I found myself in the dreamscape yet again, wearing a nice, modest black dress and sitting at a candlelit table for two, the opposite chair unoccupied, the surrounding area being only a black void that the dress somehow stood out against. “Oh, not this again.”

“I think this looks nice,” Luna said as she walked up. “Very romantic.”

“Please, don’t remind me,” I said as I put my head in my hands. “It’s been nothing but this for a little over a week and it’s driving me nuts.”

Luna sat down in the opposite chair. “A little over a week? Hmm. . . That lines up with when Gaston visited you, right?”

“Yeah. That was not fun. Well, going behind his back to serve his guards was kind of fun. But one of them, I can’t get his voice out of my head for some reason.”

Luna looked into my eyes a bit, as if she was looking for something. “Captain Garrison, right?”

“Yeah, him. Do you have any idea why that would be?”

With a flash of Luna’s horn, the flames on the candles changed shapes, becoming hearts. “Maybe.”

I looked at the heart flames. “Really? You think it’s love?”

“I’ve seen the signs before.”

I thought about it for a moment before coming to a decision. “Luna, please give me a dreamless sleep for the night.”

“Before I do that, would you mind answering a question for me?”

I shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”

Luna flipped a silver coin towards me. “What do you think of the design?”

I caught the coin, slightly larger than a bit, and looked it over. On one side was a symbol I’d come to recognize as that of Equestria’s. On the other was a 5. “You really got my letter?”

“Celly and I like the idea, but between everything that we already had to do, along with talking over the pros and cons and figuring out how to smoothly implement it without wrecking the economy, it’s taken some time to get to this point.”

“Well, it looks great to me.” I inspected the coin closely, looking for something. “And I see nothing related to me.”

“Yang, we can’t-”

I held up a hand in defense. “Woah there, Princess. I’m actually glad you didn’t put anything like that on here. If you’re going to make an announcement about this, please do what you did with the design and don’t mention me. At all.”

Luna let out a mock huff. “And I had this whole big speech in mind to praise you for this idea. I guess I'll just have to rewrite the whole thing now.” Her fake pout turned into a genuine smile. “Sleep well, Yang.”

As Luna and the dream slowly vanished, one last thought ran through my dreaming mind: “Why does it feel like I don’t have any underwear on?”

I woke up peacefully and early. It wasn’t close to THE TRANQUILITY levels of peacefulness, but it wasn’t bad either. After getting out of bed, I opened the window and looked at the bright, sunny area out back with a smile and content sigh. “Ah, today seems like another good day for a run.” A crack of thunder followed my statement, and the sun was soon being blocked out by the weather pegasi. “Fine, then.” I closed the window and the curtains. “I’ll just spend the day exercising inside.”

After taking a shower and putting on the blue, white, and orange athletic set, I set my plan into motion and started exercising with an intensity that complimented the increasing rain falling outside. “Next thing to do: get some exercise equipment in here. Or join a gym.”

As I went through my workout, Captain Garrison’s voice played through my mind, increasing the fervor of my exercise as I tried to ignore it. I finally came to a stop when I accidentally set my arm ablaze while I was shadowboxing. Nothing caught fire, thankfully, but it was still a close call. “I’m going for a run.”

When I went outside, it was into a downpour. I paid it no mind and just went on my usual route. The ground was muddy, making the run a bit trickier. The places where I usually made hard turns had to taken more slowly, thanks to how slick it had gotten. It made things more interesting, to say the least. It certainly helped get my mind off Garrison’s distracting voice.

My time in the storm, thankfully, was short, and was already being cleared up by the third lap. After my fifth lap, I decided I’d had enough running and decided to get the mail. Before I even opened the mailbox, I took a look at my legs, which had a good amount of mud on them below the knees, especially on my shoes. “Hmm. . . I wonder. . .”

I went around to the back of my place and started focusing on my fire magic, keeping it limited only to heating myself up. Steam briefly filled my vision as the water evaporated from my skin and clothes. “Alright, this is nice.” I looked back down at my legs, the mud now dry, baked on dirt. The ground under me had become dry as well. A light brushing got the dirt off my skin, and a few good taps on the ground got most of it off my shoes, but it was stuck in my socks. “That’s not so nice.”

Just before jumping up to my window, I realized I still had the built up heat, and another idea came to mind. After stepping away from my home and shed, I imagined releasing the built up heat as a blast in all directions. To my joy, it worked, and I was soon in the middle of a dry patch of ground. To my displeasure, all the grass in the affected area had turned brown and shriveled up.

I briefly looked over my clothes, which had come out undamaged. My socks had also lost most of the dirt in them, and along with my shoes, had only a few flecks left. “This is awesome! I’ll have to try more things out with this later. For now, the mail.”

Without changing to my work clothes, I took the mail into the office. I’d had Twilight take the security spell off, not only for personal convenience, but also because I realized it wasn’t really necessary with how peaceful Ponyville was. Chaotic, but peaceful. After sitting down with the unusually thick bundle of mail and kicking my feet up on the desk, it was time to sort through it all. “Restaurateur Times and Deals” -center of the desk- “Office Offerings” -center of the desk- “Fashion Passion Questioner, always good quizzes in that one” -left side- “Business letter, letter, letter” -right side- “Bill, bill, bill” -right side- “And. . .” the rest was something different. The envelopes weren’t official in any form, and had lots of variance between them.

After pulling out an extension piece, I took my feet off the desk, turned to the revealed surface, and started going through the letters, opening and reading each one. “Fan mail, fan mail, fan mail. . .” As I kept going through the fan mail, I began to wonder how it was I hadn’t gotten any before, considering everything I’d done. After trying to figure out a good reason and coming up with nothing, I gave up and chalked it up to Equestria just being so different.

Some of the fan letters simply said I looked great, some said I was their idol, and a few even had pictures of the (presumed) writer, dressed up in clothes similar to my combat outfit, often with their manes and tails styled to match or wearing wigs. Most of them were fillies and mares. The few colts and stallions that included pictures often didn’t pull off the look very well, though there were a few that got inventive and restyled the outfit to work well with them. “I like the letters, but they’re getting thrown away. Pictures, I’m going to get some albums for.” After coming up with five categories of albums, I wrote down a note of the idea.

After the fan mail came a few letters of thanks from ponies related to those who had been affected by the golem. One, penned by someone named Zephyr Breeze, was notable for just how lazy it looked and felt compared to the others. He was apparently Fluttershy’s brother. I figured that, since she hadn’t made any mention of him, I saw no reason to either.

The very last letter was different from the rest of them. Not only did the paper feel thicker, but it also looked like it was treated with extra care and attention to detail. On the back was a wax seal, embossed with the seal of the Griffon Empire, though it was upside down. “Please don’t be from Gaston, please don’t be from Gaston, PLEASE don’t be from Gaston.”

I slowly opened the letter and read it.

Dear Yang Xiao Long,

First, thank you for reading this. Second, I’m Captain Garrison of Gaston’s Elite Guards.

Much to my annoyance, I quickly found myself reading it in his voice.

The brave act of kindness you showed us during our all too brief visit was nothing short of a miracle to me and my fellow guards. Yes, even the ones who fell asleep. That we were given the chance to sit down would have been good enough, but the proper tables and benches, the water, the food, and even extending the offer to Princess Celestia’s guards, it was its own kind of beauty.

On the food, the baked potato with bits of meat, cheese, and whatever that sauce was were delicious. I could say they were to die for, but that would keep me from enjoying it if I did. No, they are to LIVE for. If I never come your way again, it will be a meal I will remember for the rest of my days.

Above all else, the most beautiful thing was you.

“Blegh.”

Was it your actions that made you so beautiful that day? Your golden hair? Bright eyes? Clear voice? Amazing body? No, it wasn’t any one of those things, but all of them. Like the ingredients in the meals you served, it all comes together to make an amazing whole.

I write this letter, not so much out of love, but out of appreciation. On behalf of all of Gaston’s royal guards, Thank You.

Sincerely, Captain Garrison.

Underneath the last line, the writing style changed a bit.

P.S. Elite Guard Ironbeak here. I don’t know if Captain Garrison quite realizes it, but the rest of us think he’s fully smitten with you. We’ve never seen him pour such emotion into his writing before, not that we’ve had many opportunities, what with Gaston’s rules and all.

If he goes any further with it, he may just do something stupid like lead an uprising against Gaston and replace him with somegriff else before leaving to try and court you.

Keep an eye on the news.

I had mixed feelings after reading the letter. On one hand, it sounded like the end of a terrible ruler was close, which was good. On the other, the letter that it was attached to intrigued, revolted, and confused me, all at once. At the same time, even though I wanted to burn and forget the letter, I couldn’t bring myself to do so.

Finally, I set the letter down on the left side of the desk. “Why do you do this to me, brain? Why?” Luna’s suggestion that it was love came to mind. “No, no, no. He’s not a match for me. We’re not the same species, and I’m not even interested.” I got up and started pacing around the office. “But not being interested doesn’t feel this way. It should feel like nothing, not whatever. . . this is.” After pacing a bit more, I decided to stop thinking about it and picked up the sorted out mail, took it to the appropriate places, went back upstairs, and started getting ready for a Friday of work.

With the grill going in front of me, along with plenty of orders, I was able to keep my mind off the letter from Garrison for the most part, though it still crept in from time to time. As far as I could tell, I was keeping it hidden from Spike and all the guests pretty well.

Finally, closing time came around. Aegir was still at the bar, cleaning a glass, when I took a seat there after everyone else left. “How was business over here today?”

“Quite good,” Aegir curtly replied. “And at the grill?”

“Spectacular, as usual. Why are you still here?”

“Oh, just thought I’d ask who has your attention.”

I immediately went on the defensive. “No, I do not love him. I only met him once when he came here with King Gaston and-”

“It’s love.”

I levelled a glare at him. “And how do you know that?”

Aegir wasn’t fazed by the look at all and shrugged. “Changeling, remember? I consume love, so I know it when I feel it.”

I took one slow breath without taking my glare off of him. “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”

“If you say so.” After putting the glass and cloth away, Aegir walked out of the restaurant. Seconds later, I locked the door behind him.

“Stupid minotaur. I know my own feelings,” I muttered under my breath as I went into the office to take care of the last bits of business stuff I had for the day. It took longer than usual, since I was distracted yet again by thoughts of Garrison. “Stupid emotions. Quit getting in the way of work!”

After everything was done, I went upstairs, changed to my sleep clothes, took care of the nightly routine, and promptly went to sleep, hoping for it to be dreamless.

It was not dreamless. I found myself dreaming that I was in bed in the middle of winter, wrapped up snug, but still feeling the bitter chill of the cold. “Please don’t go where I think it’s going.”

I heard the door open and close downstairs. Garrison’s voice soon came up. “You home, Yang?”

“No!” I turned over, seeing the raging blizzard outside my window. It looked like bits of frost were creeping in around the window as well, not helping with the room’s temperature.

I couldn’t find the energy or motivation to get out of bed, even as I heard Garrison’s approach and enter the room. “You’re silly, Yang,” he said in a casual, slightly playful tone as he gently closed the door behind him. “You look cold.”

“Hmmrgh.”

I felt Garrison slide into the bed behind me, and after he got under the blankets, he gently lifted me up, then pulled me into a warm, feathery embrace. “I’ve got you, Yang,” he gently said as he wrapped his forelegs around my waist and his wings around my whole body. I found myself relaxing in the warm, gentle embrace, even nestling into him a bit. The only thing that kept me from fully relaxing in the comforting embrace was a sense of wrongness that had nothing to do with the species difference.

Author's Notes:

Sorting out any kind of mess needs to start somewhere, right?