I woke early in the morning and mentally reviewed what I had to do. Dust Kicker would be coming by and expecting to learn more magic. She still begrudged me a little. Sure, she liked my fingers. Sure, she kind of liked my having two things, but she was convinced I was more liability than use in the field.

I chewed softly on some fresh hay as I thought over it. It wasn't that she hated me... She was worried for me. She thought I'd just get myself hurt, but isn't it my choice? I'd rather be beside William and Cindy. I still cared deeply for Sandra, even if she got pushed further out of my reach. Maybe I had come on too strongly? Stupid urges. I decide she's a nice lady and suddenly I just have to be snuggly and stuff. It's wired in.

When she was our enemy, I had no urge to hug or scritch her. She was bad, so I avoided, simple. But she isn't an enemy any more. Hell, Neon came around too, and Sandra's fawning all over her, but no one calls her out on that, but I'm defective for fawning on Dust Kicker? Not very fair. I dipped my snout in a public trough and drank deeply. There was no room for fair or not fair. I had to fix things, and show I wasn't just a broken pony slowing everyone down.

As I trotted towards the practice area, I passed many ponies along the way, until the unavoidable sensation of rather intimate contact drew me up suddenly. A mare had caught notice of me and had buried her face between my legs mid-step. She was a feral, a true feral. I was, thankfully, only partly there, but the way she nuzzled into my sheath and balls told me she wasn't thinking any of this through. She probably smelled the extra potency around me and wanted some.

With a soft grunt of building arousal, I tried to nudge her away. She made a pitiable sound and turned. Her tail lifted to show off her heated lips. How had she avoided getting fat with a foal already? Maybe she was and not showing it? She wasn't fat like most of the other feral mares I'd seen lately.

As I contemplated it, she backed up into me and my senses swam with a sudden burst of her musky signaling. I felt my shafts thrust forward, stiff and ready. It was enough to make the humans on the road steer far away from me. That hurt, but is also refocused me. I felt into the magic of the area, and saw something peculiar. She was being affected by something, a trailing connection that seemed to go into the distance.

I sat up on my haunches and reached for her. I turned her around to face me again and she began instantly nuzzling at me and going for those stiff poles. She sank her snout over one of them, licking and suckling warmly. I grit my teeth against the sudden pleasure. "Who are you, and why are you controlling this mare?"

The mare stopped suddenly and drew back slowly. Her ears pinned against her head and she looked afraid and vulnerable. I reached for the mare, or was it the one controlling her? I extended my fingers and softly scratched over her head and ears. "Please tell me?"

The mare made soft happy sounds at being pet, but she refused to talk. Was she even capable of talking? The mystery boiled at me and I rose up, considering going to Will about it. She followed me without even being asked, so I decided that would be best. As I led her, she kept nuzzling at my backside. Her nose pressed against my large balls and she had no hesitation in licking and sucking over them. It took no small amount of willpower to keep going and not just give the mare what she wanted, but it wasn't the mare, I didn't think. The idea of... raping that mare, while she wasn't in control... It wasn't right.

I found Will practicing with Crystal. They were showing each other teleportation tricks. I became distracted immediately. Fancy magic was worse than sex for refocusing me, and soon I was watching the magic they played. I could see the subtle differences in their new tricks and gladly filed them away to use later. I loved magic. I loved learning magic. I loved copying magic. Everyone forgets I was the first not-princess to copy and learn teleporting, and I got pretty good at it!

My focus came away when they took a break. Will was staring at me, or rather the mare with me, and there was plenty of reason for that. While I was off in focus, the mare had climbed up on me and was riding me. I let out a sharp hiss as she sank down, plunging me into her cunt and ass thickly. "Will! She's being controlled!" I wanted to push her away again, but she tightened around me and made a little purr sound. It felt so good. "Help!"

Will and Cindy trotted over with confused expression. They gently grabbed the mare at the sides and lifted her up off of me. They softly pet her as she whined. Cindy nodded. "I recognize this. Hello, jungle princess."

The mare sagged in their grip, then began to twitch. Her eyes slowly sharpened as the magic tied to her became thicker. The control went deeper as intelligence poured into her. "Hello, Princess of the States. You have done well."

I tilted my head a little. "Why are you controlling that mare, and chasing me?"

The mare looked towards me with uncannily alert eyes. "She was broken. I fixed her, and now she is in heat, but most of the mares already went through heat and claimed stallions. None of the herds will accept her. You haven't claimed a mate yet. I thought you would like her."

I stomped a hoof in frustration. "I have a herd! I'm with William, and Cindy and Sandra and Neon and even Dust Kicker."

She noticed my hesitation and tilted her head. "Is something wrong then?"

Will set the controlled mare down. "That's our business. Why are you interfering with someone so far away?"

She smiled brightly. "She is feral, so she is my responsibility. She has no strong thoughts, so I must be her thought. She deserves happiness. It's a temporary job, you know. Their children are born intelligent. These poor wretches, the humans that were lost, they are under my care. If he's not available, I'll look elsewhere." The intelligence withdrew from the mare, and she shook herself out. She glanced over at me and my flagging, but still present, shafts before she turned away and started trotting off.

Cindy glanced after her before looking at me. "Well, you didn't want that?"

I frowned sharply. "Of course not. I... I might be a little addled, but I'm not that far gone. I want a real woman. I... I'd rather be with someone who knows how slow I am in some things, than someone I'd be the mental giant of. I'd be her babysitter, not her mate."

Cindy tilted her head. "You want someone to babysit you instead?"

I flushed at the implication. "I don't... need a babysitter. I'm not that bad, seriously. I wash myself, and I can dress myself. I can even fight on my own. I'm not that bad, am I?"

William reached for me and pet over me. Her fingers worked over ears and along the fur of my head and it felt so nice. "You've gotten a lot better. When we first found you, you were little more than a talking feral. Then again, even Sandra had her moments."

"There he is." Dust Kicker was coming over and she looked angry, as usual. That mare practically lived on anger. "Did you forget our meeting and wander off to find another would-be mate? Decide to give William another go?"

The words burned painfully. "No! William and Cindy have Sandra. They're perfect for each other."

Dust Kicker snorted softly. "You say that now." She looked up at Will. "What was he doing?"

Will smiled. "He discovered a feral agent of the jungle princess, and he was watching Crystal and I practice some magic."

Dust looked around. "Crystal?"

Cindy chuckled with amusement. "She's already gone. She's getting better at teleporting all the time. She's the one that taught us the trick in the first place."

I approached Dust carefully. "I haven't forgotten. We have work to do."

Dust raised an ear. "Oh? Good. This way." She turned away and trotted off.

I followed after her and couldn't help but notice the sleek power of her back end as she was ahead of me. She was a well-built unicorn, and she could clobber me if I made her angry, and I seemed to make her angry pretty easily. "Hey, Hope." She looked over her shoulder at me. "I want to learn how to teleport. The more of us that know how to do that, the better."

I focused on a shield, making it spring out more visibly than it had to. "You have to learn shielding techniques better first."

She scowled. "Why? I want to teleport. I'm not here for you to decide what I learn or don't learn."

I pointed to the shield with a thick finger, my right hoof unfolded to look more like a hand. "Without the shield, you can only teleport alone without scattering your friends all over. Crystal got caught up with that once, threw William across the state. It's for everyone else's safety, Dust Kicker."

Dust Kicker lived up to her name with a firm kick at the ground. "Fine, but I can teleport alone too. Show me some of both." She suddenly got a thoughtful smirk. "Do you know how to use hoof-claws?"

I shook my head. "I never learned how to, you know, physically fight much."

Dust held up a leg and the hoof claw slid down into position. "Great. you're taking a turn as the student after this, and you'd better pay attention."

I felt she was getting revenge, but I wouldn't rise to the emotional bait. I just nodded at her. "If you want to show me, I'll do my best to learn. Are you ready? Let's go over some basic shield levels, but before that, can you see the symbol I'm making with my horn?"

That always made her angry. She wasn't that good at seeing magic just yet, but it was almost impossible to teach magic without the student learning to look that way. You had to see to copy.

She suddenly sputtered. She had seen the little heart I made float over me. She suddenly rushed at me and pushed me over. I'd gone too far, but I didn't regret it. However angry she could get, I still thought she was kind of... She was a good pony, she just had to improve, just as I had.

She pinned me down and suddenly I felt her lips on my neck. She was biting at me softly, and I became baffled. "Stupid little unicorn," she hissed in an ear. "Why don't you give up?"

I reached a hand to scratch softly along her back. "You're worth working for, Dust Kicker."

Our lessons continued, and she didn't shout or yell at me for a whole hour afterwards. We were making progress.

Author's Notes:

Dusk Hope gets his own chapter to just be himself, worry about his lot in life, and get casually raped. Only in this strange future is there such thing as casual rape.

Is there a character you'd like to see the typo-filled perspective of next? Let me know!