When I finally awoke, it was to the sound of a heartbeat monitor beeping. I took a deep breath and slowly opened my eyes- looking out the window from my bed, it looked like the start of a new day- figuratively and literally.

Slowly, I sat up with a faint grin on my beak. Briefly, I wondered how long I had actually been out- But the fact that there’s not a catheter between my legs tells me that it couldn’t have been that long. A drip feed IV was attached to my arm, and the room smelled faintly of antiseptic.

On an unrelated note, I’m so unbelievably glad that Equus not only knows and understands germ theory- but also has antibiotics and the like. Seriously, imagine if they believed in miasma theory- or even worse, that four humors nonsense. But I digress.

After a few moments, one of the nurses walked in- a scarlet red pony with her mane tied up in a bun.

“Mornin’, Miss. Begonia!” Good ol’ Scarlet Begonia- I haven’t seen her in a hot minute. Shit- I think the last time was when I was 15 and broke my arm playing buckball. She regarded me with a smile.

“Good morning, Leona. I’m just here to run a few tests, if you don’t mind.” I just smiled and nodded. She got to work, putting a cuff around my arm to check my blood pressure. “You oughta be more careful! The doctor said you had a blood alcohol level of 0.35!”

God damn! That’s a new record for me- one which I had no intention of trying to top. Holy fuck.

“Shit, you probably could’ve used my blood as a firestarter.” The nurse just gave me a giggle in response. She was about to open her mouth to say something when there was a knock at my door. “Door’s unlocked.” I yelled towards them.

Two guards stepped through the door, followed by-

“Princess Luna!” The nurse damn near face planted trying to bow to her princess. It was pretty funny, to be honest. I merely nodded in greeting.

“You may rise, good citizen.” She came off as quite regal- which is about what I’d expect. “Finish up what you are doing, if you would. I wish to speak to Leona in private.” The nurse quickly nodded, finishing taking my vitals and leaving, shutting the door behind her.

“Hello again.” Was all I said. “I truly am grateful for how much you helped me last night. That said- what’s this about?” I put it as bluntly as possible- and the princess just smirked. She waved her hoof and dismissed her guards, leaving the two of us alone.

“You are… quite bold, for not bowing down.” She approached my bed slowly. “In the days of yore, when Equestria was young, refusing to bow would’ve gotten you thrown in a dungeon for treason.” Despite her ominous tone, her smile never shrank.

“People don’t much like tyrants- who would’ve guessed. Let’s cut to the chase- what you want from me?” I truly was grateful for how she helped me- but nevertheless, I refused to treat her like a God-Princess.

“I come bearing a… warning, of sorts.” Her facial expression morphed into one of seriousness, and I cocked an eyebrow. “First things first- your louse.”

“Well, what about it?” I asked her, growing tired of her bullshit.

“I’ve read a report from last night- describing an assault and battery attempt on one Scootaloo-”

“Hold on, lemme stop you right there.” I interrupted her, causing her to cock an eyebrow back at me. “I ain’t saying nothin without a lawyer, capische?” The princess blinked, then shook her head.

“As I was saying… She chose not to press charges, mainly out of fear, if her night terrors are anything to go by. You may consider yourself lucky in that regard.”

“Tell her to try liquor- it definitely helps for dealing with nightmares.” I smirked and the princess rolled her eyes.

“However- continued abuse of your newfound abilities will be met with dire consequences. Consider this your only warning.” I just snorted in response.

“Define abuse.” She just gave me a glare.

“You know full well what I mean. Under no circumstances do I wish to hear about you using your abilities on an innocent pony. And while you may bow to no rulers- you still serve under the crown as an independent citizen. Whatever I decree is law in these… circumstantial matters.

“Furthermore… I know not what you are planning in the far future- but take heed. Whatever your future endeavors may hold, pray we never meet on the battlefield.” And without another word and a smug grin, she left.

That was… ominous, to say the least. I had to wonder- how much does she really know? I didn’t know the answer, and I found that to be quite disturbing.

Best I could do is hope that she’ll stay out of my head.

I was dismissed from the hospital not long after that, and smiled when I saw who was waiting for me in the lobby.

“Baby!” I yelled, rushing forward and damn near throwing myself at my girlfriend. She gave me a warm smile and kissed me on the cheek.

“Glad to see you’re alright, honey.” She said- I couldn’t be happier to hear her voice. Even though I was with her in that shared dream, it was still so wonderful to have her there physically.

“I’m so fucking glad to see you.” was all I could say, with my face buried in her shoulder.

“I missed you too, baby.” She said, and I finally pulled back and nuzzled her cheek. “Let’s head back to the house. Your Mamma misses you, too.” I smiled and nodded.

As we made our way back to the house, I noticed all the odd looks we were getting- People looking at us with disdain, fear, disgust… It kind of made me nervous.

“If you’re worried about the word of your louse spreading too far, I wouldn’t.” Dee spoke up, and I cocked an eyebrow. “Most decent people don’t lend much credence to small town rumors and hearsay.”

I smiled at her. “I appreciate the confidence, babe.” I knew my reputation in this town was fucked beyond repair in this town.

I was… fine with that, really.

As we were walking home, we passed the liquor store and I got an odd sensation in my gut. It was like a feeling of butterflies, or my heart skipping a beat; I didn’t know how to explain it, but as usual, my love seemed to have the answers.

“I did a little research while you were out.” She started, “What you’re feeling right now is just cravings, probably triggered by seeing something familiar like that. They’ll pass with time- you just have to make sure not to act on them.” I blinked twice.

“Huh… fascinating.” I thought about it for a second. “How… how do I just ignore them?” my girlfriend chuckled.

“You did just now, didn’t you? And let me ask you this-” she stopped and stood in front of me. “Do you feel like you want to get drunk? I mean, if I held a bottle in my hand, would you take it?” Honestly? I had to think about it, as crazy as it sounds. One part of my brain was saying Hell yeah, take a drink! You’ve earned it!

On the other hand… “No. No, I wouldn’t.” Dee smiled and gave me a peck on the cheek.

“I told you, babe- I’m going to help you whether you want it or not. Whenever you get cravings, I want you to write them down. I think I have a method to… discourage you from acting on them.” I blinked twice in confusion. “It’s a surprise, though. You’ll see.”

She had a smug grin on her face that I did not like. If I knew what was coming, or perhaps what wasn’t coming- I might’ve gotten back on the booze. Well, not really- but you get the idea.

Anyways- we finally made it back to the house, and Mamma tackled me with a hug. She squeezed me just a little too tight, actually.

“Mamma…” I wheezed out, “Can’t breathe!” she let me go with a wide grin and I sucked in a deep gasp of air.

“I missed you too… fuck, I’m feeling a bit lightheaded, mind if we sat down?” I joked with a smile, making my way to the couch. We all sat together- I was in the middle, Dee was to my right, and Mamma to my left, wrapping a wing around Dee and I. It was a tight fit- but it was wonderful.

The next while was spent chatting, with occasional bouts of apology from me. Dee would tell me that it’s alright and that she would help me no matter what, and Mamma reassured me that I still held the title of best daughter ever.

God, I love them so fucking much.

Soon, however, there was a knock at the door. I volunteered to answer- and smiled at who it was.

“Emmie, my man!” I pulled him in for a hug. “Glad you could make it!” I gestured him to take a seat and he chuckled. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any room left for him on the couch, so he took the recliner instead.

“You’re Mind’s Eye?” Mamma spoke up and greeted him with a handshake. “I’m Amelia- if you haven’t guessed by now, I’m Leona’s mother. Wonderful to meet you!”

Emmie gave a mock look of surprise. “Really? No! I thought you were Leona’s body decoy.” Him and I shared a laugh and Mamma rolled her eyes. “Wonderful to meet you as well, Amelia.”

“Glad to see you share my daughter’s macabre sense of humor. She’s said a lot of good things about you.”

“And some of them might even be true!” We all shared a laugh, and I was thinking just how much I missed this mad cyclops. “You’ll not believe how difficult it was to find you! The ponies in this town were quite dismissive everytime I asked where you were- and some even regarded me with disgust!” Emmie spoke, and I cringed in response.

“Yeah… about that-” I began to fill him in on the events from this past month; from the unrestrained boozing, to the lying, to the parasite saving me, to the dream with Dee and Luna… It felt nice, really. Like a church confessional- it felt like a heavy weight was taken off my shoulders. Emmie listened without interrupting, but gave me several looks of empathy. “So anyways- wedding’s off, for now. I’m sorry to disappoint.” I had a grim look on my face, understandably.

“Well… where do I start?” He put a hoof to his chin. “Well… glad to hear you both made up! And what you said about the louse does appear to line up with what I’ve figured out so far.”

I cocked an eyebrow in surprise. “Well… tell me more, then.” He smiled and nodded.

“So from what I’ve found out, that tomb we were in? Well, I realized why it all seemed so familiar to me! It’s because I’ve read about it before! In an old text called the Unaussprechlichen Kulten-” apparently he noticed out looks of confusion. “It’s ancient Germane for Unspeakable Cults. Anyways- this ancient cult worshiped some deity known as The King in Yellow- and until recently, that’s all we knew. But! One of our researchers accidentally broke into another chamber!” My eyes widened.

“Just so we’re clear, I refuse to go back. I don’t care if there’s an entire undead army to fight, the answer is a resounding fuck no.” Mamma pulled me in tight, sensing my rising fear at the mere mention of that cursed place.

“No, no! I would never ask that, and if anypony told me to ask you for help, I’d tell them to fuck off on your behalf.” I couldn’t help but smile. He really gets me. “But anyways, we found several ancient scrolls and manuscripts! We haven’t deciphered them all, but from what we can tell, they considered the parasites to be a gift of sorts from this strange deity!”

Surprisingly, Mamma spoke up. “This King in Yellow… is he real?” Emmie just shrugged.

“No idea. But from what we can tell, the cult was driven into obscurity by neighboring tribes, and eventually killed off entirely. Until now, the only record we had of their existence was in that book. But what we learned the most about was the parasite itself!” We were all listening intently, wondering just what this madlad had figured out.

“It’s not just an ordinary louse, as we’ve already established… It’s technically not even a louse, but I digress. What it is, though, is intelligent- potentially even capable of higher thought and reasoning! Leona, you proved this directly when-” Mamma glared at Emmie, and he glanced to the side nervously. “Well, anyways… I want to try something, if you don’t mind. Trust me.”

He pulled a hip flask out of his vest pocket and took a deep swig. My heart skipped a beat, and the two other women in the room gasped. I swallowed some spit which had gathered in my mouth nervously.

“Trust me.” he said, using his magic to float the flask my way with a mad grin. I began to shake slightly.

“Leona, baby… remember what we talked about?” Dee said as I began to reach for the flask slowly, fingers trembling fiercely. My head felt like radio static.

“Leona, don’t!” Mamma’s pleas felt on deaf ears. Just one little sip… just one sip, and I’ll put it down. I can drink like a normal person! I can quit whenever I want, I can pace myself!

Just as I was about to touch the flask- SWISH!

The louse’s arm shot out of my beak, wrapping itself around the flask and launching it to the side. It hit the wall with a thud and I slurped the tongue back into my mouth.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Dee got up and slapped him on the cheek, hard. Emmie just cackled like a mad scientist.

“Wait wait, baby, look!” I pointed to the opened flask- and not a single drop had graced the floor. I picked it up and turned it upside down. “It was empty the whole time!” I joined Emmie in his mad laughter- he was laughing because his theory was proven correct. I was laughing because the revelation that there was an intelligent, symbiotic creature living inside my mouth was almost too much to handle.

Coupled with the odd adrenaline rush from thinking that I was gonna have a drink… yeah.

This shit’s fucked.

“It worked!” Emmie yelled, and I decided to sit back on the couch. I leaned into Mamma wearily and she wrapped a wing around me.

“It’s gonna be alright, baby.” she assured me, “Now we know for sure it doesn’t want to hurt you.”

Dee was still glaring at Emmie and I decided to speak up.

“Alright, alright, everyone calm the fuck down.” Emmie was still giggling and I yelled “SHUT UP!”

Everyone clamped their mouths shut after that and I took in a deep breath.

“Okay… Okay, I think I’m good, now.” I looked over to Emmie. “Alright, point proven. What else do you know?”

“So far? Not a whole lot. We don’t know why all the corpses had their tongues removed, or why their brains were full of eyeballs, or even why one of the louse’s was left alive after all this time. My current theory is that their tombs were raided by the other tribes and they had their tongues cut out of their corpses, probably out of fear… but that’s just an educated guess. But the bottom line is the fact that this thing seems safe, and at best wishes to protect you.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s excellent to hear. Shit, the fact that it was smart enough to knock the flask away all on its own… well, guess I’m stuck with it regardless.” I gave him a smile. “Thank you, really. It means a lot that you’re going to such lengths for my sake.”

He just gave me a shrug and a warm smile. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t partially doing it to quench my thirst for knowledge- but primarily I wanted to know if you’d be safe. You’re a close friend- and I hate to see something bad happen to you, you know?”

I smiled, hopping off the couch and pulling him in for a hug. “You’re the best, man. Seriously.”

Then my stomach rumbled, completely throwing the vibe off. Mamma giggled at my expense and I blushed.

“You know, I can’t remember the last time I ate. Let’s go get somethin’ to eat.”

And so we did. We all spent the rest of the evening just chilling with each other and talking- about life, about school, about the world. Just smalltalk, really. It was a nice change of pace, all things considered. At some point, Dee apologized to Emmie for slapping him earlier, and they both hugged it out.

That night, Mamma allowed Emmie to sleep on the couch, and the next day I said my heartfelt goodbyes to Mamma… for now at least.

I fully intended to marry Dee- I felt confident that I could stay off the booze, especially since I have an intelligent parasite to help with that.

The train ride back to Aderleth was uneventful- but when Dee and I got back to the house, she wanted to try something special.

She made me put on those stockings she loves so much and tied my arms to the bedpost. That night, I found several uses for my parasite- since we found out that it was safe, well… Dee was less averse to trying new things with it.

After a while, between the cute sounds she was making, as well as a certain vibrating device between my legs, I felt like a volcano about to go off!

…

Then she pressed a button- the vibrating stopped and my heart sank.

“B-babe, wha-” She laughed heartily at me.

“Did you really think you’d be able to get off without punishment?” My pupils shrank and I whimpered pathetically.

“You… you can’t do this to me!” I whined out, but my pleas fell on deaf ears. I growled and stretched my tongue- it had quite a long reach. Even if I couldn’t use my hands, I had other methods!

“Oh no you don’t!” Unfortunately, I failed to notice the riding crop rapidly approaching my asscheeks. SMACK!

“You will not cum until I give you permission to!” I slurped my tongue back up and whined impotently, my entire face burning red and my asscheeks stinging. “Beg for me! Beg for your Empress to finish you off!”

God, words can’t describe how much I love this woman.

That was an intense game of chess we played that night, let me tell you.

Yep. We were having good, clean fun that night that involved nothing sexual whatsoever. If you thought we were doing something as sinful and degenerate as premarital sex, well, get your mind out of the gutter!

Totally! It's all out of context!

Whew, things got a little spicy there at the end :P

I figured we were in for something more lighthearted after the most recent downward spiral.

As always, thank you for reading! Any likes and comments are very much appreciated :3