About an hour after getting Commander Nexus to medical, Ephiatles met Hestaria in the court yard of the academy.

“Took you long enough.” Hestaria said getting up from the bench she was sitting at.

“They had to give me a full psych screen to make sure I was okay. God.”

“Whatever. Are you okay Ephi?”

“I’m alright. You?”

“Yeah, still a little shaky but I’m better now.”

“How does that make sense?”

“I’m with a friend.”

“I’m your friend?”

“Well I don’t have many.”

“How’s that possible? I would have thought everyone would have been clamoring to know a bat pony.”

“They shunned me back home in Cloudsdale.”

“What’d you do there?”

“I made sure that the storm clouds were made right. I had to be sure that they had the right kind of lightning filling before putting getting them ready for the rainy season. What’d you do back home?”

“I read. I lived in a library with my mom. My dad wasn’t around too long after I was born.”

“Why?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Do you not see the wings on my back?”

Ephialtes considered what Hestaria said for a moment before responding. “Okay, but you have to swear never to tell anybody.”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Hestaria replied going through the motions of the school house swear.

“My dad use to be a normal pony, but when Chrysalis tried taking Equestria a long time ago, he was captured and converted into one.”

“Your dad was a changeling?”

“Yeah, he was. After I was born and they saw what I was, they petitioned to have him hanged. It didn’t go through for four years. Then they killed him. Nothing more.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, he taught me everything I would ever have to know in life before they did. I’m more or less over the whole thing. Given there’s nothing left of my home to start with I don’t think I’ll have any bad flashbacks.”

“What?”

Ephialtes told Hestaria about his village in the Haystead Swamps and the Great Migration last year. How they burned down the entire village and his mother. He was forced to watch it all go down from the outskirts and then ran as fast as he could.

“Wow, I didn’t think that could happen.”

“Dragons are unpredictable.”

“If it makes you feel any better, Ephi, I really like talking with you now.”

“Why?”

“Well it’s nice to have somepony to talk to every now and again right? No matter what happens in our lives, it’s great to have friends to lean on and help you never lose hope in a new tomorrow.”

“When did you start sounding like a cheesy after school cartoon?”

“Shut up you zebra bastard.” Hestaria said kissing him on the cheek.

If Ephiatles wasn’t already red, his cheeks would have made him the color of the rising sun.

“You know,” Ephialtes said trying to keep himself talking. “I use to drawl a lot too.”

“No you didn’t.” Hestaria said.

“Yeah I did. I could drawl anything.”

“Anything?”

For the rest of the day, Hestaria made Ephialtes drawl everything she could think of until Captain Storm handed them a quarters assignment in the castle. The room was right below the two floors of the Tower of The Moon and had everything anypony would need in one room and somehow, Ephiatles talked Hestaria into modeling. Before she could even say no, he had her laying across the sofa with a mango in her teeth and sheets over her nether regions. There was a quick knock at the door and it opened to reveal Commander Nexus with gauze over his left eye.

“Hey,” Nexus said opening the door. “How are you two-”

Nexus stopped when he saw Hestaria laying across their couch with her nether regions covered by thin white sheets and Ephialtes sitting in front of a canvas with a pencil hovering next to him.

“I’ll…just leave you to drawl her like one of your French girls.” Nexus said leaving, his face redder then the twilight sky.