I'd totally noticed it, but I wasn't sure if Mum had yet. Her mood flipped on a dime sometimes, and when she was happy she shined. I'd looked at Tufts a few times, and either he hadn't noticed or he'd be a great poker player.

Having a foal still terrified me. Not Mum having one, that was kinda awesome, but me having one. "Are you sure?" I asked Sweetie.

"I sent a letter to the Cakes. They said you can do some part-time work for them if you want, but they're seeking a full-time worker. I don't want us to live under our parents hooves, but I also don't want to be far away. Ponyville is a good place for both those things." Sweetie, pressed to my side, used her hoof to turn the page in her book. "Next week's mission is going to be a big one. We're going to deal with the bugbears."

Bugbears, I knew from my history classes, were a problem for Equestria's north-east. Most were unthinking brutes—beasts with not much between their ears—but some of them learned enough to be dangerous. "What this time?"

"Another smart one. It's gathered up a bunch of other smart ones, and they're herding the rest of them toward Trottingham." Sweetie flicked the page over in her book.

There was one big problem I saw with her description. "Trottingham is on an island."

She snorted and ran her hoof along my foreleg a little. "That's the problem. They're pretending they're beavers, or something. All I heard was that bugbears have been cutting down trees upstream of Trottingham, riding them down, and are trying to fill the bay with logs so all the bugbears can get across."

Just her touch, in a meaningful but silly way, made me far too giddy-happy for words—trying to focus on what she had just said was right out.

"Am I distracting you?" she asked.

I'd promised to always tell this mare the absolute truth. I nodded.

"Good. You need some distracting from time to time, Lyra. When are you going looking at houses?"

Focusing was hard, but I did it because not focusing would mean giving up and kissing her, and though I really wanted to do that, I needed to tell Sweetie what was going on first. "T-Tomorrow. Heading down to Ponyville to talk with Mayor Mare. With two part-time jobs, we're going to want a pre-built house."

"You're not going to build me a palace with your magic?" Her tone was as cute and seductive as Sweetie could manage—it made me groan at the thought of all the things that voice could lead to.

Would I? Could I? I mean, I could. It would take a few weeks of repeated magic work, and I'd have to be careful not to ruin the bedrock for miles around, but—

"Lyra Heartstrings, don't you dare build me a castle. I was joking, and I know you were just thinking about how to do it."

"I was not," I lied.

Then sweetie let out a sigh and kissed me. It really should stop having this effect on me sometime, though I kinda hoped it wouldn't, but the kiss had me melting into a puddle of happy Lyra and turning my head to deepen the touch.

I know I was completely done-for. I let my eyes flutter closed and relaxed. Sweetie liked to be a bit more affirmative with our kisses, and I loved every moment of them—just like I loved this one. She was forceful sometimes, though right now she was more tender in her advance as her tongue just seemed to worm its way into my mouth.

When she pulled her lips back suddenly, I was left gasping and snapped my eyes open. "Bon Bon…"

"You're still calling me that? I thought you'd given up?" Sweetie licked her lips, which gave me the idea to do the same. I could taste her.

"Nope." I leaned aside from her and lit my horn with magic. Slowly, carefully, I began to stroke and play phantom fingers over her cutie mark. Most of the time I used my telekinesis as a blob, but some things I knew felt better as hands.

"I've never seen a unicorn do anything like"—Sweetie Drops gasped and shivered from crest to croup—"like that. Is that from…?"

"From Earth. This is a hand." I held up my magic to show her. "And you know the best thing about having a unicorn like me as your wife?"

"What's tha—?"

I interrupted her by moving the hand to her neck and manifesting another, then carefully starting to run my "fingers" through her mane and coat. Her eyes drooped, her ears folded down sideways, and I watched Sweetie shudder in place as I began to massage her. "This."

Beginning at her neck, I worked up to her ears. One stroke, two, and I knew Sweetie would be putty in my hooves for the rest of the evening, but I didn't want her to pass out on me. I brought my golden hands back to her neck and took up the massage again. "Still with me?"

A soft, happy groan was all my wife managed.

"You know the best thing about giving a massage as a unicorn? I can kiss you while I work." The hands traveled down her withers slowly while I nipped and nuzzled at her neck. "You know I'm going to do a lot more exploring when I get to the back, right?"

Sweetie stretched out her neck and turned her head sideways on the pillow. "Looking forward to it."

By the time I reached her rump, she was almost asleep from the massage. I licked and nuzzled at her cutie mark while my hands reached below her tail. All I did was stroke the fur of her rump, and Sweetie instinctively lifted her hindquarters.

"Don't mind if I do," I said.

Morning broke while we were still tangled in bedding. There was absolutely nowhere I'd rather be, yet there was something we'd both need to do. I nuzzled at the belly immediately before my snout, and got a hoof to the side of my head for my trouble. "Hey!"

"Sorry. Still getting used to waking up with somepony doing something like that." Sweetie sneezed and looked down at me. "I didn't say stop."

"Do you promise not to kick me again?"

"If you kiss my belly? Yes, I guess so."

Slowly, trying not to tip her off, I took a deeper and deeper breath, pressed my lips to Sweetie's belly, and blew the biggest, loudest raspberry I could.

"Hey! Stop that!" Sweetie's laughter did nothing to dissuade me from taking another quick breath and blowing a second. "You're such a goof, Lyra."

I didn't stop and I wouldn't stop until she hugged me, kissed me, and pushed me off the bed. Stretching my legs out by running on the spot, I pondered doing this every day for the rest of my life—and really liked the idea. "Armor or no armor?"

"It's not a proper run if we don't have a bit of weight on our backs. Get your armor on and let's get moving."

Using my magic, I levitated my own armor onto my back and set about myself with hoof and mouth to tighten the straps up. Despite magic being part of every aspect of my life, putting my armor on was still a by-the-book process—even if the book didn't actually specify I couldn't use magic.

Even so, Sweetie beat me to it. While I put my armor on every morning for my run, she wore hers and adjusted it all day. "Show off," I said.

"Newbie." Sweetie stuck her tongue out at me. If I were close enough, I would have kissed her. "Lets make it a double run. You're going to be on the train sitting on your butt, and I'll be listening to briefings. Come on."

There was an ulterior motive to my wanting to run without armor—my wife had a rump that was too good to be contained all the time, and I'd wanted to see it in action. Such is life. Leaving the little house we shared, I let Sweetie lead the way onto the outer-ring-road of Canterlot.

It was always good to let my body work. It's odd, now I think about it, but I hadn't been this into exercise back on Earth. What changed? What didn't change, is probably a better question.

Smoothly, we moved from a warm-up trot to a canter. Our hooves flashed on the stone of the street as the wind flicked over us. The sun was in the sky and life itself beat through our bodies like a drum timed to the crash of our hooves on the road.

By the time we were halfway around the city, I pulled us up to a gallop. The world itself became a blur or patterns around us, with the only two things that were in focus being Sweetie and myself.

Somepony was pulling a huge cart of fresh fruit down the road ahead of us. I judged the distance, ran the simplest set of numbers I could, and grabbed Sweetie with my magic. If she'd fought the grip in the slightest I wouldn't have been able to teleport us, but this trick was old hat for her and I.

With a resonant POMF we disappeared and appeared on the other side of the cart, the surprised pony pulling it just half a length behind us. We didn't even break stride.

We only slowed our pace when we approached the E.U.P. Guard fields. Second only to the palace itself for real estate taken up, it was a huge part of Canterlot and was also a second home to us. No matter what was happening, even reservists could trot up to the gate and into the welcoming hug of the E.U.P. Guard.

"Corporal Sweetie Drops, Private Lyra Heartstrings." Hearing my name with the awarded title always made me feel a little more proud of what I'd done. It wasn't a huge thing, but when a gate guard (who all seemed to know everypony on the roster by sight) used it, it felt good. "Finally signing onto active duty, private?"

"Just dropping my wife off to work." I took the moment to kiss Sweetie on the cheek, though I really wanted to kiss her in a more fulfilling manner. Curse my need to blow raspberries on her belly—if I'd just kissed her tummy like she'd asked, we might have had a more exciting morning.

Sweetie pranced a little, something I'd seen her do practically every time I'd referred to either of us by marriage titles. It was damn near the cutest thing I'd ever seen in my life and it made me so blissfully happy to see her still doing it. "Lyra's too busy learning everything there is to know about magic. I expect, when I return, that she'll be Princess Celestia's new personal student."

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Joke's on you if I become a princess by the time you come back."

"If I come back and you're an alicorn, I'll be the first member of your Royal Guard." Sweetie turned straight on and kissed me—properly. She made me melt. The touch of her lips to mine almost had me wishing I had human feet again so I could curl my toes up.

While using my teleport/drop method of travel was interesting, I didn't exactly want to drop in on the town like a superhero from a comic. The train was more than cozy enough for a ride down the mountain in, and it had the advantage of letting me ponywatch.

There was a pair of young pegasi mares, both with the same gray-blue coat, but one sported greenish hair, while the other had a sort of sky-blue and white thing going on.

Another bench had an old earth pony mare that looked like she was a hundred years old, half asleep with a green coat and bleached white hair.

An earth pony stallion with a light brown coat and dark brown hair sat—similar to the old mare—alone to one side. He didn't look as excited as the pegasi, kinda like this was old hat to him.

Finally there was a shadowy figure sitting all off on his own. With one wing around his head, the bat pony seemed to be shying away from the bright sun outside. I couldn't blame him, it had taken Mum forever to get used to being awake during the day.

Deciding to do a good deed, I walked casually up and sat on the bench beside the bat pony. The golden glow of my horn didn't add much to the morning's brightness, but as soon as my dimming spell took effect, he jumped.

"That a bit better?" I asked.

He was staring at my horn—fixated. Right, not all bat ponies are going to be quite so up with unicorn magic. "T-T-Thankyou."

"My mum's a bat pony, so I know how hard it is to adjust to daytimes again. I'm Lyra." I pushed out my hoof toward him and got a hesitant clop in return. "Heading back to Cowwarr/Stonecrop?"

His eyes widened even more, but he shook his head. "H-Helping to organize the chancery. I have to wait for workers from Canterlot and b-back home."

"Mum said that Cowwarr got a bit of a facelift since I last saw it. Is the pub there still doing average food really cheap?" I remembered the first meal we'd had in town and shudered. That was something I wouldn't forget.

Staring at me for a moment, he seemed to stiffen and then blink his eyes rapidly. "You speak Thestralian?!"

I didn't have to turn around to know our conversation got some curious looks, but that could have happened just from ponies hearing a different language. "Born and raised in Australia," I said in English. "Kinda cool everything's going forward so friendly, but after living this long with ponies I can understand why."

"When did you move here? Equestria, I mean. Oh! My name's Susan. You can call me Cookie if you like." He blushed up a storm.

This was an interesting split between me and Thestralia. They'd come to terms with all this gender flipping stuff as a society, having to put up with all of their society rules and crap. I'd broken my ties to one world as a male, and walked into another as a female.

Well, time to put him at ease. "Well, you could call me Mike, but I haven't used that name in years, and at my wedding a princess called me Lyra Heartstrings, so that made it kinda official."

"You got married here?" Curiosity lit up his face and made him look a lot prettier—but still not actually attractive to me in any way.

"Found the mare of my dreams. It wasn't love at first sight, but we didn't exactly waste time." I could see Ponyville getting nearer out the window. "What about you? Got a special somepony waiting for you?"

"No. Things got all kinds of messed up when the change happened, and after it things were twice as messed up. Is this stop Ponyville?" Cookie asked.

"Yeah. This is my stop. If you ever want to come into Ponyville and chill, just—Well, I'm arranging a house today, so I don't know exactly where yet," I said and stood up as the train slowed, "But just ask around and I'm sure somepony will know where I live."

The train wasn't due to wait long. I'd just stepped off it when it let out a groan and, one by one, the cars jolted and were pulled forward. It was leaving my sight when I realized he couldn't speak Equish. How would he be able to ask around for me?

I'd figure something out. Oh well, time to meet—"Mayor Mare!"

It was perhaps the luckiest of things that she was standing on the platform right then, trying to haul a large package that'd been dropped off. It stood taller than she did, and looked to be just about as heavy as she was.

"Would you like some help?" I asked.

"Oh! Miss Heartstrings! How good of you to offer, but I've got this." Mayor Mare seemed to glare at the big box, shift her back a little, then she kicked it. I stared as the box actually flipped and dropped, then landed square across her back. "There. Now, I hear there's congratulations in order?"

Well she knew the way to make me bubbly and happy again. I nodded, smiling clear from one side of my snout to the other. "Yeah! It was amazing. She was beautiful—still is. I'd say it was the happiest day of my life, but since then every day I've woken up beside Sweetie has been the new best day of my life. Today is not an exception."

"Some ponies say it can be hard to recognize true love, but I've seen—and officiated over—many ponies, and you have the look and sound of a mare head over hocks in love, and I have just the place for you." Pointing toward the center of town with a hoof, Mayor Mare started walking in the indicated direction. "But first I'll need to drop this new filing cabinet off."

When a pony turns down your help, and you're in a hurry, you find yourself trying to work out ways to speed things up. Mayor Mare seemed intent to gossip about the other ponies of town while I ran calculations in my head of how best to teleport both of us and the cabinet to the town hall as efficiently as possible.

A direct teleport of all three masses would be easy, but I'd been taught (and had disciplined myself) that waste is the biggest enemy of all. The only time to use more energy than strictly required was when safety or overkill were a high concern. So while she told me about the new pegasus twins moving into town, and talked about how she thought Octavia should find herself a nice earth pony stallion, I calculated a two-pony teleport and a teleport-pull of the filing cabinet such that the least amount of magic would be used.

My plan called for projecting the cabinet not directly to me, but into a parabolic arc. I quickly scrubbed that idea on the grounds that firing a filing cannon at myself wasn't the best use of my magic. What I needed was some kind of trampoline to bounce the—

"You wouldn't mind helping me get it through the door, dear?" Mayor Mare asked, cutting my ruminations on ballistic trajectories short.

"Sure. Let me get a grip on it." My telekinetic grip wasn't as strong as what someponies had, but that doesn't mean I didn't have enough oomph to grab and lift the cabinet. Slowly lifting, I got it clear of Miss Mare's back. "Okay, I got it. Show me where you need it put."

"Just in here. If you could put it in my office beside the other ones."

The trick with heavy loads was to not put all the strain on yourself. Gripping the cabinet resulted in my golden glow enveloping it, but what nopony could see was the lines of force I extended out to support the weight evenly across the floor. Moving it was more a case of having my magic walk it into the right place.

Mayor Mare slipped into her office and pointed out where she wanted the desk. I walked it all the way into place and then slowly lowered it. When it finally touched the ground I held on still just in case. "This is where you need it?"

"Thank you, yes."

I let my magic relax and fizz out on its own. The feel of my body already kicking itself into gear to replace the spent energy never failed to make me feel slightly hungry. High metabolism came with being a unicorn who used their magic, but being a physically active unicorn on top of that meant that my calorie intake could be quite a bit higher than a normal pony's without putting any weight on me. "About a house?"

"Well, you know Ponyville is one of the fastest growing towns in all Equestria right now. Actual houses are at a premium…" Mayor Mare still wore a smile, and remembering her comment earlier reassured me there would be a but coming. "But for a member of the Guard, and a student of Princess Celestia's school to boot—I found just the place.

"Although it's a bit of a sad story. The couple who lived there were quite apt adventurers. Alas we got a report that they—ah—shan't be coming back." Mayor Mare looked a little subdued at that.

It certainly wasn't the house's fault that the occupants had died. Besides, a house is a house. "Can you tell me a little more about it?"

Mayor Mare led the way back outside. "It's a four bedroom—you said you wanted plenty of space—with two bathrooms and a generous living room. The kitchen lacks modern appliances, but I'm sure you can arrange that. The rental price is marginally lower because of that."

I listened to everything as we made our way through town. I'd left my armor at home mostly because I didn't want to give the wrong impression. Wearing it while exercising was one thing, and drummed into us in the Guard training, but if I wore it all the time it'd feel like I was pretending to be somepony I wasn't.

"… and this is it."

The house looked like it needed a little work. The garden was mostly neat, but it seemed the kind of care that a neighbor who was worried about having an overgrown wilderness beside their nice garden would do.

The building too needed some care. A new coat of paint would do it wonders, and one of the windows on the upper floor was broken. In short, it was a fixer-upper. "It needs some work."

"I could have the first six months of rent suspended on the provision you bring it up to code."

I liked that. "How is it inside? Can I go in?"

"Go right ahead. Like I said, the fittings are a little out of date, but you'll benefit from updating them with each year you live here."

Using my magic to open the front door, I pushed it open and walked in. The entry hall was bare of furniture, and when I walked to the living room I realized the house had been emptied. "No furnishings at all?"

"Relatives of the couple who owned it previously collected all the things, along with their little daughter. Poor thing." As she walked past me, Mayor Mare seemed a little too fast to get to the back of the house.

I smelled a rat—or at least an effort to unload a house that nopony else would move into—and gave chase. When I reached the kitchen, it was right on Mayor Mare's hooves.

The kitchen was much like the rest of the house, but I noticed a lack of dust that set off a warning flag in my head. "A wood-burning stove? You weren't joking." I walked over to said stove and ran my hoof along the handle—there was no dust. "I'll have to get all this replaced. It's going to cost a small fortune."

"I-I'll be honest, Miss Heartstrings. I thought it was better equipped than this. I'll contact Princess Celestia's inspectors and have them come out to revalue it. If you bring this up to modern standards, it should be a lot more than just the few bits a year I'm allowed to adjust a property."

"Would I be able to take a look upstairs?" I asked.

"Go ahead. Three of the bedrooms and a bathroom are up there. The master bedroom and an en suite are down on the ground floor."

When Mayor Mare started to follow me, I paused. "I don't suppose you could check the fittings in the bathroom on this floor? That's what I'm most worried about now."

Leaving her to her investigation, I made my way to the top of the stairs and looked at the clean part of the floor—it stopped at the bathroom, which had one bedroom before it.

My mind raced. If a squatter was living here, why would they use the upstairs bedroom and not the master? Opening the bedroom door I saw a normally furnished bedroom that I could assume would belong to a foal. It was empty right now, but I had my suspicions on what was happening.

Suspicions that would have to wait. I closed the door and walked through to the bathroom. The bedroom had been neat and tidy, but the bathroom was a bit of a mess. The plumbing looked ancient, reinforcing the fact that this place would need a lot of work—probably even enough work that it would be easier to build something new.

But this was something interesting. The evidence pointed to either a very untidy pony or a foal living here alone. If it was the former, I'd be duty bound to report it to Mayor Mare—since she obviously didn't know about them. If the latter… I'd taken an oath—it might not be as private or personal as the Royal Guard one was, but I'd sworn to do the right thing by ponies and Equestria.

Plus, you know, I'm actually a nice pony. A foal living on their own wasn't right. While it didn't quite fit, thinking of them as my little sister (what with my little sister being some kind of freakin' genius), I felt protective.

I gave the bedroom door a hard stare as I walked past it before taking the stairs back down. Mayor Mare practically leapt out at me—but not really. I just didn't hear her walking about. "I'd like to spend the night here. Maybe a few. Get a feel for it."

"Oh. Well, I guess that shouldn't be a problem. Do you need something to sleep on? I'm sure Quills and Sofas would have something temporary you could set up." She perked up again. "I'll arrange for the inspectors to come down tomorrow, if you'd like?"

It might be inconvenient, but I could deal with that then. "Absolutely! That'd be wonderful. I might stretch my legs on a walk around town now. Old habits die hard, you know."

The look of confusion on Mayor Mare's face told me she didn't know what I was talking about. With a promise I'd visit Quills and Sofas, I left through the back door. The rear garden was worse than the front one. I was just about to leave when an idea hit me.

Firstly, I'd need to get a look at what I have to work with. The weeds came up to my belly, which didn't bode well for any flowers that might be trying to live. Well, I wasn't going to pull them out with my teeth, so I began tugging on stems with my telekinetic grip.

I lost track of time, but my belly rumbled to let me know the sun was high in the sky. I had about half the garden cleared, and it was obvious from the parts I'd done that none of the actual plants had survived. Weeding would result in some of the most tenacious grass ever and that was the best I could hope for.

Working part-time in Ponyville would have to wait until I had the house updated and repaired, and that all might have to wait until I found out who was living here. Using a tap at the back door, I washed up my hooves and took a long guzzle of water before stepping out of the back garden.

A skinny lane led between the backs of each house. Beautiful gardens resided in some of the yards, while others were more plain. I could definitely see which houses had earth ponies and which didn't.

The lane let out onto a street, which I followed to the main thoroughfare, and that led me to Sugarcube Corner. The building was gorgeous, its colors bright and joyful, and through the windows I could see excited ponies within.

I opened the door with my magic and slipped inside. What surprised me was who stood behind the counter. Pinkie Pie. Turning my head away from her, lest she recognize me in the background of the crowd, I focused everything I had on a fetching spell, targeting two items in a chest back home in Canterlot.

A more complete and utter waste of magic I couldn't think of, but this was the right thing to do. Settling the fake glasses and moustache on my face, and putting the silly hat on, I joined the line of ponies slowly advancing toward the register.

"Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! What can I get for—" Pinkie Pie had clearly been using her spiel all day, or maybe for several days, because she almost finished it before recognizing me.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but do you have a cure for the equine flu?" I asked.

Now, Pinkie already looked happy, but now her face almost seemed to explode in excitement. She shook in place, and I could see the effort it took for her not to jump across the counter and hug me. "E-Equine flu?"

"Yes!" I tossed off my hat and reached across to boop Pinkie on the nose. "I'm feeling a little hoarse!"

I liked to think I was a tough unicorn, and that I could stand hoof-to-hoof with just about any regular earth pony, but Pinkie Pie was over the counter and knocking me backwards so fast I wouldn't have gotten a single spell off to save myself. "Lyra!" And the pounce turned into a pounce-hug. "What are you doing here?!"

"Well, I heard one of my best friends got a job here, and thought I'd take the day off to come and see her." As I spoke, Pinkie's eyes widened more and more until they were the size of saucers.

"No!"

I just grinned at her. "Well, I might be moving here. What—"

"Pinkie? What's the matter? There's a lot of shouting and—Oh! Miss Lyra!" Cup Cake was standing over us. "What an unexpected surprise. Do you two know each other?"

Opening my mouth to reply, I was beaten to the punch by Pinkie.

"Only the best of friends since school! Back then Lyra was called Mike, and he was already suuuuper friendly, but then he became a pony and it became a hundred, thousand, million, googol times more fun! She was best friends with me and all my sisters, and also with Princess Cadance, and she knows all the bat ponies ever!" Pinkie Pie's flood of words were all kinda correct, though I don't think I know all the bat ponies ever. "Wait. How do you know Lyra?"

Cup Cake looked a little worried. "Well, when we were having trouble finding somepony to work here, we asked Lyra if she could help out. Err, I hope it's not a problem that we filled the position, but you did say you'd be fine st—"

"It's not a problem, Cup." I didn't want her so upset about it, and it really wasn't a problem. "I still have my main job in Canterlot, and it looks like I'm going to need some time to work on the house I've got an eye on."

"So you're really moving here? This'll be great! I'll have to throw you a Welcome to Ponyville party!" Pinkie, with strength even Sweetie would have envied, lifted me up effortlessly and started dancing. My hooves felt possessed as I inexplicably joined in her dance.

It was a type of magic I hadn't directly experienced like this before. Princess Celestia had called it the Magic of Harmony, and it swirled around ponies fulfilling their destiny—dragging others in and rewarding all for celebrating the togetherness that such brought. It was heady, and proof that Pinkie was definitely the right mare for this job.

When our impromptu dance party ended, I was aware that other ponies had been pulled into it with us. "It's great to know we'll have some old friends here with us."

I could almost see Pinkie processing what I'd said. "'Us'?" she asked.

"Us. Sweetie Drops and I. We're married now." My words had frozen Pinkie. I could either leave her like that or keep talking to distract her. "I tried to send you an invitation, but I had no idea where to send it. In the end, I sent it to your parents' farm, but I guess you didn't ge—"

"You got married?!" Pinkie hugged me tight enough to squeeze me out of my skin. "I can't believe you got married! That's amazing! How much cake was there?"

It took no more words than that to shove all the memories of one of the happiest days of my life to the fore. "There was a lot. Princess Celestia let us use the castle, since it was a double wedding, so we had her kitchen making—"

"Double wedding?!"

"Mum and Tufts got married at the same time. It was a last minute thing." I waited a moment for another shout, but none came. Perhaps I'd gone one revelation too many for Pinkie Pie? "It's kinda weird thinking of him as my dad, but he's been the closest thing to what I think a dad should be. Pinkie?"

Pinkie took a deep, calming breath and closed her eyes. "There is going to be a big party, Lyra. I cannot be held responsible for the size of the cake or the number of ponies invited." She was so calm and quiet that it actually did worry me what she was going to do. "You see, I figured it all out. I'm a party planner, and the best in Equestria. Your party, Lyra, will be the best Equestria has ever seen."

I couldn't help myself. Pinkie Pie being so serious about something was just about the most cute thing I'd seen all year. I lifted my hoof up and booped her. "I hope so, because you know this means we'll be living in the same town and can visit each other whenever we want, right?"

Her mane seemed to fluff out to twice its normal size before Pinkie giggled. "We sure will! Oh, I better get back to work."

I backed away, then realized I'd missed my place in the line. With the line now much shorter, I didn't overly care and walked to the back. This time, the smell of bakery treats was invading my head, and by the time I got to the front of the queue I was salivating.

"Oh, Lyra! You're back!" Pinkie giggled up a storm. "Sorry about you having to wait in line twice."

"It's okay, Pinkie. I think I'll just take a feta and spinach danish and one of those custard scrolls you have there." I gestured to each of the items. Weighing up my options, I decided to avoid asking about the pony living in the house just in case they got wind of somepony asking after them and—I was maybe overthinking this.

Pinkie slipped both my purchases in little paper bags and slid them across the counter. "That'll be six copper bits."

I slid a silver bit across to her and got four coppers change. "Are there any good places in town for dinner? I didn't exactly bring anything with me…"

Cup was bringing out a new batch of cupcakes and set them on the counter. "Well, there's a Hayburger place, but if you're used to fancy Canterlot food you might want Savoir's Cafe. They have a wonderful dinner menu." Lifting up one of the cakes, Cup held it out to me. "Here. This is on the house."

"You really don't have to—"

"Of course I do. Go on now." Cup Cake had the kind of smile that was impossible to turn down. That the cupcake looked amazing with chocolate and strawberry decorations made my hunger a force to be reckoned with.

"Thanks, Cup, and you too, Pinkie. I guess I'll be seeing you both around." I left the bakery with my things, their goodbyes chasing me out the door, and made my way to the town square.

An open area that resembled a little park, I found a comfortable-looking bench to sit on and climbed up to get comfortable.

The first bite of the danish had me sighing in equine bliss at the delicious food. I couldn't help exploring the entire treat.

"Hi there. New in town?" The speaker was a pegasus mare with a sky-blue coat and the most awesome, rainbow-colored mane and tail I'd ever seen. The other odd thing about her was she just hovered there, flapping her wings as if she didn't have time to land.

Gulping down my last mouthful, I nodded. "Sure am. Lyra Heartstrings." I held out my hoof to her.

She looked like she was waiting for me to say something else, and it honestly became a little odd. Eventually she let out a sigh and reached down to shake my hoof. "So you haven't heard of me? Rainbow Dash?"

Okay, either she has an ego the size of Equestria, or she's part of some famous group. Let's see, pegasus, likes flying way more than is sane. "Are you in the Wonderbolts?"

Apparently not. It was like all the confidence exhaled out in her sigh. "Not yet." Then suddenly it was back again in a double helping. "But I will be soon! You'll see! Commander Spitfire will—"

"Oh? Spitfire's the commander now? I'll have to go congratulate her." Apparently I'd said something wrong.

Rainbow Dash looked shocked. "You know Commander Spitfire?!"

"Only a little. She and another Wonderbolt put on a show for my wife and me when we were still dating. Our first date, if I remember clearly enough. You should have seen 'em fly!" My time in the E.U.P. Guard let me appreciate that their flying on that day had been impressive, even if I hadn't realized it at the time. "So you're going to join up? Maybe you'll be the next commander."

"That would be totally awesome!" Rainbow shot into the sky with a rainbow-colored trail chasing after her, only to return again a moment later. "How'd you manage to get the Wonderbolts to perform for your date?"

"I asked a friend, and she asked them." Good one, Lyra, now you have to explain how you're friends with a princess—or two—or lie. Or maybe I could just smudge it a little. "You know how it is with friends. Somepony always knows somepony."

"Oh. Well yeah, of course. I just need to know somepony who knows somepony…" Rainbow Dash doing subtle was a sight to behold.

I picked up my custard scroll and hovered it just before my mouth. "I'll let them know if I see them." That's when I noticed her looking at my treat. "You want to go halves?"

When Rainbow's eyes lit up, I broke the scroll in half and passed a piece to her. "I got it at Sugarcube Corner. They have a new baker working there." And now I'm advertising for them. Couldn't hurt, I guess.

She seemed to inhale the piece. "Wow that's good. Kinda heavy though."

"Yeah." I tucked the cupcake away in my saddlebags for later. "But that's why you gotta work it off. Wanna go for a run?" Okay, so I was being cruel. Without my armor on, I could run all day at a canter and barely be feeling it. An afternoon would be nothing.

"Why not a fly?"

My brain futzed at that. "Not sure if you noticed, but I don't have wings." Never mind that I could kind-of fly, I still wouldn't be able to out-fly a pegasus—and not one aspiring to be a Wonderbolt. "Let's say ten laps around Ponyville?"

Rainbow's eyes widened. "Ten laps?" I spotted the slightest hesitation.

"Sure! Easy! I'm not going to take it easy on you just because you're a unicorn, though." She jumped to her hooves and started doing stretches.

My legs were already reasonably warm from walking around, but I nonetheless got up and did a little trotting on the spot. "Look, you're a good sport, but I should probably warn you—running is part of my life."

"Pfft! Whatever. I doubt you'd even finish ten laps of Ponyville at anything above a trot!"

Oh, that did it. No more Mrs. Nice Mare. "Wanna put a wager on that?"

"Like what?" She was still doing static stretches. Whoever had taught this mare how to run, didn't do a good job of it.

"If I make ten laps, you have to help me work on my house. Let's say… a week of work." It wasn't even mine yet and I was already planning to fix it up. "And if I win, make it two weeks."

"What about if I win and you don't make the ten laps?"

"I'll tell you what. I'll personally track down Commander Spitfire and make sure she knows about you, if you manage to beat me. If I don't make ten laps, I'll buy you one of those scrolls every day for lunch for a whole month." My heart-rate was rising smoothly and I could feel my lungs settle into the deep breaths I took when running. "How's that for rules?"

"Perfect. Not that I'll have to worry about working on your house. Three." She raised an eyebrow and finally started shifting her legs to get ready. "Two."

"No wings and no magic?" I asked.

"Of course. One… Go!" Alright, she can run. Rainbow Dash hit trot pace and rose into a canter and then gallop. She was fast as all get-out.

In contrast, I'd started into a canter and was letting my heart-rate and breathing build more. I followed her in a line for the edge of town before turning to chase after her. When I reached the edge of Ponyville, I stepped my pace up into a gallop and leaned into the wind that was blowing by.

It was good to run again. My morning run had been just that, and wonderful as it was I liked to stretch my legs whenever possible. For the whole first lap around town I kept an eye on where I was going, watching my footing as I negotiated bridges, roads, and the odd pony watching the rainbow blur ahead of me that hadn't noticed me bringing up the rear.

Rainbow Dash was fast. Her gallop was actually faster than mine—something I wasn't used to. In the Guard we always matched our speed so that, as a unit, we kept pace. Neither the second, third, forth, or fifth laps saw me actually catch her, but at the end of the sixth I could actually see her tail ahead of me.

She'd dropped to a canter, it seemed, which was probably faster than my canter, but was no gallop. Each stride she took of the 3-metered gait saw her wings twitching, and I knew she wasn't used to long distance running. Pegasi were wonders on the wing. A pegasus could fly all day and not even feel the strain in their wings, but like an untrained unicorn, running was a strain.

By the time I marked off my eighth lap, Rainbow was only a few ponylengths ahead. She'd alternated between a lap of canter and one of gallop for the last three, and was due for another gallop.

On cue, Rainbow Dash's speed built and she pulled away from me again. In my mind I could see this being close. Unless she had the stamina to gallop both the last two laps, I might have her.

As I figured, at the end of the ninth lap she was well ahead again, and again she slowed to a canter. For half the tenth lap she came closer and closer. I could see her tail just a ponylength ahead, then I was starting to get up beside her. With a quarter lap to go her hindquarters were level with my shoulder.

But she surprised me. With the end in sight, Rainbow Dash broke into a gallop again. It wasn't as fast as her earlier gallops, but it was enough to keep pace with me.

Two weeks help was two weeks help. I tried to lengthen my stride a little, to build my pace just a bit faster than her, but Rainbow did the same. My snout was at her shoulder when we both passed the spot we'd started at.

Rainbow started to slow, so I brought myself down to a trot. I could see she wanted to slow further, but when she saw I wasn't stopping, she kept shoulder to shoulder with me. "What the heck was that?! How'd you,"—she gasped in a breath—"how'd you keep up like that? Did you even slow down?"

"Like I was trying to tell you at the start, before you told me I couldn't possibly make it, running is part of what I do." Despite how wrecked she looked, she was keeping the trot going easily. "What I do is train for the E.U.P. Guard."

"So you want to join them?" She looked interested in hearing more, but from experience I knew we needed to take care of ourselves. "What're you getting out?"

I lifted the bottle of rocket fuel and took a quick pull from it. The salt was the important thing here, and the drink was literally made for just this kind of thing. "Here, take a short swig of this. You don't need much, and it'll put back whatever that run just took out of you." Unused to dealing with pegasi, I just kinda held the bottle out for Rainbow to take.

"What's in it?" Rainbow Dash held the bottle in her wing for a few seconds before lifting it to her lips and drinking. After two mouthfuls she pulled it away with a shocked look on her face. "Whoa!"

"Hits you quick, yeah?" Taking the drink from her, I put the cap back on the bottle and put it back in my saddlebag. "And no, I don't want to join the guard, I'm already a private in the reserves."

"I didn't think they gave ranks to reserves?"

"Kinda. They only give a reservist a rank if they've seen actual duty." I made my way slowly over to the river that ran alongside the town and leaned down to get a good drink.

Beside me, Rainbow did the same. The rocket fuel was great for giving you a quick kick, but a pony needed water to replace what they'd used up. "So you're moving to Ponyville, then?"

"Yeah. Canterlot's great and all, but we want to give our parents some space. Also, get our own space, if you know what I mean?" Standing up straight, I shook my head a few times to free any extra water from it.

"Totally. You have no idea how crazy it is back home with my—Yeah. Let's just say I'm glad to be here and have a nice and easy job that lets me practice for the Wonderbolts." She kept pace beside me, walking back into Ponyville itself. "About the work, when would you need me to help?"

"I probably don't even need a full week. I think I'll be replacing a lot of the fittings, and may need a spare pair of hooves to help hooking things up while I hold them. We've got a few bits to get everything, but I'm not exactly going to pay ponies to fit everything for me." As we got closer to the house, I caught Rainbow's expression changing a little to surprise. "What's up?"

"N-Nothing. Well, a friend used to live here. More precisely, their parents." Rainbow Dash had my full attention, but she stopped talking.

"Well, I want to do a little work on it, mostly just to make it comfortable and some things modernized, but there's one or two things I absolutely don't want to change." Walking up to the house, I opened the front door to the empty front room. "There's this awesome old wood-fired stove in the kitchen that I know Sweetie will love, but at the same time I'd like to get a modern gas unit. It's going to take up a lot of room having both, but it'll be worth it."

When we walked through the house, Rainbow stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "What about up there?"

"Not going to worry about that until tomorrow." Truth. By then I'd have a better idea of what was going on. "Honestly, it was good just to have somepony to run with. When Sweetie's home from the Guard, she runs with me, but most mornings and nights I'm stuck running solo."

"So, about the Wonderbolts…?"

"I'm not going to skip out on you. The Wonderbolts swing by E.U.P. Guard HQ in Canterlot every Monday. I'll have a talk with them next time they're there." The kitchen was as I'd left it a few hours ago. That old wood-fired stove made me tingle with possibility. Keeping it fed might be a problem, but then, maybe not. There were ways to use magic for such things.

"You run every morning and night? Like that?" Rainbow gestured with a wing in the vague direction we'd come from. "I mean, if you want some company… I sorta want to run faster—even though I can fly. You know—"

It was obvious where she was trying to get to, and failing. "I get it. We started working on our legs before joining the Guard so we would have things a bit easier in basic training. It did help, but the funny thing is that I thought I was ready with my magic, too. I wasn't. I had some useful spells, and knew how to use them, but there was a pile of tricky things I'd never thought of, and I spent nearly the whole training time learning a new way to train up my magic so I could use it better."

"Yeah. I guess like that. So if I ran every day I'd get better, right?"

"That's how it worked with your flying, right? You work at it every day and you become better at it?" When Rainbow nodded, I continued. "Well, for running it's the same. Probably the same for magic, too, but you need to know a few tricks to really work out how to go the extra mile there."

"Same for flying. Sounds like I'll be getting the best out of this deal." Rainbow walked out the back door into the yard and cringed at the sight of tons of weeds. "You're not going to make me do gardening, are you?"

I snorted at the tone. "Nah. Yanking weeds is where a unicorn shines. Besides, I'll have you working way harder helping me inside."

A shiver seemed to run over Rainbow Dash and she tilted her head back. When I followed her gaze to the dark cloud coming in low from the forest on the edge of town, she spread her wings. "Sorry, Lyra, got work to do."

I'd seen pegasi jump into the air before, I'd seen them rip their wings through the chill mountain air of Canterlot, and I'd even watched my mum practically float into the sky on her huge wings, but Rainbow Dash seemed more like she let go of the ground and the air pulled her upward. It was some kind of magic, I was sure, that shot her into the sky like a rainbow-trailing missile headed right for that angry cloud.

"Far out…"

To whoever's watching the satellite footage right now, what does Australia look like by now?

"Broken. There are areas of land that shimmer and change, monsters that we've seen walk out of thin air and back into it, and then there's the cities." The young analyst shuddered. "I don't know how anything can live in that chaos."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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