It was good to be back for Bronze. Being tossed around other Displaced more-or-less without his own volition was rather tiring, even though his Grauntie Rin wound up helping him coincidentally reunite with his best friend Konrad, who was now named Ava, and was a smoking hot babe instead of a guy now, but he’d cross that bridge when they hung out later now that they had each other’s tokens.

Then there was being literally stuck in Nuada’s world, completely cut off from his powers for combat training, that wasn’t very fun, but it was incredibly educational on quadrupedal martial arts and overall control. Not to mention that while he was there, Discord had absolutely no way to worm into his head, and due to the absence, now that he was back, he could feel Discord trying to take over, and it helped him resist better, but he still needed a Sanity Serum injection the instant he got home to help cope.

Regardless, having been gone for so long, at least to the other’s perspectives, led Bronze to decide he had some serious prioritizing to do.

“How’s my Baby kitty? How is my baby~?”

Like spending time with his pets.

Baby, Bronze’s oldest cat, the long-haired black one he raised from a kitten small enough to fit in his palm as a human was purring up a storm and hugging his neck as she nuzzled his ear, effectively pinning him since he was laying on the floor of Nexus Overlook in the Pet Paradise to soak up the affection of his neglected pets.

Well, only neglected in that Bronze hadn’t spent any time with them as of late, to his perspective anyhow. Jeeves said to them; he was there all the time. Some sort of stupid aura thing involving Nexus.

“Sophie~. My soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur~.” Sophie, the youngest cat, was also the most shy and fattest by virtue of her fused lower spine, a present from a union worker that stepped on her developing body when she was but a kitten before Ronald; Bronze’s father, had brought her home one day. The white and orange fluff ball was pretty much the bear of the three cats too, she even had the hilarious tendency to sit and lay upright, a feat easy for her thanks to her fused lower spine.

“Jazzy cat, Jazzy cat. Who’s the spazzy cat?” Bronze crooned as he gently scratched the chin of the middle cat, Jasmine, a huge and mean Havana Brown black short-hair. She had a tumor in her head that made her extremely violent, short-tempered, and a crazy bipolar little monster. But he and his parents still loved her. Especially since she cost Maria; his mom, her Mustang since his dad was more focused on rescuing the flea-ridden kitten their then-choice auto shop had in a cage than getting her car fixed.

“Yes doggies, yes, I love you all too~.” Bronze cooed as Jasmine and Sophie moved away for the dogs to move in and start kissing and nuzzling Bronze’s face, getting him to laugh and futilely try to avoid the slobbery little kisses. Unlike the cats the dogs didn’t have much story behind them, Ronald just kept bringing animals home, until Maria put her foot down and put any more he brought home up for adoption, but Cuddles, the old dog, Violet, the energetic dog, and Klingon, the puppy all stayed, two rat terriers and a chihuahua respectively.

“Now c’mere, I have something for a few of you.” Bronze cooed, mentally utterly terrified with what he was going to attempt.

What happened with Fluttershy helped introduce how utterly violating his powers could be, what happened with his Grauntie Rin and him temporarily turning into a completely rubber yet still alive pony just by sampling the rubber of the ball she’d gagged him with told him that he could ignore practically all rules of biology when it came to the matter of the soul and ‘living’. Then him ripping his Grauntie Rin’s very DNA from his old friend Ava further asserted that, if it had physical space in any way, he could outright directly mess with it.

Essentially it all suggested he could not just make part of a living entity from inanimate material and still be fully functional, but the entire body, including brain, and they would still be alive. How such a thing worked was beyond him, his logic said that the subject should be dead, but they were clearly still fully aware of themselves.

First he was going to tend to their disabilities.

Cuddles was first, the old dog had a permanently swollen neck from being bit and shook by a pitbull several years ago, as well as becoming morbidly obese due to any activity causing him pain. Bronze pet him, and watched as with his intent, the swollen, dead muscle tissue in his neck was more evenly distributed across the poor dog’s body as proper living muscle tissue, converted the fat to other body materials across the old boy’s body, then he focused on forcibly renewing all his cells, which visibly de-aged the dog until he was the spitting image of health, even his cataracts were gone.

Bronze was silently in awe.

He valiantly ignored Cuddle’s gleeful appreciation for his master’s mysterious help, and moved on to Jasmine. She was easier, the big, mean cat’s only real ailment was her brain tumor, which was easy to simply re-incorporate into her brain as properly aging and dying cells, the girl instantly began purring as the constant pressure in her head finally vanished.

Then Sophie, the skittish thing, decided to run away because she sensed he was going to reach out to her, and she only accepts attention on her terms. So he focused harder, and she jumped as the fused portions of her spine just above her tail, for the first time in her life, were no longer a single solid rod of bone. She might actually miss it, considering she loved to use it to help her ‘stand’ or ‘sit’ upright, even sleep like that.

The other three were healthy aside from his cat Baby’s constant scabbing on her head, but for her, his precious, he had dangerous but hopeful plans. “Baby. My boo-boo kitty. I can’t possibly understand you like Shy can, but if you can, tell me, would you like to be my Familiar?” Bronze asked, this was something that Twilight and his mom had said was a serious thing, and if possible should always be verbally broached.

The act of either gaining, or creating, a Familiar was an intrinsically binding art of magic. Perfect examples would be of his Aunt Tia’s ‘pet’ phoenix, Philomena, his mom’s ridiculously and oddly adorable anteater Noodle who she keeps in her own private getaway, and even Spike, who by all accounts, was created by Twilight when she was just a filly, essentially both ethically and magically making Twilight Spike’s mother.

This would suggest that Jeeves was his Familiar already, but that wasn’t true, Proxies and Familiars were inherently different in that Proxies were literally a direct part of their Master, while Familiars had their own wills, thoughts, desires and such separate from their Master, thus more limited in scope and potential.

That isn’t to say that Familiars are not powerful entities in their own rights, almost indestructible in the vein that so long as their master still lives, they in one way or another cannot be fully destroyed. Killed, yes, altered, indeed, but they can simply be reconstituted in another form, mentally and magically the Familiar would still be the same. So saying, if Spike died, sure, everyone would be sad, but Twilight could just quite literally make a golem and his spirit, mind, and magic could inhabit it. It was a grim thought, but just the same, Baby was his precious little girl, and he didn’t want to lose her if he could help it.

Upon him asking, Baby had meowed and began kneading his neck, even biting his ear affectionately, getting him to hiss slightly and feel his heart swell as the magic began to take form in his horn, linking him and his favorite pet by their minds, magics, and even souls. Bronze gasped as he was instantly flooded with a sensation of pure, unconditional love, while Baby purred contently as her ‘daddy’ seemed to have a permanent seated presence in her awareness, the simple cat’s mind rapidly changing due to the more-or-less Contract allowing her intelligence to be boosted by magic innately.

For an unknown number of minutes, Bronze and Baby laid there, just basking in the new sensation of their Master/Familiar relationship. But Bronze did this specifically so he could try something risky with her, so she would be safe if anything went wrong. “Baby, I’m going to do something to your physical form so that you might better protect yourself, and if you want, others. Do I have your permission?”

In response, Bronze felt an echo of what he could only assume was consent, trust, and love the likes of which he had never known. No wonder his mom loved Noodle so much if just interacting with him was so euphoric.

Taking her acceptance at it’s face value, Bronze got up, Baby easily balancing on his back as he trotted out of the Pet Paradise, his other pets all meowing and howling in disappointment, but he was all too used to their adorable neediness and moved to the ‘balcony’ next to the wall of universe-viewing ‘windows’ to exit out into Nexus, and flew down from the ledge towards the still growing expanse of the Mojave Desert, which was beginning to take up a majority of the landmass in Nexus.

It was to his old home in the now fully restored and even improved Las Vegas where he went with his precious Familiar. Baby was utterly ecstatic to see the place she’d lived for a good portion of her formerly short life, and jumped off to start running around and rolling in the dry, practically dead grass of the backyard.

“C’mon now boo-boo. I know you like being back...home….” Bronze’s voice cracked. “But that’s not why we’re here.” Bronze moved to the shed, said humble shack was immaculate unlike before...everything. Ignoring the pain of simply being here, Bronze opened the latch, and pulled open the door, scrunching his nose at the potent stench of death radiating from within. “So...what do you think?”

Bronze’s question of his new Familiar was answered by an excited meow and the adorable creature running into the dark wooden storage structure, Bronze smiling as his eyes swirled slightly, his magic lighting up.

[@]

“Explain again, why a tree needs a luxury bed all to itself?” Spike asked spitefully of Applejack, since being as large as he was, the caboose car was the only one he could actually get comfortable in. Yet Applejack insisted that instead of in the storage car, Bloomberg, the flippin’ tree she was transporting to her cousin Braeburn in some frontier town named Appleloosa got a large bed which should have rightfully been his to sleep in.

Insert very unhappy dragon into the situation.

“‘Cuz Bloomberg is a bit of a tender-root. Ah’m sure once he’s in some solid soil he’ll be right as rain, but ‘til then, Ah’ve gotta make sure he’s nice ‘n comfortable.” Applejack explained cheerfully as she hugged the tree.

“...Yeah, not buying it.” Spike grumbled, sighing as he laid down on the hardwood floor of the car. “Look, can you just leave me alone then? You girls are such chatterboxes I would’ve come back here even if there was room for me in the passenger cars. Tell Rarity I’m lonely.” Spike purred at the end, making Applejack flush slightly and glare at him.

“Not in front of Bloomberg! It’s bad enough he had to see Bloomette and Stem get frisky with Timberwolves, then give birth to two downright adorable apple-wolf pups. Poor thing’s been scarred for life. It’s why he even wanted to leave mah orchard.” AJ stated seriously, and Spike rolled his eyes.

“Geez, fine. Rob any and all fun from this trip.” Spike grumbled, since ever since he quit his Playmare job, he and Rarity have been...active. Sure, they practiced contraception and only did it when Rarity was properly in the mood, but they were still active and Spike knew how to get her in the mood.

“Good, g’night Spike. Don’t be snorin’ no smoke or fire though.” AJ joked, getting Spike to groan as she left.

“That was one time! I swear, you snore smoke in a mare’s face once after sex and she tells all her friends.” Spike muttered. Rarity loved his smoke since to her it for some reason smelled and tasted of things she adored, and didn’t hurt her at all. Twilight explained it was something dragons subconsciously did with their magic to adjust to their partner to avoid hurting them.

Spike figured since he wasn’t likely to get any company or entertainment of any form for a while, he might as well settle in for a long rest. He was too young to need ridiculously lengthy periods of sleep yet, but he still loved a good sleep. The hardwood floor wasn’t comfortable to say the least, but hey, a dragon could sleep in piles of gems, gold and other uncomfortable materials, this was nothing.

As such, he didn’t even wake up when his train car was detached….

[@]

Bronze’s signature mahogany Doorway appeared in the middle of a western frontier town, and it opened to allow Bronze to stroll out with a curious expression, drawing the attention of everypony around. “Huh...odd. I sense AJ is out here somewhere. This definitely isn’t Ponyville. I’ve gotta get more practice in on geographic accuracy.” Bronze scratched his chin as a yellow earth pony stallion wearing a stetson similar to AJ’s along with a matching brown vest trotted up to him. “Hello sir, I seem to have taken a wrong turn, might I know where this is?”

“Well colt howdy! It’s a pleasure to meet ya Prince Bronze! Welcome to Aaaaaappleloosa!” The stallion emphatically welcomed him, to a point he even reared back and pedaled his forelegs, making Bronze flinch back instinctively from his training with Nuada and a squad of guards ingraining into him that a pony rearing back was a pony ready to strike. “Ah’m Braeburn Apple! Would ya like a tour of our lovely town?”

“Uh, no, not at the moment.” ‘Besides, I’ve seen enough frontier/ghost towns in the desert to be familiar with just about any town like this.’ “I’m actually looking for an orange mare named Applejack, would you have seen her about?” Bronze asked, getting the stallion to blink in surprise.

“Mah cuz? Shoot, you’re actually a good deal early. She’s not even supposed to arrive for another-.” Braeburn was interrupted by a train’s whistle, and they turned to see the train pulling in. “Odd...it’s here quite a bit early itself….” Braeburn mused worriedly as he began to trot towards the train station, and Bronze hummed before turning to the door.

“Just hold on a minute Baby, I’m going to go see what’s going on.” Bronze let her respond with a mewl, before closing the Doorway and following after the admittedly well-built stallion. ‘Huh, didn’t think I was in any way Bi, but I guess this guy’s just got the curse of being too attractive.’ Bronze considered as he noticed everypony they passed couldn’t avoid giving Braeburn a quick look-over as they passed, so Bronze shrugged as he neared the station with his potential cousin-in-law, the whole time oblivious to the fact that the same eyes lingered on him shortly after Braeburn.

Thankfully, there weren’t many passengers since this line only led out from Canterlot, through Ponyville, and ended here at Appleloosa; the southernmost town in all Equestria, not counting any old family homesteads out in the plains. The reason this was a good thing was Bronze’s friends all disembarked almost immediately, oddly only AJ, Pinka, Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy were present. “Girls! There you are!” Bronze shouted as he approached alongside Braeburn, getting the worried faces to all look relieved and happy.

“Bronze! Colt howdy, ya sure have impeccable timing what with ya bein’ late to everything.” Applejack half scolded and half praised as she galloped up to her coltfriend and got on her hind legs with her forehooves bracing on his chest to kiss him as he had to turn his head down to accept it, his wings twitching and his tail flicking in joy, getting Braeburn to choke for a moment.

“Whoa-whoa now! Hold on a tick, what’s this with mah cuz bein’ all intimate with the Prince? And why haven’t Ah heard a word of this?” Braeburn practically demanded of his cousin, who stopped kissing her beau and looked at Braeburn with a measure of bashfulness.

“Ah...well...plum forgot to bother mentioning Bronze in mah letters?” AJ excused in embarrassment, getting Braeburn to scoff and roll his eyes.

“Sugarcube, ya know how the Family likes to talk about all of our respective relationships, or lack of one. Great-Aunt Granny Smith still won’t stop pestering me to find a mare. You’re just not willing to draw the heat off me huh?” Braeburn teased with a knowing grin, and AJ smacked his hat off, getting him to laugh as he grabbed it from the air. “Well that answers that! But that doesn't answer why them stallions around the train are all cantankerous.”

Braeburn pointed out the train drivers and attendants all fussing over the last car, specifically the coupling that seemed to be missing it’s pin if one bringing a spare said anything. “I have terrible news! Some brutish Buffaloes made off with the caboose of the train! Spike with it!” Rarity stated dramatically with a rather decent level of calm mixed with anxiety, after all; her wyrmfriend was essentially foalnapped.

“Not to mention Bloomberg with it!” Applejack added, only getting Bronze to raise an eyebrow down at his lover, who blushed at remembering he considered her naming all of her trees to be ridiculous and silly. “D-don’t give me that brow!”

“AJ; trees can’t think. Not unless they’re sentient or sapient. We’ve been over this.” Bronze stated factually, getting Applejack to be even more embarrassed since this was one of few topics Bronze always won in. “If you want to name so many things, get more pigs or chickens for the farm.” Bronze then looked to Twilight, who looked the most calm among them. “Twilight, can you feel out where….” Bronze paused, suddenly stilling at fully noticing Fluttershy, actually seeing her, and the bug-mare looked at him in confusion, looking herself over and sniffing her mane.

“W-what’s wrong Bronze?” Fluttershy asked, honestly perplexed. She was used to ponies staring after weeks of it, and was starting to accept it as a fact of life. Her short modeling career also helped her actually understand that she was very beautiful, but didn’t want it to get to her head, she was a humble mare.

“...How can you even look at me without fear?” Bronze asked in shock and sadness, his friends all looking ready to pounce and hug him or something.

“Bronze...that wasn’t you. Besides...I turned out beautiful anyway, right?” Fluttershy asked rhetorically, getting Bronze to flinch at remembering what train of morbid thought had led him down that path, and subsequently doing this to her. “Sorry….”

“Now isn’t the time for this, I’m sorry you two, but there’s more dire circumstances at hoof, and nopony holds anything against anypony other than you on yourself Bronze.” Twilight interjected to get the situation back on track. “As for your unvoiced question Bronze; yes, I can. He’s my son and Familiar after all.” Twilight declared with all seriousness. “I can even give you precise coordinates so you can take us to him and get everything settled ASAP.”

“Or I’ll go alone.” Bronze responded, and then moved to continue before anypony could interject. “I’m not taking anypony with me into anymore situations. If I can handle it alone, I will.” Bronze stated imperiously, for a moment, seeming to be the prince he really was, sharing his mother’s commanding aura that brooked no argument. “Just let me link with you so I can sense where he is for a moment, then I’ll go and fetch him, AJ’s tree, and see what all the hubbub is about.”

“Fine... you need to have faith in your friends to be able to do things without you….” Twilight considered, before sending out a tendril of magic, which Bronze ensnared with his own, and they both hummed. “Yes, that’s about right. Impressive, your spatial awareness is second-to-none Bronze.”

“It’s my job, I better be good at it, even if I fumble now and then.” Bronze then warped away, and was standing in the middle of a camp right next to a surprised Spike, and several startled and defensive large Buffalo, who were all significantly larger than most ponies, though that didn’t include him. “Spike, how are things?”

“Bronze, good to see you.” Spike adjusted quickly, looking to the Buffalo. “Relax everyone, this is my friend; Prince Bronze Brave of Equestria.” This did get Bronze attention, but not what he was used to. Instead of bowing, or otherwise being cowed, the beefy bovines of the plains all seemed even more standoffish. “Uh...guys? You...kinda don’t wanna trigger-.”

“So! One of the pony invader’s rulers has come!” Came an irate baritone voice, drawing Bronze’s attention to the only one wearing more than a couple of feathers, rather he wore a full headdress, and was of a much darker, earthier tone of brown than his compatriots.

“Invaders, did you just call My Little Ponies invaders?” Bronze’s tone and demeanor instantly became that of an offended royal as he strode up to the apparent leader, towering over him and looking down at him from over his snout, as if lowering his head all the way was too much trouble for him. “On what grounds do you dare state such a thing?”

“On the grounds that your squatters are desecrating our sacred stampeding grounds!” The bull shouted in defense, and also clearly did not care for how Bronze loomed over him.

“Jeeves. Scroll.” Bronze stated, and a tiny door opened in the air, Jeeves’ stone hand reaching out with a scroll that Bronze took in his magic, and unraveled to read. “On this day, February 24th in the year 1127 P.U-Post Unification for the uneducated-does the Grand Union of Buffalo Tribes recognize Equestria’s right to their lands for settlement, in exchange for provisions and full citizenship.” Bronze then turned the signed, sealed, and official copy of the original document from approximately 74 years ago as it was February in the year 1201 P.U. “As you can clearly see; My Little Ponies are in their full right, given by your people, to settle here! If you had not wished anypony to settle in any specific regions, you should have clarified it!”

In response, the chieftain sputtered and looked aghast at the document that was still quite a few decades older than himself, and recognized the sigils of the tribes, stamped by both his predecessor and the leaders of the other tribes, meaning this was in no way a false document. “B-b-but! But we need to uphold the tradition! We must stampede through the valley! It’s been part of our tradition for-mmph!” Spike grabbed the chieftain’s muzzle, and rapidly shook his head.

“Don’t go on a ramble again! Bronze doesn’t have that kind of patience….” Spike warned with a scared expression, only for Bronze to use his magic to gently remove Spike’s claw from the chieftain’s muzzle.

“What are you talking about Spike? I love to hear people ramble, let him continue.” Bronze insisted, and the chieftain lit up, taking a breath as everyone in the immediate area cringed and prepared to cover their ears.

[@]

“The Buffalo are wonderful bovines.” Bronze commented with a smirk as he, Spike, Pinkie and Rainbow who had appeared at some point in the middle of Chief Thunderhooves’ educational tirade, and Little Strongheart, a gangly young heifer who was the Chieftain’s daughter all trotted through Appleloosa some hours later in the evening as Bronze had warped them there after coming to an agreement with Thunderhooves.

“I understand that you’re a powerful pony, but how will you manage it so soon before the Stampede come morning?” Little Strongheart asked curiously of Bronze as they passed through the town, several townsponies whispering and pointing in their direction.

“I am the Alicorn of Space, it is within my domain.” Bronze spoke easily in reply, ignoring the rest of his friends and lovers, in favor of continuing his set task with Little Strongheart as the official witness while they caught up with the other three that had visited the Buffalo. “Here we are, the orchard. Which direction will the tribe be stampeding?”

“From East to West, following the sun.” Little Strongheart stated, and Bronze’s horn lit up in his magic, summoning Bloomberg and easily transplanting the tree on the fringe of the orchard.

“You see how easy that was for me, Little Strongheart? Watch this.” Bronze hammed, excited as from his stationary position next to her, he began to meticulously pluck apple trees out in a path through the center of the orchard leading East to West, moving them to the edges of the orchard, keeping to the grid pattern, and unseen to any but him at the moment, he replaced the grass in the path with hardier breeds from Terra meant to be trampled upon, which was a lighter color than the lush green grass surrounding it, helping highlight the trail. “And. Done.” Bronze sighed in satisfaction before turning around to blink at the enormous crowd of ponies from the town all slack-jawed and shocked. “...What?”

“Prince Bronze Brave, sir, what did ya just do to the town’s orchard?” Braeburn half demanded and half asked out of curiosity since it seemed from all of their perspectives he just uprooted and replanted an enormous number of trees within a few minutes.

“Listen to me, My Little Ponies!” Bronze called out in a toned-down version of the Royal Canterlot Tone, his voice carried regardless. “I have brokered an agreement with the Buffalo tribe of the region! In exchange for clearing out a path through the stampeding grounds, they will no longer harass you, and rather, would like to engage in cultural exchange, beginning with...Apple Pies!”

“What?!” Came the resounding disbelief from the whole town, his friends included aside From Pinkie and Pinka, who snorted in amusement.

“Yes! After I informed them of the delicacies made from apples, they were enticed to try pony food as a start, and move on from there. Know this My Little Ponies, you will be the first town in recent history to potentially become home to species outside us Ponies, I hope you will be open-minded, and accepting!” Bronze declared, getting the town to murmur nervously, yet with excitement. “Also…!” Bronze opened a huge Doorway, and out came a gigantic black panther easily twice his size, getting everypony to gasp in shock. “This is my official Royal Familiar; Baby~!” Bronze gushed as he hugged his giant kitty, who mewled and purred as she licked his face.

Needless to say...Appleloosa soon declared Bronze their favorite alicorn come the next day as friendships formed and apple pies were shared.

Also Baby was an adorable softie and let ponies take rides on her back, it was a good day.

Author's Notes:

What's this? An update?!

I wish I could say this is a good sign, but this literally took months between life and all my other distractions.

Here's hoping I can get the next chapter out before December.

Also, the beginning is referencing the World's Most Horrifying Game of Golf, Dark Temple and Goddess Games, and a segment of No Need For Equestria not yet released.