It had been about a week. Bronze was now considered to be medically capable of properly taking care of himself without necessary supervision. That said, Bronze quickly set out to claim a place of his own where he could crash without feeling like he was imposing on anypony, and his mansion in the Void wasn’t currently sleep-friendly due to transient energies constantly flowing through the place.

“Duh nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh BATCOLT!”

That ended up being the cave that he and the others had made Durgo move out of….

“Duh nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh BATCOLT!”

That said, he was far away from anyone and anything the majority of the time since he and Twilight hadn’t finished the Doorway using her magic and his intrinsic knowledge of spatial manipulation yet.

“Bronze!”

“BATCOLT!”

But he was having so much fun being BATCOLT! PROTECTOR OF-!

“BRONZE!”

“Frieeeeeeeeeends~....” Bronze snapped out of his delusions of grandeur at Twilight grabbing his face in her magic and making him look down at her from his upside-down perch on the high cave ceiling. “Uh...sup Twi?”

“You! Apparently! You can’t stay here tonight! The extra-strong storm the weather patrol put together got out of control, and as high-up as this cave is, I doubt you can sleep with thunder and lightning echoing in here and blinding you respectively.” Twilight stated, and they both stared at each other for a moment. “Doesn’t that...hurt you at all?”

“What?” Bronze asked from his stalactite, his thighs easily clutching onto the inverted cone as the rest of him hung under the spike, his forelegs content to curl to his barrel and his wings folded and he was otherwise completely relaxed, not even his hips and thighs hurt.

“Being upside-down! Just looking at you hurts!” Twilight cringed at the thought of all the blood flowing to her head.

“I don’t know, it’s a thestral thing I’m guessing. Probably got some sort of muscle or tendon in my legs that let me lock a position or something like some primates can with their grips to hold onto branches of trees for hours at a time.” Bronze mused as he shifted his thighs around with a content sigh upon finding a cool spot, previous spot was getting a bit warm.

“Well, not just that, I mean your blood flow! Isn’t it all going to your head?” Twilight asked, and Bronze blinked, but then shrugged, not feeling anything really different. “I need to study some books on thestrals...anyway, get down here! We need to get to my place tonight. I’m not letting you slum-it in a cave tonight.”

“B-but! Battopia!” Bronze weakly pleaded over his almost empty cave, only currently having a blanket-covered hammock strung between two stalagmites in the back on the floor and a couple of hanging paper lanterns giving off faint magical light from their sibling stalactites overhead that managed to coat the cave in a gentle blue wash.

“Bronze! I’m putting my hoof down! Get down here and I’ll take you home where you can be warm and dry.” Twilight asserted, and Bronze groaned as he dropped from the ceiling with a ridiculous amount of grace, performing a couple of flips before spreading his wings and halting his fall a few inches from the floor, and landing with a gentle clop of his hooves.

“Fine. The Prince of the Night concedes to your demands.” Bronze grumbled, and sighed out his nose at how ‘Luna-like’ that statement was. With some needling from her near-daily visits, Luna had realized her template was going to be imposing things onto Bronze whether or not he wanted it. It was only settling in now after so long since he’d been resisting it. The more he accepted it, the more he’d become a mix between his original self and Luna. Fairly, as if he had been raised by himself and his new genetic mother.

“Well, ‘Prince of the Night’, I’m actually having a slumber party~!” Twilight clopped her forehooves together, getting Bronze to blink. He never figured Twilight for the actually girly-girl stuff. She seemed too intelligent for it. “Before I came to get you, AJ and Rarity had to duck into the library, and Trixie was already there when the storm kicked in-.”

“Have you tasted her flower yet?” Bronze asked seriously, getting Twilight to gawk at him with a fierce blush. “Don’t say you’re not trying to get under her tail. I know sexual tension when I see it Twi.”

“SHUT UP! I’ll leave you here if you don’t promise not to say anything!” Twilight fumed, upset that her super special secret feelings for Trixie were ferreted out by the most oblivious stallion she’d ever known. In fact, the fact that she was the only reason Trixie actually stayed in town wasn’t that hard to catch on to. She and Trixie made fast friends, with similar interests. Soon Twilight couldn’t stop thinking of the powder-blue mare in less...innocent ways.

“You know that if I PP, SHE will know regardless of what the promise is, right?” Bronze asked rhetorically. Pinkie was everywhere. Always. He learned that almost shortly after meeting her. ‘It would also explain why besides Twi, that she has been my most frequent visitor out here all week, bringing cupcakes, telling silly stories, shaking her sexy jiggly plot with all her dancing...why must she be such a tease?’

“Okay, fine, a normal non-Pinkie promise.” Twilight demanded, and Bronze prepared to do the motions by sitting down.

“Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.” Bronze said, getting Twilight to shudder at the grim phrasing. “Humans are quite morbid, no?” Bronze asked, again noticing his unusual phrasing, and quietly sighed again. ‘Maybe all this solitude is increasing the rate at which myself and the template merge? It would be quite a sensible theory, beings mother was always so alone most of the time.’ Bronze caught himself on that thought as he didn’t notice anything around himself during his introspection. ‘I need to talk to mom and dad. I don’t want to forget who I am, who I was….’

[@]

“Ah don’t think he’s alright.” Bronze suddenly heard, and blinked before suddenly his lovely orange marefriend was kissing him, and he calmly returned the chaste liplock, before breaking away with an expression that left Applejack breathless with how absolutely enamoured he clearly was with her, his mouth in a gentle smile, his eyes half-lidded in a smoulder.

“My beautiful love. It heartens me greatly to see thee grace me with thine glory to rival the sun with thy sun-kissed locks, thy soft orange fur, and thine verdant green eyes. Grant me another taste of nirvana.” Bronze huskily breathed out before he moved in to kiss her more, only to have AJ snap out of her enraptured trance at his romantic moment and press him away with a nervous hoof.

“Oh Applejack you ruined it!” Came Rarity’s whine, making Bronze blink and come to his senses.

“Rares, Ah know mah stallion, and he don’t speak none of that fancy frou-frou stuff!” AJ asserted as she stepped away from Bronze. “While that was sweet and got me all excited and all, this ain’t the time or place for somethin’ that intimate.” Applejack said, making Bronze wonder what he said that threw her off so much. “Besides, this won’t be much of a slumber party with a colt in on it. Bronze, ya don’t wanna do this sorta stuff any more than Ah do. So go on upstairs and bunk with Spike in his room.”

“Yes indeed darling. Let us mares have our silly bit of fun while you go and rest. Sleeping in a cave like an adventurer must be a harrowing experience.” Rarity waxed poetically. She offered a spare room as did all the others, but he vehemently denied being put up anywhere for an extended period.

Bronze didn’t want to be living with somepony yet. He had essentially JUST moved out of his parent’s place. Which was currently their still-intact and not fluctuating with energy room and the mansion through the Doorway by Fluttershy’s, where a small shack was erected around the Doorway to hide it. Fluttershy claimed it was hers for anypony who asked about it.

Nopony goes into one of Fluttershy’s sheds.

Nopony.

“Well alright then...hey...this will be my first sleepover….” Bronze realized. Hospitals and bunking together with family all bunched onto the same bed with five other guys don’t count when you just want to get to sleep and get it over with.

“Well you two don’t stay up too late okay? Spike may be 14 but he’s still a baby. He’ll be too tired tomorrow if he isn’t asleep by ten.” Twilight warned as she turned to Trixie, the powder-blue mare seeming to have already let her hair down for the night even though it was still only six in the evening. She was even wearing what looked like a spare set of Twilight’s star-patterned jammies. “So Trixie, you said you know how slumber parties work right?”

“Of course Sparkle.” Trixie said with an unusual fondness mixed with respect, before she levitated up a book. “This book you showed me Twilight? Rather accurate, but we shouldn’t follow it to the letter.”

Bronze decided now was the time to walk away and ascend the stairs as Twilight drank in her secret crush’s words while his own marefriend and the fashionista both glared at each other. ‘I hope that doesn’t ruin their night….’ Bronze mused, recognizing petty strife between friends, but beings he was already dismissed, it would be in poor character to forcibly interject himself into a bonding experience with them when they clearly wanted it to be between the ‘girls’ as it were.

Besides, aside from occasionally chilling out with Big Mac, Bronze had absolutely no guy friends! Time to bond with a dragon! *SLAM!* “DRAGON BOY~!” Bronze hollered exuberantly as he slammed the door open, causing Spike to jump from his bed.

“BWAH~!” Spike cried out as the comic book he was reading was sent flying, and he fell off the edge of his bed. “Oof! Ow! What the hay dude?”

“Guess who’s bunking with you young drake?” Bronze posed with a pleased grin with his wings flared and a false wind blowing his hair, making Spike stare at him blankly.

“Uh...you?” Spike asked blandly, only to be levitated with a light fuss up to the stallion’s face so they were eye-level.

“Indeed! The Prince of the Night has been forced by your caretaker to stay in this warm and cozy room for the duration of the moonlight.” Bronze stated, getting Spike to quirk an eyebrow as he folded his arms.

“Bro, why’re you talking like one of those ‘ye olde’ actors?” Spike bluntly asked, getting Bronze groan as he levitated Spike back to his bed, and gently closed the door upon hearing girlish giggling downstairs.

“I don’t know. Or rather, I do, but it is something I may very well have little to no control over. So why fret?” Bronze asked, remember when he first woke up as an alicorn he’d been impulsively using more intricate diction than normal. Perhaps his mother’s supposition of her template forcing him to change was indeed true.

“Oh, bummer. So...you’re here to hang out with me? Me?” Spike asked incredulously, as if the idea was a foreign concept.

“Of course! Why would I not spend time with you young Spike? Especially when it is clear I am unwanted in the presence of the mares downstairs?” Bronze asked as he picked up the comic Spike had dropped and balked at the cover. “BATCOLT?! Really?! I was just making that joke earlier!”

“What joke?” Spike asked curiously as Bronze seemed to suddenly erupt into geek mode, something the young drake was far too familiar with involving his guardian and her obsession with an adventure novel series.

“Why, the clear translation of Batman into this world’s Batcolt!” Bronze gushed as he climbed up onto the bed, and a small Doorway opened to Jeeves standing in it. “Jeeves! Have you an issue of a Batman comic yet?”

“I have several complete collections sir. Protective sleeves and thick filing cabinets were surprisingly effective at preserving them.” Jeeves stated, before holding out an issue of said comic that enlarged upon leaving the tiny door.

“Thank you Jeeves. Oh~ it’s a Riddler issue! I always loved those.” Bronze pulled it out of the sleeve, Spike just dumbly gawking at the tiny door before the equally tiny golem gave a bow and the door closed, vanishing as if it was never there.

“Whoa. Dude, why don’t you just sleep in that place again?” Spike asked in confusion, and Bronze gave a heavy sigh.

“Because, sleeping inside the main area of the mansion doesn’t convey proper rest, and sadly, my room was considered part of the main area. Right now, Jeeves is trying to get it cordoned off from the rest of the place like the other rooms, but I want it properly refurbished before then, as once it’s ‘cut off’ like the other rooms were by the crossroads being shunted off the material plane they originated, modifying them becomes an incredibly taxing chore that could take days or weeks to sort out.” Bronze grumbled as his own power still regularly flummoxed him in spite of his dedication to come to understand it through meditation. But some things were just right-out in the ‘can’t let you do that Star-Fox’ category.

“...Whatever. So, we gonna read this comic?” Spike asked excitedly, and Bronze gladly used his deep blue aura to hold up the comic so both he and Spike could lay on their stomachs and read it, but Bronze grinned as he cleared his throat to read it aloud for his young friend, who clearly looked excited at the idea of being read to.

“It was another dark night in the city of Gotham….”

[@]

“That was so cool!” Spike cheered as Bronze finished reading out the comic, from beginning to end. Spike had remained silent the whole while, looking at the images in the comic as Bronze had read it out for him in his deep tenor. “The way Batman and Riddler started fighting like that when Batman got through the maze, the way Riddler used that weird cane! It was infinitely cooler than a similar fight between Batcolt and the Puzzler!”

“And so young padawan, do you see the greatness of The Bat?” Bronze said in an oddly gentle and old-sounding voice, making Spike blink in confusion at having completely missed the reference, and Bronze chuckled. “I have so got to get you involved with Star Wars.”

“Why would stars have wars?” Spike asked, making Bronze burst out laughing at the innocent question. “What?! What’s so funny?!”

“N-nothing that can be explained without spoiling anything! Heh-ha~! Okay, I read one of my world’s comics to you, now you do the same for me.” Bronze urged, and the drake huffed before he considered which of his comics to share, when he realized he had a new one he hadn’t read yet.

“Oh yeah! I’ve got a new issue of Power Ponies I haven’t read yet. Wanna read it with me?” Spike asked as he moved to the pile of comics on the table next to his bed, looking over them for the issue he was planning to read now.

“Uh, sure. Not sure what series Power Ponies could mirror from my world without looking at it first anyways.” Bronze said as he put the Batman comic back into it’s sleeve and set it aside as he patiently waited for Spike to return with a very colorful comic that he pulled out of a paper sleeve.

“Wow! This new issue is actually a crossover between Batcolt and the Power Ponies! Twilight said she had a surprise for me, but this is really special!” Spike gushed as he turned the cover around, revealing Batcolt and his sidekick Robin (The fact that Robin is a griffon hen just tickled Bronze pink with humor) standing atop a building and looking menacing down at the Power Ponies with whom Bronze guessed was the Puzzler and a tentacle haired purple mare gleefully watching from around a corner as the two sides seemed about to face off. “Batcolt and the Power Ponies in The Mane-Pulling Mystery!”

“Huh. That’s interesting. This looks like a Marvel and DC crossover, those are obscenely rare and usually fan-made even then.” Bronze commented in intrigue as Spike opened the cover to begin, only to blink and squint at something in very small print. “Oh, one of those tiny footnotes the publisher slips in?”

“Yeah, hold on, I got a magnifying glass for these situations.” Spike went back to his nightstand, opened a drawer, and pulled out said visual aid. “Okay, let’s see….” Spike looked it over and wrinkled his brow. “Return you shall to where you began, when you have foiled the Puzzler and Mane-iac’s plan.”

“Well that’s not foreshadowing at all. Thanks publisher for providing potential-.” Bronze was interrupted by the comic bursting into a blinding white light, pulling him and Spike towards it. “-SPOILERS?! SPIKE!” Bronze shouted as the clearly magic comic pulled the fearfully screaming young dragon inside, and seeing that it was a portal of some sort, Bronze knew to not follow when he could easily warp away would be beyond irresponsible. “Here goes nothing….” Bronze let it pull him in, and the colorful picture book then fell innocuously onto the bed.

Author's Notes:

What's that? Taking a plot out of Season 4 for a side-plot in Season 1? GASP! BURN IT WITH FIRE~!

I HAVE COMMITTED A GREAT ATROCITY!