“So, what do ya think the odds are that they’ll serve some fish over at that joint?”

God I hate that she made me remember fish.

For a moment, I couldn’t help but flinch at the sudden and blunt nature of Gilda’s question. Or, rather, that would have been the plan if I had been in control of my body at the point in which it had come up. Instead, I had to settle for whatever internal equivalent I could muster from my current position, merely imagining myself flinching as my body continued down the path it walked.

To my right, I could hear Halfy give out a silent ‘eep’ of sorts, along with a slight misstep of her hooves along the gravel walkway we took. At least I think it was gravel.

It certainly sounded like it.

Then again, if it was, that’d be a pretty weird choice of material to make a path out of for pedestrians to use. Especially in a fairly high-traffic place like Canterlot with nobles constantly rushing from place to place to attend to whatever business they may have, ranging from an actual important meeting to something as simple as hoof care, because of course that was a thing. So, with all that in mind, it would be more of a hazard for that kind of path to actually be placed in this than anything else.

Plus, said nobles would probably have complained if there was even the slightest of staining that may occur to their clothes as a result of any gravel that may be kicked up by the rushing ponies, so why wouldn’t they just make it out of cement, or something similar?

Can you tell I was nervous yet? Or do you want me to go off on a tangent about the intricacies of cement mix?!

“Sir Jeremy?”

Nightmare Moon’s voice interrupted my thoughts, though admittedly with much more care and subtlety than Gilda from earlier. It took me a moment before I was able to reply.

“Uh, yeah? Something wrong, Nightmare Moon?” I responded, doing my best impression of a person who wasn’t mentally having heart palpitations. And I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty sure I nailed it.

“You are thinking aloud. You have been covering the concept of walkways for quite some time now.” I blinked. As much as I could, of course.

“Sorry about that.” I meekly returned.

In exchange, I could barely feel my body chuckle, if only for a moment, as well as hearing a similar chuckle come from Nightmare Moon’s actual voice.

“’Tis of no concern, Sir Jeremy. We quite find it interesting to gain an understanding as to the perspective ye builders hold over such things if anything.”

Again, I wasn't a builder so much as I was a designer, but I got that she was just referring to it as she knew it best, so no harm done. As to the whole ‘perspective’ thing, I can’t say I don’t get where she’s getting at. It was a bit of an old habit of mine when I still worked at Hooves and Elbow Grease, mentally figuring out ways that one could better design architectural... stuff that I felt was lacking in some way or another, but I had dropped that habit some time ago while I was in the Canterlot dungeons.

It had also made my usual rambling be worth a whole lot more, seeing as it actually provided me something constructive in return.

Then again, being back in Canterlot, in general, had probably brought said habit back with a vengeance. There was also the fact that I never really made such observations about my surroundings unless I was nervous...

“Yo, NM, what’s up? You and J leaving us out of the loop here again?” Gilda suddenly questioned. I could hear her quite clearly as my left ear suddenly turned to face the source of the noise. That was something that I myself would never have figured out how to really do, but seeing as how someone - or rather somepony - that actually knew how to use a pony body to its full functionality was in control, it wasn’t really much of an issue to bring to attention.

“U-Um, that is, it’s not really a problem if you and Jeremy are talking privately with each other, Princess.” And there goes my right ear to face Halfy. Seriously, it is like a reflex thing? Or is it something you have to purposefully do?

“Oh, apologies, our friends, 'twas not our intention to leave you both in a state of uncertainty. Sir Jeremy was merely making an observation of the ground upon which we walk.” Nightmare Moon gave out, a light apologetic smile making its way onto my face as she gave out her message through my voice.

“Seriously?” Gilda chuckled. “The ground? Yeesh, no offense NM, but I can’t for the life of me see how something as lame as that is in any way funny.”

I could guess she was gonna rib me about that for a while.

Nightmare Moon momentarily closed my eyes and shook my head before she then turned to face Gilda.

“Mayhaps ‘tis less the humor behind his words so much as it were the context behind it. That is, we-“

Yeah, I’m not sure when, but I’m pretty sure I started filtering her/my voice out at this point, as well as the voices of Halfy and Gilda, instead settling for my thoughts. I also took a bit more care to make sure they were actually only my thoughts instead of those that Nightmare Moon could hear too.

I kept forgetting that I have to be more careful with that kind of thing when Nightmare Moon is in control than if I were to just think to her over that link she, Chrysalis, and I had.

Anyways, where was I?

Oh, right. That habit of pointing things out and how they could be designed better, and things like that?

It only really made itself known when I was stressed or nervous. And considering the situation I was in, I couldn’t really be blamed for it.

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

"Oh sweet water of Poseidon’s grand seas, liquid of the gods and creation of every physicist's damnation, how I love thee."

Sound extreme? Well, tough, cuz that's how it was gonna be.

I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating, but for some goddamn reason, that cup of room-temperature tap water felt as though it was blessed by the goddesses of this world.

At least, I would have said that if I didn't remember that Celestia and Luna were considered the goddesses of this world, and frankly I’d rather not have tainted my drink with anything to do with them. It’s not like I had a grudge against them, you see, but more so I’d rather have their asses both shoved into separate dungeons being fed whatever sewer brand gruel they could be given as well as occasionally being thrown down a flight of stairs until their bruises start to match mine.

See, no grudge at all!

I digress, that water was orgasmic bliss. Just the thing I needed after a Chrysalis feeding session.

Speaking of Chrysalis, said changeling was currently having a conversation with the other members of the household that had somehow become a base of operations for a former Princess of the Night, Queen of Changelings, and the totally not-at-all bitter I swear it singular human that resided in this goddamn surprisingly ignorant and hateful pony world.

I was starting to think that feeding Chrysalis held similar effects on my attitude as the average hangover did.

“Like I said slick-skin, I haven’t been hearing anything while I’ve been out showing these mamby pamby nobles how to haggle. Nothing about J or prison escapes. Absolutely zilch.” Gilda could be heard stating, an elbow of hers on one of the armrests for the couch. Her arm held her head and a bored expression was on her face.

She had moved to such a position sometime after she and the others - including Chrysalis, though I’m sure she wouldn’t admit it - made sure that I was doing okay. As I said, that room temperature water had surprisingly helped quite a bit. Though, curiously enough, one of Gilda's wings was still lazily splayed over my back.

“ ‘Zilch’? We- Oh, curses, I am not familiar with such a term.” Nightmare Moon suddenly responded to my side opposite of Gilda, slightly slipping over her own vernacular in the process. Similar to Gilda, her wing was also draped over my back, though much more actively than the former’s. Alongside that, parts of her mane were managing to ebb over to my arm and some of my side - given that the couch was barely made to hold four ponies and was easily filled by a griffon, a human, and an alicorn - occasionally grazing over and lightly grabbing at me whenever possible.

Next came Chrysalis’ voice, herself having taken providence over a separate loveseat across from the couch, curled up so as to make herself as comfortable as possible. Needless to say, it wasn’t working out considering her size.

“Jeremy can tell you what it means later, I don’t want to get off topic again. Also, ‘slick-skin’? Really? I’m exhausted from working at that castle under those idiotic maids and even I can come up with better insults than you can apparently. You sorry excuse for a self-proclaimed traveler.”

Technically, Gilda never called herself a traveler at all, only saying she goes where the wind takes her. Whatever, she was tired, I’d give it to her. And it seemed Gilda would do the same, judging from the light chuckle she gave out instead of any sort of retort.

“Yeah, not my best. Hard to stay focused when I’m looking at a mug as ugly as yours.”

Never mind, there’s the retort.

I could practically hear and feel the heat of the glare Chrysalis gave to Gilda in response, but thankfully Halfy - who was seated on the last loveseat that sat in the living room - managed to interject and get everyone back on subject.

Well, more like she barely managed to get out a few words along the lines of “U-Um, excuse me?” before both Chrysalis and Gilda looked at her, then at each other, then moved on without another word.

Which was impressive, honestly. I definitely had to remember that Halfy apparently had the passive ability to make even the most aggressive of people calm down by some slight degree through adorable timidity alone.

“Yes, well, returning to matters at hoof, I can’t say I’ve heard anything from inside of the castle walls either.
Despite the fact that I’m constantly surrounded by ponies that seem to always pretend I don’t exist while I’m around them, none of them have so much as uttered a peep of information that may be even somewhat informative. Not even a rumor of sorts, save for some mention of one of the maids and a guard occasionally meeting up for a quick buck in the broom closet. A rumor which, off-hoofedly, is very accurate judging from the looks on their faces when I walked in on them while she was choking on his-“

I didn't need to hear that.

Tearing myself away from my water, I barely managed to hold my arm out for her to prematurely end her story, practically choking down whatever mouthful I had in my mouth before stopping her.

“Chrysalis, for the love of god, I deal with enough of that talk from Gilda. Please don’t.” I uttered, shifting slightly in my seat and straightening my back out of the pure uncomfortableness I felt. I tugged on the collar of my green t-shirt, silently grateful that a closet's worth of my clothes had survived my time away from my home.

Chrysalis could only roll her eyes, silently acquiescing to my request.

Sighing, I leaned back slightly in my seat, cushioned by a pair of soft and surprisingly comfortable wings.

Long ago I would have been worried about so much as touching wings the wrong way for the fear of breaking them. But as Gilda had taught me, millennia’s worth of what I can only to be some odd combination of magic and evolution had led to them being able to take impacts equivalent to atmospheric re-entries assuming they weren’t directly landed upon or bent the wrong way upon landing. Save for the base of the wings, which were apparently fairly sensitive. That was a detail Gilda had happily informed me of in great detail.

“So, basically,” I spoke up, “we have about as much info now as we did when we first left for Canterlot in the first place.”

After said glum news, I then tilted my head towards Nightmare Moon, the mare seeming to take notice and turn her own head to face me in turn.

“Oh, and ‘zilch’ is another way of saying 'nothing', or 'zero'.” A small smile made its way onto the alicorn’s features as I gave her this new knowledge before she and I both returned our gazes to the center of the room.

I wasn’t staring at anything, in particular, just somewhat blanking out in focus as a lack of words or reasoning came about. Though I’m not sure if it was the same for Nightmare Moon or otherwise. All I really knew was that the five of us were absolutely stuck, with nothing to go on and no backup plan to speak of.

So, yeah, this is all going as swimmingly as I had thought it would. Though, chances are it would not be a particularly grand idea to start giving out my ‘I told you so’, lest I end up dealing with a very irritated changeling as well as a somewhat miffed griffon. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nightmare Moon decided to give me an inkling as to how cold the water she could poof up out of nowhere was.

I could feel Gilda shift as well as her wing against my lower back slightly reposition, the griffon leaning forward in her seat and reaching for something on the coffee table in front of us. Specifically, the clearly stuffed bag of bits that was practically indenting the table it was upon.

A chuckle came from Gilda as her talons circled the bag and she took hold of it, the clear sound of the coins it contained hitting against one another permeating the relatively silent room. From there she held it near her chest and peered inside, her other set of talons slightly opening the bag for her to get a clearer view.

“Welp, we may have about as much useful info as the gossip section in a magazine, but at least we’re rolling in that sweet royalty-brand moolah!”

Sensing the incoming question from Nightmare Moon, I decided to give her a quick answer.

“It means money.” I told her over the mental link.

“We do not recall asking.” She responded, not bothering to correct herself.

“But you were going to, right?”

“... Yes.” The two of us shared a chuckle at that, garnering an odd look from both Gilda and Halfy. We really should have added them both to the link at some point. I’m pretty sure I had them think I was crazy or hallucinating multiple times by now.

I was photophobic, not a nutcase. I swear! Those voices in my head just happened to come from an alicorn princess and a changeling queen.

... I know how that sounds. Believe me.

Across from us, Chrysalis grumbled something about being the one to earn to bits in the first place, though Gilda seemed to conveniently miss out on that fact.

“Out of curiosity, just how many bits are in there in the first place?” I asked, suddenly feeling parched again as I put my glass of water in my mouth for another sip. It was at that point that Chrysalis decided to enlighten me.

“About six hundred eighty-two bits.”

Y’know, I’d wondered what it’s like to do a spit-take like in the cartoons from my world. Sure I’ve choked on a drink or food every now and then when something surprised or scared me, but I’m not sure I'd ever done a proper spit-take... until then.

Yeah, shortly after covering a good bit of the coffee table in water and thankfully not reaching either Chrysalis or Halfy - seriously, Chrysalis would skin me alive and Halfy would make me die of guilt - I managed to regain the gift of speech that thousands of years of evolution had allowed humans to make use of.

“What?! Six hundre- How in the-” I heard Gilda whistle in response to the exact numbers of what had apparently been the paycheck to end all paychecks while I stammered for a bit.

“Nice! Royalty-brand moolah rules!”

Let me put things in perspective here. You see, I worked at Hooves and Elbow Grease as an architectural designer, that much I think I’ve mentioned plenty of times. What I haven’t mentioned, though, was my pay.

And really I was paid pretty damn well. Well enough that I was able to not only afford staying where in Canterlot I had been staying with no issues but enough that I also had plenty of fallback money as well as spending money to make use of.

And you wanna know how much I made in a week? Two hundred and forty-six bits as an architectural designer... I MADE LESS THAN HALF THAN A CASTLE MAID DOES!

So yeah, I was a bit miffed about that.

“Christ,” I uttered, “how the hell do the princesses not go bankrupt with how much they’re paying their employees?”

It was then that Nightmare Moon decided to give her own form of enlightenment.

“Well, Sir Jeremy, though you mayha- may find the wages to be somewhat extreme for those that work under the crown, a majority of said payment is meant to instill loyalty within the workers so that there would not be a single worker that would divulge the secrets of the princesses. Or, at least, such practices were how they were in my time as a princess.”

So in other words, most of that payment was hush money. Yup. Seemed about right.

Can’t say I was shocked anymore considering the whole ‘keep the fact that Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, and the only human in Equestrian escaped from the capture nopony had even known they were under' bit. Or... bits?

I don’t know. Honestly, I was still recovering from the fact that Chrysalis had made over twice as much as I did.

Instead, I was much more worried about something else. Specifically, a certain griffon that was eyeing the bag of bits with a particularly less than a thrilling smile. At least, less than thrilling for someone such as myself who had long begun to understand such smiles to mean what would likely be problems to me and my physical, as well as mental, health.

“... Say, what do ya guys say to a night on the town tomorrow night?”

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

And here we were.

You’re probably thinking that there was a lot to that story missing, right? Like, how she managed to convince Nightmare Moon, Halfy, and I on this ridiculous night on the town and such?

Well, to put it simply, she didn’t. Chrysalis pretty much kicked us out. The moment she heard of the possibility of her getting some peace and quiet to spend at least one day of her weekend alone to sleep, she absolutely jumped at the chance.

Yet even with both Chrysalis and Gilda pushing the idea, it wasn’t really that that had led to me going out with Gilda and the others in the end. Rather, it was a combination of adorable looks and excited hoof clapping that came from a certain alicorn as she realized she might be able to learn more about the city that had changed so much over the many years she was gone.

Those stories I’d heard of how Nightmare Moon could turn a stallion’s heart to stone with a mere look? It was more accurate to say that she could turn mine into putty and then use it like a kindergartner does play-doh.

Gods above damn those adorable eyes.

All of that was what had been necessary to drag me out of the house, once again in the shape of a pony with a jacket sweater while I walked alongside Gilda and Halfy.

The walk was fine enough, honestly. It was pretty dark out still, seeing as it was the middle of the night, so there were very few ponies that we saw pass by. A part of me found it insulting how even saturday nights failed to lull these ponies from their strictly anti-nocturnal time frames.

What few ponies we did see were either so tired that they looked as though they could walk into a bush at any moment if they weren't paying attention, or were so up their own asses that they avoided our group as much as possible. Fittingly enough, I saw Halfy take a step or two away from some of those ponies as they walked by, a look of quiet concern on her face as she did so.

From my guess, she was spotting more than a couple 'bad ponies' with that special talent of hers. The fact that they resided in Canterlot did not surprise me whatsoever.

"For the sake of clarity, you mind asking Gilda exactly where we're going?" I asked the current co-pilot of my body, receiving a mental nod in return.

I felt my neck turn ever so slightly as my gaze turned towards Gilda, who was currently taking the lead of the group.

"Miss Gilda, Sir Jeremy wishes to know where you are currently leading us." Nightmare Moon said through my voice. Gilda, in return, glanced back to me/Nightmare Moon with a sheepish grin on her beak.

"Oh yeah, I did sorta forget to tell you guys, didn't I?" Classic Gilda. "There's this diner I spotted while I was out and about this week. Seemed pretty chill, all things considered. Plus, it has some tables outside the joint for anyone that wanted to eat there instead of inside. So too much light shouldn't be too much of a problem!"

I found myself mentally raising my brows at this. It was surprising just how much thought Gilda had actually put behind what was supposed to have been an impulsive decision of hers to go out to eat. Then again, she did have that tendency of getting to know the places she'd been around until she could point out all of the good spots. It was how she was able to figure out where all the good bars had been back in Ponyville.

"Oh, that sounds nice. Do you know what they s-serve?" Halfy asked. Gilda simply gave a shrug in return.

" 'Fraid not. Didn't really have any cash on me at the time that I could afford to lose, plus some of those suited jerks were starting to give me the stink eye, so I left before I could figure anything else about the place out." I had an odd feeling that the reason she had left wasn't that she was being intimidated by those nobles so much as it was that she didn't want to be arrested for throwing them out the windows of the place.

"Well, we-" Nightmare Moon paused, "I am rather interested to see how cooking practices have changed over the millennia! There had always been such a focus on oats and barley before, as well as boiled foodstuffs." She recounted, tapping on our chin with one of our forehooves as she lost herself in memory.

"That... doesn't sound great."

"Oh, indeed, it was absolutely atrocious!" She replied with a smirk. I, in the meantime, could practically feel my stomach putting suicide on layaway if it were ever faced with some of the dishes she mentioned.

"Ick. I'd rather try to choke down a live goose than barley. Stuff goes right through me, and takes everything out with it." Gilda gave a shudder as she spoke, clearly remembering a particularly terrible experience that she had previously dealt with. This... brought up a good point.

How did food work while I was a pony? Like, would I suddenly be able to eat hay with no problem? Or would I still have the eating habits of a human in the body of a pony? I decided to make sure not to test fate and made a mental note to check whatever it may have been that Nightmare Moon ordered for us.

"H-have you... eaten live goose before?" I heard Halfy nervously ask of Gilda. Gilda, rather than respond, simply turned her gaze back to Nightmare Moon and I. She had a sort of side-eye going as she did this, her brow raised as she looked to us for an answer.

Nightmare Moon, obviously, was at least a little confused by this.

"Sir Jeremy, why is she-"

"She flew too fast that day, Nightmare Moon. She flew too fast." I replied simply and effectively.

That was a memory I, and I could only assume Gilda, would prefer to forget. I had never known Griffons could dislocate their beaks to eat something. And neither did Gilda, or any other anatomy book she ended up looking through while desperately hoping the goose wouldn't burst out of her stomach. Fortunately, no further questions were brought up as Gilda glanced forwards again and saw what she had been looking for.

"Ah-ha! There's the place!" She exclaimed, her wings giving a momentary flutter in their place against her body.

I felt my eyes follow hers, likely under Nightmare Moon's command, as I spotted the building she had likely been talking about. To my surprise, I actually found the place to be rather familiar.

Just a little further down the path, there was a quaint-looking diner resting in between a few other, taller businesses. It was pretty small, all things considered, but it seemed to have plenty of personality. Wooden accents and painted-marble walls normally were a pretty casual combination of things here in Canterlot, but this diner seemed to have an inverse of the norm, being made of far more wood than it was marble.

There were streaks of red and white along the roof of the building, as well as several handwritten signs and painted windows to draw the attention of anyone that would see it despite its relatively small profile. One of these signs was bigger than the others, easily legible as 'Dilly Dally's Drum-In Diner'. As Gilda mentioned, one could easily see a collection of two or three tables sitting just outside of the diner, with umbrellas, four simple wooden stools, and a couple of candles adorning each one.

Plus, despite it being the middle of the night, the place was still active, serving a variety of ponies that, while there weren't a lot of them, were more than happy to spend this part of their night talking and eating.

I felt my body blink as Nightmare Moon spoke up.

"Oh, this seems to be of interest! I did not expect there to be any eateries that were willing to keep their businesses open at this time of our- my night!" I could hear Gilda chuckle before she replied.

"Heh. You'd be surprised. There are lots of places that get better at night than the day. Sure, a diner is a diner. But the atmosphere! That junk changes to something great at night! And, obviously, this place knows that!" She walked ever so slightly slower, eventually losing the lead she had over the three of us and settling right next to Nightmare Moon and I. She reached out a wing and used it to drag us to her side as we walked. "That's part of the reason this place seemed so chill. Any place that's willing to dump out all the dorks in the day for those loyal weirdos that might come by at night gets my automatic 'seal of coolness'."

As she said this, she rose one of her taloned legs, waving it out in front of her as though pointing out a large neon sign that stood before us.

Nightmare Moon, in the meantime, was practically brimming with glee and excitement at the prospect of visiting a diner that apparently thrived in the nightlife.

I, on the other hand, held my own reason to be excited.

This place was familiar, I mentioned this before. As to why? That's easy. I had eaten here before. Lots. There were plenty of late nights I had at work, so of course I would eventually have come across one of the few places that were open after midnight. And this place?

Jesus Christ, Gilda had hit the motherlode.

"Hm... That is strange." I could barely hear Nightmare Moon say through my voice as I already imagined what I would order. "I appear to be salivating."

Those cheese fries would be mine once again.

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

As the group made their way towards the somewhat out-of-place and simplistic diner within the city of nobles, a pegasus mare in a modest striped uniform, who had originally been conversing with another pony in a similar uniform, seemed to spot them.

Though the four were unable to hear them, the three that were able to could see the mare give a few more words towards the other pony before she left. She waved her colleague off before straightening her uniform ever so slightly and taking her place just behind a small wooden podium near the front of the diner.

The mare behind the podium quickly put on a professional and peppy smile for the group of ponies and griffon that approached them.

“Welcome to Dilly Dally's Drum-In Diner! How might I help you?” She asked, her voice equally as peppy as her smile.

Nightmare Moon gave a returned smile through Jeremy, whereas Gilda seemed all the more interested in looking past the mare at the podium to sneak a peek at the meals they served at the establishment. Halfy somewhat hid behind her other friend's forms and focused on the floorboards beneath them.

“Yes, our thanks. May we perhaps be given a table for fou-“ The stallion paused, interrupting themself with a cough.

“Apologies, a table for three.”

The mare gave a nod in response before, shortly after, she lowered her head behind the podium and popped back up with a few menus in her mouth.

She placed the group of menus on the podium before she spoke up again.

“Any preference as to where you’d like to sit? Table, booth, outside?” The employee asked.

“Ah, yes, we would like to be seated outside, if thou- er, you would not mind!” Nightmare Moon acquiesced through Jeremy, gesturing towards one of the dimly lit tables visible just outside of the windows of the diner. The waitress pony either didn't take note of her momentary slip into her old form of talking, or simply did not choose to bring attention to it. She simply gave another cheerful nod.

“Alright, sounds good! Just follow me and I’ll take you to your table.” Once more the mare took the menus into her mouth by their spines, moving from her place behind the podium and around the group.

Though Nightmare Moon nor Halfy could see it, Gilda could not help but to roll her eyes at the overly happy attitude that the waitress held. In the Griffon Kingdom, restaurants would usually be a whole lot of ‘get in, get your grub, get out’, with most of the waiters being little more than decent towards customers as a whole.

Maybe it was just ponies being mushy and soft, as Gilda had thought it to be, or maybe she was just a bit more hard-shelled as a result of her upbringing.

“Meh,” she thought to herself, “less thinking, more snacking.”

The waitress led the group to their seats, picking out one of the outermost tables of the three that were outside and placing the three menus equidistant from one another onto the circular table. With practiced grace, she used one of her wings to scoot the extra chair from the desk out of the way so that it wouldn't get in the way of the customers.

Both Halfy and Nightmare Moon gave a kind and respectful nod to the mare before taking their seats at the table. Gilda sat up on her stool and lazily began to entertain herself by kicking one of her legs out onto the table and tilting herself back so that she was just barely balanced on the back legs of the seat.

Nightmare Moon could not help but to raise a brow at this behavior. She wondered if that would not cause Gilda some issues when it came to eating, but ultimately did not voice her thoughts as the pegasus serving them reached behind her wings and pulled out both a small notepad with a pencil held within the spirals that organized the papers. She used her wings as a sort of clipboard, resting the notepad atop one of them in front of her before looking back and forth between the three.

"Okay! Hope you all are having a nice night! I'm Blooming Daze and I'll be your server today!" The mare began with an almost perfectly memorized cadence and spring. "Anything I can get to start you guys off to drink? Water, cider, some pop?"

"S-some water, please." Halfy was the first to respond, tapping her forehooves against one another as she finally found her voice for the first time since they had arrived.

"Oh, definitely some cider for me. Strongest ya got." Gilda added shortly after. Her eyes narrowed and a confident smile made its way onto her beak. A part of her was hoping that Canterlot actually had some alcohol that would actually do something for her instead of the usual pony-proportioned drinks.

Nightmare Moon was the last to order. However, the reason for this was that she held somewhat of a confused expression as she mentally went over the list provided to her again and again.

"Um... 'pop'? What is 'pop'?" She vocalized her confusion, the sound of the word rolling strangely off the tip of her tongue when not referring to bubbles. The mare serving them lost her smile for the first time since attending them, gaining her own expression of confusion before she quickly widened her eyes in what seemed like realization and regained her trademark 'Dilly Dally Brand Smile'.

"Oh! Sorry, that's just a regional thing for me. I meant 'soda'." She corrected herself, proud of how she could fix her momentary slip-up. Nightmare Moon, though still just as confused as before, gave a sheepish smile as she did not want to dispirit the pony before her.

"Ah, yes. Of course! Soda! That is, indeed, what we had thought you had meant." The word 'soda' flowed off of her tongue even worse than the prior one had. It was as though a foal had been taught the word and was trying to use it for the first time. An appropriate comparison since, in this case, this truly was the first time Nightmare Moon had used the word.

Gilda gave a brief exhale of extra air through her nose as Nightmare Moon glanced between the mare and the other two like a deer-in-headlights. The idea of this all-powerful being that tried to take over the world suddenly struggling just to hold a conversation because the word 'soda' had caught them off guard was quite entertaining, to say the least.

Unbeknownst to the other two at the table with her, Nightmare Moon was currently using the opportunity to converse with the owner of the body she was currently controlling.

"You okay there, Nightmare Moon?" Jeremy asked his friend with a snicker. The mirth in his voice was not missed by Nightmare Moon, who mentally scrunched her muzzle in embarrassment.

"Yes, we are well, Sir Jeremy. We simply... are having a miscommunication, of sorts." She assured, a self-imposed sense of faux certainty and pride clearly audible in her voice as she spoke her thoughts to her current bodily co-pilot. Jeremy, having not been born yesterday, saw right through this with ease. Still, rather than call her out on it, he decided to cut her a break and give her a hand.

"I'm sure you are. Look, soda, or 'pop', is a kind of... fizzy drink. Have you ever had sparkling water back when you were Princess?" The real-life body of Jeremy blinked involuntarily, giving Jeremy all the information he needed to know.

"Ah. Well, there goes that comparison. Still, seeing as you're so eager to figure out how much has changed over the years, this might be a good chance to try out something new?"

"Oh! This does sound like quite the new experience! Very well, we shall take your advice, Sir Jeremy!"

A confident smile appeared on the stallion that was both Jeremy and Nightmare Moon as they seemed to make their mind up within the few seconds they had been left to their own devices. With an almost practiced and theatrical flair, Jeremy's body put one of its forehooves upon the table, lifting the stallion onto their hindlegs atop of the stool they sat on while they thrust their other foreleg into the air above. It was as though the stallion were preparing to make a declaration for the ages.

"We shall take the so-da!" The stallion proclaimed proudly, slipping on her pronunciation of this new word ever so slightly. Gilda practically lost the balance she held and fell off of her stool as she fought to keep herself from bursting out laughing while Halfy simply looked upon the spectacle with an earnest smile towards the alicorn's enthusiasm. Jeremy held his own reaction, a part of him dying inside as he remembered that he was technically the one taking such a flamboyant stand over ordering soda. A cringe worth one-thousand dying souls passed through his mind while he barely noted the fact that the waitress did not seem perturbed by this entire display whatsoever.

He could only imagine just how much strange stuff she had seen in order to keep that smile of hers going without even so much as giving out a chortle at this display.

"Sounds good! And what kind of soda will you be having?" The mare continued, writing down everything she had been given so far onto the notepad.

The confidence and pride in Nightmare Moon/Jeremy's pose wavered ever so slightly. The stallion looked to the waitress for a moment, unaware of what to reply, before another helpful suggestion popped into their minds.

"Dr. Hay-Per."

"One Dr. Hay-Per!" She quickly recovered, once more regaining her confidence and stance. Never before had Jeremy wished so dearly that this moment would both last forever and that he would be stabbed to death at the same time.

"Alright, that's great! I'll be right out with your drinks! If you figure out what you'd like to order to eat, feel free to look for me! If not, you can tell me when I come by again!"

"Yes, uh, t-thank you."

"Sounds good."

"Verily!"

The three responded, with one far more enthusiastically than the other two, as the mare put the notepad and pencil back into their previous place in the crook of her wings before trotting off into the diner happily. There was a moment of silence as both Halfy and Gilda looked at Nightmare Moon, who was still very much partially standing on the table.

"You, uh... You gonna be good there to eat, bud?" Nightmare Moon blinked at this, seeming caught off guard before suddenly realizing that she was still posed and seating herself back on her stool. A light shade of red could be seen going over the muzzle of the stallion before they gave out a nervous chuckle.

"Our apologies. We are... out of practice interacting with other ponies, it would seem." She admitted, shifting slightly in her seat as she looked around and noticed some of the bemused stairs from a few of the ponies that were eating inside and had been attracted to the noise coming through the window.

"O-oh, its no problem at all! It's good that you're able to be so... energetic!" Halfy provided, hoping to ease Nightmare Moon's concerns.

"That's one way to go about seeing it." Gilda smirked, leaning forwards onto the table before grabbing the menu laid out before her and opening it up. "Now, what say we get some grub? I'm starvin."

Halfy nodded her agreement, deciding to also pick up and open her menu to see what this place had offered. So far, she was in a pretty good mood about the whole thing. Sure, she wasn't exactly fond of how many ponies were around, likely staring at her, but the waitress had seemed like a very nice pony! Plus, she couldn't see any pony that really seemed bad, so she was quite hopeful that nobody would cause her or her friends any issues.

Finally, Nightmare Moon decided to mirror her compatriots, taking a moment to realize what they were doing before she just as quickly grabbed and opened the menu that sat before her.

To say that she was overwhelmed would be an understatement. Her brows furrowed as she looked from listing to listing, reading out a wide variety of names that she had absolutely no memory or knowledge of from her time. 'Onion Rings', 'Potato Skins', 'Carrot Apple Ginger Soup', 'Crispy Cheddar Fish Sti-'

"AW, SWEET, FISH STICKS!" Nightmare Moon and Halfy both flinched at Gilda's sudden outburst. One glance towards her easily showed them both that the griffon was practically drooling by now, a sparkle in her eyes as she snaked her tongue along the edge of her beak.

"T-theres an awful lot of, um, carnivore options here." Halfy commented, a somewhat hard-to-read expression on her face. There weren't really a lot of them actually. Maybe there were about six or so compared to the eighteen other food items there were spread between both pages, but to Halfy, who had lived most of her life in Ponyville, it was certainly quite a bit.

"If we were to hazard a guess, our friend, Canterlot has always held some semblance of serving as a political embassy of sorts for missionaries from other countries." Nightmare Moon began, raising a hoof to the stallion she controlled's chin as she focused on her older memories. "We recall that negotiations with the Griffons had just recently begun last we were here. Of course, what with their diet being different from that of us ponies, we had to make some arrangements in order to provide them with a hospitable stay. Eventually, some of those griffons grew tired of only being able to feed their more carnivorous habits whilst they stayed within the grounds of the castle, so our former sister made a royal decree."

For a moment, an odd mix of both distaste and nostalgia filled the eyes of the stallion as he could be heard clearing his throat.

" 'Hear! Hear!' she had said, 'from this day forth, we shall treat those beyond ponies as we would our own. There shall be no judgment of those who feed off meat and those who feed from the earth, for we all share the same world nonetheless!' " As she spoke, Halfy watched the stallion with great interest, eyes wide as she heard what could only be described as a first-hoof testimony of what had occurred millennia ago, back when Equestria was still in its earlier stages of forming.

Nightmare Moon dropped the theatrics for a moment, a momentary chuckle escaping her as she rolled her eyes at the frivolity of it all, now that she looked back at it. The fact that they truly would just go about making royal decrees before large crowds left and right until eventually the ponies they watched over began to govern themselves in smaller circles of power. It seemed so ridiculous. Yet, she could not deny that she had some vague longing for those simpler times.

"Our former sister was most certainly always better at giving memorable speeches than we were, we recall." The stallion said, shrugging his shoulder before returning his gaze to Halfy. " 'Tis more than likely that such traditions apparently held themselves true throughout the centuries, leading to many a business more catering to species beyond simply ponies."

Halfy nodded attentively, a thoughtful expression on her face as she processed what she had just been told.

"Y-yeah... I guess that makes sense. Thanks for that, by the way." Nightmare Moon rose an eye at this, unsure of what she meant.

"Oh? Prithee, what do you have to thank us for?" Halfy simply shook her head.

"For telling me about how things were when you used to be... when things were different for you. I-I can't imagine it's easy for you to think back to those days, all things considered, but I really would like to hear more stories about how things were back then!" Her voice showed earnest excitement as she reached the end of her sentence. She caught it just a bit too late, noticing the look of surprise upon Jeremy/Nightmare Moon's face before seeming to reign herself in just a tad. "T-that is, if you don't mind, of course."

Nightmare Moon blinked, looking at her friend for a moment before, with the beginnings of her own earnest smile, she nodded at the mare.

"We would be happy to recount some of our tales to you, our good friend."

Within the mind of the stallion, Jeremy felt a warmth in his heart at the sweetness of the display that played out before him.

"Blech. Tone it down with the mushy stuff. At least until I'm done absolutely destroying these fish sticks!"

And just like that, the warmth was replaced by the sudden urge to slap a certain griffon in the back of their head.

Fortunately, the other two members of the group seemed to take this comment in stride, both releasing a chuckle of their own before returning to their menus.

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

It wasn't long before the waitress from before returned with the drinks for the three carefully balanced atop a plate on her back, her wings serving to stabilize and even move about the plate as she moved about the diner with a well-practiced grace.

Halfy accepted her glass of water with a quaint 'thank you' to Blooming Daze while Gilda all but snatched up the mug of cider offered to her and practically gulped down a quarter of it before giving out a satisfied sigh. It still wasn't quite as strong as she would like, but it was definitely stronger than anything she had ever had in Ponyville. More than likely, this was also a fortunate side effect of a certain royal decree made some several hundred years ago. Finally, Nightmare Moon accepted her soda with some excitement visible in her eyes, finding this new and exotic drink known as a 'Dr. Hay-Per' to be the new greatest discovery of her lifetime, though she had not tried it quite yet.

The waitress didn't stick around for long, only waiting as long as it took her to write down the orders they had all decided upon while giving them her usual professional smile and nod. Gilda had, of course, ordered the Crispy Cheddar Fish Sticks. Halfy had elected to ask for the Carrot Apple Ginger Soup. Finally, at the recommendation of Jeremy, Nightmare Moon had taken the opportunity to order and try out the 'Cheese Fries'.

Now, Nightmare Moon found herself staring at the carbonated drink before her, watching the bubbles constantly forming within the odd beverage before floating upwards to where the ice and straw of the drink sat to harmlessly pop. She also made the mental note that perhaps that was the reason it was referred to as 'pop'. The origin of the word soda, however, still escaped her.

"What form of enchantment has been cast upon this beverage?" Nightmare Moon wondered, the voice of the stallion she controlled barely a whisper as she looked over the glass.

"Oh, t-theres no enchantment, actually. Soda is just fizzy like that." Halfy informed her, watching with some silent sense of elation at Nightmare Moon's child-like wonder. The stallion nodded slowly as they processed what they had been told, their eyes squinting as they tried their darndest to follow a single bubble from creation all the way to the moment they popped.

Gilda emptied out another quarter of her mug with as a satisfied shudder went through the feathers on her head, glancing between the pair of ponies sat before her. A question slowly but surely raised in her head as her gaze focused on the stallion that had both been Nightmare Moon and Jeremy.

"Hey, so, uh, how does eating like that work?" She questioned, drawing the attention of both Nightmare Moon and Halfy. "Like, do you guys both taste what you eat? Or does only Jeremy get the food since it's technically his body? Or...?" She rolled her wrists as she trailed off, leaving the line of questioning in the hopes of getting some sort of answer.

The stallion, upon hearing these questions, simply put a hoof to its chin. The human within the mind of the stallion provided their own thoughts on the matter.

"Yeah, I was actually wondering about that myself."

Nightmare Moon could be seen deep in thoughts, her gaze occasionally shifting between the drink placed before her and the Griffon that sat across from her.

"Hm... This is quite the quandary. 'Tis not the first time that we have actively taken control of another pony, but we had never deemed it necessary to test the parameters of the spell when it came to the idea of obtaining sustenance..." In her ramblings, she had all but completely forgotten about trying to translate her accent into a more modern form. Nobody seemed to mind, however, simply allowing her to think through the many little details that had just been placed before her.

"... If we were to make an informed assumption," she began, "it is likely that Sir Jeremy would obtain the nutritional benefits of eating the meal while we, in our control, would receive the sensations of eating." Gilda pursed her lips as she heard this.

"So, like, you get to taste it, but still end up hungry, while J isn't hungry anymore, but doesn't get to taste it?" She summarized to the best of her ability, receiving a nod in return from the stallion. "Woof. Sounds like a bummer on both ends." Again, the stallion nodded.

"Indeed. It would be quite the 'bummer'..." Once more, there was a moment of silence as the three - four if counting Jeremy - simply sat there in thought. However, the stallion's ears flicked ever so slightly as Nightmare Moon suddenly came up with an idea.

"Ah! We have a solution!" She decreed proudly, once more raising a hoof into the air.

Halfy and Gilda watched with combined feelings of interest and bemusement, watching as a smile worked its way onto the stallion before they then sat stock still on their stool and closed their eyes. From the perspective of the two across the table from the stallion, nothing seemed to really happen. However, had anyone been paying attention to the group, they would have taken note of the fact that the shadow of the table they sat around began to shift and swirl with a darkening aura. The shadow then shot out in three directions, connecting the table with the seats and the silhouette of the three seated there. Finally, a portion of these shadows wormed their way up the side of the stallion, wavering for just a moment before quickly shooting up into his jacket.

To the knowledge of nobody, a combination of several unique spells had just been cast in rapid succession of one another.

Yet, to the knowledge of the ones at the table, the stallion suddenly found themselves blinking in confusion, raising a hoof against their head as they gave out a groan.

"Oh, okay, I guess I'm driving now?"

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

I wasn't really given a lot of warning, all things considered. From my point of view, it was just 'we have a solution', followed by a bunch of really weird sensations of stuff moving all around me. The closest I have as a comparison would be saying a bunch of warm snake-like creatures that had no physical mass were wriggling all around me. Then, I was practically slingshotted back into my own body, with all the senses and control that it had entailed.

The fact that I hadn't fallen off of my seat was nothing short of impressive. Though I could certainly do without the headache I had to deal with afterward. Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as bad as the last time I was given back control from Nightmare Moon, but god damn if it didn't at least leave me a little uncomfortable.

As I rubbed a hoof against the side of my head, I could hear Gilda chime in from across me.

"Uh... J, is that you?" I nodded, pursing my lips as I looked up towards the griffon.

"I guess so? Don't really know why I'm in control again, but uh... here I am?" I found myself looking at the Dr. Hay-Per in front of me a lot, suddenly really aware of how long it had last been since I had one.

I was more of a Celly-kist fan if we were being brutally honest, but it was either this or a Para-Sprite and frankly, lemon-flavored sodas always seemed to make me hungrier than anything.

... I hate how normal those pony parodies are to me now.

"I-if you're the one in control again, then w-wheres-" Halfy began, only to find herself interrupted as a familiar voice decided to make itself known.

"We hath simply taken an alternative form, our friends!"

"WHOA. WHAT THE ACTUAL DRAGON SHIT?!" Gilda practically shrieked, taking a page from my book of curses. She swung her arms and wings wildly as she well and truly fell backward off of her stool at the voice of Nightmare Moon. Halfy, for her part, practically slammed her forehooves into the table, fighting every instinct in her body to keep herself from kicking her rear legs out.

As I watched this whole display, I blinked, a part of me cringing at how much attention we had likely been drawing. I was already formulating some excuse we could use about how there was a bee or something that had scared Gilda and Halfy when I leaned ever so slightly back into my stool.

"Oh, our apologies! We forget that our presence within the thoughts of ye both is not yet the norm." Nightmare Moon apologized. I, in the meantime, was starting to piece together what had happened.

Gilda could be seen replacing her stool and all but slamming herself back into the table, her eyes narrowed as she looked left and right, more than likely searching for the source of the voice in her head.

"Seriously, what? I'm not going cuckoo, right? You guys can hear her in your heads too?" She interrogated, watching as Halfy took a few breaths to calm herself down before glancing around the table as well.

"Y-yeah, I-I hear her t-too." She assured gently.

I tilted my head ever so slightly as I looked to the two before me, leaning forward onto one of my elbows - at least I think that ponies had elbows - before supporting the weight of my head on the flat of my hoof.

It was weird watching others react to it for the first time. I had practically jumped out of my own skin so many times from all the mental trespasses I had dealt with in the past few months that I was practically numb to it by now. Gilda and Halfy, evidently, were not. Side Note: I found it pretty funny how the two were pretty much on the exact opposites of the spectrum when it came to reacting to stuff that scared them.

Gilda definitely had much more of a 'fight' reaction, her eyes looking around us like an animal looking for prey, while Halfy was more of a flight reaction, her glances being the kind that implied she was watching for an animal that was hunting her down. All things considered, it was probably obvious.

I shrugged as I drew a knowing smirk faintly across my temporary muzzle.

"Yeah, you get used to it." I said flatly. I decided to use the opportunity to practice with my hooves a bit more, reaching out for and trying to grasp the straw that was in the glass of Dr. Hay-Per in front of me. It took me more than a few tries to figure out how the hell ponies grabbed stuff without magic, and I even now I don't think I'm properly able to explain it.

"We do seem to recall you screaming like a little filly on more than one occasion." The voice that was apparently now in all our collective minds said with no shortage of mirth to it.

"As I said, you get used to it." I responded dryly, rolling my eyes as I heard Nightmare Moon giggle at the edges of my mind.

"Okay, you are being way too chill about this. The buck is going on?!" Gilda once more demanded for answers, to which I simply responded by gesturing a hoof below us.

"Remember how Nightmare Moon was hiding in a bunch of shadows when you first met her?" I started, making sure to keep my voice down just in case somebody else heard us. Fortunately for me, nobody seemed to have even noticed all the noise we had made prior, either being far too busy with their own conversations or occupied with their jobs to have heard all the commotion through the glass that separated us from the well-lit interior of the diner. I shuddered as I noticed the lighting that wasn't more than a couple of feet from us, actively doing my best to focus literally on what I was saying so that I wouldn't go into a panic.

"Well," I continued, "it's kinda like that. Except she's probably hiding inside of all of our shadows. I don't know how it works, but it tends to make it so that her thoughts pop up in our heads while ours can pop up inside of hers."

I was basing this mostly on the limited knowledge of the subject I had, almost all of which had been based on the time we had spent inside of our cell in the Canterlot dungeons together. Evidently, though, I was right on the money.

" 'Twould seem that you have become quite knowledgable in the machinations of our shadow sorcery, Sir Jeremy. We are most impressed!" I held back a chortle as I shook my head in response to Nightmare Moon's praise.

"I'd hardly call it 'knowledgable'."

Moreso, I would have called it 'accidentally experienced'.

"Wait, hang on," Gilda yet again chimed in, finally seeming to calm down ever so slightly as she stopped looking all around her, "she can hear our thoughts?"

"Only if you want her to," I responded simply. "It's like sending a text-" I paused, realizing that the comparison I was about to give probably wouldn't have worked out seeing as this world had no concept of cell phones. I readjusted my approach before trying again. "... Like sending a letter. If you don't make it out specifically for her, she doesn't tend to hear it."

I watched the two before me slowly but surely seem to process the information they had been provided with. Halfy seemed to gain an expression that simply bathed in curiosity while Gilda pursed her lips while glancing down below the table, likely trying to see if she could spot which of the shadows below us the alicorn had been hidden in. Gilda gave up before long, shaking her head before glancing at the cider she had thankfully left on the table before she fell over, grabbing it, and downing the last half with little more than one quick motion.

"So-" her beak turned into a scowl for a moment as she seemingly looked for words she wanted to say. She forced her eyes closed, seeming to strain herself in thought.

"So, like this?" Her voice ultimately came through, though this time echoing in the back of my mind much in the same way that Nightmare Moon had been.

"Verily! 'Twould seem as though you are already a natural!" I heard Nightmare Moon respond, an image of her clapping her hooves together in glee accompanying her words. Shortly after, a third voice joined the psychic ensemble.

"O-oh! T-there we go! Uh, wait, you can send i-images too? Um..." An image of a blurry circle that was hurriedly drawn on a blank sheet of paper came through. "Oh. Wow."

Both Gilda and Halfy had looks of curiosity and focus on their faces as they went about testing out the workings of the spell. They sent thoughts to everyone, then each other, then images, then separate their own thoughts once again, and so forth. In other words, they were doing their damndest to figure out how this new concept that had quite suddenly been introduced to them worked. It was like watching a kid learn to use the bike for the first time. It was slow going at first, but eventually, they seemed to get the hang of it.

"It's weird to watch this from an outside perspective." I thought jokingly towards Nightmare Moon, receiving a giggle in return.

"Quite. Though, they seem to be gathering the concept much more effectively than you had prior."

"Hey, cut me some slack. Humans don't do magic, remember?"

"Nor do griffons and earth ponies." She teased, drawing a small chortle from me.

"You know what I mean."

The two across from me continued in their testing for another few moments before, finally, they seemed satisfied. Gilda was the first to speak up, this time physically.

"Alright, whatever, freaky shadow magic. Fine." She conceded, likely deciding to just go with the flow of things like she usually did. "But, like, why did she do that again?"

It was a pretty damn good question if I do say so myself. In fact, it was the only question that I had at the time too. We had been doing just fine with Nightmare Moon just staying in my shadow and puppeteering me everywhere up until that point, so I had no idea why she had suddenly decided to do something different this time around.

Before I could mirror her curiosity, I felt an odd sensation crawl up my spine, slithering around the inside of my jacket,

"We simply did not wish to split the better parts of our merriment into unsatisfying halves between Sir Jeremy and ourselves. So, to rectify this, we performed a simple series of spells to allow us to actively participate in the activity of flavoring the modern world's wonders whilst serving as nothing more than a simple wisp beholden to the whims of Sir Jeremy's ponyhood. "

... Did you get that?

No?

Cool. I didn't either.

Gilda and I blinked, not really sure whatever the heck we had just heard before Halfy spoke up once more.

"U-um, princess, you might wanna try that one again. S-slowly, if you don't mind." A sense of understanding entered my mind from some external source - likely the alicorn hiding within my shadow - before I heard a hum.

"Hm... Perhaps we would be easier able to show you than explain the intricacies behind our actions? Sir Jeremy?" I stirred ever so slightly out of the thoughts I had been devoting to translating whatever it was she had said before.

"Yeah?" I returned simply.

"Would you be so gentlecoltly as to lift the beverage we ordered to your right shoulder?" I furrowed my brows at this, more than a little baffled by the odd request. But I didn't any reason to argue, so I went about stress-testing my newly found knowledge on how ponies grabbed hold of things with hooves to fulfill her odd request.

I ended up having to use both of my forehooves, fumbling around with them like a newborn before I was able to balance the glass between the two otherwise flat surfaces that made up the ends of my front legs, but eventually I managed to get things under control. Once I was sure that my 'grip' was secure, I brought the beverage up to my right shoulder as I had been instructed.

Both Halfy and Gilda watched me curiously. They weren't really sure what to expect in the same way that I wasn't sure what to expect. I sat there awkwardly for a moment, waiting for something, anything, to happen.

Then, I felt it. At first, it was just that vague sensation of something warm wriggling along the inside of my jacket again. For a second I was worried that a squirrel or something had somehow managed to jump onto me and hide inside of my sweater. Those concerns faded away however and were instead replaced by a sense of pleasant surprise.

The warmth spread from just a small massless portion into a much larger, all-encompassing blanket. It felt as though my entire back, as well as some parts of my shoulder, neck, and the right side of my face were being smothered. The sensation was familiar. Only vaguely, but the familiarity was there nonetheless as I watched something enter the very most corner vision on my right. It was as though some of the smaller shadows created by the area between my jacket and I had suddenly begun to spring to life, leaping off of their pre-ordained places to take shape in the air next to me.

In an odd way, it was like watching vines and plant life grow, twist, and knit themselves together. It took only seconds for the shadows to form themselves together, but from my perspective, it had seemed like hours as I tried to watch this spectacle unfold. Nonetheless, form themselves the shadows did. And when I saw what they had formed into, I realized just where I had recognized that warm sensation from before.

There, practically as close to me as she could possibly be was Nightmare Moon. She was leaning her head forward, just atop of my shoulder where I could feel her nuzzle into me ever so slightly. The sensation I had found familiar had turned out to have been that of Nightmare Moon's fur against my skin.

Glancing behind me, I could very clearly see Nightmare Moon had her entire body pressed up against me from behind, easily able to meet my height from a sitting position on the floor despite me being sat atop of a stool. Her wings were held firmly to her side, though I could see them fidget ever so slightly, as though they wanted desperately to move. Parts of her mane tickled against me, once more making its sentience known as it gave smaller wisps of the movement against me.

At that moment I was practically a statue, not really sure how I should go about analyzing the situation I was in without frying my brain out in the process. The only thing that brought me out of my shock was the easy-to-identify sound of icecubes clicking against one another, as well as the sound of someone slurping from a straw.

I turned my eyes towards the source, watching as Nightmare Moon used her place from atop my shoulder to sip on the soda I held out for her. Looks of curiosity, then intrigue, then joyful satisfaction crossed the face of the mare that all but smothered me at that moment. She seemed to let out a grateful hum before, just as quickly as she appeared next to me, she disappeared, leaving me colder and the glass I held in my hooves emptier.

I just sat there for a bit, not really knowing how to react as I almost unconsciously placed the glass of Dr. Hay-Per back onto the table and looked at the others.

From what they told me later on, what they had seen had been quite a bit different from what I had seen. From their perspective, they just saw me move the glass to my shoulder and then start to empty as some invisible force seemed to drink the beverage away.

Nonetheless, they held their own... unique reactions to the show.

"Holy hayfeathers..."

"Okay, that was pretty cool."

I blinked. Words dumbly escaped me in a mumble before I could even try to stop them.

"Actually, it was very pleasantly warm..."

I could vaguely feel some sense of smug satisfaction that wasn't my own tickle against the back of my mind.

Hi.

Couple notes:

1. I did a lot of re-editing to add more personality and consistency in tone to the story. All of the chapters that have the '[Here Again]' at the end have been adjusted by a lot.

2. Hi again