The streets of Canterlot held their usual pace once again. Ponies of all types - be they unicorn, pegasi, or earth - walked down the paved streets that encompassed the wealthy city. Many wore suits and dresses, signifying their status and place among the community. It was well known among them that the sharper one dressed, the higher on the 'social ladder' they would seem.

Some even chose to display their status in different, much more difficult-to-miss forms, taking carriages to and from their locations rather than dirtying their well-taken care hooves. Of course, due to the relatively narrow paths that Canterlot was made up of, resulting directly from the great number of years the grand city had stood upon its perch, there were relatively few places for so much as taking a slow cruise through this means of transportation. As such, many of the ponies that lived in the area had grown accustomed to occasionally scoffing or sneering at those who rode carriages; both out of possible jealously and overall disdain for such a rude pony, so willing to take up space in a way so unnecessary and flashy.

Of course, most would believe otherwise if they were the ones aboard the carriage, but that is simply how the denizens of the city operate.

By this time, the average clock, be it personal or citywide, would be more than willing to inform those that sought its advice that soon the monarch of the land would once more set the sun, bringing whatever transactions, important meetings, and - heaven forbid - occasional hooficures and haircuts that may so urgently be needed to an end.

As a result, the streets were comparatively emptier, with only the occasional blindsided insult, interpreted sneer, or overall spit being slung between the many nobles of the land. Yes, truly, it was a calm, overall average time in the city of Canterlot.

That is to say, calm and average in the minds and bodies of the nobles that resided in the city. Those that resided within the castle walls, however, held a different overall opinion. One that consisted of various sprinting scribes, guards that seemed to hold a much more notably alert astuteness to their usual statue-like demeanors, and various other staff members that had been at their best to keep up with the clearly heightened tensions and paces within the castle of moon and sun.

Few understood why, save for a select hoof-full of guards, royal advisors, and of course the royalty itself. Even the scribes and messengers were without a clue, often writing down messages without so much as thinking of what they wrote and delivering them without so much as glancing at the papers they were given. After all, they were there to assist the princesses, and if said princesses clearly were treating something as though it was a situation of utter importance then there was no need for forethoughts or afterthoughts.

Suffice it to say all was not normal within the castle walls. Something that a certain maid, who at the time was grumpily dusting one of the many thousands of near-identical vases and decorative pieces that resided within the halls of the castle, was all too aware of.

Had this been the fiftieth or sixtieth one she had dusted? Who knew, who cared? She certainly didn't. After all, it had only been five days since she had started working at the castle, having been ever so kindly recommended by one of the guards - and granted this certainly did allow her to avoid some of the more intrusive parts of becoming a member of staff, such as background checks, medical exams, and a particularly noteworthy 'changeling test' which involved a series of nonsensical questions meant to understand if one was a changeling or not. The last one supposedly was among the most unnecessary and ridiculous, as the one maid had been told by other staff members who had taken the test - and already she was being forced to work her hooves to the bone.

Granted, she was currently using her teeth and mouth, what with being an earth pony and not having magic or even wings to make her job simpler, but her point stood.

It wasn't as though she had taken the job because she had oodles of joy over the idea of being among her princess's army of cleaner mares. No, that wasn't it at all. Rather, it was due to the impressive amount of bits offered as payment for such a thing, alongside many other benefits. Besides, she had several foals waiting for her at home, and the only one who she could so much as even glance at to give the blurred possibility of being a more mature figure had decided it best to stay behind and look after said foals.

Irritating, to say the least, but certainly not comparable to the life she had lived before having them with her. No, there was no comparison at all.

Perhaps she favored one of these foals over the other, especially over a certain one, but she would never say this aloud to them. Instead, she would continually split her opinion of them all evenly. As evenly as they asked, of course. And who wouldn't? Was it not normal to do so?

She wasn't certain, it was the last thing on her mind really. Instead, she was more focused on what was before her. An extremely dusty vase that the more she cleaned, the more she wondered if she would be able to simply smash and blame it on one of the many messengers that often blazed by her as she worked, showing no courtesy or hesitation as they hastily shoved their way past her because she had been in the wrong place. And due to the fact that the hallways weren't exactly roads, she was in the wrong place often.

She also contemplated tripping these ponies by simply sticking one of her legs slightly outwards but withheld herself as she realized that the smudge that would be left on the floor, as a result, would likely be much more irritating to clean.

As her mind filled with these thoughts, the mare maid suddenly felt a tickle on the tip of her muzzle. It was practically not there at first, seeming more like a fleeting sensation made from the mind's perspective. However, with the ticking of every millisecond, the sensation grew. It turned from a light tickle to an itch. It went from an itch to a notable disturbance. And finally, it went from a disturbance to what felt like an inferno; a flame that could not be ignored, engulfing her entire body in what could only be described as one of the most horrid, awful things that could ever befall a pony such as herself.

"Achoo!"

A sneeze. Oh, how she hated sneezing. It was so involuntary, so out of her control, and yet it was inevitable with the amount of dust she had found herself dealing with. Of course, the fact that, in her sneezing, she had not only ended up dropping her duster, but also whipping up whatever other dust remained on the case, causing it to lightly cover small portions of her brown coat, black mane, and of course recently cleaned maid outfit.

Oh, how she hated dust. Oh, how she hated cleaning. Oh, how she so wanted to simply lift up the vase that had caused her such trouble, and the pedestal that so happily held and portrayed it, and throw it out the nearest window.

"Oh, gesundheit!" And with the sudden arrival of a new, previously unknown voice in her proximity, the maid all but fell over herself as she turned to address whoever may have approached her, taking the customary 'prim and proper' stance she was taught within her first day to take whenever such an event occurred. A stance which she, of course, loathed to no feasible limit.

In her doing so, however, she did not expect to come eye to eye with a certain, wickedly smiling draconequus.

"... Well nice to see you have such wonderfully deep eyes, mademoiselle!" It said with a sense of pep to it that seemed without reason, the maid only then realizing the proximity between the two as her initial shock faded, before then being given a new sense of shock as she realized who stood, or rather floated from what she could see, before her.

The ever so precedent, yet not so prevalent, being of true chaos, Discord.

"Hm, what? Did I come off as too strong? Was it my breath, mayhaps?" Discord questioned as he saw the mare flinch away from him, before then putting one of his forelegs before his mouth and giving out a pair of breaths. Upon doing so, however, said arm seemed to wilt, much like a flower doing so all the way up to where the foreleg met his body, shriveling up and shortly after falling off with a slight snap resembling that of a plant stem being cut in two.

The shriveled arm fell to the floor with a slight crumpling noise and then proceeded to disintegrate into dust and fly off as though there was a sudden strong breeze in the hall.

The maid, however, was more focused on her own personal thoughts than she was on this... display.

She had heard that this being of chaos had been residing in the castle walls for quite some time now, but it was only now that she could truly confirm these rumors. She had been to the castle before her employment, on several though short or limited occasions, but it was only now that she came face to face with Discord himself.

"Note to self, have more milk with my morning batch of garlic. And they say it's 'part of a balanced breakfast'. Psh-aw!" The being continued as he looked towards where his arm had been, not in a panic, but with a pout.

Suddenly looking at the mare, then behind her, the creature's pout all but disappeared within an instant.

"Oh, may I?" He asked, leaving the maid in confusion until she took note of the single talon on his other forearm, shaped like a griffon's, and followed to where it pointed behind her. The vase that she had recently dusted.

She didn't do much as get out and answer before Discord suddenly spoke once more, already grabbing hold of the vase.

"Ah, thank you very much. Your kindness and generosity are appreciated." He thanked with no hint of joking or sarcasm in his voice whatsoever as he lifted the vase, as though he actually believed himself to be giving a true token of gratitude to an unanswered question. Perhaps he did.

"I must say," he then commented as he brought the vase up to his face, the rest of his body slightly twirling and fidgeting behind him, "I'll never understand why Ol'Sunshine herself has so many of these lying around. Not like she needs them, after all." This is perhaps the first and only time the maid finds an individual who shares this opinion with her, and it is Discord. Truly, she was well beyond the point of caring by now.

"Well, bottom's up!" The amalgamation of chaos and body parts before her then happily cheered to nopony in particular before then raising its final digit on its hand, for whatever reason, and tilting the opening on the top of the vase towards his mouth.

It was then that an odd brown liquid began to pour out of the vase and into the open maw of the creature, a substance which the maid was more than certain was previously not there. She... had never really seen anything like it before. It held the viscosity of what she believed to be milk, but it was certainly not the same color. In fact... it vaguely reminded her of chocolate.

Throughout the entirety of the time, the being before her chugged this seemingly unending substance from this previously decorative and useless vase, a similarly colored limb began to grow from the former site of Discord's recently lost limb. It held no shape at first but soon began to fill out a sort of outline, as it were, shaping itself more and more to appear as a familiar limb. Eventually, through the loud gulps and gargles of the draconequus, the maid watched as the color of the limb then changed, alongside a few more select features, until it finally took the exact form of the creature's previously lost forearm.

This seemed to be the creature's stopping point as he then tilted the vase back to how it is normally meant to be held, abruptly ending the flow of liquid from it as Discord then proceeded to close his mouth and smack his lips, quite audibly at that.

"Ah, that's much better. Though, a bit dusty, I must say. Somepony should fix that." He commented, as though suddenly completely oblivious to the mare's presence - the same mare and maid that now began to question if she was willing to truly risk angering a being of chaos by shoving her duster where the sun didn't shine - before then haphazardly tossing the vase aside.

The maid watched in shock and silence as the vase slowly made its way towards the floor further away from her and the draconequus, being dragged down slowly by the inevitable force of gravity. However, rather than shatter, as she imagined it would have, it instead embedded itself into the ground with a loud thump, cracking the floor around it as though the weight of an entire metal safe had been held within it. A part of her felt it slightly logical, what with the apparently infinite amount of liquid it had recently held, but another part of her then proceeded to slap and berate herself for so much as attempting to place logic over the actions of chaos.

"Well, I do so appreciate the company Miss Maid, but I really must get going. I'm certain Celly is about to have a meltdown sometime soon and I for one, don't want to be the one who forgets to bring enough popcorn for every pony! Ta-ta." She didn't even bother to watch him leave or speak, instead keeping her eyes fixed on the vase embedded in the ground not far from her; the vase she was in the middle of cleaning...

It was close to quitting time anyways. She was certain somepony else would deal with it. They always did.

For now, she was far too hungry and tired to do anything else aside from head home. Her lunch break never really did much for her anyways, which is why she'd simply work through it.

Her fellow staff members told her she worked too hard, she which she replied something along the lines of 'mind your own business'. Silently. In her mind...

She needed the job, she nagged at herself repeatedly. She needed the job.

And, as if fate itself had been looking down upon the ever-loathing maid, the sound of a familiar chime echoed down the halls of the castle. That which may as well be compared to one's arrival to utopia, paired only with the finest and most decadent of luxuries that could ever truly become another's.

The chime that signaled a change of shifts.

-----------------------------------

Trotting back down the roads of Canterlot, the mare was no longer in her uniform, having deposited it atop a pile, of which most maids at the castle took the utmost care to fold and stack, whereas she simply tossed in atop the others, dust and all.

She knew she would surely get lectured for not keeping her uniform in order, her superior likely to tell her off for not keeping her uniform clean, be it as nonsensical as it may be. After all, it was her job to clean, wasn't it? How was she to do so without getting herself filthy at the same time?

'Make yourself appear as though you deserve to be staffed by the princess', she remembered her superior saying at one point. A clearly slapdash reason, made only to make her superior seem more on top of things, the mare imagined.

The others didn't seem to think this though. In fact, they ate up this excuse as though it was law. She had seen many fellow maids go so far as to dirty themselves to the point of their coats changing to a different color, whilst making sure nothing else so much as smudged their uniforms. Had they any backbone, or intelligence, they would clearly see what was wrong with this thought process. But, of course, they didn't, so they would not.

The mare need not be able to read minds to know this.

All things considered, was there even so much as one co-worker that she so much as stood?

No, there wasn't. Not a one.

Of course, despite everything - despite her miserable job, her often itchy and uncomfortable uniform, her ditzy and idiotic fellow staff - there was one thing that gave her solace at the moment.

The jingling sack of bits that balanced atop her back. It had been five days, after all, since she started working. Naturally, as a result, it had finally been time for her first of many paydays. It was times like these - ergo, only this one time for now - that she was glad that she had begun working at the start of the week.

From this alone, all of that misery and annoyance had seemed almost worth it. Almost.

Not completely, but the significant amount of bits that she carried certainly helped to better things. It was more than enough to last her, and those waiting for her at home, for the next week and then some. How could she tell?

Well, her overall estimate was one reason, but the weight upon her back reinforced this fact even further still. She didn't even bother checking inside. She was too exhausted, too hungry.

At a time like this though, with the bits resounding loudly with every step she took, with each individual gold piece seemingly hitting against her back and stacking its weight upon her all at once, again and again, she wished she had a saddle bag of some sort. It was a suggestion made to her back home, but she didn't want to waste any of the - at the time - limited finances they had on something like that. Especially not in Canterlot, where anything clothing related was meant for fashion rather than use, and she'd rather not have a 'designer's saddle bag', or whatever sort of thing they call it to put up the price to extraordinary heights.

Would she have a slight ache in her back? Maybe, yes. But she didn't care, because it wasn't like she would do anything to stress it afterward. Her work week was over for the next couple of days, and this included at home. She'd have the others do whatever it is that needed to be done on their own while she, respectfully, would simply pass out and sleep... after eating.

And it would be like that for the next two days as well. Just enough time for her to mentally prep herself for another week of work.

A slight smile grew on her face at the thought. The plain-looking mare barely paid any attention to the setting sun or the rising moon. She didn't care for time. She wanted to head home and sleep. She wouldn't even bother with the dust and filth that caked her brown coat and black mane.

It was like a mantra to her at this point.

She would simply head home and-

"Excuse me." The sound of a seemingly random stallion's voice suddenly echoed through her ear as she was quite literally shoved out of her thoughts, barely able to catch herself as she was thrown off balance by the sudden.

Her mind froze with the force but came back shortly after when she regained her footing and place in the world once more. Under any other circumstance, she would have simply ignored this sort of thing. After all, it had occurred often enough at work. But that was just it. It had already occurred enough.

Oh, how she had had enough of being shoved around by some uncultured and rude pony who cared not for anypony but themselves. She wasn't able to speak out in the castle, lest she is chastised for making a scene at work, but she wasn't in the castle anymore was she? She was outside, without her uniform, without her metaphorical binds and limits.

She could now do as she wished, including giving this stranger a piece of her mind, if only to release a small portion of her pent-up anger and frustration.

Her teeth ground ever so slightly and her cheeks puffed. The mare turned herself so as to face the stallion. Opening her mouth, she was more than prepared to give out a long, well-overdue series of curses and insults in the direction of the inconsiderate pony.

However, before she could do so, she noticed a few select things, almost seemingly at once.

One, the stallion - and she was certain it was this one that had wronged her since the path she was walking down at the time had been all but barren for the two of them - had suddenly seemed to speed up his pace. He was less walking so much as he was seemingly galloping in the opposite direction of hers. Two, this stallion seemed to hold something within his mouth. He was an earth pony, clearly, but that didn't matter. What mattered was the oddly familiar bag he held within the grip of his teeth, shaking loosely as he carried it with him. And third, the mare suddenly took notice of the fact that the weight on her back, and the noise that came with it, were suddenly gone.

... Oh, this would not do at all...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It always felt so nice and relaxing to rest there. Even if was only for a short amount of time. With the light breeze that comes in from seemingly every perfect direction, the slight tickle that the grass gives my back as I lay upon it and think, and of course, the night sky dimly shining down upon me - not so much that it's overpowering, but just enough to allow me some security and a sort of warmth similar to sunlight.

An internal warmth, really, but warmth.

It was always a good place to think.

To let my mind wander over the past five days, and how they had gone, the moon practically acting as though it were there to happily listen to my thoughts. Like a sort of good friend, always willing to hear you out.

Things had, surprisingly, been rather casual since we had gotten to Canterlot. There were never any 'raids' of sorts conducted where we resided, as law enforcement television programs had led me to believe would have occurred, nor were we constantly avoiding the law, or anything that might sound... I don't know, exciting?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I have no complaints and certainly don't want to have my roof caved in by an angry Celestia spouting on her ploy for revenge for making a fool of her, or tricking her, or some stupid shit like that, but I guess that after the rather eventful trip to Canterlot my mind had been switched to a mode of full-blown paranoia.

It was a little easier after the first day - somewhere along the lines of after I had stopped puking - but still.

And, hey, it wasn't like everything was the same! No, in fact, just a few days ago, Nightmare Moon had asked me to help her out with something.

Concerningly, just as her name passed through my mind, everything felt... different. The moon above me suddenly seemed a lot bigger, or should I say closer? And that breeze suddenly wasn't quite as pleasant.

********************************

"Yo, J, you awake or not?" This hammered into my eardrums, all but jolting me awake to the point that, as I involuntarily lifted my upper half upwards to sit up as a reflex, I ended up instead feeling my head smack into something at full force.

It was a sort of 'immovable object meets unstoppable force' kinda thing, and to be honest the immovable object had won. Something that could be seen as I fell back down onto the mattress below me again, my hands instinctually moving towards my forehead where most of the impact had centered itself.

It was like smashing your head into a wall, or a rock, or a stubborn griffon's skull. How did I know how that last one felt?

Take a wild guess...

"Agh! Son of a-... Why?!" I hissed out as I peeled one of my eyes open.

I could easily see the griffon that sat atop me. And when I say atop me, I mean atop. As in, she was literally sitting on my lap and part of my lower stomach, her tail swinging slightly behind her, grazing me through the blanket I had over my legs.

This same griffon was also currently holding her own head with one of her taloned forearms, rubbing it over what I imagine would be her forehead... if that's what it's called in griffon anatomy.

Look, I didn't take any classes on that or anything, so don't judge me if I sound stupid saying stuff like that.

Because God knows I think it sounds stupid.

Anyhow, as for her other forearm, it was planted firmly on my chest by now, just over the bandages I had still kept on as per Zecora's recommendation to keep me from moving all that much. I didn't even so much as have my jacket on at the time, having taken it off to sleep so I was essentially bare from the waist up.

"Geez." I then heard Gilda say, the pain in her own voice barely registering through the dull stabbing of my skull.

She then seemed to echo my own actions as one of her eyes opened, gazing down at me as her lips pursed deeply.

"What the hay, J?! I come to wake ya up and this is what I get as thanks?!" I grimaced at that.

"Are you kidding me? You're the one who decided to yell me awake! What did you expect to happen?" I returned, planting myself up on one of my elbows as the pain in my head slowly began to fade.

Very slowly.

"Speaking of which, why are you on top of me?" And just like that, a switch seemed to flip. All of a sudden, any pain, or so much as discomfort, that Gilda may have been feeling at the moment seemed to vanish all at once. Her talons were removed from her head, instead taking their place idly in the air next to her as her eyes momentarily widened.

It was like a deer had been caught in the headlights, if that made sense in this context, with her light amber eyes staring off into the wall just behind me.

Unsure as to what was going on, I, of course, followed her gaze, and of course, found nothing but a bare wall. Nothing but the boring white paint of my old room, which I had meant to color in but never got around to. Come to think of it, there's a lot of stuff I never got around to doing in this house of mine. I know I say I was usually busy, but I'm starting to wonder if I was just lazy...

Anyhow, my eyes slowly moving back to the still seemingly frozen Gilda, who might I add had not moved so much as a centimeter, a brow of mine raised as I decided to try and bring her back down to earth.

"Uh, Gil-"

"I'm calling in that favor you owe me." Blunt and abrupt. Definitely Gilda's style, I'd give her that.

Of course, me being in a still relatively tired state, though not by much, I wasn't all that sure what she had meant.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I questioned, to which she replied, initially, with the first bit of movement she had made in some time; specifically, a roll of her eyes.

"Ah-doi! J, the favor you owe me. Y'know, for that agreement of ours? Back in the Everfree? Is anyone in there or what?" Gilda practically interrogated, emphasizing her words by knocking the 'knuckles' - again, still don't know griffon anatomy - of her talons against my head. Worse yet, against the part of my head that I had hit against hers.

Yeah, ouch. Lots and lots of ouch.

Giving out a groan as she did this three consecutive times before I covered my head with one of my hands, I gave her a quick glare as I swiftly spoke up.

"Alright, alright, I remember." I told her, to which she, almost victoriously, smiled and eased up a little bit, leaning back further upon her faux seat - I.E. Me.

"What do you even want anyways? It's not like I can just go outside and throw myself in the nearest trash bag to give you a quick laugh, after all." This clearly seemed to gain a chuckle out of her, if only slightly, her smile growing ever so slightly as she moved a talon up to the bottom part of her beak and lightly tapped against it as she clearly thought the concept through.

"As fun as that would be," she admitted with another scant chuckle, before then pointing the same talon that was previously tapping her 'chin' towards me, "the thing I want you to do is much more practical."

... Is it wrong to say that this admittedly got me interested?

No, the word I'm looking for is 'stupid', not 'wrong'.

Yeah, that fits better.

"Okay, I'll bite, what do you want me to-" And before I could even finish my question, Gilda answered it by swiftly and nonchalantly unfolding her wing outward, allowing it to expand to its full size, which was about an arm and a half's length and slightly over half an arm wide from my perspective.

At first, the action simply had me silent, unsure as to exactly what Gilda was getting at, or if she was getting at anything at all. However, as my eyes moved between her and her open wing, I took notice of her slightly bobbing eyebrows, as if saying I knew what she wanted.

And unfortunately, I did.

"Oh... Oh, God da- you've got to be kidding m- really?!" I ultimately ended up giving out as I realized what she had wanted, giving out a groan at the thought. "Can't you just do it yourself?! You've told me you've done it plenty of times on your own!"

At my clearly less than eager response, Gilda's beak pursed ever so slightly once again.

"Well, yeah, duh, but I also told you that it feels way better when someone else does it. And besides, you owe me. That's the deal." Again, I gave out a groan, and were it not for the fact that my forehead was still relatively sore I would have slammed my palm against it.

"I know, but-"

"Or..." She then suddenly said, again drawing my attention. And again, unfortunately so, because the moment I did look at her face again, I took notice of the fact that she had that expression on it.

"If you really want me to do it myself, I'd be willing to, but only if you'd do something else for me. Something, I'd guess, the both of us would enjoy more?" And with that, Gilda leaned herself back even further against my lap, doing so until she bumped into... something.

"You never did explain why you human males get like this whenever you wake up. But, hey, I'm more than willing to make use of the fact. So, what'll it be, option A, or option B?"

-----------------------------------

And now there I was, grumbling to myself as I, with a green t-shirt over my chest to cover the bandages I still had on, along with my - by now signature - sweater jacket, picked through this griffon's wing to find and get rid of any loose and/or damaged feathers to be rid off.

And I say relatively because, by now, I was practically covered by a good portion of these feathers.

I never liked helping Gilda whenever she was molting. It didn't happen too often, thankfully, with Gilda more often than not doing her own personal wing maintenance whenever she had the chance, but it still felt like it was a living hell for me to do whenever molting did befall Gilda when I was around.

I remember the first time I had seen Gilda molting. It had just been a week or two after we had first met. We had gotten to know each other relatively well by then and had started hanging out much more often.

It was nice having someone to talk to whenever Zecora was too busy with her potions and all, but I digress.

I recall that, at the time, we had simply been walking when Gilda started acting oddly, shifting her folded wings almost repeatedly and occasionally giving out an annoyed grunt or low curse.

I, of course, asked what was up with her. Gilda didn't hesitate to respond, telling me about molting, how often it occurred to griffons, what it involved, and everything she hated about it.

And I, being the idiot that I was felt bad for Gilda and asked if maybe I could help her.

If I could go back in time to punch myself, I would, temporal anomalies be damned.

Gilda didn't so much as hesitate to accept my request at the time. In fact, she practically shoved her wings into my face at the time, which ended up making me fall over onto my ass.

Not fun, though it is pretty funny thinking back on it now.

What isnt funny, however, was the process of learning what to do in order to deal with Gilda's molting, which was not pleasant. Hell, even after I did figure things out, with some direction from Gilda, it still wasn't pleasant. The reason?

Well, for one thing, it was tedious as all hell, trying to find and grip the right feathers out of what may very well have been hundreds. And don't even get me started on how frustrating it was whenever I would lose track of one and have to find it all over again.

Another thing was that most of the feathers that I would end up plucking would end up on me. I'm not sure if it's because of the fact that I usually wear clothes and some sort of static attracts them to me, or if they are just stickier than they seem, or if they just straight up hate me, but those feathers always either stick to me or make a mess around me.

Thankfully, Gilda had ended up agreeing to one condition I had for her involving me clearing her wings of unwanted molting feathers, and that was that we would do it in my living room rather than my bedroom.

It made cleaning any stray feathers easier, in my opinion, and it made it a lot less likely for any of the seemingly vast amount of fluff that these such feathers would bring to bother me the next time I go to bed.

Sleeping in my own bed had made my past five days absolutely wonderful, and let's not even mention comfortable. And I would not have that ruined by these damned brown wing feathers! Note how I say wing feathers. You would not believe how glad I was, and am, about the fact the feathers on Gilda's head, nor any other griffon's head from what she had told me, tended to come off easily enough on their own without any need for help. Because that would just make things all the worse.

Of course, one unfortunate result of me being in the living room with Gilda, was the pair of spectators that oversaw the whole thing with a sort of odd intrigue in their eyes as they watched me work. They watched me as I miserably cleaned out her wings as she lay lazily on me, her head and upper torso essentially trapping me beneath her as she placed them over my lap, giving me a good position overall so as to clean out her wings on the couch.

This brings me to my third point, and arguably the worst part about dealing with Gilda's molting for her, and why it makes it all the more awkward to be doing it in the living room with both Nightmare Moon and Halfy watching from the sidelines.

"Ooooooh~ yeah. That's the spot~." Gilda was quite the vocal griffon when she liked how something felt...

Now, to make this perfectly clear, Gilda actually didn't do this in a purposeful effort to tease/flirt with me. What she had done upstairs was very much on purpose, but with her wings? It was purely involuntary.

I had asked Gilda - and Zecora afterward - about that after the first and of course most awkward and embarrassing time I had done this for her. The two had both in fact said that, culturally, and instinctually, it was practically built into griffon nature to make some noises of acknowledgment and satisfaction whenever another being, rather than the griffon itself, had been tending to them. That, of course, included helping them with feather maintenance.

Of course, they partly made these sounds because the very process of having another being do this for them indeed felt nice and relaxing, like a sort of massage really, but it was also a form of... well, I guess you could say 'rating' how one was doing. The louder or longer the noise a griffon made as one did this, the more they would essentially be telling them that their work is satisfactory, or beyond it.

And, as you might imagine, if you compared the work of other griffons or ponies, who often used their teeth, beaks, or talons to pick out these feathers, or the relatively bland occasional use of magic, to the use of actual opposable thumbs... well, Gilda found my work to be beyond just satisfactory, to put it simply. I was the 'sixth star out of five', as it were.

And as flattering as this was, it was also frustrating in that, after the first time I had done this, Gilda always wanted me to be the one to do it.

Many times I would politely turn her down, but many more times she would find a way to get me to do it, such as right now.

"Little higher~. Little more. Little... more... Ahhhh, that's the ticket~." Seriously, how red must my face have been right now? And was it from the noises she was making or the tediousness that was finding the right feathers on her godforsaken wing? And this was only the first one too!

I blew off another stray feather that had ended up floating too close to my face as I continued in my ministrations. Then I shifted ever so slightly as I grabbed hold of a feather I found to be loose, having passed my hand gently through the feathers on her wing, twisting it slightly before then pulling it out with a swift pluck.

"Ooooooh, that was a good one~." Gilda again moaned as I tossed said feather aside to join a small pile I had on the floor nearby her and me, to which I replied with a slight 'yeah, yeah' that I ended up silently mumbling sarcastically.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind helping Gilda out like this, but I still hate the process itself.

"We must say, Sir Jeremy," I then heard Nightmare Moon chime in, who was seated almost immediately to my right, her head tilted slightly so as to better observe my actions, "your dexterity and aptitude in this such activity are most interesting to see. We do not believe we have ever truly seen your... um, 'fingers', as you call them, work on something as careful and precise as this."

Evidently, my audience was enjoying the show more than I was participating in it.

"Are you kidding NM? He's absolutely - oh, that's the stuff - great at this kind of thing. You should totally get him to do it for you too. Oh yeah." I couldn't imagine how much worse it may have been to work on alicorn wings to do this. I mean, no offense to Nightmare Moon as I say this of course, but her notable size difference would result in a difference in the size of her feathers as well, right?

All I could think of was just a pile of blue feathers, with my hand being the only sign that I was there as it desperately reached out for help.

Again, don't mind helping that much, but I choose life. I already was covered with enough feathers, felt enough frustration from losing and recovering said feathers, and I really didn't want to deal with any more of this. Plus, I didn't think I'd be able to handle hearing Nightmare Moon making noises like these.

... Then again...

THAT ONE YOU GET RID OF. SHE WILL ACTUALLY THROW ME INTO A RIVER, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND.

"Oh, no, that is quite alright, Miss Gilda. Alicorn wings do not quite molt as Griffon or Pegasus wings do. The magical properties within mine wings dutifully allow them to keep their functionality without any loosening or damage being wrought upon by constant use."

That one took me a bit to get. And Gilda, it seemed, took even longer.

"Um... Huh?" She questioned, opening an eye that she had involuntarily closed while I worked on her wing so as to look at Nightmare Moon with a raised, and clearly confused, brow.

Noting this from Gilda, I stopped what I was doing for a moment, so as to not distract her, instead allowing my hands to lay on her back.

See, one thing I'd never admit, to either pony or griffin, was how comfortable their fur usually seemed, no matter what. I had actually made that comment to Zecora once, having accidentally ended up petting her in my absent-mindedness - and to be fair, could you blame me - and her reaction was quite flustered.

As it turned out, that sort of comment was akin to a human telling another human that their skin felt very nice against their own, which of course could be taken very lewdly, or psychopathically.

Ahem, returning to the subject at hand, Nightmare Moon seemed confused by Gilda just as much, if not more so, as the vice had been the versa. It wasn't until Halfy, who has been watching this whole event from a slightly further off cushioned seat made to sit only one pony, gained her attention that she realized what was amiss.

"Uh, P-princess," Halfy began, one of Nightmare Moon's ears twitching before she turned her head towards her, "Your, um, 'accent' is showing again."

The alicorn to my right blinked, only once, before then dawning a face of realization.

"Oh, we see! Very well then, let us try again." Her weight shuffled against the couch as she shifted ever so slightly. She cleared her throat before then beginning to speak again.

"Our- Er, pardon, my wings do not molt as much as thine- oh curses, your own do." Nightmare Moon finally managed to say, clearly struggling and flubbing every now and then but eventually managing nonetheless.

Gilda, having now understood what she had said, gave out a satisfied nod, accompanying said nod shortly after with a shrug.

"Oh, okay, now I get ya."

Seeming to take this to heart, Nightmare Moon suddenly gained a pretty big smile on her face, like a preschooler who had just managed to count to ten for the first time, before looking to Halfy and me, expecting more praise of sorts.

"Pretty good that time." I gave her. "Though, you only needed to say 'yours do' rather than 'your own do'. It makes the sentence more clear and concise."

"Other than that, you did really well Princess!" Halfy then added in shortly after, only seeming to further raise Nightmare Moon's momentary pride as her mane then began to flow in the invisible breeze it usually caught itself in ever so slightly more.

Altogether, seeing such a large powerful being as her act in such an admittedly childish and amusing way was beyond absolutely adorable.

But, yeah, as you may be able to tell, Nightmare Moon has been working on the way she talks for the past few days. She only really started after our first day here, having been reading some stray postage that had ended up piling up in my absence and noting the difference between how she spoke and the text was written.

Supposedly, she wanted to 'fit in' more with her fellow ponies. Granted, Chrysalis, at the time, didn't hesitate to comment on the fact that those ponies she wanted to fit in with weren't exactly fans of hers, but she happily ignored that comment - following shortly after with a quick glass of ice water over the changeling's head - and asked of me and Halfy to help her, what with being her closest friends.

On a side note, I'm pretty sure the fact that Halfy had been called one of her closest friends had made Halfy's day, what with the smile she held throughout the rest of it. A good look for her, coupled with that new white bandage she had now replaced her old one in favor of.

Even now it was still a fairly clean white, having little more than bits of fuzz from the carpeted floor to possibly change the fact. Of course, this led me to question whether whatever it was that was below said bandages really even needed bandages, at least medically, but I decided not to make that comment known.

Anyways, returning to the subject of Nightmare Moon's speech, she had been trying fairly hard to fix how she spoke for the past few days. First, she would just read more of the junk mail that I had, alongside a few old newspapers, in an effort to get a basic understanding. Then, she would start repeating the sentences, both how they were written and how she would say them, so as to ascertain where she varied. Finally, she would adjust her speech so as to better fit in a modern context. Her method was quite effective, really, and Halfy and I were acting as sorts of spelling and grammar checks for her.

We didn't always do it, knowing that it would end up seeming more annoying than helpful if we did, but we would usually chime in whenever we found it appropriate. Such as when something she said came across as difficult to get. Her knowledge of 'old-timey words', as Gilda had coined them to be, far exceeded any of our own. In fact, the only one who had any sort of understanding, most of the time, was Chrysalis.

Anyhow, just yesterday Nightmare Moon had taken her growth of lingual knowledge for a sort of test run as she forced herself to speak in modern means for well over two and a half hours. Granted, conversations were relatively slow, but most of us, save for Chrysalis, had been relatively patient with her so as to give her time to catch up whenever it seemed we left her behind in a conversation. This, of course, included even Gilda.

Say what you want about her, but she was still a good friend through and through.

And I can't really say Chrysalis was uncaring and obnoxious throughout the whole event as much as she was tired. She'd been sleeping a lot these past few days, and really I can't say I blamed her. None of us could.

See, Nightmare Moon wasn't the only one doing something productive to use up her time. It seemed like everyone had been assigning themselves some unspoken duties to accomplish while we were here.

For instance, when we first arrived here, we quickly came upon the subject of food. Or, rather, our lack of it. Thankfully, I had some emergency funds hidden away, alongside a few more bits Zecora had given us with the money we needed for train tickets, so we wouldn't really have all that much to worry about for the first few days.

Of course, the funds were still rather tight, and it wasn't like any of us could just go outside with ease. No, I'd imagine the idea of seeing Nightmare Moon, previously a supposedly cruel and wicked being whose only goal was to block out the sun and rule with an iron hoof - a concept which I still find gross and disrespectful, considering I know Nightmare Moon is nothing like that - going out to buy a few heads of cabbages would not go well.

Chrysalis hated interacting with other ponies, and as such was not the prime candidate for social interaction; Halfy was much too shy, and often found herself distancing herself as much as she could from ponies every now and then, meaning that Canterlot certainly held its fair share of 'bad ponies', so that wouldn't do; as for me, well, markets normally close at sundown. So that was out.

In the end, Gilda ended up happily up taking up the responsibility of heading out and buying us some food and water with the money we had left over.

Now, I'll admit, the first time she went out both Chrysalis and I were... skeptical as to how things would go. After all, I knew better than anyone else that Gilda tended to be impulsive. If she saw a puddle of mud after a rainy day, chances were she'd jump in without a second thought. The same applies to dangerous situations and the like.

So, imagine my surprise when she not only came back with the food we had needed but also managed to somehow get extra, all the while ending up actually saving us bits.

As it turns out, she's a shark when it comes to haggling. Something even I never knew.

As for Halfy, she ended up taking her place cooking, more often than not. I mean, from what I and the others could tell from our stay with her at her home, she was an absolutely great cook. I mean, granted, she only usually fed us with berries and greens from her own garden, but that's only because that was what she had at the time. With the much larger variety of food and ingredients we were able to get from the Canterlot markets, and the much more spacious and functional kitchen I had in my house in comparison to hers, she had, so far, been able to make some pretty damn good dishes from what seemed like random ingredients.

Plus, uh, as it turned out she was the only one of us who actually could cook. Nightmare Moon usually had servants to do that sort of thing for her when she was still a part of Princess Luna, Chrysalis didn't really need that much normal food in comparison to love so she'd normally just feed herself the raw ingredients anyhow, Gilda I had known to somehow burn water, and I... well, cup ramen is hardly a gourmet meal. Plus, I'm fairly sure that's not sold in this world.

Even Chrysalis was making herself handy around the place. I wondered how she was holding up at the moment.

Before I could finish that thought though, a sudden force applied itself to my stomach, not really hurting me but more momentarily winding me out of the unexpectedness that had accompanied it.

Looking towards the source, I saw Gilda's wing was, apparently, now shoving itself repeatedly into my stomach.

"Uh, dude. I didn't tell you to stop." Gilda quipped, her lips pursed as she rose her head up from my lap and gazed at me.

Rolling my eyes, and stifling a groan, I motioned for her to open her wing up completely again, which seemed to restore the smile from before back onto her as she then lowered her head once more and did as I instructed. I cursed myself as I looked at the large assortment of feathers before me, a momentary thought coming to mind.

"Where was that other feather I had found before again?!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now partially sweating and panting as she continued on her way home in the dark, the mare grumbled to herself as she eventually caught sight of the home she had already grown so used to seeing, despite only recently having moved there. The bits she had earned from work were once again where they belonged, jingling incessantly on top of her back with every step that she took.

She wouldn't bother going over what she went through to get them back. She hadn't been 'too tired' before, she certainly was now.

A momentary chill went up her spine as she approached her home, placing a hoof over the comparatively freezing tile path that led to the actual front door. The mare began to take the last steps she would need to before she was able to finally relax.

She was so tired. So hungry. So very close to falling over as she stepped on one particularly poorly maintained tile, almost tripping over her own hooves before shortly after catching herself.

She had almost forgotten about that dreaded tile, surprisingly. Then again, she did every time she got home.

She knew somepony from her home had said that he would get around to fixing it, but he never did, did he?

Granted. It wasn't like he could nowadays, but still.

Another series of silent curses escaped her as she made her way over that one particular bit of flooring with care, trying to make sure she didn't drop the bits she balanced on her back. The mare swiftly came up to the front door of her home.

However, she didn't knock immediately. Instead, she gave herself a moment to prepare; to prepare to deal with three foals that were within; to prepare to inevitably disagree, almost constantly, with the other more mature member of the household that was there; to prepare to do nothing more than eat and sleep.

Taking in a breath of the cool night air, which did very little to help her still relatively recently strained lungs, the mare then let it escape her as she raised a forehoof and, quite loudly, knocked it against the wood. Well, less knocked, more thumped.

Lowering this same hoof shortly after, the mare took note of a series of sounds that came from beyond the door. First was the sound of one of the foals she'd have to deal with yelling 'oh come on' for whatever reason. Next, was a notable moment of silence, alongside a few faint whispers. Shortly after this, she could hear hoofsteps slowly approaching the door. They weren't particularly big ones, which led her to believe that it was one of the foals that were answering the door. Finally, there was the sound of a pair of locks being released, swiftly accompanied by that of a twisting doorknob, and a groaning door.

Looking up as the door opened just a crack, the mare quickly caught sight of whom she had correctly guessed to be one of the foals.

Specifically, the one with a bandage over her eye.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"O-oh, it's just you, Chrysalis."

I'll be honest, I didn't think I was holding my breath for that long, nor did I think that it would ever be released as a result of hearing the fact that Chrysalis was the one knocking.

Two for one, huh?

I had initially panicked for a second or two when a knock had come from the door. And it certainly didn't help that Gilda, likely having been frustrated by the fact that her wing cleaning session had been interrupted again, ended up yelling quite loudly when the knock had come.

Had it been a guard that was at the door, either A. we were all about to be in a lot of trouble, or B. kidnapping would have been added to whatever list of charges I had over my head... assuming it wasn't already?

God, I hoped it wasn't.

But, yeah, in summary, I'm just glad it ended up being Chrysalis. Sorta. Still very conflicted about that.

Not really.

Yes really.

Okay, maybe I was still just a bit panicky...

Watching as Halfy who herself had volunteered to check the door in the first place, which was quite brave by her standards, pulled open the entrance to the house in the first place, the three of us that were on the couch quickly were given sight of an altogether plain looking mare.

No special looks, no odd or unique color, nothing like that. Just a run-of-the-mill mare with a brown coat and a black mane.

I swear, I had told her that she looked way too common and inconspicuous to, well, not be conspicuous. But, as she had said early on in the week, 'in a world where everypony looks unique and special, nopony looks common.'

Turns out that's also a common changeling phrase used to teach hatchlings that no transformation is too extreme or common, but that's another story entirely, isn't it?

"A-are you okay, Chrysalis? You look really tired... a-and, um, sweaty." Halfy worriedly asked the disguised changeling as she opened the door completely, revealing the dim light of the outside world.

Chrysalis took this opportunity to enter, making her way inside at a relatively slow and exhausted speed, barely mumbling out what sounded like gibberish as something on her back then proceeded to fall to the floor behind her.

It made quite a loud series of sounds as it did so, including a notable thump alongside the sound of several coins clacking against one another.

It also served to cause Halfy to practically jump backward and out of her skin, a notable squeak escaping her as her ears splayed themselves back against her head and her eye momentarily became as small as a pinprick.

Glancing at the object, though not really able to make out what it was, I barely caught sight of a familiar midnight blue glow beginning to emanate from it shortly after it was dropped, before then rising from the ground in its entirety and steadily floating towards my direction.

Though it wasn't exactly moving all that fast, it seemed to pass the slowly moving Chrysalis easily enough before then making its way past me, allowing me to get a good glimpse at it.

It was, in fact, a sack. Just a small seemingly burlap sack that, in itself, seemed fit to burst with several outwards projections from within making it seem as though it was more akin to a mutilated pine cone. Furthermore, the actual opening of the sack was slightly ajar, nothing more than a slightly woven-in string of a different color serving to keep it closed, and mostly failing, as I gazed past it to spot a clear multitude of shimmering objects. Gold shimmering objects. Shaped like coins.

Ah, payday in Equestria. I knew it well. If wages were like this in my world either I'd be living in a utopia, or inflation would make my home as close to broken as it could possibly be.

As the sack then proceeded to float past me, and towards the very being that was manipulating it in the first place, Nightmare Moon looked down at the rather impressive little bag with a look of what seemed to be satisfaction.

"Our friend, could you mayhaps close the door? There blows a particularly wicked breeze on this night of ours." Nightmare Moon then kindly requested, to which I then immediately heard Halfy give out another squeak, followed shortly after by the sound of the door shutting.

I didn't see this happen, having been momentarily distracted by the bits Nightmare Moon held in her magical grasp, but I imagine it would have been quite humorous to at least see.

A soft chuckle escaped me at the very thought of the scene I missed. I then turned back to Chrysalis who, surprisingly, was still dragging herself towards the three of us on the couch.

I couldn't help but wonder what they had her do that day. Run marathons?

If so, then it was official that everyone inside of that castle is either an ass or an inconsiderate prick.

Then again, Chrysalis had been coming by more and more tired as the week had progressed, now that I thought about it. Really, this was just pretty much the next step in that declining cycle.

Still, that didn't make me feel any better about seeing her like this.

"Yeesh," I heard Gilda comment below me, myself glancing to her to catch sight of the mildly concerned look on her face, "what carriage hit you on the way here, bug-breath?"

The mare before us seemed to look up towards and slightly glare at Gilda, but only for a short time before then falling back down to blankly stare at the floor.

Rather than respond though, Chrysalis just mumbled incoherently once more.

"U-um, pardon?"

"Thou might want to pronounce thine speech more clearly, changeling." Both Halfy and Nightmare Moon said in response to the gibberish, only causing Chrysalis to give out a slight growl.

"... I said, I'm hungry..." She then finally managed to give out, though still relatively quiet.

Then again, it could be that it wasn't really that she raised her voice, more that she had just gotten a bit closer. This seemed like the more likely case, what with Halfy twitching an ear of hers before then tilting her head slightly in confusion, having likely still not heard or understood.

I, however, had understood clearly.

"Oh. Well, we haven't really started making anything, what with me having just woken up a bit ago, but if you like you can choose what we eat today." I began, glancing back to a doorway that led to the kitchen. Had I been paying attention though, I would have noticed as she suddenly placed a hoof of hers on the very edge of the same couch cushion that I sat upon, slowly lifting her upper half over Gilda and my lap.

"I'd say that's probably the least we can do, all things considered- Hmph?!"

With no particular warning, all of my words suddenly became muffled.

You know, it's not exactly outside of the realm of surprise whenever I suddenly feel something grab my head from behind; for example, a hoof. And it's not exactly any further outside of that realm to suddenly be forced forwards and to suddenly feel something against my lips; for example, Chrysalis'.

Yeah, that wasn't expected. At all.

Then again, I don't think it ever would have been.

Maybe it wasn't the best time to question that though. After all, here I was being kissed, which was a notable switch-up considering the first time this kind of thing had occurred.

My eyes were, of course, as open as a pair of saucers as my mind quickly began to try to catch up with my body. And boy did I mean try!

"Okay, so, let's try to get this straight then. Chrysalis came in just a few moments ago, right? And she had said she was hungry. Now, she's kissing us. Yeah, all things considered, I probably should have half-expected this..." That's about the long and short of how my mind processed everything.

I also couldn't help but notice that she was very purposefully starting to deepen the kiss just a bit...

I wanted to try and distract myself from what was happening, I really did, but what was I supposed to do? Look at someone else like an absolute idiot while this happened?

It didn't help that as this was going on my eyes were very much focused directly ahead of me, not knowing where else to go in a situation such as this. I watched as the mare before me - who, might I add, only made things even odder because it seemed as though I was just being kissed by some random mare - with her eyes closed slowly became engulfed by a green flame, and the lips against mine not only became a little warmer as a result. They then seemed to change in regards to how they felt altogether as well.

Definitely a... unique experience.

In fact, it was only once the flame faded away, leaving Chrysalis to be the one kissing me as opposed to
the mare from before, that I felt the sudden disconnect from my lips.

A slight tingling sensation lingered upon my lips as well as a much more notable warmth covering my entire face as a whole. I watched relatively vacantly as the previously closed eyes of Chrysalis suddenly opened again, revealing her vivid green eyes and slit irises just as a slight smile crossed her face.

"Ah, that's much better." She then commented to nobody in particular, momentarily allowing her thin forked tongue to exit her maw and slowly, deliberately, licking her lips before once more returning to whence it came. She then proceeded to push herself off of the couch cushion she had been supporting her upper half on, allowing herself to sit down on the floor instead.

"Though, I must say I'd appreciate it if you at least put a little effort into it the next time I'm hungry for love. You have the honor of being one of few individuals for me to ever do that with, so at least show some attempt behind it."

What the hell could I have possibly said to that?

"What the Tartarus?!?" Yeah, something along the lines of that would do. Though, with much more human equivalents. "Since when were you two a thing?!" I heard Gilda question, or rather interrogate, which actually managed to momentarily knock some semblance of sense into me as I shook my head and slowly recovered from what had happened.

Looking to Gilda, who was still on my lap with her head suddenly raised and her eyes narrowed, Chrysalis rolled her eyes and gave out a scoff.

"A 'thing'? Pfft, I am a changeling queen. I would not stoop myself that low." She responded with her double-toned voice.

By the way, that was absolutely brilliant for my self-esteem. No, really, I felt like a million bucks now. Two million, really...

"What?! Then why did y-"

"Changelings feed off of love, Miss Gilda." Nightmare Moon then suddenly intervened, my gaze then shifting to her as she did so, a blank face accompanying her words. Of course, I say blank, but there was still clearly something there. I just couldn't make it out is all.

"We apologize for not having informed you of this previously, but this is, in fact, the only form for the changeling to sustain her magic and keep herself healthy... Unfortunately." Looking between Nightmare Moon, Gilda, and Chrysalis, I could clearly see the look of continued confusion and annoyance that came from Gilda, and one of slight surprise from Chrysalis.

"Hm. Funny, I would have personally thought you to be the last pony to excuse my actions for me." Chrysalis revealed with a slight chuckle, her smirk from before not yet having left.

"If Sir Jeremy, noble soul as he is, wishes to sacrifice the purity of his lips so as to assist thee, then we shall not speak against his efforts. However, we would very much appreciate it if thou not speak so lowly of him. Especially immediately after having committed such an act."

Dear god my face must have been red.

Though, come to think of it, the way she phrased the 'purity' part was a little odd for me at the time.

Snickering once more, Chrysalis waved off Nightmare Moon with a light gesture from one of her forehooves. I then took the opportunity to finally make use of my voice again, which had previously been lost for obvious reasons.

"And how about a warning the next time you do that?! I wasn't exactly expecting- Oh, shit, there goes my everything..."

And with that, the familiar feeling of everything in my body suddenly shutting down and turning back on returned, and any sort of force I held that may have been keeping my voice working all but disappeared.

The world around me suddenly began spinning, my stomach felt as though it did a one-eighty and back, and breathing suddenly became very difficult. I found myself placing a hand on Gilda's back just to keep myself from falling forward as I began gulping in any air I could in long yet shallow breaths.

This didn't slip by either Gilda or Nightmare Moon, obviously, as the two quickly reacted.

Gilda, who had previously been on my lap, suddenly sat herself up entirely in one swift jerking motion. At first, her doing this essentially caused whatever source of balance I held, which was the hand I had on her back, to be lost, but she just as swiftly replaced that balance with that of her own, moving one of her taloned forearms to my chest, to keep me from falling forwards, and the wing I had previously been picking not that long ago moving over my back.

"Woah! J, you alright there bud?" She asked with concern now clear in her voice.

Nightmare Moon, in the meantime, made her own move as she closed whatever small distance there may have been between her and I on the couch, her side brushing against me comfortingly, whatever parts of her mane that were in contact with me attempting to grip and soothe me in any, albeit small, way that it could, and one of her wings moving over my back, alongside Gilda's.

" 'Tis an unfortunate side effect of a changeling draining love from another being, Miss Gilda. He shall be weak for some time, but he will be well." Though my hearing felt muffled as my head swam, I could barely hear Gilda give out a faint sound of doubt.

"What? Are you kidding me? Does he look fine to you?" She asked, quite aggressively, before then turning her attention to Chrysalis.

"Listen here, ant-wings, it's one thing if you mess with me, but Jeremy here's a whole different story. If this is really what happens to him whenever you do whatever the hay you did to him, then you'd better not so much as come near him again or so help me I'll-"

"Gilda." I suddenly managed to groan out, raising a hand so as to stop her. It was certainly a significant amount of effort to do so, but I managed. I had half-expected Gilda to have just not heard me and continued in her rant, but instead, she almost instantly stopped talking.

"Don't blame her for this..." I wheezed, taking in a breath and holding back a cough before speaking again.

"If anything, I volunteered for this, so... If you really want to be upset, be upset with me, okay?" She wasn't upset though. At least, she didn't seem it, from what I could tell.

Instead, rather than begin to yell at me for putting myself at such a risk, or anything like that, I just heard her take in a deep breath and give out a sigh.

"... Ugh, ya big-... Nah, I'll do it later, maybe. And you can take a rain check on the whole 'wing cleaning' crud too if you want." She offered. I glanced at her face and saw she had a light smile upon it. Not really sure of what to say, nor having the breath to really do it effectively, I just returned the gesture as best as I could.

"... Halfy." I then heard Chrysalis call, her own voice clearly different from the snide tone it held from before.

"U-um, yes?"

"Go get some water for the human. No ice though, if it's too cold it won't end up helping at all..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a more quiet part of the city, no noise could be heard. Indeed, it was a normal night in the usually busy city that was Canterlot. A calm and peaceful night, undisturbed by anything.

Not even the one stray stallion that groaned from within the garbage pail that he, for the life of him, could not recall how he had ended up in.