Author's Notes:

"I want to write shorter chapters," I said. "I don't think I'll do long things like this again," I said.

Sorry for the long wait (checking back on the blogs to see how long this chapter has been a work-in-progress almost makes me sick), but all in all I think I feel like I accomplished a good deal both in the chapter and with my writing. Plot-wise the wheels are turning and things are beginning to happen.

As it's such a long chapter I did my best for the editing pass but if you see something please let me know. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy!

Coming back from the edge of slumber, Twilight barely had enough conscious capacity to register the feeling of something soft and smooth dragging its long way across her chest as another similar sensation came from her croup, both eventually coming to a stop and flexing, pulling her body sideways on the couch cushion; she was sped along her way toward waking up when the adjustment caused her head to drop from its perch. Partially sitting up Twilight returned it to its former location but by then her ascent to a wakeful state was irreversible; with a heavy sigh she opened her sleep-crusted eyes to look at her still sleeping human companion laying partially on his side, his arms having tangled around her and commandeered her barrel for a pillow. From the hair covering his face and gently moving when he breathed down to his wide shoulders and across his back she let her gaze wander over him, though it lingered on his exposed flank and the angled thigh that covered his groin before traveling the remaining expanse down to his feet and toes. He's back to normal. Well, normal for him, anyway. Twilight angled her neck and zeroed in on that sensitive spot near his ear to give him a friendly nuzzle, eagerly brushing through his long hair and taking deep sniffs of his scent for the first time in a long week.

Twilight suddenly felt herself pulled in closer as Titus rolled the rest of the way onto his stomach; arms trembling in their strong flex and both legs shooting out straight behind him over the end of the sofa in a full-body stretch as he released the warm breath of a long yawn into her fur that left a tingling sensation behind for a brief moment. "Good morning," she sighed as his arms relaxed, the one over her back coming up to rub his groggy-looking face with a palm, "It looks like you've reverted to your usual form, though I wish I had been awake to watch the process. How are you feeling?"

Lifting his head up enough so that he could watch, Titus wiggled his fingers just to be sure. Good to see these little buddies again. Placing his head back on her side he gave the lavender unicorn a squeeze as he returned the nuzzle that had woken him, "Mornin' Twi." Titus was sore all over much the same way he had been after his unexpected equine change - Luna having explained it to stem from his bones and muscles being magically altered - in addition to that, despite all the sleep he had gotten, he was still dead tired. His current lack of clothing was also something that would need to be addressed and from his place on her barrel Titus subtly watched as the pony's gaze drifted over him.

Twilight couldn't help but study the human, this being the first time she seen him uncovered- Well, barring that instances on the ship and that other time when Luna carried his limp form out of the bathroom, but I'd had been a bit too... preoccupied at both for scientific analysis. Though his back was to her she continued her examination until several small pockmarks and lines caught her attention, a closer examination revealed them to be a network of tiny scars working their way out from a spot between his shoulder-blades, one of the larger ones Twilight followed as it traced a path down his spine. I didn't see these before. I wonder what caused them. Despite her interest in the curious spiderweb of lines, Twilight continually found her gaze drawn to the flanks further down Titus' body.

When he was sure she was watching Titus flexed his glutes and laughed out loud when the unicorn flushed deeply, "So, should I expect a thorough dissertation on my butt," Titus asked, grinning as his unexpected inquiry startled Twilight from her study, "or were you just admiring the view?"

Unsure which he would find more offending, staring at his scars or his rump, Twilight fumbled a response before sheepishly apologizing, though her eyes would occasionally dart back unintentionally.

His arms tightened around the unicorn, giving her his customary I'm-not-offended squeeze like he had when she had called him a helpless stallion back in the trench, "It's alright Twi, when you watched me change back at the ship-"

"Wait, you knew?!" she exclaimed, clearly aghast.

"Well... yeah. On the other side of the portal I needed to be good at watching my own back if I wanted to stay alive; the Force sometimes alerts me to certain unseen dangers," he replied, keeping her in a tight hug and nuzzling her again, "or, in this case, to a pony watching me undress. Anyway, you were understandably curious about me and I guess I didn't mind. Besides, since then I've cast more than a few glances at your rump-" he suddenly turned his head to give her a raspberry right on her cutie mark.

"AHA! NO! AHASTOPAHA!" Twilight, one of those ponies with a ticklish cutie mark, squirmed and laughed uncontrollably as her hind legs bucked in feeble retaliation from their pinned position beneath the human, her pleas falling on deaf ears as Titus continued his raspberry assault for a few seconds more, "D-DAHAHADon't! S-stop!

"'Don't stop?' Okay, if you say so! *ppppbt!*"

"No s-s-st-AHAHAH-op! Please-"

"*Ppp-pPBT!*"

"P-please AHAHAHAHA- aha... ha..." she finished her panting laughs to find his warm chocolate eyes firmly fixed on hers and a wide smile plastered across his face; Twilight returned the smile, partly because she was still coming down off the bout of laughing and couldn't help herself. A few moments passed of them just basking in each other's bliss when Twilight abruptly leaned and rubbed her nose against his several times before pulling herself back. He looks so happy. Maybe now is a good time...?

"T-Titus, do you think-"

Her mouth suddenly went dry and her stomach felt like it did a few acrobatic stunts that would have been enough to impress even Rainbow Dash as Twilight found she had spoken before she could properly formulate her proposition; she stopped herself, ears flat back and to describe her face as nervous would have been an understatement, her eyes hopeful and searching as she stepped to the metaphorical edge of the precipice and whispered her reworded question with her heart thoroughly in her throat, "Um, w-would you go on a date with me...?"

It was the very definition of blunt, but Titus got the feeling it was only because she hadn't planned on asking him at that moment. Not like I should judge; I wouldn't have known how to do it better either. "Twilight," the arm around her chest freed itself from under her hooves to work its fingers into her mane and pull her close to repeat the nose-rubbing gesture, "Yes. I would very much like to go on a date," he paused to give her a quick peck, "with you." There was a small pause before an excited gasp and two hooves wrapped around him to pull him into a crushing embrace.

"Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Twilight was positively glowing and Titus quickly found himself smothered in energetic nuzzles, each one followed by a hum as he tried to keep up with returning the affectionate gestures. YES! That puts me at step two! Next is talking with Fluttershy for the meal and a quick stop by Rarity's for the wine and a few last-minute pointers. "I'm going to need a day or two... there's a couple of things I need to get together before I'm ready; sorry," she was the one to initiate their next kiss, intending it to be a brief smooch but happily lingered for increasingly long moments on his lips as she felt her heart sing.

Giving her a quick ear rub before reaching down and dragging his cloak from the floor to cover his lower half Titus rolled over to sit normally on the couch, "That actually works out bett-" he grunted as he lowered his legs to the floor, "works out better for me; I need to check on R6's progress with repairs and do some work of my own..." with that he lounged back as much as he could on the modest sofa, both arms going out to either side to rest atop the back, "but I'll need clothes before I can go out." Titus stared at the low ceiling while trying to figure out a way to obtain a set from the ship. It'll take forever for R6 to roll all the way here down that trench, that's if he doesn't get stuck in the slough.

There's that odd human clothing requirement of his. Twilight rolled her eyes after looking over him once again and, as before, found no discernible reason he should feel the need to cover his body. She was on the verge of re-positioning herself into the comfortable-looking crook between his dangling forearm and side when he suddenly sat up.

"Hey Twilight, when Rainbow Dash stopped by the night I left for Canterlot she had my flight suit with her. Did you have any success removing the webs stuck to it?"

"Yep!" she said with an enthusiastic nod, "It was actually a pretty interesting experiment finding the most effective solution to dissolve the spider's adhesive and it gave me something to think about - and Lyra a much deserved break - for a few hours." Twilight hopped off the couch, getting an unseen grin from the human as she did a few cute stretches of her own before turning around to find Titus had wrapped the cloak around himself; Just cut him a break, Twilight, the act of wearing clothing is ingrained into his culture so you can't just ask him to flip a switch and turn that off... though he seemed pretty relaxed about it earlier. Drat, still more progress to be made on that front. Her disappointment must have been expressed on her face because he reached down to tousle her forelock with a small chuckle.

"Thanks for cleaning it up, that's quite literally my last good flight suit," Titus gently scratched the spot between her ears, knowing it was something Twilight greatly enjoyed, "So is it down in the lab?"

Shaking the displaced bangs out of her eyes, she gave the hand a quick nuzzle before leading him from the living room, "It's upstairs, come on. I did what I could to fix the bathroom door until I can get it replaced, though I'm afraid I'm not particularly adept at fix-it jobs like that." On their ascent up the stairs Titus offered to take a look, calling himself "handy" at things like that which Twilight couldn't help but find the euphemism amusing. She was considering his offer when she caught his eyes drifting over her much like she had done to him and, deciding it was her turn to catch him watching, put into practice something Rarity had taught her earlier last week and slowly transitioned from her normal walk to a strut that caused her shoulders and hips to roll suggestively; her ploy worked and his gaze became fixated. T-This must be how she feels when every stallion in the room turns to watch her. Check 'flirting' off the to-do list! Twilight continued for a few more strides, giggling internally at the unfamiliar but entirely welcome attention she was getting, "Conducting observations for your own thesis or just enjoying the view-EEEP!" she squeaked and leapt up to the top of the stairs when Titus pinched her flank lightly.

"Hey, that was my line, but I very much enjoy the view, Twi. I'm glad to see your cut healed up well, too," he joined her at summit and rubbed the spot he pinched before giving it several pats as both of them continued down the hallway with some form of physical connection to each other; Titus running his hand through her mane and scratching her ears and Twilight keeping in contact with her neck on his thigh and humming happily.

Coming toward her door Twilight took the lead, noticing that Titus cast a quick glance just a bit further down the hall at the makeshift bathroom "door," which was nothing more than several misaligned boards roughly nailed together with large gaps between them. "If you'd rather change in my room that's fine too, I can-" Twilight was in the process of opening her door when she remembered the state she had left her bedroom in yesterday. Before he could get a look up the short flight of stairs she slammed the door closed again and blocked his path, "Aheh... on second thought, maybe you could just wait here a minute."

In the time it took for Titus to blink she disappeared, teleporting into the room and leaving him in the hallway alone.

Phew! That was close! Twilight cast a look around her room and cringed at just how far she had let it slide. Right, just need to stash everything... I can do a thorough organization of it later. Her horn glowed softly and the closet door slid open as a floating procession of miscellaneous objects quickly filed in that she gave a cursory once-over to weed out obvious standouts. PJs go to the laundry hamper and my notes on the holobook go to the desk. Pizza boxes go in the trash, not in Spike's basket... It wasn't long until her room was back to its usual tidiness though closing the closet door proved to be a bit of a challenge. Teleporting up to the small overlook to put a new set of sheets on her bed, Twilight caught sight of Titus' suit at her hooves, stuffed full of the bodypillow and covered in her own dried residue from the sessions with the cooler. Oh no. She unzipped the jumpsuit and desperately tried to rub one of the splotches from the fabric with a forehoof to no avail. Oh no no no!

Titus was staring at the bedroom door expectantly when a lavender head poked out from a door they had passed near the top of the stairs, evidence she had teleported again, and called out to him.

"I um... you know, I bet you're hungry! Why don't you go find a seat at the kitchen table I'll be right down to make some breakfast." When he shrugged Twilight closed the door and listened as his footsteps drew closer, silently hoping he'd continue down the stairs rather than try to join her in the room; when she heard he had reached the stair landing she went back to prance anxiously in front of the laundry machines. Come on, come on! After what felt like an agonizingly long time she was tossing the flight suit into the drier and charging for the kitchen, almost careening into the open fridge door as she sped around the corner and came skidding to a halt with her muzzle a mere breath away as Titus peered curiously over the top of the door at her.

"Heh. Sorry, bit of a laundry emergency. There was still some... solvent on your flight suit from the experiment, so it's in the drier now." Twilight walked around the door and found a seat at the table and quietly kicked herself that she had kept Titus waiting long enough that he had felt the need to go look in the fridge himself, though it was probably for the best on account of her meager cooking skills. She made herself content just quietly watching him; hunched over with one arm on top of the door and the other buried in the fridge, but what really caught her attention was his exposed legs and how his cloak bunched up on account of Rarity's modifications yesterday which, had she not made, probably would have resulted in the cloak tripping him up in their flight from the mares.

A bundle of apples in a small basket looked especially appealing to him, three of which he plucked out and, thanks to his long arms, was able to place on the counter without having to pause in his search for a suitable drink. As tempting as they were, it was far too early for the bottles of cider that beckoned to him from the back of the top shelf, so instead he questioningly pointed at an unknown carton on the door with an orange sphere symbol and stepped aside for Twilight's approval; getting a nod it joined the apples as he closed the door.

"Before you close it, could you grab the milk as well?" Twilight spoke up and pointed a hoof at a small glass bottle near where the carton had been, "There's a small burlap bag in that cupboard to the left of you too, if you'd bring that and two bowls and spoons. Apples by themselves hardly make for a full breakfast," she casually levitated everything he had laid out on the counter and arranged it around her while he sauntered over to the table; floating the burlap bag over she poured a small portion of a mix of oats, shaved almonds, raisins, and dried raspberries into her bowl. Twilight was adding the milk when she saw him peeking into the bag to examine the contents, "It's a cereal called muesli; it's a great fuel for anything from long study session to heavy physical labor. Here, try some," she inched her chair closer and magicked a sample into his bowl.

After an experimental taste Titus dove in to the cereal and quickly wolfed down what she had poured though Twilight just as quickly provided another and enthusiastically explained that it was just as good on top of yogurt as a small treat. When she offered that he should take the bag with him was when he noticed that her chair had been getting continually closer to his over the course of several bowls so he reached down and took hold of one of the horizontal bars between the legs and dragged it right up next to his, throwing an arm over her shoulder. "Twi, this stuff is good, damn good," Twilight had drizzled a bit of honey on his third serving, which he poked with his spoon and commented around a mouthful before swallowing it to continue, "and thanks for the breakfast, but I'm going to pass on taking the bag with me - I'd rather leave it here as an excuse to have breakfast with you again." Wow... that sounded so much cooler in my head.

She stared up at the nervous-looking smile he was giving her for a moment as a fluttering tingle slowly built in her chest that drove her to inch her way closer. "Or you could just take the bag like I'm suggesting," she placed a hoof on his leg to steady herself, the arm over her shoulder sliding further down her back as she continued ever closer, "so that I'll have an excuse to join you for breakfast." Oh come on brain! With all those books I feed you you can do better than that; plagiarize if you have to!

"Hmm, in that case I'll definitely take it with me," he dropped the spoon in his bowl and used the now-empty hand to lift her chin the rest of the to his so he could look her in the eyes, "though you'll never need an invitation to join me, Twi, my door will be open." Okay, that was better. Not great, but better. Neither of them could realize they both were experiencing very similar mental diatribes and they ended up just staring at each other waiting for a move to be made until a timid chuckle was shared.

Eventually Twilight let her head rest on his chest - the folds of his cloak having slightly separated more and more each time he leaned in for another bite of the cereal - he placed his chin on her head and wrapped both of his thick arms around her; I could get used to this... That thought made her snuggle in a little deeper, enjoying the opportunity to nuzzle up against the usually-unexposed bare skin; neither of them taking notice of the passing of time until a faint ring of a bell from upstairs announced the drier had finished and foretold of the imminent end of their contented entanglement.

Titus twisted his neck a little to avoid prodding himself with Twilight's horn and planted a light smooch on top of the unicorn's brow, "Uh, Twilight?"

"I know... I heard it," she sighed grumpily as she started to slide back into her chair so she could go retrieve his clothing. Leaving her spot was the last thing in the world Twilight wanted to do, however, so when Titus halted her retreat by squeezing his arms tighter she happily obliged and nestled back in to her previous position to glance up through her bangs and wait for him to continue.

A nuzzle was accompanied by the ear rub she had been anticipating the whole week he had been away, "I realize it's not as much of a burning issue anymore, but not this morning nor in any of the letters you sent while I was in Canterlot-"

I sent letters? But how? Spike was recalled to Canterlot on another Secret Agent mission a day after Titus left... She pushed her head off his chest to look at the human quizzically, "I don't remember sending letters.... what did they say?"

"Oh, you don't remember," Titus snorted and rolled his eyes, "Thankfully Luna only read part of the first one by mistake because you forgot to address it to me so she thought it was a friendship report or something and as far as I know after that she simply passed along anything you sent because you were very descriptive when it came to the subject matter; it had been a very awkward moment and one that both Luna and I uncomfortably teased each other about." Not that we didn't have fun, the way she'd blush when a jest was unexpectedly thrown back in her face was really cute though. Titus chuckled, recalling the image of Luna indignantly sputtering a response amid rosy cheeks and, looking down on Twilight again, he realized he had failed to jog her memory with his indirect description. Kark, so much for going the subtle route.

What letters is he talking about? Twilight was off in her own world until a sharp pinch drew her back to the kitchen table to find Titus had lightly nipped her on the neck with one of those pointy canine teeth then kissed the same spot, breathing into her coat in the process; as she was about to ask what he was doing when the words fell from her mouth in a quiet moan, his fingers having gone to work kneading both ears as he continued the nibble process down her neck for several more seconds that almost sent her eyes rolling back in her head.

"There, how was that? You described that little combination almost word for word in your first message so hopefully it'll ring a bell."

It most certainly did and all Twilight could do was grunt an affirmation as residual waves of pleasure worked their way down her spine and to a spot in her hindquarters, the sensation heightened by the last vestiges of her waning estrous cycle. That felt exhilarating- Celestial Sisters! What else did I tell him?! As her mind cleared the dread of what other fantasies she might have communicated grew causing her to bolted upright but his expression, no matter how hard she studied it, wasn't revealing anything to her.

The way she was looking at him was all too telling. "What I read was very enlightening; apparently you really like it when I nibble like that," he took the opportunity to playfully tease her but quickly changed gears as her entire upper half slumped from embarrassment and she gave a nervous laugh that was more akin to a gurgle. "Come here, Twi," in one smooth movement he repositioned the rest of her body on his stomach and reclined the small chair to balance on two legs, bracing the back against the wall behind him and giving the unicorn a second to get comfortable before wrapping his arms over her back and giving her a short but heartfelt peck, "You can relax; after realizing what was in the first letter I just set the rest aside when I got them, though the temptation to read them was strong... anyway, perhaps we'll discuss them later," he added with a wink and a boop on the nose with a finger to which she grinned sheepishly, "What I was originally looking to ask was how the tests turned out. You could say I- actually, we both had a particular interest in the results at the time."

Right. The tests. Twilight lowered her head to rest on Titus' breast and breathed a heavy sigh, "I... I succumbed to the cycle before I could satisfactorily complete all of my evaluations and haven't had time since coming out of it to finish," scooting a bit further up his body placed her muzzle right where it needed to be to nuzzle that spot on his jaw and indulge in as much of his sent as she wanted, I want every morning to be like this. Twilight thought as she was yet again surprised at just how comfortable her human friend's broad torso could be to rest on and in her mind she was calculating a rough comfort level to surface area ratio and filing it for later review. "The data from the tests I did finish lead me to theorize you can't get me pregnant," she continued nuzzling and took a few minutes to focus on the feeling of the quiet thump of the heartbeat in the chest against hers before snuggling in a bit further against his delightfully warm skin, "there's a fairly large difference in the overall number of chromosomes of our genetic structure, s-so it would be safe to, uh, you know... inside and I wouldn't have to worry about having a foal though without further research that leaves me to extrapolate on my data to form the hypothesis that the enzymes of your-"

"You're cute when you get all scientific, you know that?" he leaned into the nuzzle at his jaw with a chuckle.

Twilight felt a little irked and sat up, her love of science was serious business after all. "You don't have to patronize me. We've made a lot of advancements - many of which have occurred in the last century or so - though to you I imagine the Equestrian fields of science seem like we're still rubbing two sticks together-" her continued defense of the Equine Science Arts was cut off as Titus shook his head.

"That's not what I meant it to sound like. Not at all," he kept an arm around Twilight's back and brushed her bangs away so he could better see her amethyst eyes better, "What I intended to express was... how do I describe this, uh... there's this spark of energy about you when you delve into an explanation that shows you want to share the feeling of self-accomplishment you felt, for example, when you fully understood how a spell works - you want to share that with who you're speaking to and because you've got a rapacious thirst for knowledge your eyes light up and sparkle in a special way when presented with an opportunity to learn or explore something new... I love seeing you like that, Twi. That's all I was trying to say."

Twilight knew she occasionally misread Titus' facial expressions but there was no mistaking the genuine tenderness in his eyes as he searched her in hopes that she understood he was being sincere. She let her head sink back to his breast and left it there, snuggling into it as his arms wrapped back around to pull her in and engulf her in one of the full-body hugs his greater size allowed him to give (and the reason she liked them so much) that left her feeling like she was wrapped up in a blanket; she breathed an apology for jumping to the wrong conclusion before hooking a forehoof behind his head to pull his face closer and, when she finally felt his lips caress hers, Twilight let out a sigh as the tingle she felt seconds earlier erupted into a wave of satisfaction that rolled through her whole being - mind, body, and soul.

Craving more after the fleeting contact broke she kissed him again, though as she pressed herself against his lips a small lick lead to the discovery that she could still taste the hearty oats and subtle hints of honey, and a second lick gave way to an intense tongue-wrestling match; both of them proving to be lacking in dexterity and skill (though Twilight had a natural advantage with her longer tongue) but neither were anything but content with what the other was doing as Twilight's hooves pushed the cloak off his shoulders to expose the entirety of his upper body for her to feel against her coat while both of Titus' hands roamed over her chest, back, and finally came to rest on the point of her hip. When they eventually slowed their pace they were both breathing hard and each bore a similar wide grin that only grew wider the longer they stared at each other. After a few more minutes of collective nuzzling and lounging, Twilight eventually zipped in to rub noses with a warm giggle - Titus' fingers teasing lightly over her ribs like the keys of a piano in response - before hopping down to the floor and walking a few steps, "Come on, as much as I'd enjoy lolling about with you all day I'd much rather get you your clothes so I can finish preparations for our date-"

Turning around she immediately observed that brushing the cloak from his shoulders had left very little of him still clothed as the article fell behind him in the empty space between the chair and the small of his back; a tingle worked its way down her spine when she noticed that the V-shaped fold that was formed by both breasts of the cloak overlapping had relocated to a spot just below his navel and just above the protuberant mass in his lap. Way to go, Twilight, you got him heated and are just going to let him hang. Again. She mentally kicked herself several times for not catching on quicker as her lunch meeting with Rarity and Dash from the week before replayed in her head.

"... Now that we have the 'where' and the 'what' of your date sorted out, there are a few proprieties you should follow, darling; naturally you should be chivalrous... hold open doors and let him go first, nonchalantly pay for the meal or tickets, walk on the outside of the sidewalk so he doesn't get splattered with muck from passing carriages - however, from what you've said earlier, you two have gotten a bit... physical," Rarity whispered from behind a hoof, "with each other, which is typically a bit ahead of schedule-"

"Psh, schedule-shhmedule. If you two are both going at it it's no big deal," Dash dismissively grumbled as she repeatedly glanced down under the table after having discreetly gotten her hoof on the rogue magazine Twilight had stuffed back in her saddlebag.

"It most certainly IS a big deal!" Rarity exclaimed almost loud enough to draw attention from the other customers at the café; setting her smoothie down on her napkin delicately, she calmly addressed the studious mare she was mentoring, "Twilight, please understand that I'm happy for you but the socially-acceptable behavior is that a mare shouldn't expect a stallion to reciprocate until further into the courtship, hence the reason couples will often go on several outings before declaring themselves fillyfriend and coltfriend. I will admit you've done remarkably well to hold yourself back, if you're to be believed that all you've done is a bit of... 'petting'," she had to pause for a brief second to consider the proper term, not wanting to sound like she was using any of the animalistic slurs that had been ascociated with the human.

"One moment," Twilight, brow furrowed as she tried to keep up, busily scribbled everything that was said down before adding several lines of thought of her own on her parchment in any extra space she could find, "Could either of you provide some examples for my notes of what I shouldn't expect early on?"

"Sex." The pegasus was only listening to enough of the conversation to keep relevant should she be needed which was a skill she had practiced as a foal in school, though at this point it wasn't clear if she was providing advice or just voicing what she was thinking while she glanced over the pictures in the magazine, "Don't expect much out of your first time with a new dude though; it's usually just a couple of thrusts before he blows his load and typically falls asleep before you can get off." She was paying absolutely no attention to the fact that the mention of rutting had caused Twilight drool slightly as the unicorn's mind drifted off and her eyes unfocused.

The last few sips of her smoothie served as time for the prim fashionista to compose herself and also allow a moment for Twilight's heated mind to return to the table, "Despite Rainbow Dash's blunt and needlessly graphic answer, she is correct; typically a mare will have to show she's committed over a prolonged period of courting before such a display is made as very few stallions of desirable pedigree or those with a proper upbringing will-"

"Put out."

Rarity was past the point of outwardly acknowledging Rainbow's interjections with a response though she shook her head despairingly as she caught Twilight jotting the two words down, "Yes, what Rainbow Dash said; now, before we move on from the subject keep in mind, dear, the advice I'm providing is based on pony courtship and that humans may be completely different but regardless of that, I would recommend avoiding frivolous activities that could cause a misunderstanding of intentions and leave one party in want of the other, if you catch my drift."

"Twilight?"

Dash finally drew her gaze back up to the table, "Oh, that's called blue-balling if you're not being all hoity-toity about it, and from what I've heard it's about as fun as... um... imagine if your helper pulled your cooler out at the last second without discharging and wouldn't let you finish, yeah?" she waited for Twilight to recover from her grimace before continuing, "Yeah, definitely not awesome. Repeatedly blue-balling a stallion on purpose is a-"

Twilight?

"-quick way to get jilted; gotta give 'em the V every once in a while to keep 'em interested."

"Twi?"

The unicorn shook herself from the flashback and the image of Rarity's face contorting in revulsion to Dash's gauche commentary faded, returning her to reality; Titus was sitting in the small kitchen chair regarding her with a cross between curiosity and worry, "Sorry if I startled you, you just spaced out and seemed a bit... you were staring off and mumbling to yourself. You okay?"

"Oh, I uh..." Drat, this is a sticky situation; do I apologize and draw his attention to the fact that I know I got him heated again or do I act like I don't notice and hope he doesn't mind? Twilight thought over her choices though she was spurred into an answer as he followed her gaze to his lap and back, "Yup! Everything's fine! Let me just run upstairs and get your clothes," she tried to act casual as she backed out of the kitchen and bumped her flank on the kitchen doorjamb in the process, "Not that I mind you not wearing clothes, quite the contrary; but if you're comfortable in them, why wouldn't you want to wear them? You look good in clothes, too... I'm not saying you look worse when you're not wearing any, of course; I think you look great, actually! Aha! Ah ha! A-heh... I'll be right back-" her neck almost rubber-banded around the corner on her hasty exit as she sensed her cover falling apart at the seams.

Returning to his cereal, Titus tried unsuccessfully to rationalize Twilight's odd behavior as he chewed the last spoonfuls. "By the stars I love her to bits, but what the hell was that about?" he muttered, his spoon stopping midair before returning to the bowl as he blinked several times and mulled over both halves of his verbal thought again.

Around the corner a still-lingering Twilight who had been quietly debating reentering the kitchen to go back on her earlier decision of pretending not to have noticed his arousal had inadvertently eavesdropped in on every word, her breath catching in her throat as she processed what she had overheard. The feelings he had unintentionally shared, even though muttered, were enough to give Twilight a serious case of tummy butterflies and she had to clamp a hoof over her muzzle to keep her squee from giving her presence away. Still, as much as she wanted to charge into the kitchen and tackle him to the floor in kisses and nuzzles she knew doing so would cause him to call into question the catalyst of her assault and she could envision her own awkward, stumbling reply as she revealed her own feelings; instead Twilight opted to be content that they both could openly share their sentiments with each other when they were ready and, unable to keep from smiling from ear to ear, she quietly slinked up the stairs to the laundry room, consciously avoiding that one step that would creak loudly that every staircase seemed to have.

It wasn't long before Twilight returned and sheepishly passed the now-clean flight suit over to Titus, who deposited his dishes in the sink and held the article out in both hands to look at the front and back before passing along his thanks and, much to her relief, didn't appear to find anything out of the ordinary. She was about to offer to leave the room to give him privacy and instead stayed to watch as he seemed to not mind when he casually shoved a foot into each leg of the suit before hoisting it up on either side of his hip and, with a little wiggle, worked the waist up over his butt; the cloak, having served its purpose of keeping him decent while he donned the pant-half of the single-piece flight suit, was discarded onto the chair as a free hand pulled the zipper up to his sternum where the small medallion hung and flipped the velcro flap over it into place. “Ah! Much better,” he pulled the loose collar up to his nose for a sniff, not noticing the flush that came to Twilight's cheeks as he did so, and let it fall back down with an approving nod before stretching stiffly several times to acclimate himself to the suit again.

The unicorn followed him into the living room where he picked up his things, both lightsabers flying from the small table to a hand and finding a pocket to rest in for lack of his usual pouch-ridden belt before he cast another look around the couch area and shrugged. "I guess that's everything- Oh!" he was half-jogging back to the kitchen to retrieve the bag of muesli when Twilight read his mind, teleporting there and back in an instant and saving him the short trip, but when he took it from the magical confines of her magic he could tell something was still bugging her by the halfhearted response she gave when he thanked her as well as the disturbed materials on the desk - she had apparently looked for or read something on her trip to get his laundry. "Okay Twi, what's up?" he asked, kneeling down on the balls of his feet to come eye-to-eye with her.

"It's nothing-" she gave him one look and his body language making it clear that, though he was willing to, Titus was reluctant to let her brush this off; that and her own guilt for thinking she had wronged him by leading him on spurred her to speak though her eyes remained glued to her hooves "Can I ask you something? *sigh* Even though I thoroughly enjoyed what we were doing at breakfast, do you think we could... tone down the intensity?" she mustered her courage enough for a quick glance up for the human's reaction; her heart doing a small somersault in her chest when she saw Titus' deep frown. "I promise it'd only for a little while!" she fearfully tried to reassure him as her stomach twisted in a knot, "I've never gotten to... I know it's selfish, but I just want to experience what a normal courtship feels like for myself without the whole thing being another mare's joke on me or tarnished by an estrous cycle-"

As deep exhale left his body he slumped and a hand went to her shoulder to interrupt her apology, "That's a relief! My heartbeat is coming out of hyperspace because I thought you had changed your mind and wanted to let me down easy. That, or I thought... maybe you felt I was being too forceful with... stuff."

"W-what?" it was safe to say Twilight appeared more than shocked at that confession and shook her head vigorously, "No, not at all! Why would I ask you out to dump you, silly? And what do you mean, being forceful? You're supposed set the pace, more or less; not the mare. But I'm the one that lead you on to get heated again and I'm kicking myself for letting myself happen - that's one of the other reasons I want to go easy... so this sort of situation doesn't occur every time we're together."

Titus had hoped she hadn't noticed his arousal at the breakfast table and, upon hearing she had, he couldn't help but squirm. "Don't worry about it, Twi, I can bear with a little of your teasing," he replied, despite the brief discomfort he wanted to convey he didn't blame her at all and accompanied his statement with a wink and a comforting rub to her shoulder, "and I don't think you've told me the story behind the mare. But anyway, I'm perfectly fine with dialing things back if you want to as I'm actually more comfortable if you dictate how fast we go. You deserve to enjoy this and I want to make that happen."

Twilight breathed her own sigh of relief before smiling appreciatively and pulling her squatting human friend in for a hug, fighting the desire to plant her lips on his for a long caress and drink in as much of his scent as she could, "Thank you for understanding. As for that unpleasant story, I'll tell you some other time; right now I'm having too nice of a morning to dampen it with that."

"Much better than the last one we shared, that's for sure; I haven't caught fire and I'm fully clothed... well, minus shoes and underwear, but close enough." Titus gave her one last squeeze before letting her go and slowly made his way for the front door with the unicorn following right at his side out into the street, "Hey Twilight? Thanks again for breakfast and, you know, letting me crash here overnight. This was the best time I've had since..." he paused to contemplate for half a breath before shaking his head, "Actually, I can't remember since when, but I hope we can do it again soon."

From on high a passing pair of rose eyes spied the pair as they stepped out of the door and said their farewells. Deciding she could have her designated work quadrant patrolled before anypony realized she was missing, the stalker sized up which target would be a juicier fount of information, though the sight of the lavender unicorn happily bouncing along as she worked her way toward the center of town was a dead giveaway to whom would prove easier prey; doing a nimble roll the pegasus banked to follow her target, a mischievous smirk creeping onto her face as she felt the Harmony flicker and gently urge her into song.

Meanwhile, a good distance in the other direction, Titus looked over his shoulder to follow several ponies that pranced past him humming the same cheerful tune before they joined in with the throng of voices. There's that weird hive-mind song thing they can do. Sounds like this time it's about hot air balloons and rooms without roofs or something. A shiver traveled up his spine and he resisted the desire to clap along though the tune was definitely stuck in his head and he couldn't stop from tapping a hand in time from within a pocket. It wasn't long until he was out of earshot however, at which time his mind cleared of the melody and he could fully focus on what he had to get done; he wanted to have R6 compile a repair report for the past week, the speeder bike should get a once-over before bringing the sidecar out of storage, and he'd need to check that the weight of the ship wasn't pushing the landing gear into the earth too much. Hopefully R6 prioritized the repulsorlift arrays to reduce the pressure the ship is exerting. Titus continued his mental rundown of tasks between returning greetings from a few familiar Ponyville locals, adding a nap to the list as he stifled a yawn behind a hand and rounded the last building that would lead him out of town however the bridge he would usually take was a teeming mass of ponies held back by a line of weary-looking Ponyville Guards with a single Royal Guard on overwatch from a spot a bit up the hill. Kark, what's this about? While the thought of the long trek to his ship through the trench hadn't bothered him too much - sans shoes, mind you - the sudden and unexpected addition of a confrontation with what were obviously members of the press caused him momentary pause as he contemplated dodging the group in favor of taking a longer roundabout route.

Unfortunately the guardsmare on the hill spotted him before he could slink back out of sight. "Sir! This way, Sir!" she hailed with a wave of a wing as she descended the hill and, despite the distance, he could still make out the orders being barked to the guards, "Private, you call out if you see suspicious magic in use! Hey, Nightwatch, if she pushes you push back twice as hard! Kick her square in the cunt if you have to!"

Kark. We made eye contact. With no way to retreat now Titus steeled himself as he closed on the gathering and, surprisingly enough, under the menacing glare of the Royal Guard a gap quickly opened for him and he had no issue passing through.

"Sergeant Quickbolt at your service, Sir!"

The Royal Guard snapped the brisk salute Titus had come to expect out of Canterlot's elite guards as he crossed over the bridge and came to a stop before her, though when she didn't relax from the gesture until he acknowledged Titus took it to mean he was in some form of command or role of authority of whatever was going on. Taking another look around on the off chance it would give some clue - which it didn't - he returned his attention to her, "Morning; seems like you've had your hands full."

"Hands. Yes, Sir," judging from the way he was scanning his surroundings, the mare deduced he was waiting for more information, "Earlier last week Princess Luna tasked me with establishing this perimeter to prevent these vultures-" she jerked her head toward the reporters; several of them scowled at the remark though it was plainly obvious the pegasi guard couldn't care less, "-from swarming your vessel and potentially damaging something. We have further orders to maintain or modify the perimeter of your property at your command, Sir."

My property? Titus stared off at the hill in a disbelieving manner while mumbling to himself, "That's a lot of area to cover; even with the reverse thrusters firing at full the ship left a crater a couple of klicks long." The awkward silence that followed was broken when the Sergeant not-so-subtly cleared her throat, jarring him back from his thought, "I appreciate your effort here, but that seems entirely excessive. I don't... would they really go slogging that deep into the forest?"

"Uh, forest?" it was Quickbolt's turn to look a bit disbelieving at the human who cocked an eyebrow at her quizzically, "My apologies, Sir, I was lead to believe you had been made aware of the situation; Princess Luna voiced it was inefficient that you were traveling so far on a daily basis to salvage debris so she purchased the plot of land from where we are now at the base of this hill up to the treeline from the township on your behalf and relocated the ship a few days ago-" she paused in her recounting and took to wing to follow him as he jogged a few strides up the hill until he could see over the crest where he stopped to stare for a few moments. "What are your orders, Sir?"

Shifting his gaze to the line of town guards holding back the mass of press ponies Titus caught one of the more exhausted guards glancing at him hopefully and, despite his overwhelming urge to just go to his bunk and crash, he figured he could at least help them out a bit, "Your soldiers look how I feel; have you been posting them in shifts? Do you have fresh faces to rotate in?" When she answered in the affirmative he nodded, his finger tapping his chin as he thought how he could best handle the situation while scrutinizing the crowd a second time, noting the various badges and hats the columnists were sporting and linking them to the stories Twilight had tried her best to keep him oblivious of. Lets see, we've got the Manehatten Monitor that published that 'Monster Menace or Gentle Giant' article; the Baltimare Sun probably sold a lot of papers with their 'Alien Invader' story, and the Equestrian Inquirer is probably here claiming I've begun cloning ponies for my eventual coup or some other scaremongering nonsense. Two familiar faces without a mark of affiliation caught his eye, spawning the beginnings of a plan in his mind and after a few moments of quiet contemplation he nodded again, "Alright. Unless you have another suggestion I'm going to talk with this motley bunch briefly; after that I want to collapse the perimeter back to the other side of the hill, so if you would cordon off an area a few body lengths around the ship that would cut down on the personnel required significantly and allow you to dismiss a good number of the exhausted ponies under your command. I'd like to have some pegasi posted up on top of the ship as well, just instruct them not to land until I point out anything that might be hazardous."

"Understood, though my suggestion would have been to just toss the lot of them in the river and let them float all the way to Las Pegasus with the rest of the refuse," Quickbolt snorted before snapping back to attention, "Speaking freely, of course, Sir..."

The bit of humor was refreshing and the chuckle Titus gave relieved the guardsmare that she hadn't spoken out of turn. "We'll keep that on the table and call it Plan B," he muttered over his shoulder just loud enough for her to hear as he turned to approach the assembly. "Good morning folks-" he was immediately cut off and assaulted with a barrage of questions, some of which varied in levels of outright stupidity that he ignored, and it took a few seconds for the crowd to register his upraised hands as a call for silence, "Good morning. Right, I can see you're eager to get some photographs of my ship and I understand you've got a lot of questions but I've just gotten back after a long week so I'm pretty worn out at the moment. We'll be moving the line back momentarily, however I'd like to set a few things straight with all of you; first, you're welcome to photograph whatever you like, however do not touch anything - some of the tech over there may look inert but it could have a power current running through it and I don't want anyone to get hurt. Second, I'd respectfully ask you to not come aboard-"

"Would we find something that would paint you as a threat?" one of the tabloid representatives asked with a smirk, pad and pencil at the ready to transcribe the alien's answer, "Weapons, perhaps? Or maybe you don't want our readers to see what sort of monkey business you get up to in there."

"Well... I openly admit that my ship is outfitted with weapon systems which Princess Luna was made fully aware of, however I've only got basic power back up and running and as such I've left unnecessary systems - weapons being at the top of that list - powered off. Such systems were an unfortunate necessity as back through the portal flying around with an unarmed ship is just asking to be targeted by pirates and other undesirable individuals who would not hesitate to attack, rob, or kill you, even just for sport. But no, weapons have nothing to do with it; the reason I'm asking you not come aboard is because it's my home. I doubt you'd want a group of strangers barging their way into yours and poking around everywhere." Having tried to answer politely despite the obvious venom in the initial question, the stallion reporter rolling his eyes and replying with a snarky "sure" was the final straw for the weary human who decided it was about time he stopped taking the jabs from the tabloids and took a few swings of his own, "Oh, one more thing while you're jotting that down... could you make a note for your editor? I've read some of your issues and there's this glaring mistake that continually stands out from all of the rest that I'd like to correct; it involves the term 'Space Monkey' that you use so often..." he paused when the crowd shuffled nervously, unaware that the Princesses had made it abundantly clear that the term was highly derogatory and definitely not something they approved of, Luna having visibly shook as she contained her anger and revulsion at having to repeat the phrase in her address to the court.

Titus decided to ignore their discomfort and continued his lashing, "Just to clarify for the sake of being correct; humans aren't monkeys, we're actually more closely related to apes and, before you inquire, there is a distinct difference between the two classifications. With that in mind a proper headline would read 'Space Ape' or if I might suggest something a little more catchy, 'Galactic Gorilla'... don't get me wrong, I'm still disgusted at the reference but I realize it's much easier for you to just ignore the fact that I'm a sentient being so you can group me with a base animal of similar appearance to preserve your sense of superiority when dealing with something you're unfamiliar with. Despite that, this 'monkey-'" he jerked two thumbs at his chest, his intense stare burning into his target like a laser, "would be more than happy to come by your office and give a short lecture to educate you and your obviously ignorant staff on basic zoology and taxonomy and, while I also realize there's a low demand among the majority of your readers for genuine intellectual content and an almost non-existent requirement that you have credible sources or check your facts before you print something, perhaps you could find an empty space for an informative blurb on the subject somewhere between the ever-important newsworthy stories covering celebrity binge diets and the exposé of Canterlot's banana-worshiping secret society. Any other moronic questions clearly aimed at insulting me you'd like answered for that rag you call a paper?" The chortles of columnists from other papers and a shout of "You tell 'em, big guy!" sent the snide tabloid journalist retreating out of the spotlight to the back of the cluster of ponies.

"Wow, that felt good to get off my chest. Now then, enough with the talking! Who..." Titus, feeling much better after the small retaliation and his victory, brought his hands together with a loud clap and glanced about the group, pausing to build upon the anticipation, "wants to see a spaceship?" A sudden roar of excitement answered his question so he signaled the guardsmare that had stayed behind him and she dissolved the line of town guards with a nod. The press surged forward past Titus, the high-profile reporters from the big papers at the front of the wave clamoring up the steep incline to secure the best vantage point with cameras at the ready. The whole congregation collapsed on the second perimeter that had been set up moments before, fresh stern-faced guards having been rotated in to relieve the spent ones from the bridge; Titus followed a bit behind the initial swell and labored up to the crest, using the time to answer a few general questions from ponies that briefly matched his pace before increasing their gait to reach the hilltop or sharing a greeting with several familiar faces and ended up at the absolute back of the procession.

"Hey big guy!" *SMACK!* Despite the split second warning that normally would have been enough to keep him from being startled, Titus gasped and jumped slightly at the unexpected hoof swatting his butt, "Looks like you're back to wearing all those clothes again."

"Hello Lyra," the familiar laugh that reached his ears was enough to identify the mint-coated unicorn before she appeared beside him a second later, grinning like a fool, "Much to my relief, I'm back to normal." He stopped and offered a fist for her to bump but found from the wrist down engulfed in a gold shimmer as the clenched hand was gently pried apart and a hoof placed in it which he gripped and shook, taking note for the future her preference of greeting gesture.

"Relief indeed, your fingers are too cool to give up for a pair of flanks, even the great pair you had," a shiver ran up her spine at the sensation of the digits wrapping around her hoof, culminating in a giggle as her ears twitched when the tingle continued its way up to their tips. "I bet you weren't expecting this," Lyra jerked her head to the top of the hill, "most of them have been here for the past week trying to get a closer look, not that the hotel is complaining as it's been a while since they had every room booked, but nopony has been allowed on that side of the bridge, not even the Human Watchers," she couldn't help but look a little sour at how her group, despite their offer to help stand in and help hold the line, had been treated just like the media vultures.

Titus gave a weary sigh, "This definitely wasn't on my agenda for the day. Come on, follow me," he started walking again and cut a path for the least congested spot of the crowd, slowly working his way through to the front with Lyra right in tow, "I'm sorry you guys ran into some trouble, but after my week in Canterlot your group is one of the reasons I decided to indulge the press today-" Titus easily stepped one leg over the tape the guards had set up, though the second leg brought a small wince due to the stiffness he'd been feeling all morning and he had to hop a few times to maintain his balance. Both him and the vessel in one frame must have been a desirable photo as he was almost blinded by the sheer volume of camera flashes that went off when he turned around to speak with the closest guard and lift the band up, "This is Lyra Heartstrings, she's a personal friend of mine and is to be given free access from now on. Pass that information on to your C.O., if you would."

"Sure thing, I'll let Sarge know," the relaxed nature of the town guard's response was a stark contrast to what Titus had experienced during his week away, "She's got those fliers you wanted circling and awaiting your instruction-" the guard's attention suddenly shot to a pony that was pushing a little too far on the tape and she trotted over to reprimand them.

Titus, ignoring the repeated hails and questions hurled at their backs, trudged the remaining distance to a spot under one of the vessel's wings in silence in favor of allowing the obviously curious Lyra an opportunity to get a glance at everything, though he was somewhat surprised to find the ship got little more than a once over, her gaze roaming from the engine cones that were pointed at the hill to the heavy doors of the cargo bay and down to the sharply-angled nose before she looked back to him. His own gaze remained on the cargo bay door as he debated using another entry point however, not wanting to lower the large loading ramp and open the large doors to expose everything inside to the eagerly awaiting cameras behind him.

"Whatcha thinking about, big guy?" she smirked as she poked his leg with an elbow, "It's Sparkles, isn't it?"

"Front door or back door."

Lyra, having instantly connected their two subjects in a rather lewd way, just barely managed to stop a full-on guffaw but was unable to keep a snort from escaping which unfortunately drew his attention and an inquiring expression which she just waved away.

"O-kay... that group of yours is why I was fine with the barricade being moved closer. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've got two photographers-"

"Oh!" Lyra's ears perked up as she looked over her withers at the gathered crowd behind her, "You mean Snappy and Action; yeah, they're probably somewhere over there. What about them?"

Titus explained that there was a Canterlot chapter of Human Watchers and he had met one of the photographer's cousins - which one he wasn't sure - and thanks to some of the photos that had been taken of him and shared with her cousins herd, however he had heard none of the papers had been buying them and paychecks had been scant because of that. He knelt down and offered a hand to Lyra, who eagerly put her hoof in it for another finger-squeezing session as the cameras went wild, "I'm really glad I bumped into you, Lyra. I was planning on trying to get their attention after everyone had moved closer to the ship, though without their names I'm not sure how I would have accomplished that. Anyway, they indirectly did me a favor and now I've got both the ability to return it and maybe even reward them for not buckling under pressure. I don't know if they'd be interested, but as a thanks I'd like to give them the first shot at photographing the interior of my ship-"

"What, you mean like... an exclusive?!" Lyra blurt loud enough for a few of the closest press ponies to hear which made Titus wince - the last thing he wanted was to have a small riot on his hands though with that firecracker of a guardsmare, Quickbolt, in charge he probably had little to worry about.

"It wouldn't be for a little while because I want to finish a few cosmetic repairs before inviting them, but yeah, I guess you could call it an exclusive. It'd just be pictures though; Miss Cheerilee had asked Twilight and I've already promised the interview to the school newspaper club."

"Look at you, Mr. Big Shot Celebrity!" Lyra grinned and bopped him on the shoulder, "Yeah, I'll see if Action and Snappy are interested at the next Human Watchers meeting which, coincidentally, we've got a lunch scheduled today at the Hayburger so- oh HEY!" she suddenly exclaimed and started hopping up and down excitedly, "You should come, it'd be great! You could have whatever you wanted - my treat, of course! - and you'd get to ask them yourself and meet everypony and... and..." her hopping slowed as she examined his face and registered for the first time how tired he looked, her ears drooping and shoulders sagging as it became increasingly clear he wouldn't be indulging her in her request, "You're not coming, are you?"

"Sorry Lyra, not today," he bopped her on the shoulder lightly then labored himself upright, "but I'll take a rain-check on that lunch, if that's alright with you; I can only assume it's from the transformation spell wearing off, but this whole morning I've felt weary and sore all over and all I want to do right now is go inside and lie down for a bit; that or I'm warp-lagged from last week, I'm not one hundred percent sure."

The grin returned to Lyra's face as she gave him a wiggle of her eyebrows, "A 'good' morning with Sparkles tire you out that much, huh?"

"Good morning? Try the best morning-" it took him a second to catch on to what she was alluding to and he shook his head lazily and realized Twilight probably wouldn't want him blabbing how they had spent less time eating cereal and more time eating each others faces so he went a little light on the details, "No, that's not what I meant. I had a great time just being with her; we lounged on the couch for a bit, had some breakfast, and talked - she wants to take things easy and experience a traditional courtship which I'm perfectly content with if that's what'll make her happy. It's cliche, I know, but her being happy is what matters to me."

"*Gak!* Any sweeter and you're gonna give me diabetes," Lyra made several more gagging noises as she jokingly thrust a hoof at the back of her throat before giggling, "Listen, because I owe Sparkles a favor I'll let you off the hook this time so you can go grab a few Z's, but you better be ready to drop whatever you're doing the next time I ask, no excuses. Ooo! Added condition!"

What is with ponies and adding amended conditions to agreements? It's almost habitual. Titus thought as he withheld a chuckle, "And what might that be?"

"Fight Night; if you decide to wear clothes-" she stopped as his expression quickly changed to one that told her definitively and without any form of doubt he would be wearing clothes for the event, "Okay, okay, fine. For Fight Night wear that sleeveless shirt and those short trousers of yours, they both show off your physique really well. Also, you're going to come over to me and Bon-Bon's place sometime so I can see what those fingers of yours can do with an instrument." She tapped her chin with a hoof as she thought for a moment before adamantly pointing at him, "And I want a ride on that machine you were fixing with Pinkie."

"That was three conditions-"

"And I want an ear rub. Twilight's been absolutely raving about them for a week now and-"

"Okay, make that four," for being greedy he ruffled her forelock which she had to take a moment to shake to get back in place, "but alright; you've got a deal. Negotiations are closed."

Lyra watched as he walked a few paces in one direction until the edge of the craft was no longer above him and curiously ground the balls of his feet into the ground, her proximity barely enabling her to pick up his grumble that maybe he could just doze off on the grass for a little while; the comment causing her to scrutinize him a bit more keenly. He does look dead on his feet. And a little pale, for that matter; not that I can say for certain. "Um?" she spoke up as he was making odd little adjustments to his position which he stopped to regard her in wait for her to flesh out her interruption, "I, uh, heard what you said and yeah, you kinda look like... crap. You going to be alright?"

"Lyra, I feel like crap. Not only that, but before I can crash I've got to show those pegasi what's safe and what's not," he pointed a finger to the guards idly flying overhead before muttering under his breath, "Frankly I'm not sure I'd even make it to my bunk."

"Then I'd say it's in the best interest of our negotiation that I help! Right," Lyra trotted over, ignoring his protest that she didn't need to help and followed suit to join him in staring up at the edge of the craft a very high distance above them for a few moments before giving up when she had no luck in finding a clear way for them to ascend. "Uh... how, exactly, do we get up there?" She knew teleportation was a non-option for Titus on account of what Twilight had told her over the past week about his teleportation sickness so she gave it another moment of thought, not realizing he had stepped to one side and began grinding his toes into the grass again, "I can't see over the lip, but if you give me a minute to work through the crowd I can go back to the top of the hill and teleport up. How are you-"

"The fast way. And forget the hill, you're coming piggyback."

"Piggy-back?" unfamiliar with the term and having no idea what the back of a pig had to do with anything, she turned to find Titus balanced on the ball of one foot and a knee resting on the ground for support, his two arms forming loops which was sufficient for the unicorn to figure he was going to carry her in some manner. Following his instruction Lyra hooked her forehooves over his shoulders and loosely around his neck while both hind legs found a loop, the rate of camera flashes aimed at the pair continued to increase in number at the odd spectacle of the human carrying a pony as Lyra relaxed into a comfortable position.

Titus stood up slowly, allowing the unicorn to adjust to the motion before tightening his arms around her hind legs, "Do you remember yesterday when Applejack asked why Princess Luna decided to turn me into a unicorn rather than an Earth pony on our trip back from the train station and I didn't answer?" When she nodded he backed up a few paces and gave the ship's wing one final glance before looking over his shoulder at Lyra, "Well, what I was saying was that I wanted to talk to the Princesses before showing everyone that I have a these... abilities that might have been a little threatening. Hold on tight Lyra, and don't worry; I promise I won't let you fall."

The mint unicorn tightened her grip and felt Titus' whole body tense as he dropped almost to his knees with a heavy breath being the only warning before they both rocketed skyward; "WHOOOOOOOOEEEEEEE!" Lyra's exuberant whoop of excitement cut over the collective gasp of the gathered ponies that trained their cameras skyward to watch as the alien and his passenger - one that was beaming from ear to ear and merrily waving a hoof - reach the pinnacle of their trajectory before they descended to land lightly on the craft.

"Humans are so bucking cool!" Lyra exclaimed after hopping off of Titus' back when he crouched down, taking a quick second to wave at the ponies on the ground before turning to punch him in the shoulder perhaps a little harder than she meant to, causing him to fall flat on his backside, "Fingers, nifty gadgets, and you can do magic?! Why wouldn't you tell me?!"

"It's a long story, Lyra; one that I don't have the energy to tell at the moment," Titus, too tired to try and explain that it wasn't magic, got to his feet with a little help when she saw him struggling, "If you're desperate to know I told Twi and I'd hazard a guess that she took notes; ask her what 'The Force' is and why I was hesitant to show everyone, otherwise you'll just have to wait for the article in the school paper."

After beckoning the pegasi guards down it took a good chunk of time for the increasingly weary Titus to lead them around the surface of the ship and point out the less-obvious hazards such as the brake flaps and exhaust vents though it quickly became evident they would be doing more flying than walking on the hull as their hooves had trouble finding purchase on any of the curved metal surfaces. One such slip sent Lyra skidding and spinning down a slope on her belly with legs splayed in all directions toward a nasty drop off the edge of the fuselage before Titus was able to sprint at an unbelievable speed ahead of her and scoop her up, her hooves instantly latching around his neck.

"Hey... hey. It's alright, take a look, Lyra," he panted, feeling the aftereffect of the Force-amplified sprint catching up with him and jerked his head to indicate she wasn't in any danger of falling as the guards had reacted nearly instantly and were hovering below the ledge to catch her. When he felt only a small change in her vice-like grip he subtly turned his head to whisper reassurance in the closest mint ear, "There, you see that? You've got several good-looking stallions down there vying to be the one that gets to catch you. Now then, I'm going to find a spot to put you down, alright?"

After he took a few strides to a fairly flat area he knelt down, though just in case Lyra insisted she keep her forelegs wrapped around the back of his neck. The thought of the fall wasn't what startled her, though quite understandably it wasn't something she wanted to repeat, what had really scared her was that the moment she had been sent spinning down the smooth metal face she had panicked and been unable to sufficiently bring any spell to mind and, had she gone over the edge, she doubted she would have been able to cast anything to save herself. Of course she didn't voice any of this and instead put on a brave face and a weak grin, hoping Titus wouldn't see through her facade that she was a mess right now, though when the singular hoof she tentatively placed on the armored metal slipped slightly she immediately retracted it back, "Is there someplace flatter, perhaps?"

Realizing that the problem lay with the armor plating itself there was little he could do in the way of a temporary fix right this moment though several ideas did come to mind; pushing them to the back burner Titus turned to the hovering guards, "Good hustle on getting into position you guys, however you've all seen how easy it is for your hooves to come out from underneath you and a knock to the head that dazes for even a second could prove disastrous so until I can devise something to fix that problem I want you to work in pairs and watch out for each other." As the guards split up into teams to cover the fore, aft, and wing sections of the ship Titus hoisted himself up with a grunt and returned his attention to the unicorn that lay in his arms in an almost identical way he had held the mud-slick Twilight on her back with her legs tucked against her belly and head near his shoulder, "The airlock door is just over there. I doubt you'll have any issues with slipping because the floor is a different material and isn't the same smooth texture as the hull."

By the time Titus had carried Lyra into the airlock - which required a hard kick to the door already bearing a hoof-shaped dent when it got stuck - the human was dead on his feet, slumping to the floor with his back against one of the walls after he had set her down and activated the override on the interior airlock door so both would be open at the same time. Recalling that teleportation would require most unicorns to either have a line of sight or complete familiarity with a location from what Luna had told him of the spell after being diagnosed with Positional Displacement Distress, Titus rolled his head to one side to look for a clear spot of ground for Lyra, whose gaze was shifting between him and what must have been the enticing opportunity to continue deeper into the ship as she kept craning her neck to peer around the inner airlock door, "Alright, I'm not familiar with what sort of ranges you're capable of, but there's an empty hillock and a field in plain sight if that will work for you to teleport to."

Lyra carefully stepped over the stretched out legs to take a look of her own before confirming both would work before turning back to Titus with an expression of questioning concern, "What about you? You're looking a bit worse... like, worse than crappier. Crappierer. You going to be alright?"

"Yeah, I'll just crash here for a bit, you're free to go to your lunch-"

"Nope! I said I was going to help so I'm not going anywhere until you're in your bunk," she took his sleeve in her mouth and pulled on it gently in a bid to get him to stand but he just groaned to leave him be and let his arm fall back to his side, "Hey! I'm a mare of my word and I'm betting- no, I'm telling you I can be a lot more stubborn than you, so you either get yourself up or I'm gonna levitate your bucking flanks to your quarters, with or without your consent," Lyra gave him her best scowl, her muzzle scrunching up and brows angling menacingly as she dared him to test her though only a few moments later Titus begrudgingly pulled himself up, one shoulder leaning against the wall for support. "There you go!" her scowl quickly disappeared into a grin at her victory and she swatted him on the rump for the second time that day, this time enthusiastically enough to almost topple him over.

"Lyra, do you have some weird-" he immediately thought weird was probably a bit strong of a word though an itch at the back of his throat caused him to cough, interrupting his question and forcing him to pause until it had passed which thankfully offered a second of reprieve to think how to word his question to be less off-putting and not quite as accusatory. From the time he had spent with Lyra the afternoon of their picnic after Twilight had left and a few hours they had hung out after fixing the speeder bike he had come to find she was rather different from most ponies in her mannerisms that were more befitting a human; it had started with her quietly observing him from a short distance, shorter than any other pony at the time, and at first he paid it no mind as he inventoried the salvage he had managed to collect from that morning but every so often he'd catch a glimpse of her eyes intently following his hand motions like a hawk or trying to imitate him by trying to get her hind legs to comply so she could sit cross-legged. It was her small yelp of pain that had drawn his attention to inquire if she was alright and from there they had hit it off remarkably well, he liked her unashamed interest in what it was like to be human which undeniably put her as one of the first ponies to show an open desire to learn about him but some of the questions she had asked had been weird (and that wasn't a strong word this time); how do you go about describing what it's like having hands if you've never experienced what it's like not to have them? Titus cleared his throat as the coughing stopped, "Do you have some sudden fixation you'd like to tell me about?"

"What, you mean on your flanks? I guess so, though considering you've got them and everything else covered all the time it's sort of hard to fixate..." she scoffed and gave them a long look as if she was trying to see through the seat of his jumpsuit, "You'd have to ditch the clothes before I could get back to you with a definitive answer on that but it's like I said; your hands and fingers are way better!" she poked his closest hand and it turned to allow her to play with the digits, bending them with a hoof and letting them brush against her muzzle before she suddenly stopped, "Look, if I offended you by swatting your flanks-"

"I'm not offended," he interjected dryly.

"Awww," Lyra pouted, making a show of sticking her lip out as she resumed walking, "It'd be more fun if you pretended you were then I could tell you to just swat me back and we'd be even! Careful though, too hard and I might ♪~enjoy it!~♪" she teased in a sing-song as she pranced a bit in front of him to make a show of tapping her lyre cutie mark.

"Yeah... I'm telling you right now that's not going to happen," Titus stared at the unicorn who went back to making her pouting face as he continued down the hallway at his agonizingly slow pace and couldn't help shake the feeling that this sort of situation had occurred not a week ago. "Lyra, sorry about this but I've got to ask; are you coming on to me? Are you... in heat?" he had to be sure as he didn't want anything jeopardizing what he had with Twilight, even if that meant potentially being blunt or rude and outright asking if she was on cycle. Better to beg forgiveness than permission to ask in this case. When Lyra stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the hallway Titus halted as well, "I don't know what or how much Twi told you but this whole banter thing we're doing is pretty similar to the lead-up to, uh... you know, me and her and I don't want there to be any confusion between us, meaning you and I, that might put that at risk."

Lyra eventually snorted and broke into a giggle, "You can relax. My cycle ended last week and yeah, maybe I'm coming on to you just a little... but don't worry, I'm not about to do anything that'd mess up you and Sparkles; I wouldn't do that to a friend - not to either one of you. As for how much she told me..." the playful mint unicorn couldn't help but give a sly grin as she toyed with the human, "I think I'll let you sweat for now and keep that to myself, but I'd be willing to share that she felt it was kinda hot to get swept off her hooves after that run-in with the timberwolves and, after almost sliding off the side of the ship, I think I'd have to agree with her. But that's all I'm saying, anything more'll cost ya, big guy!"

Yup, she's definitely different from other ponies. Stopping at a nondescript door that was identical to the numerous others they had already passed he paused for a moment as he briefly thought about asking just what sort of payment she would be expecting but instead mashed the button with a fist and the unlit room beyond was revealed with a smooth mechanical swoosh of air, "Welcome to my quarters, don't think me letting you in here is an invitation for any funny stuff," Titus joked as he moved past the curious Lyra to worm his hands into an open panel on the wall containing an exposed series of wires, digging as far up to his elbow and making several odd expressions of concentration as he "saw" through his sense of touch until there was a small *click!* and a bright bleaching light flickered several times before remaining steady to illuminate the absolute disarray. "Sorry for the mess, I haven't been in here since the crash so nothing's been picked up-" Titus' apology distracted himself long enough to get a nasty shock from one of the live wires which caused him to withdraw his hands quickly to shake them out.

Lyra waited for him to find or, more accurately, collapse, onto the bottom bunk that was set into the wall before she stepped into the room, "It's um... small." The room itself was indeed small and very bare-bones, featuring only the narrow bed with drawers built underneath, a set of shelves that had fallen off of the wall, a locker that looked to be a little taller than Titus, and something that Lyra thought might be a television though the screen was smashed. In addition to the general clutter of everything that had been obviously thrown about in the crash, various accouterments were scattered about the floor; the locker having tipped over and dumped its contents. She gave a subtle experimental sniff, testing if the stereotype that a stallion's room smelled different and while she could detect several scents she was unable to differentiate their sources. You know, I bet if all this stuff wasn't on the floor it'd be pretty cozy, in a depressing grey prison-cell sort of way. Not even a second after she had finished her thought she heard something directly behind her, causing the unicorn to turn just enough until she saw a sharp-looking metal claw out of the corner of her eye.

With a startled squeak she scrambled onto the bunk and rather roughly over Titus to find a hiding spot behind him though when he hardly moved she ventured a peek over his shoulder to find an object slightly taller than herself rolling into the room toward them with chirps and whistles, "W-w-what is that?!" She ducked back down when what looked like a single rotating eye pointed in her direction. A second later what she could only describe as a coo came from the creature or whatever it was as the human patted a hand on its rounded top.

"This here is R6," Titus cast a glance to the unicorn peering over his shoulder, "he's my astromech droid that's been repairing the ship while I was gone. He probably got an alert the airlock was breached and came to investigate so he's just curious who you were as he's only met Twi and Luna so far, though he had a little run-in with someone else last week that might have spooked him. It's okay, you don't need to be scared-"

"W-who says I was scared? Maybe I just wanted an excuse to squeeze in here with you, ya big lug, ever think of that?" Lyra sat up so he could see her sticking her tongue out at him and shoved him slightly, creating a bit more room in the hiding space she had found behind Titus which had required her to squash herself between him and the wall, "It's actually quite comfortable." To make her point she nestled in a bit further.

"For you, maybe," Titus was too fatigued to make anything more than a halfhearted protest at her position and reminded her that she had a lunch with the Human Watchers to attend though she just brushed it off by stating there was plenty of time between now and then for a nice nap and her presence wasn't a necessity, the co-chairmare could handle things just fine. He breathed a heavy sigh; she was right, she could be way more stubborn than he could. "Look, I doubt I could get to sleep like this so could I bribe you to go to that lunch with an ear rub? I wouldn't even count it against the one from our earlier arrangement."

"Yeah, I guess so," it was a very, very tempting offer but she couldn't help but feel a little melancholy, "but... why do you want to get rid of me so badly? I mean, if you ask me to go I will, but we're buds and you've been gone all week so I just thought maybe we could hang out for a bit..." she trailed off, ears drooping and shoulders sagging. While she understood how much a trip could drain a pony of energy, especially a long one to Canterlot like some of the visits she'd occasionally make to her family, at the same time Lyra had really been looking forward to spending some time with the human and was hoping he'd let her stay though the longer he went without saying she could the more she couldn't help but feel dispirited.

Titus had actually been mistaken, despite the pony's elbows and hooves poking him in the back awkwardly he could feel himself slowly but surely drifting off though he retained enough acuity to pick up on the tone of her voice and respond, " I just... the sudden flock of reporters swarming the ship means I have to watch my every move and be careful of what I say so I've probably bitten off more than I can chew in that regard; I feel like Bantha dung, and with Twilight being really anxious that this date go off without a hitch there's a lot for me to focus on." He slid his body over to the very edge of the bunk to give himself enough room to roll over onto his back so he could extend a hand to one of her ears, beginning the massage from the base and working toward the tip, "It's not that I mind you being here, Lyra, and I didn't intend for it to sound like that... tell you what; you go to your lunch and I'll snag myself a nap in the meantime. Once you're done with the meeting we can hang out for a bit or for the rest of day, if you want. That sound agreeable?"

"Mmm-Mhm," Lyra sighed in response on account that her first experience of the alien ear rub had completely overwhelmed her senses and she gave up fighting against it; she whimpered and hummed as her eyes drooped half closed and her swimming head fell to his chest, her hooves spasmodically twitching every time a thumb rolled the up to the tip of her sensitive pinna. Sparkles wasn't kidding, this is amazing!

"The reporters mean I probably won't be working outside so I'll leave the outer airlock door open to give you a place to teleport to," Titus alternated between rubbing and lightly scratching the base of the unicorn's ear, a combination that proved to reduced Lyra's ability to function all the more, "Opening the inner door is as easy as pulling the red latch. I'll probably stick around here to work, but if I'm still asleep just wake me up." When she asked if that was a Pinkie Promise he nodded despite his unfamiliarity with the term, too tired to inquire and resigned to guessing it was just a cutesy term Pinkie Pie used when making promises.

"Right... gotta leave... lunch... Watchers meeting... " Seeking to apply further pressure on her ear Lyra rolled onto her back so she could brace the hand against the mattress and push into the massage, causing it to feel like little bits of time were disappearing as her brain briefly shut down with each wave of bliss and she had to make a conscious effort to keep from drifting off or letting her tongue loll out. "Oh b-buck that is amazing... j-jeez, I normally would have bought you a drink or two before letting you do something that felt this good to me," she joked and summoned enough willpower to move to punch him lightly in the shoulder before melting back to her previous state of complete submission, "Sparkles, I swear, if you don't hurry up..."

"Uh," Titus' curiosity was piqued enough to keep him awake for a few seconds little longer, "Hurry up with what?"

"Oh nnnothing," Lyra hummed, carefully shaking her head so as to not pull her ear from between the dexterous fingers, "Look, I ahh wasn't going to-oooo! say anything, but buck me if this isn't worth it... I caught a glimpse of it on her desk... she's gotten a courting schedule written up and everything's planned out down to the smMmmallest detail." By the time the ear massage came to its end Lyra had been reduced to a limp puddle as she rode her endorphin high back down and spent the last few moments squirming on her back giggling with her legs kicking in the air while playfully rubbing her muzzle against the hand and fingers that had put her in such a euphoric mood. "Thanks big guy, that was just... WOW," she remained squashed between his side and the wall for a bit longer but eventually she rolled back upright and sighed; unbeknownst to her the reason the ear rub had ceased was because Titus was on the cusp of slumber and was hearing her voice like it was a fair distance away as he drifted further still, "I'll take off and leave you to snooze for a bit, but you can be sure I'll be back!" She did her best to gently crawl over the stretched out human to avoid disturbing his repose but paused halfway atop him, "Before I go I just want to give some advice regarding you and Sparkles; she's um... probably expecting things to follow a set pattern that she's undoubtedly drawn from hours of exhaustive research and if something deviates from it she's bound to get a bit frazzled and over-analyze it," Lyra crawled the rest of the way to the floor and turned to follow the astromech out of the room but stopped to look at the almost-unconscious human with a smile, "That's just the way she is, so try and follow along with her plan. I'll see if I can sneak a copy of her schedule to you, just so you're prepared."

Titus could have sworn he felt a small peck on his cheek right before he dozed off.

A while later Lyra slid out from the benched table the Human Watchers had gotten at the Hayburger as each pony scooted down the seat and to the floor in a train, the group's meeting having come to an end after a long lunch of sharing the insights and experiences they'd had, though with their subject having disappeared for a week the majority of the meeting had been spent interrogating Lyra, the whole table having erupted in excitement that had almost gotten them thrown out for being too boisterous at the announcements that Titus had moved the barricade that had been barring them from the hill back and the unicorn had been allowed a brief incursion inside the human ship.

"Awesome meeting today, everypony! You'll all want to be at our next lunch; you could say I've pulled quite a few strings to get a special surprise lined up so be sure our absent members know they won't want to miss it. Oh! Scoop! Action! C'mere real quick," she beckoned both over before they could get to the door and the three waited for the table to clear, Lyra a bit impatiently as she was eagerly looking forward to her imminent afternoon of hanging out, "Titus wanted me to pass along his thanks to you two; apparently during his week in Canterlot he crossed paths with somepony named Emerald Contrail-"

"Connie?" a surprised Action Shot interjected, "She's my cousin; her husband works in the palace garrison. What'd he have to say?"

The mint unicorn shrugged, "Just that he was appreciative of the photos you've been taking and for sharing them with your cousin's herd as 'the three of them were a welcome set of friendly faces,' as he put it. That's all." Wanting to have a little fun, she waited until they had started back toward the door to get to the underlying reason she had called them over, "Oh! There was one other thing, what was it...? I think as a thank you he wanted to know if you'd both be interested in coming aboard his ship for a private tour to take some pictures; an exclusive or something like that."

Snappy Scoop and Action Shot both looked at each other for a moment before practically leaping on Lyra for more details, their absolute interest in the opportunity apparent as they hounded Lyra for the specifics however she could only tell them the offer was made for a time in the near future and that they'd have to talk to Titus for anything more though she said she would relay their enthusiastic response to him later that afternoon and the pair passed along their thanks before leaving with an unbridled excitement in their step. Lyra was making her own exit after picking up the tab for the group - something she always did as it not only made her feel good but she had ample Bits thanks to her well-off family and, as a little bit of a twisted bonus, it was always funny to tell Bon-Bon as it annoyed her to no end that her friend was so frivolous with her money. Of course, Lyra wasn't sadistic (at least not overly, anyway) and would always bring her roommate a little goodie bag as a treat. Thinking of goodie bags for friends... Lyra had a wonderful idea and when she finally left the Hayburger she had two large paper bags leading the way and a grin from ear to ear.

A quick stop in at home revealed her roommate to be out, a note pinned to the fridge detailed that the unicorn had forgotten to restock on groceries and was accompanied by a frowny face and a double-underlined "again" so Lyra quickly scribbled a reply of a winking face sticking its tongue out with a small heart and attached it to the sack lunch she left on the kitchen table as form of lighthearted apology. A quick glance at the animated pony clock on the wall showed that a surprisingly small amount of time had passed and the Human Watchers meeting may have run shorter than she had expected. It's hardly been an hour an a half! Not nearly enough time for a decent nap, especially for how tuckered out the big guy looked. Lyra didn't have anything to do around the house aside from a few chores that were clearly marked by the numerous sticky-notes left by Bon-Bon but a quick perusal of several that were within hoof reach failed to invoke any of her interest in completing them and, deciding that she never saw the notes in the first place, she happily retreated back onto the front stoop with the other takeout bag but paused to double check that she had the right one before locking the door. Good! Extra sauce and they left out the utensils and napkins just like I asked; lets see how he handles this without them. Heh, I think I'll call this stuff finger-food! Though their house was in the northern section of town it wouldn't take very long to get to Human Hill so as a way to kill some time and give Titus a slightly longer nap Lyra made a quick detour and and headed for the library to learn about the human's magical abilities.

The library door was unlocked, as it normally was at this hour provided Twilight or Spike was there, however something on the other side was keeping it from opening all the way which forced Lyra to squeeze herself through the narrow gap - not an easy task considering how a pony's barrel tapered down before widening at the haunches, and getting stuck in such a compromising position was the subject of a lot of nightmares. A brief moment of being unable to move in either direction as what appeared to be a large mailbag shifted and inched the gap a little tighter made Lyra's heart flutter for a second before she simply called on her magic to teleport the short distance into the hallway though she was surprised that none of the grunts she made in her struggle had attracted anypony's attention, Lyra deducing her unicorn friend would have been unable to leave via the front door with the large mailbag obstruction and it was clear by the saddlebags that sat atop a small table that Twilight was home or had recently been home.

Lyra called out softly in search of Twilight as she ventured further down the hall into the living room and was about to head upstairs but the sight of a curiously large package balanced on the small coffee table caught her eye; curious as to why it wasn't with the sack that she assumed was for Titus - over the last few days it had quickly become common knowledge that the mint unicorn was the head of the Human Watchers and, what with his appointed intermediary making few excursion from the library, it hadn't become uncustomary for ponies to approached the mint unicorn in hopes she'd pass along miscellaneous mail. She casually strolled over to inspect it further and quickly spotted the fancy postmark and the return address above the label that confirmed her guess that it was for the human. Oh wow, The Lunar Office of Canterlot Palace? That would probably explain why it's separate; I wonder what they sent the big guy... Ideas abound what the large parcel could contain and Lyra promised herself she'd be present when it was opened as that was the only way to satiate the growing desire to pop the top on the mystery that was gnawing at her and the sooner she got away from the temptation the better.

The closest exits to distract her were the kitchen which was devoid of life, including the potted plant on the windowsill that looked like Twilight hadn't watered it in a week, and the other door lead to the librarian's laboratory into which Lyra popped for a quick snoop. Twilight's personal marecave of science had a set up of chalkboards crammed with scribbled thaumic equations, notes, and hypothesis awaiting testing; the lab table that wrapped around the exterior walls was clogged with equipment ranging from burners to flasks and several pieces of glassware that looked completely otherworldly and the faint smell of expended magic hung in the air.

Finding that the lab was just as empty as the kitchen Lyra spent a moment attempting to follow what was on the chalkboard though all she could deduce from her passing glance at the manner of spell-weaving was that it had to do with an advanced form of portal teleportation; not feeling in the right mood to give it more thought she eventually grew bored and climbed the stairs back to the living room where she headed for the small writing desk to accomplish the first of her objectives. After digging through the mess and locating Twilight's courtship schedule she took out a sheet of parchment from one of the drawers and placed it on top before focusing her magic into a duplication spell; bright green light shone around the edges of the paper before the same light began to burn through small portions of the center and eventually followed the pattern of the text on the document beneath until the magical glow faded and two identical copies sat on the desktop. Lyra had just finished shoving one copy in the food bag when a muffled sound from upstairs drew her attention and with her promise to Titus to obtain the schedule fulfilled she trotted up to the hallway on the second floor and to the librarian's room where she heard somepony talking about preparing for something or other as she pushed the door open, "Hey, Sparkles? I need to ask you-"

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

Rainbow kept as low as she could in her hiding spot in the cloud, watching as Titus and Twilight stepped from the library out into the street to share a hug before he headed for Human Hill while Twilight ducked back inside to retrieve her saddlebags before quite literally prancing past her. O-ho ho! Somepony's in a good mood this morning! By the time Dash had crept the cloud close enough to Twilight, who was spinning around one of the lamp posts as a gathering of ponies clopped their hooves in time with the music in their heads, the Harmony pulling her into the song was too strong to resist and she joined in, accenting her portions with a number of aerial acrobatics.

There was a collective cheer when the song finished with everypony visibly beaming as the urge of the passive magic of Equestria slowly faded out though traces still lingered in the form of a sense of shared camaraderie and much more chipper moods as the gathered townsfolk dispersed. Rainbow scanned the crowd as a small flock moved toward Human Hill just in case Twilight had veered off with them though their numbers dwindled down until a lone mint unicorn - her best guess it being Twilight's friend, Lyra - was the only one intent on going to see the biped; unable to spot her quarry Dash milled about until a flash of a pink-stripe on a purple mane finally caught her sharp eye and she swooped in, "Well well well, looks like somepony's had a good morning."

"Oh! Hello Rainbow Dash!" she greeted quite a bit more enthusiastically than normal as she resumed her bouncing gait down the street, "I've had an absolutely wonderful morning."

The mischievous smirk returned to the pegasus' face when Twilight played right into her hooves with her statement, "So I heard, and I bet it's got something to do with it being the 'best time he's had in a while' after he spent the whole night at the library. So, are you two going to 'do it again soon'?" Expecting the unicorn to trip herself up at the accusation Dash was taken back when she only giggled and waved a dismissive hoof in her direction.

"I thought I saw your tail poking out of a cloud! We certainly had a good time and I get what you're trying to insinuate, but no; all of yesterday was spent hearing about the week he had in Canterlot and then we both zonked out on the couch, though I will admit it was great to start the morning with a good snuggle," Twilight was in far too good of a mood to let the pegasus' attempts at riling her up succeed and continued on to explain the events of the morning with a visible blush coming to her cheeks as she included what had happened during breakfast. "I only realized afterword that I'd gotten him..." she faded out for a few breaths and gave her a look, hoping that was enough for Rainbow to pick up on what she meant.

"So... did you help him with his, uh, 'problem'?" Dash stopped midway through doing the air quotations as Twilight looked at her skeptically, causing the pegasus to facehoof, "No, of course not. Jeez Twilight, he must really like you... that or he's in to denial or something."

"Uh, what's denial?" Twilight was oblivious to what Dash was talking about but was immediately put on the defensive as she felt the need to debate the merit of her action, "Anyway, I really didn't mean for him to get heated and afterwords I asked and he agreed we could tone that sort of affection back - just for a little bit! After he had dozed off last night I stayed up for a while to look over my notes and schedule everything out. Here," one of the flaps on her saddle bag flipped open and a long rolled parchment floated out and over to the hovering pegasus, "It's just my forth rough draft of a second revision but you'll see if you follow the pattern; the green numbers are my wages as the librarian and the red ones below that are expenditures I've got planned - meals and that sort of thing; you get the idea - the yellow blocks of time are for writing friendship reports to Princess Celestia, and the blue blocks are time I've allotted for Titu-"

Dash shoved Twilight into a small alley between two buildings for a little bit of privacy instead of lambasting her right in the middle of the street. "Alright Egghead, look," she ground her teeth, having tried to follow the intricate agenda however the complicated maze of lines connecting various events and the myriad of colors denoting various things quickly made her head spin and it agitated her to see Twilight had reduced the relationship she was trying to build into the jigsaw puzzle she held in her shaking hooves. "I'm trying real hard not to crumple this up and bounce it off your brainiac forehead so just zip your muzzle and hear me out. You can't structure your relation to divide and ration out like this; you've even gone and written conditions for what constitutes if the date or week was successful! Like this one right here, you've got a minimum requirement of 'extended moments of cuddling' and a stretch goal of 'one non-tongue kiss.' The conditions and goals grow with each block the further you go down! Ugh!" Dash spent several more minutes pointing out everything that was wrong with how mechanical the setup was before passing the paper back to Twilight who glanced from it to her and, she now realized, looked lost and more than a little wounded.

Twilight was indeed unsure how to proceed, "But... if I can't anatomize a relationship to its core components for analysis how will I know if things are progressing in the direction I want?"

With a heavy sigh Dash landed and reached a hoof out to her friend's shoulder, "Sorry Twilight, I didn't mean to go off on you like that it's just that you're trying to be too... science-y with this; you can pace yourselves and set general goals I guess, but the development of a relationship isn't something you can hold to a timetable or dole out in blocks; I know Rares is saying you you've got to follow some social rules or whatever, but you've really just got to be yourself and let things play out - every couple out there had a unique courtship, so take what she says as a guideline rather than a law set in stone. As for how to tell if its going the way you want it to? You'll just know because it'll feel right, but if you're ever unsure just talk to him about it."

"So this was a complete waste of effort?" the unicorn gave the schedule a sour look, still feeling like there had to be some way to go about things in a rational way.

"No, not really," having felt she'd spent more than enough time on the ground Rainbow launched back up to hover in front of Twilight, "That part you did on watching your Bits was a good idea because trust me, you don't want to be on a date and find you don't have enough to cover both of you when the check arrives. Absolute mood killer and totally not awesome."

Dash and Twilight both paused to let a rather upset-looking journalist trot past them before emerging from the alley, Twilight using the brief interlude to put the schedule back in her saddlebag, "Thanks again Rainbow, I think I understand how I should go ahead with things now though I imagine I'll seek you out for more advice sometime in the near future. It's a nice coincidence we got to talk as I was on my way to the boutique; Rarity's wine selection should be arriving in the morning mail and I wanted to clear up a few questions with her. Actually, I've got two questions for you, too! You said something a moment ago about him being 'in to denial,' what's that mean?"

"Like, are you asking what it means to get off on kinks or something or are you asking specifically about denial?" When Twilight replied she was interested in both Dash struggled for a way to quickly explain it as she realized she had been sidetracked from her patrol for longer than she had meant to be, "Kinks and fetishes are, like, things that really get you going; it could be anything from a touch to a way of speaking. Denial is um... it's where either one of you would bring the other close to climax then purposefully keep from finishing-"

"Wait," Twilight said with a shake of her head, visibly more confused now, "At our lunch you said that was a quick way to get jilted; I believe 'blue-balling' was the term you used and you made it sound awful. Why would anypony be interested in or get heated over that?!"

"Heh, it's kinda hard to explain... denial is kinda like blue-balling but it's a mutual thing that can go either way though in the mare's case it's called blue-lipping or blue-pearling; the mare or the stallion can be the one administrating the denial but it's usually the mare as stallions don't last as long and it lets the mare get off before the stallion does. But when denial is done right?" the pegasus' whole body shivered as she bit her lip, "Oh baby does it feel amazing! It's hard to pull off though; you've got to know your partner's limits really, really well, but when you are able to finish all the pent up frustration just adds to the feeling of climax and makes it totally worth it." Naturally, Twilight's follow up question was what sorts of other fetishes were out there and how to find out what she liked; Dash could only shrug, "There's pretty much a fetish for everything, as for what you're in to that's something you've got to figure out. If the library's got some dirty books that go into detail give those a read and see what gets you going otherwise just experiment when you get to that point with him. Sorry to cut this short, I'm um... sort of on the clock with the Weather Team and when the forecast is 'partly cloudy' it has a habit of getting 'mostly cloudy' if you don't keep a close eye on it," Dash was really pushing it with not being on her patrol and she could only imagine the earful she'd get if she was caught or if any more clouds were allowed to dot the sky.

"Oh! You should have said something," Twilight went from mildly irritated that her friend was shirking her duties to a little apprehensive to pose her next question, staring at her hooves and slumping slightly as they walked toward the boutique, "You said I could help him with his 'problem,' but I don't think I could just leap on him."

"Tell you what, you go do your thing with Rarity then get back to the library," the pegasus aimed herself back toward her patrol quadrant and took to the air, "I'll meet you there once I'm off work and we can talk some more."

Twilight's errand at Rarity's boutique took an unexpected yet fortunate turn when she bumped into Derpy making her morning rounds and, while they had expected her to be delivering the bottle of wine which had cost Twilight a hoof and a leg (though the fashionista had insisted it was worth the exorbitant price) what they hadn't seen coming was a massive sack of mail and a package for Titus which the mailmare had explained she was unable to deliver because the guards hadn't been allowing anypony near the ship and, to make matters worse, the human didn't have a mailbox so the small cubby at the post office had quickly overflowed. With the sack of mail on her back and the package in magical tow after offering to deliver them as his intermediary, Twilight took quite a bit longer to get back to the library and when she did she found Rainbow waiting for her on the couch.

"Oh, sorry. I hope I haven't kept you waiting too long, something came up that slowed me down *urk!*-" she grunted, dropping the sack in the entry hallway and walking into the living room to gently place the wrapped parcel on the coffee table before carelessly tossed her date schedule to her desk, thoroughly annoyed how much work she had put into something that she had been told had an unproportionally small value.

"Yeah, so I see," Rainbow peered curiously at the large box the unicorn had brought with her, catching sight of the attached letter with Titus' name written on it in gold-inked elegant script, "I normally wouldn't hang out in a library, though, so if anypony starts snooping just tell them I was getting your input on a new trick... like the mathy part, not the actual cool stuff, alright?"

"If that's what it will take," Twilight hopped up onto the couch beside her friend and gave her a hopeful nod, "though you might be surprised how cool math can be, if you just gave it a chance. For example, your last trick involved several rather elementary problems I derived from an operation called sphere eversion, specifically the coils you did at the end; you see, requiring the formed loops not have any sharp angles is equivalent to giving them unit speed parametrizations-" the lesson was cut off as her mouth was forcibly closed.

"Okay! Enough! I don't think I can ever do the Corkscrew Loop of Doom trick again without thinking how nerdy you made that sound... I didn't come here to have you lecture my ears off, I came here to help you solve a problem so if you start again I'm walking right out that door, got it?" Rainbow waited for the unicorn to nod her understanding before removing her hoof and grumbling under her breath, "Jeez, Dorkscrew Loop of... Dorkiness is more like it."

Twilight gave up and rolled her eyes.

"Back to why I'm here: you left him hanging at breakfast," the pegasus said, jabbing an accusatory hoof into Twilight's chest, "you blue-balled him again. But why? You've said you're just as in to him as he is in to you, right? Did you offer to... you know?"

Shaking her head, Twilight sighed heavily, "Like I said, he and I talked and we both agreed to tone things down and I didn't want to leave him like that but, in all honesty, I'd be hesitant to mount him... I just don't think I'm ready for that level yet-"

"Come on Twilight, you know mounting isn't the only option to keep from blue-balling him." When it was apparent Twilight didn't know what she was talking about it was Dash's turn to roll her eyes before making a rudimentary gesture with a hoof, though the unicorn just looked at her with increased confusion, "Uh, duh? Use your hooves or take him in your mouth!"

Twilight blinked several times as an image painted itself in her mind before she shook her head to clear it away lest it gain a foothold and remain with her for an indeterminate amount of time, "B-but that's still sex, isn't it?"

"No... well, I don't really think of it that way but it's definitely not something I'd offer to do to just anypony. Um," Rainbow tapped her chin as she tried to figure out a way to explain it to her brainy friend without giving herself a headache in the process, "Look at it like this, when you've got somepony helping you through a heat cycle with a cooler, would you consider that sex?"

"Of course not, that's just a friend helping a friend in need," the question seemed rather irrelevant to Twilight as that was something that a mare did for another mare, though the idea of asking a stallion to strap on the device was just weird, "but if I help him... you know... is that really like helping with a cooler?"

"How is it any different?!" the pegasus exclaimed exasperatedly, "When you're on cycle and need a quickie with the cooler to get you through a few hours, you get a friend to help out. Heated stallions have needs too and, while I can't speak for how Titus deals with it, if a pegasi stallion is flying with their fifth leg popped out I'm sure they'd rather duck into a cloud for a few seconds to take care of it than wait for it to go away on its own. Trust me, I've seen a few try and fly on patrol like that and it totally messes with aerodynamics and balance, those things pose a flight hazard flopping around like that-" Rainbow had watched as Twilight grew redder and redder the more she talked until she couldn't take the embarrassed look on her unicorn friend's face any more, "You know, when all of us were out getting drinks that one night you did say you'd been with a dude before..." she immediately realized something was wrong when Twilight looked almost like she had bitten into a lemon and she attempted to apologize; Dash knew her friend had put a lot of trust in her to help with this whole relationship deal and, being the Element of Loyalty, she was going to do everything she could, even if that meant passing up on juicy opportunities to tease, "So, uh, how much experience or whatever do you have?"

Twilight pawed at the couch cushion sheepishly, more embarrassed at her lack of knowledge on the subject than her lack of practice at it, "I didn't want to feel like the odd-mare out that night so I may have embellished a little bit. I've only... there was this stallion at the academy that I liked and after finally working up the nerve to talk to him we'd regularly meet in the library but when we went back to my room in the Palace and... when I gave the signals I wanted to go further he said a few nasty things, dumping me or shooting me down or whatever the term would be right then and there, then walked out." When asked what prompted that turn of events Twilight told the pegasus small tidbits of how the whole thing had been a setup by another mare (her name she wouldn't provide as it looked like Rainbow wanted to kick her teeth in) to get back at her for a trespass she had supposedly committed but had been completely outside of her control. "After that I kept to myself even more, that is until the Princess sent me to Ponyville and I met all of my friends here."

"Wow, what a total skag!" Dash spat in disgust but quickly veered back toward the topic at hoof, "Alright, so you're a complete newbie. Uh... then you know how it works, right? I mean, like, how the stallion and the mare-"

"Of course I know, I'm perfectly familiar with the fundamentals of basic biology!" Twilight had thrown her hooves up in the air at the accusation that she would be that obtuse however she resumed her meek pose as she quickly calmed down, "Sorry Rainbow, I'm just really nervous about this and when I say fundamentals I mean just that; I'm clueless about the rest. While the library has quite a few books on pony health and several resources for growing foals to understand the changes they're experiencing the shelves are bare of works that go into the details of the act and the only such book I've read was a long time ago and is practically impossible to come by these days. With that in mind, would borrowing some of Lyra's magazines provide instruction on how to...?" she awkwardly repeated the gesture Dash had made earlier.

"I mean, you can if you want to," Rainbow hopped off the couch with a chuckle at the sight of Twilight bobbing her head back and forth and kept it on file for whenever she needed a small laugh, "but you don't need to do any research, I can show you how easy it is. You just came out of heat so I imagine your cooler is in your room somewhere, right?" Once they had moved upstairs it had only taken a second for Twilight to dig the cooler out of the closet where she had put it earlier that morning though she was hesitant to ask what Rainbow had in mind for the ill-favored device as she passed it over to the pegasus.

Dash could tell by the look on her face what was thinking and shrugged nonchalantly, "Well it's not ideal, but this'll have to do... unless you've got another idea or uh, you know, something else phallic you might have stashed away that you can practice with," she gave a lascivious grin until Twilight informed her the cooler was the only device such in her possession as she had previously ignored or diverted her attention from non-heat urges toward studying; Dash gave a sigh, realizing it was a completely Twilight-ish way to approach things - to bury her head in a book - and scanned around the room for a few minutes for a suitable place to start until she decided on the spindle back chair at the desk, quickly zipping to close the curtains for a little privacy from anypony that might fly by. Her preparations finished, Rainbow beckoned Twilight over as she set the straps to one side so the cooler could point upright at the ceiling. "Jeez this is awkward... " the pegasus spoke was on their minds, both ponies just staring for several seconds at the slightly lopsidedly leaning spire before she stepped to one side so Twilight could help steady it and see a bit better as she hooked a hoof around the base of the shaft to begin stroking a small portion, "You just sorta uh... yeah. Easy, like I said."

Twilight had been expecting some secret technique to be revealed and the disappointment in Rainbow's display showed. "O-kay..." an eyebrow crept up her face as she watched the stroking continue, "So is this it? Is there some factor I'm missing or are you functioning as a simple masturbatory aide?" she was well aware that mares weren't the only ones that clopped as she'd once accidentally walked in on her big brother and seen him rubbing himself off in a similar manner (and she had immediately realized she had forgotten to knock and snuck back out of the room lest she embarrass him) and Twilight was a bit skeptical that this was the answer to her problem as it seemed too simple, though the appeal wasn't lost on her.

"Well, duh! And 'masturbatory'? You make it sound like a school lesson," Dash stopped to roll her eyes, "I know what I'm doing doesn't look like much but it'd still be enough and as an added perk you'll have a better control over when they blow their load, giving you a better chance at getting off yourself. Keep in mind you're missing out on all the sounds and stuff the attached stallion would be making and trust me... that's often a fuel of its own. Here, you give it a try," she pushed Twilight's hooves away from the base to steady the cooler herself, leaving the unicorn to falteringly wrap her own hoof around the shaft.

How difficult can hoofing it be? Just show her you can do it and maybe she'll move on the mouth maneuver that seemed a little less entry level- Her confidence in her abilities proved to be misplaced as one of her pumps on the cooler was too forceful, causing the flat tip to swing about wildly and bop her on the muzzle which got a loud guffaw from Rainbow. What the buck am I doing using my hooves?! Twilight focused until a small ring of magic encompassed the cooler a little above the medial ring and sent the energy massaging up and down at a steady pace before she turned to her pegasus mentor with a smirk, "It is easy! Look, no hooves!"

"Yeah, well... you've got your magic, I've got my wings," Dash, not wanting to be outdone, fanned her wings out to gently brush against the sides of the cooler, "besides, that was just the warm up; lets see if you can put your mouth where your magic is!" Twilight listened as Dash gave a quick tutorial of what to do before launching into a demonstration, beginning by holding the cooler steady and working the wide flat end into her muzzle before giving several pumps most of the way down the shaft and ending with a audible *pop!* on her final arduously-long trip up the wobbly phallus. "Blegh! That's just..." wiping a little saliva from the side of her mouth Dash frowned at the cooler, "The rubbery taste, the texture, no thrusting... ugh! It's all off!"

While the pegasus continued to pout Twilight was weighing her options; should she take what she'd learned about using her hooves and magic and call it sufficient knowledge for the time being or accept the imperfect specimen that was the cooler to obtain a passing amount of a skill she could only assume would be beneficial to have; the more she thought about it the more she felt her choice was an easy one. Better to have a basis of experience that I could hone at a later date than none at all.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Dash asked as the linen straps she had pushed aside floated up with a magenta glow, "You expecting me to put that on?"

"Yes, though I realize it's a lot to ask for. As you stated: the taste, texture, and motion are inaccurate," Twilight recounted the facts as she weaved the straps through their bindings, "thankfully, however, one of those factors is not a constant and is within our control to change. I'm more interested in getting the technique down than I am worrying how realistic of a model the cooler poses; at the same time, removing one of the faults from the experience will undoubtedly provide a more precise representation and better prepare me. So, do you think you could bear with it long enough for me to get a basic understanding of what to expect? It would be an immense help."

The pegasus sighed after a long pause, clearly not entirely enthused with the idea,"Fine, just make it fast; and I'm also throwing it out there that I'm only into stallions."

Twilight gave her a big hug in thanks before she disappeared downstairs to fetch a pair of end pillows from the couch so Dash, who took the time to get the cooler strapped on, could have something to prop herself up in the chair they had been using as the odd sitting position they would require was considered uncomfortable by most, the exception that came to mind being Lyra, Twilight having seen her friend use the strange pose on more than one occasion even before the arrival of the human who was, of course, the second exception.

Once Rainbow was situated in the chair Twilight slowly approached and, following the pegasus' instructions, placed a forehoof on either of her thighs to prevent her from potentially bucking her hips which a stallion would most certainly do in such a situation, however without her hooves she was forced to rely on her magic to hold the towering spire steady and align it with her muzzle and it took several tries before Twilight got the entirety of the flare into her muzzle - a task that brought an ache to her jaw which she equated to her having a smaller mouth than Rainbow Dash (in more ways than one, though she kept that quip to herself). She became immediately aware of the taste Rainbow had been talking about as it made its presence known though Twilight pushed it to the back of her mind and focused on taking more of the cooler on, slowly pushing her way down the shaft and took an extra second to work over the medial ring to take a little more until she felt she couldn't go further and began pulling back to repeat the process. Twilight's second trip down the false member was much easier thanks to the coating of fresh saliva left behind on her last trip up, allowing her to gradually increase the speed at which she could bob over the next few pumps. The feeling was hard to describe as it wasn't entirely pleasant but at the same time the small switch to Twilight's strong imagination had been flicked on and she began to picture how the receiver might be enjoying themselves, leading the unicorn to believe if she was actually participating in oral copulation it would be much more enjoyable though that didn't stop a pressure from building in her nethers that ached to be relieved.

On Dash's end, things had started about the same as they had with Twilight - mainly this was both difficult and uncomfortable - but those feelings had veered off in a rather unexpected direction; what had began as apprehensive instructions and pointers slowly transitioned into subtle and seemingly unregistered coaxes of encouragement to her friend on each successive bob down the shaft. "When you feel the flare at the back of your throat make a couple of swallowing motions... that'll really make their head spin," she said rolling her head against the back of the chair. The way Twilight would pause to look up at her from under her bangs with ears perking to attention when she would give her instructions was adorable and, as much as Rainbow didn't want to admit it, it was hot. Like, awesomely hot.

Twilight tried the technique, sliding down the shaft and nearly gagging in the process as the wide tip expanded at the back of her throat and got a little scared it might get stuck as she carefully made small swallows before slowly retreating back up the spire to repeat the process until she was comfortable. What Twilight didn't realize was that each trip down the shaft was causing the base of the cooler, which was braced against Dash's belly, to press against and stimulate her mound slightly and when she felt the pegasus making minor bucks with her hips she simply thought it was just part of the exercise and developed a rhythm to match while jotting down a quick note on a parchment she had floated within view behind the chair. Hmmm, there's a frequency to the crests and troughs, like two opposing transverse waves; I've got to match the wave length and amplitude while maintaining a smooth- when Rainbow moved her shoulders one at a time to allow her wings to pop out from where they had been uncomfortably wedged against the pillows supporting her to either side Twilight began to suspect something off and, figuring she had learned all she could, attempted to dislodge the pegasus' phony pony phallus only to have one of her hooves gently urge her back down again, the thrusts becoming more urgent and each one was accompanied my a small squelch. "Raimmphow? Whahs ohing om?" Twilight struggled to make words around the cooler as it buried itself in her muzzle at an increasingly faster pace, "Arr-eck! you okeh?"

"D-doing f-fine! Keep your h-head in the ga-AHn-game," Dash was biting her lip to try and keep from letting out the moan that was building in her diaphragm as she felt herself winking from behind the cooler's canvas testes that held the imitation seed, each thrust causing them slap against her swollen button in a wonderful spike of pleasure, "Y-you've gotta-aah! pay attention... don't wanna g-gag... if younnh feel the flare throb... prepare for-"

"Hey Sparkles? I need to ask you-" Lyra announced half a second before coming around the bedroom door but instantly stopped at the sight of Rainbow Dash, her head lolled back and tongue out as her tail thrashed about between her hind legs, thrusting the strapped-on cooler into Twilight's muzzle as the unicorn scribbled notes out of the pegasus' line of sight.

Upon hearing the unexpected voice Dash stopped with an expression similar to a deer caught in headlights; she briefly looked from Lyra to Twilight before quickly removing her hoof from the back of the bobbing unicorn's head to throw both hooves in the air, "T-this isn't what it looks like!"

No longer restrained, Twilight pulled back off the floppy phallus and coughed to clear the taste of rubber, "She's right, Lyra-aaAAAA!" The sudden loss of pressure around the cooler sent several jets of its lyophilic colloid spurting out of the flared end and right into the face of a surprised Twilight who reflexively retracted as several more spurts arced over her to land on her mane and dribble down her horn and into her forelock.

Lyra's stare slowly switched from the panting pegasus to the completely drenched Twilight and back again. "I uh... see you're busy so I'll come back later. Sorry to interrupt," she made her apology before ducking back into the hallway and quickly trotting for the stairs in stunned silence though she was just as quickly followed by both ponies, their calls to her becoming jumbled together as they tried to get her to stop at the same time.

"Lyra wait-"
"I'm not into mares-"
"Rainbow was just showing me how-"
"I totally love dick!"

The mint unicorn would have made it to the front door but the familiar *pfwink!* and a violet flash stopped her just short from trotting headlong into the teleporting librarian. "Lyra, STOP!" Twilight reared up on her hind legs to spread both forehooves out to block her friend's escape, the motion causing the small gobbet of cooler spunk that was hanging from her horn to swing about like a pendulum and Lyra couldn't help but oblige to stop and giggle at the comical sight, "Lyra, you've misinterpreted what you saw... well sort of, anyway. If you remember what I told you last week I don't feel completely ready to present for him when he gets heated, so Rainbow was just showing me a technique so I'd have an option when I'm ready for it rather than just leaving him hanging until I'm willing to go all the way. You know, similar to an incremental step."

"Yeah," with the cooler making it too awkward to fly Dash came waddling down the stairs after the drenched unicorn, each step accompanied by a small slap as it flopped about between her legs, completely unaware that she was leaving a trail of the glistening replica spooge all the way down the stairs, "Totally just showing the newbie some moves, nothing else."

"Right," the sarcasm in Lyra's reply was evident enough for Twilight though the pegasus didn't seem to pick up on it as her attention was focused on fiddling with the clasps strapping the cooler to her, "if that's the case you could have just let her borrow a porno. And speaking of moves, once you're cleaned up do you think we could talk a bit? It's got to do with the big guy." Lyra's reasons to stop by the library before returning to hang out with Titus had actually been four-fold; she had copied the schedule, she wanted to hear about his abilities and kill some time. The fourth was that there was something she wanted to clear up as she may have been coming onto him since he had gotten back and she had been a little taken back when he asked. But am I interested in him like that? He's sweet and I mean, flanks that good on a pony - even a transmogrification - more than likely had a decent basis with which to transition from his human form, so he's got the butt. Plus fingers? Just... bucking fingers-

"Oh! Guess what!" the sudden exclamation interrupted Lyra's reflection on what those digits had done and brought an end to the phantom sensations that had been tingling through her ears and she opening her eyes to find a beaming Twilight hopping about excitedly, "I asked him on a date and he said yes!" the librarian continued her bouncing in a slow circle around Lyra and Dash chanting "YES!" several more times and humming happily.

Lyra was uncertain how she felt; she hardly wanted Twilight to feel like she was butting in and, while it wasn't unheard of for a stallion to be courting two separate mares at once these days, it was much more normal for the second mare to wait for the first - known as the "alpha" mare - to finish her courtship before the second approached her for permission to start her own. Well, if anything else that gives me time to think things through. Sighing, the mint unicorn let her friend bask in the moment and complete a few laps of bounds and small dances before intercepting her with a grin and a hearty punch to the shoulder, "Yeah! Way to go Sparkles! You got everything lined up for the date then?"

Twilight told her she had only acquired the wine so far and had yet to speak with Fluttershy about the fish course which Dash offered to do on account she had one more round of her patrol to do and she'd be in the area but Twilight shook her head, "Thanks Rainbow but you girls have helped so much already and its something I feel I should do myself. It's still pretty early so I'll go after delivering that mountain of mail... and while I'm there maybe attempt to convince him to buy a mailbox."

Seeing she was no longer needed (much to her chagrin) Rainbow bid her farewell and made a beeline for her cloud home, intent on relieving the pent-up frustration after having been interrupted before heading back out for her patrol; meanwhile Lyra waited for Twilight's return and tried her best to distract herself from the package sitting temptingly on the coffee table though her conundrum was that whenever she'd attempt to think of something else her mind would always go back to her own confused feelings which she could only distract herself from by thinking about the box.

When Twilight finally descended back to the living room after making a brief stop to put a small envelope in her saddlebags she found a rather distressed-looking Lyra pacing about and occasionally eyeing the parcel for Titus with envy. "Uh... do you want to come with me to drop it off?" she asked as she approached, visibly startling her friend from her thought, "As far as I can tell the parcel is from Princess Luna and judging from the writing the letter is from Princess Celestia and, if we're lucky or if we ask, he might open them while we're there. Speaking of asking, was there something you wanted to talk about?"

"Na, it can wait, but I was actually headed back to his place anyway. Picked up some grub for him," Lyra floated the takeout bag to her side and got a small nod from Twilight when she recognized the logo though she warned that Titus might find a hayburger not to be overly appealing. Lyra shrugged in response and, not wanting Twilight to see the copy of the schedule she had absconded, opened the bulging bag to peek the contents over the lip and into view, "Yeah, I figured that might be the case so in addition to a triple-stacked burger I went with a a few sides... one basket of onion rings... two orders of mozzarella sticks... some spicy quesadillas-" Lyra didn't notice Twilight's eyes go slightly wider as she floated them into view, "aaand one extra large chocolate milkshake that I've got in a frost-containment spell. Oh, and I've got dibs on the burger if he doesn't want it."

"That's... quite a lot of food," the violet unicorn looked impressed as she gently hoisted the box into the air and slowly headed for the hallway with Lyra falling in behind her, "I just hope his arteries can handle it."

"It's only one meal, Sparkles, and from what I've seen when he's been working he's plenty fit to burn off the calories. Not to mention Titus is twice our size; an order like this is probably like, bordering on normal size for him-" Lyra huffed, though the last half of it got caught in her throat when her friend suddenly rounded on her to wrap her into a hug.

"Oh my gosh, you're the best Lyra!" Twilight gave a squeeze as what she thought would have been a catastrophe was avoided, "I completely forgot to take into account how much he might eat and the meal I'd had planned out for our date was going to be pony-sized!"

After releasing Lyra and making a mental note to adjust portions to accommodate Titus' size Twilight floated the large sack of mail to balance on her back though most of the weight was reduced by the magic bag itself. The walk across town to the base of Human Hill wasn't an overly long one but long enough that it gave plenty of time for Twilight to share what she'd be told about The Force though it proved difficult to convince the stubborn musician that his abilities didn't stem from Harmony-based magic and by the time Lyra had gotten around to inquiring on the scope of what he could do they were just pushing into the back of the congestion of media ponies. "Well, he's demonstrated a form of psychokinesis when he took apart the datapads - you know, that thing I've got on my dresser? - and when I was using the Sense-Link spell with him I felt what I could only describe as an extrasensory perception of my surroundings - telegnosis, if you will," now at the front of the crowd Twilight flagged down a guard to present the small badge identifying her as the Princesses' duly appointed Human-Pony Intermediary Agent which would grant her clearance to pass. She was about to indicate that Lyra was going to accompany her but, to her surprise, the guard hardly blinked when she ducked beneath the tape with her fast food while Twilight's badge was still being authenticated; something which annoyed Twilight more than slightly. You'd think with both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna as my credentials there wouldn't be much to vet. At least they're being thorough... annoyingly thorough. While she was waiting Twilight noticed more than a few cameras had turned from the ship to photograph the mint unicorn instead. And just what did Lyra have do to waltz through the perimeter like that? she thought, shoving the badge back in her saddlebag as she sidled up beside her friend after impatiently passing under the tape that the guard had finally lifted up, "Anyway, those are the two displays I've seen so far though I imagine he used something similar to fight off those timberwolves but at the time I couldn't tell what I was seeing. I assume he either told you about his abilities or he's shown you..."

"Oh yeah, he showed me something," Lyra more than registered the way Twilight had trailed off in hopes of an answer but instead the ever-playful unicorn gave her a wink and laughed, "but you'll have to check tomorrow's headlines to find out what!" A frustrated grunt of exasperation only fueled her laughter further and when it finally abated she declared they'd discover all of his special abilities together as she lead the way over to a clear spot of grass on another small hill with a small stick that she had set jutting out of the soft dirt as a temporary marker for her return. "Alright Sparkles, he said he wouldn't be working outside today on account of the crowd so just follow me," Lyra turned about to face the direction they had come, shielding her eyes from the sun with a hoof as she searched for the small hole in the hull until a wandering cloud provided a brief enough interlude to spot their destination which she pointed to and disappeared in a blink of bright yellow.

Not a second later they were both standing on the ship's hull and, after a quick investigation by a pair of the pegasi guards that had swooped in at their sudden appearance (once again checking Twilight's badge, much to the librarian's increased aggravation), Twilight immediately recognized the opening by the yellow and black striped outline and the familiar words "Airlock Manual Release" that she and Applejack had frantically unearthed, though one difference was that this time the short shadowy hallway on the other side of the open metal door felt much less intimidating. "The last time I was here I was really scared what we might find on the other side of that," Twilight indicated the inner airlock door with a nod of her head as Lyra gently pulled the red latch next to it, "I'm really glad it was Titus."

"So am I, but it won't open," the mint unicorn scowled. She gave it a small kick on the off chance it was stuck like the outer door had been and tried again but the airlock remained sealed. Explaining to Twilight that Titus had overridden the system so both chamber doors could be open at once after she stated the other had to be closed Lyra walked over to the keypad on the wall and slid the metal plate that was covering the buttons out of the way; using her nose like she had seen Twilight do with the book-like device she tapped a pattern on the surface and was rewarded with a short beep before their way was made clear. "Hey big guy, I'm back! And I brought Sparkles with me!" Lyra's shout echoed off the walls into the craft to announce their presence but even after several minutes no response came; of course, unbeknownst to either pony, the ship's soundproofing had muffled the call so it barely traveled beyond the first hallway, "Well... he said he'd be working inside so I guess we'll have to go find him."

"H-he gave you the code?" Twilight asked timidly, unable to keep herself from feeling like that was something Titus would have shared with her before somepony else. Did I do something to anger him, is that why? Is it because when we get intimate and he wants to go further I keep stalling? Her pace slowed as she followed Lyra into the corridor beyond, despite her turbulent feelings, however, she still took notice of how different the ship looked from her last visit; everything was lit in a warm white light and the floor was clear of debris though it was still just as cold as she remembered and apparently Lyra felt it too judging by her slight shiver, the wall panels that had been strewn about were now either leaning beneath where they belonged or back in place and the wires and circuitry that was visible all appeared neat and organized.

"He didn't exactly give me the code," Lyra replied, the double doors at the end of the hallway sliding smoothly open at their approach though she stopped just short to look at Twilight sideways with a sheepish grin, "I uh, I sorta... peeked when he was entering it in. I didn't mean to memorize it though, his fingers were just poking away all delicately and precisely and fast and I just couldn't help but watch! D-don't you know it?"

Twilight was torn between wanting to scold Lyra for unintentionally snooping and wanting to ask her for the code for her own use but decided to leave well enough alone and, when Lyra wasn't looking, she breathed a sigh of relief that everything between her and Titus seemed normal while mentally kicking herself for jumping to wild conclusions, "No, I don't know the passcode for the doors but I think it would be a good idea to avoid using it in the future, at least until he openly shares it with you; this is his home, after all."

"Yeah well," Lyra shrugged again, taking a turn down a T-junction as her body retraced her steps from earlier, "he said the door'd be open so if he's ticked off it's his own fault... but just in case I've got a secret weapon that's proven to melt the big guy like butter!" With practiced ease she went doe-eyed and made her bottom lip tremble, small tears forming in the corners of her eyes as her ears splayed backwards and she submissively lowered her head; the unicorn had become fully aware of how the human found the look adorable when she had hopped on the floating bike machine and caused it to jump forward - "stalled-out," as Titus had later called it - he had snapped at her to get off and quickly apologized when she had adopted the look, clarifying that he had been more worried than angry as she could have been seriously hurt had the machine taken off or crashed and, after the "customary Hug of Forgiveness" (a fictitious pony rite Lyra later revealed she had made up on the spot) he had told her he hated how aware she was of her own cuteness. She had decided against using the look to try and convince Titus to let her stay when asked to go to the Human Watchers luncheon because it was something she wanted to use as sparingly as possible so he couldn't build up a resistance though his own secret weapon, that stupefying ear rub, was an incredible threat should he ever retaliate with it.

Lyra's autopilot had gotten them close to their destination, the mint unicorn stopping at the start of the small corridor that was lined with a number of identical unmarked doors though which one was the human's quarters was anypony's guess, "Uh..."

Twilight put the sack of mail and package down to one side and both she and Lyra went from door to door, pushing the buttons and peering in with an occasional "Hello?" or "You in here, big guy?" as they stuck their snouts into the shadowy rooms though every one they checked was a shambled mess and quite obviously empty until Twilight called Lyra over when she found a clean-ish room.

The mint unicorn trotted over and both took a peek inside though she instantly knew it wasn't the same room she'd been in before; this one, while it had the same bunk set into the wall and the locker against another, was more furnished. On the back wall next to the locker was a long, red banner baring a symbol of some form made up of lots of jagged edges (not unlike Titus' tattoo) with white marks that were probably a language running along either side. Though no light was coming from it a strange liquid-filled lamp sat on the desk, seemingly there so that the shelves of books set in the corner could be read from the comfortable-looking cushioned chair beside them; that, or it was there to inspect the numerous bladed weapons on the rack to the other side, one of which - a rather ornate dagger - held a prominent place on the table beside the lamp. All of that, however, was pushed to the mental sidelines as a familiar shape caught Lyra's eye: the heart-wrenching sight of what had once been an instrument, its beautifully dark straight-grained wood neck a splintered mess halfway up the frets which was only attached to the largest intact piece of the swirling-grained lighter wood body by several of its strings. The musician gave a heavy, sorrowful sigh at the loss before indicating the room wasn't the one they were looking for.

Thankfully the hallway only had a few doors remaining, one of which was labeled as the Droid Recharging Closet, the door opening automatically as they passed; Twilight sticking her head in out of curiosity though the small room was just that - a closet, devoid of droids and the only distinguishing feature a small cable with an odd end coming out of it attached to the back wall and a matching plug beside it - she was still poking around when she heard Lyra's warm greeting.

"Hey, I'm back with some chow! Oh, and Sparkles brought some mail for ya!"

The violet unicorn quickly trotted to the door where Lyra's rump had disappeared, entering shortly after her and after a quick once over of the room shared in her sentiment of its coziness before spotting Titus who was situated on the bunk stretched out under a blanket on his side with his back to both ponies. "Hello!" Twilight offered her own greeting a little softer than her boisterous friend's, thinking the human might still be asleep and not wanting to jar him awake, "Sorry for barging in like this but Derpy, Ponyville's mailmare who I think you've met, was in a real bind as this stuff was piling up like crazy," she used her magic to push the locker back upright and deposited a few of the items that looked like they belonged inside, clearing a spot for the large sack and parcel before quickly explaining the situation at the post office and suggested that he or she talk with the guards so that mail could be delivered yet throughout her dialog she noticed Titus didn't stir, his sides rhythmically heaving in time with his light snores.

"Come on, up'n at em!"

"Shhh!" the librarian shushed harshly but quickly grimaced when she realized how loud she had been herself, "You might as well zap him with a shock spell for how gentle you're being. H-he's completely zonked out, maybe we should just let him sleep and come back later."

"Hey, he made a promise - a Pinkie Promise - that if I went to lunch and let him nap we'd chill for the rest of the day AND he said I could wake him up if he was still sleeping. So let's go big guy, nap time is over!" Lyra announced slightly louder than normal; unlike Twilight she wasn't apposed to jarring Titus from slumber as she had been excitedly waiting for what seemed like an eternity to begin the promised hang-out time with her human friend but when he failed to respond to her attempts at waking him she set the bag of food to one side and bounced over to the bunk to try a different approach and placed her front hooves on the edge so she could get close enough to whisper in a sultry voice, "If you don't get up eventually I'll get bored and have no choice but to play with those fingers of yours..." her eyelids drooped half closed as she leaned in even closer until his hair was brushing her nose, "and I'm betting they could scratch all of my hard to reach places, if you know what I mean."

"Lyra!" Twilight had overheard and before she could stop herself her powerful sense of imagination had painted some very graphic and rather vivid images; she squeezed her eyes shut to try and rid herself of the thoughts however the sudden lack of vision only served to bring further depth to the fantasies she was seeing as the deprivation of one of her senses opened up more processing power for her brain, "You're going to get him heated if you say stuff like that!" When she opened her eyes again after the images had retreated to a spot at the back of her mind she found the giggling mint unicorn crawling over the human's form.

"Relax Sparkles, the big guy knows I'm only kidding... though it would be a perfect opportunity for you to practice those moves Dashie was supposedly showing you," she teased, stopping to lay herself across Titus' side parallel to his own body and gave him a friendly snuggle while Twilight, who couldn't think of anything else to do, gave in to her organizational OCD and tidied up the room until the blinking screen of a small version of a datapad caught her eye before she almost stepped on it. Upon closer examination the writing wasn't one she'd seen Titus use before and it was different from what they had seen on the banner in the other room, compared to the long jagged lines the small pulsing text was comprised of shorter, almost brush-like strokes though the unmistakable icon of an animated lock latching was at least one bit of information she could understand.

With Twilight distracted Lyra had a chance to whisper directly into his ear, "I saw your instrument, bring it by my place and I'll see what I can do with a few spells of repair. I'm dying to hear your fingers caressing those strings..." A low groan came from the bunk, a sign that the human wasn't as asleep as they thought.

"He's alive! Aliiiive~! I hope you're hungry because I got a load of- uh... hey big guy, what's up?"

There was a long pause.

"T-Twilight?" Lyra's odd and completely uncharacteristic use of her first name drew her attention, the violet unicorn looking up from her attempts to decipher what was on the display to find her friend bearing an expression of extreme worry, "Twilight get over here, he's really cold and his skin is all clammy! He's got spots, too!"

Twilight couldn't have been at the side of the bunk faster even if she had teleported, her front hooves lifting her up to see just as Lyra rolled Titus onto his side causing his arm which had been tucked against his chest and not visible from the door to flop over the side; small red spots about the size of a Bit dotted his skin and continued up his arm and onto his bare shoulder. "That's... Pony Pox!" she quickly mirrored Lyra's concerned expression, though in her case she had read historical accounts of remote populations coming into contact with explorers and falling deathly ill with otherwise mild diseases they had never encountered.

"We should get a doctor or get him to the hospital or something!" Rolling the human onto his side had caused the blanket covering him to shift, revealing that he had gotten out of the upper part of the flight suit at some point and laid bare his exposed chest for Lyra to see for the first time, "Look! He's grown teats too!"

"No, he's had those and-"

"So they're not new?" Lyra breathed a sigh of relief at the good news though she still wasn't grasping the severity of the situation, "And you're sure he's a stallion?"

"Focus Lyra! He doesn't have the antibodies we do so this is serious; like, seriously serious," Twilight's brain was scrambling to determine the correct course of action, "Like I was saying, the doctor can't help - last time I talked with him he said we should get the vet! The hospital is out as well because it's too small to be equipped to properly handle a quarantine; if it's capable of being transmitted to other creatures, who knows what could happen if this spreads." The sealed airlock, the small datapad and blinking lock icon; it was at that point that she started connecting the dots and realized that Titus had tried to isolate himself inside his ship and thankfully the airlock door had closed behind them on their way in, "It has to be a new strain, but how did he catch it?"

"Not to sound mean Sparkles, but you spent all of yesterday with him, so... yeah," figuring there was no point in keeping her distance if she was already sick Lyra stayed close to Titus, shifting to accommodate his new position and squirmed into the crotch of his arm that moved to drape itself over her shoulder of its own accord, getting a smile from the mint unicorn which she shared with Twilight, "You're not supposed to share your drinks or food with anypony if you've got Pony Pox, and you two did share breakfast."

Twilight shook her head at that line of reasoning before poking his other hand with her muzzle to let Titus know she was there and was rewarded with a pat on the head and a brief ear scratch before the hand slumped back to his side, "No, that's not it; Pony Pox is a virus that hasn't made the leap to other species but they can be potential carriers however they've never exhibited symptoms. He'd have to be a pony to... oh jeez," her head followed the slumped hand to the mattress as she breathed a heavy sigh, "I think I know; yesterday when he was telling me about his week I realized I messed something up for him while he was gone and to show me he wasn't mad he... he kissed me. That's when the virus must have been transmitted. So what do we do? Hey, if you can hear me do you have any medicine that might help?"

Titus muttered something in a raspy voice that neither of them could understand so Lyra floated over her bag of food and retrieved the milkshake which he had to partially sit up to gulp directly from the cup as the cashier had withheld a straw per Lyra's instructions. With his throat no longer feeling like sandpaper, Titus slumped back to the bunk, "Need... to get... to medbay."

"More droids?" Twilight asked rhetorically and floated the two limp mechanical forms onto the table as Lyra provisioned seats for them from various objects laying about the medbay, "Aside from Dex you must have been pretty lonely out there without a crew." His response was a grunt, partially lost as he sat down heavily on the upturned tub at the far end of the table and, being the shortest of the seats, it barely brought his vision above the tabletop. It was a necessity, however, as both ponies would need to see what they were doing so they each hopped on their own perches, Lyra on a cushioned stool at one end of the table and Twilight in the middle on a tall box.

"Need to check them... for damage," Titus coughed and pulled the blanket around himself, each wheeze causing his head to throb several times as he squeezed his eyes closed in a grimace which prevented him from seeing both pony's worried looks; he had little doubt the droids were damaged as both had been found under piles of debris and the large dents in the outer metal shell and head of the bipedal surgical droid and what he could see through the translucent section of torso lead Titus to believe the internals he couldn't see were probably a mess, too. Thankfully the smaller GH-7 looked to have fared much better as it only bore a few scratches though the way its arm was bent indicated the servo had been stressed well beyond its threshold and would need to be replaced. It took a few moments to hook the visor he had had R6 retrieve from the workstation in the cargo bay to the interface sockets, "Here Twi, put this on. It'll highlight the parts-" he was interrupted with another bout of coughing, though this one was thankfully brief, "Sorry. It'll highlight the parts for you as I list them, then you'll use the visor's diagnostic program to compare their readings to the benchmarks from the holobooks I left with you; if they're not within the proper range you show them to Lyra and she'll replace them from the spares R6 fetched. We'll start easy and open the big one-"

"The two dash one bee, right? And judging from the filled memory slots it looks like you opted to add more than a few of the specialist packages," Twilight got an impressed look from Titus as she donned the visor. Flipping it down over her eyes she gasped in excitement as her vision was immediately filled with lines of information that scrolled upward as the device powered on before the display went black for several moments and a menu appeared; it took her a little while to acclimate to the interface which she quickly learned she had to navigate with her eyes, staring at an option would access it and text would scroll automatically as she reached the end of a line to bring up the next, Ohmygosh this is amazing! "Okay, I've got a diagnostic program in front of me... I'll just need a moment to make sense of it." Following his loose instructions, she eventually found her way around the program and when she felt in control of it she nodded in Lyra's general direction, "This is going to be disorienting if I have to constantly move this thing to point at parts I'll lose where I am-" Twilight had barely finished her grumble when she felt a hand on the visor manipulating something and suddenly she could see the droid laid out before her like she was looking through a pair of glasses and the information was overlaid to not obstruct her view. "W-wow," unable to resist the urge she took a look around the room, head darting about as the device highlighted and conjured up general data about what it was pointed at, "That's much better, thanks," she leaned her shoulder against his a little harder in appreciation.

Titus slid a hand across to squeeze Twilight's closest hoof though he could feel himself slipping as his perpetual headache got worse; it felt like every capillary in his brain was on fire but lowering his head to the cool surface of the operation table provided a little comfort as he began, speaking in a whisper lest the volume cause his head to throb any worse, "First, find the screws and remove the chestplates; after that the clear torso cover will just slide off."

Absentmindedly entertaining herself by spinning the stool's seat in circles, Lyra stopped to focus her magic on the series of screws and slowly worked them out; putting them neatly to one side lest she activate Twilight's need for organization however she didn't have to wait long for a part to be pointed out to her. Focusing her magic into a different, finer point she gently disconnected a few wires on the tiny little chip though when Twilight indicated several of the chip's hair-thin pins had broken off in their terminals Lyra had to focus almost to the limits of her ability to painstakingly pluck them out one by one. Lyra got small breaks to recharge herself in the form of larger parts that needed to be replaced such as hoses and prefabricated components that were easily swapped in and during one such break she cast an envious glance at Titus' fingers as he remained hunched over with his head on the table. How the buck can he do this without magic?! While she was waiting for the visor program to finish its evaluation she leaned behind Twilight to rub the obviously-pained human on the back. "We'll have these things fixed in no time, I promise! Just hang in there, big guy," she gave him an encouraging smile and a wink when he turned his head slightly to nod in appreciation though she took quick notice of the spots that had started developing on his neck.

Twilight felt her friend leaning behind her though she concentrated on the colored comparison charts that popped up as the diagnostic program finished; The logic matrix's results came back within the acceptable range, but the board's microprocessor doesn't appear be operating correctly. Capacitors are shot, too. Using one of the spare antennas from the box Twilight pointed out the part while floating the replacement over to Lyra and moved the visor's program on to the next set of scanning; this process continued with Twilight indicating to several minuscule somethings while she queued up more diagnostics at Titus' instruction and Lyra went about replacing broken components. It was a draining exercise on everyone and both ponies eventually fell into a wordless rhythm so neither noticed the human's words gradually slurring until it reached the point that they weren't even sure he was speaking words.

With a hoof on her horn Lyra winced as her own head throbbed from the extensive use of highly-focused magic, "Okay Sparkles, now what?"

Twilight realized they were on their own as Titus, who was, in fact, still walking them through the repair but his rattled mind had flipped the autopilot on and had slipped back into using the Galactic Basic language and garbled out more strange syllables which they had no means of deciphering, "We've already replaced everything broken in this one's chest and the processing units and sensors in the head are all that's left; we've got to keep working Lyra."

"Keep going?" Lyra winced again at the thought of further magic use, "How? If you haven't noticed our specialist has clocked out!"

"Well, I have read entries on this general subject...." the holobooks Titus had loaned her on his week in Canterlot, each small slab boasting more literature than the entirety of her library, had been a great distraction during her heat cycle and she had poured over them wholeheartedly, of particular interest had been the sub-folder of maintenance manuals ranging from cybernetic limbs (the discovery of such machines had spawned numerous concepts for use where hooves and magic could not be used) to the absolute treasure trove on the ship's ion engines and various models of droids, some of which she had yet to see, that she had been so engrossed she hadn't even gotten to thoroughly checking the contents of the other holobooks. Twilight pulled the blanket up around Titus' shoulders and gently brushed a small amount of hair out of his face before turning to Lyra with a look of grim determination, "but I know we can do it, Lyra."

Lyra sighed, watching Twilight rub a hoof across the human's back comfortingly, "If you think you can make sense of this tech stuff... buck me, I'm not going to give up either! You hear me, big guy? Told you I was stubborn!" she called across to Titus who was still muttering incoherently and appeared oblivious that he was being talked to, "Once we get this thing fixed up and you're back on your feet you better be ready for that ear rub you owe me, and it's got to be longer than the last one!"

Reinvigorated, they both dove back into the droid with a level of teamwork that enhanced their speed and efficiency to a level where their combined efforts looked like an automated assembly line - Twilight managing to conduct her inspection of components while organizing and queuing up more to the point that the visor's processor was struggling to keep up with her meanwhile Lyra matched Twilight's pace, honing her magic in on the broken parts her friend pointed out and simultaneously swapping in multiple replacements at once with expert finesse; by the time they were closing up the small analysis droid many, many hours later both ponies were thoroughly spent.

"Moment of truth, Sparkles," Lyra said as she slumped bodily to the table, eyes squeezed shut as her horn-migraine throbbed in time with her heartbeat while Twilight removed the visor and wiped her eyes with the back of her hoof when they watered profusely after having their focus on the display not an inch away suddenly shift to varying distances as she made the mistake of glancing around the room.

"Alright, here goes..." floating the larger medical droid upright onto its two feet, the violet unicorn hopped up on the table so she could reach the power switch to flick it on with an audible *click!*

Nothing happened.

"Buck!" Lyra groaned as Twilight tried flipping the switch several times. She was going to slump back to the table when Titus, one hand shakingly reaching for her hoof, caught her attention. "Sorry big guy, we tried, but your machines- what? Why are you pointing at the goggles?"

His short raspy whisper was a garble of the weird language and when he fell quiet he stared at her as if waiting.

Lyra shook her head gently which she quickly realized was a mistake and even quicker ceased, "I-I can't understand you, big guy. Just keep hanging in there, Sparkles'll figure this out!" She watched as a confused expression crossed his face before he wordlessly took the cord connecting the visor between two fingers and gave it a very light tug; she followed the line all the way to the droid then her eyes darted back to the visor as an idea crossed her mind, "Hey Sparkles, I think what he's trying to tell us is to disconnect the eye thingy." She got a thumbs-up before his head returned to the cool table, hers following behind it as Twilight removed the visor's plug from the droid's socket and tried the switch once more and a brief whine accompanied the click this time as the droid's head jerked up and the lights in its eyes glowed faintly.

"YES!" Twilight squeaked with glee as the droid walked forward a few steps and turned to face them, her loud enthusiasm causing Lyra to wince as it felt like the sound reverberated around inside her skull, "We did it, Lyra! We repaired alien technology, do you know what this means?!" The violet unicorn didn't wait for an answer before launching into an excited monologue that this was the first step to not only understanding Titus' tech but the humble beginnings of recreating it for Equestria's eventual forays into the reaches of space.

"Sparkles? Kindly shut your muzzle..." Lyra scooted along the table on her belly to commandeer part of the blanket wrapped around Titus to pull over her head, her ears splayed in an attempt to dampen the noise coming from her lecturing friend that felt like it was traveling down her horn directly to her brain, "I can literally feel the sound waves you're putting out."

"Communication module activated... language found. If you are in medical distress might I be of assistance?" the medical droid, having finished its boot-up sequence, turned to offer Lyra in a odd mechanical tone that strangely didn't cause her pain, "I apologize in advance as the aid I can provide is rather limited due to a pending Maintenance Alert; I have run a search of my databanks and no entries on your species were found. Please have a technician check that the drives are functioning or upload the necessary files; several non-essential secondary motor functions also appear to be operating at less-than peak performance and efficiency will be effected."

Both unicorns looked from each other to the unblinking trio of lights that were the droid's eyes before Lyra waved a hoof, "I'm just worn out and need some water and a quiet place to nap, it's the big guy here who needs your attention."

"Understood." The droid's attention switched to the still human as he made a lurching gait around the table to his patient's side and spoke in what sounded like the same garbled language Titus had been using but the only response the droid got from the lump under the blanket was a low groan and a hoarse cough.

"He's not feeling well, Lyra and I believe he's contracted a virus; I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way," Twilight provided a quick introduction in the same format she had given the navigational assistant program the day of the crash and gave the details of what she knew about the Pony Pox though the machine made several inquires seeking to refine what the unicorn meant by magic and eventually stated it was improperly circuited to process that concept as it aided Titus to his feet. While he was being moved through an airlock system to a different table on the other side of a wall-to-wall glass window Twilight flipped the power switch on the smaller droid which floated up with what she noticed was a similar hum as the speeder bike before it greeted them in a similar fashion to the bipedal droid.

After offering a container of water and a small mattress it pulled out from a slot in the wall like a drawer for Lyra - who more than gratefully accepted - the analysis droid bobbed through the airlock door after the surgical droid which stood motionless for several moments as its smaller assistant hovered around the human before both resumed activity after seemingly exchanging information which Twilight eagerly pointed out to Lyra as their networking capability, though for the duration of her explanation she failed to notice the mint unicorn wincing with each word. Twilight opted to give the droids their space to work and, with a little difficulty as all of human furniture was much taller than Equestrian counterparts, she hopped up on the mattress with Lyra, both ponies spinning in circles to find the softest spot before plopping down on their stomachs to watch the droids as they worked however when they went about removing the rest of the flight suit and redressing him in a set of something similar to the shorts he usually wore under his clothes that had two hoses coming out of the front and back the violet unicorn shifted uncomfortably and looked elsewhere for the majority of the duration while they placed an air mask over his face and poked numerous intravenous lines into his arm.

Lyra, however, stared until her earlier question had been confirmed. Okay, definitely a stallion. With teats. And his sheath is a little funny looking but everything seems like it's there- her gawking came to an abrupt end with a sharp jab in the ribs from Twilight's elbow when she caught her friend's eyes lingering.

The whooshing and clanking of machinery drew their attention again a couple of minutes later to find Titus encased in a vat or tube which was gradually filling with a thick clear liquid until he was submerged. With the excitement over Lyra indulged in the nap she needed while Twilight quietly conversed with the two droids when they emerged from the sealed area about the nature of the procedure Titus was undergoing before dozing off herself beside her friend, both ponies intent on being present when their human emerged.

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

"I bring important news," the griffon strode into the cavernous and dimly-lit room, calling into the darkness as his keen eyesight struggled to pierce the shadows that flickered and danced from the two torches adorning the wall near the door, searching for their leader as he came to a stop at the edge of the light. There was a total of six cells that their Matron had regrouping in the cave system, a congregation that a few of the Resistance felt was a rash move though their new, fortified position within the mountains would need the numbers to mount a proper defense should the King's forces follow their trail. He registered the movement to one side too late to react and suddenly he felt the firm grip on his windpipe as he was lifted to his hind legs.

"You intrude unbidden," to make her displeasure known she effortlessly lifted the young griffon higher and squeezed slightly, harshly swatting aside one of his talons that tried to find a grip of her arm, "Speak. Quickly."

"News from our foreign conspirators..." the griffon gurgled as his lungs screamed for air, head held aloft at an angle that he was unable to see his assailant, "The hyoo-man... has fallen ill with an equine pox... his survival... uncertain." Expecting his Matron to release him upon delivery of the information she instead remained silent and made no move to free him from her grasp as she thought over the development, during which time the griffon lost consciousness and went limp.

A moment passed and there was a solid knock at the door before another griffon entered, this one older and decidedly more muscular than the previous. "Pardon the interruption, we have confirmed a field report-" he stopped upon seeing the limp body of his brethren, forelimbs dangling at his sides. The griffon bowed reverently, "My humble apologies for my subordinate's insolence, Mistress. I would have come sooner had I nae thought it prudent to authenticate our information and would seem this wee one wished to overstep his authority, a transgression normally worthy of harsh punishment however with our numbers thinned perhaps I may ask that ye be lenient in this case?" The figure before him grunted in response, roughly tossing the limp form to his feet. He bowed again in thanks as she crossed the cavern to sit in the large chair tucked into one of the shadowy corners and when she had made herself comfortable he inquired if the report had already been disclosed to her to which she crossed her forearms over her chest and nodded, "I shall keep ye apprised of the ongoing situation, Mistress. What is your directive?"

"The King's Delegation is still at the horse palace, contact our informant and tell her to continue forward with the schedule. We will be ready when the time comes," she answered in the broken Griffon language her aide had become used to, "In the meantime, see to it that your fledglings stay in line; make an example of this one's misplaced eagerness. Dismissed, Geirr."

"So it will be done, Golden Mistress." With a final bow Geirr departed, dragging the unconscious figure by the tail out of the room to leave it with the first comrades he came across, intent on dealing with the upstart once he came around and, from the look of things, that might be a while. It worked out in his favor however, as after he dispatched the message that would find an indirect path to their informant the next order of business was to interrogate the prisoner that one of the merging resistance cells had picked up. Despite a quick rise to power within the Resistance the Matron had proven devoted to the cause and it had been both her ability to lead when the position had been suddenly vacated in the last raid and her gift to seemingly come out ahead against all odds had swung the approval of the G.R.A.'s superiors in her favor but those same superiors were definitely hesitant to consolidate their power at the mountain base being situated. Geirr, however, held no such hesitation at following his golden-maned mistress, she had saved his life during their escape and his clan's code demanded it belonged wholly to her until she released him from the debt, and if that meant he was at the forefront while she commanded from behind the curtain like the other Griffon Resistance Army Executives so be it.

Geirr arrived at the makeshift holding cell with two guards stationed outside, both of them familiar faces he'd fought with before the consolidation so he knew them to be trustworthy beyond a doubt; his nod was enough to communicate they were to follow him in on the off chance the unicorn tried anything. "G'mornin' lass... though stuck down here like ye are it might as well be night to ye, for all ye know," Geirr closed in on the form huddled in a corner, rolling his thick neck until it popped several times while the two guards positioned themselves near the door with torches to illuminate the room, "Now then, what say we have a wee chat about the alien visitor and your Princesses?"

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

It was just under a week before the gel was drained out of the tank and Titus was finally able to step out set foot on the deck of his ship again, though he had been retained in the isolation chamber for a day while the droids conducted a few concluding tests. Floating next to the intercom, the small analysis droid spoke in a calm tone to both ponies from the other side of the observation area while the larger surgical droid finished up with Titus, "Master Aelius should refrain from strenuous activity for a few more days to promote a full recuperation and while he is certainly out of the asteroid belt, medically speaking, he's still on the road to recovery and will need to return to the vat for another, shorter session." Titus' rather groggy appearance while the tubes in his arms were pulled out lent credibility to the droid's prognosis though Twilight and Lyra each got a big grin when they waved at him; they had been given the good news the night previous the last that his elevated intracranial pressure had finally passed and that the odd virus was losing the battle with his antibodies thanks in part to the bacta, both the immersion that provided a sanitary environment and the injections had kept him stable and both ponies had been in high spirits since then, despite being dead on their hooves tired. "We have communicated that to him, however, like many other organics, he has a track record of illogical behavior and stubbornly ignores such medical instruction. If at all possible, please attempt to steer him toward following our recommendations." Observing the surgical droid retreating to the chamber's airlock the assistant stated the quarantine was no longer in effect and they were free to enter.

Twilight was stomping her socked hooves as the first chamber door felt like it inched open and she didn't even realize she had poked her muzzle through the growing crack and as soon as there was sufficient space for her to squeeze through she had, trying to contain her anticipation though that dam was weakly constructed and the floodgate failed, her pace quickening to a trot for the short distance across the isolation chamber. In a single bound she had cleared the examination table he was sitting on and wrapped her hooves around him tightly, burying her face in the coarse blanket he was bundled up in.

"Whoa, take is easy Sparkles! It'd be a shame if you smothered him to death at this point," Lyra joined the pair on the table and bumped shoulders with Titus, her little joke getting a chuckle from the human who softly bumped her back and a dirty look from the unicorn latched to him.

"That's not funny," she retorted dryly. Unhooking a hoof from around his neck to prod him in the chest lightly before it traced circles around his sternum, her scowl faded and a look of wavering uncertainty replaced it though she looked away when his gaze locked with hers for an uncomfortable amount of time, "Your droids said you came really close to... that there was a chance you wouldn't pull through," her hoof found its way back around his neck and she pulled herself close again and held him there for a long moment, an audible hitch in her breath when his arm looped itself over her back to share in the embrace caused the last few stressful days of waiting to come bubbling to the surface, "I was- no, sorry. We were both really scared for you."

"Sparkles was a mess, if you couldn't tell by her appearance," the mint unicorn nudged him again and wormed her way under the other arm, careful not to poke him with her wrapped horn, "I don't think she's slept for more than an hour or two since you went in there. She was pacing about and when she thought nopony was listening she'd talk to you-"

"H-hey! Don't act like you weren't worried too, Lyra," Twilight rolled her eyes as her friend tried to play it cool, "You all but moved in to the bunk next to the window!" Following the unicorn's pointing hoof revealed one of the hide-away beds out in the general medbay had a messy light green quilt bundled up at one end and fluffy bright yellow pillow in addition to the numerous socks of varying design that lay about the floor, "Not like you did a lot of sleeping, either, every time I'd look over you were nose-deep in the holobook you borrowed or wide awake and staring at him... Tartarus knows what you were reading, though."

"Yeah, well I..." Lyra's ears splayed back and she looked off to the side, "shut up." The holobook in question, unbeknownst to Twilight, featured the unabridged and expanded creature compendium that could be found on the datapad Titus had loaned to Twilight the day of their picnic however after seeing the human stripped and put into the vat the only entry Lyra had thought worth using the search function for was, naturally, humans, and the myriad of information provided she had skimmed over until reaching the section on biology, or more specifically, reproduction. Also unknown to Twilight was the excursion the mint unicorn had made with the device, taking it home to show her roommate who, like the majority of ponies, wondered what a human looked like under all of those clothes and needless to say her curiosity was sated; it was at this point that she remembered she had left it on the kitchen table along with her dinner in her hurry to get out the door after Twilight had barged in to announce Titus was coming out of quarantine.

Titus was still weary and he could tell they both were worn out and the last thing he wanted was to be in the middle if their back and forth grew any more heated. Thankfully both ponies under his arms immediately quieted when he gave them a light squeeze, "Look, I'm not sure how you two managed to finish piecing those two droids back together without me, but without them this probably would have been my final jump so I guess... I owe both of you my life."

"We didn't have any other option at the time, so Lyra and I worked together and stayed up through the night and into the morning to check every component in both droids," the urge to nuzzle him until his skin was sore was overwhelming but Twilight hesitated in the presence of Lyra, despite her being her best friend she wasn't sure if Titus would be comfortable snuggling like that in front of an audience and, truth be told, she wasn't certain how she'd feel either. Instead she settled with tightening her already firm hold on him like he had gotten back from a long journey abroad, "And don't even think that you owe us anything!"

"Speak for yourself, Sparkles, the big guy owes me an ear rub and a day of hanging out!"

Titus nodded, "Yeah yeah, I didn't forget-"

"Plus interest! You know, as a late fee and to compensate me for my time..."

Even though he was obviously still feeling the affects of the Pox Lyra quickly found herself in a playful headlock, one that he had more than enough strength to hold her in as she made weak squirms to get free, "Greedier than a Hutt's guts, you are! If you just tried saying 'Hey Titus, I really enjoy it when you rub my ears so if you're not occupied I'd love to have one,' nine times out of ten I'd be happy to. It's not like they cost me anything-" at that moment Titus finally noticed the odd attire on both ponies and stopped to stare from one to the other before asking what the deal was with the socks, the dark glasses Twilight was wearing, and the medical tape wrapped around Lyra's horn.

Lyra was the first to speak up and explained that after the droids had been fixed Twilight had worn the visor pretty much for an entire day to catalog everything the device would display and had tried going outside to see what would happen if she looked at other objects; when she had stepped out of the airlock, however, the sun had flashed off of the hull and been fed directly into her eyeballs by the visor, causing her to be temporarily blinded though she had recovered to the point that she currently only saw spots, "Or, more appropriately, sparkles, so she's a bit sensitive to bright lights, hence the shades." Lyra shimmied her shoulders until the arm around her was back in a comfortable resting spot and held a socked hoof up to segue the conversation to the clothing they were both wearing, "The socks are simply because this floor is too cold and we had a hard time talking around our constantly-chattering teeth."

"Oh, I uh... I guess I never realized because I'm never barefoot," Titus looked from the blue-&-white striped socks Lyra was wearing to the solid black ones with a single magenta band at the top on Twilight, "You two look nice in those, they really accent your legs."

Lyra watched as Titus' gaze made a second pass up and down Twilight's legs before doing the same with hers. So he likes the socks, huh? She made a mental note to check her wardrobe for other items she might be able to wear occasionally before drawing the human's attention a little higher up, "As for me I sort of overdid it and sprained my horn-"

"You can sprain a horn?" Titus gave Lyra and her bandaged horn a skeptical but inquisitive look.

"Oh, certainly!" Twilight answered him and did so with her usual intellectual thoroughness, "Sprains are a fairly common injury among unicorns however it's different from the muscle strain that you're probably thinking of. As you know pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns each channel Harmony in their unique way - earth ponies are robust and naturally gifted with plants while pegasi are capable of flight with massive loads and they can walk on clouds. Unlike pegasi and Earth ponies, a unicorn's body absorbs the energy from the environment around us so we can actively shape and control the flow of magic into what we need or store some in reserve which also has the added effect of promoting faster healing, though even with a minor injury like Lyra's both the accumulation and healing will be at a much slower rate. Her situation is similar to the power supply and circuits in your droids; in her case she overloaded the circuit from either the high focus of energy or from the extended duration of the channeling or, more likely, a combination of both. Physical fatigue, stress, or pain can also lead to sprains - we certainly were tired by the time we had finished - and most unicorns would fizzle under those circumstances pretty quickly."

"I'll be fine, big guy," Lyra offered her reassurance when Titus eyed the wrapped protrusion with what looked like guilt, "Not like this is the first time I've had this happen but it's always annoying because Doc Horse says I shouldn't use magic for a while and the wrapping itches like crazy!" Unable to call upon her magic to temporarily alleviate the itch she turned her neck so that she could rub the length of her horn against the blanket wrapped around him however a second later she completely froze when she felt his fingers drag gently over the bandage. "Ooohhh buck yeah," she let out a sigh and her eyes completely closed as the nagging itch was finally dealt with, "T-that feels so much better than with a hoof... your fingers... buck me, it is so not fair what you can do with those! This guy is a total keeper, Sparkles."

"Just going off how she's latched onto me like a mynock on an ion drive I would say Twi agrees," Titus chuckled and gave Twilight a little squeeze, "though I have to say she's much cuter."

The light peck on the forehead that accompanied the compliment proved to be enough to overcome Twilight's earlier hesitation and she nuzzled him wholeheartedly on the underside of his jaw, her position and grip on him making it impossible for him to retreat from the assault on the ticklish spot, "I'm not sure what a mynock is but I'm just glad you're finally out of that tank, the whole time I just felt so... helpless. I didn't have a way to let you know I was there with you," she paused to look up at the nervously grinning human when she felt his arm slide up the side of her neck to her jaw.

"You are far from helpless, Twi, and for what it's worth I could feel you were there, if you know what I mean. It helped. You helped," his head had just enough range of motion to dip for a kiss which Twilight gladly accepted, the hooves behind his neck pulling him into it as they both communicated their unsaid feelings to the other until they broke apart and simply rested on each other's foreheads to stare at each other.

"D'awww!"

Their intermission was cut off as both of them embarrassingly realized they had forgotten there was an audience for their display as Lyra made her presence known by putting a hoof on Titus' far shoulder to pull herself up and rest her muzzle on the other shoulder, "Oh, don't let me stop you two from really going at it, I can just quietly sit here and watch. Just one question, big guy; I don't know if you 'felt' that I was here for you as well, but am I going to get some of that action, too? You don't have to eat my face or anythi-Eee!" she squealed in laughter as her head was suddenly pulled forward from its perch and a loud, rough smooch was planted on her cheek and finalized with a raspberry.

"Greedier than a Hutt, but now that you mention eating I'm famished," he enthusiastically tousled the mint unicorns ears, her eyes squeezed shut and a big grin plastered on her face from the attention, "If you two'd give me a minute I'll shuffle down to the hold to grab something-"

"Ugh, not that green stuff in the cans, I hope..." having taken a small experimental spoonful the day before Lyra broke free from the roughhousing to screw her face up at the memory of the tasteless goop and the results had been rather flatulent with Lyra having to suffer through an afternoon of Twilight referring to her as "Lyra Fartstrings" until the mint unicorn had slipped some into a sandwich at which time Twilight had become "Sparklepoots" and they had both agreed to stay away from the human's processed food though the humor had been a welcome relief. When Titus tried to explain that the texture wasn't so bad once you got used to it and it was probably healthier than anything she had in mind she physically stopped him from continuing by pressing a hoof against his mouth, "No way, I'm not having it. You're getting over being sick and that gross mucus is the last thing you need, we're going to get some real food in you!" When her adversary gave in with a full-body sigh she giggled happily and rubbed her face against his shoulder in victory, "And what did I tell you about trying to butt heads with me?"

"That you're a stubborn, cuss-headed, stick-in-the mud and when you decide to dig your heels in I stand no chance."

"See? You're learning! Now come on Sparkles, I'm going to need your help carrying the grub!" As she hopped down from the table Lyra couldn't help but notice Twilight tightened her grip on Titus and pouted at the idea of having to leave until Titus saw it as well and pulled her into a big hug as he stood up and held her there while he twirled her around with sufficient speed that centrifugal force pulled her hind legs outward, kissing her the whole time; when the violet unicorn was finally put down she was anything but pouting and cheerfully pranced past Lyra for the door.

Titus wasn't sure why Lyra stopped midway through the door to glance back at him searchingly before following Twilight though her odd behavior was pushed to the back of his mind as he ran a hand through his still bacta-wet hair. "Might as well jump in the refresher while they're gone," he said to no one in particular and headed for the shower as one of the meddroids bid him farewell and powered down.

He took longer than he meant to, having lost track of time after zoning out under the comfortable stream of hot water and when he came to his senses he quickly finished up; not finding any clothes in the shower room locker he wrapped a towel around his waist and left, intent on retrieving a set from his quarters but found that his path made a detour past the turn he needed and upon nearing the airlock he happened to glance up and noticed for the first time the multitude of muddy hoofprints dotting the ceiling and idly followed them through the ship to eventually arrive in Piloting. I haven't been in here since the crash. He first noted the smashed control console where he had been sitting and subconsciously rubbed his forehead, remembering how addled he had been when his helmet had smashed into it; after a quick visual scan of the room it looked like things were fairly intact and the only damages were either superficial, such as the dislodged electrical panels, or something that was an easy fix, like the smashed control panel or cracked view screens. Thankfully the idea the Wessex's girl stole for this prototype was situating the bridge internally rather than having it jut out as an easy target; something designed like a Victory-I or Venator landing on its roof... there wouldn't be a bridge left. I don't know why I'd ever expect the karking woman to credit me with the implementation, though.

Titus was busy reliving the encounter he and Aurelia had had with the bratty engineer and their conversation on ship designs, one that had occurred in the middle of a rough and tumble escape after a failed kidnapping attempt by General Greivous' battle droids through an asteroid field - thankfully he had been flying and not Krua or Aurelia, both of them had been busy manning the turrets - and his later theft of the ship from her prototype development facility after the Purge. "You've done good, girl. I'll get you back into shape, don't you worry," he was busy patting a one of the ship's bulkheads comfortingly when he heard the familiar voices of Lyra and Twilight directly behind him as the door swooshed open.

"You're sure the droid said he went this way- Whoa!" Lyra stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the startlingly unclothed human, "Whoa. Lookin' gooood, big guy..." That was all she managed before falling silent and letting her gaze roam from head to toe and over the vast expanses of smooth, damp fur-free skin.

With a familiar brown bag held in a magic aura Twilight, seeing that Titus didn't say anything about the mint unicorn outright ogling him, stepped around her to close the distance to pass the food over for inspection and gave a good look around the room at the complex hub of technology, "Sorry we took so long, somepony insisted on ordering one of everything off the menu, so I'd like to just apologize in advance for your impending cardiac arrest-" Twilight cringed at her perceived insensitivity as Titus assumed the ever-impressive pose squatting down and balancing on the balls of his feet while he opened the crumpled top and peered inside, "That was supposed to be a joke but it's a little too soon for that brand of humor, sorry. Completely off topic, but what brought you here in, uh... nothing but a towel?"

"I was following you," he answered somewhat cryptically, so when the unicorn looked puzzled he pointed a finger at the ceiling which she followed and quickly discovered the series of hoof prints, "They must have been from when you and your friends came aboard investigating the crash and I got caught up following them when I passed the airlock, eventually I ended up here in Piloting thinking about stuff. As for the towel, I got sidetracked on my way to my quarters for clothes; not sure what happened to the ones I had in the shower room locker."

"Oh, that would be my fault. While you were in the tank I was looking for a way to pass the time and I had already organized your room and all these clothes had gotten tossed around with no way to distinguish what was clean and what wasn't so I took a few loads home and didn't get around to putting it all back where I found it; everything's back on your bunk waiting to be folded. Sorry, I didn't mean to leave you with nothing to wear," Twilight took a look over her shoulder at the mouth-agape and still-staring pony behind her and giggled, "and I think because of that you might have broken Lyra, though I can understand what she's going through - aside from the obvious lack of clothing your mane looks good when it's wet and-" she put a hoof on his knee and slowly transition her weight onto it so he could adjust his balance as he remained poised on the balls of his feet when she reached the very top of his head to take a sniff, "-you smell really nice." When she leaned down from her perch and saw an opportunity to steal a quick peck she was startled to find he had an odd expression bordering on worry etched on his face.

"No, no, you're fine. I just thought of something," he replied when she asked what was wrong and rushed to back away though she stopped when both his hands came together on either shoulder to halt her retreat, "I... am I going to get sick from that again?"

"What? Oh, no, you should be alright," Lyra had snapped out of her stupor at the sound of concern in Twilight's voice, "The robot guys took blood samples from both of us and studied our antibodies or whatever to create a vaccine for you."

"It was a little more complicated than that," Twilight shifted her weight as Titus sank to the floor in a cross-legged sitting position and rearranged herself to lay partially on is leg, though the towel seemed to cover less and less with each change in pose, "Unfortunately the majority of our vaccines are prophylactic, though after I read that your analysis droid could perform procedures like culturing viruses for harvesting I posed the question if they could develop one if they had the right equipment and after a quick trip to my laboratory, a letter to the Princess for vials of our own vaccines for their study, and a few drops of blood they were underway speed-growing variants; by morning they had several injections for common illnesses adapted and ready for use."

"Intravenous?" Titus looked at his arm where the hoses had been hooked up and gave it a flex, "That would explain the localized soreness in my arm. What about you, anything you need to worry about from me?"

"Nope! That blood sample you left with me didn't have anything that was communicable according to both my and the Academy's findings and Princess Luna also said there wasn't anything to worry about when she used her spell on you; I was interested to know what she cast although she would only say it was classified as a first level A.O., or Alicorn-Only," Twilight went on to explain the categories of spells, from the all-access classification for spells like non-thermal light below a certain luminary threshold to the military's various damaging bolts and rays to the highest level of Alicorn-Only where the destructive spells were too powerful to even be written down and the secrets of mind-control spells were kept safely guarded. She looked a little glum that she hadn't gotten any more information though from the way the Princess had been talking it felt like she might be willing to share in the future, "Regardless, the Princesses created a team of ponies to work on a batch of vaccines for the bacteria and viruses we did find in you, just in case."

"So... congrats, you're caught up on your shots, Equestria doesn't have to worry about getting human illnesses, and you're Princess-approved to smooch to your heart's content, lovercolt!" Lyra gave him an over-exaggerated wink, "Now come on, let's dig into the food before it gets cold." After a quick stop by his room for a set of clothes, the task made longer than normal as the amount of get-well mail Lyra and Twilight had attempted to store there had spilled out into the hallway and necessitated some minor acrobatics to navigate - in a bath towel, mind you - Titus ushered both ponies out of the airlock, Twilight eagerly pointing out the rubberized mats they had laid out in a pathway over the hull of the ship as they went to a flat spot on the outer hull where they could enjoy their meal in the fresh night air, their laughter and jovial conversation fading up to join the stars that seemed to shine almost cheerfully.

Lying awake on the pair of mattresses pushed together on the floor of his room and staring at the ceiling, Titus found himself unable to get to sleep as his mind kept wandering to the thoughts of the day. Currently he was thinking about the food Lyra had brought, which had been delicious though he was sure he would be spending time in the bathroom with how greasy most of it was and the large amounts of salt had meant he had had to pilfer some of Twilight's soda, but regardless the three had enjoyed each others company - Twilight had even referred to it as a "successful interim first date" which Titus couldn't help but feel happy about.

"Can't sleep?" Twilight asked and snuggled herself closer between the warmth of his side and arm before lifting her head from his chest to look at him in earnest a second later, "I-Is everything okay, do you feel alright?"

"Shhh! You'll wake Lyra," Titus hadn't realized Twilight had been awake observing him for a while now and her sudden excitement caused him to look to the other arm where the mint unicorn had wrapped all four of her hooves around the limb which he had voiced had put his hand in a rather precarious position but she had simply laughed and had said that it was only awkward if he made it awkward before falling asleep faster than he could make his protest. The small mischievous grin was still plastered on her face and every now and then she'd squeeze on the arm and mew quietly and it was easy to believe that she knew he'd find her too adorable to rouse once she had drifted off but she had arranged herself to sleep with her back to the human to allow Twilight to snuggle up a little more intimately and use his chest as a pillow. And if she wakes up now to find both of us up there'll be no way we could convince her it was coincidence or we were only talking, knowing Lyra she'd probably keep us up into the early morning cracking saucy jokes at our expense. Seeing that the pert pony's slumber hadn't been disturbed by the noise Titus returned his attention to the concerned unicorn, "My joints ache a little and my limbs feel like lead but I'm alright; it's just my mind refusing to take a break from thinking about stuff."

"Oh, I know the feeling." Relieved her human wasn't about to turn blue or grow more spots Twilight settled back to her previous position and rested her chin on his chest so she could still look at him, "Whenever that happens to me I write a letter to Princess Celestia to get the thoughts out of my system; maybe you should try it?"

Titus was familiar with the letters Twilight would regularly write to the Princesses, having been given the chance to read several from their collection (and it was a sizable one), but he wasn't entirely sure about that idea, "Thinking about it is much easier than it would be to put it onto paper and I get the feeling that trying would only wake me up more. Plus, I wouldn't really know where to begin with what would be a very long letter."

"Oh, that's easy... with 'Dear Princess,' of course!" she giggled quietly and stuck her tongue out when in response he gave his best impression of Rainbow's "Duh!" expression, complete with rolling of the eyes, "I usually don't even send those letters, half the reason being they just serve as an outlet so I feel like I've communicated whatever is on my mind and the other being I'd have to deal with a grumpy baby dragon if I woke him up in the middle of the night to send it. You know, if you don't feel like writing I um... I could listen, if you'd like." When he remarked he didn't want to have a grumpy unicorn on his hands the next day after keeping her up regaling his thoughts to her she stretched to playfully nip at the side of his neck, "Look, I won't be able to get to sleep if you can't, so just tell me what you're thinking about and we can go back to sleep together!"

"'Sleep together,' huh? How forward of you!" Titus' waggling eyebrows and grin made Twilight rethink her wording which she pointed out with a heavy sigh was being taken woefully out of context and added he was beginning to sound like Lyra before they shared a friendly nuzzle and Titus lowed his head back to the pillow while the lavender unicorn plopped her head back on his sternum. "Okay, I'll give it a shot. Um... I guess the overarching thing on my mind is all the events that had to line up just right for me to end up where I am now."

"W-wow... that is a lot to think about," Twilight muttered, blinking several times as the thought entered her own mind but she quickly dismissed it for another time.

Titus simply nodded, "Everything I had to do to finish Jedi training, my fights during the Clone Wars, dodging the Hunters after the Purge, the work as a smuggler; it's just branches upon branches of alternatives... even in the last twenty four hours after leaving the space port and before coming through the portal I can't count the number of times I had to make a decision that potentially could have changed whether I had ended up wherever this is. Provided, that is, that your magic didn't target me specifically or for whatever reason. I mean, if I hadn't been double checking the ship stores to be sure the dock master wasn't trying to rip me off on the supplies I had bought I wouldn't have overheard one of the Clones talking about an Imperial ship patrolling the sector. I had recently stole some data on an obscure weapon prototype or mining laser - I'm not sure which - but to be safe I adjusted my flight path to make it look like I was making a routine delivery to a colony and not like I was avoiding the patrol. I had several options that all put me on a different course, though the one I chose was the long one through open space that necessitated a session of cryosleep, so without my main computer up and running I can't say how long I was under before I encountered the portal. I probably could have gotten away with not shutting the ship's reactor down after I saw there was gravity on this planet and if I hadn't the repulsorlift arrays would have kept me in the air and I wouldn't have crashed, but if I left the reactor running and crashed anyway the potential explosion from a core breach would have left a lot more than a divot in a hill," Titus explained what sort of catastrophic explosion could have occurred and described the sort of damage a ship coming apart could have caused. Unsure where to go from there he took the chance to glance down to see if the unicorn was still awake and found her to be listening attentively, ears fully forward and large eyes firmly locked on him. She's beautiful. She really is beautiful. He couldn't help but grin at her as he stared back into her violet eyes, a long moment of complete silence passing before she eventually cracked a smile of her own out of uncertainty for the reason of the extended eye contact.

"I'm sorry..." he sighed, "I forgot the 'Dear Princess Twilight' part. Do I need to start over?"

"I'm not a princess, I'm just a librarian," Twilight snorted at what she thought was going to be something serious turning out to be a lighthearted joke, both of them turning to make sure the noise hadn't woken Lyra up though her only change was to pull the arm in even tighter and nuzzle into the bicep as a small twitch of her back legs hinted she might be galloping somewhere in her dream. Satisfied after a brief period of observation Twilight turned back to the human whose free hand was now lightly scratching small circles in her fur, "Why think back on all that, do you regret any of it? Would you go back and change anything?"

Titus recalled his Master's didactic reply from the time he had asked her a similar question, "'Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment...' but of course I have my regrets and, had I known the outcomes, there are things I wish I had done differently but here, in the present moment?" he paused to cast another look at the unicorn he had an arm wrapped around, once again locking eyes with her, "I couldn't be happier with the way things turned out and even if I could go back I wouldn't want this to change at all; coming through the portal has been one of the best things to happen to me and I've never felt closer to the Force since arriving in Equestria. Most importantly, though, is that I also met a beautiful best friend that I've come to cherish with all of my heart... and she's so much more than 'just a librarian.' Twi, if I took a month just to think I might find a way to accurately put how I feel into words, but right now I just need to say I love y-"

He didn't get to finish as he found his mouth suddenly occupied by Twilight's own pressing against it firmly with tears streaking down her cheeks yet the smile splitting her face could have lit the room; she didn't need a spell to sense his feelings as he poured them into the kiss and when she finally and reluctantly pulled herself back she felt like she was going to burst with how happy she felt as the sensation of the Harmony filled her heart well past overflowing, "I-I know, even though you were just mumbling I overheard you say 'by the stars, I love her to bits' that morning in the kitchen. Truth be told I knew I'd be interested in your technology and sciences but I never expected us to connect like we did and I never expected that you could be so... ponylike in the way you think and behave; despite everything my errors had directly or indirectly put you through you still forgave me and became my friend, though the more time I spent with you the more I slowly came to feel you were more than that... much more. If you would have told me a month or so ago I'd fall for an alien I would have thought you were crazy, but you're always somewhere on my mind, whenever I'm around you I get this fluttery feeling like my hooves aren't even touching the ground, and whenever you look at me with a smile - just like the one you have right now - I feel like the all of the Harmony in Equestria couldn't make me happier! I just... I... By the stars I love you to bits, too!" That was all she could say because with the way his face lit up she couldn't stand to not be nuzzling him or kissing him at the moment and squirmed out of the nook of his arm halfway onto his broad chest so she was in a better position before resuming, though they transitioned from fast and intense to slow and passionate over the course of a few minutes as each panted to catch their breath.

While Twilight was making ample use of her forehooves to gently rub his neck, cheeks, and jaw or loop them behind his neck to get a little more pressure out of a kiss. There wasn't much Titus could do from his position with only the one hand as the absolute last thing he wanted was to move the arm Lyra had latched on to and wake her up in the process; still, he did his best to reciprocate despite his handicap, his palm making broad strokes up her sides and neck, the fingers combing through her mane and kneading her ears, the latter reducing Twilight to only nuzzling as her head involuntarily fell to his collarbone; with her out of the proverbial fight Titus was able to make up some lost ground as each nibble on her neck was responded to with a small purr.

Twilight couldn't help but hum while she ground her muzzle into the special spot on her human's neck as each nip he made sent a warm wave through her until an unexpected twitch from Titus caused her to stop and pull back. "What's wrong?" she whispered, searching his face to find him biting his lip and, judging by his expression, he was fighting against something; thinking she knew what was going on despite a quick glance toward the short trousers failed to reveal any telling evidence she leaned in to breath into his ear, "I didn't expect that to get you heated..."

"Not. Heated," he managed around his locked jaw, his eyes squeezed tightly shut, "it's Lyra she's-" a small chuckle from his side cut him off, partially muffled as the mint unicorn dug her muzzle deeper into his armpit which caused Titus to change to a new expression, "Twi, what is she doing?!"

Twilight thought for a moment before hovering her snout near his other armpit for a small sniff (much to Titus' added discomfort) and she immediately realized what Lyra was doing. "Your scent, for lack of a better term, is stronger there which I imagine is either acting like a stimulant to further enhance the authenticity of a dream or she subconsciously inserted you into her dream after picking up on it. Do you remember when I said you smelled nice before dinner? Right after I became your Mediator and while you were still uncomfortable being approached, I was asked multiple times on almost a daily basis by ponies that were curious about it. Much like how our coats and manes are colorful every pony has a unique scent composed of pheromones released to attract attention for herding, and yours is a particularly interesting case in that it's-" the second sniff she took bordered somewhere on a snort and was decidedly less than experimental as she indulged herself, "Entrancing, despite the fact you're not equine and still it's evidently appealing to a wide range of individuals-"

"Wait, what? I mean, I've noticed a lot of the ponies I've met have unique fragrances but I had run out of anti-odor long before arriving here and what with the physical labor involved in my salvaging work I sweat a lot. I'm usually worried that I reek... you mean to tell me they liked that?" he shifted as much as he could and thankfully Twilight picked up on his discomfort with the situation though the mint unicorn remained firmly buried as she inhaled deeply between slumbering chuckles, her hind hooves gently bicycling in the air.

"Mhm! I know Lyra and I do, and you've gotten quite a few compliments from ponies that had been watching you work. I imagine it can reach a point where it's overwhelming like when a pony puts on too much perfume... b-but you definitely haven't ever stunk, though! You smell sort of... earthy?" When she went in for one last sniff it looked like he shied away and Twilight apologized meekly, sitting up and pulling herself away to do so, "Sorry, I didn't realize that smelling you made you uncomfortable, I suppose I'm used to ponies being alright with it and should have asked."

Beneath her Twilight could feel Titus' body spasm before she realized he hadn't retracted from her and was shaking his head, eyes closed again as he spasmodically clenched his whole self to keep from a laugh, "You're fine, getting sniffed was s-something I had to get used to but t-that's not it... that tickles like crazy!" It didn't help that his arm had fallen asleep and the pins-and-needles sensation that came as the blood began flowing again was only heightened as Lyra continued to rub her soft nose against the sensitive spot.

Oooh, so he's ticklish on that spot near his ear and under his arms. Now that's two spots I know of. Twilight was about to tell him he could probably just roll her out and to the other side of the combined mattress if he really wanted with little fear of waking her as she was a very heavy sleeper but the evidence of that came a second later when the mint unicorn abruptly sat up, ears at full attention as she scanned the room with closed eyes and when she made her pass over Titus and Twilight they remained still as statues. There was a pause as she stared off into her dream somewhere, her head cocked quizzically to one side, then she snorted loudly and the grin came back to her face before she dove back in to Titus' arm, giggling the whole time while her nuzzling traveled the length of the limb from his shoulder toward his hand which left her up bent at a strange angle almost like a macaroni noodle, though despite the odd position Lyra still wrapped her hooves around his wrist and pulled the hand in for a snuggling and hummed happily as she ground her muzzle against his palm, letting the fingers brush over her face and ears.

"She's a really heavy sleeper," Twilight relaxed back down to rub her own face against the human's neck, relieved the situation had worked itself out, "though when you agreed that we could spend the night I probably should have warned you she's a bit of a cuddler, too. Sorry." Twilight had convinced Titus to put the mattresses on the floor and push them together by explaining that she and Lyra would occasionally rest together as it was very comforting to have a warm friend to snuggle into and pointed to the benefits of bolstering friendships; her short time spent on the Academy's Debate Team as a filly meant she had kept several more facts up her sleeve as rebuttals and counterpoints as well as a brief (by her definition) history of the practice in ancient times as a means of warding off predators and enemies though before either of those were necessary he had voiced his willingness to try despite his apprehension which Twilight had learned stemmed from his own species' sleep practices.

While Twilight was busy with her apology Titus watched Lyra squirm from her twisted position to a pose where her hindquarters lifted up just enough to untangle and straighten out before flopping back down on the only spot available which was somewhere between his stomach and sternum and, rather impressively, the entire motion was completed without letting up on the nuzzles to his palm or gentle noms on a finger that happened to stray too close to her mouth. He tried not to look at the pair of flanks though it proved to be a challenge; they were rather prominently placed within his range of vision, after all. I know she's got a fixation on my ass and if our roles were reversed... but still, Twi and I- In the split second he had that he didn't avert his gaze her tail, which was no longer under her conscious control, drooped limply to follow the contour of her flanks and drape over his stomach, revealing her in her entirety. Oh-kay, that just happened.

"So, do you feel like you could get to sleep now?" Twilight asked hopefully and more than a little wearily as she failed to stifle a wide yawn but the oddly noncommittal grunt he gave felt out of character so she begrudgingly lifted herself up to investigate. "Still got something on your mind-?" Twilight's question came to a abrupt halt when she discovered Lyra was effectively flashing her marehood to both of them and realized he very probably had something on his mind.

"Hooo boy, this certainly is awkward..." Titus chuckled nervously and un-looped the arm he had around Twilight to reposition the posterior pointed at him but didn't get the chance as she was roughly rolled to the far side of the mattress in a magenta aura, "Hey, come on now." Despite the harsh tumbling Lyra somehow remained sound asleep and instead of stirring whined in disappointment at the sudden lack of contact with the hand as she blindly patted around her for it with an aimless hoof. Titus hadn't meant for her to be completely ostracized like that and reached over to pull Lyra back against his side, though he placed his upper arm over her flank to give her she space she needed; positioning his hand in her hoof's searching path the goofy grin returned to her face as she reengaged her four-hoofed death-grip which was something Titus just couldn't help but smile at.

Twilight, however, felt admonished by his action and her body language changed accordingly and when he inquired on it her ears only splayed back farther as she apologized and muttered what a foal she was being, "S-sorry, she's my best friend but... I had a flashback to the last stallion that dumped me and-"

"Silly pony," the way she was glancing from the zonked-out Lyra to anywhere but him was telling, as were the quiet huffs, so he wrapped her up in an arm for a long squeeze which she reciprocated in the form of a heartfelt nuzzle, "You've got nothing to worry about; there's no way I'd leave you hanging to go after another mare... even though, like you, she happens to have a great butt." Using the last part of his sentence as bait when she looked up at him in mild shock he zipped in and planted his lips against hers, the chuckle and look in his eyes clearing telling her "gotcha!" before his free hand worked its way to the back of her head to push her further into the gesture; not that she needed any encouragement past the first instant of the kiss because her hooves looped behind his neck for additional leverage to pull him in for a long moment where they simply said nothing and let their connection communicate their respect, admiration, and affection for the other until they amicably separated to settle into a cuddle.

"Hey Twi?" knowing how much she enjoyed it, Titus breathed into her coat before placing a light nip on the same spot as he tried to put his thought into words, "Thanks. You know, for being there since I got here. I know I was a bit... cold or distant at first and I didn't say anything at the time, but it was really comforting and a relief to be able to depend on you - and more recently, the mint-colored degenerate strangling my other arm - if I needed anything. I realize it can't always have been easy, but I appreciated it none the less," Titus' arm was beginning to fall asleep from both having been stationary for an extended amount of time and the lack of circulation caused by Lyra's surprisingly strong grip, even in her sleep.

Twilight's mind was swimming from the nibbles and his confession as she turned her head to grant better access to her neck, the gesture understood and duly followed up on. "Oh, well... to put it simply you were pretty skittish and somepony had to look out for you," she intended to give a serious reply but instead giggled when his fingers left her ear to tickle her cutie mark lightly, "and who better than me, seeing as it's my fault you're stuck here? I wanted to do what I could to try and fix my mistake, so I spent a long time writing my letter to Princess Celestia asking to be appointed the task..."

"And I'm glad she listened, but can you really blame me for being a little jumpy?" he teased and rubbed his nose into her fur to let her know nothing was meant by it, "I was quite literally dumped on my head in a world of colorful aliens that can move planetoids with magic."

"Hey!~ You're the alien!" Twilight playfully nipped him on the shoulder, "You came through a portal from Tartarus knows where, you're a furless biped, have fleshy fingers, possess miraculous technology and you've got magic that isn't magic - which is still something I want to bring you to the lab to thoroughly look into, by the way - but thankfully you're a friendly alien..." she licked the same spot she had nipped then nuzzled his cheek as it became available from the shudder that ran through Titus' whole body at her soft tongue running over his skin, "a very friendly alien..." Another lick followed along his jawline until she planted her lips against his and requested entrance which he happily granted. Twilight was, as usual and despite her inexperience, the better of the two kissers, her tongue tangling and easily overpowering his own wider, shorter muscle to slip past and explore the jagged edges of his teeth. It was an odd thought but she couldn't help but realize how fitting an analogy his teeth were - despite their predatory appearance they had only ever been bared in friendship, much like how he was large and intimidating he was nothing but sweet and gentle; not that that didn't stop the small evolutionary instinct somewhere deep within her subconscious that wanted her to run and caused her heart to beat just a little faster. It proved too difficult to both smile and continue exploring his mouth at the same time so she settled with rubbing her nose against his, allowing her to stare into his warm brown eyes where she could feel the same emotions running through her completely reflected back toward her which only widened her smile, "And you're my super cuddly alien friend."

Titus grinned back at her hopefully, his hand dragging its nails down her spine to begin tracing the outline of her cutie mark, "That sounds awfully like you're laying a claim-" he was cut off as her worried outburst that she wasn't claiming him like property which was subconsciously brought about by her parent's strict upbringing in the ways of egalitarianism and her own repulsion of the period of Equestrian history where that was less prevalent. "Shush," his hand quickly moved and clamped down on her muzzle to silence her stammered explanation, the hand getting a cross-eyed look and a sigh clearly communicating she thought that little measure hadn't been necessary so before continuing Titus placed a quick peck on the small bit of her nose still protruding from the end, "I get what you're saying, but I don't have a problem if you want to say I'm your guy or stallion or whatever. In fact, more than anything I'd... welcome it."

After he released his hand from her muzzle there was a long moment where she simply locked eyes with him, seemingly searching the depths for an answer before she said anything. "Y-you really mean that," her tone made it sound like both a statement and a question but either way the beaming smile he gave her was better than any answer he could have put into words, "Thank you... thank you! Hearing that is such a wonderful gift!" She gave him the warmest nuzzle she could in response, working her muzzle against the special spot at the base of his ear and slowly moving down to the underside of his jaw to experiment with her own nibbles and licks on his neck which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy judging in the small grunts that Twilight took great delight in eliciting from him, each one causing a small pause in the the hand that had returned to tracing the large star of her cutie mark with his nails. Over the course of several minutes, however, the tracing fingers slowly transitioned into a deep kneading motion, the change causing her to glance at his shorts where her suspicion was confirmed by a bulge that was stretching the fabric taut. Jeez, way to be a hypocrite. Always shouting at Lyra when she says something dirty for fear of getting him aroused and here I went and did it again. She felt Titus shift beneath her and when her gaze returned to him she found he was grinning up at her somewhat uncomfortably; biting her lip she cast another look toward the peak before once again coming back to Titus, at a mental impasse as to what she should do but when he opened his mouth to give what looked like it might be an apology she interrupted the attempt by briefly brushing her lips on his. "I-it's okay. I, um..." she paused, her hoof tracing a lazy circle on his shirt, "a-are you going to... take care of it?"

The only illumination in the room came from the glowing running lights along the edge of the walls but there was enough to see by for Titus' flush face to be visible though he could tell it was a genuine question as Twilight's pose had changed to one he had become rather familiar with; she had one ear forward in interest while the other remained splayed backward, indicative she was inquiring on something potentially embarrassing and he stumbled through a response and eventually gave up, pointing toward the medbay's bathroom, "I uh, I'll be right back." Titus slowly and gently extricated his arm from Lyra's grip and replaced it with a rolled-up shirt which she immediately rejected and went in search of the warm limb she had grown accustomed to, the low groan of frustration rumbling from deep in her throat forcing him to return the appendage for fear she was slowly waking up and an attempt to swap his arm for Twilight looked to have been successful until the mint unicorn's nostril's flared with several sniffs and the venture met with the same results as the last, "Well... kark, that settles that. I suppose I'll just wait it out, but I don't think it's going away anytime soon... especially when I've got a certain librarian being all cuddly and nibbling at me."

"Seeing as you were nibbling on me earlier I was just returning the favor... and it would appear we both enjoy it." Twilight had gotten up when he had tried to free himself from Lyra's grasp and now watched him settle back onto the mattress and adjust his now uncomfortably-tight looking shorts before resuming her previous position in the crook of his arm and side. Twilight recalled her and Rainbow's conversation on the nature of kinks and her genuine interest in getting a little information took hold, "By the way, would you say you've got a 'thing' for librarians?"

"Nope, just a 'thing' for this particularly cute librarian," using two fingers he mimicked the air quotes she had made before giving her a big squeeze and an even bigger grin, "See you in the morning, Twi. Love you."

"Mmm, love you, too. Goodnight," Twilight hummed in response at the embrace and planted a light brush of her lips against his chin before snuggling in and closing her eyes in preparation to sleep, focusing on listening to the thumping of his heartbeat and the whooshing of air entering and exiting his lungs while his fingers scratched lightly at the base of her ears and scalp. She wasn't sure what prompted her to crack an eye open, though perhaps it was because there was no noticeable change in either of his rhythms after what felt like a good while, but even a cursory glance at his face was enough to tell he was still awake behind closed eyes. Twilight's eye unconsciously traced its way down his form to find the bulge in his shorts had made no change as well and by the time she realized she was staring and returned to his face her gaze met his as an eyebrow climbed its way up his forehead.

"Sorry, I just... " she said, head leaning to one side and adopting the same cautiously curious pose from earlier before snuggling back into her warm spot and nuzzling against his chest. When she looked up from her spot she found Titus to be observing her curiously with a small smile on his face that she couldn't help but smile back at. Sweet Celestia, I never would have imagined having a special somepony would feel this... wonderful and fulfilling! I love him, I love him from the bottom of my heart and he loves me back! Twilight cuddled a little harder at that thought and buried her face into his breast, catching another glimpse of his shorts in the process. I doubt he's in any pain but he's obviously physically uncomfortable...

Titus scratched up and down her neck, working in small circles against her soft coat as she nestled against his chest. The Force certainly works in mysterious ways. Of all the places in the vast expanses of the universe - if I'm even still in my universe - and I get dumped right in her lap, more or less, and not only that but of all of the possible beings she feels like a piece of myself that's been missing. Kark me, I should have bought a lottery ticket- Suddenly and rather curiously Twilight squirmed out from under his arm and stood up, carefully steadying herself on the bouncy mattress before stretching her head down to nuzzle his cheek and say she'd be back in a moment as she ducked into the medbay bathroom. After a brief flash of worrying if she knew how everything worked in there he shrugged. She's smart, smarter than me, that's for sure; if she can strip and rebuild a meddroid after only reading a basic technician's guide she shouldn't have any issue figuring out the bathroom fixtures. Her absence let Titus settle back into the mattress and get comfortable and once he was situated he spent a little time playing with the slumbering Lyra whenever she wasn't nuzzling his hand into the mattress by lightly booping her on the nose to watch her expression change or scratching the bridge of her snout to listen to her purr. When Twilight eventually emerged a few moments later Titus couldn't help but notice the look of determination in her eyes. "Twi...?" he stopped fidgeting with Lyra who went back to happily nibbling on one of his fingertips with a sleepy giggle, "Everything okay?" Despite the question Twilight didn't answer and instead put one hoof in front of the other to slowly make her way over to the foot of the mattress where she stopped, at which point Titus could hazard a guess what her intent was by the angle of her gaze matching up with his crotch, "Twi, it's alright, I'm alright. Don't feel like you need to-"

She cut him off with a shake of her head as she took a step onto the mattress, "I don't, and I know things are backwards where you're from and you said you wanted me to set the pace... b-but if you say no I won't or I'll stop! I just... I want to do this."

"What about the date? What about doing things 'by the book' and taking it slow?" Titus asked, propping himself up on one elbow and immediately noticing the impact of his questions had on the mare as her determined look wavered, "Kark! Don't think I'm saying no, that's hardly the case. I love you Twilight, and I just want to be sure, you know... you're sure."

"I am," she said with a good deal of conviction, her eyes locking onto his, "Whether you realize or not just how close you came to dying from the Pox I had what felt like an eternity to think about it, and the thought that I might lose you before I could actually communicate how I felt... I was so desperate I even pleaded to Princess Luna and together we found a way into one of your dreams to try and talk with you, but you were oblivious to us as you fought through a battle on a muddy plain while fierce storms raged overhead. W-we tried to find a door out when we realized we were just passengers but we couldn't find one for the longest time; we had to watch as your companions, the humans in white armor, w-were decimated..." Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head gently, dislodging the memory of how worriedly she had tried to talk to Titus amidst the chaos of battle and get some sort of response out of him, only to end up back in the medbay watching as he floated in the bactatank, "Sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up, not right now-"

S-she saw Jabiim? An all-to-real flash crossed his mind of wading through knee-deep mud under a hail of blaster fire, trying to deflect as many shots as possible for the vulnerable Clones around him only to have each salvo bring down another as they pushed across the open ground until they had been forced to retreat, though in truth the memory could have been from any of the engagements he and his troops had been involved in before the Republic's eventual evacuation of their forces. Why did she have to see Jabiim...

"-I want to do things by the book, more or less, as a good friend told me that I need to look at it as less of a lawbook and more of a guideline, but I do want to go on dates and do all the normal courtship stuff so our date is still on; I had a lot of help getting a special spot ready and to abandon it now after all the work we did would just be a waste," judging by the way he grinned at her Twilight could tell he knew she had thought through her decision and she took another step forward, ducking her head down to place a heartfelt kiss of thanks against his lips before pulling herself back from her smiling human, "I want to do this, I want to take this step... c-can we?"

A soft nose brushing against his was enough to push the battle out of his memory for the time being and Titus realized hadn't felt this nervous before; it was his first time he'd be being intimate with someone he cared about and the sudden doubts and worries usually accompanying such an event naturally wormed their way into the back of his mind despite his upbringing to control such emotions but the very fact that Twilight - the once alien mare and now cherished best friend and love of his life - was now asking to become that much more a part of him saw him through the brief period of uneasiness as he brought a hand up to cup her cheek and nodded, "Let's."

"First things first, though," she said, leaning into the palm to relish in just how warm it felt though the blood rushing through her own cheeks might have been a contributing factor, "I'd rather not have somepony interrupting at an inopportune time again, so I'd say a strong sleeping spell is in order. One moment," Twilight's horn glowed, illuminating the room in a soft magenta light as a sparkling dust slowly floated down and settled over the still-snuggling unicorn, all traces vanishing an instant later when Lyra went limp to the sound of rhythmic snoring, allowing Titus' arm freedom from her grasp. Just to be safe Twilight gave her friend several light prods in the ribs to no effect, "and that should do it."

"I don't know how I'd go about repairing the ship if I was still in my pony form. I just couldn't do it with hooves," Titus said, the odd change of subject drawing a funny look from Twilight however he wanted to be sure for himself and leaned in just a hair's-width from Lyra's ear to whisper something he thought would rouse the unicorn to a response, "You see, I can get my fingers into all sorts of tight spots."

All he got was twitch of her ear from the closeness of his breath tickling her fur and a drawn out snore.

A giggle from Twilight drew his attention to her as she stood up and she once again stretched down to plant a warm kiss on his lips which he was finally able to get his arms around her neck to pull her in to a full embrace which only lasted a brief time before she eventually moved back but not after a good nuzzle with her human. Her next kiss landed on his chin, another on his throat, then chest, then stomach as Twilight slowly worked her way down his form, drawing inspiration from one of the videos Rainbow Dash had lent from her sizable collection the previous night for the purpose of education though the pegasus had given her a typical look of disbelief when passing over the series of pornographic films - Twilight had, of course, studied the subject matter thoroughly as a means to distract herself for a short time while Titus was undergoing the last of his tests but a run in with Dash earlier this afternoon hadn't answered the question of "if the pizzamare truly loves this foalsitter, why does she keep slapping his rear?" to which she had explained it was one of the kinks they had talked about. Twilight didn't let the memory of their conversation distract her and quickly returned her attention to the task at hoof as she laid herself down at his knees and there was a brief pause where neither of them did anything but look at each other until she tentatively and gently pulled on the leg of his shorts and, while they slid down an inch or so, the article snagged firmly on his hips. "How the hay do you get into these?!" slightly puzzled, Twilight pulled a little harder with no better outcome except a small grunt that could have been a laugh from Titus, "Better question: how the hay do you get out of them?"

"There's a flap with a tie and some buttons; here, I can-"

"Come on, let me do it," with a small giggle Twilight brushed the hand away as it swung in from his side to unfasten the garment for her, "I want this to be a learning experience and figure it out for myself." She took a moment to observe the shorts and the way his waist and hips were all in a line and it didn't take long for her analytical mind to realize the need for the fastener, "Oh, now I get it! Belts for humans aren't just for show, without them your pants would be around your ankles!" Focusing a small amount of magic into her horn for a little more illumination, Twilight found the small flap of fabric and pulled it back, at first fearful she had torn something when it made a ripping noise only to delight in the discovery that humans also had velcro and repeated the process several times for her own amusement. The knotted drawstring beneath, she noticed, was tied in a single-loop bow which she assumed was for ease of untying with a single hand and using her magic she slowly pulled on the ends. This is it, Twilight. This is the moment. After sliding the final button through the hole and with the waistband that had prevented her from removing the shorts now free, she waited for Titus to lift his hips off of the mattress slightly before giving a tug, drawing them down well past his thighs almost to his knees. Expecting to be done she was a little disheartened to see she still had more clothing to free him of.

"More? Clothes under clothes is a rather strange practice," she crawled up and lay herself down on the shorts she had just removed to stare at the smaller secondary pair before her, "What are these other shorts under here for?"

"Underwear."

"Under here!" Twilight jabbed a hoof at the offending garments before she saw the coy grin and heard the restrained chuckle. She was quick to put two and two together and realized what he was wearing was much like the "special selection" Rarity had in the back room of her boutique, though after he explained the joke she just rolled her eyes and groaned at the simple play on words, "We have this sort of clothing too; special stuff that's worn to show off the body or in private for a special somepony but it seems counterproductive to wear it underneath more clothing where nopony will see it, let alone wear it every day like I assume you do." Despite her confusion Twilight had to admit it was kind of fun taking off the layers of clothes; the small amount of nervousness she had stepped into the bathroom to quell was long gone, anticipation having steadily taken its place. Twilight also began to notice the warmth of the small valley she was resting in between his thighs and found herself leaning into one of his legs. The bulge in his shorts was much more obvious now that she was close and the thought of his arousal drove her own excitement, "Is um, is there a fastener for these as well?"

"Nope," he hooked a thumb into the shorts and tugged lightly in demonstration, "the waistband stretches."

She ooo'd at that revelation and eagerly stretched the band for herself before taking a small fold of fabric at the bottom hem on either side in her magic, pausing to look lovingly if a little anxiously at her human who in response gathered up the pillows neither Lyra or Twilight had been using to prop himself up so he could reach a hand out to her which Twilight met with a nuzzle and several light kisses to the palm until he slid the soothingly warm hand across her cheek and to an ear where he began scratching in a most delightful fashion. "What did I do to have such a wonderful human enter my life?" she jokingly asked, eyes half lidded as his nails sent small waves of pleasure directly into her skull.

"No idea," he replied with a grin, bringing his other hand up to bare on the unattended ear. With both hands at work on her ears in alternating patterns Twilight's head flopped lightly from side to side, "but you made the mistake of letting me follow you home and I've sort of grown attached so now you're stuck with me."

Twilight's snort and characteristic eye rolling got a warm laugh from Titus and any sarcastic reply she had was completely lost in it as she joined in with a giggle before they came together to rub noses, "And I couldn't be happier!" With that she stole a quick smooch and yanked down on the undershorts in one smooth motion.

Titus watched as Twilight's mouth scrunched up to one side of her face in contemplation, her head leaning from one side before switching to the other to get a look from another angle; it wasn't often that he felt self-conscious, but the way she was examining his junk was more than a little unnerving and provoked him to speak, "You um, look disappointed. Not what you were expecting?"

"What? N-no, I'm not disappointed but, to be honest, I was expecting something different," Twilight was too wrapped up in her observations to notice his tone or expression and continued with her analysis verbally which didn't help matters much, "While a lack of extensive data on the subject meant nothing was out of the realm of possibility I had discounted less likely prospects; still, I wasn't anticipating... this. It's smaller than I thought it would be and looks awfully pointy, and your sheath is definitely odd and the skin around your testes is rather wrinkly-" she finally looked up from his groin to his face and found the dejected expression he was wearing, "Oh, please don't think I was complaining! You're um, comparable to my cooler, if just a little shorter, which is good because if you were proportionate to a stallion of your size there would undoubtedly be... problems, at least for a pony of my size, so I'm actually pleasantly surprised. I like it, I really do!" Twilight's hoof tentatively brushed the side of the shaft and her eyes went wide, "Wow, it's much warmer than I thought it would be!" It seems firmer, as well. It's not flopping around like with a stallion's. She made several more brushes which quickly turned into light strokes as she watched Titus sink back to a reclined position with a small sigh that sent a tingle down her spine. He likes what you're doing, keep going! Spurred on, Twilight continued stroking a hoof up the length and could feel her own arousal rising from the pleasure he was feeling at her hooves and before she realized what she was doing she had gone in to nuzzle at the base where she discovered an odd mixture of his sent and something else; an involuntary sniff drew a sigh of her own and drove her head to sink to his hip, forcing her to switch over to using magic as any will to use her hooves evaporated.

Meanwhile Titus had resumed rubbing her ear as Twilight - her head resting on his hip and illuminated by the light from her horn - ground her muzzle into his crotch as an entirely unbelievable pleasure pulsated in a wave-like motion around his length, causing him to arch his back and hiss, "Kark that feels good, Twi."

She hummed a response, her eyes closed as she concentrated on the sensations assaulting her; the feel of him in her magic was being fed directly into her brain and she felt every twitch and throb while the scent of Titus - her stallion, a distinction she openly giggled in glee at when it crossed her mind - brought a warm rush of pure pleasure as well as a desire to do more. Magic still swirling around his member, Twilight's hoof slowly slipped from its spot on the hip opposite her as she shifted her weight and leaned into one of his legs.

Titus felt the change and watched the hoof slip down out of sight before Twilight's rump lifted slightly, which was enough information for him to guess that she had started working herself over. He was hesitant to say anything at first, but both the urge to do something for Twilight and the desire to make her feel as good as he did at the moment as well as the inability to reach past her shoulder from his current position made him speak, "Would you like to switch for a bit or change position so I can reach you-wow!?" His question got cut off as the familiar sensation of Twilight's soft lips graced the side of his shaft in a light kiss.

"Thank you, but no. This is about you and getting you to relax," she placed another kiss, this time with a small lick after the subtle hint of saltiness of his skin hit her tongue from the first peck, "But please keep rubbing my ears, that feels absolutely astounding." Titus was all too happy to oblige when the frequency of the licks and kisses increased as Twilight began to let her mind take a back seat to her pleasure and her position changing once again so she could mimic another scene from one of Rainbow's films, directing her attention to the twin orbs at the base of the spire. Her muzzle began gently nuzzling each before gingerly taking one in her mouth to suckle on, rolling it around with her tongue for a short time as she delighted in the poorly-concealed moan and small squirms he made and finished with a long lick from a spot between the two and traveling up the bottom of the shaft to end at the very tip. Wait, what was that? She pressed her hoof against her sensitive mound harder as she sat up and gave the end of his member another lick, this time lingering a second longer to pick up on the sweet taste she thought she had detected. Her second lick came back with more of the sweet taste although a third and forth found she had depleted the source. Did he finally...? No, not yet. Twilight found herself craving more and hovered over the tip, mouth open, and spent several seconds watching it twitch under her hot breath as a part of her mind kicked her in the rump, causing her to pause and think wisely about what she was going to do for a moment, "Um... sorry about this, but one question: i-is there anything I should know about that might cause me harm?"

Titus hid his mild frustration at her desire for conversation behind a grunt though he had to admit stopping for an important question like the one she was asking, however strange it was, was the right choice. "I'm not really sure what you're referring to," he said, grinding the side of his head against her muzzle, "I thought you found out everything should be fine with the tests you ran."

It was proving difficult for Twilight to maintain control and not return to seeking out more of the sweet fluid in earnest, especially with the way he was gently bucking his hips against her muzzle though she began to amply the effect with movement of her own as she struggled to compose her thought, "W-well... no, the tests were to see if you could get me pregnant by comparing our genetic structure; without an in-depth study I don't have any specifics, but after Fluttershy brought it up in regards to a pair of her animals mating I felt compelled to do a little research into the intricacies of various Equestrian species' sexual practices; mind you I'm well aware they might not apply in your case, but what I'm asking is if there's anything about human reproduction acts that I should know about or that might be harmful, two examples being toxic semen and traumatic insemination. The reason I ask, and forgive the comparison, is that during my research I found many mammalian species, including several of the subspecies of primates I've looked into, have developed keratinized penile spines-"

"What in the blazes... No!" he shouted with a breathless laugh at the absurdity of the idea, then realized his volume might have awoken their sleeping mint companion though a preliminary check proved she was still zonked out, leading Titus to wonder just how strong the spell Twilight had used was before returning to her, "No, Twi, I don't have spikes or whatever, humans don't eat their mates, and I'm not going to force you and I never will."

"That's good to hear," Twilight's relief was almost tangible in the sigh she gave before directing the sultriest look she could at him, having practiced in a mirror for well over an hour before Lyra had, yet again, walked through her door to see something she wasn't supposed to; being surrounded by the photos of mares making alluring faces was not something she had even tried to explain but the simple truth had gotten a few helpful pointers from her friend as well as loud guffaws at several of her attempts. She had eventually gotten a look down that was approved of which she used now, her eyes lidded and her mouth turned up in a coy grin, "Very good to hear... I was shown a few things and I was afraid I'd only get to try magic tonight."

A wink - one he didn't know she had practiced countless times - was the only warning he got before feeling Twilight's soft tongue and even softer lips wrap gently over the end of his member, the sudden contact causing Titus to sit almost upright with a hiss from the shock and the groan he let out earned a giggle.

Twilight waited for him to recline back from the initial shock before gently running her tongue in circles around what she identified as his flare, having taken immediate notice how his pointed shape had made it infinitely easier to fit into her muzzle as she licked and bobbed the tip in and out of her mouth. She felt him pushing up whenever she came down and, not wanting to have an issue with a misalignment she ceased her pleasurable ministrations on herself to return the hoof to his hip to get him to stop before taking the end in her mouth and slowly working her way down, her tongue working the underside in a coaxing fashion and as she continued down, each bob taking her a little further. She found his shorter length also proved a benefit as by the time he was almost tickling at the back of her throat she was nearly three quarters of the way to the base, compared to the cooler which she had felt like she was going to gag on just getting over the medial ring. It fits so well, it just feels... right. Pressing forward again until she was as far as she could comfortably go she made the small swallowing motions Rainbow had told her about and watched as his head rolled back with a sigh, the unicorn getting increasing delight from the thrusts he made as she edged him closer and closer to climax as the sweet flavor returned, Twilight eagerly lapping as much up as she could find and gave a low moan around his cock as her hoof returned to its previous position to tend to her needy mound.

Hearing the soft moan Titus wound his fingers into her mane while the other hand reflexively went for an ear and was more than happy to see that a few seconds after he began accenting his thrusts with light tugs on her soft hair or a kneading massage of the ear that her tail would swish about wildly every few seconds though what he couldn't see was that Twilight was grinding her hoof against her quivering lips in time with him, driving home the sensation that he had mounted her (though a hoof felt woefully inadequate for the purpose). She tried a few more techniques she had been fed, from sucking on the head while simultaneously stroking the shaft with a hoof to bobbing furiously as her tongue swirled and ground itself against the underside, but despite her best efforts his thrusts remained rhythmic and controlled and his breathing steady.

Everything came to a sudden stop, however, when Twilight let out a low moan and went completely limp save for her hind legs tensing to their absolute limits and her back arching for several seconds before following suit with the rest of her body, slumping heavily onto one of his legs as she dislodged his member from her mouth for a moan though was briefly still attached via a thin strand of saliva when she spoke around her heaving breaths, "S-sorry... I just need... a second," Twilight stopped and simply lay on her side while the residual waves of her own climax washed over her and gradually ebbed as her walls slowly stopped clenching and contracting around the emptiness inside her, all the while pushing into the ear rub that was still going on and taking repeated sniffs of her stallion's scent to heighten the experience. She was a little shocked at how strong her orgasm had been, especially for one so lacking in the usual stimuli, and for his continued ministrations she nuzzled into his hip before sitting up and staring at him with a slightly hurt look about her though he had no way of knowing that it was directed at herself more than it was at him, "I'm told stallions never last this long, so what am I doing wrong? Why haven't you ejaculated yet?"

Squelching the urge to wince at her objective use of the overly-clinical term that was a little odd to hear, Titus let his hands gently work the base of her ears and let her come down off what he thought was her orgasm, based on a few signs he had picked up on from several jokes Lyra had made, "You've been doing great Twi but give me a break, you've only been at it a few minutes!"

Twilight's response came after a few seconds where it was obvious she repeated what he had said in her mind to be sure she heard him correctly, "Only a few minutes? Y-you mean... this is normal in humans?" She watched him nod and bit her lower lip as a hoof curled itself around the base of his spire to stroke it gently, eventually pulling herself a little closer to run her nose along the underside and took note of the way the ear massage shifted to coincide with the small gyrations of his hips as she did so. With her free hoof she poked at the loose tank top shirt he was wearing. "This. Take this off," things seemed to move in slow motion for Twilight as the bottom hem of the shirt slid up, her eyes greedily devouring the revealed expanses of smooth skin and muscle underneath, "A-And j-just give me a warning when you're close, okay?" Despite her energy being sapped from her recent climax Twilight didn't wait for an answer before placing both hooves on his hips to hold him steady and, lining her tongue up with the underside she had been nuzzling, she guided his member into her muzzle to bob slowly up and down.

Wanting to reassure her that she was doing absolutely nothing wrong, he did what he could to show how much he was enjoying it by running his hands through her mane or kneading her ears encouragingly though it was hardly necessary as his grunts and minor bucks of his restrained hips drove her onward to increase her speed and it wasn't long until Twilight felt his thrusts become quicker and more frantic. She could hear his breaths become more ragged with each plunge and the way his back was arching was indicative that he was in the home stretch, making the requested verbal warning that followed a few seconds later superfluous. A particularly strong throb, accompanied by a grunt, was her cue and with eyes closed tightly she made a snap decision to lock her hooves behind his waist in the small of his back and again jam her as much of his length into her muzzle as she could handle, and just in time for him to explode into her mouth with a drawn out expletive-laced groan.

The research material Rainbow had loaned for her study had prepared Twilight for the bursts which she greedily gulped down, her tongue lapping at the softer underside of his cock coaxingly however a mistiming of the wholly unexpected forth jet forced her retreat upwards to create more space and she quickly realized there was more as a fifth delivery of the thick, gooey seed collected in her cheeks along with another in a volume she couldn't quite keep up with and, needing a breath and with no more room, she pulled herself the remainder of the way off of his member to swallow with a gasp as a final shot painted itself across her muzzle.

Titus slumped back to the mattress with a sigh of pleasure, both of their panting breaths the only noise present in the room for quite some time. "T-that was amazing," he eventually voiced, propping himself up on an elbow and watching Twilight wipe the remnants from her muzzle onto the back of her hoof, "You were amazing."

"I'll admit I did some limited research on the subject and Rainbow demonstrated a few techniques. I'm glad to hear it paid off," Twilight confided wearily as she licked up several blobs that had dripped from his softening tip onto his stomach before cleaning up any other leftovers - both his and hers - from the event with a napkin, returning it to the empty fast food bag and retrieved the still-cold soda to swish around in her mouth before pulling both pair of shorts back up around his softening member. She was about to stand up when suddenly a hand was gripping her by the forehoof and gently dragging her up to her previous position in the crook between his arm and side and into the warmest nuzzle along her cheek and neck as he rolled onto his side to extend an arm over her. In response to the much-appreciated snuggle, she wiggled around to face him for a short kiss but before they could there was a literal light-pink spark that arced between their lips which Titus only caught in the reflection of her pupils. Seeing her partner's clearly confused and curious expression, Twilight giggled and rubbed noses before explaining that it was one of the many forms for the manifestation of love Harmony, after which there was a short pause before realizing she had witnessed a groundbreaking passive human-harmony event and excitedly voiced that now he had to come to her lab so she could get some readings.

Titus, naturally, chuckled at his lover's enthusiasm and shook his head, far too spent to listen to a lecture and with nothing to say he instead opted to pull her in, "Love you, Twi."

"I know, you've said so on several occasions," she teased, still feeling the tingly sensation from the spark as she buried her face into his chest and, seeking to increase the heavenly feeling of his weight over her which felt immensely comforting, she snuggled deeper into the warm cave his body had created around her and once comfortably situated poked her nose into his chin to get him look down where her gaze was waiting.

He gave her a gentle squeeze and a peck on the nose, getting the desired effect and taking more than a little delight in the way her muzzle scrunched up in its usual adorable fashion before closing his eyes, "I like to think it was worth repeating one more time today."

Unseen, a certain Princess retreated back into the twisting nether amid very rosy cheeks and a goofy grin as the violet unicorn's dream looped, repeating the evening's event yet another time that Luna didn't feel the need to sit through (again) and instead drifted her mind back toward her corporeal body, passing Titus' own cheerful aura in the process. I am most happy you are well again, my friend, and I shall be seeing you soon though we shall see if you can recognize us.

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Geirr nodded to the messenger that had interrupted his interrogation and waved an arm at one of the guards at the door who passed him a towel, "Would seem I'll be needing to cut our time short today. I really do hate to draw this out but we've all got bosses, aye?" he asked rhetorically, long crimson streaks left behind as he dragged his talons over the towel with a sigh, "Ye see, my predicament is my boss wants ye alive but ye got yer pesky magic that we need to be keeping ye from stockpiling an causing mischief and the only way for me to be sure is to work ye over a wee bit. Just my job, lass, nothing personal." Geirr didn't wait for a response from the coughing unicorn on the floor before tossing the towel down to her and leaving her to recuperate from the beating, the process draining almost to empty any of the Harmony in her reserves stored since his last visit.

It had been another fairly fruitless session and each day that the pony resisted giving him answers was a small victory for her; still, his mistress had given explicit instruction that the agent was to be kept alive and that the interrogations should continue as she could have something valuable, though it was looking more and more like she held very little information on the human or his vessel. Either way, failure was not something that sat well with the griffon and it showed as he worked his way down the winding tunnels to the remote cavern serving as his mistress' chamber, not slowing his stride as he physically pushed past several smaller griffons that had congregated and been effectively blocking the narrow corridor to chat idly, "Get outta me way, ye fecking windy gobshites," he growled.

"What'd you say to me you manky feathered-" the smallest of the group, probably wanting to compensate for his stature and not look weak in comparison, initially acted like he wanted to start something before the group recognized who they were addressing and realized it was in their best interest to just drop it.

News of the ill fate of the young upstart that had barged in on their Matron had spread quickly and the open scramble for positions of power had subsided though several individuals had resorted to more subtle means of seeking their prospects - individuals Geirr would be keeping a very close eye on should their jostling cause any disturbance or pose a danger to the Resistance Army. In our state of disarray the last thing the Resistance needs is an internal power struggle. The Mistress has done a commendable job of securing favor with the GRA Executives, though that was to be expected after somehow slipping all four of them through the perimeter of the raid... but our ranks were gutted holding them off. Damn the King, may his clackers fall off from knobrot! Arriving at the door Geirr straightened his plumage and wiped several errant, dried beads of the pony's blood from his honey brown fur; satisfied with his appearance, he knocked on the door curtly and waited the usual amount of time before entering, "Mistress, news of the human has reached us; though still weak he will make a full recovery, in time."

"As expected," came the voice from the usual spot occupied by the chair, "I trust our contacts are ready to initiate?"

With as much of a grin as his beaked mouth would allow Geirr bowed low, "At your command, Mistress."

"Then we bide our time until the moment is right. See to it, however, that what is left of our forces continue with our targeted strikes so as to not arouse suspicion. Too long has this Resistance been without direction, nipping at the heels of that spineless worm of a King that he views it as no more than an erratic pest... but believe me when I say that ship is the key; we will shepherd him about and let him think he is the puppeteer then grind him to dust beneath the very stones of his own castle!" she snarled as a fist hammered down on the chair's arm to emphasize her conviction, "Know that you have done well, Geirr, as you have repeatedly displayed the competence and steadfast reliability of not only a trusted auxiliary but of a worthy arbiter of your people, when the time comes."

The griffon was taken aback by both the compliment and the insinuation, "M-Mistress, my sincere thanks but ye don't mean to take the position of Queen when this all is done?"

"I have no penchant for it. When all is finished with the King I shall depart with the ship to fight against another tyranny, though if you continue to prove your loyalty the position is yours. I must return to my meditation to shroud my presence; you are dismissed, Geirr," she watched as he shouldered the weight of what she had said before standing to cross her arms over her chest as he retreated out of the room with a new air of authority about him. Stupid bird. She eyed the small silver device that had been successfully and surprisingly effortlessly snuck from aboard the ship by one of their supporters in the pony village and delivered to her a few days prior. None of this would be necessary if my ship wasn't at the bottom of a lake but with any luck his hyperdrive is still functional or, at the very least, Titus can fix it and I won't have to continue with this ruse much longer. Kneeling down on the cold stone floor of the cavern she closed her ice blue eyes and let out a long breath as her meditation began.

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

Buck that was hot! Once she was certain both of her friends had dozed off Lyra sat up, wincing and gently rubbing her aching horn before looking at her two friends cuddled tightly together and wishing she could be as snug as Twilight looked what with the human's larger body wrapped around and mostly engulfing the violet unicorn like a blanket. "Sorry Sparkles, still too fast on the *ow! ow ow ow...* counterspells for you. And you, you big meanie, should know it's not nice to mess with somepony when they're sleeping... even if, you know, they were just pretending," she whispered, poking Titus lightly in the nose in retaliation for earlier before planting a small peck on his forehead and gingerly tip-toeing around to his back to squirm in as close as she could, displaying a small hint of the natural instinct of a mare to surround and shield the stallion from potential predators that might strike in the night while the herd is sleeping. Comfortably snuggled, Lyra buried her muzzle in the back of his neck, "but someday you'll have to show me those 'tight spots' you were talking about."