For the ponies that walked past, he was just another pony, clearly not a crystal one, but a perfectly normal earth pony with a little smile and a nice hat on his head.

"Paper?" offered a crystal one going past. "A good way to pass the day and be in the know of what's going on."

Wensley reached a hoof. "Huh, been a while since ah read one of these." He accepted the paper and surrendered a bit for it. "Thank ya kindly."

He flipped it open on the ground and swept his eyes over the current events. "Huh... Big bunnies." It was apparently current news that the tsuki had arrived and crashed into the ponies with open arms on either side. Tsuki-sourced gems were appearing in jewelry stores, apparently with a quality that ponies had a hard time matching for intricate work.

Not a one-sided relationship, tsuki were quite eager to spend their earned bits on almost anything ponies had to offer them. They needed for little, but seemed to adore collecting and sharing pony things. It made everycreature involved a bit richer and happier for the relationship. "Wonder if ah'll see one?" He looked around, but the street seemed clear of any bunnies, just a lot of ponies.

"There you are." Anik emerged from the crowd with a growing smile. "It's good to see you outside, in the sun. Doesn't it feel better?"

Wensley swerved an ear to the side. "Suppose it does... Um..." He looked over the snow and ice-colored pony that had come to his rescue. "Never had a chance to say, but thanks..."

"You're welcome." Anik closed the distance to sit in front of Wensley. "Do you feel better?"

"Ah think ah do." Wensley closed the paper and folded it neatly for later. "Ah was... really fallin' in.... Sorry ya had to go through all that trouble."

"I did it because I wanted to do it." Anik pawed at the air with a hoof. "So apologizing is silly. You can say thank you. That's enough. Are the night visions troubling you?"

"They don't really stop." He rubbed the side of his head. "Do you have a fix for that?"

"Sorta." Anik inclined his head. "A few things I know for sure. To start, they aren't you. Just because you imagine something bad doesn't mean you want something bad." His tail lashed as he tapped at his head. "Up here, a lot goes on. We just remember the big things, like imagining something bad. Let it come, and let it go. Oh, a question."

"Yeah?" Wensley tucked the paper away into his side. "Go ahead an' shoot."

"Have you ever done anything you saw, that bothered you?"

Wensley thought back on things. He had a lot to dig through. "No... can't reckon ah ever did. Not sure who would want to do that. Ain't me!"

"Then you have done nothing wrong," concluded Anik. "A bad thought is just a thought. A thought is not a crime. Let it come and let it go."

"What about..." Wensley waved at Anik. "The things with you?"

"You haven't done anything." Anik set a hoof on either of Wensley's shoulders. "You don't want to do anything. Have your thoughts, let them go. Don't fight them, just let them come and go and new thoughts will take their place."

"Yer really not upset?" Wensley peered at Anik suspiciously, head turned so only one eye could focus on Anik easily. "Not even a little?"

"Not even a little. If I worried what people thought, I'd be worried a lot." He dropped his hooves to the ground. "How is your girlfriend doing?"

"Oh!" Wensley perked. "She's fine. Better, I think... She don't like you none, but you did us a favor, the way ah see it. We're still, um, together... But thin's changed. They kinda had to, ya know?"

"I can only imagine, unless you tell me. I can weave a thousand poems about things I see, but what they say back to me will cast a clearer light than I could hope for." He waxed poetic about the whole thing, a habit of his. "Will you do me that favor?"

Wensley chuckled, taking off his hat to press against his own chest with worrying hooves. "Well, since ya asked... She eased up on, uh... She was showin' her love kinda funny, but ah was pretty sure ah deserved it, and it was a love, funny or not... so ah took it. She was awake at night, so that's when I tried to be... Ah was a mess," he weakly finished, sagging in place a moment. "An' ah was way too tired to even know there was a problem."

"But now?" prompted Anik with a cautious smile. "I will not judge. I am here to cast my light. The sun cares little for who its rays are cast on, just that they are cast."

"Ya got a powerful interestin' way ah talkin' at times." Not that is seemed to bother Wensley much. "Now she calls me her 'biggest guilt'. A 'proper umbruum' shouldn't be like that, or so she says. Then she gives me a hello kiss, and a hug. And ah give it back." He was coloring as he described the horribly lewd acts of child-safe affection. "An' ah love her too, so ah say that, and we're gettin' alon' so much better now... Maybe you were right. She needed a little light too. Ah ain't as bright as you, but now that ah'm smilin' 'gain, maybe it'll be enough light to keep her happy?"

Anik patted Wensley's shoulder with audible paffs. "That sounds good. Great! I hope, one day, to find a special person like that. Right now, I have my mother." As if realizing how that could sound, he pivoted his words. "As a dear friend. Not a romantic partner."

"She ain't yer... That ain't nice t'say..." Wensley reconsidered his own words. "Jus' sayin', don't think ya two got any blood 'tween the two."

"No." Anik curled a hoof at himself. "But I accepted her as my mother, with all the privaledges and rules that come with that. Picking from them selectively is not being a good sport. Besides, she's taken. She's setting a date for her wedding right now. I am her son."

"Right right. Sorry. That was a powerful shameful thought on mah part." Wensley waved the whole thing away with sweeps of both of his hooves. "Just another--"

"Let it go." Anik showed the breathing technique he had picked up from Cadance. "In... Out..." He swept away with a hoof. "Just let that tension go. I'm not upset."

"Yer a work." Wensley rose to his hooves. "Powerful glad ah made a friend like ya."

"Are we friends?" Anik was smiling brightly, showing his pleasure at the idea. "I'm glad to hear that. As friends, we should do things. Ponies of this world have... time. Time they don't use to survive. They fill that time with other things. What do you fill your time with?"

Wensley looked confused a moment. "Don't use? Ah like to think ah use all mah time. If you ain't survivin', what are ya doin'?"

"Thriving." Anik put a hoof on his chest, then out towards Wensley's. "Making friends, getting past problems. Learning. Loving. There are many things besides surviving when surviving is done. What do you do?"

"Huh... Well, ya put it that way..." Wensley pointed back at where the newspaper vanished. "Like catchin' up on what's goin' on. Love me a good rodeo. If a friend that likes it happens to be 'bout, a good race or competition can be loads ah fun. How 'bout you?"

"I would like to try those." Anik shook himself out as if he had been covered in snow, but there was nothing to shake loose. "I am still learning this world. Will you help me?"

"Ya done helped me. Ah'd just be bein' rude if ah didn't offer a hoof back." He perked an ear at Anik. "But whattaya mean 'world'. Ya said that a few times."

"I am not from here." Anik waved at the street, the buildings, the ponies, and everything else he could wave at. "Where I'm from, survival was all you had time for. Now I am here, a happier place. Show me some ways to fill that time."

"Don't sound very good." Wensley stretched out, forehoof ahead and hind far behind so much he popped a few things. "But if yer ready to move, let's move. Let's check if the arena's open today. Nice open spot to run 'round in if we can use it."

"Lead the way." Anik chased after Wensley, the two starting their run with a sprint over to the arena to see how it was looking on that fine day.

"As my minion--"

"--friend," corrected Tomtom, looking so happy to be the one correcting for a change.

"Friend," allowed Morning with a suffering sigh. "It is your responsibility to learn my practices."

"As my friend." He slapped at the ground with his soft paws. "You need to do same."

"Do the same." Morning huffed at her rabbit friend. "Perhaps we both have things to learn... Very well, let's trade. I will tell you one thing I enjoy doing."

"I say one thing I like," countered Tomtom in a joyful bounce in place. "Go. You first."

Morning raised her hooves as they and her eyes wreathed in dark magic. "I enjoy practicing shadow magic."

"I like jumping really far and fast." He bounced around the room, rebounding off walls, a cupboard, and even Polish, who accepted it without a sound as Tomtom bounced off to land right in front of Morning. "You can see a lot. You're smaller than me."

Morning blinked at the sudden pivot. "You're larger than me... What of it?"

Tomtom turned in place and waved back at his back. "So you can ride. I give ride. Then we bounce. Together! We bounce far and wide and see things. Fun!"

Morning considered that living chariot being offered to her. "Do I get to decide where we 'bounce'?"

"Tell me." Tomtom leaned in, cotton tail twitching. "Tell me, then bounce that way. Come, fun!" He hopped up and came down facing away from her. "Up!"

Polish smiled at the children. "I will inform your mother that you stepped out, and who with."

"Thank you..." At least Polish was a reliable part of her day. Morning climbed up on Tomtom, not sure where to put her hooves. He grabbed her, sliding each into the proper place to straddle him securely. "Thank you?" She wasn't as sure about that one, but she was mounted. "Let's go around the city."

"Round city. Yes." But first, one had to not be in the room. He jumped to the window and threw it open. "Let's go!" He wriggled out of the window with his cargo and fell to the ground, wind whistling around them in the plummet. He knew no fear of falling, catching the force of the impact in the tight coiling of his legs. Just as quickly, he released that power in a great leap, propelling them up into the sky above the city, headed towards the edge as had been asked. "Around! Look look!" He waved, but not at any one thing. It was all wonderful from his view.

It was the first time that Morning could see all of the city from that angle. "Wow..." Even she had to be awed for a moment, beholding the glittering jewel that was the Crystal Empire. "Our empire..." At least her mother's? But, being her daughter, it was hers too, right? Morning was pretty sure that was how that worked. "What's that?" She couldn't quite see it, but it was colorful, and there was more than one. Round? It was too far away.

Tomtom didn't have this problem. Creatures that bounced so high and so fast needed to be able to see far away, or they'd crash into things. "Where?" He fixed his eyes on where Morning was pointing. "Balloons!"

Some ends are being tied, and another is barely starting, I think. A good place to be.

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