After Spike's dramatic outburst, Kamina and Twilight set about visiting their friends after arranging a get-together since Kamina was awake, filling them in about their new relationship, which made the others all huff at Twilight; and informed them to their embarrassment that it sounded like a normal courtship, but they started as friends. Also the other girls were clearly a little upset that Twilight nabbed Kamina. This made Twilight smirk at them, and declare “Hey, we're friends, we can share.” which, of course, led Kamina to blacking out from a massive nosebleed.

After revitalizing him, they then informed him of Twilight's new official residency in the library. Kamina was happy about this, but was also somewhat disturbed. His thoughts on Ponyville being a farce of a town, and really being some giant cage still bugged him, but when asked why he looked unhappy about it, he quickly disguised it as being a joke about him downgrading from a fancy stone library to a wooden one, beings he didn't feel like returning to Canterlot anytime soon, despite being a prince. When asked why, he again quickly hid the real reason, saying he didn't want to have to put up with stuck-up ponies anytime soon.

Which, while true, wasn't anywhere near the deepest truth that he couldn't look his mother in the eyes until she made up for her cruel manipulations of these wonderful mares. He also couldn't tell them this; they had to hear it from his mother.

Twilight, of course, being the smart mare she was; knew he was lying, knew he was hiding something. But she let it go, she knew that if Kamina was hiding something, then it was either serious and he has a good reason, or it was silly and not worth worrying about. Applejack caught it too of course, but when she saw Twilight look at her, they silently exchanged words, knowing they'd talk about it later.

It was a few weeks later, the prince, the scholar, and the assistant all settled in quite nicely, even if they did have celebrity status with the town at large. Seriously; one was a prince, one was one of the six Bearers of Harmony and Celestia's student, and one was the only dragon citizen in town, yeah, celebrities alright.

So, in spite of practically being mobbed the whole first week, they managed to familiarize themselves with several the of citizens as they got used to living in a small town, which they all felt was a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of the city of Canterlot, and free of all the snobs and self-important nobles of the royal and high-society districts they lived and worked in.

Sure, they missed Pony Joe's, but Sugarcube Corner was certainly a contender. It wasn't the Canterlot Bathhouse, but the Aloe-Lotus Spa was wonderful considering what they had to work with in comparison. Lastly; the Golden Oaks Library was indeed ridiculously smaller, and rustic...and lacking in luxuries in comparison to Celestia's (cough-Twilight's-cough) private library back in the castle, they were enjoying it, even if they all had to sleep in the same room, beings it was the only room besides the ground floor library, kitchen, and bathrooms.

So, for these first weeks; Twilight had been focusing on practicing spells on living magic, of which the library was clearly a product of, to get it to literally grow bigger to accommodate more rooms. In the end, the tree grew about three times larger, got two guest rooms, a bigger upstairs bathroom, and a bigger kitchen and library. Oh yes, but lets not forget the basement. It was a bit of a chore; but Kamina used his access to the royal treasury to pay a local construction crew to expand the basement, which was perfectly safe due to the library's wide and strong roots keeping it firmly in place.

As of now though; they were helping out Applejack. She'd asked Twilight and Kamina to help her to win some sort of bet she and Big Mac had going involving if she could fill the day's quota before lunch without his help. They asked her if them helping her was being dishonest to the bet, and Applejack slyly told them “t'weren't no rules against askin' others to help”.

“Thank ya kindly you two for helping me out! With this; Big Mac is going to be walking down Stirrup Street in one of granny's girdles!” Applejack gushed in amusement, making both Kamina and Twilight chortle at the thought of the big stallion squeezing into one of those small things, let alone parading through one of the main streets of the town in it.

“Not a problem! It'd be hilarious to see Big Red walking down the street in such an embarrassing outfit! It'd be even funnier if he somehow kept his face neutral like he always does.” Kamina observed, making the friends all laugh together, before Twilight made a sound of protest, and they looked at the dragon on her back sorting through the apples in the baskets saddled on her.

“Spike, what are you doing?” At Twilight's question, he dropped the apple he was inspecting on her head, making her glare at him.

“Sorry...but I'm looking for the perfect apple to snack on. You guys took so long bucking those trees I missed snack time.” At Spike mentioning food, both Twilight's and Kamina's bellies decided to give audible declarations of their displeasure at not being given tribute since breakfast several hours ago.

“Oh~, I'm so glad it's almost lunch time, now that you mention it.” Twilight paused as one of her billowing locks of hair got in her eyes, and she blew it up back into her flame-like purple mane. Twilight's synchronicity with her Shift form was beginning to carry over to her base form, something that was completely normal for Shifters, being a sort of unique puberty. Over the weeks, her mane and tail were becoming less distinct, and more ethereal like Celestia's mane and tail, only instead of being a flowing curtain in a nonexistent breeze, it was wild, rippling and waving like a slow purple fire, her pink highlight seeming to move through her mane and tail too. She was also subconsciously beginning to gain manual control over it like Nightmare had over her own mane and tail, meaning she didn't need to shift completely to have extra ethereal limbs.

“Well Ah'd be glad to rustle us up some grub when we get back to the house.” Applejack offered, making them all beam at their savior.

“We'd be glad to have some of your delicious cooking AJ!” Kamina stated, making AJ blush slightly, so she was glad she was in front of them.

“Ah, shucks, t'ain't nothin'.” AJ humbly replied, until they heard a loud, obnoxious crunch, and looked at the baby dragon culprit.

“Spike! That apple belonged to Applejack's family!” Twilight reprimanded him, beings the apples hadn't been cleaned for sale yet either. Before AJ could agree or say it was alright, Spike burped up fire that formed into a scroll, which was obviously from Celestia, beings nopony else has Spike's magic signature to send anything.

'Oh, great, a letter from her again. I wonder what she wants.' Kamina's musing ended up making him miss most of what Spike read off of the scroll, but he did get the tail end.

“-Two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala!” Spike held up two golden tickets. “For Twilight Sparkle, plus one guest.” After Spike's report, Kamina rolled his eyes while Twilight and AJ were stunned for a moment, before quickly erupting into girly cheering.

“Meh, you girls go on and talk about your fancy balls or whatever, I'm going to do something productive.” Kamina continued on to AJ's barn while Twilight and her went gaga over the gala. 'Wow mom, such a troll. Seriously? Sending TWO tickets when Twilight has five friends?' Kamina snorted and looked up at the giant sky-piercing mountain that Canterlot hung off of. 'You love creating trouble as much as you love resolving it.'

Kamina reached the main barn next to AJ's house, and carefully dumped his baskets of apples into the cellar she'd designated for them at the start of their work. “Where are those girls? And my little bro at that?” Kamina stood outside, and looked towards where he came from, only to see nopony coming up the dirt road. “Ugh, great, they ditched me. Leave it up to the stallion! Sure! He'll do ALL THE WORK!” Kamina's irate shout echoed out into the orchard, and he sighed.

“Ya sound tense.” Kamina turned calmly to see the ever stoic Big Macintosh, who was half-lidded and relaxed as ever as he chewed on a stalk of hay, and entered the barn to look into the cellar. “Well darn, looks like Ah'll have to try and put on one of granny's girdles.”

“Oh? Sorry Big Mac, AJ had us help her out.” Kamina apologized sheepishly, but Big Mac just closed the cellar and shrugged.

“Well Ah should've been more clear on the terms of the bet. Didn't say she couldn't have help from somepony else.” Kamina's gut decided to roar just then, making Kamina laugh. “Hungry?” Kamina nodded. “Got some fritters in the ice box.”

“Well thanks Big Mac. Say, aside from that strut down Stirrup Street, what else do you have planned today? We haven't had many chances to hang out.” Kamina asked as he followed Big Mac into the house, where they took a few cold fritters from the fridge.

“Nope, got nothin'.” Big Mac eloquently replied.

“So, actually, what is there to do between guys here in Ponyville? I've only hung out with the girls, so I don't exactly know any stallion hang-outs here.” Kamina asked as he ate a fritter, and Big Mac scratched his chin with an enormous hoof.

“Well there's the bowlin' alley, the pub, the nightclub, and other such places. Otherwise we stallions got to find our own entertainment. Most of us play a bit of hoofball if there's enough of us in the playing field on the northwest edge of town.” Big Mac put a whole fritter in his mouth, closed it, and seemed to swallow it whole, but Kamina saw him chew, it was just ridiculously fast. “That's outta the question today though. Weather's scheduled to downpour soon, so the fields will be too slippery for safe play.”

“Not to mention all the pansies too afraid to get their coats dirty.” Kamina and Big Mac chuckled. “So~...what's this about a girdle?”

Big Mac sighed in resignation.

===//////>

Kamina was trying so, very, very hard not to laugh at his friend's expense. “Hey, to be fair, it looks good on you!” Kamina commented, and snickered, but Big Mac was as stoic as ever; pink frilly girdle and all.

“Eeyup.” Big Mac let it roll off him, as he strode down Stirrup Street with Kamina, who like a true friend; stuck with him to enjoy his torment, not that it was all that bad. “Just have to walk through town once and then head back, don't matter how many ponies laugh, it's all in good fun.”

“Pfft, well, I'm at least trying not to laugh at your situation.” Suddenly, very shockingly fast at that; the sky over town was completely covered in rain clouds! “Whoa! Rainbow doesn't joke about that speed!”

“Uh-oh, best get inside. Don't want to get an earful from granny for ruinin' her girdle.” Big Mac picked up his slow pace to a light gallop towards the nearest public building, which turned out to be the Aloe-Lotus Spa. They were rounding the building, when to both stallion's shock, a hill which was just next to the spa, had a runaway empty cart rushing down it; blown off it's spot at the top of the hill by the wind kicked in by the storm. “Look out!” Big Mac pushed Kamina out of the way, but he couldn't move in time and it crashed fully into him, flipping over him and knocking the large stallion to the ground. The cart itself blew to pieces, but Mac seemed to be in one piece.

“Mac!” Kamina jumped to his hooves, and rushed to his friend, who was awake, but was cringing in pain. “Mac! Where does it hurt?!”

“Mah chest 'n shoulder...can't move!” Big Mac seemed to be having trouble breathing, and Kamina was on the verge of panicking.

“Oh-gosh, oh-gosh, oh-gosh! Um, wait here! Aloe!” Kamina rushed into the front door of the spa, startling Aloe of the Aloe and Lotus twin sisters sitting behind the reception desk. Aloe was a soft pink earth pony mare with a light blue mane a tail, and a cutie mark of a lotus blossom, which she shares with her twin sister Lotus, who was only different from her in that her coat and hair colors were inverted. Both sisters maintained their appearances like Rarity, so their eyes were accentuated with the same kind of eye shadow, and their eyelashes were more pronounced. “Aloe! Big Mac got hit by a cart just outside!”

“What?!” She bolted from behind the counter, and ran outside with Kamina to the downed red stallion, who was hissing in pain, and taking short breaths, his mouth had flecks of darker red blood on his lips. “Oh no! He might have punctured a lung! Get him inside!” Aloe got her head under the big stallion, and grunted in exertion, but her earth pony body proved true, and she was able to get him mostly on her back. Kamina got over his momentary surprise at seeing a mare almost half Mac's size pick him up like that, and used his telekinesis to take his weight off her, and they rushed inside just before the downpour started. “My Prince! I'm sorry to ask this; but we're just a spa, I only have first aid here. He needs to get to the hospital.”

“Ok! I'll get to the Ponyville General, get the paramedics, and be right back!” He looked to Mac. “Hold on Mac! Take light breaths!” Kamina dashed out into the blinding deluge of rain, barely able to see a few feet in front of him. “Ponyville General, Ponyville General....” He ran, but he couldn't tell were he was, or which way to go, he was still too new to town. “Damn it! I can't let this happen!” Kamina grit his teeth, and his horn's spiral began to glow with spiral power, and he hissed in pain; his horn still suffering the backlash of his overexertion three weeks ago.

'C'mon! C'MON! You can do this!' Kamina envisioned the hospital, remembered the foyer, and Nurse Redheart sitting behind the reception desk. 'NOTHING WILL STOP ME!' His eyes emitted blue light as his horn practically erupted in spiral power to fuel his risky spell, and Kamina successfully disappeared in a flash, his first use of long range teleportation a forced success.

Kamina appeared moments later, in a daze, his horn smoking, and his vision cloudy as he could hear a commotion, but it was hard to focus on with the searing agony covering his whole head and down his neck. “Dear Celestia he's on fire! Put him out!” Kamina was splashed in the face, and he sputtered in confusion as he felt the tell-tale all-encompassing push of telekinesis holding him in the air.

“Wait! Emergency! Big Macintosh was hit by a cart in front of the Aloe-Lotus Spa, and he might have a punctured lung, but he's too big to get here without help!” Kamina shouted frantically, trying to get it across somepony else but him needed help.

“We'll send paramedics your majesty, but we have to treat these burns!” Kamina thrashed, and tried to get free; his friend needed him! But then he felt something jab into his flank, and soon, it was hard to focus on anything....

===//////>

Kamina awoke slowly, his whole head felt like he dipped it into Twilight's mane during an outburst of righteous fury. His whole head was wrapped in gauze, so he couldn't see, and a nose plug breathing tube was inserted into his nostrils through the wrap. 'Oh man, the doctors weren't kidding; my horn was in no way ready for any serious casting yet.' Kamina groaned in pain, and felt a hoof grasp his exposed right hoof which had an IV inserted; which was why he wasn't in complete agony and just searing pain. “Hmph?”

“Shh, it's me.” Kamina calmed down at hearing Twilight's voice. “You cast a spell your horn couldn't handle yet. You idiot, you need to let yourself recover before you pull stupid stunts like this.”

“Mim mah?” Kamina tried to ask, but his muzzle was wrapped shut right now, but Twilight; the literary savant could still grasp what he was trying to convey.

“Big Mac has a few broken ribs, one punctured his left lung. He also fractured his sternum, collarbone, and shoulder. He'll be fine though, because since you alerted the staff so fast the paramedics got to him in time.” Twilight kissed his hoof, and sniffled. “You saved my friend's brother, and you almost blew your head off to do it too. Have I told you just how much I admire you?”

Kamina wasn't going to bother trying to speak anymore, but he nodded his head, which made him hiss at the burns on his neck. “Miss Sparkle.” Nurse Redheart's voice interrupted them. “Visiting hours are over sweetie. He needs his rest.”

“I'll be back tomorrow Kamina. Don't worry, you'll be fine.” Twilight let go of his hoof, and he suddenly felt so helpless, so weak, and reached out to her pathetically, before he let his hoof fall back to the bed.

'You've got to fix this Kamina. What kind of stallion falls to pieces so easily?' Kamina grit his teeth at himself, regardless of the pain it caused. 'I have to get stronger....'

Author's Notes:

And so; just WHY Big Mac is hurt and can't help AJ with Applebuck Season is clarified for this AU, and also limitations on using Spiral Power through a horn without proper practice are clearly apparent with severe negative consequences.