Author's Notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/197vLY4erYDFb4F-w-ZhD7cIxvP_cMlkXsSWCmGUFBV0/edit

Some time after I fell asleep, Aqua pulled me out of the inky blackness she allowed me to succumb to. “Is it morning already?” I sighed. “I’m not ready to deal with you some more.”

“You’re being moved to another location,” she said.

“...Um. Wake me up.”

“No, that would be unwise. From what I have gleaned, Princess Gilda is on her way to a personal retreat. You and Twilight are accompanying her.”

“Uhhh… Why?”

She shrugged. “I do not know. But Twilight is cooperating, so you are safe.”

“And she didn’t think to wake me up? I kinda feel like this is something about which I should have been notified.”

“She knows you are difficult to awaken, especially in the winter. Apparently it was prudent for the hero to get her beauty sleep, too.”

“...I don’t like this,” I sighed.

“You will only be at the retreat for today. I sense no hostility. Twilight just didn’t want to wake you, since she knew you would be interested in helping protect Gilda. Plus you get a free day at a royal retreat, whatever that entails.”

“Wake me up.”

“And how will you explain that, hm?” she asked. “They are being very careful with you. Given your biology, you don’t exactly just wake up. You’re out until dawn. Just think about it this way: Without me, you would have woken up with no idea where you were.”

“And now I have to pretend to be surprised.”

“But you won’t be hostile, correct?” she sweetly asked. “If it weren’t for me, you would have caused a scene. Wouldn’t that have been quite embarrassing, my little cherry blossom?”

“No, it would have been in character.”

She giggled and reached out to boop me. I bore it with as much dignity as possible. “You’re so adorable, Navi. This shall be the beginning of your change! So when you awaken, you will behave.”

I sighed and shook my head. “You really are just the worst, huh?”

“Well…” She shot in and kissed me on the forehead before whispering, “Too bad.”

I blacked out and woke up in a strange bed with Twilight curled up in my arms. As soon as I stirred, she sat up and kissed me for a short moment. “Relax, Nav,” she said. “We had to move somewhere else.”

“What happened?”

“The guards thought it best that Gilda be evacuated. She demanded to take you, to reward you for saving her.”

“Not for extra protection?” I asked with a smirk.

“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “Princess Gilda was incredibly embarrassed by the attack since all the guards had left on her order. The fact that someone else had to save her was… unseemly.”

“That’s not good. Where is she now?”

“Across the hall,” she said. “I’m not sure if she would be awake or not. For now, we have some time to ourselves…”

“That sounds nice,” I said, pulling her tighter. “You wanna help preen my wing?”

“Ooooh, that sounds fun!” She lifted me with magic and rolled me over. “I’ll also help you polish your scales!”

“Uh… What?”

“Your scales,” she replied, tapping my tail. “You have to maintain these things, Nav. If anything gets in them, you have to pick it out before it gets infected. Remember that bug that got into Reginald’s scales?”

“Ugh, god dammit. I hate this fucked up body. Do you think I could get away with being a changeling today?”

“Absolutely not. If you are outed, you will likely be killed. Now sit still.” Her magic pulled my feathery wing taught and she giggled. “Don’t worry, Navi. I’ll be gentle!”

“Tha—Ah!”

“So how was your date with the princess?” she sweetly asked as she pressed down on the largest sensor node on the wing.

“F-fun!” I replied. She stroked the node again before pressing down on it, making me squirm. “I-I rubbed her belly! When I was d-done, the assassin attacked!”

One of her hooves moved in to press down on the base of my tail, making my legs start shaking. “And that’s all?” she asked.

“Y-yes!”

She finally pressed her body up against mine and pulled me tight. “So you think I didn’t watch, Navi?”

“You said you were running off to go have fun! Why wouldn’t I get to as well?”

“After all that talk about how you weren’t going to sleep with her?!”

“She was very persuasive.”

She sniffed. “Well, you earned part of your forgiveness last night.”

“For what?” I asked. “We’ve been fucking random people all this week. You literally got used like a fleshlight in a glory hole. Don’t you try to high road me here!”

“After what you said to me and then after what you almost did?! How would it feel to have stolen her cherry, Nav?”

“You wanna know the truth, Twilight?” I sighed.

“Yes, of course!”

“...You’re not gonna like it.”

“It’s better than a lie,” she solemnly said, finally releasing my pleasure points. “Tell me.”

“It’s because of a personal goal.”

“...To deflower Princess Gilda?”

“No, not exactly,” I replied, rolling back over to face her. “It’s all quite selfish, honestly…”

“You better start explaining right now, missy!”

I looked away and started playing with one of my strands of hair. “...I’m collecting high ranking women.”

“...You’re what?”

“Sleeping with them,” I said. “It’s kinda like a sport. I just do it automatically.”

“...I see. And to what end?”

“To build up my score. Deflowering a princess would be a first! It would also add another nation and another royal to my list.”

She face-hooved and groaned. “You’re the worst! What’s your list?!”

“Queen Chrysalis, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Lady Fleur, Lady Twiggles…” She scoffed at that. “...Whatever Kumani is, a powerful human woman back in my time, I was considered for use as a breeding sow by a dragon overlord, a spider noblewoman requested that I become her sex slave, and maybe one or two others.”

Before Twilight could reply, Aqua giggled and added aloud, “Oh, and Prince Shining Armor.”

Twilight grunted. “Please don’t mention that again.”

“I really wish I could forget that event, but it is now all forgiven.” Well, I might punish Shining Armor as well. That could be fun.

“How did Cadance take her punishment?”

“Eh. I might check in on her tonight.”

“Hmph. So you are in this solely for your manly pride?”

“Yep,” I said with a nod. “Like I said, I’m sure you’re not happy to hear that.”

“On the contrary,” she replied, booping me on the nose. “I’m happy to hear that you have a goal. It’s good for you. I have to admit your goal is… unusual, but I still approve. So if that is all, I shall help you bag Princess Gilda.”

“Best marefriend ever,” I said, snuggling up to my little Twiggles.

“And don’t you forget it,” she sighed in delight. “Now, I will clean up your tail, but you should ask Gilda to preen your wing.”

“‘Kay. You’ll have to show me how to maintain this stupid thing later, if I don’t end up chopping it off.”

“It’s not that difficult, but you’d be better off asking Spike. Now, let’s get you flipped over!” Her magic lifted me again and placed me on my stomach so she could stretch my tail out fully. “Just relax, Nav. This might actually feel good.”

“I hope not. I don’t want to start liking this thing.”

She giggled and pressed down on the base, making me squirm again. “You already like some of it, I see!”

“It’s hard to relax when you keep molesting me!”

“Then stop being so adorable, silly!” It felt like she finally started picking at my tail. “I don’t expect much will get caught in here, but you’ll need to watch out for lint and dirt, especially after yesterday’s fights.”

“Those fights also taught me to be more mindful of it. That dragon was able to use it against me several times.”

“It looked like you were able to use his, too. Is that how you defeated him, Navi?”

“Yep. I used it to pin him.”

“That’s just like you,” she replied with a chuckle. “Win by any means, no matter the cost. Your human ingenuity truly shines when you fight.”

“Is the cute fluffy prey admiring the fierce predatory human’s fighting style?”

“This corrupted little slut is complimenting her adorable pet. You’re fun to watch, Navi, even when you’re fighting.”

“Yeah, well, fighting dirty is an art. Expect to see more of it when we go to Tartarus, especially with Luna at my side.”

“It’s gonna be an interesting trip.” Her magic picked up and it felt like she was rubbing the entire tail up and down. “This should give it a good sheen. I think Spike has something he rubs onto his. It helps keep it clean and keeps it shiny for longer.”

“I’ll ask him. I really hate these new body parts. Having to learn how to take care of all this stuff is a nightmare.”

“I bet. But… There are upsides, right?”

“Not many. It’s mostly shit. With my wings mismatched, I can barely fly. My eyes are nice, so that’s one. The tail completely sucks. The plant stuff is pretty neat, but I miss some aspects of my old body. And don’t even get me started about being a woman.”

“...I see.” She sounded somewhat depressed by that, for some reason.

“For a very good reason, actually,” Aqua said in my head. “How would anybody feel after listening to someone disparaging their own body so? Especially since she’s your special somepony and the mare who gave you the tail. All the negative things you say about yourself hurt her.”

Weird. “Thanks for fixing up my tail, Twiggles. Are we allowed to leave this room?”

“Well, they didn’t say we couldn’t leave. So by your logic, I say we’d be fine.”

“You wanna get dressed and go hunt down breakfast, then?” Assuming, of course, she remembered to bring my clothes at all.

“I’m surprised you’re actually hungry, but that sounds good to me.”

“I’m not,” I replied as she hopped off the bed. “But I know you probably are and I know I need to eat anyway, so…” Plus, I bet meat is on the menu. I tried rolling off the bed, but instead of hitting the floor, both my legs smacked against a large trunk.

“I didn’t really have much time to organize everything last night,” she said while I slid over the trunk. She was already floating over all of my clothes, so I didn’t bother popping the other trunk open.

Once she set them on the bed, I got to work picking my outfit for the day. Since most of my options were either short dresses or short skirts with small blouse combos, it wasn’t too difficult of a choice. When my body was properly girded in a miniskirt that I kept trying to pull down, we finally left the room.

We were at the end of a very short hall. Right across from us was another door with a guard outside of it. He nodded when he saw us. “Good morning, my ladies,” he quietly said. “I believe the princess is still sleeping.”

“‘Kay. Are we allowed to wander around or do we need to wait for her?”

“For now, I ask that you wait for the princess. But if there is anything you need, I can have it sent for.”

“A map of whatever city or town we’re in and breakfast,” I said.

“What manner of foods can you eat, my lady?” he asked.

“Anything a griffin can, but I prefer my meat cooked instead of raw.”

“Are sausages fine?”

“Absolutely.” And I bet they’ll taste amazing, too. “Twilight’s gonna need a standard horse breakfast, though.”

“I’ll have it taken care of, my lady. A servant should knock soon.”

“Excellent. Thanks.” He bowed his head while Twiggles and I went back into our temporary cell and closed the door. “So much for being able to get out and about.”

“Why did you want a map?” she asked.

“Because I prefer always knowing where I am. One of the first things you should do when you get to a new place is familiarize yourself with it.”

“I mean… I guess, but this place isn’t that large at all. The manor we’re in is supposed to be really close to the springs, so I don’t think Gilda was planning on going far until it was time to return to Gryphus.”

“What springs?”

“The hot springs,” she said. “Did I not mention that? This place is famous for them.”

Oh my god, it’s the onsen episode! “I didn’t pack a swimming suit.”

“So? Just go nude. You’re trying to seduce the princess anyway, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“Uh… blood?”

She shrugged. “There’s enough water that it shouldn’t matter too much. You need to stop letting this control so many aspects of your life, Nav. It doesn’t bother any of us, not really. We understand that it’s something you can’t help and none of us hold it against you.”

“Okay. So what are we supposed to do until Gilda wakes up?”

We took a few minutes to poke around the room. One of the walls had a window that overlooked a small courtyard and showed us that we were on the third or so floor, but it didn’t really offer much in the way of entertainment. There were a few dressers, but they were all empty. The closet wasn’t very deep and only had a few old cleaning supplies and extra blankets. One bookcase had nothing but cookbooks and the other was covered in knick-knacks. The bathroom was very basic, with only a toilet, a small sink, and a shower.

Twilight finally sighed and said, “There don’t seem to be too many options.”

“This sub-vacation sucks. Why did you let them drag us here?”

Her eyes rolled. “Princess Gilda was really angry last night. She wasn’t interested in hearing the word no from anybody. Getting blue-beaned by an assassin will do that to a mare, I suppose.”

“I’ve never seen what it does to a mare, but it sure did piss off a hen last night.”

“Ugh, shut up.” She finally grabbed me with magic and gently set me back on the bed. “At least we can still cuddle.”

“It’s the little things,” I replied as she hopped up to join me. “You’re so soft and warm…”

“And your hair smells like strawberries,” she said, using magic to pull me closer.

“That said, please stop manhandling me with magic. That shit is super annoying.”

“Noted.”

And so we both faded away like that until someone knocked at the door. When Twilight sat up to open the door with magic, I realized that her mane was now braided.

“Ava is sneaky,” Aqua said.

Yeah, that shit is mad spooksville, yo.

She chose not to reply.

The servant seemed somewhat surprised when the door opened without anyone else standing there. Since she was a pony, she figured it out pretty quickly. I’m sure seeing Twilight staring at her intently probably helped. The little mare pushed a food cart in. “Princess Gilda’s guard said you ordered breakfast, my ladies,” she demurely said.

“We did, thank you,” Twilight replied.

The servant stepped away from the tray and curtsied. “Please let us know if you need anything else.”

“Will do,” Twilight said with a nod. The mare strolled out, pulling the door shut behind her. “I wasn’t expecting pony servants this far northwest.”

“You guys do get around. Truth be told, I’m surprised we didn’t bump into any pony slaves in the spider cities. I figured they’d be hot commodities.”

“Or delicacies.”

“Either or. Still, we did only see a fraction of them. I’m not looking forward to going back.”

She pulled away to stare at me in surprise. “Why would you ever go back?!”

“We have unfinished business with Arachne. We either need to make sure she works with us… or make sure she’s put down.”

“...Nav, no. No way! We can’t kill that thing! It’s way too powerful!”

“We might not have to,” I replied with a grin. “If we give her Athena’s book, I bet she’ll go in there to confront her. If we follow her in, we can help Athena and Hera fight her.”

“I think you’re severely overstating our abilities against that thing.”

“I need to ask Athena a question when we get back. If runes can transport golems across, could they also transfer elementals across?”

That made her pause. “Huh. That is an interesting question. I suppose that could help tip the scales. Another interesting question… Can elementals make their own runes? If they could find a few books, they could instantly learn how to make incredibly powerful golems.”

“And if they could study Athena’s golems, they could perfectly duplicate them. But I don’t think Athena would be good with that. The elementals didn’t earn the right to that knowledge.”

“...True. Still, it’s worth asking.”

Aqua giggled. “One good look at those golems and any one of us could duplicate them perfectly. I like this little idea, Navarone. You might have just given me an army.”

Yeah, yeah, stop sucking your own dick. “Maybe,” I replied with a shrug. “But whatever. Now let’s see what they actually brought us.”

I sat up as she floated everything on the cart over to us. The bed was still fairly neat, so she just placed it all across the lower half. There were only two plates and some very nice bronze ware, but nothing to drink. Not a promising start.

She lifted the top of the one in front of her and I pulled up mine. She got freshly baked cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins. I got… green eggs and ham.

“God. Fucking. Dammit,” I sighed, tossing the top of the platter away.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked. “Oh, you’ve probably never seen those eggs before, huh? They’re young roc eggs. The older ones are huge and could feed a whole family. I’ve never tried them, but I’ve heard they’re highly regarded up here.”

“...I guess you guys don’t have a pony Dr. Seuss? Never heard of Green Eggs and Ham?”

She blinked a few times before asking, “You mean Green Eggs and Yam?”

“Well, that’s not the human version. Point is, this makes it official: Worst sub-vacation ever. Wanna wake Gilda up and get the fuck outta here before it gets worse?”

“You’re so pessimistic. Take this as a good sign, Nav! Green Eggs and Yam is a great poem. I’m sure you have all kinds of memories about it. The day can always get better. Remember, you still get to go after the princess!”

I sighed and said, “True, I guess. Fuck it, I might as well defy a trope and taste a forbidden legend.”

“That’s the spirit! Now while you attend to that, I believe some of these muffins are calling for me.”

“You might be schizophrenic. Consider getting help.” She pushed me, then shoved an entire muffin into her mouth. It was honestly kinda sexy.

Watching her got old really quickly, so I finally grabbed my plate and one of the forks and pulled it closer. “Well, here we go,” I sighed.

It was actually really fucking good. That dude in the poem was a fool to pass up on it.

Or maybe a vegan, I guess.

“Is there a difference?” Aqua asked.

No comment.

“So what did you think?” Twilight asked when she had finished stuffing her face.

That girl really needs to learn to take smaller bites. “You might be right, Twiggles. Maybe this day will get better.”

“Then do you wanna eat me out?” she asked. “I bet smelling like a mare will kick Gilda’s heat into overdrive.”

“Sounds good to me. Try to get as much fluid as possible onto my blouse.

“Oooh, I have a fun idea. It’ll be a surprise, but I bet you’ll love it. Now then…” Her horn lit up and all the bullshit flew back over to the cart and the lock on the door clicked. “Get to it!”

I started by kissing her face so I could get the leftover sugar off of it. I guess she also needs to learn how to use napkins. Once I got all the crumbs, I swooped in for the real prize: Her neck. She moaned softly as I started trailing down her belly.

When we were finished, I shivered as she slid my soaked panties back up my legs with magic. “That should do it,” she sighed.

“It feels gross.”

“Are you gonna keep them on?” she asked.

I thought for a few seconds before sighing and saying, “Yes. I know it actually will drive her wild. Though as soon as I get her hooked, we’re going into a spring so I can get clean. This is seriously gross.”

She giggled and kissed me. When she pulled back, she said, “I think it’s sexy! It’s like marking my territory. Anyone who wants to claim you knows they’ll have to get my permission!”

“I… don’t think that’s how it works.”

“Just let me have this! It’s… really doing it for me…”

I rolled my eyes. “Thank you for marking your territory, mistress. I would hate to be used without your permission!”

One of her hooves went between her legs. I decided to leave her to it and got up to wash my hands and face. Before I could get to the bathroom, someone knocked on the door. We both froze.

After a few seconds of panicking, Twilight tossed a blanket over herself. I mentally said fuck it and opened the door.

It was finally the fucking princess. “Good morning, Navarone.” She froze and sniffed the air, then blinked. “U-um. Oh, I see you’ve already eaten!”

“Oh, this?” I asked, rubbing at my neck. Twilight’s juices were still kinda noticeable. “Yeah, she got frisky.” Gilda’s face got bright red immediately and Twilight giggled. “Sorry, I was about to wash it off when you came by. You wanna come in?”

“I… I…” She sniffed the air again and then shivered. “...Yes.”

I stepped aside so she could walk in. The guard was trying his hardest not to laugh. I shot him a finger pistol before pushing the door shut. Once it clicked, I turned and said, “We have unfinished business, princess.”

“I… I was…”

“Twiggles is down to watch. You wanna do it now or later?”

That made Twilight giggle in glee. “You’re right, Navi! She is adorable when she’s flustered! I can’t wait to watch her face as you play with her!”

Maybe we’re being too mean. I finally patted her on the back. “I’ll give you a pass for now. But we’re gonna discuss this later.”

“She… she is… she’s okay with this?!”

“Yeah,” I said. “Hell, she might be interested in joining. I promise she’ll teach you a whole new respect for magic.”

“Maybe if you ask nicely,” Twilight replied.

“But anyway, you wanna talk about why you dragged us here?”

“Yes! That’s exactly what I wanted to talk about before you… you got perverted!”

“Oh. Why didn’t you just say so?”

“You wouldn’t let me!”

“Shoulda tried harder. So, let’s discuss it. Why are we here?”

She sighed and hung her head. “I do not own many properties. This is one of the few. This place is my hidden mountain sanctuary, an old monastery of knowledge. Most of the books here are very old and very rare. More are always being translated and copied by the scribes.”

“Magic could speed that up greatly,” Twilight said. “There’s a spell to create a copy of a book in one language into a book of another.”

“That’s exactly what I told them. They told me to stop defying the old ways.”

“Of course they did,” Twilight sighed.

“So that’s where we are,” I said. “Now why are we here?”

“To hide from assassins while an investigation is being conducted,” Gilda replied.

“That’s why you are here. What about me and Twilight?”

“As a reward, of course,” she replied. “I’m grateful to the one who saved my life, so I brought you to my private hot springs. I hope you enjoy… all of its bounties.”

“I plan on it. So what’s our next step, Gilda?”

“The guard said you asked for a map, but they couldn’t find one. If you’d like, I can give you a tour. It shouldn’t take long. You might appreciate the views.”

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll be down,” I said.

“I’m also interested,” Twilight added. “This place sounds very interesting.”

“Then I shall go and get ready. Meet me downstairs.”

“You got it,” I said with a nod.

Gilda finally walked out, leaving me and Twilight to sigh in relief.

“That went better than I was expecting,” Twilight finally said.

“Would you actually be interested in joining us?”

“Eh, I’ll think about it. I doubt she would be, though.” She finally tossed the blanket off and stretched. “Now hurry up and get clean so we can get out of here.”

She surely didn’t have to tell me twice. I rapidly cleansed my flesh prison and returned to the room. “Are you not gonna clean up?” I asked.

“I got the worst of it with magic. Of course, I don’t really mind smelling like a mare in heat, since I kinda am a mare in heat. You ready?”

“Sure. Let’s ditch this joint.”

“Define that one.”

“Let’s go.”

She slapped a hoof on the floor. “Come on, Nav! What does it mean?”

“It means let’s go.”

She blinked a few times. “...Oh. Uh… Lead the way, honey!”

Aqua giggled as I started walking out. “She just wants to peek up your skirt. The tail gives her a perfect angle.”

I’m not surprised in the slightest.

The guard was gone now, so Twilight and I finally left the short hall. That put us in a much longer hall. One side ended in a window while the other side appeared to end in stairs, so we went that way. Sure enough, we were able to get down to the ground floor from there, where we found Gilda and two guards waiting on us.

“One of these guards will be assigned to you two for the duration of your stay,” Gilda said.

“That’s really not necessary,” I immediately replied.

“They aren’t for your protection,” she shot back. “The locals don’t like strangers, especially if they aren’t griffins. If they see you without an escort, they might try to chase you out. I don’t particularly want to pay for their medical bills.”

“Fair enough. Twilight calls dibs on the cute one.”

The two guards shared a look while Gilda rolled her eyes. “Fine, she can have him. Now, are you sure you two want to go on the tour like that? The cold doesn’t bother us that much, but you two might not like it.”

“We’ll be fine,” Twilight said. “I happen to have a spell for that.”

“...That shouldn’t be surprising. Very well then, come along.”

She led the rest of the way through the very sparsely decorated manor. Before she could get to the door, one of the guards jumped in front of her and opened it for her. The other stepped out to look around. When he deemed it clear, Gilda rolled her eyes and walked out into the snow. Twilight and I joined her, but we both stopped in our tracks when we saw the view before us.

“That is… much better looking during day,” Twilight whispered.

The manor was at the end of a very long and fairly narrow valley. A waterfall was pouring down off the cliff behind the manor, leading up to a river that snaked all the way through the valley. One side of the valley was a mostly sheer rock wall that was coated almost entirely in ice. The other side was a fairly steep incline covered in pine trees. A short road led from the fairly boring manor to a stone building that seemed like it was about to fall down. At one point, it had obviously been beautiful, but those days were long gone. A few griffin and pony servants were doing various chores around it, though none were bothering to repair the building’s damage.

A horrific gust of freezing wind finally hit us, making me hiss through my teeth and instantly start shaking.

Twilight’s horn lit up and it instantly got warm. “Sorry, I got distracted by the view.”

“If I get a cold, you better tend to me in a nurse outfit.”

“Deal.”

When Gilda decided we were done bantering, she finally said, “Not many people know of this valley, Nav. Fewer still have seen it. Its location in the valley means it only gets a few hours of sun a day. When the sun goes over the cliff, it is once more wreathed in shadows.”

“Then I might need some magical energy. I don’t do well without light.”

“So I have heard,” Gilda said. “If you must sleep, you must sleep. I would not feel right as a host if I forced my guest to stay awake.”

“It’s not a problem. We do it all the time,” I said.

“It only backfired once,” Twilight said. “And that was when Nav was tweaking in the haunted human bunker that was trying its hardest to kill her.”

“Please don’t bring that up,” I immediately replied. She bowed her head.

Gilda’s beak seemed to set. “...I urge you to sleep when you need to sleep, Nav. I’m sure after all your time as a noble lady, you need a chance to relax. I hope this trip will help with that.”

“Fine. I’ll need time to contact everyone in Canterlot and make sure things are proceeding as planned.”

“What are said plans?” Gilda asked.

“My ship is supposed to join us in Gryphus tomorrow. We’ll all get together and discuss everything we’ve learned. Then we’ll plan our attack. We’ll give everyone a day to prepare and then go the next morning.”

“Sounds good to me,” she replied.

“Are you sure this is worth it?” Twilight asked. “I feel like there’s something you aren’t telling everyone.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said. “I have plenty of good reasons to go there. Think of what kind of information we might find.”

“And tons of horrible reasons not to go! That place isn’t going to be easy, Nav. Ponies might die. I know you want this, but are you really sure it might be worth it? What do you think could possibly be there after so long?”

“The dream machine, for starters,” I said. “If that’s survived after so long, there’s gotta be more. And if there’s information about that place, someone’s had to have made it inside. It can be done.”

“...You always have a hidden angle,” Twilight said. “Especially when you push something this hard.”

“Fine. I’m hoping for answers.”

“To what?” Gilda asked.

“Questions I asked when I went back in time. Some kind of direction or instructions from the old humans. Anything we can possibly use to help us. One way or another, if there’s that many things guarding it, there has to be something valuable inside!”

“That’s a lot of assumptions,” Twilight replied. “It could just be a home to insane monsters. Do you have some concrete knowledge of something there?”

“Well, you know how the guy who gave me that laptop was me, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, you mentioned that.”

“Wait, what?” Gilda butted in.

“Oh, the chaotic demon who destroyed my entire race and every race since created me. When I went back in time, I met the original, the me I would have been if Discord hadn’t corrupted me into the monster you see before you now.” The look on her face was somewhat unusual. “Anyway, the other me is the one who gave me the laptop. He was the head scientist at the particular bunker we’re going to. I’m hoping he found a way to leave me a message or some kind of useful stuff. I’d hate to have gotten all this way only to find no direction from that asshole.”

One of the guards whispered something to the other and they both started snickering. Gilda glared daggers at them, making them both shut the fuck up and stand at attention. When they were done, she turned back my way with a smile. “That makes sense, Nav. I hope we find what you’re looking for.”

The guards both blinked and one cleared his throat. “...We, princess?”

“Congratulations, you can listen when it suits you.” She looked back at us. “I’m sure you can see the monastery building for yourself. Once upon a time, it was famous for the works it produced. With the invention of printing presses, it fell into obscurity until it no longer appeared on maps. The griffins here were forgotten by most… except for royalty.”

“How did you come to own it?” Twilight asked.

“Before I met Nav, my pursuit of knowledge led me many places. Hoping to sate this desire, my father pointed me here. I offered to hire assistants and guards for the scholars and they allow me to keep a residence here and peruse the stacks at my leisure.”

“Seems fair,” I said with a shrug. “I bet the guards hate it.”

“Then they should not have become guards,” she replied. “There are perks to working here. They are free to hunt all they want off duty, they’re allowed to read any of the books they desire, they can use the springs freely, and they don’t even have to pay for food or lodging.”

“In the middle of absolute fucking nowhere,” I replied. “And worse yet, no bitches to go after. These guys are in heat with only coworkers around. I bet they’re miserable.”

One of them cleared his throat and looked away. “That outfit is cruel, my lady.” The other leered at me. I rewarded his courage with a giggle and a deep curtsy. Gilda choked, but the guard whistled. I dropped it before his buddy could get a peek.

“You’ll live,” I sweetly replied. “So why is this place so hard to get to?”

“Because Celestia does not like our historical records. We hide them to make it harder for her.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “I’m Princess Celestia’s personal student.”

“You are Navarone’s ‘marefriend’,” Gilda replied, complete with air quotes. “You won’t tell Celestia a thing.”

“That’s true,” I said. “She won’t. Twiley will behave.”

“Sure will,” Twiggles replied with a nod. “I just thought I should inform you, in case you didn’t realize.”

“Congratulations. Do you enjoy serving that tyrant?”

Twilight sighed and looked away. “I used to.”

“Yeah, I ruin everything,” I said, tousling her braided mane. “So, you wanna continue with the tour? Maybe these two will get lucky and get some upskirt shots.”

“Must you be so shameless?” Gilda sighed.

“What? I’m just teasing them. I prefer a feminine touch. I just like teasing the fuck out of people.”

The guard who got the view clutched at his chest and looked down. “Why must the world be so cruel?” he whispered.

Gilda sniffed angrily and said, “Come along, then. There is not much to show.” She led the way to the larger building. The guards trailed behind her and Twilight and I picked up the rear. The servants paid us no mind as we walked through one of the many doors.

The first thing I noticed was the smell of old paper. It was faint at first, but when the door swung shut behind me, it kicked in even harder. We entered the building at a hallway and Gilda was already heading into another room, so Twilight and I hastily followed.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, what we stepped into was a room very full of books. They had all been crammed onto the shelves so tightly that it looked like trying to pull a single one out would make the rest go flying. The room wasn’t all that large, but there were probably hundreds of books in it. There were no decorations or any furniture other than shelves.

“This building is full of rooms like this,” Gilda said. “This room in particular is just used for storage.”

“How many books are here, do you think?” Twilight asked.

“Thousands. I could get the exact number later, if you would like.”

“That’s a lot of books,” I said. “How much knowledge, though?”

“Books are knowledge,” Twilight said.

“Don’t be dumb, you’re better than that,” I shot back. She lifted an eyebrow. “Books are paper. Any idiot can put enough words together to get published. For every good history book, you have tons of mindless poetry. For every solid science book, you have hoards of fantasy novels. How much actual knowledge is here?”

“Not enough,” Gilda very firmly said. “Which is what led me to you.”

“What led you to Nav?” Twilight asked. “Was it something in particular you sought?”

“My father introduced us, of course. I paid Nav no mind the first time he was in our palace, though he apparently made quite the impression upon Bloodbeak.”

Twilight massaged at one of her temples. “Shining Armor had quite a lot to say about how Nav conducted himself on that trip…”

“It was a fun one,” I said with a shrug. “You know, minus the assassins. What trip to Gryphus is complete without those?”

One of the guards sighed and looked away. “Please don’t think of our capital city that way, my lady…”

“I’ve been there three times. I’ve run into assassins on the majority of those trips. I’m sorry dude, but that’s how it is.”

“After enough time, my father decided to introduce us,” Gilda continued. “This was at one of Celestia’s stupid Galas. Nav ended up getting stabbed in the back after he poisoned all the guards.”

“Hey, that is not exactly what happened!” I said.

“It’s very close to what happened,” Twilight said. “You got Pinkie to dose the Gala with that drug of yours, Nav. Then Blueblood… kinda stabbed you in the back. I’m sure the guards would have been happy to arrest him as soon as they saw him, if they hadn’t been dosed out of their minds.”

“And I finally got just a glimpse at the promised land,” Gilda said. “This room… No, this entire building is nothing compared to what is on that device you own, Nav.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty neat,” I said. I mostly use it for music and games, though. “So what else is going on here? Or is it just more rooms of books?”

“It’s mostly rooms of books,” one of the guards sighed.

“...Yes, that’s mostly it,” Gilda said. “I’m sorry that you don’t find our gathering of knowledge more appealing.”

“Yeah, well, you know. Do we get to meet the guy in charge?”

“...Twilight may,” Gilda slowly said.

“And I may… not?” I just as slowly asked.

Gilda seemed unsure for just a moment before nodding. “That is correct. You may not.”

“Why?” Twilight asked before I could.

“Because I don’t want to be embarrassed,” Gilda said. “He hates outsiders to begin with. If I bring something that looks like Nav to him, he might honestly have a heart attack.”

“I’ll definitely pass,” I said. “I’ve met enough gung-ho old-school racists.”

“It’s not so much that…” Gilda awkwardly said, rubbing her neck.

One of the guards cleared his throat. “Lady Navarone, you are… a one of a kind mythological creature, are you not?”

“Sure, I guess.”

“The head of this order used to hunt beings like you for sport. Princess Gilda is likely worried this would upset you.”

“Were they intelligent?”

“They were not,” Gilda immediately replied.

“Then I don’t give a fuck. Is this guy an asshole?”

“Oh, absolutely,” the guard said. “I hate his guts.”

“Then I don’t wanna meet him.”

“Good,” Gilda said. “If he didn’t have a heart attack after meeting you, he might try to kill you.”

“I’m wearing a dress!”

She shrugged. “I’m sure he’d let you take it off first, if you ask. He was supposed to be quite the gentleman, once.”

“Tch, whatever. So the books here are pretty meh, the people are for the most part meh, the lodgings are decidedly meh, and the landscape is apparently middle of fucking nowhere. Is there anything else in this little hamlet of mehdiocrity you want to show us, or can we just find our way to the hot springs?”

“...Hamlet of mehdiocrity?” Twilight slowly asked.

“I dunno, it sounded good.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well I think I would be happy to poke through a few books. I might see if the elder is around, as well. The guards can show me the rest if you want, Princess. That way, you can show Nav the springs.”

“...If she is going to be so dismissive of my offerings, perhaps that is for the best. Guards, attend to Twilight. Nav and I will continue alone.”

Neither of the guards seemed to be sure if she actually meant for them to both stay. Twilight helped by grabbing them both by the talons and dragging them out with magic while starting to prattle on about who knows what. She led the poor defeated guys away while Gilda and I stayed in place.

“...I wasn’t trying to be mean or dismissive,” I said when we were finally alone.

“The princess of one of the most powerful nations on the planet just showed you one of her most prized estates. You called it a hamlet of mehdiocrity.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I honestly don’t think you can get more mean or dismissive if you tried.”

That made Aqua giggle unpleasantly. “You really are such a brat, my little cherry blossom.”

“Yeah, well, to be fair, the princess of one of the most powerful nations on the planet just so happened to have fucking kidnapped me.”

That just made Gilda roll her eyes. “Don’t you even get me started, missy!”

“Fine. Are we actually private yet?”

“Come with me.” She finally led me out of the book room and back into the hall. Twilight and the guards were nowhere to be seen. Gilda walked back over to the door we had originally entered from. “I hope Twilight’s spell is still working.”

“It… is not,” I said as I eyed the bleak and snowy outdoors. My body was not looking forward to it.

“You have two choices,” Gilda said. “You can wait for Twilight to finish up or you follow me to my private hot springs.”

That wasn’t a choice at all. I walked out into the snowy hellscape without a backwards glance. I’m sure the servants were probably mad that I didn’t close the door and probably let snow get in, but fuck those guys.

“So how far away is this place?” I asked, each word puffing up.

“A short hike,” she replied, pointing to the far canyon wall. “There is a crevasse that leads to the springs. It’s a shorter flight, if you are so inclined.”

“...Would you carry me?”

“I am a princess!” I lifted an eyebrow. “So no, I wouldn’t carry you.”

I sighed exasperatedly and started walking. She giggled and joined me, pressing her warm body against my freezing legs. “It’s cold as shit out here.”

“You should have worn warmer clothing.”

“I didn’t have a chance to pack and Twilight didn’t bring any.”

“Then perhaps thinking about what you’ll be doing to me soon will put some fire in your blood.”

God dammit, it’s so fucking cold… I did my best to wrap my wings around my shoulders, but they weren’t all that maneuverable. Aqua, you wanna maybe help out here?

“The only way I could warm you up is by deadening your nerves, which is considerably less healthy. The other option is letting me take over until you get to your destination.”

I continued muttering miserably as we slowly got closer to the huge wall and the crevasse I could just barely see. Thankfully, the trail was fairly well-worn, so we didn’t have to worry about any hidden snowy pitfalls. Soon enough, the two of us stood before the tall, thin crack in the wall.

“We have not made many modifications to the cave,” she said as we started walking in. It was still ungodly cold, but getting away from the wind was nice. After a few meters, I could begin feeling heat emanating from further within. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I noticed a few old cave drawings. Once we go to the first corner, we found a lamp hung on one of the walls. There were others dotted further in.

“How deep does this place go?” I asked.

“Very. Most of it is underwater.” When she said that, I finally started hearing some gentle splashing up ahead. “We haven’t explored all of it yet, I’m afraid, but there doesn’t appear to be anything dangerous within.”

Finally, we got to the open area. The little cavern we were in honestly wasn’t that comfortable and my head was almost touching the roof, but the inky black, steaming pond of water seemed interesting. A few griffins were either swimming or bathing in it, but they didn’t bother us.

“This is the main spring,” Gilda said.

I leaned down and palmed some of the water. It felt very pleasantly warm. The water itself was perfectly clear, but for some reason, it looked black from the outside. “It’s definitely warm. Where’s the heat coming from?”

“We aren’t sure.”

I waited for more, but after a few seconds, she didn’t continue. “Wait… You don’t know why the water is hot?”

“Um. Should we?”

Oh dear… “Well, it kinda matters,” I replied. “It’s the difference between a nice geothermal vent versus some kind of horrific radiation or worse, magic.”

“...Um.”

“Because if this is a magic spring of some kind, you could make a lot more money advertising it like that.”

“What do you think is causing the heat?” she finally asked.

“Probably some kind of geothermal vent, if I had to guess. If that’s the case, you could tap into it for easy electricity.”

“I could do what now?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“Are you kidding me right now?”

“No! How can I harness the power here, Nav?”

“You don’t even know what the power here is! For all you know, it could be a ring somebody dropped at the bottom of this underground lake.”

“...I guarantee you there is not a ring at the bottom of some underground lake that is causing this.”

“That was just an example. The point is, you don’t even know what’s causing this heat. Honestly, I’m not sure I want to get in until I find out where it’s coming from.”

“Griffins have been doing it for generations, Nav,” she said. “The water isn’t gonna bite. Would you like to partake in it or not?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Strip.” She didn’t have to tell me twice. That got the attention of everybody else, but no one actually said anything as I got nude. “...You’re bleeding,” she finally said.

“This is a normal human thing.”

“Ah, you are also in heat? Dogs are similar.”

“I’m not and please drop it. Can we finally go for a swim now?”

“Don’t let me stop you. Getting to our next destination actually will require swimming, though. I hope you can hold your breath.”

She slid into the water before continuing, so I decided to finally ease in as well. I wanted to just mindlessly jump in, but the stupidly huge tail combined with the low ceiling prevented me from having fun.

“This water is safe,” Aqua said. “I do not know about the heat source, though.”

“Has the hamlet of mehdiocrity gained any points?” Gilda asked as we let our bodies luxuriate.

“I’m not gonna live that down, huh?”

“I’m gonna have it engraved here somewhere as an official quote from Lady Navarone of Equestria.”

“Well, the answer is yes. This water is totes amazeballs.”

“Which means what, exactly?”

“Totally amazing.” She rolled her eyes. “So you said we’re going further in?”

“We are. Follow me.” She slowly paddled over to one of the sides of the cavern. Several lamps were put over one specific area.

Aqua let me follow her for about a meter before she took over and put my stupid tail to good use. “If you have these things, you need to learn to use them.”

When the two of us got to the place with the lamps, Gilda turned to me. “We will be going underwater from here. There are fairly frequent pockets of air, but we will not be going far.”

“Can I leave my eyes open?”

“No. You will have to hold my talon.”

“She’s lying,” Aqua replied. “She just wants to hold your hand.”

“Fine with me,” I said, holding up my left one for her. “Is there also a rope?”

“Yes. I will guide you to it, then we will both follow it.” She finally grabbed my hand with a grin. “Close your eyes, Nav.” As soon as I did, she very softly and quickly pecked me on the lips. “Now take a deep breath!”

Before I had a chance to do anything, she pulled me underwater. Honestly, it would have been easy enough for her to just drag me around like a doll, but I still grabbed the rope as soon as I could. She didn’t let go of my other hand, so I allowed her to have that privilege.

“It sure is a good thing you can breathe underwater, huh?” Aqua asked as she forced me to breathe in. It hurt like a motherfucker as my lungs adjusted, but she really and truly doesn’t give a fuck about me anyway, so I guess it’s whatever. “Is ignoring me what you’re doing now, hm?” she sweetly asked.

I don’t see any reason to reply when you can read my mind. The less I deal with you the better.

“Well that just hurts, Navi! Hmmm… Tell you what, from now on, you get to reply to me all the time! Just think of all the specialized attention I’m giving you, my pretty little cherry blossom!” She giggled and wrapped me in her disgusting and fake watery embrace. Thankfully, I barely felt it around the wonderful hot spring.

After a few twists and turns, Gilda and I finally emerged. She gasped for breath while I readjusted to breathing air. This new chamber was lit by some manner of bioluminescent moss that grew along the walls and floor. Honestly, the place looked nice and cozy.

“This is my private chamber,” Gilda said. “None may come here without my permission.” Her voice echoed strangely in the cavern and the lapping of the waves on the rocks was disorienting. Still, it felt very comfortable.

“You need a minibar in here,” I said. “So now you have me all to yourself. No more guards, no more assassins, no more Twilight… I’m quite curious what you think is going to happen next.”

“You are going to finish what you started last night,” she replied. “Before you let that assassin scare you off!”

“I didn’t let the assassin scare me away,” I said. “I left because there was no way we could do anything with your bitchy maid and the guards all up in our grill. Honestly, I thought you’d be more grateful.”

“For what?! Leaving me alone to deal with Matilda? Leaving it up to me to explain to my father why I ordered the guards away?! Or for dragging you to my private hot springs so we could relax after that hellacious experience and actually spend some time together?”

“I meant the part where I saved your life against an assassin, actually. It wasn’t my fault you ordered the guards away and it certainly isn’t my responsibility to handle your staff for you.”

She crossed her front legs and spun away. “Tch, fine! Thanks for saving my life, Nav. There, happy?!”

“A little.” I finally swam over to the edge of the springs and pulled myself out. “So what else is in here?”

“Very little,” she sullenly replied. “I do not spend much time here.”

“Why not?” I asked. “If I had a badass hidden spring I could go to whenever I want, I’d probably never leave.”

“Because I am a princess,” she said, finally turning back toward me. “Something you seem to keep forgetting, given the complete lack of respect.”

“Sorry, royal blood doesn’t mean much to me,” I replied with a shrug.

“Not after your people murdered their own royalty, correct?”

“You got it.” I finally started poking around the little room. Honestly, there really wasn’t all that much space in her private spring. After a few seconds of looking, I decided that there wasn’t much to see and slid right back into the comfortably warm water.

“The history of your kind seems steeped in violence and horror.”

“Whose history isn’t?” I asked. “How many wars have your people been in? How many has Celestia dealt with? Honestly, after a few conversations with her, it feels that the ponies might be just about as bad as we were, in some aspects. You just don’t think about it as much because so much of history has been censored.”

“...Hm. I suppose.”

“Besides, it’s all Discord’s fault in the end. Everything that dickwad touches turns to shit.”

Aqua giggled and whispered, “He’s touched you too, Navi!”

“And again you mention this Discord.”

“Yep, the demon of chaos who drove humanity extinct, but not before we could set the stage for the next group of races to take over. Discord survived our destruction and hounded our creations ever since. The last time he reared his head was just over six thousand years ago, when he completely eradicated the alicorn kingdom. He’s free now and is working to unknown ends.”

“Hm. Interesting.”

“Yeah, kinda. I’m hoping we get more info on him at the bunker.”

She grinned. “Ah, yes, the bunker. Twilight mentioned that you might have an ulterior motive for going. Well, it’s just the two of us here now, Nav. Why do you really want to go?”

“Believe it or not, I gave you the reason earlier: I’m expecting answers. When I went back in time, I told the original me that the bunker still existed in our time. I think he found a way to hide a message there and then placed a gene into the new races he created that only activated in a certain subset of the population. Once it activated, they were drawn to the bunker to defend it. That way, only someone who has a really good reason would ever actually try to break in. This would be his only way to leave me a message through time.”

For some reason, that seemed to confuse her. “How could that be possible?”

“Hell if I know. The dude created all life as we know it. There’s no telling what kind of easter eggs you guys could have hidden in your DNA. That’s the only reason I could possibly think of for so many people of so many various races to congregate there. It’s also possible that there’s some kind of technology there that attracts certain people. I don’t really guess it matters in the end, but I’m confident that we’ll find some kind of message there.”

“Hopefully. And if nothing else, we will finally put a great mystery to rest.”

“Oh, and have you actually told anyone that you’ll be going with me? Those guards seemed surprised.”

“Of course not,” she immediately replied. “They would all try to forbid it. This assassin actually gave me the perfect excuse. I’ll tell them I’m going on a short trip with you to keep me safe while they continue investigating.”

“That works for me,” I said with a nod. “Just remember that I am in charge once we get on the ship.”

“I am aware,” she replied. “I’ve been interested in seeing you in action for a while. I trust I will be assigned adequate protection?”

“You will. The goal will obviously be to keep you out of danger entirely, but when that isn’t possible, you’ll be fine.”

“Good. I will be providing some support, but not much. I hired a thief who managed to break in, I found a few very rare books about the area, and if you say the word, I can hire mercenaries to go with us.”

“We’ll decide that after we talk things over with the thief. I’d also like to talk to your oldest brother tomorrow, if possible. I was planning on doing that today before I was abducted.”

“That should be doable,” she said. “After the latest attempt on my life, I am more worried than ever about our father’s death…”

“So am I,” I sighed. “Some of the things I’ve heard griffins saying in the festival this week has me concerned. Half of them think Celestia is behind the government changes and most of them think the king gave up his power as a sign of laziness instead of to increase the power of the people.”

“...I see. What have you heard of us, his children?”

“Mostly bad. The gist I got is that they were all upset that very few of you were partaking in the festival. Especially you, since you’re still unwed. Basically, they wanted you to be out there hoing it up.”

“...I am no farmer peasant,” she slowly replied. “What do they expect me to hoe?”

“Sorry, that’s slang for being a massive slut. They wanted you to be out there picking up dudes.”

“Forgive me for having some self-respect,” she snarkily said. “I see no need to prowl the streets like an animal in heat just because that is what my body craves. I can handle my affairs much more discreetly, thank you very much!”

“Hey, that wasn’t me saying it. That’s just the plight of the common man. Of course, most of them also seem to dislike that you’re spending all your time making stuff instead of acting like a proper griffin princess. You have to find your place, Gilda,” I said. “I know you hate to hear it, but you have to find a way to connect with your people.”

“Technology is that way, Nav! They just can’t understand how important it is!”

I booped her on the beak. For some reason, that made her look extremely affronted. “You said it yourself, Gilda: Your place as a princess is to lead your people. It is your job to make them understand.”

She scoffed. “So you suggest I preach the merits of technology in the streets?”

“Why not form an academy?” That stopped her for a second. “Matilda said she found someone who was interested in working with you. I bet there are others. You could get them all together and form a royal academy.”

“...You want me to become a teacher?”

“Not quite,” I said. “Academies can host master researchers or craftsmen. Give them the designs I gave you, give them a lot of gold, and watch the fireworks fly. The students can work as apprentices to the masters. In time, you could also do formal classes with an actual curriculum.”

One of her talons started slowly stroking the feathers around her chin. “That is… interesting. I could gain several valuable research partners.”

“Yep. If you’re generous enough with your research grants and funding, it shouldn’t be hard to attract several very skilled craftsmen and inventors. And if you want to add a twist, you can add a true magic curriculum using the books I gave your father.”

Her eyes beat upon mine for several painful seconds before she slowly asked, “What books?”

“Oh, he didn’t tell you? Huh, weird. I gave your dad a bunch of books about several extremely important historical events that Celestia and Moonbeam purposefully censored. One of those is a book about true magic written by a griffin. It is magic that any race could perform. Celestia had it erased from history, but I found a copy of it, along with proof that Celestia did it on purpose.”

“Then that shall be our prized curriculum: The revival of true magic. I know just where to begin looking for recruits. I shall find a place to put my academy and begin construction post-haste.”

I sighed in relief and leaned back against one of the edges. That’ll get Bloodbeak off my back, at least. “Have fun with that. I’m gonna chill here for a while.”

She blinked. “Oh, sorry. Post-haste starting when we get back. I’m still in time-out.”

“Why?” I asked. “You did nothing wrong.”

“I sent away all the guards, including Matilda,” she sighed. “I should never have relied on any outsider, even a hero such as yourself, to fight a dangerous assassin for me. Part of this trip is supposed to be an apology to you.”

“I’m your friend, Gilda. I was happy to be there for you. And if you are ever in danger, let me know immediately. I’ll help you settle things quickly.”

“That sounds comfortingly ominous. Can I expect good things?”

I grinned. “I’ll break my one rule. I could quickly get a weapons manufacturing plant going. They’d be crude at first, but we could get things going almost immediately.”

One of her talons snatched one of my hands and she pulled me closer. “Give me this technology, Navarone,” she calmly said. “You and I both know there will be a coup soon. The more time I have to prepare and the more power I can show when it happens, the sooner we can curtail it. If we can get things going as quickly as you promise, I might be able to head things off immediately.”

I sighed. Aqua, thoughts? I promise to consider your opinion.

“That sounds promising. I advise you do it. I also suggest you invite her to Canterlot with you when you get back from the bunker. Have her talk to Celestia about working with Flim and Flam and with Chrysalis about getting some of her researchers as a show of solidarity. If this is a multi-racial effort, it will help keep technology levels among the three groups consistent.”

“I have an idea,” I said. “You should work with Moonie and Celestia.”

“Absolutely not,” she very coldly replied. “Griffin technology is ours!”

“That’s dumb,” I said. “Stop thinking like a bigoted nationalist. There is a worldwide threat to everything. Its name is Discord. We have to work together and coordinate everything.”

“And so I must work with those disgusting bugs?” she asked. “Can any of those things even think? I thought they all just mimicked us or something.”

“You must know your enemy if you are to fight them,” I said. “Changelings have three classes. There are the drones, which have no individual will. They live very simple lives. Wake up, eat enough to subsist, work, eat just enough to subsist again, return home, settle down for the night with their little nest unit.”

“That sounds… eerily similar,” she slowly said.

“Your common working man. Someone who hunts, farms, mines, builds, or whatever. They do mindless manual labor and don’t have the ability to dislike it. They are completely loyal and will follow whatever order is given to them by a ranking changeling, even it if will obviously lead to their demise.”

“Very dangerous, when used correctly. Yet utterly helpless if disorganized.”

“Yep,” I said with a nod. “The second class are the sentients. They have fairly standard intelligence and are usually placed in charge of small groups of drones. They direct most work efforts and keep all the drones in line.”

“So the middle class,” she said with a nod. “They have some concept of individuality, but can’t really think for themselves.”

“Sho nuff. They are led by the intelligentsia, or the sapients. These guys are just as intelligent as any other race. Several of them are geniuses. In fact, I actually think I know of one you might like. She was making a train with magic and technology. Last I heard, it was in the prototype phase. She might love to demo it for you.”

“...An intelligent female changeling,” she slowly said. “That’ll be the day! Very well, Navarone. If what you say is true and these bugs have developed a train off what you have shown them combined with their own ingenuity, I will allow them into my academy.”

“Cool. And Celestia’s engineers already built a very basic car and created the device that allowed them to run the tracks to the Crystal Empire. Their work is already improving lives in Equestria.”

“...Fine,” she said. “I will speak to both of them. Perhaps Chrysalis will hear me out. I just hope she does not try to steal all of my plans!”

“Moonie will behave,” I replied, finally reclaiming my arm. “You wanna just stop being coy and cuddle?” Her face turned bright red and both of her wings shot out. “We both know it’s going there and the sooner it happens, the longer we can enjoy it.”

“I… I don’t… You…” I finally pushed my way across the water and pressed my hands against the edges on both sides of her, preventing her from escaping. “Tha… Wha…”

“Isn’t that better?” I sweetly asked. Her face was nice and close to mine and her blush was just so cute. “I’m gonna enjoy picking up where we left off, Gilda…”

“...Nav,” she whispered, leaning in.

And now you’re mine. I met her kiss and gently grabbed one of her cheeks with a hand. She surrendered completely to my touch and moaned into my mouth as the hand slipped down to her belly.

I pulled back with a smirk. “Well lookie there. The little princess is moaning like an animal in heat. How about that?”

“N-Nav!”

I replied by rubbing her belly softly, making her whimper in delight. “What’s that? I think you like my belly rubs, don’t you?”

The blush across her face seemed to spread all the way down her to her chest and she looked away. “I… I mean…”

“You what?” I replied, pulling my hand away. “Did you have something to say?”

“Please… P-please r-rub my belly, N-Nav…”

“As you wish, princess,” I said with a smug grin. One of my hands started caressing her soft and vulnerable tummy. “I bet there’s something else you want, huh?” I asked as my fingers gently rubbed over her nipples. She gasped in shock. “Isn’t that right, princess?”

“Y-yes…”

“Well, what is it?” I asked. “Why don’t you tell me what you want?”

“You… you know, Nav!”

“I need permission, silly!” I replied, booping her on the beak again. “So you gotta tell me exactly what you want, my pretty little birdy. So if you want me to make you sing, you have to ask for it.”

“Oooh… Why do you have to word it that way?!”

“To fluster you, of course,” I said. “You’re so cute when you’re mad!“

“Ooooh!” I dipped a finger into her honey pot, making her moan in surprise. “N-Nav!”

“So tell me,” I said with a grin. “What do you want me to do to you, princess?”

“Y-you want orders?” she growled. “Break your promise to my father! Defile me, Navarone! Make me unworthy for marriage!”

Wow. Way to make it sound as unsexy as possible. “As you command, princess,” I replied, leaning in to kiss her again. I can finally check off taking a princess’s virginity!

When I finally decided to stop torturing the poor princess, I pulled her against me on the moss and began softly rubbing her belly. Her hind legs twitched every few seconds. Instead of the adorable chirps and squeaks, she was now softly humming. The lap of the water against the moss was honestly hypnotic.

To be quite honest, I’m surprised she let herself enjoy it for as long as she did.

“Mmmm, Nav?” she finally whispered.

“Hm?”

“That was… worth your constant teasing.”

“Why do you think Twilight lets me get away with it?” She snorted. “Well, not just Twilight…”

“Oh? You have a herd then, do you?”

“I’m in an it’s complicated with a few women. But right now, you are the only other woman here.”

“Indeed I am. And unlike those other hussies you choose to brag about, you will tell no one of this.”

“Deal.” I could talk about having sex with Moonbeam and Celestia all I wanted. They’re both grown women who don’t particularly care what I say. But I didn’t much like the idea of the entire griffin kingdom being pissed off that I deflowered one of their princesses. That was a secret I decided it might be best to keep to myself. “So how did you enjoy being spoiled rotten in bed, princess?”

“Are you asking me to stroke your ego, now? I believe you have ample proof that I enjoyed myself.”

“I am asking you to stroke my ego. It only seems fair, since you didn’t stroke anything else of mine…”

“You mean after treating you to a free trip to my illustrious hot springs?”

“Yes, after kidnapping me and dragging me to your hamlet of mehdiocrity. After, you know, I saved your life.”

“Fine. Shall I count the ways you pleased me, then? Would you like me to rattle them off? Should I describe it intimately for you, or give you a play-by-play?”

“Honestly, I was kinda looking for more of a general overview. How did you enjoy your first time and is this something you could see yourself doing again?”

“Oh? Is your mind finally turning toward me?” she asked. “Is a relationship perhaps on the table…?” Her warm tail started sliding up my leg.

“Please stop answering my questions with questions. I’m not playing a game, Gilda. I’m genuinely curious. Did you actually enjoy sex and would you be interesting in having sex again in the future?”

“I did enjoy it. I would be delighted to do it again in the future. In truth… I regret that I held myself back as long as I did. I wish I had given in to my urges years ago.”

“To be fair, I’d say entrusting your first time with me was the right choice, all things told.”

“Lacking any external points of comparison, I will agree. I admit to attempting to please myself in the past, but nothing I have ever done to myself could hold a candle to what you made me feel.”

See there? Was that so hard to say? “If you want, I can teach you how to schlick properly.”

“...I don’t know what schlick means.”

“Masturbate.”

“Ah. I do want. You will teach me later. For now, I am too sensitive.”

“Which brings me to my next question… What’s next for me and you, Gilda?”

She snorted. “This is where I’d ask again if a relationship was on the table, but I am apparently not allowed to answer questions with questions.”

“I suppose I did word that question poorly. Once we leave this cave, are we ever going to have sex again? If not, that’s fine. I’d just like to know where I stand.”

“The instant we can no longer see Gryphus, I will drag you to your room aboard your ship. You will not leave until we arrive at our destination. And as we return, you will continue pleasing your princess. Upon our return to Gryphus, we shall dictate the terms of our relationship. And now it is my turn for a question…” She pulled away enough to turn around so she was facing me. “Why not me?”

“...I don’t want to answer that.”

“I’ll cry if you don’t.”

“You might cry if I do.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll tell my father you defiled me.”

“You would not survive the attempt.” She blinked. “I’m not joking, Gilda. Don’t you dare try to hold this above me. I do consider you a friend, but I will not let you threaten me.”

“And do you think you could get away with murdering a princess?”

“Yes, extremely easily. Celestia knows a spell that would make everyone forget you ever existed.” Of course, that was (probably) a bold-faced lie, but I was hoping she didn’t know any better.

“...If Celestia knew that spell, there would be only one ruler on this planet.”

“No, she’s held in check by my brother.”

“...Your brother? I thought your family was gone.”

“I was adopted by Pyrite’s mother. Legally speaking, I’m second in line to the dragon throne.”

“Pyrite’s mother?”

“And mine. She’s completely mind numbingly insane.”

She blinked a few more times before finally pushing me back. “Everything you say leads me to more questions, yet you still haven’t answered the first! You will tell me why you won’t marry me!”

“I don’t like some aspects of your personality.”

“I know! WHAT DON’T YOU LIKE?!”

“For starters, this.” She started to angrily retort, but then thought better of it. Her beak clamped shut with a snap. “You’re a princess, through and through. That comes complete with a princess’s pride and a princess’s honor. It’s very obvious that you’ve never known hardship, you’ve never gone hungry, and you’ve never had to really work a day in your life. You claim that all of your actions are for your people, yet all you seem to do is belittle your servants and guards. Any that express any manner of affection toward you are punished. You’re exceedingly prim and polite at times to the point of being blatantly standoffish. It’s clear you’ve spent more time in your own company than with others. To sum up, you’re very immature.”

The rage on her face was… not comforting. Aqua giggled and said, “You do so enjoy spelling out the faults of others, don’t you?”

It’s honestly my favorite hobby. “I do like you, Gilda. You are my friend. I generally enjoy the time we spend together. But as things stand right now, the difference in our maturity levels makes the idea of a relationship with you… unpalatable.”

“I see.”

“See there? Prim and proper to a fault. I just insulted you, Gilda. It’s okay to yell at me for it if you want.”

“And risk being called out for my immaturity?” she harshly shot back.

“Yelling at somebody doesn’t make you immature. Yelling at somebody who is incapable of yelling back makes you immature.”

“A fine distinction, I’m sure.”

“It’s the difference in yelling at a friend or a lover or even a random stranger versus yelling at a servant or a guard or a random fast food employee. I can and will defend myself against you, Gilda. You’re free to have any kind of discourse you want with me and I’m free to return the favor.”

“...So this is about how I treat my staff.”

“That’s part of it, yes.”

“Many of your complaints were about me being a princess, as well. Would you prefer living in squalor with a peasant woman, then?”

“I just don’t like most of the stereotypical princess personality archetypes, which isn’t your fault. To put it bluntly, you’re a fairly standard honorable ice queen tsundere princess. I don’t like ice queens, I don’t like tsunderes, and I can’t stand honor.

“...I assume those words mean things to you that they do not to me.”

“You assume correctly. I don’t know if this means anything to you, but I shattered Celestia’s motherly princess image less than an hour after meeting her. I managed to get past Luna’s awkward iciness and warm her up into something that’s almost comfortable to touch. When I first met Cadance, I wanted to murder her. It actually took longer than average to get past her stupid archetypal personality, but when I finally did, I helped mold her into one of the best rulers on the planet.”

“And did you make each of those princesses hate themselves?”

“Yes. Celestia tried killing herself in front of me, I’m not going to go into what happened with Luna, and I made Cadance cry. Several times.”

“Then I, too, shall swallow my princess’s pride. Let us return to my abode.”

“Can I—” She sank beneath the waves before I could finish, but I wasn’t going to let her rudeness stop me. “—take some of this moss with me?”

I wish silence was all that greeted me. Instead, I got to hear Aqua giggle. “Of course you have my permission to take some of the moss, my precious little cherry blossom!”

I just wanted to show Twilight, but after that, I almost changed my mind. In the end, I decided not to let Aqua ruin something nice for me and tore off a small strip of the moss before sliding beneath the water.

That’s when I realized that Gilda was already gone. She abandoned me in her maze of a hotsprings, apparently expecting me to find own my way back. Remind me to tack this onto the list of reasons I won’t be dating her, in case she ever asks again.

“With pleasure! And don’t worry, Nav. I can guide you back.”

I know. Let’s do it, then.

“Of course, we aren’t going straight back…”

I’m not going to start roaming around a huge underwater cave just because you’re curious. Come and do this on your own time.

“Don’t pretend you aren’t also interested.”

I am interested. Thankfully, I’m a mature adult who’s capable of realizing that things in which I’m interested in aren’t always things that are worth exploring. Yes, we could spend hours or days exploring this vast underground cave network and I’m sure we might eventually stumble upon whatever is causing this heat, but whatever we might find won’t be worth the time spent searching for it.

“Were you alone, I couldn’t disagree. Luckily for you, your wonderful friend Aqua can tell minute differences in temperature with no problem at all. All I have to do is keep following the heat until I can’t anymore. I won’t take up more than an hour of your extremely precious time, Nav.”

I probably could have kept debating it, but I was hoping that Twilight would eventually wonder where I was and take a look with magic. With luck, she’d realize that I was breathing underwater and that would tip her off to the fact that I had an elemental in me.

After a few twists and turns, we surfaced back in the main cavern. Gilda had already fucked right off, which probably meant she was freezing her ass off on the walk back to the house. Aqua submerged us again and we started swimming along the sides of the cavern, presumably feeling out where the heat was the greatest. After a few minutes of following the wall, she started swimming out toward the far wall.

When she got there, she stopped. “This… this isn’t right.”

“What isn’t?” I asked aloud. Thankfully, there was only one other griffin in the room now, and he was on the far side.

“Hm…” We started following the wall again before she sighed. “No, surely not…”

“Stop being retarded and just tell me what’s wrong. I know you’re doing it on purpose.”

“As far as I can tell, the heat source is somewhere in this room. Surely they would have found it by now, though!” Instead of waiting for a reply, she dove and started swimming to a point near the center of the little lake. Soon enough, we were floating above the silty cavern floor. “This is the hottest point, but there’s nothing here.”

I poked the silt. It was hot, but not painfully so. I started digging through it, but almost immediately got to a layer that was too hot to touch.

“Perhaps there’s some manner of lava vent directly below this cavern and we’re only getting the residual heat?” she mused.

I bet you money it’s dumber than that. I began probing around the rest of the silt. At this point, it was getting so murky that it was difficult to tell what was going on, but I could navigate by feeling pretty well. Soon enough, I had it narrowed down to a fairly small area that was too hot to touch.

“Let’s put this mystery to rest,” Aqua said. I wasn’t quite sure how she expected me to do that since it was too hot to touch, but she actually did something that was semi-intelligent for once: She used my heat-proof tail to throw that wad of silt aside. Of course, that made it completely impossible to see and threw whatever we were looking for into the abyss at the same time, so we finally surfaced. “We’ll look again once the silt has time to clear.”

I was too preoccupied by her bullshit that I didn’t notice Twilight paddling over to me. “There you are, Nav!” she called as she swam. “Gilda said you were right behind her.”

“I made her mad, so she left me to die in her maze.”

The smile on her face dipped slightly. “She… Ugh, you always do this!”

“No, I mean that literally. She guided me through this underwater maze to a private chamber, we talked for a bit, she got mad, and then she abandoned me in said private chamber in the middle of her underwater cave.”

“But… you knew the way back, right?”

“No, she had me keep my eyes closed and just pulled me along. It took me a little while to get back.”

“...I’m sure she was planning on coming to get you.”

“Yeah, probably. Of course, that doesn’t really make up for leaving me in an underwater death maze, but whatever.” I held up the scrap of moss. At this point, it had lost almost all of its glow. “This was growing in that chamber. I thought you might want to look at it.”

“That’s a magical fungus,” she said. “Watch.” Her horn lit up and the moss matched it. “It only grows in places with a high concentration of magic, feeding off the residual energy. I’d say it’s likely that this is some manner of magical spring.”

“It’s interesting you say that. I think I found the source of this heat and would like your help in getting a better look at it.”

“I’d be delighted to help, but I’m not really sure what you need.”

“Whatever the source is, it’s fairly small but it’s too hot to touch. It’s pretty close to directly beneath us, but I kicked up a lot of silt trying to pinpoint it.”

“Close your eyes.” I did so and she poked me with her horn. A small wave of purple deliciousness hit me. “This spell makes it very difficult to see through air but makes looking through water simple.”

I opened my eyes and sure enough, it looked kinda like I was underwater. “Why doesn’t this spell just make it so that you can also see underwater? This debuff is unnecessary.”

“I didn’t make the spell,” she replied. It looked like she shrugged as she said it, but I couldn’t tell for sure. “You ready to go spelunking?”

“Yep.” We both took deep breaths and submerged. Aqua guided me directly to what looked like a small group of bubbles. As we got closer, I realized the bubbles were centered around what looked like a ring. I tried reaching out to grab it, but the water around it was literally boiling hot. Twilight grabbed it with magic and we shot back up to the surface.

“So it really was a ring!” I shouted when we got up.

“Is that a surprise?” Twilight asked, holding the thing up to get a better look at it. While she was doing that, the weird spell thing she put over my eyes wore off and I could suddenly see properly again.

“Gilda personally guaranteed me that the heat source wasn’t a ring. I’m gonna rub it in her face.”

“Way to take the high road.” The ring finally flashed purple. “It’s magic, all right. I don’t know what it does yet, though.”

“Do you remember the ring of invisibility we found in Athena’s dungeon?

“No.”

“What about the card deck?”

“Absolutely not and I don’t want you to ever bring it up again.”

“...Fair enough. The point is, I think this is another failed creation. Whoever created this wanted a ring that let them make fire. Instead, they created a ring that catches whatever it’s put around on fire.”

“Then why would it work on the water?”

“Instead of lighting it on fire, it just heats the water up. Let me see it.”

“Be careful,” she said as she floated it my way. I started moving a hand toward the ring to see if I felt any heat. There was none at all. Finally, I poked it. It was cool to the touch.

“Let me take it.” She dropped the ring into my hand. I very gently lowered a small strand of my hair into it. As soon as the strand of hair got to the other side of the ring, it lit up in a flash and burned away. It smelled like burning leaves instead of burning keratin, thankfully. “Yep, there you go. This ring generates heat on anything that passes through it. If you throw it in a bucket of water, it would evaporate in seconds. Throw it in a lake and it becomes a hot spring after a few hundred years.”

“...Amazing,” Twilight said. “And yet utterly worthless.”

“If by worthless you mean free infinite energy, sure.”

“The energy isn’t very useful if it kills anyone wearing it, Nav.”

“Did you even listen to what I just said, Twilight?”

“Well, great. Pick a lake near Canterlot and let’s turn it into a spring. It won’t generate much revenue at the start, but when we market it right? I think we could make it work.”

“Twilight, please. You’re better than this. Use your critical thinking skills.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“Jesus, fine! Ever heard of a thing called a steam engine before?” She blinked. “If this thing could boil a pot of water instantly, you could toss it in one of those to generate infinite power. Mind, it wouldn’t be much infinite power, but it’s still infinite.”

“...You are correct. So, since Gilda left you here to die anyway, I say we keep the ring without telling her a thing.”

“I don’t think you understand how much I want the satisfaction of rubbing this in her face. I don’t care if it means she gets to keep it or not, since it’s not like there’s anything I can do with this hunk of junk.”

“I can do plenty with it! I can use it for tons of research projects! And I don’t know why you aren’t treating this like a bigger deal. It may not be enough to power a city, but it could probably power a house.”

“True. Still though, this spring has been here for generations. Stealing the source doesn’t sit well with me.”

She sighed and nodded. “Fair enough, Nav. How long do you think it can stay out of the water before the spring starts to lose its heat?”

“Technically? Zero seconds. The temperature has been decreasing ever since we pulled it out.” At least, I think so. Aqua?

“You’re correct. This ring appears to be the source of the heat.”

“If I had to guess, I’d say the water will become too cold to swim in over the course of a day or two, maybe a week at most, at which point it’ll freeze completely.”

“That seems like a fair assessment,” Twilight said. “I was more worried about it freezing by the time we got to Gilda, though.”

“Oh no, there’s too much residual heat left over. It’s not that cold out there.” Even if it feels that way when all you’re wearing is a tiny dress.

“Good. In that case, you go tell Gilda while I enjoy what’s left of the heat. Those two guards were rough and they both wanted to go several times.”

“Nice. Unfortunately, I ain’t goin’ nowhere without you. It’s too cold. Wanna find a safe place to leave this thing while we play in the springs?”

“Yes.”

And that’s just what we did.

Once we were done with that, we grabbed the ring and finally hopped out of the water. “I know it’s warm in here, but it still feels cold outside the water,” I said.

Twilight’s horn lit up and the water all flowed off us, then we both heated up. “How’s that?”

“Much better. The walk here was hell.”

“Huh. Maybe you should have packed more warm weather gear,” she replied with a cheeky grin.

“Eat a spoonful of cinnamon.”

“Will you forgive me if I do?”

I smirked. “Of course. Just let me watch.”

“Alright. I don’t really see how that could be so bad.”

Giving away the surprise would have ruined it, so I just grabbed my terrible clothes and got dressed. “Got the ring?” I asked.

She floated it over. “Right here.”

“Good. Float over about a bucket’s worth of water. I want to see how quickly it evaporates it.”

“You got it,” she said as she floated the water over. As soon as she put the ring in the water, we could see the inside of the ring light up bright orange. After a few seconds, bubbles started bursting from the ring. The water lasted all of five seconds. “Wow.”

“So this thing is pretty powerful, small scale,” I said. “This heat may last longer than we thought.”

“We shall see,” Twilight said. “The princess might not want her special springs to be ruined.”

“If she actually cares about this shitty place.”

“You called it shitty. And honestly, it seemed like that hurt her feelings. And then you did… something to make her angry. What did you even do?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “You uh… know those speeches I like to give?”

She sighed and face-hooved. “You mean one of your awful reasons you suck speeches?”

“She asked! You know I never give those unless they literally ask for it!”

“Bullshit!” she said, slapping a hoof against the sandy floor. I grinned, because her cursing is always adorable. “You did it to those Tower goons yesterday!”

“One can not more literally ask for it than by insulting my Twiggles,” I replied with a boop to her nose.

“Tell that to Chrysalis.”

“Hey now, I can’t fight all your battles!”

“...I get it now,” she whispered, her eyes widening. “Now I know what you’re doing!”

“What am I doing?” I asked.

“You’re making us compete for your affection!”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah, and?”

That made her mouth drop. “W-what?”

“That’s the point of courtship. Since multiple people are courting me, you have to compete to earn my affection. This is like Relationship 101, Twilight.”

After a few seconds, she finally grinned with a squee. “I’m courting a noble lady!”

“Welcome to… I dunno, a few months ago. Why do you think Fleur and Moonie have been trying to one-up you and put you down? They see you as the weaker partner, so they want to get rid of you first. Once that happens, I think they’ll both agree to share me and then force me to accept a herd.”

The grin disappeared and her eyes narrowed. “And you knew?”

“That’s just a suspicion,” I replied with a shrug. “I figured you already understood that.”

“...I did not. Well we’ll just see about that, then! Weaker partner my flank!”

Aqua sighed and quietly said, “Not that it’ll matter soon…”

Oooh, ominous foreshadowing! “Contrary to popular belief, jealousy isn’t really all that sexy.”

“That just sounds like you’re encouraging a herd. How do you expect us to compete if we aren’t jealous?”

That one stumped me. “Alright, fair enough. I guess I’ll have to learn to deal with it. Just respect my limits.”

“Deal,” she replied with a nod. “If nothing else, that may be my saving grace. I would never hurt you.... Without permission.”

“Good. Now let’s go pay our host a visit. I’m looking forward to this.”

“You’re so mean,” she said with a grin. “I’m glad to know you’re through with Gilda now that your conquest is complete.”

“She might be interested in more sex later,” I said with a shrug. “I guess we’ll see.” With that, we finally started walking. “But it’ll be just sex. And this stays between just us.”

“Fair enough. But you’re gonna fill me in on every little detail later!”

“I’ll let you watch in our dreams. Maybe I’ll even let you play the part of Gilda.”

“Hm, maybe. But I think I like watching you squirm and moan more. You’re so cute when I’m playing with you!”

I wonder if she thinks that’s a compliment.

“It is a compliment,” Aqua said. “You should thank her.”

“So did you get to meet the leader of this place?” I asked.

“I did. He was the first caribou I’ve ever met.”

“What did you think of him?”

“Poorly. I advise against meeting him. He might not kill you, but you’d likely wish he had.”

“Jesus. What did he do?”

She snorted. “Apparently caribou culture is notorious for being strictly patriarchal. They don’t hold mares in high regard. I can’t imagine what Gilda had to do to get him to accept her control.”

“Oh. The hamlet of mehdiocrity strikes again!”

“Stop saying that like it’s a thing! You’re not making it a thing!”

“It’s too late, Twilight. Gilda is going to have it engraved here as an official quote from Lady Navarone. My words will live on in history!”

“You have problems.”

“Yeah.”

Most of the rest of the walk back was in silence. By the time we got to the manor, the sun was finally dipping under the mountain. I made sure to grab a pitcher of water from the kitchens before going to confront Gilda.

We found her in a small sitting room, where she was writing something in a journal. She looked up for just a moment when we walked in before returning to her writing.

“You lied to me,” I said.

That made her set the pen down. When she turned to look at me, anger was on her face. “I did no such thing. Even after all your insults, I never lied to you.”

“You made me a guarantee,” I said. “You told me the heat source wasn’t a ring!”

“What foolishness is this?” she demanded. “Don’t waste my time!”

I held up the grey band. “What is this, then?”

“I don’t know, Nav. What is that?”

“Don’t play coy,” I said, lifting up the pitcher. “We know your secret!” I dropped the ring in there and steam immediately began pouring out of the pitcher. Gilda jumped up, eyes wide. “Did you think we wouldn’t find out?”

“What sorcery is this?! What did that pet unicorn of yours do?!”

“Nothing, actually,” Twilight said. “Nav found the ring on her own. It was buried in the silt in the main chamber.”

“How… how could you find such a thing?!”

“I think the better question is why you’d lie to me!”

“I didn’t lie!” Gilda yelled. “I had no idea! That ring is amazing!”

“Yeah, I know, I’m just fucking with you.” The look of surprise on her face immediately disappeared, only to be replaced by extreme disappointment. “So, you know what you can do with this thing?”

“Execute annoying humans?”

“Create infinite power.”

She slowly sat back down. “Keep talking.”

“Once we find out how quickly thing this can evaporate different amounts of water, we can use it to create an engine. It probably wouldn’t be too powerful, but if we could find a way to make more of these rings, or something better, we might have a possibility for an easy semi-infinite power source.”

One of her talons immediately extended. “Give it to me.” I walked over and dropped it in her palm. She slowly pulled it closer to get a better look at it. “So plain, for something so powerful. I believe this is… lead. Perhaps that it how it withstands its own heat…”

“This will kill the springs,” Twilight said. “Without this heat source, the water will soon freeze.”

“...Navarone made a suggestion to me. She told me to form a royal academy. I am currently drafting a letter to head of this location, relieving him of his position. I will be taking over and turning this place into a beacon of learning, not a mausoleum of knowledge. For now, the ring will stay safe in the springs. Only we will know of this. Once I form my academy, I will begin experimenting on it.”

“I think that sounds like an excellent idea,” Twilight said. “Good luck to you, princess.”

“With luck, I can use the pageant as advertisement,” Gilda said. “The thought of going to it still ails my mind, but I will put it to use. Now, night falls. You will soon need to rest, Nav. Would you like dinner first?”

“She would,” Twilight immediately said. “Are we going to be returning tonight or in the morning?”

“Tonight,” Gilda said. “Once Nav returns to sleep, we’ll summon the chariots and return to Gryphus. With luck, Nav’s ship will be there first thing tomorrow.”

“I do still need to talk to your brother. A lot of the people on the ship are very needy, so I might not have much time when they arrive.”

“Quite a fine way to describe your followers.” She set the ring and the letter in a lockbox, then pulled the key. “Let us go eat, then. I believe they’re serving roc and potato soup.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said.

And as it so happens, it was quite good.

All in all, I’d rate that sub-vacation a four out of ten. The griffins need to step up their game.