Chapter 7

Nate and Evan had gotten into the habit of sparring to train. Every time, however, Evan would start laughing. It started usually as soon as he took a hit. It was rather disarming to Nate, who finally snapped. One day, while they were sparring, Nate had screamed, “What the hell is wrong with you?” Evan stopped moving and the grin on his face disappeared. Nate saw this and dealt him one in the sternum. Instead of crumbling over like a normal person, he fell over backwards like a plank of wood.

“I know I can be a little... excitable...” Evan stared up at the sky. He flung himself up and walked off to his quarters with his head hung low. Nate confusedly watched him go, then blinked as he saw Bromley follow after him slowly. He ran up to talk to the other man for a second, and was relieved when he saw that Bromley wasn’t angry.

“I’m sorry captain, it’s just... that laugh. It is not natural.” Bromley winced and nodded a bit, then looked up thoughtfully at the hazy sky. His eyes darkened a bit as he chose his next words carefully.

“Yeah... I know.. But that’s how he deals with it, Nate. As long as he can deal with it, that’s all that matters.” Nate remembered the last time Evan couldn’t “deal with it”. Not much got through to his imagination but Evan’s face of pure rage and desperation flashed wildly in his mind. He shuddered. Bromley sighed deeply and continued following his long time friend to his room, determined to empathize and see what he could do for the boy. Then he realized that this wasn’t his job anymore. Quickly he spun around, and beckoned his rainbow mare friend to him.

“Dashie... Go find Applejack. Evan needs company right now.” Dash nodded and flew off in a rainbow blur, unaware of the fond smile following her. Bromley sighed to himself again (he seemed to be doing that a lot), and busied himself with mapping out the area. A few hours ago Nathaniel had given him a massive piece of paper, constructed out of six magically glued together pieces. He sighed and carefully ran the barely functioning pen around the paper. He brought the pen to his mouth, chewing on the top of it thoughtfully. Karma decided to slap him in the mouth for something he did. The pen exploded. Again, in his mouth. “FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU-”

“Applejack, we need your help,” Rainbow Dash called down to Applejack. She was a few feet above her, hovering in the air.

“It’s that dumb kid Evan ag’in ain’t it?” she asked, thinking she already knew what the problem was. Her guess was that Evan had gone out and gotten himself injured again. Her nostrils flared angrily and her eyes narrowed.

“It’s not what you think. He isn’t laughing right now, and I don’t think he will be for awhile if you don’t go talk to him! Nate did something to him. Well.. Not really did something to him... He just... Actually just said what we’ve all been thinking. He’s not hurt, hes just.... down. He’s cooled off too much, AJ.” Applejack began to worry. If Evan wasn’t laughing or hurt then what could possible be wrong? Rainbow Dash hadn’t given a very good description. She sprinted out of the room and towards Evan’s quarters. The door was closed. She hadn’t given herself enough time to think. What would she say? How would she even come into the room? Wouldn’t it be awkward to have a pony come into your room and try to cheer you up? She wasn’t even sure of what the problem was. Before she could knock, a voice rang out.

“Go away Applejack. I want to be alone right now,” Evan sounded miserable.

“How’d you know it was me?” Applejack was confused. Had somepony ran ahead and told him she was coming? Then again, the guy did have good hearing.

“I’m prithee to what Bromley does around here. I don’t need any help. I’m fine, see?” He opened the door with a smile plastered on his face. It wasn’t his normal smile however. His eyes told it all. This was all about something that had happened before, and he had been wearing a mask ever since. The mask had fallen off and he was still making a new one.

“Oh, sugar cube, yer gonna be ok.” his smile dropped. That reassuring voice made him feel odd, and he was unsure if he liked it.

“I need more time. I need to bury this and fix myself. I need to be better,” he said to himself. “Go away I’m going to be working.”

“Well how can I help?” Applejack cut in quickly. He sighed, stood up, and went up to her and patted her nose.

“You’re a very warm pony. You know that?” Both of them knew he meant that in more then one way. Evan’s eyes glazed over slightly as he thought of his life time best friend Bromley. The captain was the opposite of warm. He was icy cold, and would freeze you over if you spent prolonged periods of time next to him. Well, that was until a certain rainbow seemed to melt that exterior.

“It gets very cold at night, don’tcha know?” Apple’s voice broke into his mind, and he cracked a smile. A real smile. Not the crazed “I need to be better” smile. Someone he didn’t know for most of his life was making him happy. It was a new experience. He let her in, and even though it wasn’t anywhere close to night time, they laid down on his bed. “I’m definitely getting used to this”  he thought to himself. She laid over him to keep him warm. He wasn’t the comfiest person ever, mainly because he really needed to eat more, but she was fine with it. They both drifted off to sleep.

Fluttershy, currently taking a walk around the complex, looked into the open door and saw them. She giggled quietly to herself and slowly closed the door, as to not wake them. She then wondered about something. She looked into Rainbow Dash’s room, seeing her moving everything down the hall and into a different room. She peeked into that room and saw Bromley organizing a few objects. He turned to her and raised an eyebrow like nothing was wrong at all, despite her slightly flushed face at the thought of her friend... sleeping with the Captain. Oh that sounded so dirty! Fluttershy then flew silently and gently to Nate’s lab, seeing him adding wings to the awkward space craft.

“Uhm, can I, maybe, if it’s alright, interrupt for a few seconds?” She said shyly. Nate looked up, his hair thoroughly messed up. Rarity saw this through the window in passing and immediately ran off to get a brush.

“What is it?” he said, pulling the goggles from his face and let them fall around his neck.

“Well, you see, I’m not saying that you’re bad or anything, it’s just...” Fluttershy began, interrupted by Rarity rushing in to brush through Nate’s hair. Keenan poked his head in and looked around, simply trying to get used to the place. Pinkie Pie was showing him around. Fluttershy sat there quietly as Rarity brushed Nate’s hair at least a hundred times through.

As soon as Rarity left and closed the door, Fluttershy continued, “Applejack and Evan are sharing a bed and Rainbow Dash is moving into Bromley’s room, and I was just thinking, if it’s alright, I mean, if you don’t want to that’s fine...” she said, looking away in a saddened fashion. Nate immediately pieced things together, as he sometimes does.

“You want to move into my room?” Nate guessed, directing her attention to him again.

“Yes! I mean, only if you want... I don’t want to impose...” she said, backing away a bit as if preparing to run.

“Well we can start moving you in now.” Nate said, getting up and starting to walk to Fluttershy’s quarters. He knew that this probably meant that their relationship would extend to, well, whatever the pony equivalent of a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship would be. Unless she was moving simply as a courtesy.

“Oh joy!” she said, flying out quietly and into her quarters. Nate picked up most of her belongings (which numbered few) and took them to his quarters. She organized them until Nate came in with the bed that was in her room.

“Oh, um, you can leave that back in my room, if that’s not too much trouble...” Fluttershy said. No, this was no courtesy. She saw him as what he assumed the ponies would call a “coltfriend”.

“Oh... okay.” Nate said, wobbling back down the hall and replacing the bed. When he set it back down and returned to his room, Fluttershy was already in his bed. He laid down next to her, sort of awkwardly at first. She looked up when he did so, then jumped on top of him. He didn’t mind it, really. After all, she was his marefriend.

This was an interesting concept. The two were practically aliens to each other, but this didn’t matter much at all, it appeared. They seemed to have genuine feelings for one another. Not just Nate and Fluttershy either. Thus far, Evan and Applejack, Bromley and Rainbow Dash... it was almost as if it were contagious. Even though there were only five humans here, and it would be doubtful that any other humans would show up. Perhaps this was why it burned in Twilight’s mind. She hated the idea of ponies and humans being paired together, as did Rarity. Twilight was more prone to jealousy, though. She even had a human in her room, albeit a frozen one. She cracked the door open a smidgen, letting the cold steam slip out and the human inside to warm up.

“Hey Bromley?” Rainbow Dash quipped at the tall man who was currently stuffing away needless objects under the bed. He got back up onto his feet, turning and raising a brow at her. “So... This room doesn’t have enough space for another bed.” She said plainly. Bromley blinked a couple of times before answering.

“I thought that was already known.” Rainbow Dash blushed lightly, making Bromley smirk at her. She flew over and kicked him in the shoulder teasingly. He didn’t budge, his smirk fading to a small smile. She continued her train of thought.

“Well, I was just wondering if it was OKAY with you.” Bromley just shook his head, chuckling for a second.

“No, I’m just gonna make you sleep on the floor.” He said sarcastically. She looked offended as if she took it seriously for a second, before her brain finally sped up to pace and allowed the sarcasm of the comment to get through.

“Shut up.” She glared at him and he chuckled again, reaching out and pulling her to his chest before collapsing on the bed with her on top of him. She nestled into his strong pecs, breathing in deeply. He was amazingly comfortable, like a firm bed. She could feel the restrained power, kept tightly under control. It turned her on greatly, just knowing he could dominate her, but she ignored that so she could revel in the fact that somepony cared about her. Cared about her enough to experience real feelings for her. It was truly flattering, and she felt undeserving of such things. But, little did she know of the Captain’s own problems of self worth.

Pinkie pie rolled over on the ground, giggling loudly at the top of her longs. The squirming pink horse was being tickled half to death by Keenan, who had his fingers pressing into her sides while he grinned down at her innocently.

“O-oh - HAHAHAHAHA- KEENAN STOP! I c-can- hahhahaha- Breathe...” Keenan pulled back laughing loudly as Pinkie Pie tried to regain her breath. She sprung to her feet suddenly, shoving him over. “Do you like trombones?” She asked out of the blue.

“Hm... yes.” Keenan nodded to her, then shot her a question. “Do you like waffles?” Pinkie Pie thought about it for a second before nodding vigorously.

“Yeah, I like waffles!” Keenan suddenly broke out into song, and Pinkie Pie sang along every time the words “yeah we like” rang out from the loud out-of-key boy’s tone. Keenan scooted out from under Pinkie and got to his feet. He skipped back to the base, having come to a mental agreement with Pinkie Pie. “Hey Pinkie, sleep with me tonight?” Pinkie Pie happily bounced after him giggling loudly and shouting yes.

Keenan and Pinkie Pie took the bed from Fluttershy’s room and moved it into theirs. The randomness they shared could keep the other entertained. Sure, it wasn’t the most normal pairing ever, but it worked. Rather well, actually. Rarity simply shook her head in disapproval. Nopony had good taste, in her mind. It should be a mare and a colt. Not a mare and a person, not a mare and a mare, but a mare and a colt. She couldn’t stand it. She either had to break them all up or die trying. She sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head. She ventured outside, simply trotting about the perimeter of the house.

Twilight pulled a somewhat thawed Josh out of the chamber he was stuck in. She hoisted his chilled arm over her back and dragged him to her bed. She made several attempts at thawing him. First covering him with all the blankets she had, then even laying on top of him, to even casting a fire spell above him. He didn’t budge, despite becoming room temperature once more. She gave a defeated sigh and had her head mere inches from the bed when something caught her eye: Josh’s eyes. Josh’s open, conscious, blinking eyes.