“Well, this isn't what I was expecting.” Robert said, looking up from his cards. Derpy winked at him. Cloud Kicker bumped up against him.

“Your bet.” she said. He glared at her for a moment.

“I'll see it.” he said, and pushed several chips forward.

“Raise five.” Dash pushed a hoofful of chips into the center. Roseluck said something unkind.

“Fold.” she added.

“Call.” Derpy said.

“Pair of aces.” Rainbow put her cards down.

“Straight.” Cloudy dropped her cards.

“Two pair.” Robert shrugged. “Four Kings.” Rainbow grumped.

“Ugh.” Derpy shook her head. “You guys are no fun.” she dropped her cards.

“Beginner's luck.” Rainbow said. “There's no way he can keep it going.”

“He's already won most of the weeks earnings off of me.” Cloud Kicker snorted. “If he keeps it up, I'll have to start betting favors.”

“You tried.” Roseluck pointed out.

“And no one wanted any.” Derpy shook her head. “Mostly because they're already pretty free.”

“Yeah, so?” Cloud Kicker grinned.

“I'll have to remember to introduce you to my fiancee. I think she's going to like you.” Robert laughed.

“Sounds interesting.” Cloud Kicker smiled. “I can't wait.”

“Then let's try and win back some bits so you can eat until then.” Dash grinned.

“Oh, I never have trouble finding something to eat.” Cloud Kicker said, smiling. Roseluck threw a cushion at her. She continued grinning.

“Perhaps we should go find Rarity.” Robert suggested. Silence and stares met him. “Then we could get some clothes and make this strip poker.”

“I like the way he thinks.” Cloud Kicker laughed. She was buried in cushions.

“Alright, new deal.” Derpy shook her head, one eye remaining completely unaffected. “Fours wild.”

“Why fours?” Rainbow asked. Derpy shrugged.

“No particular reason.” she dealt. And succeeded in winning the hand and the entire pot. The others called it a night then. They had a gentlemare's agreement to quit while Derpy was ahead and play until that was the case. They filed out the door, saying good nights and trotting, or taking wing home.

“That was more fun than I've had in a while.” Robert admitted. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Derpy smiled. “You heading home?”

“Yeah. Got a long day ahead of me tomorrow.” Robert smiled. “Goodnight.”

“Hey, don't forget your winnings.” Derpy said, noticing his pile on the table.

“Keep 'em.” he shrugged. “You can put them to better use than I can.”

“I can't take all that.” Derpy complained.

“Sure you can.” Robert chuckled. “Just put them with yours, and bang.”

“You've been hanging around Cloud Kicker too much.” Derpy shook her head. “Besides, that's not what I meant. You won it fair and square.”

“Okay, fine.” Robert turned and walked back to the table. He shuffled the cards and slapped the deck down. “High card takes the lot.”

“Fine.” Derpy walked over, and drew a card. She turned over the Ace of Clubs. “See you win.”

“Wrong.” Robert turned over a joker. “You win.”

“You cheated.” she accused.

“I am offended. I have never cheated at chess in my life.”

“We were playing cards.”

“Oh, well, that's a whole other thing. Yeah, I'm a card shark. Never try and beat a cheater.” Robert smirked.

“Well if you cheated, then I don't have to take it. I can forfeit.” she replied.

“No, sorry. Cheating means I forfeit so you have to take it.” he said and shoved the bits together.

“That's not fair.” she complained half-heartedly.

“All's fair in love and war, but I'm cheating and I don't have to be fair.” Robert laughed, then threw a leg over her shoulders. “I only have to take care of me. You've got two pretty good kids in there, and we can't have them not having things, now can we.”

“No, I guess not.” she sighed. “I still feel bad about taking it though.”

“Bake me some muffins and we'll call it even.” Robert said, squeezed her once, and then left.

“Mmm... muffins.”

---

Robert shifted, and fell out of bed. Beds. Pony sized beds were not exactly big enough individually. So he had three of them pushed together in the tree house he'd bought. Technically, he preferred to sleep in the branches, but he'd been too tired to find his comfortable spot. So instead he was laid across three beds. His head was not actually on the beds. It was laid on the end table, on a pillow. It did leave a slight crick in his neck, but it was better than the one he'd had when he'd slept without it.

He pushed himself upright. And hit his head on the other table in the room. Living in a pony size house was not nearly as much fun as he'd always imagined. On the upside, at least the company was pleasant. Waiting for the throbbing in his head to subside, he realized he was homesick. It wasn't anything in particular, just little things. Nothing was to the right scale, nothing was the same as he expected. He could survive, thrive, but it was an adaptation. He wanted nothing more than to go home now. And yet... something told him he still wasn't done here. Not least of all because he promised to take Fluttershy's friends into the forest. Some little voice in the back of his head told him to wait. So he waited. Homesickness would pass.

He stood up, carefully, and stretched out. Then he stepped out onto the balcony, and leaped into the air. Wings flashed into existence and he stroked upwards through the canopy. Breaking out into the open air, he stopped, hovering in place for a few minutes, greeting the rising sun. Light touched him as the sun rose over the mountains. Sunrise was something he found he looked forward to. It always seemed to herald a new adventure, or some new fascinating revelation. Or screaming, on rare occasions. Fortunately, the latter was less likely than the former, but it still happened from time to time. Hovering in the air as the sunlight washed over him was calming. It did have one side effect. Magic that was not sustained when dawn touched it was washed away. He reformed his wings and caught himself just before reaching the top of the canopy. Sighing, he caught air and began to wing his way towards town.

The flight isn't that long, and he's soon enough flaring his wings to land just outside the library. Spike opens the door as he arrives, in what seems to be a moment of clairvoyance, but is really just him sweeping out dust. Robert sneezes.

“Oh, hey. Didn't see you there.” Spike apologizes. “Bless you.”

“Thanks. Got plans today?”

“Yeah, lots of chores. You?”

“Twilight and I have a research project scheduled, if she's not still asleep.” Robert chuckles.

“I rarely sleep in late any more.” Twilight sighs. “What were we researching?”

“Twilight? Are you alright, it's not like you to forget a research project.” concern tinges Spike's voice.

“No. I'm just a little stressed out. A bunch of other students have been bugging me for tutoring like the Crusaders have been getting. It's a little draining.” Twilight shrugged. “So what were we researching?”

“Applications of Combat Magic.” Robert replied.

“Umm... isn't combat magic forbidden outside of sanctioned duels and times of war?” Spike asked.

“It's also allowed for research projects, and I have permission from Princess Celestia.” Twilight said, showing him a form.

“Okay, try not to destroy Equestria.” Spike shrugged, and went back to his sweeping.

“I don't think...” Twilight said, then gave up.

“Oh come on, let's go blow something up.” Robert laughed. Twilight leveled a look at him, then sighed.

“Fine, follow me.” She trotted out, spread her wings, and threw herself into the air. Robert leaped after her. She flew over the town, admiring it from above. It wasn't the sleepy little hamlet it appeared to be, but that was something that could only be appreciated from the ground. From above, it appeared to be picture perfect. She wondered if anypony had ever painted the city from a cloud. She made a mental note to find out. A few minutes later, they landed north of the city, in an old rock quarry. Specialty stone came from rock farmers, but most building stone had been harvested from the ground. Several of the quarries in the area had undergone a reclamation process, where rock farmers came and laid down stone seeds which would slowly heal the wounds in the earth. Twilight had gotten them to leave this one alone, so she would have a place to practice dangerous magics like this. They hadn't been too happy, until she'd pointed out that it was better to practice in an old hole, than make a new one. So they'd left this quarry alone. It wasn't as though the ground wasn't patient enough to wait.

“Ooh, rocks. I love breaking rocks.” Robert laughed as she led him down to the floor of the quarry. She alighted on a large smooth rock. She'd landed there before. Robert dropped with a crunch into the gravel beside it.

“Doesn't that hurt?” she asked him.

“A little.” he shrugged. “Pain reminds us we're alive. Besides, I'm too excited to care.”

“Why would you be excited by destruction?” Twilight asked.

“Destruction occurs everywhere, constantly. It's from destruction that new creation is made.” he shrugged.

“What?” she shook her head. “That doesn't make sense.”

“Sure it does. How do you create a spell?” Robert asked.

“Draw in energy and form it into the desired construct.” she replied. “So?”

“Where does the energy come from?”

“Out in the wild.” she waved a hoof.

“Out in it's natural patterns of flow, which you destroy to create your spell.” he smiled.

“I never thought of it that way. But doesn't it go back?”

“When the construct collapses and is destroyed.” Robert nodded. “The same way we heal, by cells and enzymes consuming and destroying old ones, and forming new ones.”

“Oh.” she looked sheepish. “I guess breakdown is a synonym of destruction. Makes some sense. So destruction is about creation?”

“I've always thought it so. Look at this place. The stone here was broken and destroyed from it's natural state to build houses, and other buildings.” he considered it. “Of course, not all destruction is beneficial.”

“True. A burnt down house, or knocked down dam is certainly not.” Twilight nodded. “Which is of course why combat magic is mostly banned.”

“Exactly. Though... it's only banned in Equestria.” he coughed. “There are occasionally things which cannot be fought without unleashing elemental forces upon them. Of course, we have found that we haven't sufficient quantity of magic users for it to become an issue. I can understand the decision here.”

“Yes, the Unicorn Wars are something no one wishes repeated.” Twilight shuddered.

“Unicorn Wars?” Robert asked, eyes glowing as he arranged boulders.

“Yes. Some time ago, most scholars are unsure the exact time, but well before Hearth's Warming, and even in fact before the establishment of unicorn Nobility, we were a tribal society not unlike the Tigers. Three great tribes, Earth Pony, Unicorn and Pegasus, but within them, we were divided further. I'm not sure how earth ponies organized, because something always disrupts my research. I suspect it's along familial lines. Pegasi organized along clan lines, and it worked pretty well for them. Unicorns did, but were in sub tribes as well. For a long time they stayed close together, and worked with one another. Then one group decided to try and take control.

Others fought against him. The battle raged for months, scarring the land. Some evidence exists that it's the origin of ghastly gorge. Eventually however, he was battled to a stand still some distance to the north, near what's now the Crystal Empire. There his forces were surrounded and defeated.” Twilight shook her head. “As I said, very few records survived from that era, between the depredations of the windigoes, and the weather. Yet... every single legend, from here to Saddle Arabia, and I have done the research, agree that he was defeated by one pony. A unicorn called Sonorous Voice. He became the first Crystal Emperor.”

“Sonorous Voice?” Robert asked. “I know that name.” His brow furrowed in thought. “He forged the Pax Crystalis.”

“That's the one.” Twilight nodded. “First between the three tribes of ponies, then every race he could find intelligent enough to understand the terms. Dragons, Diamond Dogs, Minotaurs and griffons.”

“Tigers, the Great Lions and the Monkey's.” Robert nodded.

“No pony knows what ended it. Not Celestia, nor even Discord. I asked. He just shuddered and shook his head.” Twilight shivered. Robert agreed. Anything that could evoke such a reaction from the God of Chaos was terror inspiring indeed.

“No Tiger knows either. Yet one must wonder. Deer are named in the pact, yet there are none to be found.” Robert looked distant for a moment.

“That is a truly horrifying thought.” Twilight said. “You know what? Let's blow some stuff up.”

“I thought you'd never ask.”

---

“Alright, try this one.” Twilight's horn glowed brilliantly, and magic flowed up around her head, then flicked forward. Bright white light crashed into the rock, splitting it into two even pieces.

“Moonwood's Lunar Blade.” Robert said, smiling. “And you said you knew something I didn't.”

“Yeah, it's Moonfire.” Twilight corrected, panting slightly from her exertion.

“I was told Moonwood.” he shrugged. “My turn?”

“Be my guest.” she waved a hoof.

“I will.” he laughed, and then turned his attention to the rocks. Magic formed, not over his head, but over his target. A beam of fire lanced down seemingly out of nowhere to the uninformed and punched a four inch wide hole into the middle of the rock. Twilight jerked up.

“That's not ri-ight!” she complained.

“What?”

“That's Celestia's Solar Lance. I've been trying to cast that for years.” she sighed, and put her head in her hooves.

“What time of day?” he asked.

“What?”

“Morning, noon, evening?” Robert asked.

“At night when I have time to concentrate.” Twilight answered.

“There's your problem. It only works during the day.” Robert chuckled. “That's the problem with doing all your research at night.”

“It's not written down anywhere. I have three different editions of the book it's listed in and it's not mentioned, ONLY WORKS IN DAYLIGHT anywhere.” Twilight's sides heaved without outrage.

“Yeah, and you're not the only one who might have read the book. Would you leave a secret to a powerful weapon lying out for anyone to find?” he grabbed the rock with his magic and stood it up so she could see. “Especially one that can do this?”

“No, you're right.”

“Did you ask her about it?” Twilight blushed.

“I didn't want her to think I couldn't do it.” she mumbled.

“Then make her proud and show that rock you mean business.”

“Yeah, YEAH!”

“YEEAAHHH!” the white Pegasus flew by for no particular reason. Twilight's horn flared to life.

---

The pair stood on the edge of the thirty foot hole. A stone kicked over the side had taken a full ten seconds to send it's echo back up.

“Well.” Robert said. “I think you got it.”

“No kidding.” Twilight said, eye twitching.

“Come on, this can't be the first time you've over done a spell.” Robert said, elbowing her gently.

“No, it's not. I just thought I'd gotten over that a long time ago.” Twilight shook her head.

“You've grown a lot in power since then I bet.” Robert grinned. “I've had the same problem.”

“You've gotten stronger, but not that much.” Twilight said.

“It's not power that's the problem. It's control. I got stronger, yeah, but the control that I had wasn't enough to deal with the new strength. I had to go back to the basics. Breathing, telekinesis. Even the flame and the void.” he smiled serenely. “But it works.”

“The Flame and the Void?” she asked. “Never heard of it.”

“It's also called the Oneness.” he answered.

“Oh. That works? I thought it was a hoax, like those self-help books.” Twilight said.

“Don't knock the books. But it's similar. As in, it doesn't work for everyone. It's not much different than counting backwards from ten, or that kind of thing. I like that I can do it quickly, with one sharp breath.” he shrugged. “Besides, it's a lot easier to do while you're stressed.”

“Doesn't that defeat the purpose?” Twilight said.

“Possibly. Like I said, doesn't work for everyone.” he looked down the hole. “We should probably do something about this. Don't want any pony falling in. Particularly the Crusaders.”

“That's the last thing we need.” Twilight nodded. “Know Iron Hoof's Earthmover?”

“No.” Robert shook his head. “Care to show me?”

“Sure.” she formed a magical construct. He copied it. “That's it.”

It didn't take them long to fill the hole with left over rubble. By the time it was done though, the pair was nearing exhaustion. Twilight suggested a break for lunch. She'd brought food, though Robert wasn't too interested in it.

“Everything alright?” Twilight asked, concerned.

“Hmm? Oh, yes. I'm... fine. Just a little homesick. It's hard being away from family.” he sighed, placing his head on his paws.

“Tell me about your homeland. Maybe that'll help.” Twilight asked, taking a bit of her molasses and daisy sandwich.

“My tribe, the...” he searched for the translation. “It translates to Fat Tigers, but it means large. We're the biggest in size. We live on a plateau, some three or four hundred hooves above the plains. It's defensible. There's only one way up and down, except for me. It's a winding switch back that's easy to defend just by rolling boulders down. And that made me terrified of heights.” he shuddered.

“The rest of the tribes make their homes on similar things, but we really live on the plains. We still hunt, even if it is no longer for meat. Now we hunt for bragging rights. Who can touch prey without harming it wins the right to brag until another duplicates the feat. Some have it for days, others for minutes. But it's the thrill of the hunt that drives us.” Robert smiled. “And of course, we do make war.”

“Really?” Twilight asked, surprised.

“It is a part of our nature, one which we cannot deny. Tigers are territorial by nature, communal by choice. We fight and squabble amongst ourselves, because not doing so is unthinkable.”

“Who do you make war against?” Twilight asked.

“Mosty each other. Tribe against Tribe most of the time. Calling it war isn't quite accurate. Mostly it's that because it's all the tigers of two tribes coming together to fight. Usually instead of the big, confusing melee of battle, it'sa series of duels between tigers of opposing tribles, who've had a disagreement they couldn't settle any other way. We try hard not to let those things build up, or they turn into blood fueds, and those get really messy fast. We're still recovering from the last one.” Robert shook his head. “The proving grounds were built for it. After the last fued, someone had the idea, and we all got together and built a dozen arenas for single combat.”

“Isn't that a little blood thirsty?” Twilight asked.

“Perhaps, but we are carnivores.” Robert shrugged. “Most fights are only to first blood, unless the reason behind them is truly potent. Better to have only a minor wound to attend, than a funeral, is the saying.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Twilight said. “Doesn't really flow off the tongue though. I'll bet we could...” Robert put his paw over her mouth.

“Please don't analyze the colloquialism.” Robert asked, lowering his paw.

“If you insist.” she shrugged. “Ugh. I'd better get going.” Twilight said, glancing at the sun. “It's almost time for the Girls to get out of School.”

“I am very glad that it's Twilight Time and not Robert Time. I suspect I would have to apologize for having eaten one of them by now.” Robert shook his head.

“They're... not usually too bad.” Twilight said, with just the right amount of hesitation.

“Sure they're not.” Robert laughed. “And the sun rises and sets on it's own.” he stood up and stretched. “Don't be late, Professor Twilight. You have a library to save.” he chuckled, and started up the slope of the side of the quarry. Twilight opened her mouth to ask why he wasn't flying, then decided it wasn't worth it. Instead, she trotted a few steps and leaped into the air, and winged back toward town.