I’ll drink to that,” I said, slurping liquid from my bowl, a gesture that everypony at the table soon followed suit with. “Also, Scar, while I remember, please don’t salute me. I’ve never been a serving member of any military, and it makes me uncomfortable. Deal?”

The pegasus mare nodded. “Deal,” she said, followed immediately by her saluting me again and sticking her tongue out at me with a playful smirk. It was at that point that I knew I was going to like her.

Ace was visibly troubled. “... there are ponies out there barely scraping by, and here I am, eating a decent breakfast. It feels wrong, somehow.” He opined, his eyes looking guiltily at the empty wooden bowl in front of him.

“Ace, you're important to the defense of this place. If we don't feed you, we’re all at risk!” Scar countered, passionately.

I raised my goblet to her. “Unfortunately, I have to agree. It was the most basic rule that any nation on my planet had to follow to even have a chance at prosperity. We called it ‘Rule Zero: Keep the Army Happy’.”

Show Stopper shook her head. “Why not just make that rule the first rule?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess it’s because it’s an unspoken, and thus an unwritten rule. Nobody likes having to make an admission that some people’s welfare should be prioritized over others, especially in times of war, but it’s an unfortunate and regrettable reality. That said…” My voice trailed off for a moment, and I caught myself looking into my now nearly empty goblet of water. Precious, precious water.

“It’s really easy,” I continued, “to rationalize that thought when sitting in this chair. If you forget race, creed, and ideology for a second, this really refocuses for me that this moment we’re experiencing here, in this little circle today, is a privilege that not everyone gets to enjoy. I think we owe it to those not fortunate enough to dine with us today to not squander that privilege.”

Nods of silent agreement were had around the table, the addition of food doing wonders to compensate for the turbulent night behind me. As I looked around the table, we were interrupted by a guard barging in. “Scar, there’s an enemy sentry on the outskirts of the settlement, he’s carrying a white flag and is demanding to speak with, uh…” The guard’s train of thought stopped dead as he realized that the mare in question was here rather than in a cell. “... our former prisoner, ma’am.”

Ever the professional, Scar mulled things over and nodded. “Take us to him, soldier, on the double!”

We all scrambled to leave behind the remains of our breakfast and follow the flustered soldier to the periphery of the settlement’s established boundaries. After a suitably brisk walk, I immediately recognized the stallion from our earlier encounter.

“I remember who you are, Tricky Canvas. You’re either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid to show your face here after the atrocity that you participated in.” I pointedly accused.

“Sir, I was only-”

I picked up a nearby rock and threw it in his direction. It barely missed him, quite deliberately on my part, but he didn’t know that. However, to my surprise, rather than running away, he went after and retrieved the rock I’d just thrown. Carrying it in his mouth, he spat it out at my feet and looked up at me after sitting down on the grassy plain. “You missed, sir. If it will help make amends, I will sit here and let you hit me with that rock. More than once if that's what it takes…”

I turned to Show Stopper. “I got the impression that he was your subordinate back there. Well, you’re about to get a crash course in what friendship really means, and the first step on that journey is trust. Do you vouch for this stallion, Captain?”

Before she could answer, I held a finger up. “And by that, Tricky, I mean that if you step out of line, even just once, I won’t seek to have you punished; I will instead seek to have her punished,” I said, pointing my finger at his former commander.

His mouth now agape, I turned my attention back to Show Stopper. “Do you vouch for this stallion, Captain? I repeated.

The unicorn nodded without even a hint of hesitation.

“In that case, Scar, I think now is a very good time to conduct that debriefing we discussed earlier, but with our newest guest also in attendance. I think it’s best if I leave you guys to it while I check out what other help the settlement needs. Agreed?” It was technically a request, but the air of the moment left little doubt that I wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

With nods all around, I departed the group, but Ace remained in tow. “I hope you don’t mind me tagging along, my duty roster is pretty empty today.”

I smiled and without thinking about what I was doing, I reached down and ran my hand through his hair. Realizing that I might’ve inadvertently crossed a boundary, I recoiled. “I’m… sorry about that, Ace. Your size makes it difficult to remember that you’re not a pet to be played with at will.”

The pegasus laughed a hearty laugh and smiled at me. “You don’t need to apologize. It’s not like I minded it… where are you going if you don’t mind me asking?”

I pointed up ahead. “I’m going to speak to our resident blacksmith again. I owe him an apology after that stunt I pulled yesterday, and as he seems crucial to the defense of this place, I want to ask him if there's any help he might need.”

Ace looked at me with an unfamiliar expression. “You really care about protecting us, don’t you?” he asked.

I smiled. “If you’d asked me that yesterday, I’d have said that your survival was my survival, and just left it at that. But, after speaking with some of the ponies here, I’ve come to realize that you’re not just fighting for your survival, you’re fighting to preserve your very identity. I think it’s fair to say that I’m very much emotionally invested in your prosperity at this point.”

That made the pegasus noticeably happier as we arrived at the Smithing tent. Crushing Shield was once again at his station, polishing a sword with a whetstone. “Hello again, is there something I can do for you?” He asked, with a warm, genuine smile.

“Actually, there is something that I need to do for you. I must apologize for what I did yesterday. It was reckless, and I put you in danger when I destroyed it. I should not have done that, and I am very sorry. It will not happen again.” I stated sincerely.

Crushing Shield nodded at me. “Yes, it was reckless, but I’m as much to blame for giving you that sledgehammer. Tell me, what do you know about fighting a war?” he asked pointedly.

I exhaled sharply. “I know it involves having a bigger stick than your opponent. I've studied military history, but I've never had to actually fight a war.”

The earth pony nodded solemnly. “Then that, unfortunately, makes you a liability in my eyes.” He said with a confident assurance.

I was taken aback slightly at the pony in front of me not mincing his words, but I appreciated the honesty. “You strike me as someone I can rely on to give it to me straight.”

Crushing Shield roared with a hearty belly laugh. “You like brutal honesty, huh?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “That’s debatable. Where I come from, people who defended themselves by saying ‘I’m being brutally honest’ after saying something insulting tended to be more interested in the brutality than the honesty. But, I appreciate that your stance comes from a position of survival, and I deeply respect it.”

I stretched out an arm toward him, my hand now in front of his face. “This is called a handshake. It’s a gesture of welcome and friendship where I come from.” I said, encouraging him to use his hoof to reciprocate, which he did in short order. I grasped it with one and then both hands, giving his outstretched limb a gentle shake. “I choose my friends carefully, Crushing Shield. I can tell that you're the sort of pony I can depend on to keep me grounded in reality. I'd very much like to consider you a friend.”

“Just call me Crush, there's no need to be formal around here. As a friend, though, can I ask you a personal question?”

I nodded. “Always, my friend.”

“When was the last time you bathed? You smell like a yak’s behind.” He said, no longer hiding his olfactory discomfort.

“Oh, Celestia, I'm glad somepony finally said something,” interrupted Ace, who had also now dropped the facade. “Actually, I think you've undersold the stench; to me, it smells like a skunk basted in expired milk.” he continued, gagging slightly.

I had well and truly invited the commentary. “I've stunk since I arrived here, haven't I?

“Uh, pretty much, yeah. We didn't want to say anything, to be respectful and all.” the pegasus proffered.

“Well… I need to rectify that. Before I do though; Crush, is there anything here that I can help you with? I offered.

Crush mulled over my offer for a few moments before he spoke. “Right now? No. But, give me a day or two, and then come back to me. I think I can find something to put you to good use, I just need some prep time.”

I bowed respectfully. “This is another gesture of my world, one intended to convey a deep respect to the recipient. Thank you, Crush, I'll be back before you know it. In the meantime, perhaps I can help somewhere else; who deals with the food supply here?” I asked both ponies present.

“That would be Flame, you've already met her.” offered Ace.

“Then I think I should pay her another visit. Shall we?” I asked, outstretching a hand to where I'd spent the night.

Ace shook his head. “Let’s get you showered first, I'll see if I can grab somepony to wash your clothes. By the way, your people seem to have a lot of gestures for respect and friendship,” he noted.

“Pfft. That’s nothing; you should see how many gestures we have for telling someone to go fuck themselves.”

A blank look was his response. I sighed. “Let's chuck in a debrief for our respective biologies at that meeting, shall we? I think that will come in very handy for the future… pun not intended.”

“Uh, I guess we could do that, but if you wanted to see my dick you could have just asked me, you know,” he said, winking once again at me. Mercifully, we'd now reached the ablutions block; walking inside I could see a block of showers on the left, and a block of squat toilets on the right. I didn't fail to notice the lack of dividers.

“I see that privacy isn't a big thing here.” I quipped

“Well, we are herd creatures, we don't usually like being solitary. I take it your world is different there, too?” he asked.

I headed for the showers and searched around for something to wash with. “Just something that's been ingrained into our culture for several hundred years. I know that this place isn't The Ritz, but do you have any soap or towels around?” I inquired.

After some rummaging, Ace had provided me with the basics; a bar of yak soap, a flannel, and a towel. Seeing no choice but to give him the satisfaction, I stripped naked and started the shower for a few seconds. “You know, there are plenty of stallions out there you could watch, right?”

“No humans out there, though. Are you asking me to leave?” he asked, forcing the issue at hand… or, at hoof in his case.

“Fine, you can stay, but only in the interests of cultural exchange. Just… keep your comments to yourself; if I wanted to hear comments about my genitalia, I’d go speak to my ex… if I could.” I half-lamented.

It wasn't long until he turned his back to me, for reasons I was starting to understand a little better. I had a lot of sympathy for him; he was obviously curious, clearly fixated on a new and interesting arrival, and had probably not been able to explore that part himself in a world like this. I sympathized with him more than many in my position would, and I genuinely wished the best for him, but for now, sorting my collective shit was my top priority.

Now wearing a towel around my dignity, Ace motioned for me to follow him to a smaller tent across from the showers. Inside it was a washing basket, the space inside filled with rows of pony-sized clothes on hangers lined up against the wall. Silently, Ace gave me a helping hoof to wash away the stench and my shame, and before long they were being hung up to dry. “I would probably wait for these to dry before we go to see Flame, otherwise she might blush and lock herself in the back room of the lodge.”

I didn’t tell him that Flame was, in fact, standing behind him as she’d approached the shack a few moments ago, presumably for her turn to wash some clothes; Ace, bless him, was utterly and completely oblivious, and had just slandered Flame when she was in full earshot of his comments. I just stood there, arms folded, with my eyes flickering between the two of them. Getting the hint, he turned around and was confronted with an extremely annoyed earth pony. “F-Flame! How long have you b-been standing there?!” he asked, trembling.

She huffed. “Long enough. You’ve got some nerve calling me out when you’re the one who’s been pestering our new guest like some sort of creepy voyeur! Don’t think I didn’t see you watching him while he took a shower earlier, you should be ashamed of yourself!”

Concern now gave way to panic, and he started shuffling back and forth between us, but eventually took to his hooves and sped off before we could react. I was about to give chase, but I then realized that my Y-fronts were still damp, and I wasn’t about to risk streaking naked through the camp.

“You’re not going to go after him?” she asked in a lightly teasing voice as if she expected me to do just that.

“He needs some time by himself first. I’ll go find him in a bit; in the meantime, do you need a hand with these clothes?” I offered.

To say she looked happy was an understatement. As we both washed her soiled clothing, I started feeling happier than I had since I’d arrived. Sure, things were tough here, and there was hard work ahead, but the ponies here were good, decent folk… except for maybe a couple of them, but I was confident that I’d be able to work with them and help bring the best versions of them to the surface.

Chapter 02 - Investigations

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As Flame and I washed her laundry together, we had a productive, if depressing, conversation regarding the settlement’s food situation. She was happy to have someone new who cared about trying to help out with that, but she confessed that she didn’t think my arrival would change anything. Harvests grow less fruitful every year, and winter steals many of the very young, the very old, and the sick. My singular conclusion from our discussion was that this cycle was not sustainable, and given the march of time, the settlement as it exists at the moment would eventually disappear, its inhabitants scattered to the corners of the world or worse. This is before we even examined our more immediate problems, like the hostile settlement I'd escaped from that was very likely planning revenge.

I’m a problem-solver. That’s what made me good at what I did in my day-to-day life. When I saw a problem, I deconstructed it, analyzed its constituent parts, and then rebuilt the concept to test it. On the face of it, many of my clients thought that what I did was magic, a skill that they thought they could never hope to emulate much less understand. And yet now, the problems I’ve previously faced were looking utterly inconsequential compared to what I now found myself facing. How do you save a population when the very land and climate itself becomes incapable of supporting life?

After a warm hug of appreciation, we parted ways and I, now suitably re-attired, set off to search for Ace. After asking various ponies where he might be, I was pointed in the direction of the barracks, a large structure not too far from where I’d met Crush earlier. Upon entering it, I immediately knew I was in the right place, for I couldn’t help but hear the sound of faint sobbing as I moved about the reception area. I followed my ears as they tracked the sounds of wailing, past the fitting room and into the washroom at the back. I saw him hunched over, tears staining his muzzle as his eyes suddenly caught sight of me. He adorably tried to wipe his face as I approached, but we both knew it was futile. I put my hand on one of his hooves, and that spurred him on to speak, “Y-You came…”

I gently sat down next to him. “Did you honestly think that I wasn’t going to check that you were okay?” My acknowledgment was a nod, and a few sniffles for good measure. From this brief shared moment, a lot of things around me in the settlement suddenly fell into place. I realized now that, from my perspective, friendship was just a word to the ponies here, a thing you say out of habit with no deeper meaning behind it. It was very quickly becoming apparent to me that many here had never experienced genuine friendship before.

I squeezed his hoof gently in my grasp. “Listen, Ace… I don’t know what’s going on here, but Flame had a point earlier about your comment regarding her. It wasn’t nice, and you know that it wasn’t. Part of my responsibility as a friend is being honest with you, and I’d be lying if I said that you were in the right. Yes, she could’ve handled it better, but you threw the first verbal punch back there when you made that comment. Do you think you can apologize to her, big guy?”

Silence filled the room, but a brief nod gave me the answer I was looking for. “I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention how you’ve been acting, either.” I continued, “It takes a lot to offend me, and honestly, my boundaries are probably much further back than my peers, but if I were anyone else, you’d probably have crossed a few lines in the last two days. I’m… dealing with a lot of shit at the moment; I’ve had my life uprooted, and everything and everyone I’ve ever known is gone. I can’t tell you how empty and alone I feel right now… and that’s before we even get to Alex. Something happened to him, and not knowing what’s happened to him feels like an open wound right now. So, here’s the deal; I will sort my shit out, and when you feel comfortable enough, you and I will talk about what’s been happening between us since I arrived. Does that sound like something we can agree on?” I asked, unsure if I was being too heavy-handed.

I got a verbal answer this time. “... yeah, it does,” he said, sniffling and wiping the snot from his nose.

Smiling, I hugged him, and he too smiled at my embrace as he wrapped his forelegs around me and nuzzled my cheek with his. We remained there for several minutes until a familiar face walked into the room. “Oh good, you're here,” said Scar, not even trying to hide a grin at seeing us together. “I think we’ve now got enough information between us to give you a decent picture of the kind of place you've ended up in.. and of what kind of place it used to be, too. If you want to follow me, we'll get started.” she invited.

We both took that as our cue to leave, Ace taking a few moments to compose himself before he too left to catch up with myself and Scar. “Who are you inviting to this debriefing?” I asked her, intensely curious.

“Uh, myself, you, Ace back there, and our two new unicorns. Why, did you have any specific ponies in mind?” she inquires.

“Yeah, I did,” I stopped and turned to Ace, who was walking rather sheepishly behind us. “Ace, can you fetch Crush and Flame for me?” I asked, turning back to Scar. “I think those two can offer some useful insights during our discussion.” Mulling it over, she eventually nodded, and Ace sped off to go round up my choices.

I found myself back in the outbuilding we'd had our earlier shared breakfast in, the table now having been cleared and prepared for the upcoming discussion. Already present were Show Stopper and Tricky Canvas, now joined by Scar and myself, and within a few minutes, Ace appeared with Crush and Flame in tow.

With each of us taking a seat around the table, Scar cleared her throat. “Thank you all for coming. As you've no doubt guessed, this meeting is to give our new resident human here an understanding of this world. Is there something that anypony would like to say first?” she asked, looking around the rest of the circle.

I put my hand up first. “I know I asked for this to be a glorified history lesson, but I've been thinking: I need to know about you, as in ponies in general, from a more personal standpoint. I need to know how you live, how you fight, how to fight your kin, and, er… how you reproduce. Once I'm suitably informed, we can then move on to your history.”

A couple of ponies shifted uncomfortably in their seats, most noticeably Flame and Show Stopper, but Scar was as always the consummate professional. “Sure, I think we can handle that. What did you want to know first?” she asked me, a sly little smile creeping across her muzzle.

Crush saved me from my lack of direction. “I think he should know about our foaling seasons first. You’ve just missed one, Stuart, but it'll come around again later in the year.”

I was curious now. “You only have foals twice a year then, I take it?” I asked, seeking confirmation. The group nodded in collective agreement. “Okay then,” I continued, “Does that mean… fuck it, I’m just gonna say it, does insemination only occur twice a year, too?”

More nods. “We call it Estrus.” Flame offered, “It happens twice a year, and it's when mares go into season for us to be ready to be… well, ‘given’ a foal. We carry them for eleven months, and then we give birth, either at the beginning of Spring or at the beginning of Autumn, depending on, um, when we get one.” she said, blushing something fierce quite visibly through her fur.

Scar interjected. “And Spring Estrus is only a few weeks away. Celestia, I hope we’ve stocked up enough on nettles…”

Ace tapped me on the knee, possibly sensing some confusion on my part. “We use nettles to make Nettle Tea, which we ration to the mares and fillies in the camp… after we segregate everypony by sex.”

Show Stopper this time was the one to contribute. “We did that, too. Well, we kept the earth ponies segregated anyway, but the unicorn and pegasi mares and stallions made sure to give each other a wide berth for a few weeks.” It did not escape my attention that both Crush and Flame gave Show Stopper dirty looks, likely in response to her segregation comment.

Scar continued. “Unlike what some horny colts might claim, Estrus doesn’t turn us into sex-crazed maniacs. It makes us itch down there, our body temperature goes up, and it makes us more likely to consider doing things we… otherwise wouldn’t. And it’s not just mares and fillies that Estrus affects, stallions and colts also aren’t immune to the allure. Well, most of them anyway…” she trailed off, momentarily looking at Ace like she thought I wouldn’t notice.

“But I’m not a stallion, do I personally need to take any precautions?” I asked the group, aware that this might be information that could be extremely important later.

“Honestly… I don’t know. I don’t even know if you could get one of us pregnant, you’re so… different.” she said, in a tone of voice that was dancing on the edges of curiosity and apprehension. “Anyway, members of our military forces are explicitly banned from engaging in sexual relations during or near Estrus Season where a foal is a possible outcome. You don't need to drink that nettle tea, though, that just helps us with making our symptoms more manageable.”

“And it's disgusting.” Show Stopper chimed in. “But, unfortunately, it's the best thing we have to suppress our… urges.” she said, a slight hint of revulsion creeping into her words.

I put my hands together. “I'll give all of this some greater thought nearer to when the time comes, I think. On a different topic, how do you engage in warfare?”

“Depends,” Scar began, “Spears and shields primarily; some ponies use maces or swords like Crush here, while a small number prefer hoof-to-hoof combat, like yours truly. We used to use ranged weapons like bows; in fact; we still have some, but arrows aren’t quick enough for us to manufacture to replenish how many would get used in a typical engagement. Ponies are not without vulnerabilities, though… despite wearing helmets, a unicorn’s horn is vulnerable despite them no longer being able to cast magic, as they have to keep it unsheathed due to kinetic feedback; if you can manage to bludgeon or fracture a horn, you'll cause crippling nerve pain that'll effectively disable them.”

“Since we can't fly, there’s little point going for our wings in combat,” Ace contributed, “You're better off trying to go for our legs. We're the fastest tribe on land, and any damage to our limbs greatly hinders our effectiveness.”

Crush spoke next, “And never, ever attempt to take on an earth pony head-to-head, because we will come out on top in a physical fight; in fact, we have a saying, ‘If you go up against an earth pony, and it’s a fair fight, you both screwed up’. We may not have the same strength as our ancestors did, but we're still the physically strongest tribe of the three. If you want to take one of us out, you'll need to hit us where we're weakest: our undercarriage. Due to our size, we have to compromise on armor, and a lack of coverage there is a tradeoff we have to make; we sacrifice protection for dexterity.”

“As someone who’s studied military history, this is extremely interesting information to know, I’m sure it’ll come in very handy for future conflicts if worst comes to worst. For now, though… let's change the subject to history. Have pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies always existed alongside one another?”

“I think I can help with that,” spoke Tricky Canvas. “I previously helped compile a compendium of information like that, and I think I have most of it committed to memory. In short, yeah, pretty much. We don't know a lot about our very early history, but ponies were living together when… that other human arrived.” he said, with a small degree of lament in his voice.

Tricky Canvas now had my full attention. “Do you know what the circumstances of his arrival were? Do you know who he met, and what he did during his time here?”

The brown unicorn shook his head. “Not… precisely. We're sure he met with the royal diarchs, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, he would have probably needed them to sign off on his formal citizenship. Beyond that, we have photographic evidence of him with a group known as the Element Bearers. Judging from the surviving records I’ve seen, he was very close with them all.”

I couldn't tell you how happy I was hearing that. “I am incredibly happy to hear you say that, I'm sure that they were extremely lucky to have him as a friend. Who were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? You mentioned the word ‘diarchs’, which implies that they ruled jointly, which I find unusual; on Earth, which is the name of my planet by the way, they'd have been given the title of ‘queen’, with ‘princess’ being a title conferred upon one of their uncrowned descendants.”

“They were alicorns known for having the power to raise the sun and the moon in the sky,” Tricky Canvas continued, “I mentioned the Element Bearers earlier; they, along with the human, were responsible for saving Equestria numerous times from enemies who sought to invade and destroy it.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Equestria? Is that where I am now? Also, what are alicorns?” I asked.

Show Stopper then joined in. “Equestria was the name of the kingdom when it was still around. You're within the area claimed by its historic borders, but the kingdom itself no longer exists. All of the major towns and cities that were within it were abandoned. Another consequence of your supposed friend’s meddling.”

I did sympathize more with her now than earlier, and yet I was searching desperately for rhyme or reason as to why this all happened in the first place. Before I could wander down that particular mental road, Tricky Canvas answered my second question.

“Alicorns, according to legend, were the physical and magical embodiment of all three pony tribes. They had wings like the pegasi, a horn like a unicorn, and possessed strength like an earth pony, with each of those aspects magnified and enhanced many times compared to a regular pony.” Moving forward slightly, he rested his forelegs on the table. “There were six known and recorded alicorns; Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Flurry Heart, and Opaline Arcana.”

Tricky Canvas shifted in his seat as he divested the fruits of his knowledge. “I mentioned the Element Bearers earlier. History records that there were six of them too, each embodying an aspect of friendship; Twilight Sparkle was the Element of Magic, for example. Over time, the need for the Element Bearers became less urgent, and Twilight Sparkle at one point was appointed as the sole ruler of Equestria. Until Opaline showed up…”

Scar cleared her throat. “After Opaline launched an insurrection against the crown, the world went to Tartarus in a handbasket. Afterward, Alex helped Twilight to seal our magic away… when you showed up, we thought he'd come back to unlock it for us again, and then we could finally use our magic again to rebuild our society. But, that's not going to happen… is it?” she asked impotently.

That was a question that now began to weigh heavily on me. There had been a calamity of apocalyptic proportions in their past, and now everypony was searching for a way end to it all, only for the world to show them that it had other ideas. My thoughts once again turned to Alex.

“Okay, so, Alex has very clearly had a big impact on this world, and whatever his motivations were, you are all suffering in the aftermath of that impact. I know the man, and I know that if he could see your suffering today, it would mortally wound his soul. That’s probably cold comfort to many of you, but he seems to have a plan, albeit it a plan I’m not privy to… at least, not right now.” I said, trying to lift the spirits in the room. “That plan does not involve me, nor would I presume to interfere with what he has planned. I trust him and I trust his judgment, even if it appears that his judgment lapsed at some point; if he is truly seeking to correct a mistake that he made, I want him to succeed. However, our collective future is as yet unwritten from our perspective, and while I think we must do all that we can to make sure that events unfold in a way that allows him to set his plan in motion, self-preservation must inevitably be our concern as well.”

I looked at Show Stopper. “You mentioned to me that Alex would return when ponies are facing their darkest hour. Now, don’t get me wrong, shit is proper fucked out there… but it’s not hard for me to imagine that a greater calamity could very well be out there, waiting in the wings for when pony society is least prepared for it. As far as I’m concerned, we’re standing upon the shoulders of giants who’ve come before us, and I believe that it is up to us to lay the foundations for the giants who are yet to come. Who's with me?” I ask, pointedly.

One by one, the ponies in the room raised a hoof. All of them except for Show Stopper.

“You're a sentimental fool.” she spat, bile figuratively dripping from her lips. “Do you seriously expect me, or any of us, to just quietly accept being a cog in someone else's machine? What comes first for you; our prosperity, our very survival, or his plan?”

Her question was valid, and I didn't have an answer. “To whatever force in the universe that may be listening, I hope that I never have to make that choice. I'd rather die than betray any of you or this settlement; how's that for an assurance?”

That seemed to placate her, and she too then raised a hoof into the air. I turned to Crush and motioned for him to hand me the sword he carried, currently sheathed at his side. Taking a few moments to realize what I was asking for, he eventually hoofed the sword to me.

It being a bastard sword, I was able to rest the tip of the blade on the table, the sharp tip making a dent into the battered wooden surface. “I, Stuart of the House Robinson… probably the first of my name, do solemnly swear that from this day forward, I will uphold the ideals of friendship, courage, and gallantry of the former Kingdom of Equestria and that I will do my utmost to serve and protect not only those present in here today but the settlement too and all who dwell within it. And, if the time should ever come, know that I would gladly lay down my life to protect any of you. On behalf of you all, I swear this creed; that I will be an advocate for friendship and compassion to all, to move in the shadows as an avatar of justice, and to be known in the annals of history as nothing more than a whisper on the wind.”

I’d never seen a pony clap before, never mind six of them clopping their hooves together and stamping them on the floor in applause.

I took a step forward, and handed Crush his sword back, immediately re-sheathing it as soon as he got it back in his hooves. “Thank you all for doing this for me, you've given me a lot to think about. Captain Stopper and Tricky Canvas, would you mind staying for a bit while our friends give us some privacy?”

Scar saluted me again and scooted everyone out of the room in a clear demonstration of respect for my privacy. Both of the unicorns on opposite sides of the desk looked at each other with apprehension, very unsure of what was about to transpire next.

I took a seat so that both unicorns were on either side of me, and I regarded both of them with a penetrating, uncomfortable stare. “My world has another saying; ‘Let cooler heads prevail’. I wanted to get some sleep and some food in me before I had this conversation with you, Former Captain, and it is only your impeccable timing that has you in here with her, Tricky Canvas. If I’d had this conversation earlier, I would’ve very quickly lost my temper. Now that I’ve had time to calm down, I wanted to give you the chance to explain why you thought torturing me was justified that day.”

The two unicorns remained silent. I wanted to think that neither of them had ever experienced consequences for their conduct, but I had no way to know that. Tricky Canvas attempted to speak first, but Show Stopper immediately shut him down. “Be quiet, Tricks. This is not yours to excuse.”

I sat back somewhat surprised. “Tricks, huh? I guess I should've expected that. On that subject, let’s drop your rank, Show Stopper, you're no longer in service to your former commander.”

“Call me Stopper, then. It's all the same to me,” she said, gazing off to one side.

“Well then, Stopper, I'm still waiting for an answer as to why you did it; why you scarred my mind and put me through Hell. I want to know why.” I pressed, my calm, deliberate tone of voice infecting the air around us while a pointing finger was aimed squirrely at her.

“I was following orders,” she replied, coldly, choosing to avoid my gaze.

“Is that your answer too, Tricks?” I asked. His only response was a muted nod.

I could tell that this wasn't the whole truth, but it was a start. Truth nearly always begins in lies, especially in lies that we tell ourselves.

“Would you like to know what we did to people on my world who helped commit atrocities, and claimed that they were ‘only following orders’?”

No response. I clasped my hands together. “In many cases, they were executed, my little ponies. I still remember what you said, Stopper, that if ten earth ponies had to starve so that you could eat, so be it. If I go out there and ask Scar, I know that she would agree that it would be morally justifiable to withhold food from you in light of those comments. I don't agree.”

I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. “You have both been given an opportunity; an opportunity to be better ponies than you are. In the spirit of that, Tricks, I am going to extend to you the same offer I made to Stopper here, and that is an offer of friendship.” Sitting forward, I outstretched an arm, and he hesitantly extended a hoof to meet it. As I clasped my hand around his hoof, his expression changed, and while he bravely battled against it, tears started to stream down his cheeks.

After a few seconds, I released my grasp and stood up. “Get up, both of you, and follow me. I’m about to show you that I meant what I said earlier.”

Now even further mystified, the two unicorns silently followed me outside, and I made my way to the barracks once again. As luck would have it, Scar was present inside, filling out some paperwork; exactly the pony I wanted to see. I approached her with our two wayward unicorns flanking me, and that got her attention enough to persuade her to abandon her lexicographical odyssey at her desk. “Stuart. What can I do for you?” she asked, chipper as ever.

I gestured to the two ponies behind me. “I know that I have no power here, but I have a request. I’d like for these two to be given the appropriate rank and station befitting ponies of their talents. Stopper, what’s your specialty?”

She stepped forward. “I cut my teeth in military logistics. Put me in charge of your resources, and I’ll make your military the most effective fighting force this side of the Celestial Sea.”

Nodding to myself, I raised my voice just enough for the other unicorn to hear me, “Tricks, what’s your specialty?”

Now it was the male unicorn’s turn to take a step forward, “I am adept at stealth and subterfuge. My skill lies in gaining access to places where I am decidedly not welcome. Put me to work, and I’ll boost your intelligence-gathering by a factor of ten.”

The pegasus before me carefully weighed up my request, before throwing it into the proverbial fire. “I’m sorry, Stuart, but I can’t risk the settlement for a request like that. You gave a good speech earlier, and it gave me a lot to think about, truly it did. But I don’t get the luxury of taking chances on ponies who, not three days ago, would have killed any one of us without a second thought. That’s without even mentioning that I made a previous decision on faulty intelligence. I have a responsibility to this settlement to do my due diligence, and I failed. I… can’t take the risk that you’re suggesting, I’m sorry.”

Scar had now unknowingly deviated into my specialty.

“Then, if you won’t put your trust in them, I ask that you put your trust in me. I have a compromise in mind; let me lead an expedition into their settlement, with these two as mission specialists, to recover valuable materials and artifacts… you two are up, what do they have?” I said, deciding to put the two of them on the spot as an impromptu test of their loyalties.

“Tear of the Moon,“ advised Stopper, “It’s a magical gemstone. It has a low magical output, but it continuously recharges from the ambient magic around us all. We used it to charge that… thing you destroyed…” she trailed off.

“And I collected dossiers on numerous ponies of interest,” added Tricks, “Both past and present, I might add. Allow me to retrieve those, and you’ll have the best cache of intelligence you could ever hope for, and then some.”

Reclining in her seat, Scar looked at me, as if she was sizing me up. “You can’t lead an expedition, Stuart. As you mentioned earlier, you have no power, and you have no rank in my army. You cannot command a squad, nor can they follow your commands without any of you holding rank appropriate to your stations…” She then started rummaging through a drawer at her desk, eventually throwing something at me; a pin with a design of two upward chevrons. Rummaging further, she then deposited two further pins onto her desk, each one designating a single upward chevron, and non-verbally invited the two unicorns to collect them.

“Stuart Robinson, by the power vested in me by… well, myself, I am hereby granting you a field commission to the rank of Corporal. Show Stopper and Tricky Canvas, I am also hereby granting you a field commission each to the rank of Private. You will follow his every order, and at the end of the mission, should you all make it back, he will report to me directly and give me an appraisal of your mission performance; that appraisal will directly influence both your and your squadmates’ future standing in my beloved corps. You leave at midnight tonight under the cover of darkness. Your primary mission objectives are to recover the Tear of the Moon and the personnel dossiers. Your secondary mission objective is to recover any additional artifacts or resources that may further benefit us, but only if doing so does not risk the success of the primary mission objective. Are my orders clear, troops?!” she barked.

I saluted. “Sir, yes sir!” I repeated back with equal power in my voice, followed by the two saluting unicorns, “Sir, yes sir!”

Scar relaxed at her desk. “Very well. You are officially off duty until twenty-three-hundred-hours, at which time you will report to the barracks for a final briefing. Dismissed!”

Stopper and Tricks left first, and as I was about to join them, Scar threw one final verbal curveball my way, “Now you’re the one that has to salute.”

—

Scar had graciously lent us the same wooden chariot that I’d escaped in earlier, and our three-pony escort had deposited us a couple of klicks from the boundary of the target. My backpack, now emptied of all worldly possessions except for a portable charger, was strapped to my back, my precious black hoodie providing all the necessary warmth I needed on this especially mild spring morning. In my hand was one of my phones, charged and ready to go, providing me with compass-augmented navigation to our destination. My phone’s only problem right now was adjusting to this world’s twenty-six-hour day, but that was a problem to be solved at another time.

My two subordinates (and boy does saying that feel weird) were kitted out modestly, each sporting their original black armor and matching helmets from their previous commands, with a pair of saddlebags adorning each of their sides. Both of them were traveling without weapons, although only a fool would collectively regard us as unarmed.

Stopper kept looking over at me holding my phone, “That’s a neat little bit of tech you’ve got there.” she complimented.

“Fucking should be, it cost me enough,” I replied, adjusting our heading to keep us on course. When we got a few hundred meters away, Stopper barred my path with a hoof.

“I have to know something, Stuart. Do you trust us?” she asked, with Tricks now looking at us both.

I put my phone back into my pocket. “Isn’t that what this is all about?”

She snorted. “There’s a difference between trust and trust. I’m asking about the latter.”

I was about to answer when a loud horn went off in the distance, and before I could react, we were immediately engaged by three armor-clad pegasi with spears. I looked to my side and realized that Tricks was no longer with us; a jolt then went through my spine as a tiny bit of panic flashed through me, as Stopper took a step forward. “How nice of you to greet us. As you can see, I have returned with our prisoner. I order you to take us to see Commander Stormhoof at once.”

One of the pegasi spoke up, “Did you actually think you were going to fool anyone coming back here?”

“In my defense, you did threaten me, and it’s not like you left me with a choice anyway. But we both know that our glorious leader rewards results, not whining. My results speak for themselves: I have the human, Prince Alex, in my custody. Now, I suggest that you deliver us to the Commander before he loses patience with either of us.” she said, the pegasi soldier losing his nerve.

“Follow me,” he ordered. Thus, we began marching off into the distance, the pegasi behind me taking great pleasure in stabbing me in the buttocks with their spears as we walked. I was going to remember that.

We were escorted to another stone building, this one occupying two stories. Stopper and I ascended a set of circular stairs with a singular guard behind us. That staircase led directly to a spacious office where a visibly high-ranking pegasi was sat. “Leave us,” he commanded his guard, who departed and closed the double doors behind us.

Commander Stormhoof was a fat, overweight excuse for a soldier, slouched in front of a cluttered mahogany desk, and his preening was both grating and predictable. “Ah, Captain Stopper. You always were my favorite. I have to admit, that I was extremely disappointed when you abandoned your post, but I can see now that your devotion to my excellent style of leadership has kept you loyal to our cause and led you to accomplish a great feat today, by returning the traitor Alex to us!”

Stopper giggled to herself. Forget everything that had happened in the last thirty minutes, that sent a shiver down my spine like nothing before it. Composing herself, she sauntered up to the Commander. “I have one question for you, my dear Commander. What has four hooves and a hole in its face?”

He tilted his head, and in less time than it took me to blink, she’d spun around and landed a deadly accurate kick to his face. As the crumpling form of the pegasus fell to the ground, I immediately rushed over to take a pulse.

Nothing. Killed stone dead. Stopper then pointed to the desk. “Second drawer on the right.”

I walked over and immediately pulled out the battered drawer, our prize making itself known with an eerie, pulsing blue light. It was a jewel, no bigger than a marble, and I quickly pocketed what I now realized was the Tear of the Moon. Now, the question was: What else in here could we use?

To the right of the room’s entrance was a sprawling bookshelf, with numerous titles in a written script I couldn’t recognize. That didn’t appear to be the problem for my associate. “If you want to learn more about magic, take these three,” she said, “It’s not like we can use them, but it’ll give you more of that cultural insight you wanted.”

Nodding, I was able to squeeze the three tomes, and a miscellaneous gold pendant on the desk with a green gem, into my backpack. My brain now presented the most pressing issue front and center.

“Uh, how do you plan to get past the guards between us and freedom?” I queried. She simply pointed to a hole in the wall with a sloped section of the floor leading to it. “Don’t suppose you know how far down it goes?” I asked, peering down.

“That’s a good question.” she countered, followed by something giving me a swift push. After I hit a steaming pile of excrement at the bottom, I heard a voice from above. “I’d say it’s about three meters.” she bellowed down the shaft.

I swiftly gave her the finger and then moved away to give her enough space for a landing, which of course she did more gracefully than I, given my earlier introduction to the Element of Surprise. It probably wasn’t something an Element Bearer would have borne, but I doubt that Stopper would’ve complained if that had been her aspect. However, I was silently complaining about needing to get pony shit off of my shoes when we got back.

Seeing no guards around, we legged it into the distance. “What about Tricks?” I reminded her.

“He’ll know where we are; now, see if you can get us back to that chariot,” she challenged. Once we were a suitable distance away from the camp, I was about to remove my phone from my pocket when a familiar voice came up beside us. “I’ve completed my task and collected all of the dossiers I’d made. In addition, I’ve taken all of the maps we’d made of the surrounding areas and then torched the ones left over… plus the maproom itself for good measure.”

“Well, Private Stopper here just assassinated the leader of the settlement. Aren’t you worried about retaliation or something?” I asked, slightly worried.

“No,” she reassured, coldly, “It’ll kick off a civil war; everypony important will vie for control, a lot of ponies will die or escape, and the rest unfortunate enough to be still holed up here will be of no threat to anyone for a very long time.”

I found it difficult to argue with her assessment, and after a detour to avoid the complete shitshow we’d just unleashed, we’d rendezvoused with our escort and were headed home.

Home.

I think this is when the reality of my situation really started to sink in for me. While I wasn’t feeling safe by any means, I was starting to feel useful, and sometimes that’s enough to get back a sense of normality. All three of us settled in for the ride back, and I had plenty of time to reflect on the morning’s events; both of them had not only burned the bridge leading back to their old life but they’d completely incinerated it, well and truly crossing whatever the pony equivalent of the Rubicon was.

We pulled into our settlement just as dawn was breaking, and I was happy to see both Ace and Crush there waiting for us, who then provided us with water pouches for sweet, merciful rehydration. As I emerged from our vehicle, Ace saluted me. “Now you’re saluting me, too?” I chided.

Ace chuckled. “Scar told me, I’ve just a Private First Class, so you outrank me. Congratulations, at any rate. Oh, Scar also ordered me to escort you to report to her as soon as you arrived back. If you’ll follow me, Corporal,” he said, lightly teasing me with the use of my new rank.

Upon arriving at the barracks, I stood in front of Scar, while Tricks and Stopper flanked me on either side. When all of us were present, we saluted in unison. “At ease, soldiers,” she commanded, my two subordinates sitting while I remained standing, placing my hands behind my back like I was back in a school assembly. “Corporal Robinson, I wish to hear your report on the morning’s events.”

I gulped, not out of fear of having done anything wrong, but out of fear I’d disappoint my new commanding officer. “Yes, ma’am. We were accosted by enemy units before we’d even gotten close to the camp. By this time, Private Canvas had departed our group in a solo effort to achieve one of our primary mission objectives. Private Stopper used a commendable degree of subterfuge and lethal force to accomplish the second primary mission objective. Between the three of us, we were, in my opinion, able to accomplish our secondary mission objective. My personal opinion is that our mission was an unqualified success, ma’am.”

Scar, for the second time in two days, gave me a look that felt like she was deeply analyzing me. “Please describe for me in additional detail the use of lethal force you just mentioned.”

Open mouth, insert foot.

“Private Stopper made a tactical decision based on the situation at hoof. Said action was executed without sparking a panic, and will, in her estimation, lead to a greatly reduced threat from that settlement for the foreseeable future, thus improving our security situation considerably.” I reported back, hands behind my back.

“What is your assessment of that call, Corporal?” she insisted.

I looked her dead in the eye. “I fully support the call my private made. It was a keen tactical insight that could only have been the result of years of experience. I commend both of my privates for their conduct during this mission, and I recommend that they be considered for active deployment elsewhere, and promotion to a rank befitting their conduct, ma’am.”

“Permission to speak freely, ma’am,” insisted Stopper.

Intrigued, Scar nodded. “Permission granted.”

“It is this private’s opinion that the corporal is smoothing over our conduct, ma’am. Private Canvas departed the group without permission, leaving us exposed at a critical juncture. While it is true that I had to resort to deception to gain the advantage, it is also true that I deliberately assassinated the commander of a rival settlement in an unprovoked and lethal assault. I then pushed my commanding officer down a latrine because I thought it would be funny.” she explained.

Scar sat back in her seat, hooves closed. “Was it?” she asked.

“Very,” Stopper replied, and I didn’t even have to look to know that she was smirking.

Scar got up from her desk and walked in front of us. “There’s no Admiralty Board beyond these walls. There’s no Geneighva Convention, and there are no treaties guaranteeing the safety of anypony away from here. I can’t pretend that honor and decency are going to win the day in any given situation, and I believe that they’re luxuries of a time we’ve left behind. But, I also believe that there will be a time when they will once again be important considerations.” she sighed, but her professionalism shone through once again. “I’m giving you leeway to use your best judgment in the future; if you want to refrain from reckless slaughter on future missions, you have my full support, but if you have no other choice at your disposal, and if you can justify your actions after the fact, you have my permission to use whatever means are necessary to secure your safety.”

The burden of responsibility now started to weigh heavily on me, like my backpack did when I first came here, and I was for the first time in my life having to consider not just my own personal welfare, but the welfare of my new comrades-in-arms. “Future missions? Am I to conclude that the commander is approving us for active duty?” I asked.

Scar nodded. “What can I say? You've impressed me, and that's a rare thing these days. Now, for the moment that I've been waiting for; show me the spoils of your expedition.”

We needed no further invitation; I deposited the Tear of the Moon on the desk as Scar walked over to it, while Tricks busied himself organizing his collection of paperwork and parchments. Putting down my backpack, I extracted the tomes that Stopper recommended I take along with the pendant, the bright green gem glistening in the light surrounded by a ring of solid gold.

Scar inspected our hoard. “I wish we had a use for much of this, but better in our hooves than theirs, I guess. At least they have cultural importance.”

“I believe that they can offer more than that, ma'am,” offered Stopper, “These tomes represent instruction in magical theory; Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. They may be useless, but they represent the essence of my tribe. If someone else can read these tomes, and know of us as we were, then maybe our legacy will live on…”

“This means a great deal to you… doesn't it?” I asked her, a solemn nod her only reply.

I realized now that, up until this point, I hadn't really understood the gravity of what had been lost. This was so much more than a loss of their identity; it was as if each tribe's very purpose in the world had been pulled from under them. Every time a unicorn looked in a mirror and saw their horn, every time a pegasus looked at their wings, and every time an earth pony tried to invoke their strength, they were reminded of a birthright that had been stolen from them, through no fault of their own.

I crouched and brought myself down to eye level with her. “If you'd like to teach me what's inside these books, we can set some time aside for it. Okay?” I asked. She turned to look at me, and for an instant, I saw something new in her eyes. That instant was interrupted by something I never expected coming from her; without warning, she launched herself forward at me and swung her forelegs behind my back in a suffocating hug. Words were not exchanged, but I took the hug as an acceptance of my offer.

Scar smiled and sauntered back to her chair. “Private Tricks, Private Stopper, you are stood down until further notice. Corporal Robinson, please remain here. Dismissed,” she said, the last word being aimed at the two unicorns, who I noticed were now walking out noticeably happier than they were yesterday. I turned my gaze back to Scar, “Is there something I can do for you, ma’am?”

Reclining in her seat once again, she put her hooves together and sighed softly. “What’s your secret, Stuart?”

I turned my head slightly and furrowed my brow, “Ma’am?”

“Stuart, you have a way of… how can I say this?... You seem to be able to get the best out of ponies. You’ve managed to turn two enemy combatants, one of whom is, quite frankly, one of the most dangerous ponies I’ve ever met, into viable and productive members of our community. How did you do it?” she asked, seemingly genuinely puzzled as to the why.

I brought over a chair and sat down on it. “I said earlier that you don’t know me, and you don’t know the life I’ve led; you also don’t know the beliefs that I hold. Over time, I hope you will get to know me and all that I am. But, for now, the one thing you really should know about me is one of my most cherished beliefs: I believe that if you treat people with compassion, you can turn today’s enemies into tomorrow’s friends.”

She smiled, but I wasn’t quite done yet. “I realize that what I just said sounds naive and that sometimes we might lose a battle taking that approach… but I believe that, if we don’t take that approach, we may lose the war, whether it be the war out there, or the war of hearts and minds in the ponies that remain.”

Scar nodded, seemingly satisfied for the moment. “Oh, Crush asked me to let you know he’s ready for you to visit him, he’s got something in store for you he’d like you to try.”

I smiled and chuckled lightly to myself, “Good to hear, I’ll pay him a visit immediately.” Scar shook her head. “Not before you bathe, I can smell you from here.”

—

After sorting my ablutions and taking the time to clean my incriminating footwear, I strolled over to Crush’s tent as the afternoon sun made its way across the sky. Crush grunted at my arrival and gestured to some equipment to his right. “Right, we’re going to see how good you are at combat. In that pile, you’ll find a shield, a mace, and some chainmail. I’ve eyeballed your measurements as best I can, but I erred on the side of caution, so it might be a bit baggy. Put that chainmail on, grab your shield, and then meet me in the ring over there.” he said, pointing to a large fenced-off circle a short distance away. As he made his way over, and donned the chainmail over my hoodie, figuring that the fabric would add a little bit of additional protection. For all his caution, the chainmail was surprisingly taut and would need very few alterations to fit snugly. Taking the shield and fitting it around my right wrist, I made my way to the arena where Crush was waiting for me.

The arena was larger than it had looked from the tent, with it easily being six or seven meters wide. Crush stood in the center and smiled as I approached, “I love the handiwork, if I do say so myself. We will now test to see how well you can defend against an unarmed earth pony,” he said, retreating to a position on the periphery of the circle, while I did the same at the opposite end. “Do not worry about injuring me. I will be coming straight for you. Your task is to protect yourself from my approach. Prepare yourself!”

I steeled myself with the shield in front of me, entirely unsure of what the fuck I was supposed to be doing. Before I knew it he was almost upon me, and in a purely instinctive movement, I pushed myself into him as soon as he made contact, the shield making contact with him… and that’s all it did. I was utterly powerless as his momentum completely overpowered me, and sent myself and my shield flying well outside the bounds of the arena. I was briefly winded, and after a few coughs, I was once again standing on my feet and walking back to the waiting stallion.

“That is my first lesson. Do not fight force with force, you will lose every time!” he explained, passionately, before walking back to the boundary. “Begin!” he once again shouted.

He was once again coming right for me, and I was forced to think of a solution to this absolutely unstoppable juggernaut.

I had an idea, and it was either going to going to go very well, or very bad, and I would find out which in the next 10 seconds.

I very quickly removed my wrist from the shield, took the rim of it into my hand, and then launched it at his head.

Time slowed down, and I was willing it on its journey across the arena. Crush did not have enough time to maneuver given his need to shift his immense body weight, and the shield’s rim crashed into his face with a low, deep THUD, followed swiftly by his falling to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Caring not where the shield ended up, I raced over to his slumped body and turned him over so that his muzzle was facing upward. He was struggling to breathe, and blood was flowing from his nose, “Bucking… Tartarus…” he struggled to say. After a few moments, he rolled over and raised himself onto his hooves. Wiping the blood from his face, he looked at me. “On second thoughts, I think you might have talent with ranged weapons. Give me some time, and I’ll see what I can come up with. Good work today, by the way,” he said, bowing his head slightly as he went to pick up the shield and take it back to the tent.

Without further instruction, I went back to the barracks to ask for something from Scar, who was now busy tidying up the fitting room, “Looks good on you, champ,” she complimented as she continued to organize storage boxes of equipment. “What do you need?” she asked.

“Do you have somewhere that I can store this chainmail in?” I responded, “I don’t have anywhere at the guest lodge to store it.”

Pointing at an empty box, I took that as permission to dump the armor into it for later, “On another topic, do you still have those tomes from earlier? I’d like to start reading about magic sooner rather than later, given how important it is in this world.” Scar left the room, and pointed to the tomes that were still on her desk. “Take all three if you’d like, it’s not like I can use ‘em. They should be numbered so you can tell which is which.”

I shook my head, “I’ll leave them here for a little bit, I have some things to do first; is there a study area that I can use?” I requested.

Scar pointed to her right, “I normally use it if I need some privacy, but sure, knock yourself out if I’m not around. On one condition, though.”

“Name it,” I challenged.

“I need to know about you. If you’re going to serve under me, I need to know about who you are in the physical sense. I need to know what your weaknesses are, what your physical attributes are… in short, Corporal, I order you to submit to a physical.” she instructed me.

“When would you like this physical inspection, ma’am?” I asked, unsure of what she was ultimately looking for.

She looked again towards her study. “Now, Corporal.”

Exhaling sharply, I entered the room first, followed by my new commanding officer, closing the door behind her. Sitting down at the sturdier desk inside this room, she sat back. “Please undress.”

If she was looking for a sense of shame, she was barking up the wrong proverbial tree, and soon my clothes began to form an unceremonious pile on the floor. In short order, I was as naked as the day I was born. Scar smiled, and practically leaped out of her chair as she began encircling me and getting a good look of what I had to offer. I could feel her bubbling curiosity raking in every difference between our species, but there was definitely one article she was the most curious about, and the application of her hoof caused it to swing from side to side. “I’ve seen everything I need to; get dressed, Corporal,” she ordered.

I needed no additional invitation, and once I was again properly attired, both of us sat in the two chairs in the room. “As we discussed in our briefing, Spring Estrus is not far away” Scar started, “I wanted to see if you were at least compatible with our biology, and honestly, I think you might very well be. I know that this is all a lot to take in, but I needed to ask you this in private, rather than amongst others: If I asked you to do so, would you be willing to participate?” she asked

Honestly, I was kind of floored. If it were even possible, did I really have the right to bring a new life into this world? “That’s a… big ask, ma’am. Do you even know if, uh, relations between our two species are capable of producing offspring in the first place?” I asked her, my mind racing with the implications of such a union.

Scar brought a hoof to her chin, “We don’t, but we’re trying to rebuild a shattered society here, and that means keeping our population levels up. Would you… at least be willing to give it a shot with somepony?”

I mulled it over. “How do you assign partners? I can’t imagine that it’s a free-for-all.” I reasoned.

“We have to assign stallions to mares on a rotational basis, as we have a severe gender imbalance; for every three mares there is one stallion,” she stated matter-of-factly.

I had made my decision. “In the interests of scientific progress, I’ll happily help you all in any way I can. However, I have one condition, and it’s non-negotiable: I’d need somepony to volunteer, rather than being ‘assigned’ to me. If you can accommodate me there, I think I can help you.”

Scar smiled, “I think I can organize that. Can I ask you a personal question?”

“You want something more personal than seeing my genitals?” I quipped.

Scar just chuckled, “I deserved that. What are your… preferences? I’m not expecting you to have the same ones here, but did you prefer mares or stallions on your world?”

I had to think about that one for a second. “I tended not to think too much about such things, I was more attracted to the individual rather than what was between their legs. In terms of your species, right now, both have equal preference with me.”

Scar nodded with one of her trademark sly smiles and extended a hoof towards the door. Saluting once more, I made my way out of the barracks to go find Stopper and at least get an idea of what she wanted to teach me about magic. I didn’t have to wait long, as I very quickly came across her while she was speaking to Crush in his tent. Well, I say ‘speaking’, it quickly became clear that it was devolving into a full-blown argument.

“I will not have my combat prowess questioned by you!”, screamed an extremely-annoyed unicorn.

“And I will not have my vocation belittled by you!”, Crush screamed back. I walked over to the both of them.

“Um, guys… what’s going on here?” I queried with them.

“This!” Crush pointed a hoof accusingly at Stopper, “This little pony accused me of offering substandard craftsmanship!”

Stopper scoffed, “Hardly, I just said that my former settlement had access to higher-grade metals. Your armors are inferior compared to theirs. You then insinuated that my combat skills are substandard!”

“Enough!” I shouted. “We’ll talk about this later when we’ve all had some rest. Stopper, please walk with me.”

Stopper huffed a bit, but I let it slide, and I reigned her into the barracks as it was reasonably close. “We’ll talk about what happened back there tomorrow; for now, I need to ask you about what’s in these tomes,” I said, pointing to the numbered books.

Stopper looked over the books, each laid with intricate gold designs. “The first book is magical theory, it teaches you the underlying principles needed for a unicorn to use magic. The second book is basic spellcasting, it teaches unicorns about spells like telekinesis, sound manipulation, protection wards, and… contraceptive spells. The third book is advanced spellcasting; that one contains knowledge on teleportation, shields, energy beams, and other deadly offensive spells.” she recited with an abundantly clear passion.

I nodded, listening intently. “I know this sounds morbid, but I have to know: do you know if transplanting horns onto other ponies has ever been tried?”

Stopper thought for a moment, and then nodded briefly. “I know that experiments were tried; we’ve all heard stories passed down from about a decade ago when somepony tried to graft a horn from a dead unicorn onto an earth pony. That was a dead end, so research was abandoned.”

“How do unicorn horns work? Are they just a collector for magical energy, or are they something more?” I pressed, honing in on my supposition.

“They’re capable of both absorbing ambient magicial energy and storing it within its structure. The nervous system of a unicorn regulates the magical energy and it allowed us to channel that energy into spells,” she said, stroking a hoof over the tome on the top of the stack.

I pressed home my point. “Do you know if non-pony creatures have ever had a horn graft attempted on them?”

That caused Stopper’s train of thought to halt completely. “I… I can’t ever remember hearing about such a thing. Where are you going with this, sir?”

I took in a deep breath. “I have an idea, Private. It is an idea that, if I were back home, would offend nearly everyone, and would in fact be a crime. I need the horn of a unicorn.”

Chapter 03 - Desecration

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Stopper just looked at me, and while I'm not even close to being an expert on pony body language, I could tell that she wasn't happy about me asking for a unicorn’s horn.

“You… you want a unicorn’s horn? Why the buck do you want one of our horns?! What bucking possible reason could you have to need one?!” She demanded of me, quite understandably in fairness.

I paced a few steps and collected my thoughts. “Because I've been thinking about my place in this new world, and how I want to be a force for good for you all. I want to try and see if I can wield magic like your ancestors could; even if it doesn't work, I think we could all learn something new from me having at least tried.”

Stopper scoffed. “You don't seriously expect somepony to just give up their horn? Removing it would be extremely painful, with life-long complications!”

“I've thought about that. Instead of condemning somepony else to a life of misery, I have an alternative plan in mind; I want the horn from a dead unicorn.” My expression was devoid of all emotion except a projection of profound seriousness.

“You want to… to desecrate somepony’s final resting place? Is that what your world is like; full of hairless creatures that strip the dead of what little dignity they have left?!” she shouted at me, full of an incandescent rage that was now being aimed rather squarely at me.

“When you were at your former post, did you strip dead earth ponies of their valuables before you buried them?” I countered, and it stopped her train of rage dead in its tracks. “Are you being passionate about this topic only because I mentioned doing the same thing to one of your kin?”

“I… you're talking about cutting off a horn, about mutilating somepony! We never did that!” She responded.

“No, you just murdered them in cold blood I'll bet.” I sighed; her expression hardened as I approached her. “Whatever moral high ground you think you have here doesn’t exist. Yes, a unicorn's life needs to have ended for what I want to attempt; but, I want to ensure that their life did not end in vain… I think seeing if your magic can flow again is about as noble a cause as any right now.”

Stopper turned her head to the exit. “When do you plan on asking Scar to do this?” She asked.

“If I have results, or if it fails. Until I’ve explored this I don’t want anypony else to know what I'm about to do. I can’t risk somepony saying no, so… deception it is.” I said, knowing that I was about to cross a moral and ethical line.

Stopper smiled at me. “Well well well, the human has a devious side to him after all.”

I shot her an angry look. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

Stopper snorted. “I had you pegged as some naive little colt scout; who knew that there was a tiny bit of changeling inside you just waiting to get out?” She tightened her smile at me, and admittedly it softened my expression. “Fine. I'll find you a horn. What do you intend to do with it?” she questioned further.

“I’ll show you at the barracks later. For now, I need to speak to our resident blacksmith to see if he has the tools I need. If you need Tricks’ help, you have my permission to involve him.” Stopper merely nodded and departed without further comment. While the first part of my plan was getting underway, I strode towards Crush to see if he’d get me what I needed.

He was, of course, very quick to recognise my approach, and offered a three-legged bow of his own to me. “If you’re here about that ranged weapon I mentioned, it'll have to wait a little while longer while I source some extra parts.” He explained.

I held up a hand in the air. “Relax, I'm here about another matter. Before I mention that, though, I have to know something… how good are you at keeping a secret? I asked him softly, a very serious tone bleeding into our conversation.

He put a hoof on his muzzle. “Is this something that Scar would want to know about? He asked directly.

I grunted with a nod. “Yes, it is. I need a tool from my world, it’s called a ‘hacksaw’: it’s a loop of metal that forms a handle, and a larger body attached to it that holds a serrated blade. Do you have anything like that?” I asked, hoping that civilization here had similar tools.

Crush shook his head briefly. “Sounds like a precision tool… we don't have a lot of demand for those. If you could show me a drawing of one, I could probably fashion one overnight.”

I had an idea. “Assuming it still works, I think I can do just that. Follow me.” I beckoned.

Slightly unsure, Crush followed me to the building where I'd left my laptop. I gathered it carefully from the floor, and placed it upon the long table inside, taking a seat in front of it. With a single push of its power button, the laptop roared to life, a profound sense of relief that it'd survived my rough ordeal to date. After a moment, an image appeared of a blue arch, shortly followed by a login screen.

I stood up from my chair and punched the air with a fist. “Yes! This thing still works!” I cheered… but quickly sat down again when I realized that I had no way to charge it. “This, my friend, contains something that has the potential to reshape your world; perhaps even your world’s very destiny.”

Crush looked at me with skepticism. “Well, beforehoof you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.”

I smiled at him. “As a party trick, I had the entirety of our largest encyclopedia stored on here. No matter where I was, be it in a tent, a hotel room, or in the middle of nowhere, I had instant access to the collective sum of human knowledge anywhere. This contains a complete written record of our civilization… including both the wonderful, the mundane, and the truly horrific.”

I smiled with an idea. “Hey, watch this,” I invited, closing my eyes in front of him and turning my attention back to the laptop. With a deft display of skill (from a pony’s perspective, anyway), I nimbly ran my fingers over the keyboard, correctly entering the password and bringing me to the desktop screen, a background of a swirling ocean against the backdrop of a moon-lit sky greeting us.

I could tell that Crush was impressed even with my eyes closed. “You did all that… without even looking?!” he exclaimed.

I simply nodded, and held my hands up with my eyes now open, twinkling my fingers. “It’s called touch-typing. Two of the keys on this laptop have a notch on them, and relative to those, I know the position of every other key; not only that, but I don’t even have to think about their positions, my body just knows where they all are. This means I can type if blinded or if I’m in an environment with either very poor or non-existent lighting.”

After ensuring that the memory card was still sitting snugly in its slot, I fired up the search tool, noting privately that this thing was about ninety percent charged. After a moment, I brought up a picture result for a hacksaw.

Crush stared at the image for a moment as I zoomed into it for his convenience. “I'll need to bring in my apprentice, but I think we can do this. Is… this the secret that you mentioned earlier?” he said, pointing to the laptop.

I nodded. “It's a secret. The other secret is what I need the hacksaw for, please don’t mention it to anypony for the moment. Additionally, what is on this laptop, regardless of its usefulness, cannot be revealed. At least… not yet, not while I'm uncertain of where Alex is or what he was hoping to achieve; anything I might reveal could contaminate the future.”

Reaching over, I ran the shutdown command to conserve power and I then got up to stretch my legs.

“How soon can you have the saw ready?” I asked.

Crush pondered for a bit. “If I get started now, possibly later tonight, but most likely by the morning.” He said, brimming with confidence.

I nodded in acceptance, and Crush made his way out to begin his task. As for myself, thoughts began to creep into my head, thoughts that until now had been dormant, suppressed by my current situation out of sheer necessity.

I no longer had the strength to stand, and fell roughly onto my crumpled jacket; I was hit by full force of the very real notion that it was highly unlikely that I'd ever see anyone I ever knew again. Friends, family, acquaintances… if I couldn’t get back, how long would it be until I could no longer remember their faces?

Tears started streaming down my face as my vision momentarily blurred, but even with my visual impairment, I spotted a lone figure at the entrance. They tentatively walked in, and after blinking a few times I was able to identify my new guest as Ace.

I wiped the tears from my eyes, but like our previous encounter, the gesture fooled nopony. He approached me wordlessly and, without warning, he sat on my legs and leaned back into me. Without thinking, I immediately extended my arms around him, my hands coming to rest on his barrel.

Tears continued to fall as I rested my head against my new friend, the salty tears lightly matting his fur as I blubbered uncontrollably, my body exposing every doubt, fear and worry in my mind, all of which had been pent up for the last few days.

Eventually, my sobbing gave way to muffled sniffling as my grip on my emotions started to return. A muted “Thank you,” was all that I could squeeze past my lips. Ace then turned around, and his gaze met mine as he lay down again.

“If you wanna talk about it… I'm here…” he said, putting a hoof against my chest. I avoided looking into his azure eyes as I attempted to collect my thoughts.

“I, uh… I was, uh, just thinking about the people I've left behind. And then, that reminded me of when Alex disappeared…” I trailed off, thinking back to the weeks after he went missing. “Do you remember how I said that he just disappeared one day?”

Ace nodded.

I sniffled, wiping the snot on my sleeve. “Well, I got a call from his mother; she'd asked if he'd turned up in London. It wasn't unusual that he did, we'd frequently attend each other's facilities as part of our exchange program. But, when I said he hadn't been seen at my campus, her voice broke. It was then that I knew that something serious had happened…”

I replayed that day over and over again in my mind for months afterward. I remember thinking that it would have been easier if he’d died, that I'd at least have some closure if there'd been a funeral to attend; I had nothing, just a sudden disappearance and no clue as to why.

“His mother invited me to stay with them for a bit.” I continued, ”She insisted on paying for my plane fare, but I refused her offer, instead opting to travel with my own funds; I wasn’t about to take money from a grieving mother just to make my life easier.”

Using my hands, I wiped further watery remnants away from my eyes. “I sat at their family dinner table with his parents and his sister, like I’d done a few times before… and yet nobody spoke for quite some time; it felt like the very silence itself was a comforting blanket around us all. The void his disappearance left was immense, but we humans cope with grief in our own way; for hours, we shared our memories of our time with him… his mother did share an embarrassing story or two, but I think he’d forgive her, given the circumstances. And, now I know… that this is what my family will be going through after my disappearance.”

Tears once again threatened to well in my eyes, as Ace continued listening with rapt attention. “I had three people in my immediate family; my sister, my mum, and my dad. My father, Dennis, was an engineer, an expert with internal combustion engines; give him any vehicle, and he'll tell you how much power its engine had. My mother, June, was a telephonist; she used to be an operator until she retired, with as beautiful a customer service voice as you could ever listen to.”

Ace fidgeted slightly. “What about your sister?” He asked.

“Anne and I… never really saw eye to eye. Our scholastic upbringings changed us both, and we grew apart over the years. Still, I hope she's doing well… even if I think that she wouldn’t be too cut up over my disappearance.”

Ace kept looking at me, those deep azure eyes staring back at me. “Even so…” I continued, “That all pales in comparison to what's happening out there. Look at me; I'm complaining about never seeing my parents again, and yet that's a daily reality for a lot of you here. God, you must think I'm so pathetic…” I said, looking away, now unable to meet his gaze as a wave of shame washed over me.

Ace got up and again pressed a hoof into my chest, a little harder this time. “I don't think you're pathetic…” he said, trying to force eye contact with me; I reluctantly stopped fighting him, and I once again looked down into his eyes. I figured now was as good a time as any to get some answers out of him about what happened earlier.

“Well, now you've seen me bare my soul a little… can we talk about what's been happening between us?” I asked, his body visibly tensing up at my question. I put my hand up. “Let's… make this easier for you; I’ll ask you some ‘yes or no’ questions, and you just nod or shake your head, is that okay?”

Ace nodded, explicitly confirming acceptance of my terms as he swallowed hard.

“Is this about something that embarrasses you?” I began.

With a great deal of hesitation, Ace nodded slowly. You didn't have to be an expert at reading body language to see the shame behind that nod.

Now for the next question. I’d likely been extremely oblivious recently with everything that’s happened distracting me, but that shower the other day was quite revealing, pun not intended. “Are you… attracted to other stallions?” I pressed.

I got a nod, but I also now had a pony very visibly choking back tears, and I could see he was doing everything he could to hold that flood back. I did not enjoy this whatsoever, but I had to press on.

“Are you attracted to mares?” I asked. This was met with a shake of his head; another puzzle piece fell into place for me and I began to realize the significance of what had been happening.

“Ace… have you ever, uh, been with a stallion?” I asked, deciding to rip the band-aid off rather than dance around the topic.

Another shake of his head was my answer, and from that poured the waterworks, his frame hunching over slightly as his resolve crumbled and fresh teardrops began to stain the fur of his cheeks. I instinctively reached out and grabbed him in a suffocating hug; now, it was his turn to sob in our embrace, and I gave him all the time he needed, occasionally whispering comforting words into his ears as he unleashed what felt like years of anguish.

My heart ached for what he’d probably been through; just as I’d wished for a kinder world when exploring my sexuality, I felt a sort of cold rage knowing that he’d likely had a much rougher road than I on his journey; it was the sort of rage that, in the right hands (or hooves) can be used as a driving force for change.

It took several minutes for Ace to regain control of himself, by which point he’d slid down my front, his head now propped up against my chest as my arms remained extended around him. I looked outside and noticed that the world had grown considerably darker, and as if on cue, I yawned loudly with the pegasus still held tightly in my arms; the ambient light in the room was now only provided by… magical candlelights I guessed, with each of their orange gemstones providing a warm yet inoffensive glow.

“Look, Ace, I'm… likely one of the few people who can really understand what things have probably been like for you here. If you ever want to talk more about this, or about anything else you think is embarrassing, just let me know and we'll talk about it with some privacy, okay?” I reassured, a swift nod coming from the pony in front of me.

It was at this point I decided that I needed to get up, but Ace had other ideas; as my body weight shifted, his hold on me tightened. Sighing softly, I ran a hand down his cheek. “Do you want to stay here for a bit?”

Ace nodded again, this time trying to bury his head in my chest. I resigned myself to spending the night here, an act I feared my back would never forgive me for. Shifting uncomfortably, I removed my jacket out from under me, and carefully draped it over the sleepy pegasus; I then repositioned my backpack to use it as a buffer between me and the wall. Closing my eyes, I let the sounds of Ace's steady breathing fill my ears as the warmth from his body started to spread under the cover of my jacket; I started to relax, and I waited for sleep to grasp me in what so far had been a nightmarish stranglehold.

—

My dreams that night were… odd. I was not revisited by the same reliving of my torture as I had been the previous night… no, this was something much weirder.

I was standing in what looked like a village, although it wasn't any village I recognized. All around me, I saw ponies, but they weren't looking at me. Instead they, like I, were drawn to the distance, where something that sounded like an argument was taking place.

As I walked up to the disturbance, the creature shouting was definitely a pony; I couldn't quite make them out, but their coat was a vibrant shade of lavender, with golden regalia adorning their body. The creature next to them shouted back, pointing a finger at the-

A finger.

A finger.

Just as I was about to focus on that figure, I woke up to the sound of something snoring on me. As the morning amnesia cleared, I realized that Ace was still lying on me, blissfully asleep as his hooves twitched involuntarily.

I had to get up, and unfortunately Ace was in my way. A light prod to his withers jolted him out of his comatose state. “C'mon Ace, I need to get up.” I politely asked. After a few seconds, he rose to his hooves and hopped off my body, leaving a large cold spot as he took his body heat with him.

He looked at me and smiled softly. “Thanks for last night… I haven't felt this good waking up in… well, I can't remember how long actually…”

I smiled back at him. “Happy to help. But, for now, I need to deal with some pressing issues, like needing to take a massive leak. I'll find you later on, okay?”

“Sure, I'd like that. I should go report to the barracks anyway. Catch you later.” He said as he trotted out, leaving me alone. I had to admit that I felt the best I had since I'd arrived in this place… and I was left to wonder if that was due to my lack of a nightmare the previous night, or if spending the night in the embrace of another soul was the real source for my ease.

I didn't have the luxury of deliberating that topic further, for I had other, more immediate questions that needed answering.

Who was that mysterious pony in my dream, and who was that figure next to them? I hated drawing conclusions from incomplete data but… I couldn’t shake the idea that I'd just seen Alex, even if I couldn't be completely sure of it.

For now, I wanted to see if Stopper had been successful in the task I’d assigned her. Exiting the room into the misty blue of a crisp spring morning, I went for a casual walk to the washrooms first to handle my most immediate problems. I then picked up a bit of breakfast from the makeshift kitchens and continued my walk while I ate my bowl of porridge and berries.

Honestly, I couldn't stand porridge on Earth, but everypony around me was making do and I wouldn’t be the exception. I hadn't intended to visit the barracks, but after not finding Crush at his smithing station I made the short journey to poke my head in and wish everypony a good morning.

What I found was somepony being given a dressing down; Ace was experiencing the full force of verbal lashing from Scar.

“You were supposed to be at your post at oh-six-hundred, it is now oh-seven-thirty. I want an explanation and I want it now, Private!” She demanded while sitting at her desk, as Ace's motivation to speak receded further by the second. It was then that I stepped in.

“Commander Scar, Corporal Robinson has something that he would like to add to the official record, ma'am,” I began, Scar not expecting at all for me to even be here judging by her facial expression. With noticeable reluctance, she nodded, and thus I continued. “Private Ace was with me last night. As his superior officer, I should have been more stringent in my enforcement of his routine; the blame lies with me, not him, and I ask that you discipline me in his place.”

Scar reclined In her chair and closed her eyes, her wings shuffling as she no doubt attempted to balance the situation. “In light of that new information, and because this is your first offense, I will enter a reprimand into both of your records. While I agree you share culpability in this matter, Private Robinson, each soldier has a responsibility to be on time to their post. Both of you are dismissed.” She said, waving us away with a dismissive hoofwave. Scar didn't have to tell us twice, and we both vacated the area. Ace was the first to break the silence between us.

“You didn't have to do that, you know,” he said as I walked beside him, keeping my eyes peeled for anypony I needed to catch up with.

“Honor demanded that I do it,” I said, looking straight ahead as I spotted Stopper and Tricks in the distance. As we made our way to them, the two unicorns instinctively shifted their eyes, as if they were looking all around them to see if the coast was clear. Tricks immediately spotted that something wasn’t quite right with me.

“I'd say ‘Good morning’, but you look troubled,” he greeted me. “Has something happened?”

I crossed my arms. “I… had a dream. It was a strange one, I sort of feel silly talking about it.” I dismissed, but my squad was having none of it.

“Sir, I'm not sure if anyone's told you, but dreams hold a lot of significance for us. It's even been known for dreams to be inadvertently shared between ponies… but that hasn't happened in decades. I think you should share what happened, sir.” He requested.

“Before I do that, I have to ask: Do those dossiers of yours include color photographs by any chance?” I asked.

He put a hoof to his chin in thought. “I… believe they do, yes. Is there a particular reason you wanted to know?” he asked me.

“Possibly.” I conceded, “Tricks, can you meet me in the guest quarters with your dossiers as soon as you can retrieve them?”

“I can, yes. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.” he acknowledged as he sped off. I then turned to the other unicorn. “I take it that your mission was a success?”

Stopper nodded and offered a small bundle of linen, which I carefully took and tucked into my hoodie, before zipping it up to hide the package. “Thank you; I’ll make sure that this is put to good use. For now though, please follow me.”

With a hand, I gestured for the other two to follow me. In short order, we made it to the guest house. I turned to Ace. “You’re not skiving, are you?”

He shook his head. “I’m not on guard duty until tomorrow morning. So, what sort of dream did you have?” he asked as all three of us entered the guest quarters, Flame smiling as we walked in.

“I’m so glad you’re okay. I was worried when you didn’t come back here to sleep last night,” she said, trotting over and giving me a big hug. “Where were you?”

I ruffled Ace’s mane. “I had a pressing engagement to attend to. But, as you’re here I could use your input on what I’m about to say.” As soon as those words were uttered, Tricks rushed into our impromptu gathering and fished out a rather hefty tome from his saddlebag, depositing it on a bed. I sat on the bed opposite it, collecting my thoughts for a moment. “Right, I think that it’s time I told you all what’s happened. Last night, I had a dream. In that dream, I saw a pony involved in an argument with what looked like a human; that argument was taking place in a village full of ponies. That pony at the center of that supposed argument had a purple coat; I’d call it lavender if this were Earth, I don’t know if you have an equivalent… and they had on some gold regalia, possibly ceremonial. Height was, uh…”

I stood up, and pointed a finger at Tricks, trying to remember the angle of the arm from my dream, making assumptions about height based on Alex and I’s height difference. My hand came up some way above Tricks, maybe half again to twice as tall as he was. “Taller than you… maybe not quite a full meter, but close to it, certainly,” I remarked.

Tricks didn’t even need to do much searching it seemed. “So: pony, purple coat, taller than average, with regalia. Only one possible fit for that. Here.” he offered nonchalantly, presenting me with a two-page spread in his tome, several color photographs attached.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” I repeated from the header on the first page, my eyes catching a glimpse of the pony via the embedded color photograph. “‘Ruler of Equestria’ and ‘Element of Magic’ it says here. Now, I remember this pony being mentioned earlier, but I’ve never seen a picture of them until now. How the fuck is it possible for me to dream about a pony I’ve never seen before?” I queried, though in truth it was a question nopony could answer.

Tricks spoke first. “Based on my admittedly limited research… I wonder if you experienced what we used to know as ‘Dream Bleed’, where the dream of somepony is experienced by another, quite possibly carried by the magical currents of the world.”

I looked at Tricks. “Are you suggesting that a creature out there is dreaming and I saw them dreaming?”

The male unicorn shook his head. “Not just any creature; according to our theories of magical transference, it would have to be the same species. If I’m right… you weren't witnessing a pony dream, you were witnessing a human dream.”

I slowly nodded my head. “So… that would seem to confirm that Alex is indeed alive, but at this point, he’d be approaching the limits of my species’ natural life expectancy.” I exhaled sharply. “So: has he found a way to cheat death, I wonder?”

Tricks and Stopper looked at each other as if they were silently debating between themselves. Stopper was slowly shaking her head while Tricks was slowly nodding his. Tricks eventually broke the silent impasse. “There are… methods whereby somepony could stop the aging process. It would require them or somepony else to cast a suspended animation spell. But, such spells were from a banned school of magic; even before the world changed, that kind of magic was kept locked away.”

“Well,” I began, “If I wanted to time travel into the future, that’s how I would do it, legality be damned. Would this ‘dream bleed’ phenomenon you mentioned be possible if someone were in that form of stasis?” I asked the unicorns.

Stopper took a step forward. “Magic works in mysterious ways, even to my kin. I… don't know enough to say that it's impossible.”

“Nor I”, Tricks added.

I went back to the dream still ricocheting in my head. “So, a pony, let’s assume for a second is this ‘Princess Twilight Sparkle’, was arguing with a human, who we will also assume was Alex; that argument could’ve been about anything, but this was in the center of a village with lots of onlookers. For a ruler to have any argument in public, the subject would’ve had to have been severe…” I trailed off for a moment.

I stepped away from the bed to give my legs a stretch. “So, here’s how this all looks to me: This princess of yours, and Alex too somehow, took away your magic, quite possibly to stop this Opaline that was mentioned earlier, and it sounds like Alex has found a way to travel into the future to return your magic to you, albeit with a rather cryptic timing of when ponies will face their darkest hour. This would seem to imply that Alex didn’t agree with the princess on the idea of removing your magic, even if he may have played a part in sealing it away…” I trailed off again, circling once again back to the dream I couldn’t shake off.

If you had a hand in this, Alex, you’d better have had a damned good reason.

“So… what am I to do in the meantime? If he plans to restore your magic, then I find it unlikely it’ll happen within your lifetime… possible, but unlikely given the state of the world at the moment; maybe this Opaline is also hiding in the world somewhere, in which case, the world as it exists outside wouldn’t be able to fight her off if she were armed with magic. But, if your future descendants will be able to enjoy magic once again thanks to Alex’s future actions… maybe that’s the goal we should be aiming for.” I looked around the room at the group of ponies who were standing or sitting near me. “Well, what are all your thoughts?“ I asked the room.

Stopper went first. “If he is around, we need to find him and wake him.”

“To do what?” I countered. “Let’s say we found him, and somehow brought him back into the world. What if we bring him out at a time when he can’t accomplish what you want? And, what then? Not only would he be pissed off beyond measure, he’d be pissed off at me for not trusting his judgment. No, there are too many variables there, inaction is the safest action for now where Alex’s location is concerned.” I could tell that Stopper was annoyed at being shot down, but I hoped she understood the reasons for my cautiousness.

Ace went next. “I… can live without flying. But, if what we end up doing means that, one day, the pegasi can reclaim the skies… I’d be very happy with that.” He smiled at me, seemingly full of confidence that I could help achieve that reality.

“I agree,” offered Tricks, with Stopper turning to look at him. “All my life I’ve lived without my magic, of hearing stories about our ancestors that could conjure such wonders with it. If I knew, with absolute certainty, that in one hundred, two hundred, even five hundred years from now, that unicorns would once again have their magic… I’d walk into Tartarus to make that happen.”

“I agree as well,” stated Flame. “It’s… been tough these last few years. But, if the result of all this is that ponies get back their magic… I’d be willing to endure tougher times ahead.”

I clasped my hands together. “So… I think my task is now quite clear: protecting you all so your society can prosper. I don't know quite what that looks like long-term, but for now, I think that means shoring up defenses and improving the food situation; anything else is probably a conversation for another time. Thank you all for your input, everypony, you’ve all been immensely helpful as usual. However, I have another issue to attend to.” I swung my legs off the bed and got back on my feet. “I'll catch up with you all later,” I announced as I departed and headed straight for the smithing station.

This time, Crush was at his station and he was waiting for me. “I have your order waiting for you; I think you'll like it.” He beamed.

He waved me through to his side of the divide and unwrapped a linen cloth holding my promised saw.

I took the object carefully into my hands, and marveled at the craftsmanship; my estimation of Crush's abilities rose considerably as I tilted the saw in my grasp, paying close attention to the serrated blade.

In short, I was impressed. “I… don't quite know how to thank you. This is exceptional work, Crush.” I said, smiling profusely. Do you have a workshop I can use?” I then asked.

Crush nodded and led me further back to a large rectangular area, separated from our current location with a chain-link faux door. Inside the room was a series of workstations with chairs, all of them well-used.

“Can I use this right now? I'd like to put this tool to good use immediately.” I requested. Crush stretched out a hoof and directed me to use the first station on our left. After making sure that I was sitting comfortably, I grabbed a nearby flat wooden board and then removed my earlier gift from inside my hoodie.

Depositing the bundle on the workstation, I slowly unwrapped it, and was taken aback; Stopper hadn't just provided me with one horn, she'd provided me with six! Crush sat down at the workstation opposite mine and regarded me with a skeptical look. “Well, isn't this something?” He said, shuffling his hooves together nervously. “What do you plan to do with all this?” He asked me.

I held a hand up and pointed to my outstretched fingers. “Do you see these dark spots in my fingers here?” I asked the earth pony. He simply nodded. “In two of my fingers on each hand, there is a tiny magnet embedded in it. Those magnets are composed of an element called neodymium, which is capable of producing a large magnetic field relative to its size. In my day job, it allowed me to tell if a wall or a panel had a live electrical circuit behind it; I could ‘feel’ the outline of the inherent magnetic field from the electricity. I wondered if the same principle would hold with the magic of your world…” I said, now cradling one of the horns as I ran my fingers over the grooved surface, my head lowered in contemplation.

It didn't fully sink in when I made the request, but as I looked down at the azure-tinted appendage, I realized that in my hands I was holding the remnants of the life of a unicorn; a pony had been born, they’d lived, and then they’d died… and here I was, about to defile their remains in the pursuit of science.

I looked back up at Crush. “Has your species ever held any religious beliefs? Like, I don't know, a belief in some greater force in the universe that you look up to…or fear, even?”

Crush pondered for a short while. “I wouldn't exactly call it a religious belief, but… our earliest stories told us what happened when ponies didn't get along. The Hearth's Warming Fable, passed down as part of our oral history, tells of a time when our society was nearly wiped out by a vicious enemy that fed on our hostility. The coming together of the three tribes, and the birth of harmony between them, is what led us to prosperity. Harmony was our way… until everything fell apart, that is.” He lamented.

I pressed my questioning a little further. “What I mean is… do you think that there is some omniscient all-seeing force somewhere that could be listening in?”

“You mean… that can hear us talking?” He asked to clarify, to which I nodded. “Well… I've always suspected that there's been something… but it's just a feeling.”

“May I?” I asked him, as I gestured to a hoof with my hand. Slowly, he unfurled his limb, and I grasped it tightly.

“To whoever or whatever may be listening…” I began, feeling slightly silly at talking to nothing. “ know that I haven't been here long, but I’ve come to know this little band of ponies, and I think that they could do with my help.”

I closed my eyes. “I am about to commit an act of grotesque indecency because I believe it can help us all. I am asking for your forgiveness for this crime… but I am also asking for help to make this work; I pledge myself, to whatever or whoever is out there, that in return for this working, I am willing to become an avatar of your will,” I said, expecting nothing to come of it. Opening my eyes, I released Crush from my grasp and set about getting to work.

Slowly, I made the first cut as my new saw got to work; after a minute or so, a thin sliver of horn had been freed from its parent, swiftly followed by a second. I held up both discs as I passed them to Crush. “I know it's not a lot to work with, but can you use that whetstone of yours to make an edge of these discs razor-sharp?” I asked.

He mulled over the idea before taking the two discs to the whetstone and set about the task with diligence. In almost no time at all, Crush handed them back to me; the rim of one-half of each disc was indeed extremely sharp.

“How squeamish are you?” I asked the earth pony. He raised a hoof in question, but at that moment I plunged the disc across the center of my left hand, deliberately and very slowly sliding it under my skin. I had been expecting pain, but expectation never fully prepared me for the sheer rush of what was now running across my hand, and I was resisting every urge to scream as new levels of agony flooded my nervous system.

After a minute or so of careful positioning, the disc had entirely faded from view and had now been swallowed into my palm. The workstation had been smeared crimson, a reminder of it dripping from the wound I was now attempting to staunch. “Do you, uh, have anything for the bleeding?” I asked with a pained expression no doubt covering my face.

He got up and rummaged around in a wooden box across the room. Taking out a flask, he hoofed it to me. “Take a sip only.” He cautioned.

I did as he instructed, and brought the glass tip to my lips after uncorking it, letting the lime-green liquid compound touch my tongue. I was immediately assaulted by an extremely strong menthol sensation, and as I swallowed it, that sensation followed, but it did not head straight down; instead, I felt a cooling numbness spread across my chest, and then to my injured hand. As I looked down at it, I noticed the wound starting to heal before my eyes, and the sensation of pain progressively disappeared, until naught of it remained.

I pushed the cork back into the flask and looked at Crush. “That was… I have no words. How the fuck did you make this?” I enquired.

Before answering, he went to a separate box and extracted a yellow gemstone that he then placed on the stained workstation. “This is a Zebrica Stone; it's from a tribe very far away. This is what makes alchemical reactions possible, in the absence of magic.”

I mulled the answer over in my head. “Alchemy… There are references to the practice on my world dating back until relatively recently. It was believed that it was possible to turn lead into gold. Naturally, it was all bollocks, but the idea still found purchase in our fiction. What can you make with this?” I asked, pointing to the gemstone.

Crush sat back down at the workstation opposite me. “Primarily? Potions. I can take reagents and make potions from them. The one you just tried was a healing potion, which is fairly mundane to make. But, I can make more exotic potions; invisibility, super-strength, and others besides.”

Just when I thought this world had shown me everything, it threw something new at me. “Right… Now, where was I…”

—

It had taken two hours of excruciating pain, tempered by Crush's stash of potions, but as I walked out of the smithing station, I looked down at my hands and admired my handiwork.

A large disc rested under each palm of my hand, while my hands were punctuated by square horn fragments placed at strategic points, including each finger joint and around my palms.

I had been encouraged by stray twinges of electric current that had arced across my hands, coming to the unfortunate conclusion that if I ever wanted to hold my hands together again, I might need to wear gloves in the future.

I went to the barracks, and seeing nopony there, went to Scar's desk to retrieve all three tomes; I then went into the study to read the first volume of the magical instruction books we'd confiscated.

It was… an interesting read. I soon learned that unicorns did indeed have to make the magic “flow” from their horn; the tome advised that using a mental mnemonic often helped serve as an easy shortcut for spellcasting, but it also advised that mnemonics could be verbal or somatic instead. The first chapter also outlined the importance of finding a way to immediately stop all magic casting, lest a runaway spell wreak havoc on the environment around the caster, or indeed to themselves or others.

The first spell the book detailed was Levitation. The description was followed by annotations on how to control the flow of magic.

Levitation is the simplest spell a unicorn can learn. It is a direct countenance to Gravity and, properly used, can make day-to-day life much easier as a result. To begin, focus on an object, and imagine lifting it with your mind; if you are successful, you will be able to raise the object by a couple of meters. It will be difficult at first, but as you practice, it will become progressively easier, eventually becoming almost effortless.

On the desk was a small stone paperweight, oval in shape, with a polished granite appearance. Deciding to use this as my first target, and slightly unsure of what to do, I stretched out a hand and imagined lifting the stone with my mind. The pieces of horn seemed to project a new sense within my brain; it was thoroughly disconcerting, but before long I was able to feel a small pulse within my hand as a faint glow surrounded it. With a few moments of concentration, I had the pulses within my hand corresponding to the suggestions from the spellbook.

I saw no results from the initial attempt. The stone just sat there, quietly mocking me as I attempted to invoke the ancient power of the unicorns. It was then that my thoughts went back to the book's words as I brought my hand back to me, looking down at the raised parts of my palm.

While the mnemonic you choose may be entirely within your mind, beginners may find it easier to verbalize a command, or even move their hooves in a specific gesture that can be mentally tied to the visage of casting the spell.

I had an idea.

I thought back to when I was on Earth, where I'd been a fan of a tabletop game called Dungeons & Dragons. The Fighter had always been my favorite class; there was something cathartic about playing a character that just hit everything with a bastard sword until it died. However… I did possess a soft spot in my heart for the Sorcerer class; I had the utmost respect for a class that saw magic in the world and sought to learn it at all costs… even if it meant crossing a few moral or ethical boundaries to do so.

In the world of Dungeons & Dragons, levitation fell into a school of magic called Transmutation; spells from this school were all about weaving the tapestry of reality, the caster being capable of changing the very nature of the world around them. Now, obviously, I was in the real world, but maybe there was a certain kind of logic to these types of categorization, no matter which universe one found themselves in.

I raised my hand again, but I hesitated at the sheer silliness of what I was about to do; I had to remind myself that there was no hidden camera looking to nab me in a ‘Gotcha!’ moment.

As I focused my thoughts on the task at hand, I spoke a single word. “Levitate”, I uttered, mentally tying the spell name to the action I was trying to perform.

A short shock caused my hand to spasm and my concentration to falter, but the rock itself did move slightly as it teetered on its center of gravity. The shock was like putting your hand on one of those electro-mechanical amusements that get you to see how long you can endure gripping the metal cylinders without pulling your hands away.

To this day, I have never been bested by one of those infernal machines, and today was going to be no different. Refocusing, I was now prepared for the surge of power, and this time my concentration did not err; my hand felt like it was about to vibrate off my wrist, but I kept the focus of my mind on the stone.

This time, I shouted the command. “Levitate!”

After a few seconds, the rock slowly lifted off of the desk and held its position suspended above the wooden surface by several centimeters. The paperweight was encompassed in a pulsing blue aura, which happened to remind me that the color of my eyes was in fact the same color.

Testing the book's recommendation, I broke my concentration with a deliberate mental image of a ‘Stop’ sign, the same sign you'd see on any roadside across most of Earth. The stone fell back to the desk, bouncing after its initial impact to eventually turn over onto its opposite side with a series of deep thunk sounds.

To say I was thrilled was a colossal understatement. I sat in the chair and reclined back in it, feeling just a little bit giddy at what I'd just unlocked. In eagerness, I reached out to the musty tome to turn it to the next page, which detailed the next spell: Telekinesis.

Telekinesis is the next spell most unicorns will learn, and it is an extension of the previous spell, Levitation. This spell will allow you to manipulate objects in a magical grasp, with the added bonus of making you immune to things like temperature that your hooves would be vulnerable to. Together, these two spells form the foundation of unicorn society.

The instructions for the spell advised casting Levitate first, and then casting Telekinesis while Levitate was still channeling; it seemed to be possible for unicorns to cast more than one spell at a time from their horn, a feat I hadn’t before considered. Up to the challenge, I rose to my feet, and once again conjured up a levitation spell. As I held the stone in the spell's aura, I attempted to generate a second magical pulse in my hand while keeping the first pulse distinct.

I had… mixed results; the field surrounding the stone was visibly shifting, but the stone did not move from its hovering position. I began to notice that, as I started to produce a second spell, the pulsing of the first one was disrupted, and I had to pour all of my concentration into keeping it stable.

Eventually, it became easier to maintain the rhythmic pulse of the Levitation spell, and I started to bring my casting of the Telekinesis spell into focus.

After several minutes without further progress, I reconsulted the book and realized that I’d overlooked something.

When you have established the Telekinesis spell, you will need to modulate the field. This will allow you to move the object through all three axes of movement. At first, this will happen slowly, but after a little practice, you will eventually be able to control the movement of objects with extreme speed.

I decided that this spell might need a verbal command as well. After some brief experimentation with those directions, I was able to, very slowly, move the stone in a variety of directions using the command “Kinesis”, albeit at the slow rate of speed it warned about. Nevertheless, I was feeling more than a little bit chuffed, and as I brought my spellcasting to a halt, the stone once again fell out of the air and back down to the wooden desk.

Over the next hour, I repeatedly practiced my technique, switching my focus between both spells periodically; each time, the spells became easier to manage and control, and by the end of my session I was not only able to exert much finer control over the stone, but I was able to launch it at a fair rate of knots and then bring it to a complete halt.

Deciding that I’d done enough for now, I carefully closed the tome and opted to leave it on a shelf for the time being. I then thought about going to see Scar, to report on my secret research, but I was struck by an idea.

Walking out of the room and then the barracks itself, I resolved that, gosh darn it, I was going to field test this first with a little fun. Nothing lewd of course… maybe some light mishaps though.

I sought out Crush at the smithing station, finding him polishing a metal peytral at his whetstone. “Hey, Crush. Can you show me some more of those potions of yours?” I asked dishonestly while trying surreptitiously to examine the shelving above us.

The earth pony looked up at me. “It’ll have to wait until later, I’m trying to smooth out some of the impact points in the armor from our last battle.” As he spoke, my hand moved silently behind my back as I targeted a chisel on one of those shelves. It fell, and, and handed with a dull thud sound on the padded floor. That sound caused Crush to turn around and immediately head for the fallen tool. Using his distracted state to my advantage, I then caused a sickle on the shelving opposite to fall to the ground with a similar thud. Once again, Crush went to the newer dropped tool, and I then caused a hammer to dislodge itself from the same shelf as the chisel, falling unceremoniously to the floor.

By now, Crush was getting suspicious, and he regarded me as such, moving to make eye contact with me. “... what are you up to?” he asked.

Choosing now to reveal my new abilities, I targeted Crush himself this time; bringing my hand up, I tried to envelop him in my arcane grasp, but I had trouble establishing the field. It was then I remembered my original method of obtaining focus. “Levitate!” I shouted as my hand obeyed my command, an azure glow now encapsulating the startled earth pony, lifting him slowly off of the ground to only mild complaint

“Uh… what’re you doing?! Lemme down!” he protested. It took considerably more concentration to lift him compared to the paperweight from earlier, but I was now well-versed in adapting my focus; after a few moments, his hooves had cleared the floor by some distance, now flailing around aimlessly in a futile attempt to counter the forces acting against him.

“Kinesis!” I again shouted, my hand faithfully carrying out my command as I carefully maneuvered the still-unsure earth pony out of the smithing station and toward the arena where we’d battled previously, now combining having to both move and still maintain the spells. After a short distance, while using my other hand to steady my arm, I gently placed him in the center of the arena, his hooves flailing on the way down as he attempted to secure contact with the grassy ground beneath us. Standing not far from me, his expression was a mixture of emotions I couldn’t quite read. However, his oral expressions were far easier to decode; in fact, he started laughing.

“Well, now this is something for the history books!” he boldly stated, “I’ve heard stories of other creatures using magic, but honestly, that was kinda impressive! Slightly terrifying at the same time, too,” he added, making his way back to his station. “You know you can't keep that a secret forever, right?”

I nodded. “Oh, the cat will be well and truly out of the bag by the end of the day, but I want some fun first,” I said with a wink.

Departing with a wave, I then went for a walk around the settlement, casually observing that there was a buzz of activity that there hadn’t been before, with ponies rushing around carrying all manner of goods. It didn't take long to spot Stopper and Tricks together, for those two seemed to be as thick as thieves; however, they were also in the company of Scar, and the expressions of Stopper and Tricks were definitely ones of discomfort. As I got closer, I was able to hear part of the conversation… or rather, what sounded like an interrogation.

“... and then my scouts reported some disturbed graves north of here. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?” She was asking, in a decidedly pissed-off tone of voice. She didn't look at me when I approached them, her gaze squarely fixed on the two unicorns.

I could see the burden I'd laid upon them; the dilemma of either staying loyal to me and remaining silent, or obeying the chain of command and spilling the beans. I opted to relieve them of that burden, but in my own way; thus, I turned to face the pegasus. “Hey, Scar… when did you last see a pegasus fly?” I asked with an air of false innocence.

She spun around to face me and offered me an incredulous look. “... What are you talking about?!” She demanded.

Outstretching my arm in front of her, I targeted her brown-furred body with my mind. “Levitate!” I semi-shouted as the now-familiar blue aura wrapped itself around the hapless pegasus, who was now trapped in my magic’s embrace. “W-What’re you d-doing?! Get me down from here!” She blasted impotently, as she started running instinctively with her hooves while suspended in mid-air. Ponies began to take notice, and my little display was earning a crowd of onlookers.

Now for phase two. “Kinesis!” I bellowed, my hand commanding the pegasus’ body further into the air before bringing her to a halt for a moment. “Outstretch your wings!” I shouted, cupping my other hand to my mouth to amplify my voice. I could see her hesitation from the ground, but eventually, she unfolded both of her wings, looking down at me in what I hoped was a silent look of trust. Using my new abilities, I continued to hold her in my magic, the unceasing vibrations in my hands still ever-present as I moved her in the sky, increasing her speed relative to the ground with each passing moment. Her expression soon melted into a relaxed smile as I rotated myself on the ground, and Scar in the sky along with me as I picked up enough speed to make the wind soar through her wings in what I was sure was a long-lost feeling to the pegasus.

Eventually, like all things, her faux flight came to an end as I lowered her noticeably more relaxed body back down to the ground; Scar folded her wings as she approached me, her eyes full of curiosity. Taking a moment to check on the two unicorns, I could see that their mouths were agape, neither one of them choosing to move from where they were.

“That was incredible! How did you…?” The pegasus asked, making me turn my head to her.

“That…” I began, “... was quite possibly the most incredible thing I've ever done. And yet, I've no one left to share it with…” I said quietly, cradling my right hand in my left as my fingers ran over the raised indentations.

“That's not true, sir!” Shouted Tricks, which caused me to snap my head in his direction. “You've got us to share your achievements with!”

Scar nodded. “If that's what I think that was… you've done something that no creature on Equus has done in over fifty years. Although, it can't just be luck that you're not only the second human to come here, but you're also the second human ever to wield magic…”

That passing comment caused my train of thought to derail as I brought my gaze back to her. “... what did you just say?” I asked her, not quite believing that I'd heard her correctly.

“That you’re only the second human to come here?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No, you specifically said that I’m the second human ever to wield magic. Are you saying that, after all this time, you knew that Alex could do this? And yet you said nothing?” I said, my words bring aimed like barbs at the wordless pegasus.

It was time for some answers.

Putting my hands on my hips with a huff, I threw my gaze across all three of them. “Barracks. Now.” I ordered. Even though Scar was my commanding officer, she complied, as did the unicorns, and soon we were back in Scar’s office. Taking a bit of a liberty, I sat in her chair as the three ponies lined up on the opposite side of the desk.

I cast an expectant look at them. “I think that Alex being able to wield magic is something that you should have told me about. What else do you know about that, Scar?” I asked, with very little patience in my voice.

Over the rim of the table, I could see her hoof moving as it pawed at the floor. “ W-We don’t know much. The orders passed down to me were to ensure that, if he were to ever come back, the gauntlet he’d retrieve would be protected… with our lives if necessary.”

My eyes narrowed. “What’s so special about this gauntlet?” I asked pointedly.

“It’s what allowed him to wield magic, sir,” replied Stopper. “That’s why we were convinced he’d be coming back to dominate us… that gauntlet, according to the stories I’ve heard anyway, made him extremely powerful.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” I asked her.

“You didn’t ask,” she said dismissively.

I focused once more before asking another question, to prevent me from becoming even more annoyed. “Are there any photos of this gauntlet?” I asked the group.

Tricks, who seemed to always have those dossiers present on him, scanned his eyes through its pages and showed me a two-page spread with a large photo on its second page.

It was unmistakably Alex. The color photo was taken from the front; the pony to his side I immediately recognized as Twilight Sparkle from earlier, looking up at him with what I could only describe as ‘bedroom eyes’.

If I'm reading that correctly… you lucky son of a bitch, Alex.

The photo also showed him wearing the gauntlet; my first thought was that it looked like a discount Infinity Gauntlet, but then I mentally backtracked as I realized that I probably couldn't have done any better with this world’s resources.

My eyes were drawn to what looked like a number of gemstones, all different colors, seated into the knuckles of the gauntlet. I tapped it, highlighting my attention to it to the group.

“If Alex was inspired by what I think he was inspired by, I'm guessing that those stones are the source of that gauntlet’s power… and, by extension, his.” I mused, mostly using the group as a debugging duck. “Did you know about this, Stopper?” I asked her directly.

“I did, yes,” She offered.

“And… you just let me use those horns knowing full well that there was another way to do this?” I accused, realizing now the jig was now well and truly up as Scar turned to the unicorns and scowled.

“I thought that it was a fool's errand. I never actually expected you to succeed! Also, those gemstones, never mind the buckin’ gauntlet, haven't been seen since Equestria fell, so it's not like that option was ever on the table anyway.” She answered with an annoyance at having to dispense what in her voice felt like the obvious.

I raised a finger. “Ah, but Scar said a moment ago that if Alex ever came back he'd retrieve the gauntlet. That would mean he's got it stashed somewhere…”

I mulled over an idea. “No… he might have factored in using it in the future. Besides, I don't think I need it. So… what to do now…” I further pondered in my mind.

I turned in the chair to look at Scar. “Let's deal with the proverbial elephant in the room first. I ordered those two to retrieve some unicorn horns from ponies who were already dead. I then grafted the pieces of some of them into my hands. See?” I said, raising both of my outsplayed hands to the group, the indentations and slight scarring of my handiwork readily apparent.

“They were acting under my orders, for a project of serious importance, as you yourself bore witness to,” I continued. “As I promised them, I came to you after I was done with my testing. I think that this could hugely help your survival… and, well, mine too.”

Scar sighed. “It's not like I have any moral high ground here. Many of us have done worse to stay alive. If it can help us… I'm fine with it. Although a heads up would have been appreciated…” She said, a pregnant pause lingering in the air.

“Granted, but then I wouldn't have been able to surprise you.” I countered.

“That was bucking terrifying! It did feel so good, though… the wind coursing through my wings… I'm glad that I got to experience that. It made me realize what we're all fighting for. Actually, now that I think about it… I think you might be able to solve a mystery for us…”

I was very curious now. “What kind of mystery?” I enquired.

Scar pointed down at the desk. “Bottom drawer, in the blue box.” She said, her eyes willing me to reach for it.

I opened the drawer and extracted the box, placing it on the table in front of us all. Slowly, I unlatched the clasp, and inside a velvet inner layer was a crystal, yellow in color, with an inscription in the middle from a language I didn’t recognize. The crystal itself was cylindrical, with four sides, and an equilateral pyramid at each end.

Stopper didn't even need me to ask to offer up information. “That’s a Mnemosyne Crystal.” She explained.

“I… have no idea where you picked up Greek mythology from. I do remember, however, that Mnemosyne was the Goddess of Memory, a titan seen as a predecessor to the pantheon of Greek gods. Would I be right in assuming the literal interpretation of this is ‘memory shard’?” I asked.

Stopper nodded and extended a hoof towards the crystal. “Yes. If I had magic, I'd be able to see what's been recorded on it… but I can teach you instead how to do it, sir.”

I liked that idea.

“Then we'll do just that. Let’s formalize our next steps…” I started, closing the box. “Stopper and Tricks, you'll assist me with tuition in magic, and together we'll uncover what's on this thing. Then, we'll break for Estrus, because nobody is going to be focused at all during that. Once the season is over, we'll all reconvene to discuss what we're doing next… hopefully with the aid of a map. All good?” I asked.

Everypony in attendance nodded; the two unicorns made their way out, with Scar staying behind. “I'll be back in a bit. When I get back here, I'll discuss your Estrus arrangements with you.” She stated. After a nod of agreement from me, she too left the building, leaving me alone for a moment.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I removed the crystal from its box, holding it in my hand. It felt cool to the touch, like I was handling an ice cube. In an instant, a flash of icy cold shot its way up my body, and for a moment my mind felt like it had the worst case of brain freeze ever.

I was not prepared for what came next.

END OF ACT I

Chapter 04 - Unfamiliar Bedfellows

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ACT II

As soon as the pain vanished, I found myself surrounded by white, like one of those fashionable dream sequences from TV. I had this odd sensation ripple through me, and I couldn't quite pin down what it was; it was as if I was floating in a sea of endless nothingness, but it felt like I was being dragged away in all directions. I turned in every direction I felt I was being dragged, and reached out with my hands expecting to find something, but I found no purchase on anything.

Time was meaningless to me here. In either an eternity or an instant, a figure appeared, clad in casual clothing that could only have come from Earth. Alex’s form materialized before me, and a moment later, our vista changed to a rural setting, one I distinctly recognized from my dream not long ago.

“Hello”, he spoke in his absolutely distinctive English-language voice twinged with Spanish overtones. “If you’re hearing me, well… you’ve just found yourself a mystery. I wanted to make a record of my thoughts in these crystals, in case something happens to me and I don’t make it out of this situation. I don’t know who you are, or what you are, but if you’ve found this, that means that you have access to magic. So, I’ve either succeeded in restoring magic to this world, or someone else has usurped that power.”

His arms were crossed, and his brow was furrowed in that trademark of his whenever he was displeased about something. “If you’ve acquired this power by unnatural means, I’m sorry to disappoint you: no magical secrets await you here. However, regardless of who you are, I must issue a warning to you.”

The mental recreation of Alex approached me, but I couldn’t tell if he was making eye contact with me or if it was just my imagination. “If you find this recording, and I’ve not yet returned to this world, I ask… no, I beg of you: Please leave me be. Don’t come looking for me. If you do, you risk undermining everything I’m trying to achieve. I know only one person I’d trust to try it, and if by some absolutely wild twist of fate he’s listening, I know that he would respect my wishes not to, in spite of that trust.”

Alex then sighed. “I wish I could record a message for everyone I knew, there is so much I want to say, to each of you… in fact, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll leave a message for you all, each stored in a crystal.”

An image of the crystal I’d just grabbed came between us. “Each of the crystals, like this one, will vibrate at a specific thaumaturgic frequency that propagates over extreme distances. You already have access to magic, so this should be well within your ability. You can thank Starlight Glimmer for the spell matrix within the crystals for that idea to work. To other creatures, that frequency will be just like background noise… but if you can properly attune to it, you’ll be able to seek them out.”

Alex’s image turned to look over the view around us. “Beautiful, isn’t it? This is Ponyville, and I called this place home for many years. By the time you find this, it might be nothing more than a ruin. This…” he said, arms outstretched for a brief moment, “...is how I want to remember it. Maybe you’ll visit it someday. If you do… Please be respectful. Not much might be left of it, but it was home to many ponies… however, the place might be full of the souls of the dead by your time, in which case, if you do go, pay my respects for me; I only ask that you leave the place as you found it.”

The figure walked back a few paces. “I’m sorry that I disappeared. I had no control over it. I know that it must have left a void in all of your lives, and for that, I will feel guilty until the day I die.” The tone was one of someone far from happy about his situation. I hadn’t seen it often from Alex… but I recognized it when I heard it.

“But, I did carve out a life here… and I even found love for a time in this strange, strange land. I ask that you not be sad that I was taken from you, but instead remember the good times we had. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see each other again. And, if you’re as crazy as my old friend… crazy enough to want to go searching for these crystals… good hunting.”

I felt a force pulling back on me; but, before I could react, I was thrown back into the waking world, flailing where I lay as my senses returned to me with violent force. However, I wasn’t expecting to have ponies all around me, all visibly worried for some reason.

My eyes went around the room, and I spied Ace, Stopper, Flame, and Scar at my bedside. Ace and Flame were noticeably the more worried of the two, while Scar and Stopper were noticeably more reserved. That was until Stopper hit me over the head with a hoof.

“Has anypony ever told you that you’re a bucking idiot?” she barked, verbally laying into me.

I raised a finger in ineffective protest. “In my defense, nobody told me I wasn’t supposed to do that. It’s not like there are warning labels on anything here.”

Flame smiled. “It’s okay. She just wants to let you know that she cared and that she’s happy you’re alright,” she said, looking at Stopper with a barely concealed grin. Stopper just glared at her and stormed off, leaving the three of them alone with me.

“Well, I’m happy to know you all care. But, enough about that, why am I here?” I queried with the group, realizing that I was still tightly clutching the Mnemosyne Crystal from earlier as I brought it up to rest on my chest.

“I found you slumped in my chair. You’ve been in here for most of the night,” Scar mentioned. “You know that you ruined that chair, right? You soiled yourself while you were slumped in it, and you were still tightly grasping that damned crystal. We couldn’t even pry it from you, your grip was like a thousand pythons.”

My other hand instinctively felt its way down to my nethers, feeling the damp wetness of my shame. I winced, but deep down I knew that they understood that I couldn’t have helped it.

“What did you see?” Ace asked. I smiled, dropping the crystal onto me as I reached out to cup the pegasi’s chin, lightly running a finger across his cheek.

“I saw… Well, put it this way: I now have a quest to follow. See this crystal? It contains some of Alex’s personal thoughts, and there are more of them out there with messages for those who knew him. I… owe it to him to collect them. Not only to keep them away from others but also to preserve them for the future. Heck, maybe he even left me a message? Man, wouldn’t that be something?” I asked as a rhetorical question. I tried to get up, but Flame pushed me back down.

“You’ve just been through a nasty shock! You can’t possibly think about getting up!” she said, keeping a hoof pressed against me. Avoiding looking at her, I turned to Scar.

“I think my faculties are coming back to me… I believe you were going to talk about arrangements for me for Estrus?” I queried.

Scar just pointed a hoof. “Well, here's your volunteer. Isn't that right, Flame?” Flame blushed profusely under her fur.

“Um, y-yes… I-I volunteered.” She said, as her head now tried to avoid my gaze. Ace removed himself from my hand and went outside… I then remembered that he was supposed to be on duty this morning. I reached out to Flame and grabbed one of her hooves with my freed hand, gently squeezing it.

“That, uh… means a lot to me. I guess we'll be getting to know each other pretty well, huh?” I offered in a bashful tone, the earth pony simply nodding back. As she did, I swung my legs off the bed, despite her hoof once again protesting against my chest. I grabbed her hoof in my hand, gently bringing it down. “Sorry my dear, but I have to, for the very young do not always do as they're told.”

Without stopping to entertain her concerns, I left the lodge, gripping the crystal again tightly as both she and Scar followed me. Stopper hadn't gone far, and I approached her as she caught up with Tricks. As I got near them, they both looked at me, a somewhat guilty expression on Tricks’ muzzle.

I picked up on it immediately. “Morning, Tricks… is there something you want to tell me?” I asked him, unsure what the reason for his sudden guilt could be.

He nodded apprehensively, removing something from his cloak. In the early morning light, the faint pulsing of a gemstone could be seen. A gemstone that wouldn’t have looked out of place mounted on that gauntlet, in fact.

“I’ve… been using this for some time. I never really thought about it, but when you pointed to the gems in that gauntlet… I wondered if this might've been intended to be used with it.” he said, carefully hoofing me the precious stone. I gently ran my thumb over it, feeling weak pulses of energy emanating from it.

“What does this stone do, exactly?” I pressed, attempting to extract valuable information from the unicorn.

“It’s… hard to put into words.” He started to explain. “When I use it… it doesn't make me invisible, but it sort of makes me… ‘unnoticeable’, I think is the best word.”

I rolled the gem around in my hand. “So, this effectively alters the perception of you by others. Surely full invisibility would be better?” I reasoned.

Stopper shook her head. “Invisibility is a high-level spell; the power required to channel it is enormous. The spell in that crystal is a cheaper one; it doesn't require magic much to channel it… compared to a spell like Invisibility, anyway.”

“Fine,” I accepted. “I think it's time we got started on my magic training. You two between you seem to have an excellent grasp of magic, and that's despite being unable to wield it yourselves.” I said, gesturing to the barracks. “Shall we?”

With nods of approval, we all made our way over. I knew, with absolute certainty, that I was going to enjoy the next week.

That ended up only being mostly true.

—

The next seven days were a mixture of both exhilaration and pain. Stopper had been a massive help in my magical instruction; to say she was gifted as a teacher was an understatement. Tricks, meanwhile, was quite a good field supervisor, putting me through my paces in the outdoors as he got me to use my new skills in a productive manner. In the week since I’d been found slumped in that chair, we’d gone through seven new spells together. Some were easy… while others were very painful.

The first day had been spent combining Levitation and Telekinesis into a single spell, a development that had been made after the tomes publication, and had apparently been passed down to Tricks through his family. I ended up changing the command to ‘Levenesis’, but this only became necessary with heavy mass movements.

Each day that followed involved a new spell being taught to me, followed by field exercises to get me using it in a practical setting. The first new spell I learned was ‘Shield’, a protective weave of magic that deflected physical attacks. We asked Crush to provide the muscle for my instruction, and he was more than happy to accommodate our request, providing an ample demonstration of martial prowess even in the absence of the much-vaunted strength of his forebears.

Day two was spent learning the spell ‘Shell’; similar in nature to Shield, this spell was used for deflecting magical attacks; while ponies themselves clearly lacked magic, the rest of the world was a mystery, and we all felt being prepared was a prudent measure. The last part of the day had been spent combining the two protective spells together, a combination I'd termed ‘Wall’ for ease of casting.

One side effect of using these spells became abundantly clear early on; each time the shield was struck, I felt the feedback from it vibrate throughout my body. It required enhanced concentration to compensate, but I was beginning to realize that even defending myself here was going to come with a cost.

The next four days were spent learning and practicing what unicorn magi referred to as the ‘Elemental Basics’; Fire, Ice, Thunder, and Water. I learned that, while these spells were indeed low-level ones, their teaching had been strictly controlled, and limited only to unicorn guards in service to the Crown.

Each of those spells could be cast on its own, or together, with each combination capable of its own unique side effects. The actual casting of those spells had started to induce real pain for me, and after one particularly intense casting of Fire, I'd developed a reaction in my hand; tendrils of something had started to snake down my hand toward my wrist, all of them starting from an embedded piece of horn. But, after half an hour or so of resting, those tendrils had receded back.

The last day has been used to teach me a healing spell, which I'd mentally labeled as ‘Cure’. Casting it on myself was an odd experience… I didn't feel any different, but an old scar on my left hand was now no longer present.

We'd all intended to train for a few more days, but instead, Estrus Season arrived earlier than we anticipated. Scar enacted a well-tested playback of actions, leading to the separation of all ponies according to physical sex. Thus, I now found myself back in the lodge, surrounded by Crush, Tricks, and Ace. Each of us lay on a bed, waiting to be called to enact our ‘service’. Except for Ace, for whom I hadn't been surprised to learn had been given an exemption from participating.

It was a profoundly uncomfortable wait, so of course, conversation inevitably started between us, if only to distract us all for a moment.

“So, Crush… I take it that this isn't your first rodeo?” I started, causing the earth pony to give me his full attention.

“This is the eighth time now. I think I've lost count now of the number of foals I've sired… we get assigned multiple mares, you see, and no, that's sometimes not as great as it sounds. Although… the ones I have this year are pretty fine, if I do say so myself.” he said, trying in vain to cover up his growing erection, no doubt at the thought of pleasing those particular mares. As much as Crush tried to hide it, his pink-mottled tool stood proudly below him.

Way to make a guy feel inadequate, Crush. You are packing an absolute monster there!

That set off a chain reaction; Ace was the next to fall victim to improper thoughts, his ebony shaft also paying the group a visit; the difference between him and Crush, color aside, was that Ace’s erect member, while smaller, had a tapered point, which I was sure could be put to some very good use.

Tricks was the last proverbial domino to fall, his brown-colored dick now standing at full mast, with absolutely no attempt made by the unicorn to hide it, his hooves crossed as he, like the rest, eyed each other semi-covertly. I got up.

“I just realized that I’m not being very fair to the rest of you; it’s time to fix that,” I said, removing all pieces of clothing below my waist, the faint breeze faintly tickling my buttocks as everypony's gaze now fell on me and my contribution to the day’s festivities, most notably the pegasus to my right.

“Well,” I began, “I think some ponies here are as curious about me as I am about them, sooo…” I said, lying back down on my bed, with my tool in my hand that, honestly, felt like it was the hardest it ever had been. Crush, like Tricks, now crossed his hooves, giving all of us an unobstructed view. If I had to make a judgment call, I'd say that of the three stallions in the room, Tricks was the closest in size to me, as I observed that the tip of his rod was flatter than the others, and was probably the smallest of the three.

“Well…” the earth pony said, slightly hesitantly, “... this bit at the top expands when we’re ready to, uh… what's the human word for when you deposit your seed in your mares?”

I chuckled softly at him. “We have many, at least in my mother tongue. If I wanted to be fancy, I'd say ‘Ejaculated’. My favorite word though? Spunked, with Spaffed a close second. There's just something so utterly crass about those words, and yet I find them quite endearing.

I was keenly aware that Ace was letting his curiosity get the better of him; he'd long since hopped off the bed and was now getting quite the eyeful. I turned to him, “Ah you can see, Ace, humans are quite different to ponies. Check this out…” I said, as my fingers pulled back my foreskin, exposing the darker tip, and aided somewhat by the now somewhat-flaccid state of my cock.

“This bit of skin protects my little guy when he doesn’t feel like coming out, a bit like your sheaths do, and yes I have noticed. It's not like you can hide them, either.” I justified, remembering fully how exposed I felt Ace’s sheath was when I first saw him.

“C-Can I join you on the bed?” the pegasus asked, to which of course I nodded my head and patted beside me as I scooted over to make room. The pegasus practically leaped onto the mattress, before lying on his back beside me, his rod still very much letting the world know of its desire to be touched and caressed.

“I'm not forcing you two to watch, by the way; I just don't have the same level of shame as some of my fellow humans would,” I spoke to both Crush and Tricks, neither one of them choosing to look away.

“Who says I don't like looking?” Replied Tricks, his hoof idly stroking himself. Crush was a bit more reserved.

“I'm plenty curious… for educational reasons, mind you.” He asserted, quite possibly more to himself than to any of us.

Taking that as my cue to proceed, I turned once more to Ace. “You're allowed to touch it, by the way,” I reassured, gesturing to my nethers. It took the pegasus a moment, but he eventually overcame his nerves, inching a hoof forward to touch my shaft; it twitched as his limb made contact, and his eyes filled with a genuine sense of wonder.

Not to be denied some form of intimate payment, I snaked my hand across his chest, and gently grasped his penis, closing my fingers slowly around it. The supple yet firm flesh in my grip pulsed with the rhythmic beating of his heart, his breathing becoming noticeably shallower as my fingers exerted a gentle pressure around the stiffening appendage.

I always wondered how ponies gripped things, and I suppose I now had my answer; as Ace's hoof continued its curious journey against my flesh, I felt multiple, almost finger-like tendrils of force snaking across my skin, which was a very pleasurable sensation. My eyes closed as I allowed myself to be lost in Ace's ministrations, while I did my best to return the favor. I was enjoying this so much that I didn't even hear Scar enter, a curt clearing of her throat thoroughly killing the vibe in the air and snapping us both out of our combined desire for the touch of another.

“If you're… quite done in here, I believe Flame is ready for you now.” She said in my direction, a touch too coldly for my liking.

“He comes with me,” I said, fully serious to the clear surprise of the room.

“... Any particular reason?” Scar asked reasonably.

“Well, after talking to Crush here, I understand all this a little bit better… and I've come to the conclusion that I could do with a good fluffer… ma'am,” I said, attempting to persuade my commanding officer. “Besides, it's not like he’s been lined up for any activities this week.”

Scar looked at me quizzically. “I… don’t know what a ‘fluffer’ is, and I’m not sure I want to know. Fine, I trust you… come with me.”

I complied after restoring my dignity; Ace followed suit, and soon we were following Scar to where Flame was. After a short distance, she stopped and pointed to another building in the distance.

“Inside, the furthest left booth on the left row. You’ve got two hours to pump that mare so full of seed that she wouldn’t look out of place on a birdbath. Go get ‘em.” she said, smacking my clothed buttocks with a hoof, no doubt as payback for earlier.

As we very slowly approached the building, I turned to Ace. “Do you know what I asked you along for?” I asked him, talking in a hushed tone.

“Uh… I think so,” he replied with more than a hint of uncertainty, his muzzle snapping up to look at me.

“I’m going to need to do some… repeat performances in there. The spirit might still be willing, but the flesh needs… ‘additional encouragement’, shall we say. How do you feel about providing that ‘encouragement’?” I asked him, unsure if convincing him to take such a leap was truly a good idea.

He didn’t even need a moment to respond. “If it makes you happy, I’ll do it,” he said, and I could almost swear that his tail was wagging behind him. Smiling, I reached down and ruffled his mane.

“Thanks… and I’ll make it up to you, I promise. For now, though…” I said, looking around like I had something to hide. “... Hang around here for a bit… quietly; I’ll come out looking for you in due course, okay?”

Ace nodded, and slinked off into the shadows, leaving me to approach my duty for the evening. Stepping inside, I found two aisles, one on either side, with partition curtains of dense, opaque fabric down the sides of each aisle separating me from the carnal acts within. The whole thing reminded me of something far seedier and unpleasant than what I knew was waiting for me, and it was hard to break that mental connection. All around me were the sounds of squealing, grunting, and plapping, the collective noises of a society letting out its frustrations by indulging in the biological urge to breed.

Hehe. The Aisles of Rut. ‘twould be a good name if it weren't so utterly morbid.

Wishing that I'd had a very stiff drink, I summoned every ounce of courage I had and headed for the partition containing Flame.

It’s no big deal, Stuart; you’re just going to go in there and fuck a pony. Mummy would be so proud of you.

Dispelling my brain’s attempts to dissuade me from my commitments, I parted back the curtain; it revealed a bed on the left and a light refreshment stand on the right. On the bed itself lay Flame, who promptly sat up at my arrival before practically tackling me to the floor, such was her apparent enthusiasm.

“You came! You really came! I thought y-you’d disappear, or go into h-hiding, or-” She stammered as I put a finger to her lips to silence the runaway train of her thoughts.

“Let it never be said that Stuart Dennis Robinson does not follow through on his obligations. Still, this…” I said, gesturing to the room itself. “... isn't quite something I'm used to.”

I approached the stand to my right. “I see you have some tea, do you mind?” I asked her.

Flame shook her head. “Of course not. As long as you don't mind nettle tea…” She warned. In truth, I’d been curious about trying it since I'd heard it mentioned, and as today was all about new experiences, now felt like the perfect time to indulge.

Bringing the cup to my lips, my nostrils were hit by a bitter yet herbal fragrance, the smell swirling around my senses as I took a small amount of liquid into my mouth.

The floral taste was… unique, certainly, and I could now see why the drink was so despised. As the liquid went down my throat, it left an exceptionally bitter aftertaste, like I'd just binged on a jumbo pack of sour gummy worms. I gave the cup a disgusted look and returned it to the stand. “The only word to describe that is ‘offensive’,” I stated.

Flame giggled to herself and hopped back onto the bed. “That's everypony's first reaction to it… you just get used to it, I guess.” She opined.

Putting the cup back down, I turned to her. “So… how do you all do this?” I asked her with genuine curiosity.

“Well, um…” She said, hesitating for a moment, “... if it’s a young stallion, they’ll be unsure and embarrassed. Mares sometimes need to guide the younger ones at first. B-But the older they get…”

She looked at the floor, and I could feel a deep sense of pain from her words. I joined her on the bed, and held a hoof with a hand, squeezing it and running a thumb over the fetlock.

She looked at me. “... the older ones would come in, and… there’d be no joy in it. We’d p-present ourselves, a-and they’d just take us there and then…”

I was finding this all very hard to take in. I looked into the mare's eyes, and I… I couldn’t imagine subjecting her to something like that. It suddenly felt horrible to be here, like I’d stepped into someone else's nightmare. I brought up my other hand to also clasp her hoof. “We… don't have to do this, you know? I don't want to be just another layer of misery in this… well, whatever this shit is.”

“But you're not like that!” She protested, her other hoof pressing itself against my chest. “ When I first met you, you felt awful about accepting our offer to help you settle in. You felt genuinely terrible… and that means you cared… cared about more than just yourself. I haven't forgotten about that, and neither has anypony else!”

Without warning, she lunged forward and connected her lips to mine, and in a mixture of desire and instinct, they both parted ways for our tongues to gently dance together. I was finally starting to relax around her… until I heard something that made my blood run cold.

“... I need more time to rest! If you stick it in again, it’s going to hurt!”

“I don’t care! Now, present that ass to me before I come over there and do it myself!”

I broke the kiss and tilted my head to the source of the argument, which appeared to be next door. Flame just looked down. “S-Sometimes… s-stallions don’t listen…” She whispered, her heart heavy with what I hoped wasn’t from personal experience.

I got up and loudly barged into the partition next to us, the sky-blue earth pony turning around to face me. “Who the buck are you?” he demanded.

I lost it. I lunged forward and grabbed the earth pony with my hands, pinning him against the surprisingly sturdy wall, my face within point-blank range of his as I barely restrained a snarl.

“You don’t know me, but if you don’t start treating others with more respect, you are going to know me, and the day you do is going to be a very painful one for you. Do I make myself clear, you miserable little sack of shit?!”

That last part was directed into his ear with more than a little menace, spittle flinging itself at the earth pony's fur and lime-green mane, his eyes closed to avoid having to look at me.

I was fine with him not responding, and I lifted him again into the air, making my way to the exit as he weakly struggled against me. Once outside, and without thinking, I launched the earth pony forward with surprising force, causing him to land roughly on his side. Without even acknowledging me, he turned tail and fled into the night, leaving me to contemplate what I'd just done.

I turned back, and returned to the previous room, finding the golden-furred unicorn mare with a yellow mane sobbing quietly on the bed. I approached her, reaching out with a hand to hold her hoof. Instead, she threw herself at me, hugging me with what felt like the full force of her strength, leaving me with no option but to return the gesture, my hands reaching around behind her in a hug of my own. “Sssssh… it's okay…” I whispered into her ear as my hands lightly stroked her fur.

It was some moments before her composure returned, and once she released me from her grasp I knelt in front of her. “I need you to do me a favor, okay? I need you to find Scar and tell her what happened. If she needs to talk to me, she knows where I am.”

The mare nodded and gave me a small peck on the cheek before slowly making her way out, brushing past a curious Flame, whom I now turned my attention to.

“Is this how Estrus affects stallions here? Heightened aggress-”

The words died in my mouth as I realized that what I'd just done was definitely something that would count as heightened aggression.

Have I been infected by this place? I'd have never done that back home!

Flame just nodded back at me. “Sometimes… y-yes.” she said, in a tone of voice that told me that ponies here had already accepted that as a risk in these times. She turned to go back to our original room, and I followed suit, making sure to secure the partition fabric on my way back in. We both looked at each other before I remembered where I was; I sat on the bed, where Flame soon joined me, snuggling up against my side.

“Can I ask you a personal question?” I queried her, staring at the way out.

“You can ask me anything you want.” She said, resting against me.

“...How many times have you done this?” I inquired, my hand stroking her golden mane.

“... three times. I’ve had t-three foals in total… but none of them survived their first winter…” She explained, choking back tears. I reached down and gave her a hug.

“I’m sorry… Do you really think we can do it? Like, bring a new life into this world?” I questioned.

Flame reached up and gave me a peck on the cheek. “I can think of nopony else I’d rather have a foal with right now than you. You’d make a good father, I think.”

I reached down and gave her head a small peck. “Then I think we'd best get started. Hang on a sec, and let me get comfy. It’s too bad I don’t have my Spider-Man costume…”

I started stripping off my clothes; once again they found themselves dumped in an unceremonious pile on the floor, my naked body on full display to the mare in front of me.

In reciprocation, she changed her position to lay on her back, her head propped up against a pillow; she parted her legs and lowered her hooves to accentuate the raindrop-shaped purple lips of her genitals, gently parting them to reveal the pink flesh within. A small twitch occurred at the top, momentarily exposing a small, heart-shaped nub that was almost immediately pulled back in again. A small rivulet of clear discharge ran down her anus, her tight pucker reflexively contracting at the liquid seeping down it, before dripping onto the mattress below.

Kneeling before her with a semi-flaccid dick, I ran my hands down her sides while moving my head lower, with progressively stronger floral hints wafting into my nostrils the closer I got.

It’s okay, Stuart; granted, you’ve had rather more limited opportunities with women compared to men, but you’ve got this! You’ve read the textbooks, you know where everything is on a woman… you just need to hope that the mares here are wired in a similar way.

It was a good job that I enjoyed playing poker; if I didn’t have that experience to put on my best poker face, my expression would be awash with uncertainty and doubt as I crouched down. Looking up at her, now only centimeters away, I sought to at least pretend I had an aura of confidence. “I forgot to mention; when I get a buffet put in front of me, I usually want my dessert first.”

Before she could respond, I sealed my lips around the purple prize, gently snaking my tongue up and down Flame's slit, occasionally sinking my tongue in deeper to gently brush against her quivering walls.

Briefly glancing my sight upwards, I could see that Flame had closed her eyes, soft coos emanating from her mouth as I continued my ministrations.

Feeling her clitoris once again exposing itself, I quickly assaulted it with my tongue, earning an “Aah!” from the earth pony letting me know that I’d at least found my target. Even as it was smothered once again by her folds, my tongue insisted on delving deep within, providing much-needed friction against the mare’s love button. Meanwhile, my hands moved lower down and lightly massaged her mammaries, carefully running my thumbs over the teats as soft moans filled the air around us.

As my assault continued, Flame instinctively pushed back with her pelvis, pushing my nose into her fur; the scent of her arousal was more than noticeable now as the floral taste on my tongue intensified. Getting bolder, I started to thrust my tongue into her tunnel, feeling it immediately contract at the sudden intrusion as the sensitive muscles pleaded with the invader to go further.

“Mmmm! Yes!” was the mare’s ringing endorsement of my efforts, “D-Don’t s-stop!” she continued to plead as her nethers remained under constant assault; each wink from her clitoral hood was rewarded with extra attention from my tongue in a steadily rising feedback loop of ecstasy.

I started to pour all of my focus onto her clitoris as I subjected it to a merciless campaign of stimulation, taking turns between swirling my tongue around it and flicking it with broad strokes. Her body held out valiantly, but the involuntary spasms of her body betrayed her even as she tried to stifle her body’s release.

Despite her efforts, a “Mmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaah!” was screamed into the room, a tone that was music to my ears; it was followed by numerous smaller ‘Mmm’ and ‘Ahh’ sounds as I continued to lightly run my tongue around her cavern as she basked in her afterglow, my mouth greedily slurping up her sweet-tasting discharge as she rode the aftermath of her orgasm.

I lay down on the bed next to Flame as her breathing recovered, a hand reaching over to give her some belly rubs, her hooves reaching out and cradling my arm as my fingers lightly scritched at her fur.

“Well…” I said, breaking the silence that had fallen between us “... we still have around ninety minutes or so left. Did you want a breather for a bit, or should we skip straight to the matinée performance?” I offered.

In an assertive action that I wasn’t expecting, she pulled herself up to my ear. “I n-need you to stick that thing in me r-right now, or I’ll do it myself,” she said, a hoof now reaching out to grasp my rock-hard member in what I was mostly sure was a playful suggestion. Only mostly, mind.

Getting comfortable, Flame lay back and lazily opened her legs as I got up and moved in front of her. Gingerly moving her legs aside further, I grabbed her by the hips, and gently positioned her still-twitching marehood in front of my cock. With a shared nod, I gently eased her down, the mare eliciting a hiss through clenched teeth as she adjusted to the new feeling of my length burrowing itself within her.

After a few moments, I felt myself reach the hilt, and I leaned forward to allow us both to get used to our new sensations as Flare’s hot tunnel tightly gripped and convulsed around me. Reaching down, I pushed my lips to her, the earth pony reciprocating with an enthusiasm that I had rarely seen in my life, her tongue eager to explore every nook and cranny in my mouth while impaled on my shaft.

Breaking the kiss to get more comfortable, I started to extract myself from her moist cavern very slowly, the mare’s canal doing everything possible to keep me inside before I could thrust back in again, a small ‘Aah’ being my reward for my efforts. As we relaxed further, I was able to get a steady rhythm going, the room steadily being filled with the plap sounds of two souls enjoying an intimate union.

In a sharp deviation from my expectations, Flame shouted “W-Wait! Stop!”

Fuck.

Being uncertain as to how best to approach this, I fully removed myself from the situation and lay on the bed next to her. Reaching out a hand to calm her down, she instead got up and straddled herself over me, impaling herself once more on my still-hard erection in one swift movement.

Fuck yes!

Now it was Flame’s turn to take control, and I let her indulge that desire to her heart’s content; her hips steadily moving up and down my flagpole as her wet and hot vaginal cavity, desperately craving my seed, sought to extract it from me by any means necessary.

To say that I was pent-up was an understatement, and I was in no fit state to offer any meaningful resistance to the mare’s persistence; soon, that familiar feeling began to build, and I was about to cross a metaphorical Rubicon from which there would be no return.

“Flame… I’d, ah… get ready if I were you, this, uh… t-thing’s about to blow…!” I weakly warned as Flame took the cue to sink herself fully onto me as hot, thick ropes of human semen squirted inside of her, the collective outpouring of a month’s worth of unspent ejaculate now being deposited deep within the earth pony. I could only manage a guttural grunt as my body surrendered its gift to the mare on top of me, who by this point had a wide smile on her face that I only managed to glimpse for a moment as I felt my face contorting into an expression that extremely few people had ever seen.

I was in no position to do much of anything; I lay on my back for a moment as Flame slowly and carefully extricated herself, my receding member falling back down onto me with an audible smack.

After taking a few moments to catch my breath, I got up and started to get dressed to the confusion of Flame. “Leaving so soon?!” she queried, somewhat distressingly.

“You didn’t think you were getting just one, did you?” I asked semi-rhetorically. “Just… let me take some time to recover, and I’ll be back for Round Two, mmkay?”

Flame nodded, and I took that as my cue to exit, stumbling out as my body readjusted to the state of post-nut clarity that always accompanied men in the aftermath of coitus.

Stepping outside, I walked a short distance away and was soon accosted by Ace. “Do you have some water nearby?” I asked him. Using a hoof, he pointed to a location not far from us, and we traveled the short distance together to what turned out to be a well, with a large tent behind it that appeared to be storing the drawn water; numerous glass bottles were on display, each one filled with water, with many different colors and shapes of bottles adorning the shelves inside.

With nopony around, I felt that asking forgiveness was easier than asking for permission as I grabbed one of the smaller glass bottles. Uncorking it, I immediately put it to my lips and tilted the glass upward, letting the cool water flow over my tongue and down my throat as it quenched my thirst.

After I’d downed the entire thing, I turned to look at the pegasus. “Well, that’s one problem out of the way… fancy helping me take care of another?”

He nodded slowly, and with me leading the way, we found a secluded spot not that far away, obscured by tents all around it that, unless you went out of your way to go down it, would not be seen by ponies passing by… especially this late at night.

Going down the far end where an untamed bit of grassland was present, I sat down with Ace following suit as he lay down in front of me, his eyes looking at me with a hint of uncertainty.

I sighed, and looked into those eyes, the deep azure tones reminding me of the aura of my magic. “Ace… I’m about to ask you for something… and it’s something deeply personal. It’s not hygienic, and you are absolutely free to say no… “ I paused, shuffling down my clothes until I’d revealed Stuart Little, now concealed in his most popular habitat.

“I… need some additional stimulation down there. And yes, we both know where this little guy has been… what do you say?” I asked, curious as to the pegasus’ reply.

He was clearly thinking it over but eventually responded. “On one condition,” he stated. I, of course, nodded solemnly. Ace then very quickly rose to his hooves and pressed his lips to mine; stallions, like the men of my world, had colder mouths than the opposite sex, and that mouth was now eagerly accepting my tongue. I let him explore the foreign appendage to his heart’s content, and before long he was exploring my mouth, his tongue meeting mine and together battling with it for attention.

I was definitely getting something out of this, and I could feel myself getting hard again as the cool night breeze flowed between it and my sack while Ace and I shared a kiss under the stars. Eventually, as all things must, the kiss ended, and Ace eyed my half-mast shaft. With no further prompting or encouragement needed, he knelt down and took my entire length into his mouth, using his hooves to gently pull down my foreskin to expose the sensitive head, his tongue taking its time to get used to how I felt.

His inexperience showed, but that was fine for now, his attentiveness and methodical exploration doing everything needed to give me an extra dose of endurance for the night ahead. Eventually, I knew that I was at peak hardness, and I gently disengaged him from his task, a thin trail of saliva dripping to the ground as his lips left my tool.

Wishing to take full advantage, I kissed him on the head and pulled my clothes back up again before springing back to my feet, with Ace also rising to his hooves; as he got up, I could see that he was fully, and possibly rather painfully, at fully attention. “I might need to call on you again; wait for me like last time, okay?” I instructed, feeling a bit bad at leaving him in the lurch.

Ace nodded, and I sped back to the Aisles of Rut, eager to demonstrate how a human would perform with a Black and Decker on his hips.

—

Three.

Three fucking repeat performances that evening. The matinée performance was great, and even the encore was appreciably good, but chafing and fatigue were rearing their ugly heads on encore number two, and by the end of the third encore I was ready to beg for mercy.

Flame was everything I could ask for in a female partner; she was accepting when I stumbled, and patient when I needed time, and overall she was just happy to be on the journey rather than worry about the destination.

Ace had been amazing in his support role; his only frustration had been not being able to see each job through to its conclusion. I needed to pay him back, and I had promised to do so, a fact I reminded myself as I met up with him again after Flame and I had parted ways earlier, the time now well into the early morning as the moon shone down brightly from above.

“Where are we going?” Ace inquired, as I strode briskly through the settlement, albeit with a stranger gait than normal; to combat the chilly air, my hoodie was zipped all the way up and my hands were in its pockets.

“Not far, you’ll see,” I reassured, tussling his mane with my hand.

I took us both to an extremely large tree that was outside the settlement’s outer border. Stopper, Tricks and I had done some target practice here, using the massive hollow tree trunk as a natural obstacle as they sought to assist me in honing my magical prowess.

The tree trunk’s entrance was facing opposite to the direction of the settlement, so while it was exposed, it wasn’t exposed to anypony that mattered. Moving inside it, I gestured for Ace to follow me as I sat on the floor, idly brushing aside some loose sawdust. The trunk was big enough for us to sit next to each other as Ace deposited himself right beside me.

I reached out a hand and held his hoof in it while running a thumb over the hard keratin. “I… don’t really have the words to thank you for what you did for me back there, Ace. I… appreciate greatly that you wanted to finish what you began earlier, but buddy, let me tell you that, not only am I completely spent right now, but my todger here is spending the next few days at Lake Flaccid; in fact, I’ll be lucky if I’m walking right by the time I wake up tomorrow.”

I shifted in my chosen position as my buttocks started to disagree with the wood surface. “However… I could see how much it was making you frustrated. I’m offering to relieve you of that frustration, right here.” I said, in what I’m sure was the least-sexy way that anybody has ever propositioned another for a blowjob.

Ace looked up at me as our eyes met. “Y-You’d do that… f-for me?” he stammered, to which I could only nod slowly.

I rolled over to him and took a moment to savor the smell wafting from Ace’s groin. It was noticeably different from the mare earlier; stronger, muskier, and with more earthy overtones giving way to an extremely faint hint of lilac. His penis, meanwhile, was still recessed into his sheath, the ebony darkness of his telescope yet to be revealed to me in this impromptu intimate moment.

Acting a little bit on instinct owing to the late hour, I planted a kiss on his lips, and soon we were back to trading saliva with each other as we each explored the other’s mouth. Meanwhile, my hand had reached over and was now weakly holding the stallion’s partially hard member in my grasp, letting the expanding appendage fill my grip as our tongues continued to battle for supremacy.

I was intensely curious how a stallion’s dick would feel in my hand, and I was getting a thorough education on the subject; I gently moved it up and down the pulsating shaft, taking careful note of the ring mid-way down. As I’d noticed earlier, his tip was tapered, and I gently ran a finger around the raised flesh, causing the stallion to moan into my mouth as I spread the precum forming at the tip around the head.

Gently breaking the kiss, our eyes made contact for a moment, and I could feel him following me down as I headed straight for his pelvic region; gently cupping his scrotum, I wrapped my lips around his throbbing stallionhood, running my tongue over the head and sampling the slightly-salty taste of the already-slickened member as my lips formed a seal around the sensitive flesh.

Moving slowly down, my lips passed the ring as my tongue started to explore every contour and vein of the pegasus’ rod as I inched ever closer to taking in the whole thing. As I subjected him to my oral assault, I could hear his breathing become less steady as every twirl of my tongue caused his respiration to take a brief pause, his mind clearly struggling with what I could only assume were completely new sensations for him.

I felt that I had more than just a responsibility to Ace here; it felt like I had an obligation to make his first experience a good one for him. It was not my first time being in this position, but it never ceased to be enjoyable; that was especially true here as I looked up and could see the pony’s eyes closed, his face contorted in a way suggesting that this was indeed deeply pleasurable for him.

My nose then made contact with his tummy, having now fully enveloped him with my mouth, the tip now pressing on the back of my mouth; luckily for him, I had long since developed a way to suppress my gag reflex as my tongue continued to explore the entire length of his appendage. Further beads of precum continued to leak from the tip as I swirled the salt-laced liquid around the tapered point, further moans escaping the pegasus’ lips despite a clear urge to suppress them.

It’s fine, Ace… you don’t need to hide yourself from me.

I wasn’t going to pressure him; this was likely close enough as it was to his comfort zone to risk anything further. But, he was still going to get the full experience; my lips now started to rise and sink back down again along his pulsating cock, my tongue continuing to dance across the head while paying careful attention to any further leaks coming from its tip.

I raised a hand to lightly stroke his chest, and I could feel his breath quickening beneath my touch, his inexperience betraying him as I could feel him nearing the end of his endurance; now having established a regular pace around his twitching member, he could no longer hide his emotions from me.

“Ahhh!… Ahhh!...” he repeated as I willed him further to my goal, his shaft now starting to twitch reflexively under my campaign of stimulation. Paying deliberate attention now to the very tip, I started to lightly suckle on it as my lips focused on applying just the right amount of pressure, my tongue swirling around the tapered tip as I eagerly awaited what I knew was coming next.

“Hhhhnnnnnggg!” was the stallion’s final outburst as the metaphorical dam finally burst and sprayed copious amounts of semen into my mouth. While I had been prepared for the event itself, I had not been prepared for the sheer amount of it, the pegasus depositing a load far greater than a human’s beyond my accepting lips.

Everything about this next experience was interesting; it was saltier than I was used to, with a consistency not too dissimilar from a regular human male. I did my best to swallow it all while keeping up the seal around his cock, the duty of every true gentleman, but inevitably some of his seed did leak out and run down my chin as Ace’s breathing slowed back down again.

It took a moment or two for his tip to stop spurting, and I insisted on using my mouth to clean up anything I’d missed that had dribbled down his retreating rod. Once I was sure that he’d fully come down from his orgasmic high, I got up and sat back down, electing to pull him into my lap in a warm hug that was most welcome with the cold chill remaining in the air.

“Are you okay?” I asked him as my hands rested on his chest, pulling him semi-tightly against me. While he was not facing me, I could tell he was nodding. “Yeah. That was… nopony’s ever done that with me…” he said, now looking up at me.

“Like I said, I wanted to thank you. You didn’t tell me in as many words earlier, but I figured that you’d never done something like this before. I… hope it was okay for you.” I said, my mind still insisting on being a member of the Imposter Syndrome Club.

Ace smiled widely back at me. “It was better than anything I’d ever dreamed of. I-I don’t even think a ‘thank you’ will do, but… thank you… for giving me this.”

I rested my head against him as I exhaled sharply. “I think we should head back, and I think I’m going to go find a nice pot of nettle tea when I get there.”

The pegasus shot me a confused expression. “Isn’t that really disgusting?” he asked.

“Yeah, it is… but, I think I’ve found a new use for it,” I said, smirking until it turned into a full-on laugh with Ace soon following suit with a laugh of his own. The two of us just sat in that hollow tree, laughing with each other until we grew tired and sank back into each other’s company, basking in the aftermath of what we’d just experienced together.

I was exhausted, and fatigue was threatening to rob me even of my ability to walk, but I knew with absolute certainty that I was going to sleep well that night.

Chapter 05 - Unexpected Maneuvers

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The rest of the week flew by with very little fanfare; Flame recuperated while seeing if our little tryst took hold, Tricks and Stopper each took some time off while Estrus was in full swing, Crush continued to work, while Ace and I gradually began spending more time together after our little ‘experience’.

The morning afterward had been spent giving Scar a run-down of my successful coupling with Flame, and that was followed by my formal submission to her of a plan to explore the surrounding areas. We agreed upon a week for her to call a formal briefing together, and that time would enable her to gather as much data as she could about the current status of the world around us for us to all agree on our next steps.

This morning I was scheduled to resume my magical training with Tricks and Stopper, and I was now on my way to a newly commissioned structure that I’d requested to collate together all of the magical artifacts and knowledge scattered around the settlement, both for future reference and to assist me as I grappled with the gravity of the new ability I now had.

The building was a three-story cylindrical stone structure with a tiled blue roof, located on the northern boundary of the settlement. The tower had been present previously, but had been in a state of disrepair until only yesterday; with the help of the settlement’s small engineering corps and some laborers, plus support from me with some of my new magic, it had been repaired in only a few days using repurposed stone taken from several other ruins beyond the settlement. Looking at it from afar, it reminded me of the typical Mage Towers seen in numerous fictional settings.

The past week had also started to present me with certain… dietary challenges. I’d supplemented my diet with extra fruit and vegetables (including what looked like analogs to chickpeas and lentils), but I’d been having cravings lately for meat… several times, in fact. I didn’t know how I was going to solve that problem, but for now, I’d have to make do without a solution, much to my distress.

Entering the tower, I noticed both Stopper and Tricks present, each carrying out specific duties related to securing everything magical. The center of the room had a large circular table, upon which lay numerous scrolls, tomes, crystals, gemstones, and as-yet-unidentified magical artifacts, all of them awaiting indexing and cataloging.

All were arranged according to an indexing and cataloging system that yours truly was happy to implement. Maybe one day I’d even organize it into one of my beloved spreadsheets; for now though, paper and quill would have to suffice, with a master parchment listing everything.

As I approached the table, I couldn’t help but notice the arrangement of crystals on its surface, with dividers and deliberate separations even between crystals of the same color. “Hey, Stopper… what’s with the layout of these crystals?” I asked, intensely curious.

The unicorn walked over. “Crystals need to be kept separated. If you allow them to touch, they can discharge some of the energy stored within it.”

My curiosity grew bigger. “Discharge… how?” I pressed.

“Well…” she continued, “It’s one of the most ancient principles of magic application; every strike of a crystal is met with an equal and opposite reaction. So, if I were to strike two green crystals together, the energy would exit the struck crystal in the opposite direction to the strike. The energy would be in its raw form and would be potentially dangerous to anything living.”

I sometimes cursed myself for my species' natural affinity for war, and today was no exception, for I could easily see a way for that natural law to be weaponized.

“I'm… going to pay Crush a visit later regarding that. For now, though, I believe we have some more training to do?” I reminded her.

Stopper didn't even look up. “You have a visitor in your chambers to take care of first.”

Puzzled, I decided to prioritize them instead. “Very well, then; I'll see to them first,” I said, turning to and then walking up the spiral staircase.

I passed the room on the first floor and slowly made my way to the second floor, where a brown wooden door surrounded by stone greeted me.

To be pony-friendly, I chose to employ neither handles nor knobs, the door itself able to be pushed open by hands or hooves alike.

Applying gentle pressure, the door easily swayed open, revealing my new quarters and my new impromptu visitor, who was currently lying down on my bed.

“If this is room service, I’d like to order the buttered lobster and creamed spinach, please.” I jested in Flame’s direction.

The mare smiled at me, bouncing off of the bed and almost rugby-tackling me into a hug, her hooves tightly embracing me. Tussling her mane a bit, I casually waddled over to the bed with her still attached to my torso. “ Hey, um… how've you been feeling since we, uh.. you know…?” I asked, still not really believing that we’d hooked up.

Finally separating herself from me, she joined me on the bed, lying down at my side. “Well, my symptoms disappeared the next day; that’s normally a good sign!” she said, her smile positively beaming from her muzzle.

I was happy for her… no, that’s not quite correct, I was ecstatic for her. To think that we might've actually added something positive to the universe together…

“I’m very glad to hear that. But, I get the feeling that this isn’t a social call…” I said, trying to tease out the real reason for this visit.

Flame nodded. “As of this morning, I’m your new yeomare.”

I mulled the proposition over; Yeomen in the military on Earth were tasked with administrative duties. “So… that makes you my new military secretary, then?” I asked.

“Sort of, yes. I'm not officially part of the military, so I'm not obliged to obey any orders, but I will be organizing your day-to-day life to help make this whole wizard-in-the-tower thing a little easier.” She explained.

I was grateful for the help, pulling in my new colleague for a hug, the only reply being a super-adorable squeak as my hands held her close for a moment.

“So… what's our first order of business?” I asked, immediately choosing to make use of my new assistant.

“You've got your magic training at ten hundred, Scar's briefing at fourteen hundred, and I think that's about it… unless you have something you wanted to add?” She asked inquisitively.

I nodded. “Can you put in a meeting with Crush for seventeen hundred? I want to follow up on our midweek talk regarding a ranged weapon.”

Flame too nodded her head. “Sure, I can organize that.” She said, hopping off the bed and making her way down the stairs, presumably to talk to Crush.

I followed, but only until I got downstairs, deviating to bother Stopper once again. “So… now that that's over with… what's say you and I continue with my training?” I nudged as she continued to work.

She looked at me before going back to organizing some crystals… I think. “You've already gone through the basics… how's your magical history knowledge?”

“Only one way to find out”, I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

“Very well,” the unicorn began, “Who was the first Archmage of Equestria?”

“Pfft. That’s an easy one,” I responded. “Starswirl the Bearded.”

Stopper smiled. “Well, the first one’s always just a warm-up. How many Thaums in a Kilothaum?”

I pondered for a moment, realizing that she’d asked me a question very open to interpretation. “Classic or Modern scale?”

“Hmm… Modern.” she countered.

“Well… the Modern scale accounts for inaccurate measurements made with older equipment. The Kilothaum was rebalanced to one thousand and twenty-four Thaums about a hundred years before the return of Princess Luna.”

“Alright,” She continued, “What about… Celestia's Second Law of Magic?”

You are going to have to get up much earlier in the morning to catch me out, Stopper.

“Trick question,” I smiled. “There's only one law in Celestia's name, and it states that ‘Friendship is Magic’... whatever that means.”

Rolling my eyes a bit, I went fishing through the crystals to retrieve the yellow one from earlier that Alex had recorded some thoughts on. I'd replayed the damn thing over and over again during the past week, looking for anything I might have missed.

He pretty much said that anyone going looking for the rest of these crystals is as crazy as I am. If that's not an open invitation, I don't know what is.

I still didn't know how I was going to find them, but Alex had at least thrown me a clue; something about these crystals was supposed to be making them emit a magical signal. I just needed a way to first identify that signal, and then seek out further signals just like it. The script in the middle of the crystal had been tricky to translate at first until Tricks realized it was a dialect of Old Ponish, the original written language of ponykind. After that, the script's translation came out as ‘Memories of a Wanderer: Crystal One’.

I pocketed the crystal for now, and turned to the sound of the front entrance opening; Flame stepped across the threshold, dusting herself off.

“Let me guess, he’s been using too much flux again?” I asked, knowing full well the answer.

Flame sighed in my direction. “He’ll be ready for you this evening, he’s just putting the finishing touches on your commission.”

I folded my arms and smiled. “Excellent. One more thing… do you think Scar could be persuaded to move up that briefing to, uh, now if possible?”

“I… suppose.” She responded, “Do you still want her and the others to meet us at the usual briefing room?”

I shook my head. “No. The Basement.”

—

I was honestly quite proud of how it turned out.

I'd given Tricks and Stopper essentially free reign of how to organize the ground floor, while Flame insisted on organizing and fitting the first and second floors.

Me?

I'd chosen the basement level, accessible via an extension of the same winding staircase, as my personal project. Inside it was a slightly larger round table than the one on the ground floor, with several wood chairs arranged around it. The ceiling was punctuated by magical illumination candles, giving the room a medieval ambiance.

Each chair had a long back, and I’d worked with several others to add a little bit of a personal touch to each, reawakening my woodworking days in secondary school.

Atop each chair's back now had a replica, etched into the wood, of each cutie mark of my friends.

My table didn't have a cutie mark; instead, wanting to at least have some sort of distinguishing mark, I opted for one of the most iconic signs of my neighborhood that I’d also adopted into my academic work.

Inscribed into the wood of my chair was a large, stylized “S”, known informally as the “Cool S”; as it matched the first letter of my name, I’d always felt an affinity to it. I used it in all my communications to Alex, just as he’d used his chosen mark in his writings to me, the mark of six overlapping circles that I'd now instinctively begun to associate with him.

Scar had agreed to my earlier meeting request, and had adorned the table with its crown jewel upon her arrival: a highly detailed map of the known world was now spread across it… or at least, this known conglomeration of continents was.

Filtering in was everypony I'd invited; Ace and Flame arrived first, who then seated themselves to my left and right respectively. Next, Crush arrived, who took a seat behind Ace, while Scar sat in her chair behind Flame. Lastly, Tricks and Stopper came down the stairs, Tricks taking his seat behind Scar and Stopper taking hers behind Crush.

Once everypony was seated, I then joined them, taking my seat in front of everypony. Casting my eyes around, I broke the silence.

“Thank you all for your help over the last week; I can think of no better place to help us organize and plan our next moves than here,” I said, smiling with a professional joy I hadn't felt in a long while.

“This wouldn't have been possible without your magic,” Scar mentioned. “The amount of stone and tiling you moved was beyond anything we could've done in that short a time.”

I nodded. “Just doing my bit to help, that’s all. This briefing I asked for here is primarily for my benefit… but this should have applications for everypony here. So, let me lay this properly before you all…”

Fishing out the yellow Mnemosyne Crystal from my pocket, I stood up and gently placed it on the table. “I know that you only have my word for what I saw… but I’m sure you trust me enough to know that I wouldn’t lie to you. Alex, it seems, has made several recordings, sealed inside crystals like this one, for his friends and family. I don’t know if he somehow intended for these to one day find their way to Earth, or if he was just doing this as a form of therapy… or even something else entirely. Either way… I owe it to him to recover these. This goes beyond friendship, professional respect, and even personal feelings; This is a matter of honor for me.”

I looked around the room and moved the crystal further up the table. “This is something I have to do; the rest of you… do not.” I conceded, sitting back down again.

“You’re not doing all that alone,” spoke Crush, adjusting himself in his seat. “You’ve been a breath of fresh air around here. I say that we all pitch in for what you need to do.”

“You mean to risk our lives, don’t you?” said Stopper, really cutting to the heart of the matter. “Don’t get me wrong, I'm willing to risk my life for my survival… but this? This is a treasure hunt! A treasure hunt of no worth to anyone… other than you, our resident human. I question the logistical investment in such a venture.”

Scar spoke up next. “I hate to agree with her, Stuart, but she’s right; I’m stretched pretty thin as it is…”

I held a hand up. “Point taken. This needs to be a surgical approach; I couldn’t and wouldn’t ask our militia to accompany me on these missions. In fact, I only need three ponies…”

I pointed each to Stopper, Tricks, and Ace. “I know I can trust each of you with my life, as I hope you trust me with yours. I’ve seen your skills out there, and I know that, together, we’d make a formidable infiltration team.”

I then turned to Scar. “Your race’s entire history is under threat. Locked away, out there, are fragments of your past; pegasi, unicorn, and earth pony alike. There are potentially even artifacts out there that can help stop this land from rotting beneath you…”

I then turned to Flame. “We spoke about this; Your land is steadily losing its ability to sustain life… for what reason, I don’t know, but inaction is just waiting around for things to get worse…”

Turning my attention to Stopper, I grabbed the crystal, holding it in my hand. “There is so much more at stake than these crystals; finding them could very well lead to uncovering much more important artifacts. I'm not content with just sitting back and doing nothing while things steadily get bleaker outside. Don't you see, Stopper? Assisting me with this is your survival!”

I exhaled sharply and once again pocketed the crystal, but it was Scar who broke the uneasy silence that had now descended upon us.

“... He's right. After our former commander perished, I inherited his paperwork. He estimated that if something wasn't done… We have about a decade left. He thought that by combining our numbers with other settlements, no matter the cost or the price he'd ask us all to pay, we'd become big enough to be immune to whatever is coming.”

I shook my head. “Numbers mean nothing if the land is losing its vitality. Is it happening across what's left of Equestria, or is it local to here?” I asked.

Flame shrugged. “We've had no way to know without access to magic… wait! You could take magical readings of new locations! That should tell a lot more about what's happening!” She said, not quite happily, but pleased enough that she might finally get some answers on this sore subject.

I pointed to the map on the table. “And that, ladies and gentlemen… er, I suppose ‘mares and gentlestallions’ is the appropriate translation there, right? Anyway, mares and gentlestallions, that leads to the next item of business… other locations of interest.” I said pointing at nearly the dead center of the map. “The annotation here says ‘Canterlot’... what was it, what is it now, and does it hold anything of interest?”

Tricks raised a roof, and I acquiesced with a nod. “Canterlot was Equestria’s capital. But, by all accounts, it’s been abandoned, and there’s a magical shield of immense power around it.”

I stroked my developing beard with a hand. “Is that shield to keep ponies out, or to keep something else locked away within?”

Silence once again filled the room, everypony looking between themselves. I got my answer. “So… nopony knows. That’s still good to know; either way, going straight in or straight over seems like a bad idea… so that leaves going under. Tricks, have there ever been stories or rumors of ponies trying to gain access to Canterlot from below?” I queried.

Tricks scratched his chin for a moment. “Ponies, no… but griffons? Yes!” He exclaimed. “You know that gemstone I had on me? We confiscated it from a pair of griffons who bragged that they'd stolen it from Canterlot. I thought that they were lying… but after what you've just said, maybe they weren’t lying after all…”

Nodding, I turned to Flame briefly before turning my attention back to the group. “So… that puts Canterlot in the ‘Maybe’ list. Canterlot seems to be due south from here, and reasonably close, too. Next, to our north… the Crystal Empire. What do we know about it?

“We sent two scouts there last year. Neither returned.” Said Scar. “Either the snow and ice got them, the remains of the empire did, or they met a grisly end on the way. As far as I'm concerned, that whole region is a no-go.”

“Noted.” I continued. “What about east of here? There are… three dwellings shown here; Manehatton, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare. Have you tried re-establishing contact with them?”

I’d love to know why this place is full of horse puns, but I doubt I'll get an answer there.

Scar nodded. “Our scouts reported that all three locations were deserted… but while Manehattan seems to still be mostly intact, nothing at all seems to remain of either Baltimare or Fillydelphia. However, as of a month ago, we now know there are some griffon squatters in Manehattan, no doubt trying to strip the city of anything that's not been nailed down.“

I hmm’d to myself. “Useful to know. Maybe Manehatton contains some things of interest, in which case, that’s going into my ‘Maybe’ list… and if we do end up going there, we go armed.”

I now cast my eyes to the other side of the map. “So, on the western side, I see a few places that look interesting… uh, Vanhoover, Las Pegasus, and… Tartarus; let’s go with those, what do we know?”

Ace spoke up this time. “Vanhoover is like Manehattan, deserted as far as we can tell. Las Pegasus is a bit too far for us to have scouted, even if we were to take advantage of the old abandoned railroad system. The same’s technically true for Tartarus… although I’d never go near that place.”

I think I know why.

“I’ve heard you use the name in somewhat negative tones. I take it that it’s some sort of hostile land?” I queried.

“Sort of,” replied Scar. “It’s where many of Equestria’s most dangerous prisoners were banished to. If there’s one place in Equestria I’d avoid at all costs, it’d be that one.”

Pandora’s Box, in a sense.

“OK… so, Vanhoover is another ‘Maybe’ candidate. Now for Central Equestria… seeing as Alex has already mentioned Ponyville, I think that’s going in my ‘Likely’ column. Do we have any intel on conditions there?”

“I, um… I may know some ponies there…” said Flame, eliciting horrified looks from Scar and Ace.

“This is the first I’ve heard about this!” said Scar, in quite an annoyed tone. “How could you not disclose something like that?!”

The earth pony sighed. “They’re… my cousins. They just wanted to be left alone… so, they occupied the old farmhouse to the south. For the last five years, I’ve seen them every few months or so… they give me soil readings to compare with ours.”

I understood Flame's hesitance… I knew that she was the type of pony who would go to great lengths to protect her family, as I would have for mine. I might’ve made a similar call in her place.

“What’s done is done, there’s no point dwelling on it now; on the bright side, this gives us some additional options. Flame, how amicable would they be to visitors like… well, us, but more especially, me?” I asked, extremely interested in potentially having an ally or two down south.

Flame looked around, and then down at the table. “They wouldn’t have a problem with the ponies sitting around this table… but you, Stuart? You might take a little convincing… nothing I can’t take care of, though,” she said, looking up at me with a small smile. “Conditions there are like ours here… only with more ruins.”

“Okay, that makes me feel a lot better about an expedition there,” I added. “Now I just need a way to find the rest of those crystals; each of them is emitting a signal that I and likely everypony here can't feel, see, or hear…”

I reached into my pocket to grab the crystal again, avoiding triggering the message while rolling it around in my palm.

I let my mind drift back a bit to the first time I viewed the message and the odd sensation I felt. I remember some unknown force pulling on me like it was trying to tear me apart in every direction. I didn't and still don't know what to make of it, and it happened each time I re-watched it.

I needed some time in solitude… or at least in a quiet room to focus for a bit…

I may even try that meditation thing that so many people seemed to swear by.

I rose to my feet and shuffled behind my chair. “Thank you all for your time today, but I think I need some alone time to clear my thoughts for a bit. Crush, I’ll meet with you later, I have an idea to run by you in any case. The rest of you I’ll catch up with later.”

Without sticking around, I headed straight upstairs to my bedroom on the second floor, still clutching the yellow crystal. After entering the room I just stood in the middle of it, not really sure of what I was supposed to focus on.

I brought the crystal up to eye level, trying to peer within its sparkling layers when something made me jump a bit.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

I wasn’t sure who to expect, but I’d still receive them regardless. “Um… come in,” I said, sheepishly.

The door slowly opened, and Ace gingerly made his way inside, his coat brushing against the door as it closed. Seeing as I had a guest, I sat on my bed and gestured for Ace to join me, the pegasus jumping onto a space next to me. I was a little unsure as to why he was here, but his presence was no less welcome. I held up the crystal in front of us both.

“Ace… somewhere inside here is the key to finding other crystals just like it… and I have no idea how to unlock it. How am I supposed to move forward if I can’t even figure this out?” I asked him, somewhat rhetorically.

I could see Ace looking at the crystal briefly before turning to look up at me. “Maybe you just need a moment of clarity… y’know, like clearing your mind.” He encouraged me, leading me back to my earlier thoughts of meditation.

“Yeah, I was thinking about that earlier. Maybe if I just sit very still, and shut out all distractions, I might be able to concentrate enough when I next view the message.” I reasoned, now rolling the crystal around in my hand.

“I, uh… h-had another idea for that…” he stammered as he got off the bed and started immediately sticking his nose in my crotch, the pegasus taking an audible sniff to the point where I could feel the air moving through my trunks.

Somepony knows what they want…

I put my hands on Ace’s head, inching him back from the fabric of my jeans. “I almost forgot… we never got to finish this bit did-?”

I was interrupted by the stallion evading my hands completely to suddenly kiss me, pressing his lips against mine in an unexpected but not unwelcome addition to my day.

Passing one hand around him to stroke his back, my other slipped behind his head, pressing it more forcefully against me as we locked lips with one another, my tongue meeting little resistance as I explored the pegasus’ mouth to my extreme satisfaction.

You know how to make someone feel wanted, I'll give you that…

After a short while of exchanging gratuitous amounts of bodily fluids, we both came up for air, Ace using the downtime to press his nose once more into my groin, this time meeting something significantly harder than before.

I used my hands to guide his gaze to mine as I found myself once again lost in those azure orbs, our noses touching as he steadied himself by planting his hooves on my thighs. “You don't have to do this, you know…” I whispered to him as my thumbs brushed against his cheeks.

“But I want to…” he whispered back. “You've done so much for us… for me… I want to do this. U-Unless you d-don't want me here…” he said softly, his voice quaking lightly as those words broke free of his lips.

I immediately pulled him into the biggest hug I could muster as I held his head tightly against my chest. “I don't ever want to hear that again... not from you, and not from anypony else here…”

I sighed as I rested against him. I really didn't expect today to turn into something lewd, but I was starting to come around to the idea of Ace giving me some genuine help with my current problem.

I got up and fastened the bolt on the door… if something was going to happen here, it was going to happen without any interruptions. As I returned to Ace, I started removing all of the articles of clothing I was wearing, the pegasus paying rapt attention as I rendered myself stark bollock naked in front of him. Although he tried to steal a cheeky lick from my raging boner, I wagged my finger briefly at him in a silent conveying of ‘not yet’.

Moving across to the other side of the bed, which Flame had very kindly arranged as a double bed, I lay down on the soft linen, causing Ace to turn to keep track of me as I continued to grasp the crystal.

“Well… here I am. Do you… want to come over here and play?” I offered, slightly widening my legs.

The pegasus approached me cautiously, and after a moment, he was close enough for me to feel the hot breath from his snout against my bare chest.

In a bit of an unexpected move, he went straight for one of my armpits. I honestly don’t know what he was getting out of that, but if his pulsating erection was anything to go by, he was definitely enjoying my odor.

Taking a step back, he began to eye up his real target; it was most assuredly stiff and utterly ready for him to give it some attention, which came far sooner than I was expecting as he darted quickly to smother my rod with his lips, teasing me playfully as he ran his tongue across its head while he did so. In no time at all, he had fully hilted me, and I could feel hot, shallow breaths against my pubic hair.

Having not been desensitized first, the sensations this time around were so, so much more enjoyable with Ace, his eager tongue-lashing sending shivers up my spine as my free hand gently applied pressure to the back of his head, willing him on as the seal of his lips sent ripples of pleasure back to my brain as he started to slowly ascend and descend my shaft.

“Argh!” I moaned repeatedly, for I couldn't help but give voice to the tender pleasuring the pegasus was bestowing upon me; while he may have lacked experience, he more than compensated for it with ample enthusiasm, his increasing tempo making it clear he wanted what had been denied to him previously.

I wasn’t going to be able to hold out for much longer and I felt the point of no return approaching, but unlike last week, I had no need to force self-control upon myself or Ace, and he was about to receive payment in kind for his help.

“Nearly… there… Grrrrukh!” I half-grunted as I felt my release wash over me, the pegasus receiving a week’s worth of frustration into his mouth that, judging from his continued ministrations, he was happily sending down his throat even as his tongue continued to scoop up any further spurts late to the party.

At the apex of that wave of pleasure crashing into me, I tapped into the crystal still in my grasp, once again finding myself in the now-familiar all-encompassing milky whiteness that seemed to stretch on forever.

The sensations returned, and I once again felt multiple tendrils of force vying for control over me. With my mind now clear of all petty concerns, I focused on one particular application of force, letting that force alone manipulate me within this mental mindscape.

After a while, I could tell that the force was pulling on me with a rhythm, a steady pattern of tugging that seemed to be urging me toward it.

I mentally reorientated myself and attempted to repeat this distillation of focus with another tendril trying to pull me in another direction.

Soon, with enough patience, I once again felt the new force refine itself into the same rhythmic pulse as it also tried to draw me closer.

Mentally breaking my connection to the crystal, I brought myself back to the real world, a curious Ace now standing over me with an intrigued expression. “A-Are you okay, Stuart?” he asked, putting a hoof on my chest.

Nodding, I held the crystal up in front of us. “Thanks to you, I think I've found a way to find more of these. But, that’s a topic for later… I think somepony in the meantime needs some attention…” I said, my eyes drawing themselves to the throbbing erection attached to Ace’s undercarriage as I put the crystal on a side cabinet next to the bed.

With the element of surprise on my side, I tackled Ace from the side, and whumf’d him onto his back, his expression changing into one of mild shock as his underside became fully exposed to me.

The least I could do was pay him back; I reached forward to grasp his twitching shaft, the head rather noticeably gleaming in the light from above due to the copious amount of precum that had already leaked from the tip.

My hand slowly started to pump up and down the fleshy length as Ace let out small, adorable moans, his entire body becoming an instrument that I was finely plucking to my chosen tune.

Unable to resist temptation, I sank my head down to run my tongue across the tip, once again savoring the stallion’s taste as my hand continued its single-minded focus of voiding the contents of his testicles.

With his now-familiar slightly salty musk soaking my tastebuds, I abandoned my sampling of his cock and raised myself slightly to connect our lips once more; our combined tastes mingled together as one while our tongues danced harmoniously together.

After a few moments of frantic and passionate tongue-hockey, our kiss broke as the stallions' breathing quickened. “Almost… almosssst…” he whispered, letting me know that he was about to cum very soon.

The now-familiar twitching of his stallionhood began, the ebony flesh announcing that Mount Pegasus was about to blow imminently and blow hard.

Deciding on the easiest approach, I swiftly dived to envelop his cocktip with my lips, fully prepared for the oncoming tsunami of ejaculate that was about to hit my senses as my other hand gently cupped his scrotum, feeling the stallion's flesh contract in preparation for the onslaught about to crash over him.

Ace’s muscles tensed and he could no longer hold back the wave of pleasure about to overtake him, and he gave a final heaving moan of release as the first spurts of stallion seed sprayed from his shaft’s tip into my waiting mouth.

“Aaah… aaah… grrrrrraaaaahhhhh!” He screamed as truly excessive quantities of pony spunk made their way down my throat while my lips suckled hard on the head, determined to drain the pegasus dry of all he had to give.

Once his ejaculation had died down to a weak dribble, I pulled myself off his receding member and once more pressed my lips to his in yet another intimate showing of affection, only this time with a little gift for him.

As our mouths opened to one another, I passed a wad of Ace's semen into his mouth, using my tongue to spread his taste to every nook and cranny within as my hand caressed his stomach, the white fur feeling warm to my touch as our noses pressed against each other’s during his post-orgasmic bliss.

Eventually, our kiss came to an end as a thin strand of saliva insisted on us remaining together; slowly, I laid myself down on the bed next to him, embracing him in a cuddle from the side, my arms reaching around his back and across his chest to pull myself tightly toward him. For several minutes we lay aside one another as I embraced his body heat. Finally, Ace broke the silence between us.

“So, uh… w-what move was that again?” he asked, no doubt referring to the little gift I’d given him.

“Just something I picked up… did you enjoy it?” I asked, only now realizing that I should probably have been a little more upfront with asking first. The pegasus merely nodded.

“Yeah! It was, um… k-kinda hot…” he stammered, as he turned his head to look at the crystal I’d left on the side. “I wish I could see the message in that thing, it seems really important to you…”

I sighed softly. “This message is just a breadcrumb trail… the messages afterward will be much more valuable. But, to everypony else, what we find on the way will likely be much more useful. That reminds me…” I said as I practically lept off of the bed to start putting my clothes back on.

After very quickly making myself presentable to the outside world (not that I thought they’d particularly care about another naked creature walking around), I took the crystal from the bedside cabinet and beckoned for Ace to follow me as we both descended the stairs, once again coming across the unicorns still neck-deep in cataloging work.

“Remind me to teach you a soundproofing spell, sounds from upstairs can very much be heard down here,” said Stopper as Tricks looked at myself and Ace with a sly grin.

“I didn’t know I had an audience. If you wanted to watch, you could’ve said something…” I jested to the mare who met me with an icy glare. But, before she could protest with a response, I started rummaging through the crystal stash we had, eventually finding two blue crystals similar in their cut appearance to the Mnemosyne Crystal I was already carrying. Taking care to stash the crystals in separate pockets on my person, I also fished out the Tear of the Moon, its regenerative abilities being the key to my next idea.

After taking the time to deduct the items I’d taken from the official inventory roster, I headed out, Ace in tow, to first collect my laptop and then head to Crush’s smithing station to see if he would see me earlier.

Arriving with my laptop already displaying what I needed it to, Crush immediately beckoned us both into his sanctum, and I sat with him at the workstation I’d used earlier to adorn my hands with the fragments of a unicorn’s horn as Ace sat to my side. Setting my backpack down, I laid out the two blue crystals and the Tear of the Moon in front of Crush and then put the laptop to the side with the screen facing the earth pony as it displayed a picture of a pistol.

“Crush, this is the curse of my species,” I began, “We’re capable of seeing an idea and immediately thinking of a violent application for it. Now, I loathe violence, especially when it’s needless or cruel… but I know that the world outside doesn’t have the same qualms about it as I do, so… based on what I’ve read, I think that this idea will be a decent, long-range but ultimately non-lethal weapon for me to use.”

I pointed to the two blue crystals. “The first tome said that blue crystals hold magic strongly linked to illusion and the trickery of reality… and that any raw magic released from them would be the least-lethal of the known crystal colors.”

I then pointed to the Tear of the Moon. “This little gem constantly recharges through a mechanism we don’t understand, and it transfers its stored energy to another crystal upon contact.”

I then arranged the crystals differently, placing the first blue crystal on my left, with the Tear of the Moon beneath it, and then placing the other blue crystal to my right, to the side of the first one.

“According to magical theory, when a crystal is struck by another, the stored energy is released in the inverse direction of the strike. Take a look at the weapon on the screen here.” I directed, as my fingers gestured to the contours of the sleek nine-millimeter instrument of death I’d chosen to illustrate my request. “This is called a ‘handgun’, and it fires small bullets of metal driven by a chemically-explosive reaction in the rear,” I said, resisting the urge to laugh as I pointed my finger further down. “The trigger is here, which causes the firing chamber to be struck by a flat metal surface. That impact causes a gunpowder charge in the bullet to detonate, the power of which forces a metal pellet out at extremely high speed, through the barrel, and towards its target.”

Crush looked at me in a little bit of disbelief. “I didn’t know your species was so… violent.”

I shrugged. “This isn’t even close to the violence my species is capable of. Here’s how I envisaged this working…” I said as I lifted the first crystal on the left. “This should be sanded or filed down at one end so that it’s flat. The second crystal should have a piece cut off the front, pointy on one side with a flat end. The flat end of the first crystal needs to be struck by the flat end of the severed piece of the second, which should cause at least some of the energy stored in the first crystal to be released from the opposite end.”

Crush looked at the image on the laptop before turning to me as he nodded slowly. I exhaled sharply as I then reached over to shut down the laptop to conserve battery power, before putting it back into the backpack. Sitting down once more, I pointed to the smaller gemstone on the table. “This stone needs to be in contact at all times with the first crystal to keep charging it with energy; that’ll serve as this weapon’s ammunition.”

Crush pursed his lips for a moment as he stroked his chin with a hoof. “I’m going to need to draft in everypony I know to lend some expertise, this is going to need some mighty fine craftsmanship to pull off. I was working on a ranged weapon for you, but whatever I thought of making never seemed quite right with your new magic… so, instead, I want you to have something that’s already been made…” he said, reaching down to pull out a long, wooden box that he deposited on the table with a hard thunk before using a hoof to push it toward me.

Understanding the gesture, I grabbed the box to pull it closer, unhooking the clasp on the side and opening the box along its lengthwise edge. Inside the velvet lining was a sword that shined in a shimmering silvery reflection of the light from above, decorated with numerous insignia across both sides of the blade; the hilt jutted out either side, giving this away as a Bastard Sword, but what was most notable about it was the large hole in the hilt that made the whole fitting look like a grip.

“That is a sword formerly used by the Royal Guard of Canterlot,” Crush said, pointing to the bottom of the sword. “The grip you can see in the hilt was designed to make the sword able to be wielded by hoof, or by magic, meaning that unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies alike could use it. It’s strong and lightweight, and I think you’d have no problem swinging it with those hands of yours until I can fix up this weapon request for you.”

With great care, I ran my fingers through the hole, accentuated as it was by a lining of leather; I then stood up to raise the sword into the air to my side, opposite of the side that Ace was sitting, looking curiously up at me as I moved the sword through the air in small, uncertain movements.

As I continued to move the blade, I got a feel for the balanced weight of it against my movements, my mind mentally running through how I might best use it, which was something that I was sure Crush would be keen to help with. I then sat back down again, carefully depositing the sword into its box.

“Crush…” I started, the words struggling to leave my lips. “...I don’t know what I did to deserve the generosity you’ve all shown me, but I promise you… in fact, I make this promise to you both…” I said, looking over at Ace briefly, “... that I will not let this gesture go to waste.” The earth pony smiled and wiped a small tear from his eye in a movement that he did his best to obscure.

“I have every confidence that you’ll use this weapon with honor… or, if it comes to it, with measured and proportional violence. If you ever find the blade on that thing dulling, you can always bring it here for me to sharpen. Here, you’ll also need this…” he said, taking another item from beneath the workstation and hoofing it to me. “You’ll need this sheath to store your weapon while you’re not using it, otherwise it’ll cut you or somepony else by accident, and when you’re far from here, that’s the last thing you want to happen.

I nodded solemnly. “I will treasure this until the day I die. Thank you, Crush… would you mind keeping it here for a bit… and maybe giving it a final sharpening for good luck?”

The green-furred earth pony laughed heartily. “I can do that, sure. Come back when you need it, and it’ll be here waiting for you,” he said with a wink.

Nodding my acceptance, I reached out with a hand in a gesture that Crush had long since become used to, an outstretched hoof now grasped by myself in a brief but firm hand-hoof-shake.

As Ace and I left Crush to resume his other tasks, I headed for the barracks with my backpack once again on my person, Ace following dutifully beside me. “Say, Ace… how good is your orientation for what lies beyond here?” I asked him, wondering if there was an easy way to get my bearings relative to the outside world.

“Uh… I’d probably ask for a second opinion, just in case I’m wrong.” he offered.

“Fine, let’s go ask Scar if she’s available for something,” I said, hoping she was in her usual chair… which she was not; the barracks itself had several other ponies in it, but there was no sign of Scar at all.

As we exited the structure, I looked around for the brown pegasus as the alabaster one to my side did the same, neither of us having any immediate success in locating her.

In the periphery of my vision, I saw something in the sky, a naturally-honed predisposition from a former citizen of a world with aviation. Tapping Ace on his withers, he turned his attention to me as I pointed to the sky.

As the pegasus held a hoof above his eyes to block out some of the excess light from the open skies, a horn sounded in the distance, causing Ace to immediately turn his ears in rapt attention.

“Griffons!” he shouted. “It's another raid!”

Pushing me into the barracks forcefully, he immediately went to suit up, leaving time for me to get some much-needed answers.

“What happens during a raid?” I asked as Ace donned his helmet.

“They attack with explosives dropped from the sky… that tower you helped rebuild? That was destroyed only last year.” He said, selecting a spear from a nearby rack.

“... How close do they have to get to drop a bomb?” I queried, gears in my head turning.

Nearing the door, Ace turned to me. “Uh… pretty close to be sure of hitting a target. Why?” he asked.

I grabbed a spear of my own from the rack, the obsidian tip more than capable of doing what I was intending. “Because I’m about to upset the balance of power around here. If you were a griffon, what target would you pick?” I queried.

The pegasus thought for a moment.

“The tower!” he blurted out, and both of us made a run to the tall structure, my body now regretting the extra weight of my backpack as we huffed and puffed to our intended destination.

“How many casualties have you guys managed to inflict on them during these attacks?” I inquired, fearing the answer.

“None in the last year” Ace replied, in a tone of voice that told me he was bitterly annoyed at that number.

No wonder they’re attacking with impurity, you’re at a massive disadvantage here!

Looking up at the sky, I could see a figure approaching us in the distance as I tried to judge the best potential spot to launch something from as an explosion in the distance forced me to think fast about what I was about to do next.

I judged the ground as being a bad choice for making a stand; instead, I entered the tower and vaulted up the stairs to the second floor, with my spear in hand, practically launching myself up the ladder to the right of the door to my room.

The hatch to the roof opened easily, and I soon found myself on the blue-tiled roof, a flat circle going all around the circumference to enable someone to do what I was about to attempt.

I spied my target, and it became immediately obvious they'd spotted me; their aerial speed increased considerably as I steeled my resolve to give myself the best possible chance of success.

“Levenesis!” I shouted, the spear immediately becoming ensnared in my magical grasp as I waited for the right moment to strike.

I pitied the poor sap, who was unaware of what was about to happen, but I had been put in a desperate situation, and I had no option but to use violence, as regrettable as it was.

Mentally willing the spear to advance, the slender weapon sailed into the sky as a deadly missile, and directly into the flight path of my approaching mark at an extreme speed that I privately estimated to be similar to that of a bullet fired from a gun.

The griffon stood no chance, and by the time they realized what was happening, they were unable to avoid the impact of the blade; a loud shriek then filled the skies as my feathered victim dropped like a stone to the grassy ground below, not far from the entrance to the tower.

In less than a minute, what had previously been a creature soaring through the sky had been reduced to a crumpled heap on the ground in what was a very nasty landing.

The ordinance they'd been carrying had become separated from them, and it too impacted the ground several meters away from the downed combatant, causing a large explosion that scorched the exposed grass caught inside the fireball that, thankfully, was nowhere near either life or property.

Taking no chances, I raced back down to ground level and, after giving Ace a nod, he and I grabbed the feline hindlegs of the injured creature and dragged them into the tower, our unfortunate prisoner being in no fit state to offer any meaningful resistance to their capture.

The two unicorns were understandably shocked to see me and Ace manhandling a griffon across the threshold but they had enough sense to give us enough room to prop them up against a wall.

The spear was lodged in their left side, the obsidian blade having partially sunk into their chest as the griffon’s breathing was getting shallower and shallower; precious time ticked away as every breath of theirs became a battle in its own right for them to conquer.

The griffon started to cough as blood splashed on my jeans, the creature struggling to hold off their appointment with the Grim Reaper as labored gurgling sounds echoed around the room.

Making the call, I rose to my feet fully and steadied myself against the stone floor as I gripped the bloodied spear with both hands.

In a short, sharp application of vertical force, the spear was freed from the griffon, which was then followed by a much worse flow of blood from the wound; I estimated that, if there was no further intervention, they would bleed out… and all over my nice clean floor, too.

If the griffon had been killed by the impact of the spear, that would've been a different story… but this one was still alive, and inaction on my part would condemn them to death.

Murder; to do nothing here is to murder someone. Are you a murderer, Stuart?

I was torn… torn between sending a message to our would-be attackers that they were no longer invincible in the sky, and my innate disgust at being responsible for another being losing their life, even if it was borne out of an act of self-defense.

I silently cursed the heavens above at being made to decide between the two choices, and I opted for the honorable one to alleviate this griffon’s pain; kneeling on the blood-soaked stonework, I put my hand on the griffon’s chest, my fingers being stained red by the blood pumping from the open wound as I prepared to cast the spell.

“Cure!” I shouted into the room as the regenerative magic flowed from my hand into our prisoner, the wound visibly closing before my eyes as the griffon's expression contorted in pain while the spell did its job.

I was then struck by an extremely painful burning sensation across my back as I continued to channel the spell, only ceasing the channeling of the spell when the wound had fully sealed. As my bloodstained hand decoupled from the creature's torso, the burning sensation across my back lessened but did not disappear completely, and I knew that that would be something I'd have to attend to later.

The griffon slowly regained consciousness, and in response, I immediately thrusted the spear in front of their face to make it exceedingly obvious that they were not in control of this situation.

With our captive offering a silent understanding of the reality of their situation, I turned to my pegasus friend. “Ace, take a peek out the door and see if we have any company.”

The private complied and took a brief peek outside before reporting back. “Four of them, about twenty meters from the door.”

With my spear still in hand, I moved towards the door. “Everypony, stay inside; that’s an order.” Ace wasn’t happy about it, but I waved a finger at him before he could even begin to protest. “I’m your superior officer; your safety is mine to safeguard,” I said, addressing all present, before turning to our new prisoner. “You especially should stay put if you want to demonstrate that you have something bigger than a sparrow’s brain in that head of yours.”

Not even waiting for a reply, I barged the door open and made my way outside, the sun’s rays casting my shadow across the ground as I walked out onto the soft grassland. It was eerily silent, and I could see nopony else around; in fact, my only company out here was the four griffons taking up positions not far up ahead.

Coming to a stop about ten meters from them, I sat the wooden shaft of the spear down on the ground with the bloodied obsidian tip pointing toward the sky, giving my quarry ahead the opportunity to size me up, in what I hoped wouldn't turn out to be a misplaced gesture of respect.

Their body was utterly fascinating; the torso and lower body of a lion, with the head, wings and upper body akin to that of a large bird, analogous to an Earth eagle. Their partially-obscured facial feathers and beaks each bore colored markings, and they wore simple, loose-fitting clothing with very obvious straps for ordinance around their chests.

One of them stepped forward, their talons digging into the earth as they approached me, taking up a final position about two meters away from me.

With a no-doubt-practiced ease, they removed their helmet that was adorned with a spike on top, letting their full facial plumage mingle with the soft breeze flowing through our stand-off.

Let’s start as we mean to continue, eh Stuart?

I locked eyes with the griffon before me. “My name is Stuart Robinson, and I am the one responsible for gravely wounding your colleague.” I started, shifting my weight slightly to favor my right side as I continued to hold the spear to my left, going next for the obvious question.

“Who are you, and why are you attacking this settlement?” I proceeded to ask with a calm and measured restraint to my tone of voice.

“My name ist Stormborn Titanus, captain of ze eighty-sixth aerial assault squadron, and you ask a curious qvestion indeed,” the male voice began. “In vawr, vone attacks vone’s enemies, do zhey not?” he countered, his vocal inflections carrying an accent not too dissimilar to what I would expect from a German.

If there's a war still going on here, I need to know more…

“I know nothing of what these ponies have done that could possibly justify what you have done here today,” I said, trying to bait out of them a justification for attacking this place as I resisted both the urge to wince at my sore back repeating its insistence to be seen to and the urge to collapse onto the ground in a giggling fit, a product of my juvenile sense of humor at hearing the griffon's name.

The griffon audibly sighed and rolled his eyes. “Not zhat zhat matters; ve did what ve came here to do, and zhat was to make sure zhat you can never attack us again!” he practically squawked at me while pointing at me with one of his talons.

Now I was curious. “Who attacked you… and when, for that matter?” I attempted to press.

The griffon in front of me waved a claw dismissively at me. “Some air balloons flew over ze Griffon Kingdom decades ago, coming from Eqvestria’s direction. Zhey unloaded zheir cargo from above our capital city, a number of mana bombs zhat inflicted severe casualties on its population, killing adults und cubs alike. As per our doctrine, ve've been launching retaliatory strikes ever since on vhatever pony encampments ve can find.”

“Look around you, Stormborn Titanus… does it look like this kingdom has a functional government anymore?” I said, gesturing with my hands to the settlement around us. “You’re waging a war against something that no longer exists! I doubt that the ones who attacked you are even still around!” I reasoned in an exasperated tone.

The griffon’s beak glistened in the sunlight from above as his expression switched to a forlorn one. “... Ve vere just protecting ourselves. If you give us back our comrade, ve vill leave and-”

I stopped him by raising a pointed finger. “I offer you a counter-proposal, Captain: I will return your colleague to you, and in exchange, your squadron will accept our hospitality.”

Captain Titanus was a little taken aback by the suggestion. “... How can ve be sure zhat ve vill be safe here?” he asked, and not unreasonably in my opinion.

I didn’t move, but still I gave the order. “Ace! Get your flank out here and bring the prisoner!” I shouted.

After a few moments, the door opened behind me, but I chose to keep looking forward until both the pegasus and the injured griffon were beside me. Nodding to Ace, he gave our now former prisoner an encouraging push with a hoof, and she slowly made her way across the de facto divide to rejoin her squadron.

I lowered the spear and provided it to the pegasus, who out of instinct wielded it as normal, keeping it pointed at our new guests until I nudged it with a foot, causing Ace to realize his faux pas and correct it as he put the spear down onto the ground while I crossed my arms.

“I've demonstrated today that you no longer have air superiority over the skies here.” I said as I stared at the Captain. “I could have let her die back there, but I chose not to let that happen. I could kill you right now, in fact, but I choose not to do that. You have my word that no harm will come to you here.”

Taking a few steps forward, I kneeled in front of the griffon, and extended my right arm.

In a surprising olive branch given the carnage raining from the skies not minutes earlier, he outstretched his right claw, and our limbs met in a cordial but firm hand-claw-shake.

Sharing a nod of understanding with our new guest, I got up and then turned to Ace. “Go find Scar and Flame; tell them that we have some guests to cater to this evening.”

Ace nodded after a brief hesitation, and he then sped off into the distance as our new guests reconvened in private for a hushed yet verbally passionate confab over their new situation.

Guess who’s coming to dinner?

A Whisper on the Wind

by Octavias Melody

Chapter 01 - A Strange, New, and Terrifying World

Chapter 02 - Investigations

Chapter 03 - Desecration

Chapter 04 - Unfamiliar Bedfellows

Chapter 05 - Unexpected Maneuvers