Bronze cheerfully trotted into Battopia’s cavern entrance from the new stone Doorway next the the oak one anchored to Twilight’s library, but his joy rapidly leeched out of him once the door closed and he wilted as he looked up at the plaque that read ‘Missy, Dunc, and Jeff’ over the new Doorway to his new friend’s house. ‘I hope I was able to help them out with their lack of communication equipment and whatnot with my Internet connection.’ Bronze sighed softly out his nose as he turned into the cave to head home for what he was originally doing today.

‘That was the first time I actually talked about my reincarnation into an alicorn with others outside my immediate family and friends without needing help from AJ.’ Bronze shuddered as he paused in the middle of the cave, peering over to the far west side of the cave at the sight of the sundries shop a small crew of thestral ‘daylighters’ were constructing. ‘It’s sad how I haven’t even told that many ponies about this place, and thestrals from around the country are already preparing to flock here, as if there’s nowhere for them where they feel welcome.’

Another point to make Bronze feel depressed-yet-hopeful. Apparently, until his ascension as the Thestral Alicorn, thestrals were such a hidden minority that the average pony was just so blindly scared of them, like the gangster in the alleyway. Instant racial profiling. It was disgusting. But now, Bronze was hearing more of thestrals coming out during the day, making friends. Battopia was ultimately his hope for a colony of diurnal thestrals, but considering their natural nocturnal tendencies, he wasn’t going to hold his breath. Just because he has a special magical ‘implant’ that lets him sleep only whenever he wants to doesn’t mean he’s the exception either for all he knew.

But that wasn’t important now. He couldn’t be a mopey depressed jerk right now. He promised to help Shampoo integrate into society, and today when everypony was at the Running of the Leaves was the perfect time to at least get her familiar with the layout of the town before letting her try to go out into public on her own, considering Twilight or him had to escort her whenever she left his manor to get her electroshock therapy in Twilight’s basement.

The only reason they weren’t using Ponyville General Hospital was because none of the physical therapists there have experience with electroshock therapy, beings it’s still a relatively new medical practice. That aside, Shampoo had reasonably harsh trust issues considering how quickly her condition and black-and-white morality heroes labeled her a danger to society without even lending her a hoof first back in her world. So really, Twilight was the only option in her opinion.

“Shampoo?” Bronze called out as he entered the manor, but when he didn’t receive a reply, he trotted over to the nearest intercom and held down it’s button. “Shampoo, are you ready to go?”

After a few seconds, Bronze heard the intercom click, meaning she was on wherever she was. “Hold on a few minutes BB, I’m soaking in a watermelon and orange shampoo bath, I’ve been feeling weak and tired lately. I’ve even been eating some strawberry hair gel to help the empty feeling pass.”

Bronze gagged. She could also eat hair products directly, but the concept itself disgusted pretty much everyone. Shampoo loved it though, but it made normal food taste bland for a while afterwards apparently, so if she was eating it at all…. “Are you okay?”

“I’m not sure BB...I sleep more, I dream soundly, but when I wake up, I feel restless, unrested. I feel hungry no matter how much food I eat, and I’ve been soaking in this bath while snacking on hair gel for over two hours now, and I still feel empty.” Shampoo informed with a quiver in her husky voice. “I think something else is wrong with me now. Something that never occurred before since I always indulged myself until recently.”

“Alright Shampoo, I’ll set up a meeting with aunt Tia since it seems your condition is advancing. Otherwise we’ll keep helping you however we can.” Bronze said soothingly, and soon he heard water draining and dripping everywhere. Clearly she’d been using a hair tentacle to use the intercom by the door.

“Alright, I’m getting ou-WAH~!” Shampoo screamed in shock, and Bronze instinctively warped in on her.

“Sham! What’s wrong?! Are you-?!” Bronze’s nose suddenly exploded in a vicious nosebleed, rocketing him into a backflip that smacked his head into the door. ‘D-damned cartoon physics! What happened?’ Bronze asked himself as he rubbed his head, the impact having made him forget the past few moments.

“Bronze! I-he-he-he~ can’t believe that just ha-ha-happened!” Shampoo huskily laughed at his predicament, and when he rolled over and turned around, he remembered why he had a total anime moment as he gawked at her. “I know! I didn’t know I could do this!”

Shampoo was, somehow, as big as Celestia and Luna! She had a frame and body similar to Celestia before she got a power boost and lost her excess weight, and her mane and tail were even bigger too, making the whole large bathroom seem to be filled with her spread-out and gently waving green mane and tail as the industrial ceiling air dryer helped her dry her massive body and hair out. “Well...this is a really interesting development.”

“I’ve never swollen up this large before. Hair absorbs water and basically whatever’s put into it, but all the nutrients and soaks must’ve led up to the gorging and this morning’s prolonged soak. I was wondering why I had to keep adding water.” Shampoo tittered as she put a hoof to her mouth demurely. “I knew I was beautiful before, but watching you rocket backwards from your nose was just glorious.”

“But this is a new thing right?” Bronze asked curiously as the mare continued to dry off.

“Yes. Maybe the electrotherapy and potions are causing my condition to adapt. I hope I don’t have to keep consuming endless amounts of hair products and keep getting bigger, because I already ate normal food in large amounts. If I just keep growing….” Shampoo mused, worried. “There’d be no way a giant mare could possibly reintegrate into society. Especially since it seems the bigger I get, the hungrier I become.”

“We’ll see if we can’t alter the treatments to help stymie your condition’s new stage. I just hope you don’t turn to eating actual hair.” Bronze said, and suddenly Shampoo froze, drool suddenly dripping from her mouth as her eyes glazed. “Crap. Uh...I’ll start adding animal hair to the rations Jeeves sends us.”

“Please do….”

[@]

“And here is Sugarcube Corner. The sweetest place in town.” Bronze snorted at his corny joke, and Shampoo did as well with a soft smile. The day had gone very well once Bronze got Shampoo to Ponyville, and had taken her around town in a spiral outwards and then inwards from another angle, as well as giving her an actual map of the town that was fairly recent. However, Bronze was more fixated on her than the tour, he couldn’t take his eyes off the utterly beautiful purple mare accompanying him around the empty town.

Her enlarged stature put him at her withers as she walked like a normal pony, which meant he was still almost a foot tall over most ponies now since with royal permission, AJ and Zecora had ramped up his potion regimen and his food intake even more, and as his aunt predicted he’d shed the excess weight and now he was a lean but powerful stallion about the size of an average horse from Saddle Arabia.

But Bronze couldn’t help his brain dripping into the gutter at how the very shapely and strongly-muscled mare’s body complimented her new size and her already beautiful face, with her pink and green ‘watermelon’ eyes staring at him with a knowing grin- ‘Crap.’ “U-um...you’re looking very clean today.”

“I try to keep dirt out of my mane and tail now rather than just use them as filthy and greasy locomotion. I’m trying to get Rarity and Twilight to enchant my whole body with a constant clean-me-up spell so I don’t have to worry about things getting stuck in my hair when I do use my tendrils to get around.” Shampoo said, her grin refusing to leave. “Also, tell me Bronze. What do you think?” Shampoo flexed her muscles around her chest, causing her powerful purple pectorals to bulge, making Bronze blush. “About my new body?”

“Y-y-you’re very ravishing….” Bronze mumbled as he shrank away nervously, but her boisterous laugh and the grab she made with her mane to pull him into a hug made him warp a few feet out of her grasp on instinct.

“Come here! I will hug you!” Shampoo had a playfully manic grin, and Bronze couldn’t avoid laughing as he sprinted away from her, the mare giving prompt chase with her mane and tail providing faster locomotion. “You~ shall not escape, the Mane-iac~!” Shampoo hammed, laughing hysterically as she gave enthusiastic chase after her friend who began to fly over the rooftops, forcing her to leap in shocking bounds with her hair after him.

“Stay away you vile medusa! I shalt not be beguiled by your depraved beauty!” Bronze cackled infectiously as he played along, dodging as she almost tackled him out of the air, her simply sliding down the roof of a home she landed on and leaping for him again seamlessly, making it a risky game of airborne tag with rules and components he wasn’t used to dealing with when playing/practicing with Rainbow and Gilda. Especially since his opponent was ground-bound but more or less constantly flinging herself at him like a giant trebuchet quarrel.

“Nonsense! I shall not be denied he-he~!” Shampoo squealed as she doubled the effort in her next leap, tackling Bronze out of the air and sending them tumbling to the ground on the road leading northwest out of Ponyville, both panting and sweating as she pinned Bronze to the dirt road with a victorious grin. “I win.” Shampoo smirked at the exhausted alicorn, who merely smirked back.

“So you have.” Bronze admitted, but while he did feel it coming, he was still stunned when Shampoo suddenly took his lips with hers. Oddly...she tasted like watermelon, oranges, and strawberries. After several moments of the steamy kiss, she pulled away, both of them still panting from before.

“Consider that my thank you for all you’ve done for me.” Shampoo smiled softly as she moved off of him and whined as she looked at her hair. “Aw, look! I’m all filthy! You’re going to give me a bath to make up for this.” Shampoo grinned lecherously, and Bronze gulped. He knew that look.

“Um...no hetero?” Bronze asked in vain.

“ALL the hetero!” Shampoo manically smiled.

[@]

“So Sham’s in the herd now huh? Well, to be fair, she is quite the looker.” Applejack shrugged at the news Bronze gave her at dinner, which he more or less invited himself to in order to get some distance from the voraciously hungry mare he’d unintentionally let into his heart as well as his home. And his tongue. Good gosh she was succulent.

“Yes. But the new turn her condition has taken is troubling. I shall need her to personally come to my hut so that I might examine her body again.” Zecora said with a worried tone from her seat next to AJ while Bronze had several packages of MREs on the table in front of him all being prepared in their own various ways, beings the Apples didn’t know he was going to be there tonight and he didn’t want to tax their food stores beings AJ more or less depleted the excess preserves apples feeding him already. While meat was included, the Apples were hardy ponies and understood others had different dietary needs.

“Gawrsh, it sure sounds like that mane-lady is still havin a harsh time of it.” Applebloom commented from her own seat as she scooped some applesauce into her mouth.

“Eeyup. Darn shame. She was lookin’ to be doin’ real good lately from what I’ve seen too.” Big Mac said evenly, but the sad look in his eyes said enough, the stallion didn’t like hearing about others suffering.

“Well you just keep treatin’ her right like you've been, y’hear colt?” Granny Smith said before she knocked back a mug of cider, the old nag drank like a racehorse and never seemed to get tipsy. Apple ponies are ridiculously resilient.

“I know Granny. Thanks for letting me come over for dinner without notice again.” Bronze didn’t tell them the real reason he came, but his excuse of needing to get out of the manor was earnest. Besides, Vivian was having a sleepover with Sweetie Belle at Rarity’s, so it would’ve just been him and Shampoo, and she would’ve kept the action going all night if he didn’t take a leave for the moment.

“Aw, quit yer simperin. Ya’ll are always welcome in this home. Here, have some cider to wash down that there awful slop yer eatin’.” Granny Smith insisted as she shoved a mug of cider across the table to him, which he gratefully accepted. MREs could be delicious, but having something tasty to wash it down was always nice.

“Thanks Granny.” Bronze said, lifting the mug to his lips when AJ and Zecora’s eyes widened in realization.

“DON’T-!” Bronze took a swig, and his eyes shrank to slits.

[@]

“Ow….” Bronze whimpered, a pounding hangover hitting like a freight train. He forgot how weak he was to cider considering he only real encounter with it before was when he celebrated getting out of the hospital. His body’s addiction to fruit sugars didn’t help either, since it combined with the alcoholic content of the drink to make him keep drinking as he lost his reason.

“Worry not love, for while you may have failed to abstain, I will help soothe your pain.” Zecora’s velvety voice almost hit his ultra-sensitive ears like a rumbling thunder until a pill was put under his tongue, and he gratefully dry-swallowed what he knew was one of her homemade pain remedies.

“Ah just hope he doesn’t fall for that again when Nightmare Night comes round. The cider is loose around that time.” Applejack said from somewhere, Bronze hissed as he put his hooves to his ears, and somepony, likely Zecora, pulled the covers of whatever bed he was on over him as she and AJ quietly whispered as they left the room.

‘Ow...mom. Why do I have to have so many weaknesses?’

Author's Notes:

Eeyup.

Been planning that for a short bit. It isn't often that Mane-iac gets paired with anyone for all I know. I've just gotta get her rampant biology reined in, because Manezilla is not something I want happening.

Also, this is just after a Crossover with Shape Shifters and Sakura Cards in Equestria but the chapter won't be posted for now, but nothing really serious happened involving Bronze's development, it was more or less a pretty cool little ditty, but when it is out, I'll link it in the chapter.