Author's Notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mOTqhvdDZE1l2IFuIPDcmPZxUKn5aMgukvoqRUSxc5c/edit

The next morning found me in my room with a bag of ice pressed against my backside. Apparently there are some aches magic can’t heal, which made me seriously reconsider some of what I had planned to let Twilight do to me. The door was closed and I could only count the moments until someone decided to just open it without knocking.

It would be better if Flo was currently on speaking terms with me, but apparently she was still a little upset about the whole murder thing, for whatever fucking reason. You’d think an aeons old being would be over temper tantrums, but the fact that she just hit me for that proves otherwise.

Sure enough, the third person that knocked waited about fifteen seconds before trying the door handle. It didn’t work, so it lit up with a telltale aura of magic and clicked open. I wasn’t facing the door, so I had no idea who it was until Watcher cleared his throat and stepped in, then closed the door behind him.

“So I’m sure you’re wondering why I decided to come in,” he said.

“Because you’re my vassal and it’s your job to make sure I’m safe, so you have no compunctions about violating my privacy if you have reason to believe I might be in danger?”

“Yes, actually.” He stepped in closer to get a better look at my… problem area. “Was Twilight a little rough last night?”

“We invited a third party who decided not to be gentle. It wasn’t bad at the time, but…”

“But you’re finding rough anal isn’t always the best the morning after.”

“Bingo. Though it also wasn’t all that great during, no offense to the third party.”

“Not all mares… or females can get into it. It’s much better for stallions.” Despite the pain, I slowly turned my head to look at him. “...From what I’ve been told.”

“That’s a mental image I didn’t need,” I sighed, turning back to face the wall. “Is there something you needed, or did you just want to make sure I was alright?”

“We’re on the way to mainland Equestria now. Gourd and Silver Quill planned a trade route that should net a profit. It’ll take a little while longer to get to Canterlot, but Flo said we have time to spare. Spike got a letter from the princess about an hour ago and knocked on your door, but didn’t get a response.”

“Yeah, walking hurts and I didn’t feel like waking Doppel up, so I just ignored him until he stopped knocking.”

“Well, I’m not going to be your maid for the day, but I did happen to bring the letter.” His horn lit up and it appeared next to him. He floated it over.

“Does it count as bringing it with you if you had to use magic to make it appear?” I asked. That made him roll his eyes, so I took the letter and popped it open.

‘My dearest Navarone, today I learned that sometimes, listening to the advice of your friends is the best thing you can do. One person can never have all the answers, so it’s always good to listen to whatever wisdom your friends can provide. You never know what kind of situations you can prevent or improve by learning from others! Love, your student, Celestia.’

“Write a letter telling her to go fuck herself,” I said, tossing the thing aside.

“As much as I’ve always wanted to tell the princess to do something physically impossible to herself, I think I’ll pass,” he replied. Then he used magic to float the letter over to himself and read it. “On second thought, I think I’ll go find Spike.”

“Tch. Tell him to come here and bring paper and something to write with. I’ll just send her an actual response. And include a postscript telling her to go fuck herself.”

“You’re truly an exemplary example for us all, Lady Navarone.”

“Eat a dick.”

“I’m going to choose to take that order figuratively instead of literally.” He quickly left before I could decide whether or not I should specify what I meant. Thankfully, he pulled the door closed so no one could just look in and see me wearing nothing but an ice pack against my ass.

About a minute later, Spike timidly opened the door. His breath caught when he saw me, but that didn’t stop him from coming all the way in and then closing the door behind him. “Watcher said you were… aching,” he said.

“I bet he didn’t specify where,” I sarcastically replied.

“He didn’t.” He moved closer and poked one of my cheeks, making me hiss. “Wow. Was Twilight a little rough last night?”

“Dude, she’s like your m… sister, apparently.”

“Like my sister. Not actually my sister. I don’t get weirded out by the thought of you two doing things.”

“Well, whatever. It wasn’t Twilight, not that it matters.”

“Oh.” He poked me again. “Was it Watcher?”

“I’m not into old people, Spike.”

Another poke. “Gourd?”

“No, but he’s my vassal now and I have considered it…”

One more poke, this one closer to the problem area. “Doppel?”

“Spike, I swear to god, if you keep fucking poking me, I’m going to go get a strap-on from Pinkie and show you what it’s like!”

He fell silent. After a few seconds, I looked back and saw that his ear things were twitching like crazy. His talon had been inching toward me again, but it froze in place when I said that. My eyes met his and I lifted an eyebrow. He slowly pulled his claws back.

“Uh huh.”

That made his ear spines fall. “Watcher said you uh… needed my help.”

“I need you to write and send a letter to a fat-bottomed mare for me.”

“What should I say to Mrs. Cup Cake?” he asked, holding up some parchment.

“Spike, don’t be a piece of shit. I’m too butthurt for that today.”

“Hah, I get it.” My gaze beat into him. “B-because… butthurt? And… piece of…” He cleared his throat and readied the pen and parchment. “What should I tell the princess?”

“You better use my exact words for this, Spike.”

“Of course!”

“Dear Sunass, first of all, go fuck yourself.” I paused to let him get all that down. “Second, we accomplished our task of freeing the first fire. In doing so, we met yet another previously unknown native race. This time, it was a lizard-like carnivorous race that call themselves kobolds. Since you’re super racist, I didn’t figure you would be interested in uplifting a race of carnivores, so we’re already on the way home.”

Once Spike got to that point, he looked up, a somewhat concerned expression on his face. “Are you sure you should be sending this to Princess Celestia?”

“Tch, no. She’s gonna be pissed. But that’s all part of the fun.”

“She… she knows my claw-writing, Nav.”

“Yeah, and she also knows you wouldn’t say any of this to her yourself, so don’t worry about it. Now, let’s continue.” He sighed and lowered his pen back to the parchment. “As it turns out, one of the water elementals happened to know the fire elemental, and is apparently insanely in love with him. Because she’s a completely normal woman, she decided the best way to show this love was to kidnap him and hope Stockholm Syndrome kicked in. It didn’t, so now we can’t really leave them together. The fire elemental and the air elemental need a place to stay for a little while, away from the insane water. You mind if they spend some time in Canterlot? I promise to tickle your ears just right if you let them.”

Spike cleared his throat at that part and looked up again. “Twilight is like my sister, Nav. Celestia is like my mom.”

“Well, you’re okay with me fucking someone that’s like your sister. I didn’t figure you’d much mind me fucking someone like your mom.” He snorted out some steam. “Ugh, fine. Take out the part about me tickling her ears.” His eyes stared me down for another few seconds before he bent back down to write. “We should be back in a few weeks, so you’ll have time to decide and fireproof a part of the palace. He’s promised to behave, if it’s worth anything.”

“I’m not sure if that’s worth anything at all,” Spike muttered.

“If you want, you can teleport in and talk to them personally. Just let me know beforehand so I can make sure to be in as compromising a position as possible.” Spike sighed again. “Lustfully yours, Nav.” He face-clawed. “PS: Seriously though, go fuck yourself.”

He finished with a flourish and thrust the letter at me. I took a second to read it over before passing it back. It went on its way with a flash. “You have problems, Nav.”

“That was just punishment for poking my ass.” He crossed his arms. “Mostly.” That made him roll his eyes. “I don’t need your judgment.”

“Fine. Whatever. So why are you in here with an ice pack? Can’t Twilight just heal you?”

“Apparently there are some things magic can’t heal. And Flo is upset because she likes being difficult and using immature methods of punishment instead of airing her differences in a way that’s actually productive.”

“...Silent treatment?”

“Silent treatment.”

He sighed and shook his head, then took a step closer and very gently put a claw on my back. “Ease down, Nav.” I did so, letting him carefully press me fully against the bed. Once I was all the way down, he pulled his claws away and breathed fire onto them to heat them up. “I’ll try to be as gentle as I can.”

“Thank you, Spike,” I sighed as he began kneading my back with his warm claws.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I actually really like massaging you,” he said. It felt too good to talk, so I let him try to explain how there was a right way to take that. “I tried it with Doppel once and her body was too hard and unpliable. Gilda won’t even let me try. Pinkie was too giggly and I couldn’t be gentle enough for Fluttershy. I refused to try it on Rarity and none of the others were interested. You’re tough enough that I can’t accidentally hurt you, but your body is soft enough that I can actually do some good.”

Which he was most certainly doing. Stress has interesting ways of destroying the human body and there’s only so much you can do to unfuck it once it’s been ravaged. His claws were doing a pretty good job of it, though.

“You should make another bet with Gilda,” I quietly said.

He didn’t reply at first. It seemed he had to fully concentrate on a knot in one of my shoulders. After he smoothed it out, he said, “Maybe I will. After what… what happened to her, I bet she needs it.”

“Just be wary, now. She has a fire elemental in her. There’s no telling what that might do to her mentality. If she starts acting strange, let me know.”

“You don’t think he’d hurt her, do you?”

“I doubt it. Just… watch her.”

He fell silent until he got to my wings. One of his talons traced up the demon wing and he asked, “How does this one feel?”

“It doesn’t have the same nerve clusters as the feathery one, so it doesn’t feel nearly as good.”

“Huh. I wonder why. Do you want me to…?”

“Not this time. I’m not in the mood.”

“You got it.” He bypassed the wings and moved to my lower back.

As he worked, my mind wandered. And as it wandered, it kept going back to him. Spike was… is my friend. There were times it felt like I… took that for granted, so to say. And worse, times when I didn’t really consider what he wanted or thought.

“Are you happy, Spike?” I asked.

“Yeah. Like I said, I enjoy massaging you.”

“In general. Are you happy here on this ship? It’s very different from your old life.”

“It’s not always different. I mean, Twilight’s still here. And the princess still writes. I feel like I’m doing good here, too. Like I’m really helping you. Everything Twilight had me do was something she could have just done with magic. But you actually need me, not just anyone.”

“Not everything I’ve done was good, Spike.” His claws paused for a moment. “Not everything I’ve done was right.” He continued, slower. “What I did yesterday was wrong, Spike. It was murder. Did you realize that?”

“I did,” he quietly replied.

“I should not have killed that mage. I should not have killed that person.”

His talons slowly pulled away from my back. “Do you regret it?”

“I am not a good person, Spike. I’m not a saint, I’m not always right. I am human. Killing that man was wrong.” One of his claws pressed against my thigh. “But I would kill him again in a heartbeat.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because everyone has choices to make in life, Spike. That man hurt someone loyal to me, so I killed him. I would have done it for any person on this crew. But that doesn’t change what it was, and it was murder. He was defenseless. He was begging for his life. And I killed him anyway. And I don’t regret it one little bit. You have every right to make a choice because of what I did. Law, or righteousness. Revenge, or forgiveness. The pony code, or the dragon code.”

The talons on my thigh moved lower, to one of my feet, and he started rubbing that. “You told me back in Africa that I should… balance the pony lifestyle with my inner dragon nature. That there were bonuses to both.”

“I did. If you want to go back to serving Twilight instead of me—”

“There aren’t.”

I did not have a reply to that. He breathed flame onto his claws again before continuing with my other foot. Once it was finished, he set it down and knelt down next to the bed. One claw went to my back again, though not to massage it. It was the first time his warm, dry touch ever brought menace instead of comfort. Even his reptilian eyes seemed to take on a darker hue as they gazed down at me.

“Ponies aren’t like us, Nav. Watcher and his soldiers are close, but even they’re different. You and I… understand the world differently. I see that now. We are right. And so are they. I can’t force myself to look at things their way any more than I could force them to look at them our way. I’ve been fighting with that in my mind ever since… Egypt, at least. Maybe longer. But yesterday finally gave me the words to use to explain it, if that makes sense. Predators and prey are different. What you did was not wrong to us. Kat would agree. So would the naga. I know Gilda would. What you did was wrong to the ponies. Zecora disagreed. All the girls would call it wrong. Watcher looked concerned. I think the water elementals are also upset. We’re different, and that’s not bad.”

I do not like where this is going, not one bit. “It may be true that things are split along a racial line, so to say, but there’s one thing wrong with what you said, Spike. I think what I did was wrong. I don’t regret it, but it was still wrong.”

Because apparently being weird and invasive was the today’s thing, he moved his other claw to my face and stuck a talon in my mouth to pull my lips back. “One, two, three, four sharp teeth. Looks like eight tearing teeth. The rest are grinders.” He let my mouth go and shrugged. “I suppose there’s always middle ground, a place for the… meat and plant eaters. Is there a word for that?”

“Omnivore.”

“Oh. Well, that’s one of the reasons I’m happy to follow you, Nav. You have the instincts of a predator but you can see things from the perspective of prey. You’re smart, you’re funny, you’re fast, you’re strong, you have your own code, you’re kind when you need to be and merciless when you don’t, you’re charming, you’re… It feels like there’s so much more I could say. But I don’t need to.” He stood again and took his claw off my back. “You said I had a choice to make about what you did. Well, I made my choice a long time ago and I’m sticking to it. If there’s anything you need, just let me know.”

With that, he finally let himself out, closing the door behind him.

I lost track of the amount of time I spent, just thinking and wondering how big of a mistake I made. Or if what happened was the result of one long line of mistakes after another.

Finally, I rolled over onto my side and saw my water elemental next to my bed.

“Flo, what have I done?”

“You have shown Spike the path his nature always yearned. You pulled him away from the path of peace and guided him down the first few steps of the path of the sword.” She placed a hand on my arm that quickly absorbed into my skin. I felt her cool water flow through my body until it got to the place that was aching. She soothed the burn and then pulled herself out, though left the hand there. “Your irresponsibility, your dark choices, have driven Spike to lose what he was. To become another soldier. That is one of the consequences for your actions.”

“...Can it be undone?”

She pulled the hand away and turned to the side. Her color went a few shades bluer before she said, “The world turns, Navarone. I can no more change who Spike is than stop the world in its tracks. You are the one who changes others, Nav. That is not the place of a water elemental. We try to guide, but we so very often fail.” She turned back to me. “We cannot change those who do not want to change. You said you wanted to change. You said you were trying to change. You acted like you were changing. And yet you murdered that kobold. You murdered him and even now do not regret it.”

I sighed and readjusted my wings so I could lay on my back. “That kobold was evil, Flo. If changing means I can’t make people like him pay for his crimes, why would I want to change? And don’t tell me prison is better, because I think we both know that’s a lie.”

“Did he really pay for his crimes, Nav? Or did he pay for the crimes of Blaze? How sure are you that he wasn’t a host? You didn’t give him a chance to speak or to explain himself, so you don’t know. You may have consigned an innocent to the flames.”

“...Was he a host?”

“I don’t know. He is dead, so I cannot ask him. You didn’t even give him a chance to explain himself, Nav. If you had done so, by the time he was finished, Gilda would have climbed out. Celestia could have uplifted their tribe and let them rejoin the world. Now, they hate and fear outsiders and will likely only close themselves off even more.”

“Isn’t that better for you guys?” I asked. “They can return back to your service instead of getting swallowed up in the world.”

She quickly went several shades of red. “We want what is best for them, Navarone. Being locked away alone on an island will only drive them slowly to extinction. Being connected to the world is important. And our time as figures of leadership are over. We have decided that it is our job now to guide, not to lead. We understand now that we were never meant to last this long, and that the world has turned so far beyond us that guiding is all we can do. And it is my goal to guide you to goodness. You are not making it easy.”

“Hey, I already admitted that I shouldn’t have killed that kobold.”

“And yet you did it anyway. And you would do it again. You feel absolutely no regret.”

“Would it matter if I did?”

“It makes all the difference. Regret teaches a lesson. Regret changes the way we behave in the future. What Zecora said yesterday was true, Navarone. Violence begets violence. Your actions have shown Spike what it means to act as a predator. Because of your violent deeds, he will go and commit more. Spike’s violence will, in turn, make Discord stronger, as all violence does. Your role as the leader of this ship should be to inspire peace and unity in the world, not fill it with strife and violence. Law, not righteousness. Forgiveness, not revenge. Pony ways, not draconian ways. There is, perhaps, a time and a place for violence, but only after all peaceful means have been exhausted.”

I finally sat up and held out a hand. She grasped it with one of her own. “Stop me next time, Flo. I am giving you permission to physically stop me the next time I’m about to do something like that. Assuming, of course, you honestly think nonviolence would be the better path and it wouldn’t put me or my crew at risk. Show me the better way.”

“So be it.” Her hand engulfed mine and her body moved down it and then down my arm to encase all of me except for my head.

“...Are you gonna be my clothes today, Flo?”

“That was not my plan, but it will be an interesting change of pace. I had nothing important planned anyway.”

“Cool. Do you promise to keep me decent?”

“Of course. But tantalizingly so.”

“Even better. When someone’s actually looking, make it even more tantalizing. If they watch for longer than a few seconds, you should make it noticeable that you’re watching back.”

“...I love that idea. Why haven’t we done this before?”

“Because until just recently, I hated the idea of having a female body, I guess.”

“Oh yeah. So what’s on the agenda for today?”

We sat there in silence for a few seconds while I thought of anything that needed to be done. There really wasn’t that much, all things told. “I need to talk to Twilight about Kat and I should probably talk to Blaze to make sure he’s doing alright. And checking in on Gilda would be nice.”

“We should start with her.”

“That works for me.” I slowly stood, letting my body get a feeling for how Flo molded around it. She followed me perfectly, so I grabbed the ice pack that was melting into my bed and walked out.

I was not expecting to immediately run into Pinkie and Rarity in the halls, but I’m never allowed to have nice things, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. Pinkie immediately hugged me because that’s just what she does and Rarity looked me up and down. “That’s a very interesting outfit,” Rarity said.

Because I’m nice, I hugged Pinkie back. “And it’s very comfortable,” I replied. “Form-fitting but not tight, it emphasizes my lovely lady lumps, and it can stare at you while you stare at it.”

“And it’s tickly!” Pinkie said. She tried to pull away, but Flo grabbed her and began actually tickling her.

“It seems that elementals have a few upsides after all,” Rarity said with a hint of a grin. “Twilight’s description of having one inside of her was not overly appealing to me, personally.”

“Trust me, they’re extremely appealing when they’re all up inside of you,” I said, grinning. “Just ask Rainbow Dash.”

“I should have known that’s exactly where your filthy mind would go,” she sighed while shaking her head. “Once again, I am not particularly interested in having… relations with a female, elemental or not. And truth be told, I don’t even like the thought of having another female living in my mind. There’s barely enough room in here for all my genius and sensibility, let alone that of another perfectly reasonable mare. I understand how you are comfortable with it, but I struggle to see how Twilight survives.”

“Rarity, you’re getting awfully close to belly rub territory.” Flo finally stopped tickling Pinkie and seemed poised to grab her next victim.

She ‘hmphed’ at me. “The day I call you Lady Navarone is the day decorum dies. I weep for the world, when those with manners as appalling as yours are elevated to the highest rungs of society.”

“You’re just jealous,” I said, reaching over to tousle her hair. She slapped my hand away with a hoof before I could get near her and I sighed. “It’s your own fault, really. I did ask you to marry me once, you know.”

She blushed bright red and Pinkie gasped. “You two were gonna get married?!”

“She was joking!” Rarity hissed, glaring at me.

“I thought I sounded very serious, actually,” I said with a smirk. “You just never loved me like Pinkie does, so you couldn’t see the offer for what it was.”

“Well you’re not gonna marry Pinkie now,” Rarity said while slamming a hoof on the floor. “Canterlot can find a way to survive you as a noble, but you and Pinkie both would tear it apart.”

I sighed, placed the ice bag inside a pocket that Flo made for me, and took one of Pinkie’s hooves in my hands. “I’m afraid our love is forbidden!”

She sighed dramatically and lifted her other front hoof up to her forehead. “Rarity just doesn’t understand!”

My clothes giggled and said, “I think she’s jealous. She lost her chance with Nav, so now she doesn’t want Pinkie to be happy.”

A sly smile came to Pinkie’s face and she used her spare hoof to drag Rarity slightly closer. “I know how to share, silly! That way, we can all be happy!”

Rarity cleared her throat and jerked her hoof away from Pinkie’s grasp. “Equestria banned polygamous marriages a few hundred years ago, and I’m afraid I am not interested in being a mistress or letting my... wife have a mistress. So I’m afraid I must learn to be content in my loveless life.”

“Or we could set you up with a stallion,” my clothes said.

Rarity’s ears twitched and a small blush reappeared on her face. “I admit that it has been some time since I last dated. In fact, I believe you remember it, Nav.”

Pinkie gasped again, pulling the hoof away from my hand to lift it to her mouth. “You two went on a date?!”

“Sorta, but not really,” I said with a shrug. “It was an accidental double date back when I still had a penis, except she was dating some clingy and immature guy and I was pretending to date Dash.”

“...You made Dashie pretend to be straight?” Pinkie asked, eyes aglow with wonder.

“It was her idea, actually.”

“And they made an adorable couple,” Rarity said. “To the point where I’ve actually considered trying to set you two up now that you’re both female. I think it would be a wonderful mix!”

“I don’t think Dash is looking for romance,” I said. “And I know I’m not, at the moment.”

“Your hand is already taken, from what I’ve heard,” Rarity said. “Which is the main reason I have not made the attempt. One does not need to look for romance to find it, after all.”

My clothes giggled and asked, “And how’s that working out for you?”

That made Rarity’s blush much more noticeable and probably also changed it from embarrassment to anger. “I fail to see how that’s any business of yours, missy. I could find a date whenever I want!”

The look that came over Pinkie’s face made me think everyone was about to regret what Rarity just said. “Can we do a bet?!” she squeaked, her voice going so high-pitched from excitement that she was barely intelligible.

“I’m not interested,” I immediately replied.

That made her mane partially deflate, so Rarity sighed and asked, “What’s the bet, Pinkie?”

“It’s less fun without Nav… But it’s a bet to see who can get a date with a stallion the fastest!”

“Doesn’t that take the honesty and earnesty out of it?” Rarity asked.

“Nope!”

She rolled her eyes. “What do I get if I win, then?”

“I dunno,” Pinkie said with a shrug.

“And what do you get if you win?” Rarity asked.

“A date with a stallion!”

“...You’re bad at bets,” Rarity slowly said.

“So are we on or what?” Pinkie asked, completely disregarding Rarity’s clear lack of interest.

“Well, I suppose it would be an interesting diversion from an otherwise relatively boring time on the ship. Perhaps toying with stallions will be fun. Very well then, Pinkie.”

Pinkie’s eyes turned predatory and she quickly looked both ways down the hall. A crew mare was mopping down one side, but the other side was clear. She immediately shot down the empty side, toward the staircase leading up.

“You get back here!” Rarity shouted, then jumped to follow her. There’s no part of that I wanted to be involved in, so I continued deeper into the ship. The mare doing her chores stepped out of the way as I passed and I went right to the kitchen. The breakfast rush was over and the place was empty, so I tossed the ice pack into the sink and then went to find my griffin.

She was actually in her room, probably the first time I had ever seen her in there. It was decorated with things from a few of her kills while on the ship and a few baubles she picked up here and there in our travels. Gilda was lying on her bed, staring at the new talon that had grown after she cut off the old one, slowly opening and closing it.

“How you feeling?” I asked. As soon as I spoke, she flinched and her head jerked my way.

“I’m fine. You need something?”

I eased in and closed the door behind me. “You can drop the tough girl act if you want. You just went through some really traumatizing stuff, if you remember much of it. If you’re actually fine or just want to pretend that you are, that’s alright, but I am absolutely okay with never talking about anything you tell me.”

“...I still don’t remember how they got me. But I remember hanging above the heat. And then I remember falling. And then it’s just pain. I woke up back on the ship.”

“And Blaze?”

She lifted the talon that was cut off and it burst into flames. “I think I’ll keep him.” The flame doused and she grinned. “For now. He likes Pinkie way too much, but she can be fun sometimes. I don’t think he likes you.”

“He’ll learn to live with that. Maybe if you ask real nice, I’ll let you punish me in all kinds of fun ways.”

“Nah. You don’t fight back and that takes most of the fun out of it. Once Pinkie realized that’s what she was supposed to do, she became much more fun. Spike’s much better, though.”

Shit, I keep losing fuck buddies. “Alright, whatevs. We probably got a few weeks of light duty, so try to take it easy. Elementals are good, but your anatomy was new to him and there’s no guarantee Blaze got all the bits and pieces in the right area, so to say.”

“Tch. If I take it easy, I’ll never know if everything’s working right. If I don’t push my body as hard as I can, I’ll never know if it’s as good as it’s supposed to be.”

“...That’s a very good point. Just don’t do anything like that when you’re alone, at least not until you know you’re absolutely fine.”

“Sure, I guess. Are you using Rainbow Dash for anything today?”

“Nah. Not using Spike, either.”

“Cool.” She finally hopped off the bed. “You wanna join me and Dashie in the air?”

I spread my wings. “I’m slower now than I was before. This demon wing fucked up my wind resistances.”

“Sucks to be you.” I shook my head and we both left her room. She went looking for the prismatic lesbian while I went to seek the most purple member of my crew. Thankfully, the first place I looked was her room, which is also where I happened to find her.

Her door was closed, but it lit up with a purple aura and opened a few seconds after I knocked. As soon as it opened, she grabbed one of my hands with magic and gently tugged on it, so I entered and beheld her on the bed, an ice pack between her back legs. She was writing more notes about what happened last night, from the look of it.

“I don’t know how you’re walking,” she said as the door closed behind me. “Although I also don’t know why you invited a gay stallion to bed with two mares.”

“I didn’t, actually. He asked if he could join us and I figured you wouldn’t mind another subject.”

She softly snorted and moved the notes to her dresser. “So what did you need?”

“I spoke with Kat last night. Apparently she really wants to make me hers.” Twilight’s ears dropped. “I was wondering if you’d like to train her.”

And her ears went right back up. “Absolutely not!”

“Oh. Are you being racist again?”

“Nav, this is the same person that raped you. A lot, apparently. And she wants to make you hers. Let’s skip the whole thing about how your vassal apparently wants to own you and go into what exactly she means by ‘make you hers’. Does she want to marry you? Does she want to make you a sex slave? Does she want to just dominate you wholly? Did you even ask?”

“...I did not.”

Twilight sighed and ran a hoof down her face. “Nav, you need to start thinking about the relationships you have. Like it or not, you can’t be everything everyone wants from you. Someone will always be disappointed. That’s just how life is. And I hate to say it, but your vassal’s desire to own you is fairly far down the list of opportunities you should explore. I believe there are far more appealing options available to you, especially given your history with Kat.”

“Well I mean, what am I supposed to tell her? You can’t just turn your desires off.”

“Every single one of us has desires, Nav. Most of us don’t choose to tell others our deepest, darkest ones. What Kat told you is something that she should have kept to herself until she knew whether or not that is a feeling you reciprocated. It is one thing to have feelings for another. It’s a very different thing to want to make them yours, whatever that even means. She scares me, Nav, and I hope she at least makes you wary. I know you trust her enough to make her a vassal, but after the things she has done, there are many of us that think you made a mistake.”

“What about that time you tricked me into your BDSM dungeon and then pretended to lock me in?”

“I was almost positive you would either be interested or open to the idea. After your history with Kat, she should have known full well how interested you would be in her owning you. As a matter of fact, we skipped this earlier, but let’s go back to it. How does she, as your vassal, really think it would even be appropriate to ask you that? Legally speaking, she’s as close to a slave as it’s possible to be in Equestria. You don’t have to pay her, but you can give her whatever order you want and she’s obligated to follow them. She’s magically connected to you in a few ways. You essentially own her, in fact.”

“...Are you saying I should dominate her instead, then?”

“No! I’m saying you should have nothing to do with her sexually at all! Any relationship that might form would be incredibly unhealthy. It would be like you as a knight with magical oaths trying to have a relationship to Celestia or Luna. They could force you to do whatever they want and you would have no choice but to obey. In comparison, what the two of us have can be stopped at any moment, should either partner want it. Her desires are unhealthy and unsafe. What she wants to do to you is not good for either of you. My advice is to tell her to stop thinking about it and to never ask you that again.”

I sighed and looked around the room for a moment. She hadn’t really cleaned up and the door had been closed for most of the time, so the sex funk was still in the room. One or two toys dotted the floor here and there and it was pretty obvious that something sordid had happened recently. Finally, my eyes found hers again. “Hiding your desires can make you act in weird and unhealthy ways, Twilight. You should know that firsthand.”

“And indulging in weird and unhealthy desires is no better. We are two perfectly consenting adults who do things safely and carefully. Whatever limitation you give, I follow. Tell me honestly, do you think Kat would be safe or careful? Do you think she would follow limitations or restrictions? Or do you think she would want you to do whatever she wanted, regardless of how you felt? Because remember, she wants to own you. That means you follow her commands, regardless of what they are. You are a person, Nav. You have feelings and those feelings matter. You can’t only think of what others want. You always have to consider what you want and how you feel. Kat wants to own you. Do you want her to own you?”

“...Not particularly, no. And I don’t honestly think she’d be all that careful when we’d be in bed. She likes sharing her claws.”

“Somehow, I’m not surprised. Our time together has taught me a lot about sexuality and the differences between true abuse and carefully planned pain. From what little I’ve gleaned, she doesn’t particularly care about the differences. That might have changed, but I’ve found that reverting back to old habits is very easy when no one is helping you avoid it. Letting her ‘own’ you or even dominate you would be giving her the chance to fall back to her old ways. And worse, make you regress or have a traumatic flashback to when she was originally torturing you. You’ve come a long way, Nav. You shouldn’t risk letting anything make you go back.”

“I’ve changed so much that I don’t even recognize myself anymore, Twilight. I don’t know what to think about what I’ve become.”

“It’s been for the better, mostly. You’re usually nicer, you’re more social, you’ve become a leader. You’ve definitely taken a few knocks, but you’re adjusting and I can honestly say I’m happy to see that you’ve come so far. I hope I get to see you continue improving for a long time.”

“Twilight, I’m gonna boop you on the nose.” She grinned widely as I reached over and booped her. After I pulled my finger back, she used magic to float me over and used a hoof to boop me back. “Do you want Flo to unfuck your ass?”

Her eyes went blank for a moment before she blinked. “Wait, what? How can you… huh?”

“Unfuck as in make it stop aching, not unfuck as in… I dunno, actually. Flo, do you mind…?”

“With my sister’s permission,” my clothes said.

Twilight’s eyes went blue and I fell onto the floor, since Twilight had still been holding me with magic. As I stood back up, Aqua said, “Pain is a reminder that choices have consequences. Twilight chose to let that stallion wear you both out. It is only fair that she ride out the ache that comes from his admittedly impressive stamina.”

“Aqua, remember when I told you to stop being a bitch?” I asked. Twilight’s eyes rolled. “This is one of those times where you could not be one. You’re incapable of feeling pain so you can’t really sympathize. All this is doing is making Twilight unnecessarily suffer.”

She sighed and said, “Very well then. Sister, if you support your host’s anti-consequence views, feel free to heal Twilight. But if you believe that actions should have reactions, let her keep her ache as a reminder that not all carnal relations are wise.”

With that, Twilight’s eyes went back to their normal shade and Flo immediately shot a few watery tentacles down to molest her (or heal her, whichever). The poor mare sighed in relief as the ache subsided, then shivered as her horn lit up and pulled the ice pack off. “Thank you, Flo. I don’t know why Aqua couldn’t just do that. I guess it just requires a full elemental.”

Or your elemental just happens to be a bitch. “I am pleased to assist, Twilight,” my clothes replied. “It should be the goal of all water elementals to reduce the amount of suffering in the world.” Oh, burn!

“Aqua also never acted like clothes for me,” Twilight said, hopping off the bed and poking me in the belly. “Is that comfortable?”

“Yes, actually,” I said. “It’s like a cool hug that you feel across your entire body all the time. I bet it would be great in the heat.”

She shivered in delight. “Ooh, I bet it would be amazing when I’m in heat…”

“That’s not what I meant, but I’m not surprised that your slutty pony mind went straight there. I doubt Aqua loves you enough to help sate your urges, but water elementals can do some very interesting things with their bodies to make you feel very good.”

“She said she doesn’t sate them because she loves me.”

“Then your elemental is sadistic and defective. I think we should make her wear lingerie until she learns her lesson.”

“She disagrees. She also implied that the only reason you’re wearing Flo like that is so you can tease stallions by having her show off as much of your body as possible without letting them see too much.”

“She’s welcome to her own opinions, even if they’re wrong.”

Her head tilted for a moment and then she grinned. “She wants me to turn you into a pony and make Spike rub your belly.”

“I’m glad we already decided not to listen to her, then. That sounds like a terrible and unfun idea.” Twilight’s horn lit up and I found myself ponified. Flo decided she had somewhere else to be and slid out the door.

“Let’s go find our favorite dragon,” Twilight said with a creepy grin.

“Can we not and say we didn’t?” I asked. Her horn lit up again and I got picked up by magic. “What if I promise to rub your belly extra soft?”

“I think it’s only fair to return the favor, silly. You’ve given me so many so selflessly and yet you don’t even know how nice they are!”

“I do, actually. Celestia did it to me once.”

“Oh. Well that changes everything!”

“Really?”

“Psh, no.” She opened the door and started trotting out, dragging me along behind her.

“Does it have to be Spike, at least?”

“Yes. He mentioned once how much you like his massages, so I think he’s perfect for the job!” She carried me down to Spike’s room. His door was open and he was speaking to two of the soldiers. “Spike, I need your help with something,” she said, stopping in the doorway and leaving me where I wouldn’t be visible.

“What do you need?” he asked.

“I need you to rub a belly for me.”

That caused a short pause. He eventually replied, “Okay, I guess.”

Twilight smiled and nodded once, then stepped the rest of the way in and floated me to the bed, so I was lying on my back. “There we are. Rub her belly, please.”

“Should we go?” one of the soldiers asked.

“I think we should go,” the other guy said. Twilight’s horn lit up brighter and the door closed, trapping us all in. “On second thought, maybe we should stay and watch.”

“So who is this mare?” Spike asked. “And why am I rubbing her belly?”

“That’s Nav. Aqua thinks she should be rewarded for all the nice tummy rubs she gives me.”

“And I told her that Aqua is crazy,” I replied. One of Spike’s claws slowly started moving toward my belly. “...What are you doing, Spike?” It stopped right on top of my warm, fuzzy stomach. His eyes met mine. “Who are you going to trust? Me, or a crazy elemental? Come on, Spike.”

A feral grin split his face and his claw connected. I sighed in disgust before the feelings of pleasure overtook me. After all my time as a female, I learned how to just lie back and let pleasure overwhelm me with little to no resistance, so I didn’t bother fighting back against Twilight’s magic or Spike’s warm claw. I let him ravage my poor belly in front of all of them, whimpering in delight and moaning like the little slut I am.

It felt dirty and humiliating, yet oh-so good. I had a feeling that it gave Twilight all kinds of naughty ideas and as I thought about what she might do in the future, I felt myself becoming very unfortunately aroused.

Once Spike realized that, he stopped. “Um. I haven’t given that many belly rubs, but… Uh, is that supposed to happen?” The way I had been placed on the bed, it was pretty obvious that I was most definitely enjoying my treatment.

“...I got next go,” one of the guards said.

“Buck that. He has two claws; he can rub both our bellies!” the other one said.

“B-but you’re stallions!” Spike hastily replied.

“So? Don’t be sexist. You didn’t seem to mind cuddling back in Antarctica!”

Twilight lifted me off the bed and floated me closer to the door. Both guards immediately hopped up onto the bed and presented their tummies.

“Just close your eyes and pretend,” the other guard said.

“But—”

“Don’t be discriminatory, Spike,” Twilight said.

“We don’t have all day!” one of the stallions on the bed said.

“Wouldn’t you do anything for your brothers in hooves?” the other asked.

“We aren’t asking for much.”

“We just want to relax. Looks like it did wonders for our lady.”

“Stop fighting it, silly.”

“Just rub our tummies! We won’t make it weird, promise.”

Spike bit his lower lip for a moment before sighing and hanging his head. “Ugh, fine.” The guards grinned and hoof-bumped each other. Twilight nodded and finally opened the door so she could drag me back to her room.

Her room isn’t too far from Spike’s, so she quickly had me on her bed. “You enjoyed that a lot more than I thought you would,” she casually said, looking me over. “In fact, I’d say you enjoyed it more than you should have.”

“You have only yourself to blame,” I replied, making no attempt to cover myself.

“True. Do you know if we’re going to be near a stallion-majority city on the way back to Canterlot?”

“I have no clue.”

She rubbed her chin with a hoof for a moment before shrugging and turning me back. “I’ll ask Gourd. I believe it might be time for some field experience for our books. That is, if you’re still willing.”

“I am, as long as we’re very clear beforehand about what my limits are. Now, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to finish what you started?”

“Nope.” Her horn lit up brighter and I suddenly found myself on my own bed. Flo immediately slid in through the window and enveloped my body once again.

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to finish what Twilight started?” I hopefully asked.

“Nope.” I sighed. “I prefer leaving you as a desperate, sopping wet mess. I think it’s funny and cute.”

“Then it’s a good thing I have toys that don’t hate me as much as you do.” I hopped off the bed and grabbed one from its hiding spot. As soon as I tried applying it, I realized Flo was still covering me. Just as I had that thought, I realized the toy wasn’t doing its job. I looked down and found water covering me and refusing to budge. “Why.”

“Because Twilight’s your dom, silly. If she gives you permission to have release, you may. Otherwise, I think you can manage without.”

“You monster!”

“Just think of it as facilitating the relationship you’ve chosen with Twiley. Maybe I should speak to her about orgasm denial. I know that Moonbeam seems to love it.”

“Don’t you dare.” She giggled darkly and I had a feeling that the next time I did something to upset her, I would very dearly regret it. “Besides, I haven’t chosen any kind of relationship with Twilight. What we have happens solely in the bedroom. We have relations. We do not have a relationship.”

“Call it what you like. I think it’s amusing. Not quite as amusing as accidentally dating the same stallion twice, but still very amusing.”

I sighed dramatically and hid the toy again. “Of all the things you choose to protect me from, why a sex toy? Do you know how many times I’ve been stabbed?”

“Better late than never. Now, shall we continue with your itinerary?”

Being a human in an elemental’s world fucking sucks. That just made her giggle again, of course.

I needed to talk to Kat, but I didn’t really want to anymore. That left talking to Blaze, so I finally left my room again and began walking up to the deck. Since life occasionally decides to be fair, I made it out with no interruptions. My eyes took in the sights fairly quickly. Taya was talking to the female guard unicorn that wasn’t Sentinel, Ames was getting his shit kicked in by Blaze in a practice bout, one of the crew unicorns was using Spider as a mobile thread dispenser to repair some damaged rigging, Pinkie was hugging a very disturbed looking male crew unicorn, Rarity was talking to a very nervous looking male guard, Silver Quill and Fluttershy were playing with a few birds, Zecora was standing at the tip of the ship and just watching the horizon, and a water elemental was talking to no one. After taking a moment to look closer at the water elemental, I realized she was probably actually talking to Aerie.

The fire elemental was currently busy, so I decided to join Zecora at the front. Before I could get there, Taya vanished with a pop and the female unicorn hopped in front of me. “My lady, I have a quick question,” she said.

“You don’t have to call me that. Scoria, right?”

“Yes ma’am. Scoria Pitch. Taya asked me about… sexual magic.”

“And what did you tell her?” I slowly asked.

Her ears began twitching and she rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “I don’t actually know much. And I can’t really teach her most of it without… Well, demonstrating. I was just wondering… Um, how should I approach this? In the future, I mean.”

“My daughter is legal. I won’t tell you that you may not teach her. I won’t tell you that you have to teach her. All I ask is that if you know any way of keeping her safe, please make sure she knows those kinds of spells. Things like avoiding pregnancy or pain or anything like that. She is rebellious and curious, so all I want is for her to be safe if she begins… experimenting.”

“That is… very reasonable of you, ma’am.”

“What Taya wants is an overreaction. It’s in her teen blood. So I’ll be as reasonable as I can about things that I know I can’t prevent. If you find out she’s using whatever you teach her to do stupid things, please let me know. Otherwise, help keep her safe and use your best judgment.”

“Happily, my lady,” she replied with a bow. Before I could remind her not to call me that, she trotted off, heading back to the door leading below. I only watched her butt for a few seconds before continuing to Zecora.

With Flo covering my feet, my movement was completely silent. Zecora didn’t notice me until I was next to her and I placed a hand on her side. “What are your thoughts on Blaze?” I quietly asked.

She did not react to my touch at all. The only indication I had that she even heard me was a small noise in her throat. She didn’t seem to be in any kind of distress, so I stood like that for about a minute before she finally relaxed. “I have been thinking.”

“That’s usually a good thing.”

“I spent a long time hiding and obscuring the truth. That is, in part, how a shaman keeps her power. We use riddles and secrecy to hide our capabilities and we dole out parcels of truth here and there to keep our villagers coming back to us. With your assistance, I realized how and why we do so. And in turn, I realized how I lost my sister and how she fell to darkness. I realized how my clan so easily turned on me. Openness and honesty trump secrecy and obscurity. Direct, clear statements beat tempting scraps of truth. The way of the shaman is a way of deceit and dishonesty.”

“I’m very glad I helped you come to that conclusion, Zecora,” I said, rubbing that spot on her back. “There is absolutely nothing more annoying than someone with a holier than thou tone telling you some cryptic bullshit like they have all the answers when they could just cut the crap and tell you what they actually mean.”

“Indeed.” She slowly took a breath in and loudly released it. “For the first time, the voices of my ancestors are clear.”

“...What?”

Her head finally turned to mine and I realized that her eyes had a sickly green tint to them. “The powers of the shaman come from our ancient dead, Navarone. That is our greatest secret. It is why our most ancient and powerful magics are done with the assistance of substances that enable us to commune through time and across the veil of life and death. But it appears that my ancestors approve of my disgust for the dishonesty of the other shamans.” Her eyes looked over my shoulder. “I have been meditating on what I have learned and for the first time, I can see the other side without assistance.”

“Can you make her fuck off?”

Her eyes met mine again. “No. My powers allow me to see the other side, but they will never allow me to affect the other side. We seek to learn from the wisdom of the ancients, not control them. We borrow their powers, not steal them. Theft and control are the paths of the necromancer and the warlock. In time, I may learn to speak with the spirit haunting you. I was attempting to commune with the spirits of the ship when you found me.”

“Any luck?”

“Not until you arrived.” She turned her head back to the horizon and waved a hoof out in front of her. “Many of them gather for you, Navarone. Those added by your sword, claimed by your hand. On this ship of death and damnation, you are a focal point.”

“I would have been very happy not hearing that.”

“One of the duties a shaman has is to reconcile the dead with the living. When we encounter a spirit, it is the duty of a shaman to assist it in moving on. As my powers grow, I will hopefully be able to put the souls of the lost to rest.”

“I am very happy to hear that.”

“Would you care to join me in meditation, Navarone? Perhaps, with you by my side, I can speak to some of the lost souls surrounding us.”

“I don’t think I would be any good at it. I can stand here quietly, but I have no idea what meditating entails. I was never a spiritual person.”

“I will give instructions when it is time.” She moved over and sat, leaving me room to join her. “Join me.” There were still people I needed to talk to, but I figured exorcising the ship was probably pretty important as well, so I sat next to her. “Clear your mind, Navarone. Tune out the sounds of the ship. Ignore the duel between the naga and the fire. Focus only on the rush of the wind, the heat of the air, the smell of the ocean. Let nature claim her daughter’s mind.”

There was nothing about that wording that I liked, but I did as she said. After I became part tree, clearing my mind became much easier. My mind slowly emptied and I tuned out as much as I could.

After a good chunk of time, Zecora slowly sighed out and whispered, “We must choose one, Navarone.” I made no reply, just calmly sat and waited. “Put yourself in that place. Put yourself in that time. Is the weather cool? Hot? Is it bright or dark? Are you calm or frantic? Think back, Navarone. Remember.”

It was a cool night, in the wastes. They all are. The heat quickly seeped out of the ground and was replaced by the chill of the night. And it was dark, almost impossibly dark. That was before I was knighted, before I could properly see in the dark. It wasn’t a new moon, but the pale light it gave me was barely enough to tell what I was doing. My frantic, panicky movements were tempered by the strange inner calm my mind felt.

As I drew that painful line across his throat, I felt a part of me tear away. As I betrayed one of the principles I was told to hold sacrosanct, I felt something in me turn cold. As I murdered my first victim in cold blood, I felt the light in my eyes dim.

The sounds of nature around me disappeared. My breathing slowed to a crawl as my mind dipped into the past. After a few minutes of complete silence, I felt… something in front of me.

“He is here,” Zecora whispered.

I came to with a flinch, the darkness and silence in my mind instantly replaced by reality. As the meditative spell Zecora wove over me faded, I heard a sorrowful weeping drift away. I tried to follow the sound with my eyes, but that just made it slip further away and I saw nothing but the light of day, the blue sky, and the endless ocean beneath us.

“And he is gone,” she said, standing.

“What was that?” I slowly asked.

“The spirit of one who haunts you,” she replied. “By putting your mind in the state it was when his soul bound to you, it enabled him to more easily come forward. He sensed the familiarity, the last moment he ever truly knew before this cursed half-existence took him.”

“Well, great. Now I feel like even more of an asshole. Thanks.”

She held a hoof out for me. “As I said yesterday, violence begets violence.” I took that hoof and let her help me stand. “Violence brings pain and suffering, even after death. As a shaman, I know that better than most. Would you care to tell me the story behind this particular spirit?”

“It was a pointless murder in a pointless turf battle.”

“If he left enough of an impression upon you that he was the first to appear, there is more to the story.”

“...He was my first. I slit his throat while he slept. It was a barbaric death for a defenseless soldier. He was the first of… thirteen, I believe. And then I burned their camp to the ground. With it went children. Mothers. Fathers. A full migration of naga, killed almost to the last. His blood shattered an oath I made in my old life. His river of blood led into what feels like an ocean of it.”

“The dead hold more power over the living than most realize, Nav.” She released my hand and looked back to the horizon. “I would like to try again later, if you would be willing. You would likely feel more at peace if his soul released its hooks on you.”

“Why can’t we just try again now? I’ve almost been killed by ghosts several times. I’d be very happy to get rid of some of the ones around me.”

“Calling forth a specific one takes energy and time. If you killed him at night, it would be easier to summon him then. He has followed you peacefully until now. Unless he gains a lot of strength, you have nothing in particular to fear from him.”

“Do you mind if I boop you on the nose?”

“I do not.”

I reached over and booped her on the nose. “Let me know when you’re ready to try again. It’ll be interesting to see your powers grow, especially if they help clear some of the darkness in my past.”

“It would be my pleasure. I will seek you out when it is time.” Her eyes slid shut and I guess she went back to meditating or something. She was clearly done with me for the moment, so I wandered off, wondering what actions I’d have to do to be able to explore her next dialogue chain.

It seemed that Blaze was currently done with the naga. Black Fate was poking over the naga’s wounds and making sure he was still alive. Silver Quill was now covered in birds and Fluttershy was trying to coax more in for herself. The male guard Rarity had been talking to was making out with the male crew member Pinkie had been talking to. Rarity was watching, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck and blushing up a storm. Pinkie had moved on to Black Fate and was bugging him while he tried to heal Ames.

I decided to start there, to see what kind of result I could expect from sparring with Blaze. My feet carried me to the naga’s prone form and I stopped on the other side of him from the medic. “It appears the resident naga bit off more than he could chew,” I said.

That made Black finally look up. “That he…” He realized what I was wearing and his eyes went wide and a small blush appeared. “Um.” His eyes found a certain part of my anatomy.

I leaned forward and clasped my hands in front of me, making my chest pop out even more. “Is he gonna be okay, doc?” I sweetly asked, putting on my nicest smile.

His ears shot down and he forced his eyes away from my chest, back down to Ames. “Yes ma’am,” he gruffly replied. “Though I did tell him I wouldn’t heal him up if he decided to fight with that fiery monster.”

“Well that wouldn’t be very nice,” I said, trying my hand at a pout.

“And trying to fight that thing isn’t very smart. I say a few bruises is a pretty fair lesson.”

“Oh come now, doc. Couldn’t you heal him? For me?” I simpered. His ears began twitching, so I reached a hand over to play with them. That made them shoot straight up for a second before they drooped down, giving me better access.

Pinkie slapped my hand away with a hoof and glared at me from across the naga. “He’s gonna heal the naga for me, not you! I got here first!”

“Now now, he would never want to disappoint his lady, would he?” I asked with a smirk. “Now why don’t you be a proper gentleman and heal the naga for me, hm?”

“Well, his lady couldn’t reward him like I can!” Pinkie said, throwing a hoof around his shoulders and cuddling against him. “That would be improper, and everypony knows that you’re a perfectly prim and proper little lady.”

“Oh, but there’s so much fun in being…” I licked my lips for effect and leaned forward to trail a finger under the guy’s chin. “...Improper.” His ears really started going haywire. “Why, I can think of all kinds of improper ways to show my gratitude. Mmm, what fun we could have…”

“P-shaw! I know how to show true earth pony gratitude! You can keep your silly human ways.” She pulled her other hoof in and caressed his cheek. “You’d prefer a real mare, wouldn’t you?”

“Surely a seasoned traveler and soldier has had his fills of simple ponies, earth or not. Something more exotic might suit his tastes better. And my oh my, I’ve heard my taste was quite delicious. Maybe if you heal the naga up, you’ll have time to find out…?”

His horn lit up and magic picked both Pinkie and I up. She floated across the naga, next to me. “I think my patient needs some space!” With that, he pushed us as far away as he could, which equated to the far side of the ship.

As soon as he dropped us, Pinkie stuck her tongue out at me.

“Don’t you tempt me with that tongue, missy,” I said. “Put it away before I put it to use.”

She did so as petulantly as she could and said, “You cheater!”

“How did I cheat?”

“You were a stallion once! You know exactly how to get one!”

“Then I guess you just gotta step up your game, Pinks,” I replied with a boop to her nose. “Here’s some advice: Those two aren’t actually gay. They’re just making out because you two weirded them out so much and they wanted to get away from you.”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh. That crew member has a dead wife that haunts him and that guard used to hit on Fluttershy all the time before I asked him to stop. I don’t think either of them are even bi.”

“Why’d you ask him to stop?”

“Because she asked me to.”

“Oh… Have any of them told you they had a crush on me but were too shy to tell me? That would make it so much easier!”

“No.”

“Oh… Who should I go after then, Navi?”

“I dunno. But I believe in you.”

“Do you believe in me more than you believe in Rarity?”

I reached out and patted her on the head. “Well, I can currently feel that you exist, so at the moment, yes. But as soon as you aren’t within feeling range, that belief will start to waver.”

“But if you only believe in things you can touch, how do you believe in things like justice or mercy or love or parties or fun?”

“Why do you think I’ve spent the last several years horribly depressed? Duh.”

“But depression means you believe in sadness!”

“Nuh uh. Depression is feeling nothing, not feeling sadness. Imagine you’re walking alone through a desert that has no clear beginning and you have no idea how large it is. Occasionally you’ll get calls from people who talk about how lovely the weather is, how vibrant their surroundings are, how happy they are, and invite you to come by. Then they hang up. You know where they are, but you have no idea how to get there. You’re lost, stuck in a desert. People ask why they never see you or why you never want to do anything. When you tell them that you’re lost in a desert, they tell you getting out is easy. They’ve never seen a desert in their lives, so they think escape is simple and give you directions that get you all turned around. Sitting down and letting the sands overtake you is tempting, but you can still faintly remember what it was like before you got to the desert. You remember the grass and the trees and the shade and smiling and you hope you can find it again, but you have no idea how far you have to go or if you’ll ever even get out.”

“Why don’t you ever make me imagine fun things?”

“...Imagine me rubbing your belly.”

She sighed in delight and her tongue lolled out. “Oh yeah, that’s the stuff…”

“You have fun with that. I need to go talk to Blaze.” She softly moaned, her eyes closed in concentration. It didn’t seem like she was paying attention anymore, so I finally left her side and walked over to the most fiery elemental on the ship.

He was standing next to the side of the ship, staring at everyone on deck. His eyes lingered on Fluttershy and Silver Quill, both of whom were now covered in birds, before finding me and watching me walk toward him.

When I finally stopped in front of him, his eyes met mine for a few seconds before he eyed up my body. Or more likely, the elemental wrapped around my body. Once he got done with that, he snorted in derision. “What.”

“Have you run into any difficulties yet?” I asked.

“I have not had a chance to stretch. Your snake barely got my fire going. Get your weapon. Perhaps you will be a better warm up.”

“I would not. The naga was my teacher for a while. He’s still slightly better than me, but that gap is rapidly closing.”

“I should feel disappointment that one of my creators is worthless in combat, but I do not. When you meet your better in a fight, I will watch you die and feel nothing.”

“Okay. Have you had any other problems?”

His eyes went back to Fluttershy. “These ponies are disgustingly soft.”

“Then don’t pay attention to them.”

“That is difficult when they seek to pester me. That yellow one thought she had the right to speak to me.”

“How dare she,” I sarcastically replied.

“Indeed. I had a feeling several of the other weaklings on this ship would be upset if I torched her, so I just ignored her until she left me be.”

“Feel free to continue ignoring them, then.”

“I would rather teach them their place. The weak exist to serve the strong.”

“Continue ignoring them.”

He spat flame at me. It dissipated inches from my face. I crossed my arms and lifted an eyebrow. “Coddling your crew will only keep them weak.”

“If I had known you were just gonna be a whiny little bitch, I would’ve gotten your brother first.” He instantly lit up bright red. “Let me know if you have any real problems.”

“I will enjoy hearing your last breath.”

“Only if you live that long.” I was done with him, so I left, heading back below.

Once I got to the stairs, Flo giggled and said, “I have a feeling his dick is bigger than yours, Navi. Maybe you should stop having measuring contests.”

“Yeah, well, he only has two people that want his. Everyone loves playing with my lovely lady boner.”

That made her cackle, unsurprisingly.

“So if you were an adorable female cat assassin, where would you be?” I asked.

“In a litter box.”

“Flo, you’re useless.”

“Don’t make me leave you here, naked. I’ll get to your room before you can and lock it behind me.”

The first place I decided to look was Kat’s room. She was not there, which pretty much stumped me. As far as I knew, the only other person she spoke to was Spider. Occasionally one of the water elementals, which meant she might have been in the cargo hold. That’s where I went next. The only ones there were a female guard and a male crew member having illicit relations, because apparently using their own rooms was too difficult. I left them to it and kept searching.

My final stop was the armory, because that’s where I found her. She was there with Ice, Smiles, and presumably Cascade. As soon as I walked in, Smiles lived up to his name and started to say something, so I preempted it with, “You shut your whore mouth, Smiles.” He shut his whore mouth. “And keep your whore mouth shut.”

“That isn’t very nice,” Ice said.

I cut him off before he could say more. “You shut your whore mouth, Ice.” He shut his whore mouth. “You don’t have to keep it shut, though.”

“What makes a mouth whorish?” Cascade asked.

“I have no clue,” I replied with a shrug. “I just thought it sounded funny, so I said it.”

“Sunshine Smiles wants to know if that means he can open his mouth now,” Ice said.

“If he wants, I guess.”

Smiles sighed in relief and asked, “Why aren’t you walking funny?”

“You shut your whore mouth, Smiles,” I replied. He sighed and shut his whore mouth again. “And because Flo healed me.”

“...I forgot I could do that,” Ice slowly said. Then he surged over to Smiles and covered his lower half. The poor pony sagged in relief as the ache in his crotch from wearing two experienced mares out disappeared.

“One of our many advantages, dear brother,” Cascade said, turning slightly pink. “You should try to keep the best interests of your host in mind at all times. It is wise to encourage them to avoid pain, but when they happen to find it anyway, it should be your goal to ease it.”

“Tell that to Flo,” I said. “She likes hitting me for no reason.”

“Each elemental shows his or her love differently,” my clothing replied. “I choose to teach you a lesson the only way you seem to respond. Perhaps if you try heeding my words, I won’t need to hit you.”

“Use better words, then.” She hit me for that. “There you go again, defaulting straight to violence!”

“You should be thankful that I am taking an active interest in your lifestyle, Nav. I could be like Aqua instead.”

“Let’s see, all the health benefits of having an elemental minus all of the annoying sarcasm, life lessons no one asked for, constant intrusions, and randomly hijacking my body just to make me do embarrassing things. Where do I sign up?” She hit me again. “Stop domestically abusing me!”

“Only after your Stockholm Syndrome is complete, silly. It’s not like I don’t kiss the boo-boos better!”

Cascade looked to Kat and said, “As you can see, each elemental is very different and reacts with his or her host in unique ways.”

“Yeah, Flo isn’t always a butt,” I said. “Just usually.”

“As far as I know, Ice has never been a butt,” Smiles said.

“Then so be it.” Kat turned and walked over to Cascade, then held up her two paws. Cascade took them and turned slightly pink. “I… I want you inside me, Cascade.”

“Then I will fill you and make you mine,” the water elemental happily said, immediately turning completely pink. “Is your body ready?”

“I think so… Just be gentle.”

“Don’t worry, Kat. I’ll make sure it won’t hurt. It’s your first time, after all. I want it to be memorable.”

Flo sighed in disgust as Cascade’s body merged into Kat’s. I guess she just hates happiness and cute things for whatever reason. Or maybe she hates the idea of Kat being happy. Who knows?

Once Cascade was all the way inside, Kat slowly stretched out her arms. Her destroyed claws began regrowing until they were fully outstretched, back to their normal length. “I can… feel you inside of me,” she said, shifting slightly. As Flo said once, there’s only so many places an elemental can go when they’re all the way inside you. So at the moment, Kat looked nice and plump. “Ooh, it’s quite delightful…”

Kat’s eyes turned pink for a second before Cascade oozed back out. “Now a piece of me will always be with you,” she said, placing a hand on Kat’s cheek.

“It’s so warm,” Kat panted, her face blushed. “And I still feel so full…”

“That effect will fade in time, dear,” Cascade warmly said. “Enjoy the afterglow while you can.”

“Yep, it’s all downhill from here,” I said.

“Would you like to do the honors, sister?” Flo asked. Cascade reached over and slapped me. At least she didn’t do it as hard as Flo usually does. “It’s very therapeutic, isn’t it?”

“I think I will stick to warm hugs and gentle rebukes,” Cascade replied. “In my experience, the disappointment of a well-respected figure in your life is enough of a changing force. I have never required pain to get my point across.”

Ice smiled and turned to me. “Perhaps you could learn something from Cascade, dear sister,” he said. “There is no need to abuse your host so. It only drives the mortal races away, in the end.”

Flo extended a tentacle to Ice and placed it against his lips. “Shhh. Listen for just a moment.” The room went quiet. “Do you hear that, Ice?” He shook his head around her tentacle. “That’s the sound of the fucks I give.” He blinked. “Notice how it sounds very silent. That’s because there aren’t any.” She pulled the tentacle back.

“That wasn’t very nice,” I said.

She placed another tentacle on my mouth. “Shhh.” I opened my mouth and sucked on it. “Well, I was going to make another example, but I guess you’re too slutty to hear it out.” I moaned around her tentacle and she sighed in utter disappointment before removing it.

“So anyway, is there something you needed?” Smiles finally asked, looking at me.

“I came in here for a reason, but I honestly can’t remember why anymore,” I said with a shrug. “So I guess not. Things got weird, so I think I’m just gonna go.”

“Well, let me know if you remember,” he said.

“If I feel like it.” I finally left. Kat decided to follow me out, and that’s when I remembered why I was there. “Do you mind joining me for a moment, Kat?”

“I was just about to ask if you had a second.” She followed me down to my room, bereft of her new watery companion. When we got there, she entered behind me, though she left the door open. “So what did you decide?” she asked, moving closer to me with a smile.

Some small part of me didn’t want to have to tell her, but I knew it really was for the best. As Twilight said, I didn’t really want to be owned and going down another path like that with Kat would be scary and might put my mind back in a place it didn’t need to be. Sex might not be completely out of the question, but any kind of dominance shit had to go out the window.

So I sat on the bed and said, “I thought about it and came to the conclusion it would be best if we didn’t have that kind of relationship.”

Her ears fell and she just said, “Oh.”

“I’m willing to try sex after we get some proper tools for it, but it’ll be totally equal with no dominance shit at all, and it won’t be a common occurrence.”

One of her paws clutched at the other arm and she looked away, ears still down. “Forget it. Just forget I even asked.” Before I could say anything else, she hastily left.

When I couldn’t hear her paws anymore, I sighed. “What should I do, Flo?”

“Let her go. This is the grave she dug for herself. Consequences exist even in a world with forgiveness.”

“...That sounds very strange, coming from you,” I slowly said. Her watery goodness tightened against me. “You don’t like Kat.”

“I don’t like anyone that’s hurt you.”

“When you met Kat the first time, you did something to her.”

“I did.”

“What did you do?”

“I read her memories, including her intentions with you. I didn’t like all of what I saw, so I left a few strong suggestions.”

“You changed her mind.”

“In a very basic way of looking at it, yes. She raped you back then because she wanted to and she was considering doing it again. She found your fear and pain delicious and was curious despite herself how tasty betraying you and making you hers would be. I don’t think she would have done it, but I decided to point her toward serving you instead of serving herself. That was also something she was considering, so I decided to make it a more likely possibility.”

“Even Brook said she wouldn’t forcefully change someone’s mind.”

“I am not Brook. And that case would be changing a fundamental and strong aspect of one of her sisters who is infatuated with someone who does not return her feelings. This case is protecting my host against a psychopathic rapist. And I did not technically change it, regardless. I just happened to put more weight on an idea she was already considering.”

“The next time you decide to fuck with someone’s brain on my behalf, make sure you’re actually doing it on my behalf. That shit’s fucked. The road of fixing undesirable traits is rarely a good one.”

She did not reply.

Before I could spend too much time in silence, a yellow water elemental joined us. This one didn’t start by yelling at me or hitting on me, so I figured it was probably Cascade instead of Naiad or Ice.

“I have finished sorting through Kat’s memories,” she said while closing the door behind her.

“Did you find when Flo fucked up her mental state?”

“Yes, we discussed that before I sought to make her a host. I did not realize the entirety of Kat’s past mistakes. What she did to you was monstrous.”

“Yeah, it was.”

“I am very shocked that you have not asked Flo to remove those memories from you, Nav. How can you stand remembering what was done to you?”

“I dunno,” I replied with a shrug. “With a lot of PTSD, I guess. Oh, and plenty of unhealthy coping mechanisms, like tons of weird, kinky sex and mucking about in dreams. Can’t forget forming a more caustic and dickish personality so I push people away instead of letting them get close enough to hurt me. You know, the usuals.”

With each word, her resemblance to a smurf grew. By the time I was done, she looked like someone Gargamel would try to turn to gold. “Would that I could take your pain,” she whispered, gently caressing my face with a wet hand.

“I didn’t know water elementals could be masochistic.”

“Now do you see why I hit her?” Flo sighed.

“No. Now I see why she needs love more than violence. There has been talk of replacing you, Flo. I would never support taking a water’s host away from her, but I advise you keep in mind that there are those who would.”

“They are welcome to try,” Flo replied, tightening her grip on me and turning red. “Navarone is mine and I dare one of our uppity sisters to take her from me. What we share is not the disgusting saccharine love one would expect, but it is love nonetheless.”

“So you say, sister. Navarone may love you. But there is talk that she could grow to love another more. After all, you two did not choose each other. You chose her out of desperation, and lied about your capabilities. That is not our way. And after all Nav has been through, do you not believe she deserves honesty and happiness? Do you want to keep Navarone because she loves you, or do you want to keep Navarone because you love her?”

“You and the others may attempt to knock me from my perch at your own peril, Cascade,” Flo very coldly replied. “Go comfort your rapist host.” Cascade shook her head sadly and departed without another word. Flo slowly loosened around me and fell back to her natural blue.

It was too nice of a day to spend all of it rotting away inside, so now that my schedule was finally clear, I decided to head back up to the deck. Now that we were finally at the peak of day, there was a lot less movement and a lot fewer ponies out and about. There’s something about being covered in fur that doesn’t mix well with being right next to the equator, shade from the balloon or not. Thankfully, I had a personal cooling system by the name of Flo, so it didn’t bother me in the slightest.

Jak was using Spike’s fire to burn runes onto a large chunk of metal, presumably the groundwork for his next golem. Doppel appeared to be trying to make small talk with Blaze, though judging by the occasional monosyllabic answer I heard from him, he wasn’t that enthusiastic about it. The naga was doing forms with one of the guard squads, teaching them how to fight against something with arms and weapons. Zecora had gone from sitting at the front of the ship to standing on one hoof on the railing at the front of the ship, somehow balancing herself. A yellow Naiad was hovering behind her, presumably worried for her safety and internally monologuing about the stupidity and suicidalness of the mortal races.

Despite not really deserving it or even needing it, it felt like a lazy day to me. So I ignored everyone and walked up the stairs leading to the wheel deck. Gourd was teaching Spider the ins and outs of moving the ship around and how all the controls they had worked. I didn’t pay them any mind and just went to stand at the back of the ship so I could overlook the ocean. Unfortunately, that gave me a view of Fluttershy flying with a large flock of birds that were carrying a laughing Silver Quill. I didn’t want to get dragged into that, so I put a foot on the rail and jumped off so I could fly up to the top of the balloon, where I had a feeling no one would attempt to bother me.

The balloon is nice and soft, and Flo made a great pillow. Once I was situated, she oozed off my body and just acted as a pillow while singing softly. I had never really considered sunbathing up there before, but given the low likelihood of interruptions, I resolved to do it more in the future.

All was well for about two hours, when I suddenly felt much colder as something blocked the sun beaming down on me. Without even opening my eyes, I said, “You’re blocking my sun.”

“I am your sun,” Celestia warmly replied.

Of course, that made my eyes slam open. Thankfully, we were still on the balloon instead of in the palace. “How did you teleport in so quietly?”

“Your eyes were closed, so I couldn’t get to you. Instead, I teleported to Twilight. She didn’t know where you were, but one of the water elementals told me one of their sisters was up here.”

“Well, you found me. What did you need?”

“I would like to speak to the fire elemental and the air elemental. I believe I saw the fire on the deck, but he did not look that interested in speaking.”

“You mean the big bulky dude that’s literally made of fire?”

“I do.”

“Yeah, that’s the fire elemental Blaze. Finding Aerie might be more difficult.”

“No it won’t,” Aerie whispered. It sounded like she was talking from behind Celestia. Sure enough, Celestia’s tail started going haywire as Aerie began messing with the magic keeping it constantly moving. “I have always wanted to play with this. I see it every time I watch you, but I never decided to approach you.”

“I’d prefer you play with my mane instead of my tail,” Celestia said.

“I will remember that,” Aerie said, continuing to play with Celestia’s tail. “Why did you desire to speak with me?”

“Navarone has informed me that you and Blaze would like to stay in Canterlot for some time. I like interviewing potential guests of my castle before allowing them to stay there. So if you would consent to it, I would like to ask you a few questions. Privately.”

“Very well.” Celestia’s tail stopped going crazy and she found herself lifted off the balloon. “Then let us become private.” All I had time to see was a look of complete surprise on Celestia’s face before she was dragged off the balloon by an insane air elemental.

She’s a big mare and I figured she could take care of herself, so I went back to sunbathing. Despite it being nice and hot out, I don’t think I was getting any sun burns. After taking a second to think about it, I couldn’t remember getting any since I became half tree. Flo went back to her singing and we both zoned out again.

About an hour later, a slightly charred Princess Celestia joined me back on the balloon. This time, she made her presence known by cuddling up against me as soon as she got there.

“So what did you decide?” I asked.

“That I will host the two of them in Canterlot, on the condition that Blaze spar with me every now and then. He’s a very poor loser, but he’ll get better as it happens more.”

“Cool.”

“You know, you could also spar with me.”

“Can we spar tongues?”

“I meant weapons.”

“How about dildos?”

“...Yes, but I still meant weapons.”

“How about proxies?”

“Learning how to better defend yourself requires sparring against those who are better. The naga is good, but Blaze beat him. Blaze is better, but I beat him. I do not want you to die, Navarone. I cannot teach you, but I can help you train.”

“You’re a super busy princess.”

“You have the ability to enter my dreams at will. And since you are obviously afraid of losing to me, that route would involve no witnesses.”

“In dreams, I have the equivalent of real magic. I don’t know if I could avoid using it.”

“You have the equivalent in real life as well, Navarone. After all, life is only a dream.” She reached a hoof up and her eyes narrowed slightly before a flower slowly started forming in it. Her horn did not light up. “Reality bends to the will of those who choose to bend it,” she quietly said as the pink rose took on its full shape. “The waking world is a dream shared by all. Those of us who choose the path of lucidity can shape the dream to our desires. Those who stay unaware of life’s true nature march to reality’s tune. Princes and princesses change the laws of the land as they please. What makes you think the laws of reality are any different? Open your eyes, Navarone. See the dream for what it is, and you can make it what you want.”

“What does that say about fate, then?” I asked. One of her eyebrows lifted. “You’ve spoken about it before, as though fate was a guaranteed thing. If I began fiddling with magic and twisting the laws of reality, doesn’t that mean I could break fate? Or tune it how I want?”

She gingerly placed the rose behind one of my ears. “I can honestly say that I have never tried. I thought you didn’t believe in fate.”

“I don’t believe that humans have fates. That doesn’t mean you mini horses don’t. And if humans do or did have fates, I never saw any evidence of it. I imagine I probably don’t, since I’m some kind of unholy soulless aberration of nature that probably needs to be destroyed before we can truly stop Discord, but some others might.”

“If you ever say that again, your elemental and I will collaborate to come up with very inventive ways of making you suffer.”

“I’m just sayin’, man. According to Death, I’m a walking automaton without a soul. And you called me a construct.”

“What your hallucinations told you have no bearing on reality. Life is what we believe it to be. There was a time I would say your elementals were only machines. But I see beyond that now. They are alive. And you are alive. Whether or not you have a soul, I cannot say. But it doesn’t matter to me. I’m happy to have you as you are.”

“That’s kind of sad.”

She sniffed. “You have gotten me off subject. I want to spar with you when you return to Canterlot, Navarone. It’s imperative that you be as good as you can be with your weapons. Luck, wit, quick thinking, and reflexes have taken you this far. The naga has given you the foundation for true training. Let me build upon that and turn you into a fighter truly worth fearing.”

“This honestly sounds like something your sister would do. You’ve never really brought this up before, Celestia. What happened?”

“I was informed that one of your new destinations is Tartarus, Nav. I know there is no way to dissuade you from your course, so all I can do is help you become as prepared as possible.”

“Did you also hear that I’m going to Iceland next? The home of the dragons?”

“I did. I advise you speak to Reginald, if he is still in his cave. It has been made clear that I and all of my subjects are not welcome to speak to him or go to any dragon territories. I imagine you would be an exception.”

“I hope so.”

“Now, about my offer. Please let me help you, Nav. I know we have little time left, but we can make good use of what we have. For whatever reason, you hate losing to me. But you swallowed your pride against the naga. Just think of me as him, another teacher that is helping you learn. There is no shame. And if that is not enough, I will allow you to do almost anything you choose to me should you let me train you.”

“I wasn’t planning on stopping at Canterlot. I was going to drop off these two, speak to Reginald, and begin moving to Iceland as quickly as possible. I’ve wasted enough time.”

“And your time spent in idleness on this ship is not a waste? Let me take you with me back there.”

“And leave the ship again? This is my ship and my crew, Celestia. I joined you after Africa because you needed my help. But I hated doing it. I belong here, with my friends and my daughter. If this is truly such a big deal to you, I’ll join you in your dreams, but I won’t leave the ship for anything but an emergency. After all, where we’re going, we’ll all have to know how to fight. If I was the only one intensely training, it would do no good. We will fight as a team, with cohesion, against the demons. I won’t learn how to do that from you, and you can’t teleport us all.”

She deeply sighed and laid her head against my stomach. “All I want is for you to be safe, Nav. I will look for you in my dreams tonight. If you are not there, I will come back for you.”

“You’re certainly welcome to try.”

She smiled and pulled herself up to kiss me. “That’s all part of the training,” she happily replied. With that, her horn lit up and she popped away, presumably heading back to Canterlot.

“Well, I guess that’s one way to reply to a letter,” Flo said.

“I guess so,” I replied, easing back down against her watery goodness.

“Your front and back are going to be uneven, you know.”

“Meh.” I went ahead and flipped over anyway, letting my back start getting tanned as well.

“It’s going to be a long flight back, huh?”

“I bet it’ll feel like no time at all…”