Chapter 10

Still some slight pain, but it was bearable. The pod was dark again. I looked down at my forelegs, they were healed, with 4 scars going the circumference on both, my PipBuck was gone, most likely destroyed, its absence made my leg feel odd for some reason.

My chest was healed too, small but nasty scars in place of wounds, and a tiny plastic IV was jabbed through my tummy, feeding tube, wonderful. I looked at my reflection in the polarized glass. A long scar over my throat, another over the bridge of my nose. I sighed, an especially strange sensation when breathing a liquid.

"Glad to see you're awake Bandage," Beta said in my ear, "to answer some obvious questions, you are in a restoration chamber, breathing a liquid oxygen solution while powerful healing magic works to restore your body. You have been kept heavily sedated, and in times of intense pain you have been subjected to memory orbs."

I cocked an eyebrow at the mention of liquid oxygen, "The holes in your lungs and your sliced trachea made it impossible for you to breathe air, by putting you in a continuous fluid substance, you were allowed to breathe unhindered by your injures.Would you like me to remove the tinting on the pod so the others my speak with you?"

I tried to reply, but couldn't, instead I nodded. Things got bright in a hurry, once my eyes adjusted I noticed Stripe and Token curled up in front of the pod, Shaky and Hex sleeping between them. I smiled and tapped the glass, Token's ears perked up and she stirred, smiling when she saw me waving.

"Good morning love." she said, I cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

"I am receiving what she says and transmitting it to your ear pieces." Beta explained.

I nodded my understanding and smiled at her.

"Are you in much pain?" she asked, looking me over with concern.

I shook my head and held my forehooves a few millimeters apart, she frowned when she saw the scars.

"Want me to get Lore? She can put you under again."

I shook my head, then pointed at myself, tapped my chest and pointed at her. Token looked confused for a moment, then smiled understandingly, "I love you too babe."

I pressed my lips up to the glass, she rolled her eyes but did the same. I grinned and pointed at her crotch then tapped the glass, then tapped my muzzle.

She grinned and looked behind her at the others, then nodded and pressed herself up against the pod. I swam down and started licking the glass, she started giggling, but did me a favor and let out some fake moans. I swam back up and licked my lips, she smiled and pressed her forehead to the glass.

"You're such a nerd Bandage."

I matched the gesture, pressing my head to hers, then I mouthed "how long?"

"You've been in there a few days, Lore said you'd be ready to be let out in another four days."

I frowned but nodded, Shaky stirred behind her and trotted up to the pod tiredly, then pressed her head to the glass, "Hi Momma."

I swam down to her level and kissed the glass, mouthing "I love you."

She smiled sleepily and nuzzled the glass, "I love you t-too Mom."

Hex woke up next, throwing a foreleg around Shaky's neck and waving at me, "Morning Bandage, I kept your goggles safe for you," she tapped the red lenses on her forehead, "see?"

I smiled and nodded, tapping my horn.

"No problem." she said, understanding instantly.

***

Stripe woke up hours later after everyone had left the room for lunch, I smiled and blew a kiss at him, he smiled back and approached the pod, pressing his forehead and a forehoof to the glass. I matched the gesture.

"Hey boss, how ya feelin'?"

I nodded.

"That's good... I told ya you should've let me go too..."

I thumped the glass and scowled, he sighed but nodded, "I know I know, it's just, when Blue came in cryin', covered in blood, an' told me what happened... I feel helpless when I can't protect you guys, know what I mean?"

I nodded sympathetically, then grinned and pointed at his face and my new scar. He chuckled, "Yeah, that's a nice one... The set makes ya look pretty sexy."

I smiled coyly and batted my eyelashes at him, he rolled his eyes.

I started chuckling silently, both our eyes widened when blood started mixing with the fluid I was exhaling.

"I'll go get Lore." he said frantically, limping as fast as he could out of the room.

***

"Nothing to worry about." Lore said, looking over my vitals on a terminal, "Just some residual bleeding from one of the lung punctures, you agitated it a bit when you laughed. Try to keep yourself from doing that, this machine works miracles but your wounds are still pretty sensitive."

I nodded, frowning glumly, she smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry, just about four more days and you'll be right as rain."

I nodded again, then tapped my left foreleg, Lore snorted, "That StableTec hunk of scrap you wore on your leg? Destroyed, doesn't matter, the armor has all the same systems, better even."

I frowned more, all MYSTIKZ' dubtrot music had been in my PipBuck.

"I did copy the files from the storage unit, all the navigational data that it had recorded, as well as several dozen songs which are now ready in the suit's playback logs whenever you want to hear them."

I grinned wide and smacked my hooves together, taking off an ear piece and smooching it over and over.

"My pleasure Bandage."

"Um, Bandage? I know you saw some of Crash's memories, I'd like to ask if you could keep he and I's relationship a secret?"

I nodded, moving a hoof over my lips and tossing away an imaginary key.

"Thanks. I never told Data, wouldn't want it to hurt her feelings."

***

Four days went by routinely, the gang would gather round the pod and keep me entertained in various ways. Kimba and Token would chat while passing a wobbly legged Shadis between them, Rawr and Adze would do their best to out cheat one another at a card game called 'Caravan', BB and I would shamelessly watch each other masturbate, and in the evening Shaky would sit down next to Hex between Stripe's forelegs and read me a chapter from the Daring Do book while Shadis sat on Stripe's head and gnawed on his ear studs.

The week passed, my feeding tube was pulled, the liquid oxygen was drained out, including the stuff I had to cough out of my lungs, and the pod opened, allowing me to stumble out into the warm embrace of a towel so the Twins could clean the gunk off me.

I tried to talk, freaking out when I couldn't, Data rolled her eyes and smacked me hard on the back, making me cough up a final mass of liquid.

"Oh." I muttered, smiling sheepishly.

Token mauled me as soon as I was dry, smothering me with kisses and nuzzles and hugs, I tried to keep up with her enthusiasm, but apparently she was craving me pretty bad that whole week.

"Oh! I've missed your scent and your feel and- I've just bloody missed you!" she yelled, "You know that's the longest we've been apart since we met right?"

"I'm aware darling, and I've missed you too, but you're starting to worry me a bit."

"Me worry you?!" she shouted, glaring at me, "I should thump you for getting torn up so badly!"

BB came up behind her and pulled her away, "C'mon silly filly, let's give the gal some time t' adjust t' breathin' air before we thump 'er."

Stripe walked up, actually walking normally since his injuries had healed during my time in the tube. He kissed me, I kissed back, hugging around his neck, "You see, why couldn't Token given me this sort of calm, sweet welcome?"

"Figure she loves ya a helluva lot more than I do boss."

"Mmm, probably." I kissed him on the cheek and looked him over, "How are your wounds?"

He shrugged, "Little sore, but I can shrug it off without medicine now, might even be able to go a few rounds in the sack without tearin' up."

"I should certainly hope so."

He chuckled and helped me to my hooves, "C'mon, girls probably wanna seeya."

I nodded and looked at the Twins for approval.

"You're free to go," Lore said, "but I recommend you stay here and rest a few more days."

"No strenuous activity," Data ordered, "we don't want to have to piece you back together again."

"Don't worry about it." I said with a grin before following Stripe.

The girls had apparently missed me, the instant I turned the corner Shaky leapt at me, giving me just enough time to sit and extend my forelegs. Hex limped after her and crawled up into the hug, I grinned and nuzzled them both.

"Good to have you back Bandage." Hex said, nuzzling me back affectionately.

Shaky punched my chest softly and scowled up at me, "You're n-not allowed to g-get hurt that b-b-bad anymore, stupid m-mare."

"I'm sorry sweetie, I didn't mean to get sucker punched by a Tunneler."

"No excuses," she muttered, clambering down, "c'mon Hex, let's go p-play or some sh-shit..."

Hex nodded and hopped down, grunting when she landed. The two trotted off down the hallway.

"'Play or some shit'..." Stripe muttered, "The fuck do you suppose the some shit portion of that is?"

"Hmmm, cunnilingus maybe?"

He chuckled and shoved me slightly, "That's fuckin' sick."

I bumped his flank with mine, "I'm surprised you even know what that means."

"One, it's a sexual term, and I know all sexual terms. Two, I've got more books than you've ever seen, remember? I'm a fuckin' walkin' dictionary."

I threw a foreleg around his neck and poked his chest with a hoof, "And yet your basic vocabulary is simple and brutish."

He grinned and pressed his nose to mine, "It's a key piece of my rustic charm."

I pulled away, smiling teasingly and scratching under his chin with a hoof, "Is that what you call it, rustic?"

"Mmhmm," he mumbled quietly, putting his nose to mine again, "wanna see another piece of me that's even more rustic?"

"Mister Stripe," I said quietly, blushing slightly, "if I didn't know any better, I'd say you're trying to seduce me."

His emerald eyes went very soft and locked with mine, "Maybe I am, s'pose it depends on whether or not it's workin'."

I kissed him, biting his bottom lip gently when I broke away, "It is... But, I think we might want to wait a bit, I'm pretty sore."

He nodded and kissed me softly, "'Kay... lemme know."

I giggled and kissed him again, "You'll be the first to know when I'm in the mood for stallion, promise."

He chuckled and nuzzled my cheek, "Thanks. I'm gonna go chill with Kimba for awhile."

"Alright, have fun."

He snorted, "Yeah, havin' long conversations in zebra, it'll be nice to knock the dust off that particular dialect."

"You speak zebra?"

He shrugged, "Ego commaculare."

"No idea what you just said."

"Vere? Ego figuratur te ita didicit in in pulchrius puncta aliena lingua."

I stared at him blankly, he chuckled and brushed against me affectionately before trotting into Crash's room, scooping Shadis up onto his head, Kimba waved at me before the door closed again.

I strolled through the corridors, checking on the rest of the team. Rawr and Adze were in Chryses' room, they had a table set up and were playing a low stakes game of Caravan. Dart's room was empty, but Beta informed me that the girls had taken it over, and that they were in the "SkyNaut" hanger, playing hide and seek. Token and BB were waiting for me in Eclipse's room, lying tangled with each other, smiling at me seductively.

I chuckled and shook my head, "Sorry girls, the Twins told me very strictly to avoid strenuous activity."

"Don't worry darling, we'll be gentle, won't we BB?"

"Mmhmm, real, real gentle..."

I rolled my eyes and glanced down, considering the offer, "While I highly doubt that, I suppose a little mare climbing will do me some good..."

"That's the spirit!" Token said brightly, "BB, fetch her."

"Yes'm." the pegasus said, climbing out of bed and pulling me in next to Token.

My mare wrapped her hooves around me, giving me a very long kiss. BB eased in behind me, kissing up my spine and sucking on my ear, her forehoof worked around my side and started rubbing between my thighs. I moaned into Token's mouth, she broke away with a smile and sat us all up, her hoof went between my thighs, BB's moved up to hold my midsection, Token started nibbling my ear, BB eased up and started licking at my horn with her electrically charged tongue.

I moaned softly as an odd sensation went through me, an electric tingle, going from the tip of my horn, spreading through my skull, resonating down my spine, and ending in a very nice, very tender place.

The two continued their work diligently, I closed my eyes and sighed lazily, occasionally groaning when a jolt went full circle. I was turned, my back pressing against BB, I heard Token giggle just before something was placed over my eyes and tied behind my head.

***

I yawned, warm, sticky and satisfied under two softly snoring mares. I glanced to the side at Token, giggling and wiping away a small stream of dribble from her mouth with my hoof before planting a kiss on her muzzle.

I wriggled out of the pile, somewhat reluctantly, the two filled the space in their sleep, snuggling close to each other.

I stepped out into the hall, making my way for the shower room, grinning dumbly at naughty thoughts of the old Sleipnir team having group showers back in the day, I'd need to look through some memory orbs... I stopped just outside Dart's room, somepony inside was making noises, I opened the door and craned my head in, instantly going bright red.

Hex was at the desk, panting softly as her forehooves moved between her thighs, blushing with arousal as she looked over the dirty pictures of Dart sitting on the desk.

I shouldn't have said anything, I should've gone back into the hall and left the filly to her business, instead, my dumbstruck and half asleep brain sent the "what the fuck" signal to my vocal cords, resulting in a painfully loud, "Uhhh."

She stopped, looking up with an expression crossed between terror and embarrassment, she glanced back at me slowly, her one visible violet eye going wide. In an instant a picture frame impacted the wall next to me, I yelped and ducked my head back into the hall.

"What the fuck Bandage?!" she shouted, her tone reaching the same octave of Shaky's normal speaking voice.

"Sorry!"

I heard the sound of filly head hitting oak desk, something I'd grown accustomed to in 80 from the nigh hundreds of times Mum had walked in on me, "I'm so fucking embarrassed!"

"I know, I'm so sorry!!"

"You're sorry?! I'm the one that just got caught touching myself!!!"

I looked down in chagrin, glad I was out of the room, but my ears perked up as a thought hit me, "Hey Hex, how old are you?"

"...Twelve," she said warily, "why?"

I chuckled and shook my head, "I was nine the first time I got caught masturbating."

"...Nine? You're joking."

"Nope, dead serious, ask Token."

I caught the faint sound of her giggling and sighed to myself with slight relief, "What were you doing that for at nine years old?"

"Our stable put a lot of growth hormones in the food so we'd reach sexual maturity faster, in case anything bad happened to a large portion of the breeding population. I hit estrus for the first time a few days after my ninth birthday and decided to, you know, relieve myself..."

"Oh my gosh." the filly snickered out.

"Anyway, my mum trotted in and, well, you can probably fill in the rest on your own..."

She laughed, probably dying considering it was as loud as Shaky's normal laugh, I chuckled along with her, covering my eyes with a hoof from embarrassment.

"Thanks Bandage," she said once the laughter had died down, "just uh, knock first before trotting in, okay?"

"Okay... hey Hex?"

"Yeah?"

I smirked slightly, "There's more of those dirty pictures in the desk drawer..."

No response, but after a few moments the door was closed by a yellow magic field. I chuckled again and walked down the hallway, Shaky was walking towards me, I got frantic for a moment but smiled brightly.

"Heya Shakes, whatcha up to?"

She cocked an eyebrow at me curiously, "G-goin' to my room t-to see Hex, why?"

"No you're not!" I said, still trying to sound cheery as I wheeled her around, "We haven't done anything together in a week, let's go bond or some shit!"

"'Kay," she said, confused, "c-can Hex come?"

"She's trying to love, that's why we're going somewhere else."

"Huh?"

"Nothing..."

***

Not the shared shower I was having fantasies of, but still nice. I was sitting under the warm spray of water, humming a tune about something called "winter wrap-up" I'd learned from my dad while I scrubbed shampoo in Shaky's surprisingly dirty mane.

"How does your mane even get this messy?"

"I c-can w-wash my own mane d-d-dammit..." she grumbled.

"Apparently not, cuz this is filthy."

I pushed her head into the stream and rinsed all the now filthy shampoo out, then levitated a bar of soap on a rope around her neck.

"Now, go to the next shower head over and soap yourself down."

She shrugged and trotted over to it, smacking the button to turn on the water, "I'm surp-prised you're not g-gonna do it for m-m-me."

"Me rubbing you down with suds would be weird, I'm horny and covered in sex juices."

"Eww."

"Hey, one day you'll be lying on the floor, covered in the Hex's juices and probably the juices of several other mares you don't know, and you'll think 'huh, guess Mum wasn't so gross after all.'"

"You're the most d-disgusting p-p-pony I've ever met, p-please stop t-talking."

"I dunno," Stripe said, his heavy hoofsteps echoing over the sound of the water, I could just make out his silhouette through the thick veil of steam, "I kinda like how repugnant she is."

I chuckled and closed my eyes, sighing as the warm water washed over my scarred and filthy coat, the soreness from my injuries and the grime from the pod washing away.
I smiled when I felt my stallion wrap his forelegs around me from behind, giggling as he kissed up my neck, "Hey." he said quietly, resting his head on my shoulder.

"Hey," I replied, glancing over and kissing his cheek, "you know, one more stallion and one more mare and we'd have the kind of group shower I was thinking of earlier."

"Really now? Hmm, too bad we ain't got another stallion in our little crew, though, I s'pose I could handle the workload of two..."

I chuckled and reached a hoof down between his back legs, "I don't doubt it stud, but without another stallion you won't have a big, strong hoof stroking your-"

"Guys!" Shaky shouted, "I'm r-right here!"

We both looked over at her and snorted, "Oh yeah..." I muttered, "Earmuffs sweetie, and you also might want to look away."

She stared at us flatly, a distasteful frown on her face, I sighed and shrugged Stripe away, "Fine, no sexy talk in the shower, happy?"

She nodded curtly and went back to washing herself. I looked over to Stripe apologetically, he shrugged and started washing himself.

"Hey," I said, bumping him out of the water we were sharing, "plenty of showers, go get your own."

The zony pouted and leaned up to me, I chuckled and gave him a long kiss, "Better?"

"A little," he said glumly, "guess I'll go over here and be lonely..."

"Oh hush." I said, grabbing the sides of his head and pulling him into an even longer kiss, scratching behind his ear with a hoof when I broke away, "Now, go bathe."

"Yes'm." he said with a loving smile, giving me one last quick kiss before trotting over to his own nozzle.

He sighed loudly when the rush hit him, "Fuck that feels good..."

I nodded, picking up humming my tune where I'd left off, relaxing considerably as I scrubbed the grime off myself. I glanced over as another set of hoofsteps hit the tile, letting out an impressed whistle when Kimba trotted through the steam. She smirked and rolled her eyes, activating a nozzle across the room from me, jumping slightly when the water turned on.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"No," she said, curiously looking over the shower head, "just never had an actual shower before."

I grinned mischievously when she looked away from me and started washing herself. I approached her from behind, she jumped again when my hooves touched her back.

"Goodness me," I said with obviously faked innocence, "you're so tense, let me help."

She gulped, but sighed loudly when I started working my hooves in small circles on her back, she really was tense. I found several spots where her already tight muscles were knotted up, especially around the wing joints on her back.

"I'm guessing you do a lot of strenuous flying without stretching before and after?"

"Yeah," she grunted, I smirked when I noticed the strain in her voice, poor thing was resisting some mild euphoric sensations, "how can you tell?"

I snorted, "You've got knots in your muscles the size of my hoof. I'm surprised you're not in constant pain."

"Guess I should start stretching or something..."

"That would be best, anywhere else you're feeling tension? Might as well sort you out right now."

She coughed awkwardly, "My haunches, but I don't think I'm comfortable with you down there..."

"Kimba, I'm in doctor mode right now, and though you have a fantastic ass, I'm more focused on helping you relieve the tension so you'll be more comfortable. Now, are you going to let me help or not?"

She sighed, but nodded and laid down. I went to work on her haunches, doing my best to ignore how good those taut muscles felt under my hooves. They weren't nearly as bad as her back, I had all the knots worked out in a minute or so.

"All done, feel better?"

"Much..." she mumbled quietly.

I leaned down and kissed one of her glyphs, she jumped again and glared back at me, "What? That's my seal of approval, you're in excellent health."

She snorted and stood up, pushing me away before going back to washing herself. I chuckled and whipped her flank with my tail as I trotted back across the room.

Hex trotted in next, still blushing slightly, a satisfied little grin on her face. She limped over to a shower away from everyone, Kimba snorted and approached her.

"Come here kid, I'm sick of seeing you walk that way."

Hex recoiled a bit, Kimba snatched her and reached under her bad leg, her hoof very close to an inappropriate area, Hex blushed more and her face twisted into a frightened look, my eyes widened and "uh oh" rang through my mind.

"Kimba," I said, "you may not want to-"

"Hush." Kimba said strictly. She jerked her hoof, Hex yelped and scrambled away from her as a loud pop echoed through the shower room.

"You alright?" Kimba asked.

Hex curled into a ball and shook her head, tears starting to flow, Kimba reached down to her and she screamed, "DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME!!!"

"Everypony out." I ordered, Stripe nodded and pushed Kimba out of the room, who was still looking over the distressed filly with concern.

"Shaky." I said, motioning her over. She nodded and galloped to Hex's side, pulling the other filly into a hug and rocking her softly.

"It's okay Hex, she w-wasn't t-trying to... you know, d-do that."

"I know," Hex sobbed, "but, she touched me there and I just, I just- it all came back Shaky, it all came back..."

Shaky nodded sympathetically and stroked her mane, trying to hush her.

"I'll leave you guys alone for awhile, let me know if you need anything alright?"

"Yeah, thanks."

***

Hex and Shaky walked out half an hour later, Hex was smiling sadly, occasionally looking back at her now fixed leg.

"I can walk normal now." she said quietly.

I smiled and tousled her mane, "That you can, maybe we can go down to the VR room and let you run."

She grinned, then stretched her leg and bolted past both of us.

Keeping up with Hex was actually proving difficult, the filly was eager to test her new running abilities, really the only time we were able to pass her was when she lost balance and fell on her face, and then Shaky was instantly at her side to help her back up.

They raced the last several yards to Dart's room, Hex won, easily, rolling when she skidded to a stop, Shaky barrelling into her and both of them giggling when they slid across the metal floor tangled with each other.

I scooped them up and tossed them onto the bed, climbing up after them and flopping down on the mattress.

They mauled me, biting my ears playfully and tugging, pulling on my neck, pushing my head down. I was too tired to do anything about it, but thankfully they got bored after a bit and just curled up next to me.

"You're boring Bandage." Hex huffed.

"Yeah Mom, you s-suck."

I smirked and kissed her on the forehead, "Only Stripe, but yeah, guess I do."

"And you j-just kissed m-me eww!" she exclaimed, frantically trying to push away from me. I rolled over on top of her and planted kiss after kiss on her forehead, she squealed and tried to wriggle out from under me. "You're t-too fat! G-get off!"

"You'd think you would've learned the first time around that calling me fat does not place you in the realm of my good graces."

Hex chuckled quietly and pushed me off, collapsing on top of Shaky and dangling her mane in Shaky's face, "I'm not fat am I?"

"No." Shaky huffed, pouting in defeat.

I smiled, watching Hex tease Shaky with her mane was cute beyond belief. My ear pieces buzzed, Beta said BB was patching through.

"What's up BB?"

"Hey Bandage, ya wanna see somethin' cool?"

***

"Fuckin' a..." I muttered, looking over the beast of a sky carriage sitting in front of us.

"Eeya," BB said, clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth, "this thing looks like an Enclave gunship ripped off its ass on Buck."

"Ah the SkyNaut heavy dropship," Data said, walking up it and patting it affectionately, "one of my favorite inventions..."

BB hovered up next to her and crawled under it, "Gimme some specs Momma, what's 'is little lady packin'."

"Four inch thick stubbornite armor, reinforced with heavy kevlar plating, armed with a fully automatic 30mm turret mounted in the rear cargo door and two front mounted heavy plasma cannons in the cockpit, supported by targeting talismans. The spark battery has been replaced with a centrifugal force magnetic engine, far more stable, infinitely more efficient, the engine itself is protected by a six inch thick stubbornite undercarriage. The repair system is composed of eighteen individual repair talismans of the highest quality. All of this is backed up by several dumb VI custodians that keep the systems squeaky fucking clean."

"Only three ever made, two of them went to Phoenix Island for the purpose of defense, one was kept with Sleipnir and used as the team's personal dropship for several years and countless missions."

"An' what d'ya call this bad bitch?"

"Dart always called her Pearl."

I snorted, "Pretty name."

"Indeed," Data said dryly, "ironic considering I didn't build her to do pretty things."

"Can't wait t' fly her." BB said, jumping slightly.

"You're gonna have to," I said, giving her an apologetic slap on the back, "we've got to stay grounded so Token's PipBuck can pick up all the nav data."

BB's ears laid back and she pouted, "Can Ah at least paint the decal Ah wanted."

"Sure."

***

When we returned to the barracks hallway things had changed, rooms had been added, name plates above the existing ones had been changed. Everyone had their own room now, except for the girls who were still sharing Dart's old quarters.

"Wow." I muttered.

"Ah the wonders of nanosprites." Lore said brightly, stepping out of Kimba's room with Shadis curled up asleep on her back, drooling on her lab coat, "Enjoy your new digs folks."

I nodded and yawned, Stripe brushed against me and nuzzled my neck, "Wanna crash at my place tonight?"

I slumped against him, "That sounds lovely."

He nodded and walked me into his room, taking me over to his queen sized bed. I flopped down, my eyes heavy, it wasn't full of deadly combat and monsters, but the day had been a long one. Stripe eased in next to me, kissing my neck tenderly.

"I suppose I owe you some sex, eh big guy?"

"You don't owe me anything," he said quietly, kissing just under my ear, "you can sleep if ya want."

"You sure?"

He held my head and looked me in the eyes, "Bandage, I love you, I don't care about the sex, don't get me wrong, it's fantastic, but I don't need it, and I don't want you to feel pressured into givin' it. So if you wanna sleep, sleep, an' I'll seeya in the mornin'."

I teared up slightly and smiled at him, planting a sloppy one on his kisser, "You are, hooves down, the biggest sweetheart in the Wasteland."

He chuckled and sat up, I sighed as his hooves started massaging my back, and slowly I drifted into sleep.

***

He woke me up at 6:50 with a kiss under the ear, I forced myself out of the warmth of his bed and to the girls' room with breakfast the food synthesizer in the mess hall had made. No meat, to my dismay, not even eggs, just fruits, vegetables and cereal.

I couldn't help but smile when I opened the door, the two were curled up tightly, Hex resting her head on Shaky's shoulder and Shaky with her face pressed to Hex's chest. I sat them up with my magic, sat down at the edge of their bed, and set the tray of food next to them.

They grumbled and rubbed the sleep out of their eyes, I smiled brightly and tousled their manes, "Good morning sleepy heads."

"Morning, is it seven already?"

"Seven ten, I let you sleep in cuz I'm a benevolent bitch like that, eat your breakfast and we'll go have a run."

Hex nodded, biting into an apple, not caring that juice was dribbling down the sides of her mouth.

"Busy night last night?" I asked, smirking at them.

"You're a sick mare." Shaky grumbled before burying her muzzle in a bowl of cereal.

"You're the one with your mind in the gutter, I just thought you'd stayed up playing all night."

She chuckled and rested her head on my chest tiredly, nestling against my fur, I winced when her head started putting pressure on my still tender scars, but let her stay, missing the feel of her sleeping next to me. She was snoring a few moments later, slumping against me.

"Goddesses," I said, hugging her tightly before gently easing her head back to her pillow, "Hex must've plum worn you out."

Hex giggled and finished off her apple, then hopped out of bed and stretched, "Let's go run."

I nodded, Beta buzzed "One moment." in my ear and a few seconds later the floor opened up.

Hex took off immediately, running around the massive room with a huge grin slapped on her face, panels started glowing, the filly halted when pillars started appearing in her path.

"Beta?"

"I thought she would enjoy an obstacle course."

Hex let out a squee and started bobbing and weaving through the pillars, jumping on top of the short ones and hopping from one to the next.

I smirked as I watched her go, and go she did, for more than an hour without a break, she pouted when the room shut down, all the pillars disappearing, I motioned her over and brushed her sweat drenched mane out of her face.

"Fun?"

She nodded, panting, "Really fun."

"Tired?"

She smirked, "Not at all."

"Good, let's go get you a shower."

***

Hex shivered once her shower was over, I nodded and wrapped her up in a towel. She fell right back to sleep the instant I set her on her bed next to Shaky.

I trotted down the hall and knocked on Stripe's door, motioning for him to follow when he opened it, tickling his face with my tail as we went, he grinned and nipped at it.

He grinned wider when we reached the shower room, I smacked a button, sighing loudly when the warm water hit me, smiling through the gaps in my wet mane. He approached, one hoof sliding down to my hips, the other brushing the mane out of my eyes and pushing my goggles up to my forehead.

"Hey." he said quietly.

"Hey."

"I believe last time we left off you was tellin' me 'bout some big strong stallion strokin' somethin' of mine?"

"Mmm, sounds about right, probably wouldn't be something you'd be interested in though."

He shrugged, I smirked and pressed my nose to his, "And what does that shrug mean hmm?"

His face scrunched a bit, "Let's just say, I've taken a lot of lovers in the past and leave it at that."

I grinned mischievously, "Oh no no Mister Stripe, I think I need to hear about a few of these 'lovers' you speak of."

He sighed, but I caught the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, "There may or may not have been this stallion, he may or may not have been a Steel Ranger scribe, and I may or may not have spent a week shacked up with him."

"Ooh my, and what did you do in said shack hmmm?"

He blushed, actually blushed, I couldn't help it, I laughed, hard, I had to slump against him just to keep myself upright.

"He had mare hips..." Stripe muttered, scratching behind his head.

I grinned and wrapped my forelegs around his neck, "You don't have to explain Stripe, you're bi, it's hot."

"I ain't bi!" he said defensively, "It was just once..."

"Sure, sure... so, you'd have no reaction to thinking about it?"

"Nope."

"Really? Nothing when you think about your muscular bodies moving over one another between the sheets, your strong lips meeting passionately, your big, throbbing- hey Stripe?"

"What?"

I wore my best shit eating grin, possibly the best ever executed in the history of the gesture, "You're hard."

He glanced down, his eyes went wide and his face went bright red, I died, rolling on the tile floor, laughing my ass off, my abused ribs and lungs aching.

"Caught ya!" I managed to gasp out, Stripe glanced away, doing his best to hide his erection, failing miserably.

"Oh come on, it's not a big deal. Like I said, it's hot."

"Shut it." he spat.

I rolled to my hooves and hugged him, kissing his neck while one of my hooves went down to his member, "I'm just teasing you, ya big baby. Now, would you like some help with this?"

He grumbled, but nodded, I grinned and pushed him onto his back, sliding up his body, my belly grinding against his hardness.

He finally smiled again and kissed me. I slid back down his frame, licking the tip of his member.

***

I was humming again, washing myself, pondering the taste of stallion in my mouth, I giggled when Stripe hugged around my hips from behind, nibbling on my ear, "Is he happy?" I asked quietly.

He nodded, "Very, very happy."

"Glad to hear it."

He nuzzled my neck affectionately, "Love you boss."

I leaned back and kissed his cheek, "Love you too Stripe."

He was quiet for awhile, his eyes closed while he let water pour down his mane and over his muzzle, "So, when're we buggin' outta here?"

"I dunno, whenever I think I'm at a hundred percent."

"An' how long do ya reckon that'll be?"

I shrugged, "A few days, a week, I can't tell you for sure, why, eager to leave the hot showers, fresh food, sound security and constant sex?"

He rested his head on my shoulder and sighed, "Haven't killed anything in awhile, I'm kinda bored."

I turned around to face him, pressing my nose to his and staring into his eyes, "I'm sure I can think of some way to keep you occupied..."

He grinned and leaned me backwards, "An' what'd ya have in mind?"

"Well, biologically speaking our parts are compatible, so I was thinking that we could, you know, put them together."

He chuckled and kissed me for what felt like hours, only breaking away when somepony cleared her throat, I looked over and smiled at Token, who was looking us both over with that mischievous grin of hers, "Room for one more?"

"Hell yeah!" I said brightly, Stripe just chuckled more and waved her over.

She rolled her eyes and trotted over, stealing a kiss from me, "I certainly hope you've been treating my mare well Stripe."

"Yep."

"Good..." she muttered, staring at me hungrily, she looked back at him and winked.

Stripe turned me around and pushed his way in, Token kissed me hard to silence the loud groan that tried to escape me. I looked back at Stripe, he grinned menacingly and stood up on his hind legs, getting a yelp out of me when he thrusted hard. Token giggled wickedly and kissed down my belly to my stuffed sex, licking up Stripe's shaft and over my button.

She smiled up at me with that familiar malicious look of hers, "Oh the plans I have for you babe..."

***

Waking up sandwiched between my mare and my stallion was... well, let's just chalk that moment up under the priceless list.

I was hugging Token, her face pressed to my chest, Stripe was pressed to my back, his face in my mane, his forelegs stretched over the two of us, pulling us close to him.

We'd gone sixteen rounds, half of them in the shower, the other half in my room, it'd been brutal, physically exhausting, and beautiful, all at the same time.

I couldn't have moved if I wanted to, I was drained, thankfully I didn't want to, I was more comfortable than I'd ever been in my life.

Token stirred, I smiled down at her tiredly and pecked her on the lips.

"Hello babe," she said sleepily, nestling up against me, "wild night eh?"

"It was certainly a memorable one..."

"Stripe still asleep?"

"Yeah, he will be for awhile, he did most of the work."

She nodded, pressing her face back to my chest, "Can't say I enjoyed the male company too much but it definitely wasn't bad."

"I didn't think I'd care for it too much either, but I guess the big guy has a way with me."

She yawned and nodded, "Of course he does, he loves you."

"I know, I love him back."

"No, darling, he loves you, like, a lot, probably almost as much as I do. You love him as a very dear friend with some rather generous benefits, he loves you in the can't live without you way."

"You think?"

"I know, frankly it's plainly obvious to everypony but you, he gets all soft and sweet when you're with him, and he was almost as upset as I was when you got hurt."

"Wow..." I muttered, glancing back at him.

"Yeah," she sighed, "we've got a lovely little triangle going here don't we?"

I propped her head up to look at me, "You know I love you more, right? That you'll always come first?"

She smiled wanly and kissed me, "I know babe."

She started shoving me out of the sandwich, giving one last good push to force me out of bed, "It's nine in the morning, you should've woken up the girls two hours ago."

I pouted and walked out of the room, my brows instantly furrowing at the scent of cigarette smoke. I cocked my head to the left, Shaky was sitting outside her room smoking.

"Aww fuck..." she muttered when she noticed me scowling.

I delved down deep into myself, evoking every bit of motherly scolding Mum had ever given me and channeling it towards my child.

I approached her, glaring, and snatched the pack she was trying to hide behind her back with my magic and waving it in front of her face, "Wanna explain this?"

"Um, n-not really?" she said with a sheepish grin.

"Not an option." I growled, narrowing my eyes.

She gulped and nodded, "I st-stole them out of your saddleb-bags..."

"Right..." I muttered, tossing her cigarettes in the incinerator chute to my left, "Don't do it again."

"Hey!" she whined, "I want my f-fuckin' cigarettes b-b-back!"

I pulled my goggles down over my eyes and folded my forelegs, "Deal with it."

"This is b-b-bullshit..." she grumbled trotting sullenly into her room. I followed her in, my eyes widening at what I saw inside.

The bed was tidy, and Hex was on the floor, sweating and doing push ups.

"Hey." I muttered, watching her work.

"Hey," she replied, "sleep well?"

"Yeah... so, what's up?"

"Well, I felt like exercising today, and you didn't come and get me so I could run, so I just started working out."

"Right, well let's go get you a shower and some breakfast and then we can go run if you feel like it."

She nodded and trotted past me, stopping for a moment to kiss Shaky on the cheek, who promptly melted.

"You're such a dork Shaky." I said, tousling her mane before following Hex out the door.

***

I chewed my sugar bombs tiredly, not even half ass trying to keep the milk on my spoon, Hex sat across from me, greedily chowing down on an orange. Lore trotted over, Shadis eagerly climbing all over her back while trying to flap his tiny wings. She set a cup of coffee down in front of me, I picked it up and took a long sip, nearly gagging at the bitterness.

"Tastes like shit." I grumbled.

"Always has," she said dryly while she prompted the baby zebra to drink from a bottle, "and I doubt the two hundred years of neglect did wonders for our coffee maker. Your pegasus friend has been in the hanger all night by the way, she slept in the Pearl."

"Weird, guess she's got a girl boner for that SkyNaut."

"Girl boner?" Hex asked, then a worried look struck her face, "Are those real?"

"Mmhmm," I mumbled around my coffee, Lore even nodded her head, winking discreetly when I glanced at her, "happens every three times you go into heat, you sprout a big penis and a set of testicles, and it stays erect for ten whole days."

"It's an adaptation," Lore explained, keeping her face remarkably straight, "meant for pony populations with a high female to male ratio so they can continue to reproduce."

"Hermaphrodite metamorphosis," Beta said, "an anomaly first discovered fifteen hundred years ago that is unique to unicorns."

Hex gulped and glanced down, that did it, Lore and I cracked up, even Shadis laughed along with us though I highly doubted he got the joke.

"Oh to be young and gullible." Lore said, giving Hex's mane a tousle.

"You guys suck." the filly muttered, ducking her head to hide behind her mane and nibbling at her orange.

I reached across the table and patted her shoulder, "We only fuck with you because we love you dearest."

"Whatever..."

I smirked and went back to my cereal.

***

"Wow..." I muttered quietly, looking over the Pearl's new paint job. BB had painted a white pegasus mare with a wet and pearly white mane, laying in a seductive stance on the name Pearl, written out in large ornate printing.

Hex was staring intently at the mural as well, blushing slightly, "Yeah, that's uh, really nice..."

"Ya like it?" BB asked brightly, poking her grinning paint covered face around the other side.

"Yeah, it's really impressive actually, where'd you learn to paint like this?"

"Mah ma taught me 'fore she died, used to make these big murals on the Raptors with raw spectra, then when the rains washed 'em off she'd start over."

"Cool."

"Yeah, Momma was pretty fuckin' awesome."

***

I peeked my head in the door and smirked, Token was still passed out on my bed, drooling slightly, Stripe was nowhere to be seen.

I stepped in quietly and sat down next to her, stroking her mane gently. She snorted and snuggled up against me.

"Five more minutes babe..." she mumbled tiredly.

"Sleep in as long as you want love, just came in to check on you and Stripe, where is the big guy anyways?"

"Data came in and said something about getting him some new gear or something, I dunno for sure, I was half asleep."

"Guess I'll go look for him, anything you need while I'm in here?"

She nodded, still not opening her eyes, "Give us a kiss babe."

I leaned down and held her head, pressing my lips to hers very softly, she smiled tiredly when I broke away, "Thanks mate."

"No problem." I said as I pulled my blanket over her with my magic.

***

Stripe was a colt in a candy shop, cradling his two new miniguns, both slightly bulkier than his old one.

"10mm machineguns," he said eagerly, "like a minigun on Buck."

"Armor's pretty nice too." I complimented as I looked my stallion over. Jet black power armor, his signature white stripes still drying on the legs, more advanced looking than his salvaged set, no air tubes, more protection but less bulk around the joints.

"T-54 prototype," Data explained, not looking away from her computer, "those amateurs at Ironshod sent over the schematics to have us work out the kinks. More protection, more efficient repair systems, EMP resistant spell matrix, less weight. Still a piece of shit system in my opinion but it's certainly a polished piece of shit compared to the original model."

"You're the best D!" Stripe said as he gave her a rather impressive bear hug.

"I know," she said flatly, "now get out of my armory."

"Yes'm..." he muttered, winking at me before trotting out.

Data sighed and rubbed her temples, sitting hard on her haunches. I approached and rested my hooves on her shoulders, she tensed up immediately.

"You alright?" I asked.

She glanced back at me and sighed again, "I'm fine, just a bit on edge."

"Hmmm, adjusting and all that?"

"Yeah, guess you could say that."

I smirked slightly and rested my head on her shoulder, kissing her cheek. She didn't tense or recoil, just glanced at me with a surprised look, just the reaction I was looking for...

"I can help you out, if you want."

She looked me over warily, "What'd you have in mind?"

"Gimme your hoof." I said quietly, reaching around her front and guiding her forehoof with mine, she tensed slightly when it reached it's destination.

"Uh-"

I kissed her on the neck softly, "Relax, I'm just helping you relieve some stress."

"Bandage," she said nervously as I started to move both our hooves, "I'm old enough to be your thrice great grandmother, in fact I knew your-"

I kissed her neck again, "Relax, you've got two centuries of pent up stress, just let me help give you some relief, please?"

She sighed, blushing slightly, but nodded. I nibbled her neck gently and pressed on her hoof more, she shut her eyes and smiled with euphoria.

"Feel good?" I whispered.

"Very..."

"Good..." I muttered quietly, biting her lab coat and sliding it off her shoulder. She sighed happily when I planted a kiss on her shoulder, and giggled when I licked up her shoulder and neck to nibble her ear. "Keep rubbing yourself." I ordered calmly, she nodded and continued without me, I eased over to her other side and slid her coat off, biting her shoulder softly, rewarded with a quiet moan.

"Legs at your sides."

She complied, I eased her out of the lab coat and tossed it, then pressed back against her and slid my hooves up and down her body. Over her cutie marks, up to her chest, down between her thighs...

"Bandage-"

"Relax." I whispered in her ear, turning her around to face me. She blinked as I took her glasses off.

"I'm blind as a bat without those Ban-"

I kissed her, easily the best way to shut somepony up, "I know," I said quietly as I broke away, ruffling her overly tidy mane with my hoof and resting the glasses back over her eyes, "just fixing your mane."

"But you just messed it up..."

I smirked and pressed myself to her, "Do you know the lesson of this little fling?"

"Um, masturbate often or horny mares will jump you?"

"No," I chuckled, kissing her bottom lip, "every once in a while, let your mane get messy, ditch the lab coat, and relax. Take some time for yourself to just chill out and melt away all that stress you've been building up, got it?"

"Got it... I uh-"

I kissed her again, easing her to the floor, grinding my crotch against hers. She moaned into my mouth and tensed against my body, I broke away, licking at her neck and down her frame, kissing her desperate, neglected sex tenderly, sending a shiver through her body that culminated in a back arching moan...

***

Data sighed happily and shifted under her lab coat, which we were using as a sort of blanket. I chuckled and planted a kiss under her ear, she giggled and pressed her nose to my mine affectionately.

"Better now?" I asked.

"Much," she said quietly, resting her head on my neck, "thanks Bandage, I know I'm not the most attractive mare but-"

"Hush," I said, rubbing my tail between her flanks, making her blush, "you're an exceptionally attractive mare, brimming with sexuality."

"You're just being nice..."

"Bullshit, just because you're smart and you wear glasses doesn't mean you're not attractive, in fact..." I kissed up her neck and licked behind her ear, "I find a big brain incredibly sexy."

She chuckled softly and rested her head on my forelegs, "It's been far too long since I've been able to fool around like this."

"How long?"

She shrugged, "Since I was nineteen, I think, so, eight years and a couple of centuries."

"Who was she?"

"One of my students, Lore and I were teaching at the Trottingham college at the time, she was twenty, very pretty, not very smart with experimental robotics, but an excellent philosopher."

"And what happened?"

She sighed and picked her head up, resting it against mine, "I broke it off to pursue my work on Sleipnir, and I assume she either died in the Balefire Quakes or from old age in a stable, doesn't really matter at this point."

I nodded sympathetically, "Well, cherish the time you had, or something."

She shrugged, then perked her ears and looked at me nervously, "Speaking of marefriends, what would yours think of this?"

"Token doesn't mind, she lets me sleep with whoever I want, I take advantage of that perk on a consistent basis but she knows she's got my love, that's what counts."

"You're a bit of a tart aren't you?" she asked with a mocking smirk.

I rolled her onto her back and pinned her to the floor, "Do behave, professor."

She made a face at me, I leaned down and kissed her, probing her mouth with my tongue, she bit my lip hungrily when I pulled away.

"Can, can we go again?" she asked hesitantly, managing to look completely adorable.

"Hmmm, I'm not sure, I've got some pain in my chest, makes all that hard breathing during sex pretty rough on me."

She pouted and glanced away, I laughed and helped her to her hooves, "We can go as many times as you can manage, but we should take this party to my room."

"Why's that?" she asked as we started making our way to my quarters.

"Well, there's a bed for one thing, might be a bit more comfortable than this metal floor. Also I really don't think your sister would enjoy the surprise of walking in on us."

She nodded, "Excellent point."

***

I sighed and rested Data's glasses on the nightstand.

"Why do they always fall asleep..." I muttered, massaging between the sleeping mare's shoulders.

"You have a way of really taking it out of a mare," she mumbled tiredly, her eyes still shut tight, "not to mention I haven't done anything like that ever in my life..."

I smiled and snuggled in next to her, "You like?"

"Mmhmm, where'd you even learn to do that anyways?"

"500 Positions to Spice Up Your Love Life, one of the best books I've ever read."

"Sounds helpful."

"Very."

"So what was that called?"

"The Blossomforth Twist, requires a lot of flexibility but it's worth it."

"No kidding, you nearly broke my spine..."

"Got the job done though, didn't it?"

She smiled tiredly and nestled closer to me, "It certainly did."

"Get some rest, I'm gonna pop over to the mess hall and get some lunch."

She nodded, I smirked and kissed her on the forehead before hopping out of my bed and trotting out the door.

Kimba was leaning against a wall in the hallway, smiling at me.

I shook my head apologetically, "Sorry mate, gonna have to turn you down, I'm supposed to be recuperating and I've basically just been having a lot of rough sex, starting to do a number on my wounds."

She rolled her eyes and motioned for me to follow with a wing, "Aww c'mon Kimba!" I whined as I trotted after her towards the mess hall, "You're not even gonna blush or anything cute like that?"

"Nah mate, figure I'm just gonna ignore ya."

"Bummer."

"How's the professor? I heard something about spine breaking."

"Bah, she's fine, just complaining cuz I bent her a bit more than she's used to. Should be no problem for you, I'm guessing she's nowhere near as flexible."

She smirked back at me, "You're not giving this up are you?"

"Of course not, you're a beautiful mare and I'd love to have the privilege of exploring your body."

"Not gonna happen, unless I have some sort of radical change in thought process and sexual orientation."

"Which is why I keep prodding, so I'm ready in case such a radical change should occur."

She sighed and looked back ahead, "Can you just come to terms with the fact that I'm not into mares, please? This is starting to get irritating."

I brushed up against her and grinned, "Don't knock it 'til you try-" I cut off, yelping as somepony's magic yanked me hard by the ear. Token stepped between us, scowling at me.

"I told you to behave," she scolded, "she doesn't want any, so leave her be."

"Sorry." I said quietly, laying my ears back and giving her the sad eyes look.

She rolled her eyes and pushed me to the girls' room, "See if they want something to eat."

I nodded and opened the door, immediately grinning, "What's up guys?"

The fillies were snuggled close, slight blushes on their faces, a book laid out on their forelegs.

"Nothing," Hex said calmly, "why?"

"No reason... so, what'cha readin'?"

"Nothin'." Shaky said, a little less calmly.

"Daring Do or something?" I asked, still grinning wide as I trotted over next to the bed and peered at the book.

"N-no, just some b-b-book."

"Some book huh? What's it about?"

"Stuff." Hex said at nearly a whisper, easing the book away from the side of the bed I was on.

"What kind of stuff?" Token asked, stepping in on the other side of the bed, a similar grin slapped on her face.

"Just stuff." Shaky muttered, hiding the book between them.

"Hmmm, you know, I recall Dart having some pretty naughty books in here somewhere, that wouldn't be one of them would it?"

Shaky cracked, "It's just a r-r-romance novel!"

"There's nothing bad in it," Hex said, "just kissing and hugging and stuff like that."

"Awww," Token said, "they're reading a romance book together, that's so cute."

"Shut up!" Shaky shouted, her redness brightening.

I wrapped them both in a hug and pulled them to me, "Don't be embarrassed, you're just reading together, probably making out a little bit, it's adorable."

"We were n-not m-m-making out!" Shaky yelled.

"Who's makin' out?" Stripe asked, craning his head in the doorway.

"Shaky and Hex," Token explained, "they're reading a romance novel together, probably got them all mushy and affectionate."

"D'aw, that's cute."

Both the fillies went bright red and buried their faces in my chest, I chuckled and nuzzled both of them, "We're just teasing."

"Doesn't mean it's not embarrassing..." Hex muttered.

"C'mon, let's go eat some lunch, you can describe to me in vivid detail all of those deliciously graphic sex scenes you're not telling us about."

"Mom" and "Bandage" were both shouted at once, the latter much more quietly than the former. I laughed hard and set both of the neon red fillies on the floor, they scampered away instantly, darting between Stripe's legs and around the corner.

I grinned smugly and trotted out the door, immediately flanked by Stripe and Token, the former nuzzling me on the cheek, the latter kissing me under the ear.

"Aww, I feel loved."

"You should." Stripe said.

"A lot." Token finished.

I smiled and threw a foreleg over both their shoulders, "I love you guys too, maybe when I'm all healed up you can take turns ravaging me again."

They both rolled their eyes and shoved me to the floor, leaving me there while they continued down the hall.

"You guys are no fun!" I shouted after them.

***

BB had actually gone out and killed something for lunch, a massive boar that Stripe immediately dragged into the kitchen to skin. Shaky and Hex sat apart from everypony, whispering amongst themselves. Adze and Rawr sat at another corner, arguing about a card game. I sat with Token, trying to steal kisses from her while she chatted with Kimba, quickly getting nowhere. BB had gone to wake up Data for lunch, it'd been half an hour and she wasn't back yet. Lore was sitting across from us with Shadis on her lap, trying to teach him zebra words, but failing miserably and instead just laughing and nuzzling the playful colt.

"My little cousin seems to like you." Kimba commented.

She waved a dismissive hoof, "Bah, it's just because I feed him."

"Cibus!" the baby said eagerly.

Lore chuckled and tousled his mane, "Cibus indeed."

Shadis pouted and shook his head, then pointed at his mouth, "Cibus Mater! Cibus!"

"Oh! You're hungry, sorry little guy, forgot how fast you're learning. Token could you be a dear and pop in the kitchen? There's a bottle of formula ready for him in there."

She nodded and got up, whipping my face with her tail as she walked away.

Kimba paused, watching the young zebra across from her flapping his tiny wings, smirking as Lore cheered when he got half an inch of lift off.

"Fuga!" he said brightly, hugging Lore and pressing his face affectionately to her chest, "Mater, Shadis potest fugere!"

Lore smiled and hugged the foal back, "Yes you can."

Kimba smiled with them, "Have you realized he keeps calling you Mother?"

Lore nodded and prompted him to sit back down, "I've noticed, it's not a big deal, I'm sure he'll start calling the next mare that takes care of him m
Mother as well."

Kimba shook her head, "His tribe was wiped out, and we've got no room in Hopeville for another child. Maybe you should hold onto him? This place is safe and I'm sure you've got a lot to teach him."

Lore went blank for a moment, "But, I don't think I could-"

"Nonsense, you'd make an excellent mother, and he obviously likes you."

"What if he's got questions about your people?"

"Hopeville is right down the road, if he's got questions you can't answer you can take him to see Doc Morbid."

"Well, how's he going to learn how to fly? I don't exactly have wings."

"He'll learn on his own, it's instinct, you've got that VR room and a roof for him to practice when he gets old enough."

"But-"

"Stop making bloody excuses," Data grumbled, stumbling into the mess hall tiredly with a grinning and blushing BB at her side, "we've got room for him, and you've always wanted foals, so quit bitching and keep him."

Lore nodded, looking down at the colt, Shadis cooed and smiled up at her, the few teeth that had come in glinting, she smiled back and nuzzled him on the nose.

"There," Data muttered, easing down into a seat, BB scooting in next to her, "problem solved... Oh bloody hell, this makes me an aunt doesn't it?"

"Yeah," BB giggled, then sent an electrically charged lick up her ear, causing her mane to stand up, "and yer a damn sexy one..."

Data huffed and rested her head on the table, combing her mane back down, "No more funny business please, I was exhausted from Bandage and then your sparking ass had to come in and wear me out even more."

BB pouted and nuzzled under her ear apologetically, "Ah thought ya liked mah sparkin' ass?"

The older mare sighed and slumped against the pegasus, "I do love, believe me, but I need a break from the sparking ass, I've had my fill of it, and once I've had some rest I'll gladly partake in some more."

"Glad to see you back in the game old girl." Lore said, Data snorted, BB smiled and hugged her.

"Oh Ah love smart mares, they drive me wild."

Lore smirked, "Well, be gentle, she's two hundred some years old, probably a bit fragile."

BB grinned wide and pressed her muzzle to Data's neck, "Ah beg t' differ, this pretty miss can take one helluva poundin', not to mention a decent amount o' voltage."

Lore grimaced, "That's a lot more information than I needed... Where's Token with that bottle? Shadis is getting fussy."

"Sorry," Token muttered, stepping out of the kitchen looking like she'd just been sick, "Stripe bet me five hundred caps that I couldn't eat that boar's heart raw."

Lore grimaced again and motioned for her to give her the formula, Token nodded and eased into the seat next to me before passing it across the table. I patted her on the back sympathetically, "How'd that work out for you?"

"Well, I got it all down, but half of it came back up..."

"It's official," Data grumbled, getting up from her seat, "I've lost my appetite. I'll be taking a nap in my quarters if anyone needs me."

BB got up with her, catching a suspicious look, "I said no more funny business today."

BB just grinned again, "Ah was just gonna walk ya to yer room, tuck ya in and shit."

Data rolled her eyes and left the room, BB right in tow.

"Hey!" Stripe shouted after them, a huge platter of cooked meat on his back, "Where the hell are they goin'?"

"To sleep, BB and I took turns wearing her out."

"I wouldn't worry about it big fella," Lore said, "Data and I are old school ponies, meat isn't a part of our diet."

The zony frowned, looking like a disappointed child, "I spent hours cooking, injected it with allegro and marinated it in pineapple juice, even rubbed it down with red pepper and gunpowder to give it that special smoky taste, will ya at least try it?"

Lore smiled but shook her head, "Sorry hun, not my cup of tea."

My stallion sighed and trotted over to the table, setting down the platter, "Well, good thing I got some apple cabbage stew cookin'."

"Sounds lovely, would you mind getting another batch of formula going for Shadis? Little guy already burned through this bottle."

"Sure, what'cha got in that anyways?"

"It's just basic formula."

"Ya oughta be puttin' some sorta protein in there, factors for the mostly meat diet his momma was on when she was feedin' him."

Lore blinked, "I'll be damned, I hadn't thought of that."

"I'll toss somethin' into the next batch, ya'll go ahead and dig in. If I come back and see anyone not stuffin' their face and I'll knock 'em the fuck out."

Everyone nodded and started piling meat on their plates, Adze and Rawr each grabbing a huge haunch for themselves. I loaded a couple chops onto my plate and followed Stripe into the kitchen.

He glanced at me when I walked in and continued stirring his stew, "Sup boss?"

"Hey big guy, what's with the feast?"

He shrugged, "Figured I'd treat everyone, we're gonna be walkin' a desolate fuckin' road for awhile, I'm just enjoyin' the amenities while we got 'em."

"Makes sense." I said absently, pretending to look the kitchen over while I approached him, "I think I'll be ready to move out tomorrow morning, might need to partake in one more shower before we go..."

He tensed slightly when I brushed against him, "Wanna help me scrub my back?"

He snorted and grinned, "Sure."

I pouted and hugged around his neck, "Aww c'mon, talk dirty to me."

He thought for a moment, then shook his head, "Nah."

"You're so mean!" I whined, pulling his neck more.

He grinned again and pressed his nose to mine, "You're tryin' to be cute, wanna know why it ain't workin'?"

"Enlighten me."

"Too many scars."

I frowned, legitimately upset, this wasn't the first time I'd felt self conscious about my scars, but it was the first time someone pointed them out as a flaw in my appearance, let alone someone I love.

I reached up and ran a hoof over them, blinking when I realized my eyes were tearing up, pulling my goggles down and looking away when Stripe frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm not pretty." I whispered, staring down at my hooves, wincing when I spotted the disgusting blemishes on my forelegs.

"Bullshit." he chuckled, trying to prop my head up with a hoof. I jerked away, he forced it a bit more, making me look at him, "Bullshit. You're damn pretty, just not cute."

I frowned again, his face scrunched, "Poor choice of words. I mean to say, you're not adorable or anything, you're sexy, an' that's a whole lot better in my opinion."

"My scars are ugly..."

"No, they're a part of you," he blushed nervously, "that makes 'em beautiful..."

I smiled and pressed my face to his neck, the corny statement helped, barely, "Didn't figure you for a dork Stripe."

"Well, I've got the glasses and the book collection to qualify."

"Yeah, been meaning to ask you about those glasses."

"Bah, I'm basically blind anywhere between one to fifteen feet, can make out silhouettes, details are kinda iffy though."

"So," I said, pulling away from him, "about right here and you can't see me?"

"I can kinda see ya, just can't pick out that sexy mug of yers."

I smiled and eased closer, pressing my nose to his, "Better?"

"Much..." he muttered, his eyes softening, then going wide when he started sniffing, "Soup's burnin'!" he shouted, turning around to tend to the stove.

I chuckled and trotted back into the mess hall, grinning when I saw Token wasn't paying attention, taking the opportunity to prowl up behind her.

I mauled her, tearing her out of her seat and wrenching her laughing to the floor, pressing all my weight down on her, "What's gotten into you?"

I buried myself in her fur, rubbing my muzzle all over her coat, "I caught your scent, got me all hot and bothered."

"Well, perhaps I could help relieve you of your infatuation..."

"I'm t-tryin' to eat here guys." Shaky said, I glanced up at her, Shaky was glaring at us distastefully, Hex was looking us over intently, blushing slightly.

I grinned more and licked up Token's chest and neck, she caught on instantly, giving a fake moan in return. Shaky made a show of gagging at us, Hex's visible eye widened slightly, her face flushing further, "Hexy doesn't seem to mind..." I said quietly, still grinning at them while I nestled further into Token's chest fur.

Shaky snorted, "Hex hit pub-berty already, that b-basically makes her a b-b-bona fied p-p-pervert."

Hex smiled and pecked her under the ear, making her go neon red in an instant, "You know you like it Shakes."

"Shut up..." Shaky muttered, rubbing her cheek with a hoof.

Hex shook her head and hugged the other filly, rubbing her head against Shaky's affectionately, "Not until you admit you like it."

"Get off."

"You're a lot stronger than me Shaky, if you wanted to push me away you could do it easy, only reason you're not is cuz you love it."

Shaky shrugged her off, more aggressively than needed, then stormed past us and out of the room, giving me a wide birth when I reached a hoof towards her.

"What's up her ass?" Token asked as she pushed me off.

"She's been kinda angry today," Hex said right next to us, once again managing to somehow sneak across the room and make me jump, "I dunno why."

I sighed and helped Token up, "Let's eat, give her some time to calm down and I'll go talk to her."

***

I rapped my hoof on the door, answered with an angry "What?!", preparing to dodge a flying picture frame when I stepped through.

Shaky was on the bed, lying on her back while she manipulated a thread spool in her hooves, "Hey kiddo, brought you dinner if you're hungry."

"Hey B-bandage, I'm not hungry, give it to Rawr or somethin', stupid d-dog loves t-t-to eat."

For some reason, hearing her say my name stung, "Bandage? What happened to Mum?"

She sighed and rolled over, "Go away."

"Nah." I said as I trotted across the room, setting her plate on the night stand.

I climbed into bed next to her and blew on her ear, "Bit for your thoughts."

"B-bits aren't worth shit, j-just like my thoughts apparently..."

"What makes you say that?"

She shook her head, still not facing me. I rolled her over with a hoof, she was crying, "Hey, what's wrong?"

She shook her head, trembling more, I tsked and hugged her, breaking a barrier in an instant, sending her into a sobbing fit.

"F-first I think D-d-dad dies, then I think you d-die, I had to go through my p-p-parents dying again and nop-pony even asked me how I felt ab-bout it. They j-just expected me to shrug it off while everyone c-clustered around you when Stripe got hurt and around Token when you g-g-got hurt, nob-body saw I was hurting too, not even Hex..."

"Oh sweetie." I squeezed her tighter, letting her bury her face in my chest for comfort, doing my best not to wince as she rubbed her head on the tender tissue. "You could've talked to us about it, Hex always listens, and Stripe and I love you."

"I wanted to b-be strong for you guys..." she said quietly.

"You are dearest, you're so very very strong all the time and I am so proud of you, but talking about these things doesn't make you any less strong or make us any less proud, got it?"

She nodded silently, then looked up at me with those gorgeous gold eyes of hers that I hated seeing dripping like this, "Can you stay in here with us t-tonight? I miss sleeping next to you."

I grinned and wiped her tears away, "You sure you want me in here? I'm a filthy sexual deviant."

She nodded, wiping some snot away, my smile softened and I kissed her on the forehead, getting a giggle out of her when I nibbled on her ear playfully, "Stop!"

"Nuh-uh, your ear is delicious!"

"No it's not!"

"Oh yes it is! Tastes like delicious imported chocolates of the rarest qualities."

She successfully pushed away, still giggling, failing to scamper off the bed when I nipped her tail and tugged her back to me, pinning her under my chest.

"You're trapped, I win."

She squirmed for a bit, then huffed and gave up, "Fine, what are your t-terms?"

"First, eat your dinner, Stripe busted his ass fixing us a good meal before we leave tomorrow. Second, apologize to Hex for being a bitch earlier, real apology too, as in there damn well better be a hug and at least a five second kiss on the lips."

"Eww."

"Oh bollocks, you like kissing Hex, told me so yourself before we went to the cave."

"Well, why d-do I have to kiss her?"

"Because she's ridiculously affectionate to you all the time and I think it hurts her feelings when you don't return those gestures."

"Nah, she gets that it m-makes m-me uncomfortable, she knows I'll warm up to it like she did eventually."

"Hmmm, your fillyfriend is pretty smart... You sure I can't have a go at her?"

"That's gross."

"Oh c'mon! I'll romance her first, and I'll be really gentle too, probably... Nevermind, probably not."

"Mom, seriously, she's twelve, you're like, t-twenty something, it's wrong to even joke ab-bout."

I huffed and rested my chin on her shoulders, "You're no fun."

"Whatever, guess I'll eat d-dinner now, if you feel like g-g-getting your f-fat ass off of me."

I chuckled and rolled off of her, "I'm going down to the VR room to train with Hex, you better come down and apologize when you're done."

"'K-kay... Hey Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"What's with the socks?"

I shifted nervously and glanced down at the striped socks covering my scars and coughed, "My hooves were cold."

"Is it c-cuz you wanted to hide your scars?"

"...Maybe."

"Why? They m-m-make you look b-badass."

I sighed and sat down hard, slumping against the doorway, "I've been stricken with a sudden surge of self consciousness."

"Huh?"

I sighed again, "Token has always been the pretty one, I'm fine with that because I know I still look decent, now- now I've got all these damn scars and I guess, I just don't feel attractive anymore."

She snorted, "That's dumb, you're super p-pretty, Hex won't fucking shut up ab-bout it. P-plus Token and D-d-dad like your scars."

"Yeah, but-"

"No b-b-b-buts. You're pretty, and if you d-don't b-believe that I'll b-beat you until you're not as pretty."

I smirked and glanced back at the little grey ass kicking machine sitting on the bed, "Thanks Shakes."

"No problem."

***

Couldn't sleep at all, I was comfortable, just restless. The girls had fallen right to sleep, both of them curled up tight with each other on my chest. I could feel their heartbeats, surprisingly strong for such little things, and the sound of their soft breathing was oddly soothing.

I was excited mostly, the last few days had certainly been fun, but I was missing the danger to some degree, missing the adrenaline rush battle supplied me with.

Stayed up until 4 in the morning, thinking, finally dozed off...

***

We'd been traveling for a week, fighting ghouls, watching for ambushes, avoiding caves and tunnels like the plague. Currently we were camped in a riverbed, a deep one, too deep for a pony to climb out of, and the storm clouds to the north were certainly making everyone nervous.

"What do we do if a flash flood hits?" Token asked.

I snorted, "BB and Kimba will grab the kids, Adze will grab the supplies, the rest us will either swim or drown."

"Very morbid of you babe."

"Realistic, not morbid, Stripe and I have sealed armor with respirators, we'll be the ones swimming, you and Rawr will be the ones drowning."

The Hellhound grunted, "Rawr can climb out if he needs to."

"Ah, good point, guess you're drowning alone love, sorry."

"Well, remember me fondly I guess."

"Speakin' of the fliers," Stripe muttered, "they should've been back awhile ago."

I sighed, "I'll get BB on the horn."

"She is out of radio range ma'am."

"Fucking fantastic..." I muttered, "Okay guys, let's pack shit up and start hauling ass down river."

Everyone nodded and starting breaking down camp, Rawr stopped suddenly, his ears perking and his one eye going wide.

"What is it?"

"Carry what you have packed and run!" he shouted, throwing Hex onto his shoulder and bolting past all of us, Token galloping after him. I grabbed Shaky and followed, Stripe's heavily armored hoofsteps right behind me.

"What are we running from exactly?" Token shouted.

I glanced behind me, my eyes going wide when I saw the gargantuan surge of water filling the river bed.

"You don't want to know!" I yelled over the deafening roar of the oncoming flood, "Keep running!" I galloped up to Rawr's side and nodded for Shaky to hop off, she leapt onto his free shoulder, grasping his cloak tightly, "Rawr! Climb!"

The dog nodded and leapt to the wall, digging his claws in and rapidly ascending. The rest of us kept running, as fast as we could. I stopped dead and pivoted when I heard it, a scream, far behind me and almost faint compared to the roar of the water.

Rawr was still climbing, nearly to the top of the 50 foot incline, Hex was the one to scream, looking down with a hoof outstretched, crying while Rawr pinned her to his shoulder with his head. Shaky had fallen, and was currently lying on a now broken wooden crate, completely limp, her head bleeding, the surge nearly to her.

It went by in a flash, my helmet encased my head, the respirator activating, the targeting spell homing in on my filly. The wall of water hit her, sweeping her away in an instant, the suit moved my body, leaping forward into the rapids and catching her, curling me around her in a protective ball.

I was just along for the ride now, going faster than I'd ever gone before, desperately looking at Shaky, clutching her tight, like the precious cargo that she was, praying when I saw the opening in the ground ahead of us.

Down we went, swept into the fissure like bath water through a drain. I glanced below, rolling myself into harms way when I saw solid rock below us, thankful for the sealed helmet when I hit with enough force to knock the wind out of me.

We were in a sort of underground pond, slowly being dragged by current into another passage, slowly enough that I was easily able to swim to the edge while I held Shaky above the water with my magic.

She was still limp when I set her down on the stone. Frantically I cut her barding away with my combat knife and pressed my ear to her chest, crying out at the absence of a heartbeat. I started CPR immediately, forcing myself to stay calm so I didn't crush her ribs.

"C'mon baby," I panted while I pressed her chest repeatedly, "breathe." I pried her mouth open with my magic and leaned in, exhaling all that I could, tearing up when I started pumping again, "Just breathe Shaky, please just breathe."

My armored hooves started whining, the bottoms glowing and sparking, I blinked through the tears and pressed them to her chest, managing to choke out "Clear" just for procedure's sake, sobbing when her body jolted from the electric charge, gasping with relief when I pressed my ear back to her chest and heard a faint heartbeat.

I exhaled into her mouth again, pulling away the instant a spout of water and bile shot out, rolling Shaky onto her side and patting her back while she coughed up the liquid contents of her lungs.

"Easy baby, easy, deep breaths."

She nodded, trying her best not to gasp, I fought off the urge to hold her long enough to dig through the soaked first aid kit Lore had placed in my saddlebags and fish out the BVM, pressing the mask to her muzzle while my magic squeezed the bag.

"That's good, just keep breathing easy." She nodded and slumped against me, I stifled a sob and wrapped a foreleg around her, "Congrats kiddo, you were clinically dead for over a minute."

She looked up at me tiredly and pulled the mask away, "I woke up to you k-k-kissing me, that's fucking gross."

I laughed, gasped, and sobbed all at once and gave her an affectionate squeeze, "I didn't enjoy it anymore than you did dearest, goddesses willing we'll never ever have to do that again."

"What happened?" she asked as I started working my healing magic on her forehead gash.

"I guess you fell off Rawr's shoulder and hit your head, a crate broke your fall and the flood swept you up, I grabbed you and we got washed down here."

She nodded, absently and tiredly, "You should try and c-call Dad, b-bet he's freaking out."

"I'm afraid he's out of radio range, we are several hundred metres underground."

"Lovely, you sit and rest kiddo, I'm going to have a look around."

"I'm c-c-cold."

I frowned and pulled the emergency blanket from the first aid kit, sighing and laying it out flat to dry, my armor slid off of me and I scooped her up, holding her wet form close to give her some body heat. She nestled in, burying her face in my unkempt chest fur and shivering.

"You're still wearing socks." she mumbled quietly.

"I'm wearing my thong too, surprised you didn't ask me about that."

"Fine, what's with the p-panties?"

"There's places a mare just doesn't want radioactive sand getting into."

"Gross." she giggled tiredly.

We sat there for ages until she was finally dry, and eventually I prompted her to eat an M.R.E, the only food in my knapsack that wasn't ruined.

Once she was settled I went through all my ammunition and weaponry, everything was still there, just soaked, every magazine needed to be emptied, every breach cleared, every weapon taken apart to let the parts dry individually, and every single round needed to be wiped down thoroughly.

Thankfully most of the medical supplies were with Token, so I didn't need to worry about it, though the gauze I had on me was useless now, and all the potion bottles had broken when I landed, the Med-X was fine, didn't do us much good though.

"So, see anything while you were under?"

She shook her head, "Just b-b-black, it did feel like somep-pony was pulling me though."

I smiled and rested a hoof on her shoulder, "Somepony was."

She smiled too and crawled back onto my lap, "I love you Mom."

I wrapped us both in the now dry emergency blanket and nestled my muzzle in her mane, "I love you too baby."

***

It was night by the time we woke up, light no longer filling the hole in the roof of the cavern, the only illumination coming from small mutated plants at the bottom of the pool.

"I'm freezing!" Shaky whined, I frowned when I saw the blush on her face and pressed my hoof to her forehead, just to the right of her new scar.

"You're burning up, at least you're not feeling warm, I've been worried about hypothermia." I grabbed the cleanest rag I had in my knapsack and dunked it in the frigid water, then wrapped it around her head.

"I d-don't n-need that I'm freezing!"

"You won't be for long, you're going to feel pretty hot here in a few minutes." I levitated my canteen up to her lips, "Drink, you need to stay hydrated."

She didn't need the prompting, poor thing sucked down the whole canteen in just a few seconds.

"Alright, stay here, resist the urge to curl up with the blanket and call for me if you get too uncomfortable, I'm going to look for a way out of here."

"Okay."

The cavern's perimeter was small, I walked all the way around it in just under 5 minutes, and it was a fruitless walk, the only visible way out was the roof, which was hundreds of metres above us.

I sighed and laid down on my back, Shaky stirred from her feverish sleep and curled up on my chest, "Find any way outta here?"

"Nope, just the roof. We're waiting now, if we're lucky the guys'll find us or a Tunneler will make an exit, otherwise we just starve to death in this hole."

"B-b-bummer."

"The flares in my knapsack are dry, I could try and shoot one up through that hole but I doubt it has the range."

"I recommend firing Luna's Whisper, the significant percussion should prove far more effective."

"Good idea," I yawned, "we'll get on that tomorrow, give Shaky some time to sleep off this fever."

"Affirmative, sleep well Bandage."

~~~

Sometimes I wish we just had basic wooden doors to slam shut, so much more satisfying than smacking a button to close a bulkhead.

"How was work?" my mother called from my study, she was staying at my place much more frequently now since Dad officially moved into the maintenance deck.

"Stuff it Mum," I growled, "I'm not in the mood for chit chat."

"I take it work went well then?" she said, poking her head around the corner with a stupid smile slapped on her face.

"Other than having my ass smacked by a patient and then being scolded by syringe for cold cocking the bastard? Yeah, work was fucking lovely."

"Hmmm, old man must be warming up to you if he didn't call Security."

"He did, thankfully Token answered and wrote it off as self defense."

"Good, good. Well, go wash up, try and cool off, I'll order us some of those noodles you like so much."

"Thanks Mum."

"No problem dear."

I closed my room door behind me and exercised, hard, managing to break one hell of a sweat. I sighed with relief when I finally unzipped my jumpsuit, letting my sweat drenched coat and sore muscles free and trotting into my restroom to run a bath.

I sighed again and closed my eyes languidly as I eased into the steaming water, the stress of the day melting off. Minutes went by, the talisman Mum had rigged into the tub (illegally) doing it's job and keeping the water at a steady, pleasant temperature.

I smiled when familiar hooves pressed down on my shoulders, biting my lip when they starting working in small circles over my aching muscles.

"Feel good?" Token asked quietly, her mouth right next to my ear.

"Very..." I mumbled.

"Move."

I nodded and scooted forward, letting my best friend ease into the tub behind me, giggling when she hugged around my neck and eased me back to rest on her.

"We haven't shared a bath since we were fillies."

"Yeah, figured you'd need a good massage after a hard workout."

"How'd you know I'd work out?"

"Uh, cuz I'm your besty best friend and I saw how pissed you were after I wrote up that fight in the clinic."

"Mmm, what'd Riot say?"

"I explained to her what happened and she agreed with my decision... You know," she slid her hooves down my frame, resting them on my flanks, "can't say I blame the guy for giving this choice booty a good smack."

"Knock it off." I giggled.

"How long did it jiggle afterwards? Or did it at all, you are pretty muscular."

I smirked, "Why is this pertinent?"

"Important info for my report."

"Ah the report, of course, I'll have you know it didn't jiggle at all, more of a ripple really."

"Mental note taken."

I laughed and leaned back against her, "I love you like a sister Toky."

"Yeah, sister..."

~~~

I sighed and levitated my glass up again, Hops looked away from his conversation and nodded, carrying over another bottle of scotch, "That's your fourth glass tonight, maybe you ought to slow down?"

"Nah, I feel like getting drunk."

He sat down in the chair across from me and filled up my glass, "Rough day?"

I paused, taking a sip, sighing after the smooth alcohol poured down my throat, then nodded, "You could say that."

"What happened?"

"Some prick from Maintenance smacked me on the ass."

My friend only smirked, "Can't blame him, it's a nice ass."

"Ha ha, heard enough of that joke from Token in the tub thank you."

His smirk stretched further and he cocked an eyebrow, "You and Token share baths huh?"

I shook my head, "Haven't since we were kids, but she treated me with a massage today."

"Oh a massage, do tell."

I smirked back and belted down the rest of my drink, "Hilarious Hops, simply hilarious, you're a fucking riot."

He chuckled and poured me another, "Thanks, I'll be here all week."

"So, how's the whole prostitution thing going?"

"Thankfully I've convinced most of my regulars to see other ponies, so I'm working the bar now more than the bedroom."

"Good for you mate."

"Gotta say though, I do miss your company from time to time."

"Bah, you're just sayin' that. Frankly I'm ashamed for forcing you to pleasure me all these years."

"You in particular didn't force me, I actually liked dropping everything once a week to go screw around with you, made me feel normal."

"Still, it's not right that you have to whenever somepony asks."

He shrugged, "It's not so bad, in nine more years I'll be past my prime and won't have to anymore."

"Well," I said, raising my glass, "here's to nine more years mate, may they be kind to you."

"Cheers Bandage."

~~~

I woke up late the next morning, in a surprisingly excellent mood considering last night's binge drinking, stretching languidly and sliding a hoof down my frame to a region that would put me in an even more excellent mood if I treated it properly.

After a little "morning delight" I trotted out of my room, smiling at Token who was fixing coffee.

"Good morning." I said brightly.

"Morning mate, sleep well?"

"Fantastic," I said, trotting over and hugging her, even planting a kiss on her cheek, "no doubt thanks to your excellent massage last night."

"Stick around tonight, it's my day off and I'm feeling generous enough to doll out a full body work up if you can manage to sweet talk me into it."

"Full body? What like chest and lower back and legs?"

"Yeah... and flanks, and um," she coughed, "you know, other uh, areas..."

I paused, then went wide eyed when it hit me, "Ohhh, full body, got ya. Um, I dunno, I'll think about it."

"Nothing sexual of course!" she said, almost frantically.

I grinned at the opportunity to fuck with her, leaning in close and putting my mouth next to her ear, "You're sure you don't want to make it just a teeny bit sexual Toky?"

She smirked and pressed her nose to mine, our eyes locking, "You're not going to beat me at this game Bandage."

I grinned wider and licked her lips, making her recoil and blush 10 shades of red, "Who's playing games?"

"Bandage, I-"

"C'mon Toky," I said, adopting a seductive expression, "let's practice kissing like we used to..."

She backed away, I prowled after her, pinning her to a wall with my hoof and leaning in with half lidded eyes, stopping with my calm lips mere millimeters from her quivering ones, "Bandage, you're making me uncomfortable."

"Am I? Funny, I recall you saying I wouldn't beat you at this game."

She gulped and gripped the sides of my head, kissing me hard, massaging my tongue with hers, then pushing me away onto the floor, climbing on top and pinning me with a mocking smile on her face, "Like I said, you're not beating me."

I looked up at her, blushing bright, "Token, do that again."

She blinked, "Huh?"

"Kiss me again, please."

She blushed and eased up the pressure she was putting on my chest, "Bandage-"

I did it for her, smacking her hoof away and grabbing her head, pulling her to me into a long, sloppy, passionate kiss that felt right in so many ways when I knew it was wrong, hesitantly breaking away only when we needed to come up for air.

She panted and slumped against me, kissing my neck while I held her, "Bandage, I think we took our game of chicken a bit too far."

"No shit," I whispered, licking her cheek affectionately, "what we just did was so fucking illegal it's ridiculous."

She kissed me again, biting my lip gently and letting out a soft moan as she broke away, "Who gives a fuck?"

I grinned, "Can I give you a fuck?"

She blushed brighter and laid her ears back, "Bandage, making out is bad but sex is-"

"Worse?"

"We could get banished, or executed, or sterilized."

I smiled and brushed her gorgeous blue mane out of her face, "Execution and banishment is a tad extreme for same gender relations, and if they make us sterile it won't matter who we have sex with..."

She bit her lip and looked me over nervously, "C'mon Toky, we both know you've been wanting this for awhile..."

She nodded, I pulled her back in, we slid each other out of our respective barding, moaning happily at the pleasant feel of our naked fur writhing together. She backed up, pulling me to my hooves, our tongues staying locked as she guided me to my study, simply because it was the closest room.

I got rough, forcing her to the desk, cupping her ass in my forelegs and setting her down on the hardwood surface before climbing up after her, we finally broke our impassioned kiss off, only for the necessity of oxygen.

"Uh, what do we do first?"

"Well," I muttered, looking her over, "the main erogenous zone is here," I poked her stiffened clitoris with my forehoof, making her moan, grinning at the response, "guess we'll start there."

~~~

We sat in the warm water of my tub, holding each other like the night before, but as lovers instead of friends, Token's hoof gently tracing circles through the wet fur on my chest, me resting my head comfortably against hers, sighing happily from the sheer perfection of this moment.

"Why did we never do that before?"

"Same reason we shouldn't have done it today, it's illegal, a Codex regulation that we offended."

"Mmmm, and we certainly did offend it... Twice on the desk, thrice on the sofa, once on the bed while the bath was running... And, I'm certain neither of us will mind offending it in the future..."

Token sighed and kissed the top of my head, "Darling, I don't think we're going to get the chance."

I paused and rolled over, staring at her sad face with concern, "Why's that?"

She looked away, ashamed, "Your study is bugged, in the heat of the moment I forgot, they've probably gotten the necessary authorization to send in a team to arrest us by now, might even be on their way."

"Why's my study bugged?"

"The Overmare wanted to find out if something at home was affecting your match success, I convinced her to only bug the study, she ordered me not to tell you... I'm so sorry."

I nodded and hugged her, "It's okay, and no matter what they do, we had tonight, remember that always, we had tonight."

The door in the next room opened and the sound of several sets of hoofsteps echoed through the apartment. Token started crying and pressed her face to my chest, Riot peeked her head around the corner, a sad smile on her face, "Sorry to interrupt girls, would you mind terribly if we had a quick word with you?"

I nodded and kissed Token on the forehead, still holding her tight to my chest, "Yeah, just uh, just give us a minute, please?"

"Take your time Bandage, and sorry, I hate that we've got to do this, I really do."

"I know Riot, it's okay, you're just following orders..."

~~~

Recall, we finally figured out his special talent, memory removal. Riot let us hold each other while we waited for him to prepare, Token was still crying, I was dying on the inside, wanting to leap over the table and smash the Overmare into a fine paste.

She sat in the chair across from us, shaking her head, in disappointment of all things. Riot was standing behind her, glaring at her scornfully with those piercing violet eyes of hers.

Recall finally walked in, trying to smile reassuringly, "Who's first?"

"I'll go." I said flatly, Token sobbed and squeezed me tighter, I propped her head up and gave her one last long kiss before two Security officers pried me away.

"I love you!" she called after me just before the door of the next room closed.

"I love you too." I whispered, softly banging my head on the door.

"Try and relax." the old stallion said as he laid me back on a comfortable therapy couch.

I nodded, fighting off tears as his magical field started enveloping my head.

***

I woke with a start, nearly knocking Shaky off my chest, crying angrily. The filly stirred slightly, I set her aside with my magic, wrapping her up in the blanket and kissing her forehead before storming off to the other side of the cavern to have a fit.

My armor encased me as I walked past it, "The mute function on the helmet works both ways, I assume you don't want to wake her up."

"Thanks."

"You're distressed, is everything alright?"

"No Beta, everything is a shite side far from alright."

I curled up in the corner and screamed into my helmet, furious at what our stable had done to us, wanting to kill something, aching to get payback on that cunt Rector.

Stupid name for a pony, she started as a clergypony, shouldn't have even been made Overmare. If Riot had won the election and been put in charge she would've let it slide, she knew like most of us did the original Codex was outdated. Rector on the other hoof, had no idea how to lead ponies, so instead she used the Codex as a crutch. In fact, the only reason that dumb bitch won is because she was prettier than Riot.

If I ever saw her again, I'd snap her flimsy back like a twig...

I continued venting into my helmet for several minutes until a small hoof touched my armored tummy, I glanced down at Shaky, my helmet retracting.

"You alright Momma?"

"I'm fine sweetie, what's up?"

"There's something in the water."

I nodded and trotted to the pool, grabbing my pistols and loading fresh magazines.

I'd seen some weird shit in my time outside, mutated animals, ghouls, an Alicorn, a stallion dressed in mare's lingerie, but what was swimming in the water was by far the strangest thing I'd ever seen in my life.

It was half pony, its bottom half merging into a tale that was shaped like an eel, or a snake, but had the same smooth skin the top half did. It had a webbed spine along its back, and though it had forelegs of a sort, there was smaller spined webbing along the backs of its limbs.

The sea blue colored creature was moving along the bottom of pool, harvesting the largest of the glowing stocks and placing them into a satchel, an odd grace to it's movements, it stopped, glancing up at me with surprisingly gorgeous orange eyes and smiled, swimming up to the surface.

"Hey," she said as her head emerged, swimming to the edge of the pool and resting her head on her folded forelegs, blowing her soaked silver mane out of her face and stretching out the three weird appendages on each side of her neck, "what brings a pretty mare like you to my garden?"

"We got washed down here by the flood," I replied absently, too preoccupied with her strange appearance, "I don't mean to be rude, but what the fuck are you?"

"A sea pony," she said nonchalantly, then she extended a foreleg, "name's Shimmer, nice to meet you."

I bumped it... kinda, "Bandage, likewise."

"That's a funny name, who's your little friend?"

I waved Shaky over, resting a hoof on her shoulder when she reached my side, "Sh-shaky, hi."

"Hi." Shimmer said with a friendly smile.

"I'm gonna go b-back to sleep Mom."

"Okay," I said, kissing her on her still warm forehead, "sleep tight."

"Cute kid." Shimmer said after Shaky had fallen asleep again.

"She has her moments." I said fondly as I looked my daughter over.

"You alright? Looks like you've been crying or something."

"I'm fine, just remembered some seriously fucked up shit from my past and it shook me up a bit."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Nah. More concerned with looking for a way out of here."

"I know a way, sorry to say it's not a dry one though."

"It's fine, we're going to fire my mag rifle tomorrow morning, hopefully our friends will hear it."

"Don't see how, fissure's sealed shut."

"Huh?"

She pointed up, I looked and sure enough the roof had somehow closed while we slept, "Fuck..."

"Don't worry about, you can just follow me, there's enough air pockets along the way to keep you from drowning."

"Shaky's sick though, I don't think she should get back in that frigid water."

"Frigid?" she asked with a baffled expression. I frowned and dipped my hoof in, the water was perfect, like a comfortably warm bath.

"How?" I gasped.

"This garden is a part of hundreds of interconnected hot springs, a flood occasionally sweeps in and cools it off for about twelve hours or so."

"How'd the ceiling shut?"

"Surface is constantly shifting, lots of minor seismic activity, results in some pretty weird shit, random caves and fissures."

"Well, if we follow you out of here, do you know a way up to the surface?"

"Yeah, the zebra route, every once in awhile the local tribe pops down to trade food, they bring us meat, we give them cave plants."

"Cool... Hey, would you mind if I-"

"Take a dip?" she said with a slightly mischievous smile, "Be my guest."

I nodded thankfully and stripped my gear, blushing when she whistled at the sight of my underwear, blushing further when she cheered as I stripped my socks and wriggled out of my panties.

"Very funny." I grumbled as I eased into the pool, closing my eyes to relax, jumping slightly when I reopened them and she was gone, "Shimmer?"

I looked around the clear pool, no sign of my new aquatic friend, "Shimmer?"

She emerged just in front of my face, the appendages on her neck flaring while she smiled behind her wet mane, "Yes Bandage?"

"Nothing, just worried, you disappeared for a second there."

"Aww," she hugged her foreleg things around my neck and wrapped her tail around my waist, tickling near a very tender area with the tip, "here we've just met and you're already worried about me," she pressed her nose to mine, "that's so sweet."

I coughed nervously, then shook it off and grinned, resting my forehooves just under her rear set of fins, where I assumed her flanks would be if she was a normal pony. Her skin was smooth, rubbery... oddly sexy, "I'd love to indulge you, but I'm afraid our parts don't quite match up."

"Well, I know zebra mares like it right about..." her tail wormed inside of me, tickling the walls of my sex, making me squeeze her tight and moan softly. She giggled, "There. And there are ways I can show you to get a sea pony off..."

I nodded and leaned to the side, licking one of the appendages on her neck, making her body tighten, "These?"

She coughed awkwardly, "Uh, no hun, those are gills, I need those to breathe underwater..."

"Oh," I muttered, my face flushing, "sorry."

"It's fine, new anatomy to get used to and all that," she pushed against my belly with her tail, lifting her tummy up to eye level, specifically something a ways lower than her belly button that certainly resembled my favorite piece of anatomy, "there's what you're looking for..."

I grinned up at her, "You're a mammal."

"Mmhmm." she said with a wink.

"Fantastic..." I muttered to myself before giving her slit a good lick, rewarded with her tail going limp and the moaning sea pony gripping me tightly. I lowered her back down into the water and kissed her tenderly, she massaged between my hindlegs with her tail, occasionally putting pressure on my button with the tip.

I reciprocated, rubbing her folds with a forehoof while we explored each others mouths. Eventually she broke away, her eyes half lidded, a thin strand of saliva still connecting our lips, she smiled when I wiped it away and leaned forward again, kissing me quickly before descending back into the water.

She had one key advantage over Token, she didn't need to come up for air...

I writhed comfortably as her tongue expertly hit all the right places, biting my lip with strain as I tried to hold in groans. My horn fired up, illuminating things a bit more as I went to work with my bedroom spell, giggling when bubbles started rising to the surface and the mare under the water started writhing, worming her tail into her own sex and getting it in surprisingly deep.

She got aggressive, sucking hard on my clitoris, making me moan, writhe, and eventually pop. I didn't let up though, hammering her with my spell, even diving under the water when she broke away, pulling her tail out of her and burying my muzzle in her sex, moaning into her when her tail bored its way deep inside of me.

I felt her pop, heard her cry out, caught the distinct taste of mare ejaculate mixing with the water in my mouth, cried out myself under the water as she sent me through another orgasm, both of us panting above the water as she dragged me to the edge of the pool.

"Holy shit," I gasped, slumping against the edge of the pool, Shimmer draped over my back, kissing my shoulder, "that was... holy shit."

"Yeah," she panted, "you're fucking amazing."

"No no, you're fucking amazing."

"We're both fucking amazing, let's leave it at that."

"Agreed."

"...Round two?"

"Fuck yes." I replied, turning around to face her.

"Shoo be doo..." she said before pulling me into another passionate kiss.

***

Sex with a sea pony was going up under weirdest thing I'd ever done. But that was okay, because it was fantastic, easily surpassing two normal mares. The only problem I had with it was the lack of cuddling afterwards, she couldn't stay out of the water too long or she'd dry out, and I couldn't stay in the water much longer without pruning. Instead we sat at the edge of the pool, me on land, she in the water, occasionally sharing a kiss or a nuzzle or a playful nibble.

Her ears perked and she smiled behind me, waving with a foreleg, "Oh jeez," Shaky said tiredly, "you g-guys had sex huh?"

"Duh," I replied, turning my head to face her, "what else were we gonna do to pass the time."

"You're n-not even the same species!"

"So? She's half pony, and a part of that half includes a va-"

The filly squealed and covered her ears with her forelegs, "I d-don't need to hear anymore thanks!!"

I sighed and turned back to Shimmer, giving her lips a soft peck, "Kid can't handle the thought of a sea pony and a unicorn getting it on I guess."

She shrugged, "You have to admit it's a bit odd."

"True, Token's probably going to ask a million questions about it."

"Token?"

"My marefriend."

"Oh," she said quietly, her ears laying back and her gills drooping, "marefriend..."

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, it's just that uh... never mind."

"Shit, I'm sorry, I thought this was just harmless fooling around."

"It was, I just uh... I thought I finally found someone to give this to." She lifted the small medallion around her neck for me to see, a clam shell with ornate carvings etched into it, "It's a cultural thing, we save it for, you know, special someponies..."

My eyes widened, "Are you saying that-"

"Yeah," she said, glancing away shamefully, "but you're taken, so..."

I hugged her, tight, nuzzling her cheek apologetically, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," she chuckled, patting me on the back, "if the feeling isn't mutual it's not meant to be, not the first time it's happened and it probably won't be the last."

"Can you even do that? I'm not a sea pony."

"Yeah, we're kind of a weird race. We reproduce asexually, a set of twins when we're about twenty, and we don't have males, so we can just fuck whoever we want from whatever other species with no consequences and pick a 'mate' if the feelings are there. No sea pony's ever made me feel that way so no sea pony's ever gotten my charm."

"Tough break."

She shrugged, "If I would've taken one of them I probably wouldn't have gotten to have that excellent sex with you, so it's all good."

I smiled and pressed my nose to hers, "It was excellent wasn't it?"

She pressed back, "Totally, if you're ever back in the neighborhood you should swing by and we can do it again."

"It's a date." I said quietly, pecking her lips again.

"Well," she coughed swimming away from me, "get your stuff packed up and I'll lead you two out."

"I d-don't wanna g-get in that water," Shaky muttered, "you guys fucked in it."

"The current's probably washed out all the juices by now you big baby."

"So not the p-point..."

Shimmer grinned and climbed out of the pool, sliding on her belly across the smooth stone floor and stopping just in front of Shaky, "I'm clean, see?"

Shaky recoiled, but apprehensively reached a hoof out and poked the sea pony's rubbery tummy, getting a giggle out of Shimmer, "Tickles."

"You're really smooth..."

"We all are," she said, rolling onto her back and sliding backwards into the pool, "sea ponies need to be really streamline to swim this well."

"Cool..."

I grinned at Shimmer, "Do you ladies come in filly size? I think she wants one."

Shimmer winked, "Sure, I can fix her up Ripple, my great granddaughter, really sweet kid."

"Wha- no I-"

"It's fine dear, these sea ponies are pretty promiscuous, I'm sure you and Hex can share one no problem."

Shaky flushed, "No I-"

"Oh yeah," Shimmer said, "that'd be no trouble at all, Ripple's got enough affection to easily handle two fillies."

"B-but-"

"Has anyone taught her how to do that thing you did with your tail?"

"Guys-"

"That? Pfft, that's instinct, basically just how we masturbate."

"Ewww!"

***

The swim to the sea pony village was basically five minutes of swimming with 30 second intervals of Shimmer elevating shaky into an air pocket to catch het breath every minute or so.

We gasped when we arrived, the waterway opened up into a massive cavern, gigantic glowing mushrooms like the ones we'd seen in the Hopeville caves were growing everywhere, and huge clusters of different gemstones were embedded in the ceiling, which was at least a quarter mile above us.

"C'mon," Shimmer said, swimming on her back ahead of us, "Mire is this way."

"Kinda hard to see." Shaky said.

Shimmer nodded and swam over to a mushroom, scooping a clump of freaky looking glowing maggots into a jar from her satchel, looping it on a stray stick and swimming over to us, giving the stick to her.

"There you go."

"Thanks."

"No problem kiddo, c'mon, we've got a ways to go."

I nodded, tossing Shaky onto my shoulders and piling my stuff onto my rump to dry before wading after her.

"Try and keep up hot flanks." she called back to me.

I grinned and picked up pace, passing her easily, "Try and keep up, uh, hot gills?"

She laughed, matching pace with me in the water, her forelegs folded behind her head while her tail lazily propelled her forward, "Hot gills, I like that."

We slogged for awhile, half an hour or so, until finally we came across a rocky outcropping with a ramp leading up to a surface dotted with hundreds of well made reed huts, a several story tall mushroom in the center, sea ponies sliding around on the unbelievably smooth surface and swimming in the surrounding waterway, going about their daily lives.

"What's with the mushroom?"

"It's the Grand Toadstool, She's our god."

I stared at her, smiling awkwardly, she held a straight face for several moments before busting up laughing, "I'm fucking with you, we just keep it around as a light source."

I let out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness, I thought we might've stumbled upon a village of nut cases."

Shimmer rolled her eyes and swam ahead of us, "You can stay at my place tonight, I'll show you the way out in the morning."

"Sounds great."

She led us up the ramp and through the "streets", occasionally stopping to chat with her fellow sea ponies.

A filly slid up to us, stopping right in Shaky's face and greeting her warmly, making her cringe, "Hi! I'm Ripple what's your name that's a really cool scar how'd you get it first time underground-" Shimmer slapped a foreleg over the fast talking filly's mouth.

"Sweetie, I know you're excited to meet someone your own age but you need to calm down, cuz you're freaking her out."

Ripple nodded and slid back a few steps, extending a hoof- a sea- a webbed- a seahoof? Yeah, seahoof, "Hi."

Shaky reached out and shook it gingerly, "Hi."

"What's your name?"

"Shaky."

"Nice to meet you Shaky, I'm Ripple, wanna go play?"

"Sure."

"Cool! Try and keep up, I move pretty quick!"

The young sea pony belly slid to the ramp and down to the water, Shaky looked at me questioningly, I smiled and nodded, she smiled back and galloped after her.

"Sweet kid," Shimmer said absently, "talks a bit too much though, just like her mother."

"Bah, it'll be good for Shakes to be around somepony with a bit more pep, Hex is the sweetest filly I know but she's awfully quiet."

"Hmmm, I guess."

She stopped at a hut and pushed the reed door aside, the inside was comprised of several shelves on the walls with various shells stacked on them and a bed sized pool in the middle of the floor. She slid past me, splashing into the water and sighing comfortably.

"Home sweet home."

"Cozy." I said, setting my gear aside and hopping in after her, wading over to her with a bit more hip sway than I usually sported, sliding up her frame and smiling seductively.

"Sorry, but a reed hut doesn't exactly have the sound proofing required for the type of recreation we have in mind."

"I just want to cuddle." I said quietly, gently running a hoof over her supple flesh.

She blushed slightly, I giggled and licked her nose, "You don't like cuddling?"

"No, cuddling's great, just uh-"

"What?"

She blushed brighter and wrapped her tail around one of my legs, "Having you this close is kinda, tempting..."

I giggled again and rubbed my head on her neck, "C'mon, I'm not even all that sexy, surely you can resist temptation and just hold me for awhile."

She smiled and wrapped her forelegs around me, lowering us down into the water, kissing me on the muzzle. I gave her an affectionate nuzzle in return, sliding my hooves down her side, pouting when I reached her back fins.

"I kinda wish you had an ass..." I muttered.

She chuckled and rubbed her tail between my flanks, wrapping the tip around the base of my tail and tugging gently, "I think you've got more than enough ass for the both of us."

"Hey!" I whined, "It's not that big."

"Oh yes it is! It's all big and muscular, like your ass ate another mare's ass, I love it!"

I pouted more, she giggled and kissed me, "I said I love it, don't be so self conscious, you're fucking drop dead sexy."

"Am not," I huffed, slumping against her, "I'm all scarred up and shit."

"So? Scars are hot."

"Are not."

"Are so." she countered. I huffed again, she propped my head up with a seahoof, "Seriously, stop being so self conscious, if I didn't think you were sexy I wouldn't have fucked you back in the garden and I wouldn't be cuddling with you now."

I sighed and rested my head on her chest, closing my eyes and letting her wrap me in a tight hug, listening to the faint trickle of the water, and the sound of her breathing mixed with the soft but steady rhythm of her heartbeat, completely relaxed.

"Hey," she whispered after awhile, "can we try something?"

"Sure," I mumbled tiredly, "what'd you have in mind?"

She kissed me, easing me backwards until we were both completely submerged. She didn't break away, even stopping me when I tried to go up for air. Her gills flared, and an air pocket filled my mouth, letting me inhale. I grinned around her lips and exhaled through my nose, sending tiny bubbles cascading over her face and to the surface.

We stayed there like that for ages, long enough for the skin under my coat to prune, finally interrupted by two fillies splashing into the water with us.

I popped back up to the surface, gasping sharply for air, scowling at Shaky and Ripple who sat across from us with smug grins slapped on their faces.

"You're fucking hilarious girls."

"We d-didn't interrupt anything did we?" Shaky asked, batting her eyelashes in innocence so fake I could almost smell the bullshit.

I snorted and climbed out, my legs wobbly, "I'm gonna go take a walk."

"I'll join you." Shimmer said, hopping out of the pool and sliding after me as I trotted out of the hut.

"So," I said absently, "show me around I guess."

"Not much to show I'm afraid, if you're up for a bit of a slog I could take you to see the falls at the edge of the cavern, there's this big drop off with gem clusters going down thousands of feet, really spectacular view."

"Sure, my legs could use a stretch."

"I wouldn't know."

"You've got forelegs, kinda."

"I think of them more like forefins, basically what their purpose is, and they don't get much of a workout so they never get sore."

She slid ahead of me and down the ramp, splashing into the waterway below.

"That looks fun."

"What, sliding? It's okay I guess, kinda lost the wonder after I mastered it."

I hopped slightly and went spread eagle, awkwardly landing with a soft grunt and sliding down the ramp and a totally pitiful speed, "Fuck..." I muttered.

Shimmer giggled and pecked me on the nose before darting off underwater, occasionally jumping to let me know where she was. I followed at an easy pace, climbing on fallen mushroom stalks along the way as a form of dry land, diligently watching for movement in the crystal clear water in case she decided to pounce me.

I whistled when I saw it, drop off had been a huge understatement, this was the fucking mouth of the world opening ahead of me. It was beautiful, clear blue water cascading in from all sides, mushrooms and gems dotted on the walls all the way down.

"Yeah," Shimmer said next to me as she guided me down into the water and to the edge, "it certainly is something."

We sat there at the edge for ages, admiring the wonder of nature, then for some reason a question started nagging in the back of my mind.

"Hey, before you said Ripple was your great granddaughter?"

"Yup."

"How old are you exactly?"

"Uhh, kinda lost track, seventy something I think."

"You're kidding."

"Nope, sea ponies can pretty much live indefinitely, eternal youth and a hardy constitution. Wasteland or heartbreak or a combination of the two usually takes us when our life partner dies though, I guess that makes me kinda lucky I haven't chosen anyone yet."

"I'm gonna be riding the immortality train myself, mind if I ask what it's like?"

She paused, thinking, "...I've given both of my daughters back to the sea, immortality has its perks, but I assure you that outliving the ones you love is not one of them."

I nodded thoughtfully, trying to think about what it would be like to outlive Stripe and Token and Shaky, either I couldn't or I didn't want to, and I just left it at that.

I glanced sideways at another wonder of nature, the mare next to me, sitting in shallow water with her tail curled under her as a kind of cushion, her smooth skin glistening, tiny droplets of water dripping from spine to spine on her dorsal fin, her long silver mane reflecting the fluorescent blue light shining off the mutated mushrooms dotting the cave... she was gorgeous, flawless in every way, and for whatever reason I had the sudden impulse to reach out and rest a hoof on her foreleg.

She looked at me with a hint of surprise, but smiled with genuine coyness when I turned to face her.

We leaned in, sharing a very tender kiss that had a lot more to it than just frivolous fooling around, breaking away hesitantly, both of us smiling bashfully with deep red blushes on our face.

I pulled her in again, resting my forehead on hers, our red and orange eyes locking through the thin veil of our wet manes, the two of us just smiling.

"Close your eyes." she whispered.

I nodded, she moved away from me for a moment, then a string was hung around my neck.

My heart nearly skipped a beat, "Is that what I think it is?"

"Depends," she whispered, pressing her nose back to mine, "what do you think it is?"

I gulped, "I think it's something you probably should save for-" She kissed me, just for a moment to shut me up, but it was passionate, and there was a spark deep in my mind that was reminiscent of what I felt when I was with Token, nowhere near as strong, but still there.

I opened my eyes as she broke away, glancing down at the tiny medallion now draped around my neck and back up to the gorgeous creature smiling fondly at me.

"Okay, I'll keep it."

"Do you-"

I shut her up this time, matching the kiss she had given me, feeling that spark yet again, breaking away and whispering to her, "We'll see."

She smiled again, starting to tear up, I frowned and wiped them away, "Something wrong?"

She shook her head and slumped against me, hugging me tight and wrapping her tail around my waist, "Will you make love to me?" she whispered.

"Thought I already did?"

"That was just sex, I'm asking if you'll make love to me, like, tender and shit instead of kinky."

I smiled and tilted her head to the side, kissing her up her neck and around her gills to her ear, then leaned her backwards into the water she was sitting in, "Sure."

***

I was pruning again, but I didn't care, I was resting comfortably in a shallow pool of pleasantly warm water, nestling against a beautiful mare with unbelievably supple skin.

She'd dozed of, and was now snoring quietly, snuggling against my chest with her tail wrapped around my waste, the tip absently rubbing my cutie mark. I had her held tight in an embrace, stroking the back of her head with a forehoof, levitating her medallion in front of my face, looking it over to pass the time.

"Wondering how I carved it?" she asked tiredly, peeking up at me through the tiny gaps in her mane.

"Yeah actually, the lack of a horn must've made it pretty difficult."

She chuckled and winked at me, "You've seen what I can do with my tail, working a carving knife was no problem."

"Ah, mystery solved. Speaking of your tail, it's been rubbing my ass while you slept."

She shrugged and nestled closer to me, "What can I say, it's got good taste."

I chuckled and pressed my nose to hers, brushing her mane away so we could lock eyes, "You have stunningly beautiful eyes, you know that?"

"Mmm, yours are really pretty too, I could just sit here staring all day."

"As much as I'd love to, I'm already pruned up, and I think we ought to get back, who knows what kind of sick debauchery Shaky and Ripple are up to in your hut."

She gasped, "You're right! The amount of sexual atrocities they could've committed in the time we were gone is boundless!"

I laughed and pulled her into a quick kiss before standing and shaking some of the water out of my coat, "I'll race you there."

"You're on!"

"Try to keep up hot gills!" I shouted behind me as I bounded from mushroom to mushroom back towards Mire.

Shimmer leapt through the air in front of me, pulling off several graceful front flips before diving back into the water with little more than a ripple on the surface.

At our set pace we reached Mire in mere minutes, she gracefully slid up the ramp on her belly, I aggressively leapt 15 feet in the air and over it, managing to tie with her.

"Shenanigans!" she shouted, "I demand a rematch!"

"Deal with it." I replied, pulling my goggles down and trotting past her.

We heard giggling as we approached Shimmer's hut, I peaked my head in the doorway with my usual grin, then blinked.

Ripple had one of my socks over her tail and was trying desperately to get out of it, Shaky was simply sitting in a corner laughing at the spectacle.

"One of your tail warmers got stuck on me and Shaky won't help me get it off!"

"It's a sock dear," I explained, trying to hold in giggles of my own as I used my magic to take it off her, "for your legs, not your tail."

"Well I tried that but they wouldn't fit over my fins."

I chuckled and pulled all my socks back on, then donned my panties, giving my ass a little shake so they'd fit properly. Shaky facehoofed and shook her head.

"What?"

"You look like you're ab-bout to go solicit sex at a dubt-trot club."

"Hey, the socks keep my legs warm and the panties keep my snatch out of plain view, I don't get how not being naked is considered indecent."

"It just is."

"So, nopony can see my downstairs, and that makes me look like a whore, but I can look at you and plainly see yours without a second glance and that makes you look totally decent?"

"You cannot!" she shouted.

I nodded, Shimmer nodded next to me, Ripple, in what I assumed was a completely innocent gesture, swam over to the edge of the pool Shaky was sitting near and peered between her legs, "I can see it really clearly from right here."

Shaky went bright red and wormed her tail between her legs, covering herself. Shimmer and I laughed, Ripple just looked at her with genuine confusion.

***

Shaky was asleep, nestled next to me under the blanket, I was at the edge of the pool, my forehead pressed to Shimmer's, occasionally sharing a kiss or whispering sweet nothings to her.

We didn't sleep that night, just stayed there doing the same thing until morning. It was nice, but something in my brain kept nagging me that this was wrong. I'd had sex with plenty of mares, but she was the only one that ever made me feel like Token did, and oddly enough this was the only time I had ever felt like I'd legitimately cheated on Token.

It felt like an affair almost, not quite the same considering fidelity was basically obsolete in our current time but still, it made me feel bad, treacherous, deceitful, and all the other adjectives I could think of to describe a lying bad pony such as myself.

Token wouldn't care though, she was open minded, and she'd made it plain in the past that she didn't mind sharing me, as long as at the end of the day she knew was still the mare that had me, and would always have me.

And she was, Token had my heart... nearly all of it. Shimmer had just whittled away a microscopic piece to keep for herself, sorta like Stripe had.

***

Goodbyes were somewhat difficult, Shaky and Ripple parted hesitantly, both saying goodbye to the first friend they'd made in ages, Shimmer and I had a bit more complicated set of emotions to sift through though.

"You promise you'll come and visit when you get the chance?" Her eyes were teary, pleading.

I nodded, kissing her before pulling her into a tight embrace, "I promise. We'll be at the ocean in a few months, think there's any way you could meet me there?"

"Of course, there's a few waterways I can take and be right there."

"Okay, goodbye I guess."

"Goodbye." she said quietly.

I patted her on the back and broke away hesitantly, turning around to follow Shaky who was already ascending the long path to the surface. I didn't make it far before turning back and galloping to my new lover, giving her a long and passionate farewell kiss.

"I love you." I whispered in her ear as I broke away.

"I love you too." she replied quietly as I trotted back up the path.

"Token's gonna b-be p-p-pissed." Shaky said absently when I caught up with her.

"Why's that?"

"You just told Shimmer you love her."

"How'd you even hear that?"

"I didn't, b-but the way you two were acting yesterd-day and the way you just galloped b-back like that m-m-made it pretty obvious."

"Well- what makes you think I'll tell Token?"

The filly snorted, "B-because you're an idiot and you tell her everything."

I stopped and frowned, "Oh yeah..."

***

The zebra tribe on the surface was surprised to see us but welcomed us all the sane, I was surprised myself when a certain blue pony squealed and barreled into me at top speed and commenced a nuzzling the likes of which I'd never been subjected to.

Shaky received similar treatment from Hex, but was a bit too solid to let the gaunt filly knock her over. For once she wasn't trying to push her away, instead she hugged right back, even returning a few nuzzles.

"Where the hell have you been?" Token asked.

"Long story, I'll tell you about it later. Right now I think we need to talk about something I remembered..."

Footnote: Level Up!
New perk: Toughness(2)

Author's note: This chapter is SOOOO GAAAAAAAAY!!!!
I'm happy with how it turned out, but pissed at myself for flying so wildly off course with what I had planned. The sea pony encounter was planned, then I got to thinkin' "Hmmm, Bandage would most likely fuck one." so that whole shpeal with Shimmer went down, then my inner romantic went haywire and now I'm left with this. For anyone that gives a shit, sorry for the long wait and really sorry that you're going to have to wait even longer for chapter 11 and all that Lonesome Road goodness you were expecting in 10. I'm going on a short hiatus to work on something new for awhile, be back to writing the Divide in a couple of weeks.