As Luna and I walk down, I take this chance to really admire her form. I can see every muscle twist and turn under her beautiful blue body as she walks beside me. I think she noticed me looking, ‘cause now she's walking with a little pep in her walk. Swaying her hips from side to side as she puts a little spring in every step.

"Enjoying the view?" Luna asks as she stops and turns to me.

"Yeah... still am." She shakes her head a little as she continues to walk off. I watch her walk for a second before an idea hits me. "Hey Luna, is this mountaintop visited a lot?"

"No, I might be one of the only ones to come up here, why?" she asks as she turns back to me. I turn away from her as I flare my magic and slam my hands into the ground before me, creating a small cave; being large enough to fit about four people. "Miles... what are you doing?" I walk into the small cave and kneel in the center of the room. I lay my palms on the ground and start to pour my energy into the ground, making white flames circle around me. I spend several minutes feeding the energy until I'm satisfied with the results and stand back up. "Miles, what..."

"Can you teleport me home real quick?"

"You’re leaving...?"

"Just for a few minutes, I'll be right back, promise." She looks at me skeptically but complies, flashing me into the center of my living room. I walk upstairs to my room, where I lay my rifle on the bed and go through the drawers. Afterward I change my pants and put on a new shirt, before I head into the secret room in my closet. I kneel down and start enchanting the floor, creating another ring of white flames. Once I finish I step back and wait for the flames to burn out, leaving an archaic circle on the ground. Here goes nothing - I walk into the center of the circle and wait. After a few seconds I flash back into the cave, scaring Luna.

"Ahh! Miles? How did you get here?"

"I teleported of course," I say as I walk out of the circle. "This is called a Mico platform. We used them in Terradisia to teleport from place to place, mostly going up tall buildings."

"Why wouldn't you just teleport yourselves the way we do?"

"We can't. No one has ever teleported themselves or someone else by hand, we have to use a platform to do it. There are actually a lot of things we can only do with platforms."

"That's a little inconvenient...so where does this go exactly?" She asks as she looks over the archaic text.

"Why don't you give it a try and find out?" She looks between me and the platform before she slowly walks into the center of the platform, holding her eyes closed tightly the entire time. When nothing happens she opens her eyes and looks around.

"I think you bro—" Before she can finish she flashes out of the cave. I laugh at the timing and wait for the text to turn back to black. When it does, I step on and teleport back to my house. I flash into the room to find Luna backed against the wall, looking as if she just saw a ghost.

"You alright?" I say with a small laugh.

"Y-yeah... it just caught me off guard."

"Well, whenever you want to come visit, you can take the platform. It's hidden, and no one will be able to detect you using magic, so it's secretive." Luna finally walks away from the wall, keeping clear of the Mico platform, and looks around the room a bit.

"Where are we?" I walk over to the door and push it open. I walk through the door and into my closet.

"We are in my closet," I say as I open the next door and walk into my room. I wait by the door and wait for Luna to walk in. She walks in slowly, blushing deeply as she steps in. "You alright?"

"Yes... it's just... I've never been invited to somepony's bedchamber before."

"Oh sweet Barbra..." I didn't realize how I set that up until just now. This may be problematic later... or fucking awesome.

"Miles... who’s Barbra?"

THUD

After hearing a crash in another room I pull out my revolver and head over to the door. I check the hall before I walk out and begin to do checks on the rooms. The right room is clear, so I move to the next one. I slowly open the door and see some figures on the floor. I slam the door open and take aim at the figures in the dark.

"Identify yourself!" I yell at them.

"WHOA! Don't shoot, don't shoot, it's us. Twilight and Storm!" Twilight lights her horn to show the two of them laying on the ground, soaking wet.

"Why are you both wet?" Luna asks from behind as I holster my weapon.

"Umm... why are you here with Miles... alone?" Twilight asks. Everyone stays silent, obviously not wanting to tell the truth. After a few awkward silent moments go by I start to get antsy...

"Well... Luna here decided to... teleport me home?" I say as I look to her for help.

"Yes! Miles didn't want to go to the party -" *shiver* "-so he asked me to take him home. I came along to... to... uh..."

"To make sure I was completely healed! She felt bad that I was injured, being shot by her and all, so she came with to check up on me." We both put on the most convincing smiles we can muster as we wait for one of them to respond. They stare at us for a second before they start to get up.

"Well... okay. Whatever you say," Storm says as he helps Twilight up.

"So why are you wet?" Luna asks, making them freeze up and blush heavily.

"Well... I uh... was taking a shower and..."

"He couldn't get his back because he hurt himself! So I came and helped him," Twilight interrupts.

"Why wouldn't you just use your magic?" Luna asks. Because they were too busy fucking, that's why. This game is getting too easy with these two.

"Well... I..." Twilight stammers.

"She was too tired from the fight today to use her magic! So she helped me in the shower herself... but then... uh..."

"Then somepony thought we were doing... naughty things... so I teleported us here, and here we are." They try to give us convincing smiles but I can see right through their lies. I don't really care that they're trying to keep this a secret, I just want to know why.

"Well, alright. I must be off now. It's been... awkward," Luna says as she starts to back out of the room.

"Here, let me walk you out," I say as I usher her out, closing the door behind us. I walk her downstairs and to the door where she turns back to me.

"So... I guess this is bye..."

"Yeah..."

"I'll try to make it over for our date as soon as possible, but it still might take some time..."

"I'll be waiting." She shuffles her hooves and looks around a bit before she jumps up and gives me a quick kiss on the lips, then teleports out of the house. I turn back and lean against the door and savor the feeling for as long as possible.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Storm asks as he walks down the stairs, surprisingly dry.

"Nothing... so how was the sex?" I ask, making Storm trip and fall down the rest of the stairs, landing on his stomach, sprawled out on the floor.

"How did you know?"

"Well, after walking in on you two during the act, and after that horrible act you just played out, I've got a pretty good idea of what happened."

"Please don't tell anypony..."

"Hey, I've got no one to tell, but I am curious, why the secrets?" He gets up and walks up to me, taking a seat against the door and sighing deeply.

"Well, Twilight is the Element of Magic," he says in a serious tone.

"...and?"

"And the Elements of Harmony are a really big deal around here, so having sex with one of the bearers is kind of looked down upon."

"Really? Huh... to be honest, I didn't make them to be taken that seriously. They were intended to be an equalizer for people, not some mystical objects of reverence and worship."

"Yeah... wait... you made the Elements of Harmony?" he says as he slowly looks over to me.

"No. The Elements of Harmony have always existed. I was simply the one to materialize them into a malleable form."

"But... but... but..."

"Look, I don't know all of the facts right now either. All I know is that somehow Celestia got a hold of them from some guy in a place called Roam."

"You... you... you... you made... the Elements of Harmony..."

"Yeah... wasn't that hard to do." Storm continues to stare at me in disbelief, so I ruffle his hair and start to head to bed. "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty beat. I'm going to bed now; I'll see you later."

"You... you... you..."

"Yeah... night then." I leave him to his stupor as I head to my room and close the door behind me. With a sigh I take my rifle and make a rack in my closet to hold it, as well as all of my other weapons. I remove my shirt and armor before I drop onto my bed. I lie there for a minute, going over everything that happened today, when I suddenly sense Luna scrying me. With a smile I bring my hands over my chest and make a heart with my fingers and thumbs, making her blink her presence once. I laugh softly at our little game and just lay there, staring at the ceiling until sleep takes over.

When I awake I roll over and look out the window. It's fairly bright outside. I pull out my phone and look at the time. Twelve hundred hours... fuuuuck. There goes half the day. I roll out of bed and stretch a bit before I stumble for the restroom. After I finish my business I flush the toilet and... wait. When did I get running water? After getting dressed I walk out and head downstairs, where I find Twilight and Storm idly talking at the kitchen table and taking sips from mugs.

"Hey, when did I get running water?" I ask as I take a seat at the table.

"They brought in the line while we were at Canterlot," Twilight says as she takes a drink from her mug.

"Oh... cool, I guess."

"Want a cup of coffee Miles?" Spike says from the kitchen.

"Spike, when did you get here?"

"I actually arrived in Ponyville as Twilight and the others were heading to Canterlot," he says as he brings me a mug with some dark liquid inside. I take a sniff and decide to try it.

"Wow... you managed to burn water..."

"You don't like it?" Spike asks from beside me.

"It smelled good... too bad it just didn't taste as good."

"Maybe you should try it with some creamer, or some sugar. I can't drink it without adding a ton of stuff," Twilight says as she levitates some jars and other various things to try. I go ahead and try concoction after concoction. After my twentieth cup I finally give up.

"Sorry guys, it's just not working for me."

"Oh well, would you like anything else?" Spike asks as he heads back into the kitchen.

"It's alright Spike, I was..." I started to say but stopped when my stomach yelled at me, getting everyone's attention. "Well, maybe something to eat."

"Miles, when was the last time you ate?" Storm asks. I try to think about it, but stop when Spike drops a couple of baskets on the table. We all look over to him and wait for him to explain.

"What? Did you already forget about the picnic at the lake?"

"Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about it. I don't think anypony will be there though, with what happened yesterday," Twilight says to Spike.

"Aw... but I worked really hard this morning to get all of the snacks ready," Spike pouts.

"What’s a lake?"

"Seriously?" Storm asks.

"What part of 'underground civilization' don't you understand?"

"See! Now we have to go. Miles would love it!" Spike says as he kneels before Twilight. "Come on Twi, we planned this weeks ago."

"I don't know Spike, everypony just got back from a really big ordeal, I think we should just stay home and relax a bit today."

"Hey I'm game, especially if there's going to be food," I say as I lean back in my seat.

"It would be a lot of fun," Storm says, and we all look to Twilight.

"Mmm... well... alright. Let's go to the lake."

"Yes!" Spike yells as he jumps up and runs off to the kitchen.

"Great, now would someone please tell me what a lake is?"

"I think it would be better to show you instead," Storm says with a sly grin.

"If it turns into a... social event... I'll..."

"It won't be anything like that, I promise." I stare at him for a second before I stand up and grab the basket.

"Alright, let’s go to the lake then," I say as I start to head out.

"Miles, you don't know where you're going!" Twilight yells out.

"Better hurry and catch up then!" I yell back as I walk out the front door and down the steps. I turn back and wait for them to follow me out, when I hear something land behind me. I turn around to see Rainbow Dash standing behind me with her bag on her hips.

"Sup neighbor, going to the lake with us?" she asks as she walks up to me. I look around but can't seem to find any houses in sight. I look to her in confusion, making her roll her eyes and point a hoof up. I look up to see a giant house made out of clouds.

"You live in that?!"

"Yup, made it myself," she says proudly. Apparently clouds are solid, strange.

"Cool. And to answer your question, yes. I'm just waiting on the three of them before we head out... by the way, what's a lake?"

"DON"T TELL HIM!" Storm yells as he flies out of the house, carrying a basket under both his legs, followed by Twilight with Spike on her back.

"What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asks as she looks between all of us.

"Miles doesn't know what a lake is, so we're not telling him what it is until we get there. Are you all set to go, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight says as she joins the group.

"I've been ready since yesterday, let’s get going!" she says as she jumps into the air and flies off. We start walking off - I don't really know where we're going, so I just follow Twilight and Storm from behind as I talk with Spike.

"Is it something you eat?"

"Umm... kind of. You can, but that's not what we're going to be doing."

"Hmm... can I hold it?"

"Sometimes."

"Does it weigh more than me?"

"Yeah."

"Have I seen it already?"

"I doubt it."

"Uhmm... I really have no idea; can you just tell me what a lake is already?"

"Don't!" Storm yells.

"Don't worry, I'm not telling him the answer," Spike reassures.

"Then stop answering his questions before he figures it out," Twilight says.

"Fine."

"Aw come on just tell... oh sweet Barbra..." As we come to the top of a hill I see it ahead of me. A large body of water just sitting there. It must be a kilometer wide and at least four kilometers long. The water is a deep blue and reflects the sun brightly, as ponies swimming in it make the surface bounce up and down. Without thinking about it I drop the basket and start to run towards the water, removing my shirt before I launch myself into the air. I start to drop in the center of the body of water and prepare myself for the impact.

SPLASH

The water hits me a lot harder than I thought it would, knocking the air out of me as it freezes me over instantly. As I start to sink I suddenly realize I'm the biggest idiot in the world - I can't swim, now can I? As my lungs start to burn from the lack of air I begin to panic, flailing my arms around in an attempt to get back to the surface, only to sink farther into the icy abyss. I flare my magic, sending two columns of bubbles from my hands as I push my hands up, sending a current of water up behind me. I breach the water’s surface and propel into the air a bit until gravity does what it does best and starts to pull me back down. I take in a huge gulp of air before splashing back down. I try to stay on the surface, but eventually start to fall back down into the depths of the water. Again I send myself into the air, getting myself closer to the ground with each leap. After about three or four leaps I finally hit shallow water. I start to walk back to land, greedily gulping air, as I see the group setting a red and white striped blanket down on the grass with an umbrella behind it. I make my way over and fall onto my back in front them.

"Note to the wise... don't launch yourself into a large body of water... without knowing how to swim."

"You jumped in there without knowing how to swim!?" Twilight says.

"Bwuahahahahaha, wow Miles, that was pretty smart of you..." Rainbow Dash says as she rolls on her back in a fit of laughter.

"Yeah... not my brightest moment..."

"How about I teach you after we eat, alright?" Storm says.

"Food, then intentional drowning, got it." I get up and take a seat at the blanket as Spike starts to set up all of the food he had made. Cookies, a purple beverage, some apples and carrots, some sandwiches. I waste no time diving in and trying different things. The sandwiches had something called peanut butter and jelly and were pretty good, but left me really thirsty. The punch was sweet, and even though I was told there wasn't alcohol in it, I still worried when Twilight drank it. As we ate, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Big Mac and the little ones - Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo - soon joined our group. Rainbow Dash was quick to tell them about my previous swimming failure, getting laughs from everyone. I smiled along and enjoyed a few apples. After a while Pinkie Pie pulled out a ball and asked if anyone wanted to play something called ‘volleyball’. Only a few of us volunteered to play, so it ended up being guys versus girls - Storm, Big Mac and I against Pinkie, Applejack and Rainbow. After they set the net and explained the rules, we started. Pinkie started by slamming the ball into the air and crashing straight into the net - our ball. Storm serves it and sends it between Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who both go for it at the same time.

"Guys..." I say, getting both of them to run to me as Pinkie helps them up, "keep serving it between them."

"Why?" Storm asks.

"I'm fairly certain that they will never let one another get the ball without trying to go for it themselves. If they keep fighting for it, we'll score more easily.”

"Eeyup," Big Mac says as he goes to serve. He gets the ball and sends it between them, only this time they both start to run towards it and stop, letting the ball hit the ground.

"AJ! You totally let that one go!"

"Ah thought you had it!" This is going to be easy. The game basically goes in our favor. After we score several more points, they finally figure out what we're doing and start playing as a team. We also had the unfair advantage of my height. Almost every serve they sent I was able to reach and set with total ease. They fought well, but as I spike the final point we cheer in our victory, eleven to five.

"Aw... I hate losing," Rainbow pouts.

"Ah, don't fret sugarcube, it was a good game," Applejack says to try to cheer her up.

"Yeah, besides, it was totally fun!" Pinkie Pie yells as she cartwheels away.

"Hey, good game," I say as we walk up to them.

"Eeyup."

"Yeah... I guess," Rainbow says as she gets up and walks to the blanket.

"What now?" Storm asks as he steps before me.

"We could play horseshoes," Big Mac suggests.

"Why you would throw your shoes, I'll never understand," I say as I turn towards the water. "Dude, Storm, you said you'd teach me to swim, let's give that a try."

"Alright, race ya!" he says as he and Big Mac run past me towards the water. I chase after them and jump back into the shallow water after them. After some roughhousing, Storm finally starts to show me how to swim. You basically have to kick the water away from you and pedal as quickly as possible. I try his method, but it seems more suited for a four legged creature. I make some modifications to what he showed me and finally can keep up with Storm, barely.

"Yer a quick learner Miles," Big Mac comments as we float around the shallow end of the water.

"Learn fast or die, that's what they told us during training."

"Really? Weird. They told us to shut the buck up and stand straight," Storm says, making me laugh.

"Hey Big Mac, Storm, Miles!" Applebloom yells from the shore standing next to her friends. "Can ya bring us in the water wit ya'll ta play chicken?"

"What's that?" I ask.

"It's a game where ya try ta knock somepony offa another pony's shoulders," Big Mac says.

"Sounds like fun, let’s give it a try." They both agree and we go and take them into the water with us. Big Mac gets Applebloom, Storm gets Scootaloo, and I get Sweetie Belle. We play in the shallow water for their safety, and make it so I have to be on my knees. As Sweetie Belle and Applebloom wrestle with one another, I reach over and pull one of Big Mac’s legs out from under him, making both of them fall into the water. As I do this, Sweetie Belle lets out a high pitched EEP as she plunges into the water.

"And the winner is SCOOTALOO!" Storm says as he flies up and lifts Scootaloo into the air, making her laugh and giggle as she gets cheers from the group on the blanket. He holds her up for a bit before he stops flapping his wings and falls into the water with her. We take them back to shore where everyone is enjoying something, games, food, the water, talking with one another. I lay next to the blanket and let the sun dry me off with its warm rays. This was a really good idea.

Next Chapter: Chapter 50 Storm Cloud Estimated time remaining: 77 Hours, 24 Minutes