You walk into the bedroom, your legs shaking, your muscles strained, and sweat forming on your brow. You are struggling just to keep upright and the reason for that struggle is a simple one. There is a zebra on your back. It isn't a particularly heavy zebra. Zecora isn't fat after all. Far from it actually! Very far from it! You've made numerous mental comments to the beauty of her toned and sleek body, so sexy with curves in just the right places, a flank to die for. It's just that you're a pathetic weakling. An entire life of malnutrition did horrors for the figure, and it wasn't as though you ever had the bits for a gym membership.

The reason you were risking what felt like your life and limbs carrying a zebra on your back heavily involved her being asleep. The reason she was asleep... well actually you weren't entirely sure about that one. She'd been snuggling with you outside, her head laying on your shoulder, and you'd just sat together for an hour or so, looking out into the dim and dark of the Everfree. It was an almost surreal sight to you. You were so used to mornings filled with glittering glass and steel in Manehatten, to leave that so suddenly for the choked light of the Everfree Forest was more than a little strange. The way the light played here, snuffed out before it even reached you, was fascinating to just watch. Very peaceful... ironically.

You think Zecora just wanted to be close to you while you watched. You're sure she's seen more than a few mornings in the Everfree, and doubted that they had much significance to her. You'd enjoyed her company though, quiet and soft, her head resting on your shoulder, her body pressed up against you... It was luxurious, the warmth of physical contact. An entirely new experience for you. Not even your own father had... ... Anyways, part of you wondered how lonely she must have really been, out in the dark of the Everfree. But when you turned to ask her about it you found that she was asleep, breathing softly, with her eyes closed and a soft smile on her face as she rested her head on your shoulder.

It was only morning so you're not sure why. But then again, she did get up before you. And then you did have sex. And she did orgasm. Did orgasms tire mares out? Or was it just that it had been so long since her last one? Nah, you're sure she clopped, so that probably wasn't it. Maybe even multiple times a day. You know that you used to clop fairly frequently. Maybe you and her could clop together sometimes, your rubbing her while she-

You shook the blush from your face as your brain moved from the gutter before your best friend made another appearance. You gulped and looked to Zecora, searching for a new solution. Maybe she was just so comfortable sitting there with you that she nodded off. Yeah, that was probably it, not the clopping one. Or the sex one. Or the orgasm th-

IN ANY CASE! Ahem, her falling asleep left you in an awkward position that your gutterball mind was quickly making more awkward. You didn't want to leave her out there in front of her hut to the whims of the Everfree for obvious reasons, not the least of which included certain wooden lupines. Nor did you want to wake her up. Because quite frankly, she was freaking adorable! With that little smile on her lips, tiny hint of a blush, just emanating warmth and contentment as she breathed in and out softly and nuzzled closer to you... You couldn't bring yourself to awaken her from such cuteness.

So, you settled on the only other option you could come up with. You picked her up, with more than a little difficulty as you are, once again, something of a weakling, moved her onto your back, her rump to the right and her head to the left, and proceeded to carry her into the hut to put her to bed.

You turned yourself sideways and side-stepped through the doorway, very careful not to bump her head on the doorframe as you entered.

THUNK

And then bumped your own head in the process. It took all of your willpower to turn a potential "BUCK!" into a biting of your lower lip and deep air intake, whistling between your teeth as your eyes teared up at the edges. Managing not to cuss your Zebra lover awake you made your way into the main room and crossed, sweating, with a pounding head, and weak in the knees, over to the bedroom.

Once there you entered into the bedroom, moving over to the AWESOME bed, that CANNOT have it's awesomeness overstated. All of which brings you to right here and now, where your front right leg buckles under the weight of your load and you stumble forward.

Your eyes go wide as you feel the Zebra start to slip off your back on the left side and you quickly twitch a muscle in your back. Your left back-rod quickly swings out beneath Zecora, catching her body as you fall to your knees. It bends beneath her weight, the muscle straining in your back, but you manage to hold her up, stopping her fall to the floor as you grit your teeth, and shakily push yourself up to your legs, managing to walk those last few steps over to the bed.

You turn and tilt your body to the left, letting Zecora slowly slide from your back and onto the bed. At least half of her. As you pant, pulling your rod back to your side with a twitch of your back muscle, you look to the bed and see that Zecora's upper half and forehooves are on the bed, and her bottom half and hind-legs are touching the floor. Grimacing slightly, you move forward and place your head underneath her hindquarters. You're already pushing your head against her rump when you remember what you were doing last time your head was this close to her lower region. You blush deep red and grin like an idiot, before a pain in your neck reminds you that you're in the middle of something and you shake off the dirty thoughts to keep pushing her up, raising her onto the bed.

You grunt as you finish pushing her up, until her hind legs are over the edge, and then move your head back, roll your neck a little to get rid of the tension, and climb up onto the mattress. You start to push and pull her body as gently as you can manage with your forehooves, and nudge with your head, to get her into a good position. Rump back to the door and head almost pressing against the wood isn't exactly the most elegant of positions to occupy. You pull and prod her to get her vertical, on her side of the bed, and get her head onto her pillow. You finally get her into position, laying more or less normal facing towards the wall away from the door, and bring your hooves down to pull the covers up over her, shifting position awkwardly as you tuck her in, smooth out the covers, and then promptly collapse onto the bed.

You lay on your side, legs splayed, panting heavily, sweat all over your coat. Damn, who knew it'd be so much work to tuck in a Zebra! Buck you're out of shape... You take a few heavy breaths, letting your heart rate go down and your aching muscles rest, before you turn and look over to Zecora.

She's sleeping with a gentle smile on her face and a soft blush still tinging her cheeks. Her breathing is content and gentle, and she shifts slightly in the covers, nuzzling her head into the pillow, letting out gentle sighs in her sleep. You smile a bit as you watch her for a few moments, then lean forward, and plant a soft kiss on her lips. You keep your lips on hers for a few moments, before breaking the kiss with a soft sigh, and a goofy smile on your face. You lean up and move your mouth up to her ear. You run your tongue along the edges of her ear, like you did last night, tasting your zebra lover, then whispering gently.

"I love you Zecora... and you love me. You desire me. You want me. And I want you. You belong with me, and I don't think you've ever felt happier in your life than the time you've spent with me. You're wonderful to me Zecora, and you enjoy being wonderful to me, just like I enjoy being with you... Sleep well Zecora. Dream of me." You speak gently, before you move your lips down to plant one more soft kiss onto hers. Then you lean back, rise shakily onto your legs, and softly step over Zecora, and past her onto the floor of the room, being careful not to touch her with your hooves as you exit the bed, and move out of the bedroom, letting your snugglerific zebra bed-buddy sleep.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself,

you will succumb in every battle” - Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

To know yourself is a high priority, I highly suggest you take the time to figure out how to consciously control your new mutations, experiment with them, and find their limits and usages. After so, your ability to succeed in the Everfree will greatly increase.

-The Lord

You move back into the main room, sighing slightly with a smile on your face. Life is good. Despite your aching legs, heavy breathe, and absolutely ridiculous level of fitness for an Earth Pony, life is good. You raise your eyes and look over the room... It doesn't look so bad when you're used to it. The bottles are bright and colorful, the masks look kinda friendly really, and the cauldron? That just adds class. The boxes are interesting, especially that one that keeps on drawing your eyes for some reason, and the tree-table thing... ... Okay yeah that one's still kinda weird to you, but you've got some cool memories associated with it now! Well, a spot beside it anyway where you-

You blush a bit as you remember your recent sexual exploit, specifically the one that ended your virginity. You can't remember if she washed the floor or not... ... You move over to the OTHER side of the table and sit down on your haunches, putting your hooves down onto the table and leaning forward, resting your head on your hooves and letting your muscles relax.

You feel warm and happy for a few moments, thinking on Zecora, on your lost virginity, on your acquired non-virginity, on her and her snuggly body. Your positive thoughts last for a few moments, before you start to think about less comfortable things. With no distractions and no zebra cuddling, you can now think clearly and precisely on what has happened to you. And it is all bucked up. Seriously, what the buck!? You woke up in the most dangerous part of Equestria, the bucking Everfree forest! Then you found a bunch of creepy stone ruins, started growing shit OUT OF YOUR BODY and nearly got killed by Timberwolves! The fact that you then got with a Zebra and had sexy time is a nice result, but still! There is more than a little freaky shit happening to you and you don't know why!

You sigh out in aggravation, lifting your head to glare at the wall for not having answers as to why your body had suddenly taken to sprouting inanimate objects out of it. And then you blinked, as your eyes turned slowly along the walls of Zecora's hut looking at the shelves filled with potions, bags, boxes, and books. Lots and lots of books.

About thirty seconds later you're pulling books off the shelves while internally cursing your stupidity. Three minutes later you've got three different books on the table and one in your hooves as you flip through it rapidly, eyes searching for answers. Thirty minutes later you're face is buried in an open tome, stacks of books arranged around you haphazardly, and you're using the book on the table to muffle your groan of aggravation.

Nothing! There's bucking nothing in these books about mutating freak appendages out of your body! Of course you could just be missing it, you're not that good at finding the little damn details in printed works either, probably had something to do with those piece of shit foals in school getting onto you every damn second of every bucking school day and-

You take a deep breath, leaning back and bringing your hooves up to rub your face. This is going nowhere fast... You could ask Zecora for help, but she's sleeping, and even if she wasn't you don't want her to know the truth about you. Buck you don't even know the truth about you! You don't want her to think you're a freak, she's the only pony, well zebra, in your life that's shown you any damn kindness! You don't want to buck that up! ... So, no, no asking her.

A fine conquest pony, but your work is not done yet. The town outside of the Everfree, it is not ready for you yet. Remember, the ponies of that place nearly cast out your mate in their superstition and mistrust, something tells me they would give you a smilar welcome. Instead, lets go pick some flowers for your new mate...how about those bright blue ones over there?

You move your hooves beneath your chin again, tapping them together slightly as you rest your chin on your hooves and think. You need to figure out what's happening to you, and how to control it. The town near the forest exiled Zecora for having a damn striped coat! What the buck would they do to you just for having metal rods sticking out your back! Much less sprouting damn swords from your hooves.

You shudder and close your eyes, bringing your front-right hoof up to your forehead and rubbing it slightly in circles as your left moves to close the open book on the table. This is making you anxious. What if you grow something else like that? Or it pops up again? That damn sword that sprouted out of your hoof and disappeared. All black and jagged with some kind of dark blue mist with little silver star-like specks in it and-

SCHLINK!

THUNK!

... You slowly breathe in deeply, then out slowly...

"That better not be what it sounded like." You stated, to the universe at large, before slowly moving your front-right hoof from your face and opening your eyes. Your front-left hoof is on top of the closed book, the one with the dark green cover and the leaf on the front. Dark-blue mist is forming around your hoof, with little sparkling silver lights inside of it, and a blade of jagged black crystal is sticking out of it and through the book. And Zecora's table.

"... ... ... Buck." You state succinctly, looking at the combination ruined book and table. If you'd been rubbing your forehead with your left hoof when that came out... You feel your face go pale as a chill runs through your spine, and you suddenly feel like peeing.

You control your groin and gulp then turn your head to look towards the bedroom, as though expecting fate to make Zecora awake and come to see you with a blade from your hoof stabbing through her book and table... When that fails to happen, because apparently fate had already had it's laughs, you look back to your blade lodged through the reading material and eating surface. Stuck.

You lick your lips, gulp a lump down your throat, and give your foreleg a tug. It doesn't budge. You bring your other foreleg to your left and start pulling with both of them. Still stuck. You grit your teeth, growling slightly in exasperation as you move up onto the table, bringing your hind-legs up onto the edge and pushing with your hind legs, pulling, and tugging with your forelegs, grunting with effort as you pull at the sword. And then toppling back as the sword comes loose, slicing the book apart and sending wooden shards from the table scattering across the floor. You fly head over rump backwards and slam your head onto the wooden floor, knocking aside the stacks of books and sending them flying all over the floor, as scraps of ripped paper slowly drift down from the sky, the knowledge of the green-bound book reduced to confetti.

You groan in pain, slowly sitting up and bringing your front-right hoof up to rub the back of your head... knocked in the head twice in less than an hour. You've got to be getting some major brain damage by now. You turn your gaze back to the bedroom, and stay quiet for a moment listening to see if THAT woke up Zecora... When you don't hear any movement you close your eyes and sigh out in relief. At least you didn't wake the sleeping beauty.

You open your eyes and turn your gaze forward, raising your left hoof again, looking at the blade jutting from it with narrowed eyes. This is all it's fault. Sure it saved your life at the castle, but it just cut open Zecora's book and cut a hole in her table! How the buck are you supposed to function in daily life when this thing can appear at any-

Young pawn go back into the castle ruin you'll find a antechamber underneath the throne within that antechamber is a tome a very old tome now what that tome contains is the secrets to summoning spirits now then ask your slave to go into the nearest village and find a book that shows how to forge weapons. With the knowledge forge a sword and then imbue the sword with an enraged and insane windigo.

The castle... the castle... The bucking castle! Your eyes go wide and your jaw drops as the most obvious realization in the history of realizations hits you. IT WAS THE CASTLE!!! That's the only explanation that makes sense! You started mutating and growing shit in the castle ruins when you fought the Timberwolves! There must be something there, something powerful, something that they were trying to protect! And wasn't there some kind of glowing blue light that disappeared? Yeah! And after that happened THEN you started growing shit out of your body! It all fit together! Oh it's all so bucking obvious! Why didn't you realize this before!?

You leap up to your hooves, and promptly plant your sword into the wood of Zecora's floor, adding that to the list of things you've damaged in your host's home. You close your eyes and breathe in deep. No, you are not going to be angry, you are not going to curse, you've got shit to do. You sigh out slowly, dispersing the worst of the aggravation and glare at the blade.

"Disappear. Now." You mutter through clenched teeth, glaring daggers at the blade... It doesn't. You close your eyes and furrow your brows, gritting your teeth together, and then start to think. How did you get that blade back again in the first place? You were thinking about it, picturing it, so maybe... ... You picture the blade at the end of your hoof, and then you picture it breaking apart, into dark-blue mist, and then spiraling up into your hoof and disappearing, going back inside.

Your hoof tingles, and you open your eyes to see your hoof free of the floor, blade gone. It looks like summoning or dispersing that thing is about picturing it, though you weren't picturing it when it first showed up. Obviously you need to figure out more about it, and to do that you need to get to the castle! You remember that Zecora talked about making maps of the Everfree as she explored it, and she obviously knew how to get there seeing as how she found you and brought you back. You need one of those maps.

You move back over to the shelves, and quickly start looking through them, searching through the shelves as you try to find the maps, opening chests here and there. You feel kind of bad about the mess you just left at the table but that can wait! This shit is important. Life saving even. You need to know what's going on with your body.

Luckily it doesn't take you long to find a set of rolled up scrolls and papers in one of Zecora's chests, a large brown one shoved up against a shelf filled with various bottles and bags. You pull up the bundles of scrolls, piling them underneath your front left foreleg and move back over to the table. The scrolls are old things, worn and ragged, and you're kind of worried about damaging them. But right now need overrides concerns. You dump the scrolls onto the table and start to unroll them one by one examining them rapidly, your eyes darting across the pages. Most of them are written in a language you can't understand with a bunch of pictures all over them, strange glyphs and symbols. You go through incomprehensible scroll after incomprehensible scroll, until you find one that looks like one big picture instead of a bunch of little ones, and stop, looking it over closely.

It's painted on, with various colors, mostly greens, dark greens, and blues, but various others as well. It's very detailed, seeming to depict a large forest, going brown at the edges of the map, probably depicting the forest's end. Upon the picture you see a small painted Zebra, black and white striped in front of a hut. It's pretty close to the southern edge, so it looks like Zecora doesn't live too deep inside of the Everfree. Judging from how expansive this map is however you'd guess she's been through most of it.

A bit to the center right of the map is a painted cave with what looks like flames jutting out of it. A little ways below that is a cave with what looks like stars twinkling inside. A small forest glade is on the map with a pair of green eyes and fangs above it, near the center of the forest, and about center right is what looks like a pile of stones, with a rope bridge beneath them, the stones and bridge just a little over a river with a purple lizard swimming in it. There's many more details, but you stop focusing on them as you find the stones focus.

"Yeah, that looks like it..." You mutter, then furrow your brows and think for a moment... It doesn't look that far away actually. It would have to be pretty close for Zecora to safely drag you back through the Everfree at night. You're pretty sure that you can find your way with the map, and hopefully quickly, before Zecora wakes up. You want to be here to bullshit your way out of the mess, if not necessarily out of trouble. You just don't want her to know what really happened. In any case you need to get moving, there was no telling when her nap was going to end... and you needed to be prepared.

You take Zecora's cloak and pull it over you, bringing the hood up to cover your face. You don't want to get caught out in the rain out there or anything and Zecora won't need it right? Right. You take the map, leaving the other books and scrolls on the table, the ruined one still on the ground, and for a moment you feel guilty. Considering that she took you in, healed you up, fed you, and then let you rut her, this is all pretty mulish of you. You bite your lip as second thoughts enter into your head... and then you shake them off and narrow your brows with conviction. This is important! Whether or not you're a jerk can be later debated, but the need of finding out what the buck is going on with your body can't! It's time to get to the bottom of this shit! And with a firm gait and a map in your teeth you move through the door, and out into the Everfree to find and uncover the mysteries of the castle!

I would avoid those flowers, personally. Plants are only ever bright as a warning: "don't mess with me, or you'll regret it". Why do you think ponies are so colorful as a whole? Dragons and griffons see the colors and, if they have any sense, avoid harming them lest an angry sun goddess incinerate them. The bright blue flowers are probably dangerous.

Still... if they are dangerous, you could use them. Ask Zecora about them. Perhaps you can weaponize them. Just in case you run into something that isn't impressed by your electrical attacks and claw.

Well now, what to explore first? Flowers are harmless, right? This might be the Everfree Forest, but c'mon- it's just some blue flowers, what's the harm in picking a few? And Zecora can help you if things go south anyhow.

You're lost. Standing in the middle of the dark and dim forest, far away from Zecora's hut, looking down at the map stretched between your forehooves with furrowed brows. It looked so bucking close on the painting... And you were pretty sure it was up from Zecora's hut, so you went around and up off the path, got into the trees and... You sigh, and hang your head.

This was a stupid idea. Why couldn't you bucking wait for her to wake up and lead you? You could've made something up, you didn't have to tell her all about the mutating and weirdness, you could have said you were an archaeologist or something. Or a treasure hunter. Anything really, but this was bad. Now not only were you not at the castle, where you got attacked by Timberwolves and almost died, but you were lost in the middle of the Everfree. Again... Right back to square one.

You roll up the map with a growl and tuck it into a loop you found in Zecora's cloak on the left side. Turns out she has multiple pockets and pouches in her cloak for holding things. You move forward with glum eyes, emptily trotting through the forest with an aggravated glare. Well maybe you'll get lucky and she'll find you again... And not be angry about leaving her books a mess, impaling one, running a blade through the table, taking her map, and stealing her cloak... Yeah, yeah, you're sure she'll be totally forgiving of that after she bucking took you in, fed you, healed you up and... you're a terrible pony.

You sigh closing your eyes as you proceed to cuss yourself out and take another step with your eyes closed. And then you promptly start tumbling down a sharp dirt incline, eyes shooting wide open as you roll down the dirt, hooves hitting a root, sending you flying through the trees, head over hooves and-

THUD

"... Ugggghhhh..." You groan, laying in a patch of blue flowers, eyes barely open, as pain shoots up your body through your spine and forelegs, followed quickly by a sort of numbness, and an almost pleasant high... You smile lightly, as you turn your head gently, and look at the pretty blue flower next to your face. It's cool... It's like, blue... Very very blue. Pretty brightly blue. Kinda bulbous, with ends that tickle your nose. Little string things with little bulbs on the end? Kinda funny looking.

"Heheheheh..." You chuckle softly, a bit of pain in your back again. You try to move your hooves, but your forehooves seem really weird as you lay on your back, they've got kind of a strange tingle in them, and a weird cracking sound along with it. You try to bend your head down and look, but for some reason you can't tilt it down. You smile at that, because it's okay and you feel good, and decide to just relax as the pretty blue flower tickles your nose. You keep smiling as you close your eyes, suddenly sleepy and-

(To Cryon)

(I require a moment of your time, and a touch of your power. The flowers I send the pawn towards are Poison Joke, the very flowers that Discord crafted all those years ago. At full health, these Discordian blooms are still magical enough to inconvenience the host. A light touch of frost should weaken them enough so that he will absorb the latent chaos magic in the blooms without ill effect. Seeing as this is CHAOS magic, I'm not quite sure what absorbing it will do...it could be anything from the ability to teleport, to the ability to form clouds of cotton candy to ride/fly on.)

(With Respect,)

(Nomad)

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! HE SNAPPED HIS FORELEGS LIKE TWIGS! LIKE DAMN TWIGS! HAHAHAHA!!!"

Cryon sat on his haunches upon a fluffy blue pillow that just happened to be occupying the seat of his cold steel throne. The pillow was rather large, easily big enough for his entire colt body to lay on, and was ringed with cyan tassels all along the edges, little ribbons hanging loose from the plump cushioning. In front of him floated a large steel cup, surrounded by the white aura of his magic, with what looked like a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream inside of it, with some kind of light-blue frozen fudge coating it, and a frost-bitten little red cherry sitting upon the very top, and a steel spoon stuck in the side.

Pyrus was on the floor, waving his legs up in the air laughing in front of his brother's throne, as Cryon calmly looked to his ice-cream. The spoon floated out over to Cryon's lips as he opened them up and accepted the tasty frozen meal into his mullet, chomping down and swallowing, clearing the spoon as it slid back out of his lips, before digging back into the ice cream.

As Pyrus continued to laugh, rolling onto his side and chuckling, the cup of ice cream floated down and out of sight, as a white napkin floated up in a white aura, and dabbed at Cryon's lips, before floating away. Cryon looked up to you, with a calm and unflinching gaze, as he began to speak.

"No." He stated simply, before laying down on the pillow, moving his forehooves to rest in front of his chin as he lowered his head to rest on his hooves.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!! AND HE HIT HIS HEAD THREE TIMES IN A FEW HOURS! THREE!"

"Even if the request was not a little late in the receiving, my brother and I do not influence the world directly. We have not for nearly a thousand years. This rule has kept us alive and will not be broken. If we could safely exert our power onto the world then the Host would not be needed." Stated Cryon simply before closing his eyes.

"OH, HAHAHAHA, IT'S, IT'S TOO MUCH! HAHAHAHA!!!"

"And a point of clarification. Discord did not create the Poison Joke, rather he created the environment that gave birth the plant. All living things were forced to rapidly adapt and change with Discord's rampant use of chaos magic, and the Poison Joke was no exception. A regular blue flower previously, chaos magic seeped into the plants and they mutated to use that magic. They embraced a defense mechanism, by which physical contact with potential predators, namely any animal they come into contact with, would cause a magical change to remove the strongest and most defining trait of that creature. Admittedly however it was Discord's touch that made this natural defensive action on the plant's behalf into something of a... prank. It was already interesting, but he wanted to make it funny, so to speak. The flower's effects would actually wear off after several weeks, but those several weeks would be among the worst of the predator's life, assuming they survived with the lack of their strongest ability, and so creatures learned to stay away from the Poison Joke." Stated Cryon, before yawning cutely, and shifting position a bit.

By this time Pyrus had finally reduced his laughing to occasional spurts, gasping for breath as he laid on his die, laughs shaking his body as hot red tears rolled down his eyes.

"Oh, oh man, I'm so glad we chose this guy! HAHAHA!"

"History lesson aside it is not bad that the Host suffers. Without challenge and failure there is no development, and the Host must develop to become a threat that will engulf all of Equestria. Speaking of which, what is happening to the Host now is not a cause for alarm. The previous mutation gained from the Timberwolf blood will keep the Host alive. Right now the Star is taking the Poison Joke's chaos magic from the plants and reserving it in the host's body. Now this will not result in a mutation at the moment as the Star is not sure what the Host needs the most. The Host is not under attack, the forelegs, while they will scar, will be repaired to functional ability, as will the spine, and the star is not sure if "lost" is enough of a reason to mutate. Whatever the host feels is most needed upon waking will bring about mutation. Large and overriding need more probable to cause said mutation." Stated Cryon simply, before a small blue teddy bear with a white belly and black button eyes floated up in a white aura, over to him and nestled in underneath his left forehoof.

"Oh... okay... woooh... ah... ... hey wait... are you talking to me?"

"No brother, I was speaking with the Watchers, however I am done. I am sleepy and wish to take a nap. Please go get the storybook with pictures in it." Spoke Cryon calmly, as Pyrus took another deep breathe, suppressing a chuckle, and nodded, shakily getting to his hooves.

"S-sure thing bro. Heheheh..." He spoke, shaking his head as he stood, and moved out of sight, still chuckling lightly. Cryon opened his eyes again with a calm gaze.

I will reconnect you to the Host's waking hours, after his body has been repaired to the point of sufficient operation." Spoke Cryon simply, raising his front-right hoof, and swirling it around as his eyes glowed blue and-

GASP!

Your eyes snap open, breathe coming quick, pain all over your body as you groan, and quickly close your eyes again and grit your teeth from the hurt... Your whole body feels sore, and bruised, and just plain bad. There's a tingling all over your body and you can barely think straight your head hurts so much... Buck, you think you're bucked up...

Author's Notes:

So I thought I knew what I was going to do for this chapter... Then realized that I didn't. And hemmed and hawed over what to do, and finally realized what I wanted to do, then changed my mind about a few things, and wrote them again, and I wound up rewriting almost the whole thing. Still not entirely sure how it came out, but I hope it's okay. Between that indecisiveness and school throwing my sleep schedule out of whack, this took forever. I'm sorry about that. I will have to admit that between school and other projects, my time is less free than it used to be, so these are probably going to take longer. Once again sorry, but that's just how it is.

Oh, and I don't know if this is going to be an issue yet because it's gone fine so far, however covering my bases here, I keep the right to reject questions to Cryon and Pyrus when I can't find a good way to incorporate it. I don't want him clonking out every chapter to chat with the Alicorn Brothers unless it makes sense and doesn't cause damage to the flow of the story. And while the brothers are important to the overall plot and they've certainly got character to explore, the main focus is on the Host. Don't want the spotlight straying too often.