A loud knocking disturbed Colgate’s tender sleep. She jerked her face from the padded comfort of her dentist chair and glanced about. “Oh my!” she cried to herself. “I can’t believe I fell asleep.” Again there came a knocking sound. The mare turned her eyes towards the bleach white door of the office that lead to the outside world. “Celestia knows how many patients I’ve slept through.”

The dentist slid down from the high stool on which she had been napping and made her way towards the door. Her muttering continued with a brutal self reprimand, “How could you be so lazy, Colgate? You can’t be falling asleep on the job. What would they all think of you? Ponies are counting on you to do your part.”

The sound of her hooves clattering against the wooden floor echoed noisily as she continued, “You’ve got to love the job after all. I wonder who it will be today. Didn’t Button have an appointment for getting a cavity filled? I bet that’s him with his mother now.”

There came another round of banging on the door, prompting Colgate to shout in exasperation, “I’m coming! Hold your horses already.” She chuckled at her own joke. “My but it’s warm in here. Wasn’t it just freezing yesterday? I guess I put a few too many on the fire this morning. My room will be right toasty tonight.” The thought made her smile. “Now if only I had a stallion to snuggle too. That’d make it perfect.”

Yet more banging landed on the door, urging the mare into a quickened trot as she again shouted, “I’m coming! Calm down. It’s not like your teeth are going to fall out before I get there.” She rolled her eyes to herself and muttered, “The nerve of some ponies, it’s unreal. Some could stand to learn a little patience. Speaking of patients, who did I work on this morning?” Colgate scrunched her face in thought and wondered aloud, “Wasn’t it Mayor Mare? She’s the last one I remember, but that felt like yesterday. Did she come in again today? What is today? I don’t even remember. My word, am I all out of sorts. Must be low blood sugar or something. I bet an apple will get me feeling right as rain again. I’ll grab a bite to eat after whoever this is.”

When again there came a loud knocking, Colgate’s demeanor soured, and she roared, “I’ll get there when I get there.” Her own words caused her to stop what was quickly becoming a frantic gallop and demand, “Why is this taking so long?!” Her eyes narrowed in on the door across the office. Unbelievable frustration ran through her as she noticed that she was no closer to the door for all the running. “Ah, horseapples!” she cried angrily. Scoffing, she turned around and climbed back onto the stool and mumbled to herself, “I don’t get why they don’t just come in. It’s not like I lock this place up. Who’s going to come in here and take my stuff anyways?”

Again there came that persistent knocking at the door. Colgate hardly registered it however as she sat in her stool. It was not that she didn’t care about her waiting customer. Her mind was just pulled elsewhere.

“Why am I unhappy?”

The question slipped from the blue mare’s lips before she could even grasp them. They were said without thinking, seeming almost an instinctual response to stimuli. Colgate stepped off of her stool and into the chair on which she had performed her trade from simple check ups to dental surgery for many years. There she tilted her head back and looked up at the bright lights shining down. For all the work she did, this perspective was not one she was especially familiar with. For the longest time, she had always been the doctor. Now, she was also the patient.

She sighed, her eyes drifting lazily in the comfortable heat of the room. Almost absently, she asked herself, “What’s the point of it all? They come. I work. They leave. Is that my lot in life? Am I just some character in the background? Is this all some grand story, and I just happened to make up a small and insignificant part of it?” The discerning mare rolled to her side and mused, “What is life worth if I’m not happy?”

Her own question caused her to chuckle sadly. With a great sigh, she wondered, “Why do I even ask? I’m just a pawn after all, a pawn in their silly game. There are king and queens and even Princesses. Then there’s me. I’m just a dentist.” Her wearying eyes flashed angrily as she demanded, “Is that all the purpose I have? Is that all the purpose anypony has? And they have the gall to try to make me think I’m somehow important, that any of us are important!

“Who am I? If I were snuffed out right here, right now, what would it matter? I’d just get replaced. That’s all I really am. I’m just a tool to be replaced. Screw my happiness. As long as I work and swallow what they give me, we can have that perfect little society. Well, it’s not perfect. If it were, I’d be happy, and I wouldn’t be here screaming at myself.”

Colgate’s crescendoing rant tapered off as she felt herself being drained of energy, the heat of the room seeming to sap the emotion out of her. She closed her eyes and sighed again, almost contentedly. The anger felt steamed out of her, leaving only relaxation in its wake. As moments passed, she found herself smiling. White teeth glittered in the bright lights shining down on her. Every moment that came somehow seemed brighter than the moment before making that same smile grow wider and more sincere.

Again there came a knocking at the door.

Laughing, Colgate cried out, “Come back tomorrow. Today’s too beautiful for work.”

Daemeon sniffled. He smiled. More accurately, he was still smiling. The sun, having reached and passed its relative zenith, was now sliding across the sky towards a chilly afternoon. Three long and cold hours had passed by on that hard rooftop as Daemeon lay looking up at the baby blue sky. In truth, they were uncomfortable hours, dreary and uneventful. Most people would feel they had gone mad if they were made to wait outside in nothing but a dress shirt and pants on that cool day, not moving a muscle to stand or stretch. For that man with a beautiful smile however, those three hours were not to be traded for anything. For all the discomfort he endured, the lovely little mare lying snuggled in the crook of his arm against his chest paid her due sevenfold. In short, the time was not suffered but relished.

As that cold man relished those hours, that large and continuous moment, he reflected wordlessly over what his mare had told him. Since meeting her, he had not been afforded such a long time to consider what he was beholden to. She, Colgate Minuette, was so utterly unbelievable. Of all things, she was a unicorn, a miniature blue unicorn he’d fallen in love with faster than a story can be told. Even with a day, a night, and those three blissful hours spent trying to understand that reality, Daemeon continuously felt the urge to pinch himself awake. The fact that he made no such effort came less from any desire not to disturb his little Colgate and more from his fear that such a pleasant and lovely dream should end.

Even with those thoughts to contend with however, Daemeon’s mind still plowed through a host of other questions. Chief among these questions came one he had not expected he would be asking himself. It came as a passing thought at first, a minor consideration, but like a tick, it dug itself deep and planted itself irritably beneath the surface of his mind.

Who is Colgate?

To which his mind automatically responded, ‘She’s the little unicorn in your hands.’

Yes, but who is that?

To which his mind lacked a real answer.

Curiosity took hold of Daemeon as the implications of this question flowed through his mind. He remembered asking himself very briefly that same question the night before when he’d first taken her to his apartment. Casually, he’d deduced a conclusion right on the spot as not only he but most men and women are prone to do. Knowing nothing about who she was or where she’d come from, he’d decided that she was just like every other woman he’d ever met. She was volatile, short tempered, and above all, a woman. What more was there to know?

Daemeon could almost kick himself for making such a quick decision based on nothing. He was used to being right when making snap judgements about people. In this regard, he is not completely alone. After all, what person does not make a few immediate judgements of another person when afforded more than a temporary glance. Making an effort to understand the individuality of all people is a terrific difficulty and borderline impractical. Instead, men and women of all types and races categorize each other because it is the easy thing to do. All it takes is a superficial feature like skin color for judgements to be made.

From there the dominoes fall. The sum of a human categorization becomes a stereotype, and before long, people feel they have sufficient information to judge each other at a glance. As terrible as this may sound, it has been necessary for survival. What man is going to look at a charging bear and think twice about running. Never mind the fact that the bear is trained not to attack humans and only wanted a treat from a visitor. No person is going to take that chance when the stakes are down. The choice to run, while premature in the purest sense, is what has kept mankind, and all other races with natural predators, alive for hundreds of thousands of years.

Daemeon had considered the implications of these truths long and hard as a youth. The greatest observation he had come to was that categorizing people was not only a reasonable thing to do; it was the safest thing to do. Preconceptions, after all, are preconceived. That is, people from the past learned a general truth that was necessary for understanding and survival. These preconceptions, these stereotypes, will ring with the truth of generality until the day that they are proven to not be true. Even then, they will persist in memory, another continuous reminder of validation towards this system of understanding or the lack thereof.

It is in this regard that Daemeon caught himself in a rut of ignorance. He’d assigned a preconception of who Colgate was to her when her person and her history had never been preconceived. Lying there in the sun on that rooftop, Daemeon felt baffled to realize that Colgate was a true enigma. She was a creature from a whole other history, a whole other world. From the moment he’d first engaged her in conversation, he’d found her unpredictable. Now, he was coming to understand that she seemed so unpredictable because he had no notions on which to predict her being. He knew almost nothing of her history, where she was from, or what facets of society had formed her. He did not even know what she believed in.

As all these realizations gradually slammed home in his contemplative mind, Daemeon smiled and marveled at the beautiful creature in his grasp. By the moment, she became ever more exotic and mysterious. He was increasingly thankful that Colgate had deigned to tell the history of her nation. In time, he might come to understand her, truly understand who she is and where she came from. His hope was that he might learn something truly valuable from her before she had to go back.

Daemeon’s delightful musings ceased as he felt a change in his mare. The regular wheezing sounds she’d been making in her sleep were replaced by a loud and long yawn. He cast down his delighted eyes as his mare’s mouth opened to reveal two rows of stunningly white teeth. If her man weren’t so smitten, he might have noted the distasteful smell of morning breath she exuded. As often happens when two people are enamored however, such little things are overlooked and only what is perfect or beautiful is seen.

Colgate opened her crystal blue but bleary eyes to be met by Daemeon’s own intense grey orbs. Her smile was filled with almost infinite cheer when she leaned forward and pressed a tender kiss against Daemeon’s lips. Though it was brief, it was full of affection and reciprocated real joy between the pair. She then fell to nuzzling her small, soft, gossamer furred face against his neck, giving Daemeon delight to no end. No words needed to be spoken for that animal exchange of emotion to occur.

The silent moment did not so much end as it glided gently into the next, uninterrupted by anything which could dampen the mood. Daemeon whispered into her mane, “How did your nap feel?”

“Wonderful!” Colgate bellowed unexpectedly loud. “I haven’t had a nap that good in ages. You have no idea.”

“You’re not cold at all?” her man pressed, concern unmasked in his voice.

“Not at all,” she giggled into his neck. “You’re better than the three blankets I keep on my bed.”

“You sleep with three blankets?”

“And nine pillows,” she stated proudly. “I know what you’re thinking and you’re right. That bed is impossible to make. My solution is that I don’t make it. I have to keep everything else so neat and clean. My bed is my personal mess. Nopony else sees it, so nopony else can judge me for it.” She giggled again, “Do you have anything like that?”

“Do you mean a mess of my own?” Daemeon queried.

“Mmhmm.”

“Well,” he mumbled, “I keep most things very neat and orderly myself. So much so that I’ve often wondered if I have any sort of compulsive disorder.” Daemeon chuckled at the thought and continued, “I’m pretty sure I don’t, but I’d need to see a specialist to be certain. At any rate, there is one thing that I don’t keep very orderly.”

“And just what’s that?” Colgate pressed.

“It’s really kind of silly, but I tend to have a terrible memory.”

“Really?” Colgate marveled in surprise. “I thought you were really smart. I mean, you seem like an insightful, er, human. Though I guess I don’t know too many humans.”

“I am. It’s just that there’s some information I catalogue as important in my head and other information I don’t. Very often it seems to be the case that what I find important to remember is not what other people find important.”

“Such as?”

“Well,” Daemeon began, “I can never remember a name from just meeting a person once.”

Colgate giggled and chided, “Is that all? That’s not so bad.”

“Or a second time.”

“Well, that’s still. . .”

“Or a third time.”

Colgate giggled again and cajoled, “Well maybe you have a tough time remembering stuff like that because your big head is so full of other stuff?”

Daemeon forced his own chuckle and said, “Yeah. Maybe that’s why. But I also forget other stuff about people. I mean I can fly through a detailed narrative on the different pottery styles of ancient anglo-saxons, but I’d be lucky to remember a face or an upcoming date. Not being able to remember stuff like that is often very insulting to other people. It certainly kept me from making many friends as a child.” His confession stirring curiosity within him, he asked, “What were you like as a child?”

The beautiful, blue mare twisted her face so her words would not be muffled in her man’s neck. After a moment of silent reflection, she answered carefully, “As a filly, I guess the best way I could describe myself was cold.”

“Cold?”

“Yes,” she answered, a little morose. “I was never very friendly to my friends or family.”

“Really?!” Daemeon exclaimed. Grunting, he sat up while still holding Colgate close. “You don’t strike me as the unpersonable type.”

“Unpersonable?”

“You know,” Daemeon explained. “I mean, you’ve seemed very friendly to me. Are you different now?”

The mare pushed herself from his chest so as to give her man a raised brow and state, “Are you so quick to forget I bit you and called you a big, ugly, and cruel ape?”

The comment caused Daemeon to laugh and reach a hand to feel the wicked bite she’d given him the day before. The pain of it lingered but it seemed dull and unimportant to him. What worried him more was the thought that Colgate bore the same mark, the presence of that linking charm. He acquiesced, “I suppose you did do that. To be fair, I wasn’t very nice to you.” The thought caused his laugh to turn into a grimace, one that caused pain more real than the bite on his chest. “Actually,” he concluded, “I am all those things you said.”

Dramatically, Colgate raised one of her petite hooves in the air. Daemeon followed the rise as it came to his eyes. He coughed in unexpected surprise as she smacked the small hoof between his eyes in a smarting blow and said, “Were, you dummy.”

Shaking his head in confusion, Daemeon scoffed, “What? What was that for?”

Giving her man a rather stern facade, Colgate explained, “Were. That’s the person you were. We’ll have none of this pity party where you’re saying that’s the kind of person you are now because you clearly aren’t.” Smacking a quick and unforeseen kiss on Daemeon’s lips, she concluded, “You’re my big handsome human with the feet and the hands and that beautiful smile and the wonderful laugh and you’re not going to be mean anymore because you love me and I love you. Are we clear on that?”

Flashing what could only be called the toothy grin of a little boy, he answered, “Yes, ma’am!”

Returning the grin in kind, she returned, “Very good.” She pressed away from her handsome human and stepped out of his grasp. Stretching her legs, she stated in no uncertain terms, “Now we are going to go get some food. I’m hungry, and you promised me pancakes. We aren’t putting it off any longer. Do you understand that?”

Daemeon raised an eyebrow and noted, “You can be a little cold when you want to be. Maybe even a bit demanding?”

With a mischievous grin and impossibly huge eyes, Colgate begged coyly, “Would you rather I used my wicked feminine wiles on you, lover boy?”

Her man couldn’t help but bellow out in laughter. She did not hesitate to follow suit. As the laughter ended, Daemeon held out his arms and said, “It’d probably be better if we took the elevator down instead of your little floating trip. I’d rather we didn’t end up on the front page of a Manhattan newspaper because some bloke with a camera caught us flying.”

Frowning, Colgate asked, “You don’t have another bag you’re going to put me in do you? I don’t really like that.”

“No,” Daemeon answered with a shake of his head. “I’m sorry I had to carry you around like that. I don’t like it either. If it were up to me, I’d have you walking at my side, but we just can’t do that here. There’d be a mob on us in no time. You’d probably be surprised at how crazy people would go over finding a little, blue unicorn.”

A little skeptical, the mare queried, “If that’s the case, then why didn’t you go crazy?”

Daemeon opened his mouth to answer the question but stopped as he considered what he was about to say. The whole truth being a little unpleasant, he only explained, “I’m very practical when it comes to dealing with new things. I guess you could say that there isn’t much that surprises me.” Clearing his throat, he concluded, “Now come on. We’ll talk more when we get something to eat.”

Not really being opposed to the idea of snuggling up against her man again, Colgate jumped into his arms where she was quickly concealed by the folds of the overly large shirt, the property of the local bishop. Daemeon checked the door leading down from the roof and found himself thankful both for it being open and the luck they had that nobody inside chose that particular afternoon to have a look at the sky. As inconspicuous as he could be, he made himself follow the gait of your average Manhattanite. This was not the least bit difficult for him as he had long since discovered that the key to looking normal was just feeling normal. There were plenty of odd and suspicious characters that got passed up without a second glance in that city of eight million. All he had to do was become one such character and melt into the background, an unimportant part in the far grander and more important stories that were the lives of everyone else.

The pair made their way through the tall apartment building in silence undisturbed. Though they passed many people, nobody questioned the man clutching something tightly under his overly large shirt. On exiting the building, Daemeon turned a corner and quickly found his bearings. They were very close to their initial destination. An idea struck Daemeon that he felt he could kick himself for not having thought of earlier. He ducked into a secluded alley away from the prying eyes of the public and released Colgate from his grasp.

His mare looked up at her man curiously as he took to tucking the large shirt into his pants. On seeing the pouch he left before his belly, she reckoned she could imagine where he was going with it. When Daemeon again extended his arms out to her, she looked at him skeptically and asked, “Are you going to try to pass me off as fat? Or is a pregnant man not such an uncommon thing in this world?”

Rolling his eyes in amusement, Daemeon answered, “I’m going to have to talk to someone to get our food in a crowded restaurant. I’d rather look fat than like I’m hiding something.”

Colgate sighed and smiled and said, “I guess I can work with that.”

Daemeon picked her up and stuffed her as ceremoniously as he could into the flaps of his shirt with the brief words of warning, “Now you’d best refrain from moving after I’ve positioned you. It would look very awkward and suspicious if my belly started shifting in front of the nice person working the counter.”

“Just tell them to mind their own business. It’s not like they’re going to make you take off your top is it?”

“You’re quick,” Daemeon said as he walked out of the alleyway. “You could make a great teacher.” Before she could respond to the comment, he concluded, “Hush now. We’re on our way.”

Turning out of the alleyway, The pair made their brief and uneventful trip to Daemeon’s favorite breakfast house, Sarabeth’s. The smiling man opened the white door covered top to bottom in little windows and was greeted by the warm and simple atmosphere. He found it rather heartwarming to see that the place hadn’t changed too much since the last time he’d come over a decade ago. Pancakes, as sweet as they are, often proved to be a profound temptation to the man who had made it his life goal not to love anything. For whatever reason, that goal seemed flighty and insignificant as he took in the aromas of fresh baked cakes and meats.

His standing in the doorway quickly caught the attention of a petite brunette haired woman towering little higher than five feet tall. The waitress hastened towards her perceived customer and said, “Welcome to Sarabeth’s! May I find a seat for you?”

Daemeon flashed a genuine smile at the woman and said, “Actually, I’m in a tiny hurry to be somewhere. I was hoping to get my food to go.”

The girl nodded and said, “That’ll work just fine but you may want a seat while you wait for the food. Would you like me to take your order now?”

“Yes, yes!” Daemeon said in delight. “Do you still happen to have those pancakes that are dusted in confections?”

“Of course.”

“Good,” he murmured in glee.”Then I would like two orders of those pancakes with bananas, blueberries, strawberries, chocolate chips, syrup, and a side of sausages.”

Silently marveling at the size of the order, she asked, “Would you like anything to drink with that?”

“Can I get a cup of milk to go?”

“Of course.” She directed his gaze to an empty table and said, “Why don’t you have a seat right here while we get that for you.”

Daemeon sat at the table covered in plain white cloth and silently took in the simple decor. He found it oddly comforting. At least, it would have seemed to an external viewer that his uncharacteristic good cheer came for no particular reason. A person paying witness to the last twenty four hours of his life would quickly have written off his calm as being from his new found love, but even that was not the case. Instead, this particular calm and joy was perpetrated by a distant memory of a slightly better time on one of those rare occasions his mother decided they would eat out. Only once had he eaten at that particular venue before, but the impression it had made lasted to that chill autumn day.

As Daemeon sat, he closed his eyes and allowed the ambiance of the room to flood his mind. The pleasantness of that distant memory gradually melted away as the perceptive man heard an old friend of his. He heard about him in the many conversations centered at tables around him the means to his end. What was the means? What was the end?

At the table to his left, a mother and father were awkwardly trying to explain the meaning of a swear word to a young boy. Two tables down, two sisters were arguing over an apparently mutual infatuation. Behind him, an old woman was murmuring Revelation to herself as she pecked away at her discounted meal. And finally, to his right was a young couple bickering over whether or not they should have a child when they were already having difficulty supporting themselves financially. These were the means.

The end was chaos.

A day before, Daemeon would only have heard opportunities to educate. All of them were poor, misguided, and ignorant people. It is true that they lived, but to Daemeon, they lived the lies of love, hate, and God. They lived, but they did not live well. They were not a part of the utopia he believed they could all achieve if they just looked at the past and present and realized the possibilities of a better future.

“What utopia can there be,” Daemeon thought sadly, “when I am the only one who knows about it, and even I am not strong enough to follow through?”

The man’s silent lamentation was brought to a halt as he heard a familiar, feminine voice whisper, “How long do you think we’ll have to wait? I’m starving!”

His frown immediately being turned around, Daemeon answered, “In a bit. This is more of a come in and sit down joint. I don’t think they get too much food ordered to go. You’ll just have to be a little patient.”

“Ugh!” the mare grunted in embellished despair. “I don’t want to wait.”

“Well,” her man said thoughtfully, “maybe we could make the wait go a bit faster with some quiet chatting.” He chewed his lip absently and said, “Why don’t you tell me a bit more about yourself.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Daemeon answered playfully. “How about you tell me more about when you were younger.”

Flashing an unseen frown, Colgate answered, “I already told you. I wasn’t very friendly as a filly.”

“That doesn’t say very much,” Daemeon remarked. “What did you used to do for fun?”

“I guess I liked to read most. I also liked to paint, and I was pretty good on the violin. You know, the usual unicorn stuff. I was pretty boring as a filly.”

“The usual unicorn stuff?” her man interjected curiously. “That stuff doesn’t sound boring in the least. It sounds like you wanted to be an artist.”

“Yeah,” the little blue mare said distantly. “Maybe, I guess. There’s no way that was going to happen though.”

“Why not?”

“Because,” she explained tersely, “that’s not what Ponyville needed. They needed a dentist, and that’s what they got.”

“I don’t get it. Did they force you to become a dentist? I thought you said you earned your mark in it when you discovered you could manipulate the tools of the trade.”

Colgate sighed heavily in the confines of Daemeon’s shirt and explained, “That’s just what I mean. I got my mark, and from that moment on, it was deemed that I must be a dentist. There would be no point in me trying to pursue any other career because this is the one I got. This is the talent I got. Intrinsically, I am only as valuable to other ponies as the work that I was predetermined for.”

“It doesn’t seem like predetermination to me,” Daemeon interjected again. “It sound like you ponies just have a more efficient means of determining who would be best for what. Why do you think it’s predetermined?”

“Like I said before, that has to do with how cutie marks came to be. They didn’t exist until the end of our Simple Era.”

“That’s right,” Daemeon noted. “You were telling me about the fall of Discord before you took your nap. Did the cutie marks come about shortly after that?”

“Yes,” she answered. “It’s a long story though. Do you think we could eat first?”

“Of course. Our food should be here any minute now.”

As though on cue, the same tiny brunette came back with the carry out box and large plastic cup sealed with milk. Smiling, the waitress handed the food over and said, “Your bill will be $14.48.” Being ravenous himself, Daemeon slipped the girl a $20 and disappeared with the box out the door before the confused waitress had a chance to ask if he wanted change.

Not being at all distant from the park, Daemeon made that his destination. He almost had to refrain from skipping down the boulevard in lieu of the tiny pony clutching at his tummy. He must have made a silly sight to look at to any of the people passing by. So many were grim faced. Most were headed back to work after a brief respite. Everyone else seemed the epitome of monotony while Daemeon felt lighter than air.

It did not take long for the pair to arrive at a more secluded section of the park. Amidst a bundle of bushes and low hanging trees set aside from the many paths and ball fields, Daemeon crossed his legs on the warm grass and released his mare from her cave. The hungry man reverently placed the container between them and opened it up.

Colgate squealed in delight, “Oh my goodness, that looks good.”

Her man smiled and unwrapped the plastic fork, knife, and spoon that came with the box. Before cutting into the cakes, he popped open a tiny cup containing a generous helping of syrup and drizzled it all over the sugar covered pancakes. Though his mouth was watering for the meal, he had the gentlemanly decorum to cut the first bite and offer it to Colgate.

The mare did not hesitate. Her mouth opened almost comically wide to ingest the ridiculous excuse to have fried cake slathered in concentrated sugar for breakfast. What was perhaps more ridiculous was how good it was and the subsequent moans that came from both her and her man as they ate. They both ate so quickly that Daemeon found himself struggling to cut bites fast enough. Their rapture came at a little hitch in the middle of the meal when Colgate surprised Daemeon by lifting a hoof and pointing at the container to ask, “What are those? I’ve never seen a brown fruit like that before.”

Daemeon looked down at what she pointed at curiously before almost choking on his food when he realized she was addressing the two thick sausages he had ordered. Hesitant to answer the question, he could only bring himself to state, “Those aren’t fruit.”

Colgate put her nose to the two links and sniffed deeply. Smiling at the aroma, she asked, “Can I have one? They smell pretty good. Strange, but good.”

Biting his lip in worry, her man explained, “It’d probably be better if you didn’t eat that. I don’t think ponies are supposed to eat it. At least, the ponies here don’t eat it.”

For a moment, Colgate was confounded until she lifted her hoof and prodded one of the sausages. She was struck by a sudden realization as she cried, “Oh! That’s flesh, isn’t it?”

“Flesh?” Daemeon mimicked. “Well, yes. I mean, we don’t call it that much, but I guess that’s what it is.”

Colgate stared at the sausages for a moment before asking hesitantly, “It’s not made out of ponies, is it?”

In horror, Daemeon cried, “Oh no! No, no, no, no, no. Most people don’t eat ponies. Certainly no one in America does. It’s a pretty big taboo in our culture.”

The mare cocked her head in wonder and asked, “Why? I thought the ponies in this world didn’t talk. Do they have some lesser form of intelligence that demands respect?”

“No. It’s just that equines are very respected in our culture. They are seen as valuable, hard working animals and are good for riding. Humans domesticated horses thousands of years ago, and our races have existed in a semi mutual symbiosis since.”

“Very interesting. Just what animal are these sausages made out of then?”

Still hesitant but not having a good enough reason to avoid the question in light of the fact that she seemed so calm about the meat, he answered, “It’s made from pigs.”

Still looking long and hard at the two intestine bound links of ground pork, Colgate asked simply, “So can I have one?”

“Really?” her man cried in surprise. “I thought ponies were vegetarian.”

Sitting back on her haunches, Colgate explained, “We all were thousands of years ago, but that changed during the Gryphon War. That being said, most ponies still don’t eat meat, and the ones who do make up our Guardian class.”

“What’s your Guardian class?” Daemeon beckoned.

“Our stallions and select mares who protect Equestria,” Colgate explained. “They are mandated to include pig flesh in their diets for the sake of strengthening themselves. That way, if a foreign nation tries to invade, our Guardians will be powerful enough to defend us.”

“That’s incredible!” Daemeon extolled. “So your race can eat meat? I have to say, I’m surprised. And here I was avoiding the issue. I thought you might not like it if I told you I ate meat.”

His mare laughed aloud and stepped over the meal. Confused, Daemeon only watched as Colgate reached a hoof up to his mouth and pulled his jaw open. Seeming amused, she explained to him what was painfully obvious to herself, “You’re so quick to forget that I’m a dentist. Of course I knew you ate meat. You have projecting incisors and canines. Unless you humans have the beaver habit of biting through trees, those teeth are clearly for ripping flesh from bone.” She flashed her own pearly teeth as clearly as she could display them and said, “I’m surprised you didn’t notice. We have very similar teeth. We ponies of Equestria can eat meat just like you.”

Daemeon’s bewilderment was complete when he looked intently at her teeth and saw they were very similar. It almost caused him to wonder how he had not noticed before. He quickly realized however that the reason he didn’t notice was that they looked so normal adorning the inside of a creature’s mouth that could speak. In a sense, Colgate looked human even though she had the form of a pony.

The mare left her man contemplating that reality as she stepped out of his lap and levitated one of the sausages to her mouth. Not letting herself pause or debate, she bit into the juicy morsel and chewed intently. Having never had meat before, the experience was certainly unique. Second hoof explanations did little to prepare her for the intense and savory flavor. It did not take her long to consume the entire sausage, sating her tiny form to the extreme.

Daemeon did not refrain from laughing as Colgate finished her food and fell backwards, her four hooves and belly protruding amply towards the sky. Her man quickly followed suit and laid down next to her, clutching her to his side. For several moments they laid gazing through the canopy at the afternoon sky. Daemeon gradually worked a hand over to his little Colgate and rested it on her engorged stomach. Humorously, he stated, “I held up my end of the bargain. Now you need to finish your story.”

“I know,” she said softly, resting her forehooves on his large hand. Taking a deep and relaxing sigh, she continued the story, “Discord’s reign of chaos came to an end in the year 1007 A.E.”

“A.E.?” Daemeon queried.

“After Equestria,” Colgate answered. “We base our dates on the foundation of Equestria as a nation. Any dates before the founding of Equestria are very relative since we didn’t have regular years before the founding of Equestria. We loosely refer to dates before this time as B.E. or before Equestria.”

“Really!” her man exclaimed. “We do the same thing here. Our timetable begins when the Romans determined most accurately how to tell the years. What year is it in Equestria anyways?”

“It’s the year 2013 in Equestria. What is it here?”

A little confounded, Daemeon answered slowly, “It’s 2013 here as well. That’s weird.”

The pair locked eyes in bewilderment at the revelation. “Do you think it’s just a coincidence?” Colgate asked.

“Maybe.” Daemeon turned his face back towards the sky and stated thoughtfully, “Then again, your Equestria and my world seem to have a lot in common in the first place. I mean aside from the magic and all this business with demons and immortals, you ponies and we humans have a lot in common.”

“I don’t know much about humans yet.” Nuzzling her man’s hand, she asked, “What do you think we have in common?”

“We speak the same language.”

Genuinely confused, Colgate again turned up her eyes and asked, “What do you mean?”

Answering with introspection, “You and I, we feel feelings the same way. Our perceptions of the world, though altered by our two unique histories, have nonetheless crossed over in many respects. In a sense, you think like a human, and I think like a pony.”

“Does that mean anything do you think?”

“Well, it means that neither of us are animals limited to the id, but we knew that already.” Extending an arm skyward, Daemeon reasoned, “It could also mean that our two societies are building to the same ultimate conclusion.”

Colgate rolled off her back, grunting with the added weight, and ambled up Daemeon’s chest. She made herself comfortable by planting her four hooves and petite body against his torso and resting her chin on his collar bone. Her question was accompanied by a satisfied sigh, “And just what is that ultimate conclusion, Mr. Philosopher Man?”

Daemeon brought his arm down and stroked the length of his beautiful mare’s gossamer back and answered, “I don’t really know. It seems that while we’re both headed in the same direction, neither of us have gotten there. What I’m hoping is that the conclusion is the one I have told you.”

“The one where we all stop loving each other?” Colgate beckoned with a touch of sarcasm.

Stiffening a bit at her tone, Daemeon answered, “The conclusion where we learn best to live together and take care of each other.”

Colgate frowned slightly in regret as she considered the slight severity in her words. “Just because I don’t agree with him,” she thought to herself, “doesn’t mean I have to belittle his beliefs.” Biting her lip, she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Daemeon smiled at her consideration and said, “Do not worry that your thoughts are different from mine. If I am right, then your words will mean nothing in the long run. However if I should be wrong, then the clash of our understanding could produce a better understanding. Knowledge always moves forward when people disagree. The real fear we must have is if we all agreed on everything but society wasn’t perfect. Apathy is the only real doom to progress. If we didn’t care enough to argue, then we might all die. Certainly humanity would die if we continued to live exactly as we do for the rest of our days. A new problem will arise, and we must argue with each other in order to best know how we may conquer the problem.”

His mare chuckled and asked, “So what you’re saying is that you want me to argue with you?”

“If you truly believe that I am wrong,” Daemeon stated with conviction, “then I can only hope you will continue to do so.”

“I guess we do speak the same language then.” Shrugging her shoulders, the unicorn continued her story, “Discord’s reign of a single year ended the same way it began. His creator Starswirl the Bearded was the one who caused the problem, and he was ultimately the one to create the solution.”

“Did he kill Discord?”

“No,” Colgate explained. “As far as I know, an immortal can’t die. Discord and our Matriarchs have neither aged nor died since they came into being. Instead, Discord was subdued by another creation of Starswirl’s; two creations in fact.”

“What were they?” Daemeon pressed in curiosity.

His mare lifted a hoof and rested it against his lips saying, “Before you can understand who they were, you must first understand exactly why they were made, and what they were made to do.” Sitting back on her haunches, resting against her man’s stomach, she explained, “It’s considered a thankful miracle that Starswirl did not die during the Reign of Chaos. I can only guess that between Discord and the many hateful ponies whose lives he ruined, he was in constant danger. Despite the atrocities that were ultimately perpetrated by his hooves and horn, Starswirl never lost sight of his goal to create a new Equestrian order. Oddly enough, he came to another solution that was very similar to the first with only a few small but very important differences.

“He proposed again to the Equestrian community that they should come together once more to manifest our powers into a creation that could solve our woes. This time however, he wanted us to create two beings, not one. These creations would be bequeathed the power to overthrow Discord as well as control the local cosmos of the sun and moon. Starswirl essentially wished to solve both problems at once.”

“That sounds spectacularly dangerous.” Daemeon scratched behind Colgate’s ears, enjoying how they twitched under his touch. “Why would he want to make two more monsters when Equestria couldn’t even handle one?”

“Its true,” she began, “the idea sounded crazy. Most ponies thought it was insane. After a year of Discord however, much of Equestrian life and culture had been ruined. We lost control of the weather, the crops, the animals, and even the celestial bodies. Everything we had worked so hard and so long for seemed lost, and we found ourselves back in the later days of the Dark Era. Our tenuous world balance was gone and ponykind was willing to do just about anything to bring some peace back to the chaos.

“So we come then to Starswirl’s solution. He proposed that we could turn back the tide of Discord by creating two counterparts who together would be more powerful than Discord but could be controlled individually. The two counterparts he created rule over Equestria to this day in almost continuous harmony. They are the Princesses Celestia and Luna, our beloved Matriarchs.”

“What did they look like?” Daemeon begged in curiosity. “You said they were created the same way Discord was. Did they come to be the monsters he was.”

Colgate shook her head and explained, “They were and are ponies, though they do not match your normal description of what a regular Equestrian is. To understand, let me return to my story.

“The spell Starswirl used to create the pair was the same in almost all respects save two. Firstly, he manifested the spell into not one creature but two, two sisters to be exact. Though they are our leaders, their existence has been so timeless that we do not know exactly who they were before they were chosen. If Celestia or Luna remember, they do not tell us. The best I could assume is that they were two unicorns especially gifted with magical power, but that’s purely my speculation. At any rate, the power of the spell was split into two, unequal parts with greater power going to the older sister and lesser power to the younger.

“The second variation in the spell was the nature of the wills being channeled into the transmutation. In order to combat Discord, Starswirl needed to collect more ponies than he had done before and give them a profound desire for the opposite of Discord in their hearts. To do this, he studied long and hard into the nature of Discord and found five combatting elements to his chaos.

“The first element was that of Loyalty. Discord knew no loyalties to any of the many ponies who helped to create him. In a sense, he did only as they had willed him to do. They did not will for him to stay by their sides. He only did whatever the many desires given to him prompted him to do. He paid no heed to anypony, not even his primary creator, Starswirl the Bearded.

“The second element was that of Laughter.” On seeing the raised eyebrow Daemeon shot her, the mare clarified, “There was no laughter in the Reign of Chaos. Though we made him to fulfill our desires, we did not establish the boundaries of wisdom. As the year ran its course, the spirit of the three races were virtually destroyed. Starswirl taught us that we needed to be able to laugh in the face of great adversity. We needed to laugh because that is how we found hope to continue on. It was laughter that helped us to remember what it was that we were trying to save. As I’ve said before, it is not enough merely to live. When the ponies brought their wills together, they needed something more powerful than the animal desire for simply living. Laughter gave us the desire to live well.

“The third element was that of Generosity. This element was very important for our defeating Discord. His creation was powered almost purely by individual desires prompted by personal greed. While those many desires were for the benefit of all ponies who lived, they were not projected with those thoughts in mind. The ponies who created Discord were the ones who abandoned the community stability of the commune. They wanted the opposite of giving for others. For once, they wanted to take without having to give back.

“The fourth element was that of Honesty. Like the element of Loyalty, Honesty was a virtue that had no place in Discord’s creation. The ponies projected into him many hidden or obscene desires that they had kept to themselves all of their lives. As such, Discord always kept his intentions hidden and only revealed them when he would follow through on heinous acts of chaos or cruelty.

“The fifth element was that of Kindness. After all that I’ve described to you, need I really say more? The creations of Celestia and Luna needed these elements to thwart Discord, and they needed to believe in them more than Discord believed in his chaos. For that to happen, all the ponies in Equestria were needed to band together and understand that harmony could defeat Discord if we all believed.

“Thus it came to be that on the seventh day of the fifth month in the year 1007 A.E., all of the ponies that lived, every stallion and mare from all three races, convened and willed into existence the two Alicorn princesses Celestia and Luna for the purpose of stopping Discord and returning balance to pony society.”

Several minutes of silence followed the long speech. Colgate rested her chin against her man’s collarbone and watched him as he gazed into the blue sky. By then, she had learned to recognize when her man was lost in thought. Rather than immediately continue her story, she let him dwell in that thought. They were looking for the truth after all. If it was in her history and she couldn’t find it, then she knew the best thing to do would be to get another perspective. At least, that’s what she hoped. If she had believed in God, she might have prayed. Prayer being unknown to her, the best she could do was hope.

Her hope was not misplaced as Daemeon’s mind wound tightly around the otherwise ludicrous history of what any man but he would believe to be an imaginary world. “I feel like I’m listening to a children’s storybook,” the man in thought noted to himself. “How can I argue with it though? It’s not like I’ve been there or know anything that can refute her story. If ponies are so much like people, then does this piece of her history reflect any part of mankind’s history?” Daemeon broke from his thoughts suddenly and asked, “Why were the elements of harmony significant enough for you to know them so well? Were they an important part of your education?”

Colgate shook her head and answered, “No. I did not know about the elements of harmony when I was a filly. Nopony did. It was not until three years ago when Nightmare Moon returned that they were rediscovered, and we again learned of their purpose.”

Cocking his head in confusion, Daemeon asked, “What do you mean rediscovered? And what’s Nightmare Moon?”

His mare sighed heavily and stepped off of his chest. Daemeon sat up and watched inquisitively as Colgate trotted away from him. His curiosity turned into fear as the distance between them grew. He threw up an arm and demanded, “What are you doing?!”

“Don’t worry,” she chuckled over her shoulder. “I just wanted to see how far I can go.”

Daemeon brought his arm down and sufficed himself with a stern frown as his mare tentatively put one hoof in front of the other. Very gradually, the man and the mare both felt an intense tugging and burning sensation in their chests. Cringing, Colgate stopped her advance and backed up a step to ease the pain. Turning around, she gauged the distance between them to be no more than five meters. Managing a weak smile, she closed the distance back to Daemeon and said, “I just wanted to make sure.”

Snickering with a mischievous looking smile, Daemeon said, “Sounds like you’re stuck with me.”

Colgate stopped walking and regarded him hesitantly. He seemed very much like the man she’d first met right then. She yelped loudly and leapt back as her man suddenly lunged at her. Daemeon’s abrupt and fairly uncoordinated motion caused him to slip and land face first in the grass which was still moist from the previous day’s storm. The pitched squeal of laughter that came from the little blue unicorn’s mouth only motivated him to jump up and leap for her again.

His mare took off in a brisk canter to get away from his playful grasp, laughing all the harder whenever Daemeon would reach for her only to hit the ground empty handed. This delighted playing continued for several minutes until the Colgate found herself running short on breath and very much encumbered with pancakes and sausages. Letting her guard down for only a second, Daemeon leapt for her and pinned her to the ground.

They stopped in that position for a moment as the both of them panted for air. Colgate could not help but marvel at Daemeon’s size and strength as he was bent over her, his two arms standing like towers on each side of her. The intensity of his gaze and the heat of his ragged panting made him seem all the larger and more imposing. It was no wonder that she had feared him so much when first they’d met that day before. Now however, that intensity and size seemed strangely comforting and exhilarating at the same time. Never before in her life had she felt so small, so diminutive, so . . . feminine. Colgate could not help but marvel how very much Daemeon made her feel like a desirable mare. As ragged and heated as her man’s breathing might have been, she was certain it could not match hers.

Colgate’s ragged breathing came to a lip puckered halt as she watched her man lift one of those tremendous hands and brush some of her disheveled mane away from her eyes. Daemeon’s eyes did not leaves hers, nor hers his, as he brought his hand down to glide softly against her chest. Colgate could feel her face grow flush with blood from her rapidly beating heart as that hand very, very gradually slid across her chest and onto her stomach. She could feel herself going light headed as Daemeon’s hand did not stop there but continued slowly past her belly button.

She felt so afraid she wanted to scream. She felt so giddy she wanted to laugh. She felt so overwhelmed she wanted to cry. All she could do though was hold her breath for that eternity as her eyes did not stray one millimeter from his. The anticipation proved almost unbearable until a short cry and closed eyes from the mare confirmed the intentions of the movement. Daemeon’s fingers came to a stop directly above her maidenhead.

Though her eyes were squeezed shut and her entire form trembled, she clearly heard the soft and endearing voice of that human she claimed to love, “Are you okay, Colgate?”

Not having the place of mind to open her eyes or answer with words, she only returned with a curt nod of her tiny head. Her admission seemed only to motivate the huge man above her. She released another loud gasp as she felt that hand apply pressure. The heat that rolled through her abdomen covered her in a lather of perspiration. The pressure continued to build for a minute that felt more like an hour before she again heard her man speak. This time his words came out heavier and quite a bit more ragged, “Please open your eyes, Colgate.”

Hesitantly, genuinely having to work up the courage, she forced open her eyes and again looked into Daemeon’s piercing grey orbs. Instead of the firm, intense gaze he had been giving her before, she was greeted by moist, uncertain eyes that looked almost as full of fear as she felt. With trembling lips, she listened to her man state, “This could happen.”

Still drawing ragged breaths, the diminutive mare nodded her head and murmured, “Uhuh!”

Trying to steady himself, her man answered, “I mean, uh, we could make it work. That is, I mean, I don’t think we could do everything, but we could, uh, uh.” She saw him swallow and try desperately to find the right words. “I just think you’re so beautiful, and, and, I’m really attracted to you. I just don’t know if we should, if we should . . .”

Though she panted from the implications of his words and the pressure of his touch, she tried desperately to clear her head. It did not help that Daemeon’s face was slowly edging towards hers, his lips tightening in an expectant pucker. Colgate wanted nothing more than to meet his lips and give into that inviting yet fearful desire. They were so full of heat, so full of passion. How could she say no? She couldn’t.

Instead, she screamed, “Hug me!”

The scream startled Daemeon that he almost choked. Confused, he drew his hand from her and cried, “What?”

Panting feverishly, she said less aggressively, “Hug me, please. Just hug me.”

Daemeon quickly sat back and clutched the beautiful mare to his chest in a powerful hug. Colgate felt she might suffocate in his blood rushed arms, but her man was quick to realize he was being too rough and eased his grasp. With her chin resting on his shoulder, she could not see the face of her man, but she knew his agitation in his voice as he said, “I’m sorry, Colgate. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push it so far. I just wanted to be with you, and you seemed so beautiful.”

Unable to bear the embarrassed agony in his voice, she countered honestly, “Don’t do that. Don’t be sorry. It wasn’t just you. I wanted it too.”

Still holding her in a deep hug, Daemeon asked, “Then why did you stop me?”

Colgate cringed at the question. It was true that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. There was one thing that held her back aside from accepting his advances and it wasn’t their incompatible size. “I don’t want us to say goodbye like this.”

Daemeon released his grip enough to look his mare in the eyes as he asked, “What do you mean.”

Taking a steadying breath, Colgate explained morosely, “You know what’s going to happen, Daemeon. You know I’m going to have to go back to where I came from, and I’m certain I can’t take you with me. Sooner or later, we’re going to have to say goodbye.” A tear slipped from the corner of her eye as she concluded, “I don’t want that moment to be any harder than it will be now. I already love you as a friend, Daemeon. I don’t want to have to say goodbye to you as a lover.”

Her man cast down his eyes, trying desperately not to show sadness or cry at what she said. Not quite succeeding, Colgate put up her healing hoof and wiped away a bead of moisture saying, “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. I don’t like it when you’re sad. It makes me sad too.” Forcing the best smile she could in spite of the situation, she argued, “You don’t like it when I’m sad so you’ll have to stop being sad so I can stop being sad. Okay?” Even as she felt her false smile failing and more tears coming she demanded, “So stop crying like a little foal. You got that, mister?”

Not having the right words to counter his mare’s demands, Daemeon only grasped her again to his chest and quivered in sadness. Gradually, he slumped over and the two of them laid on the ground, clutching each other in mutual pain and love. They both understood the validity of her argument, but it was all for naught. They may not have done the deed but the intense desire and emotions were already deeply rooted. Though neither of them truly understood it, their love of eros had already come to pass. It did not need the physical act to take place. Arrows often strike unwilling or unfortunate hearts after all. Why should they be any different? Between races, between cultures, between worlds, what boundary is strong enough to drive two desiring parties asunder? No boundary is truly impenetrable save one. That is of course the boundary in which a moment ends, and no new moments may follow.

Their excitement and heated desires gradually cooled, and the pair once more found themselves breathing evenly with clear heads. Their rapidly beating hearts slowed to the pace of a soft tide, rising and receding in regular intervals. The sun drifted overhead, falling deeper into the southwest than it had the day before. The day was starting to lose some of that brightness and cheer as it so gradually dimmed. Neither the mare nor her man cared much to look in any case. They were content with each other.

By and by, Colgate broke the silence asking, “Should I continue with the history?”

“Yeah,” came Daemeon’s simple and unenthused answer.

The mare found she had to clear her throat and wipe the moisture from her face before continuing, “When Starswirl bent the spell of transmutation into Celestia and Luna, they were morphed into being greater than any individual pony. Because of the elements of harmony that had been woven into their creation however, they turned into servants of ponykind and not the monster that Discord is.”

“What did they look like?” her man returned, regaining some of his lost interest.

“The better question to ask is what do they look like. They are immortal and live to this day after all. They are what we call Alicorns. Because they were created with mutual collaboration and the best interests of all three races in mind, they became the living embodiment of every good and noble aspect of the three races. As such, they are fully earth ponies, fully unicorns, and fully pegasi. With strength, flight, and magic bound within them, they are our ultimate creations towards a higher order.”

Daemeon chewed his lip in thought and asked, “What do you mean they were ‘fully’ earth, pegasi, and unicorn?”

“That can be confusing to understand,” Colgate noted emphatically. “It is important to understanding why they have made for the almost perfect rulers however. You see, Celestia and Luna have every beneficial characteristic of earth ponies. They have the strength, size, and weight of the most powerful farming stallions. Then they have every beneficial characteristic of pegasi such as hollowed bones, wings, and their magical grasp of the weather. Finally, every positive aspect of being a unicorn is within them. The obvious point of that is their horns and the magic it grants them. Just as important is their grasp of reality beyond the simple or mundane. They do not see single levels of a situation but all levels. This ability only grows more powerful as they grow older and are able to learn from history.”

“Interesting,” Daemeon mumbled as he absently stroked Colgate’s blue and white mane. “Three in one? I always thought that concept was bupkis, but I suppose it works for you ponies.” The man managed a grim smile before asking, “Have you met either of the princesses before?”

Colgate thought back to the meeting that had brought her to Manhattan and answered, “I already told you that Princess Celestia was the one who sent me here. To be honest though, that was the first and only time I’ve spoken to her personally. I first saw Princess Luna three years ago when she returned from her exile as the dreaded Mare in the Moon. That’s a bit of a story though, and I couldn’t tell it to you without explaining some other things though.”

Colgate could feel Daemeon nod his head above her as he said, “I understand. Is Princess Celestia nice?”

The mare thought back and answered, “You know, I’d always thought she would be so imposing and overwhelming to speak to face to face. She’s been the ruler of Earth’s most powerful nation for a thousand years after all. When I did speak with her though, she was not like that. She seemed very much to be a pony, just like the rest of us.”

Speaking from his understanding of American politicians, Daemeon noted, “Looks can be deceiving.”

“Perhaps,” the comfortable mare answered quietly. “I’m sure she’s had to deceive ponies before in her quest to keep our nation alive and prosperous for so many years. Still, she was not just kind like a pony who is trying to seduce another for personal gain. She seemed tired and worried, like a mother of too many foals. She seemed fairly disturbed when I told her I did not want the cutie mark I have.”

“Speaking of which,” Daemeon interjected, sliding his hand so that it rested on the hourglass symbol adorning her flank, “you said you ponies didn’t always have cutie marks. When do they come up?”

Colgate smiled at the warmth of his hand on her flank and said, “I was actually just about to mention them. They are the invention of Starswirl through the Princesses Celestia and Luna. You see, Starswirl not only desired for our new Matriarchs to overthrow Discord, he wanted them to spearhead the new system of government that Equestria had never accepted before. It was not a new creation as it was indigenous to the Crystal Empire long before Starswirl ever proposed it as a valid solution given the right circumstances.”

A little confused, Daemeon asked, “What’s the Crystal Empire? I feel like you’ve mentioned that before.”

The mare grunted in annoyance and explained, “Dear Celestia, I’ve gone and forgotten to mention the Crystal Empire! Thank goodness they didn’t play a pivotal part until now, so I guess it’s not too bad.” Sighing, she gave her man an absent nuzzle and continued, “The Crystal Empire was formed somewhere between 300 and 500 A.E. as a response to the restrictive system of the commune in the Simple Era.”

“Why don’t you know when definitively?”

“Because,” she returned, “it wasn’t so much founded definitively as the hub around which the empire now settles grew populated and sturdy enough to support itself indefinitely. The empire was founded by stallions and mares who hated the oppressive edicts of the commune so much that they abandoned Equestria for solitary living elsewhere. The ponies to leave at first were few in number. They often never got too far or were forced to come back to our nation for food and protection. The rest of the world had not yet been charted and there were still untamed lands just beyond the reach of civilization where ferocious beasts and other rising races were beginning to stake their claims. None of the ponies who left the protection of Equestria were able to survive long except for those who tempted the harshest terrain in the world where not even beasts would roam.”

In unrestrained curiosity, Daemeon begged, “Where was that?”

Smiling, his mare answered him, “There is a freezing tundra in the far northern stretch of Equestria where much of the vegetation of the world cannot reach and only the sturdiest of the four hooved animals can survive on the scant grasses and crops to be had. No animal race could have made new furnishings in that wasteland but the industrious intelligence of ponies made it possible. You see, on this tundra was a plain that has the most remarkable crystalline structures in the world. Most spectacularly was a crystal mountain that stood towering over the landscape.

“When train tracks were again commissioned to link the Crystal Empire to Equestria, I got to take a trip and see the beauty of the empire myself. Though one could argue that the crystal homes were formed solely for the purpose of protection against the arctic cold, I would argue they played a more important role in reaffirming the beliefs of the errant ponies that traveled there that the commune was not the way pony society should live. After all, what’s the point of living if we cannot express ourselves so artfully and live well because of it?”

“I guess you have a point,” Daemeon reasoned softly. “But what does this have to do with cutie marks?”

“I’ll get to that.” Colgate pressed her hooves against Daemeon’s chest so they could look each other in the eyes as she spoke. “To understand how they’re related though, I have to explain the government under which the Crystal Empire was first formed, and how it fell from power. The observations that Starswirl made when looking into the history of the nation helped him greatly in directing the creation of the new Equestrian order that would start the Reform Era, the era in which we Equestrians live now.”

“What was so peculiar about the government of the Crystal Empire?”

Giving a small smile in the face of her man’s eagerness, the beautiful, blue unicorn explained, “The Crystal Empire’s government was the first government collaborated between the three races other than the commune. Instead of seeking a government of pure wisdom wherein the world’s continued life rested on the shoulders of ponies, the residents of the Crystal Empire sought to satisfy their intellectual and artistic desires. As such, the greatest and smartest among them came together and proposed the government we call the Aristocracy.”

“An Aristocracy?” Daemeon marveled in surprise. “What an awful government to choose. Who would want to live under a hereditary family of disjointed rulers? Even an Oligarchy lead by a monarch is better than that.”

The mare regarded her man curiously and stated, “You and I seem to have differing understandings of what an Aristocracy is. To us ponies, it is a rule by the best qualified citizens, not a hereditary bloodline. The ponies who showed the greatest wisdom and intelligence for leadership were the ones who would rule over the rest. After all, some ponies are objectively more suitable for the role of leadership. Understanding this, the ponies of the Crystal Empire formed an Aristocracy whereby they gave special educations to the youths who held promise for leadership. Regardless of class or gender, the ponies with promise were all educated to be leaders and the best among them would grow to be the aristocrats of our society. And in any given generation, the greatest one of them all would hold the title of king or queen.”

Daemeon chewed his bottom lip for a moment and considered the proposed government. As he’d learned in his own history, such valiant attempts towards meritocracy were often undercut by political discord or a niche in the armor of perfection. While he’d like to refute the validity of Aristocracy altogether, he decided that he’d learned better than to judge the Equestrians too quickly. Instead, he asked, “Did their government work?”

With a shake of her head, she answered, “Not very well.”

“Called it.”

Colgate explained, “At least, it didn’t last very long in the fashion they conceived of it. The Aristocracy education was meticulously set up so that those who became aristocrats worried about nothing other than how best to lead. It was thus determined that the artistic expression which the Crystal Empire was founded on should be beyond the ponies who ruled it. They tried to divide ponies into leaders and producers. The producers lived doing whatever they desired to do. The leaders lived doing what they were trained to do. It was in this fashion that the Crystal Empire lived for almost two hundred years.”

“Well that doesn’t sound too bad,” Daemeon noted. “What went wrong?”

Colgate gently stroked her hoof against her man’s thickening beard as she happily explained, “The system they set wasn’t perfect. I guess you can’t blame them for trying. I’d say it had a good run for a first stab, but they couldn’t keep the merit of the leaders to standard as time went by. There eventually came to be an aristocrat king who did not have the wisdom or intelligence needed to keep the empire from inner strife. He ultimately came to believe that the system whereby new leaders were chosen was flawed. Whether it was or not, I couldn’t really say. In any case, he did away with the leaders education and set up a Timocracy as the pegasi had in the Dark Era. Just like before, rulership was determined by whomever was the strongest and most honorable. In this way at least, the empire retained some dignity.

“Unfortunately, there was a problem with the Timocracy that was set up. Unlike the pegasi of Pegasopolis, the Crystal Empire had no kingdoms with which to war. The premise of an honor bound society runs out of fuel quickly when its citizens become lazy from lack of immediate conflict. This government hardly lasted more than a few generations before one of the new leaders decided to take power away from the honorbound and set up a dynastic rule. Because the empire did not have battle hardened conviction to fight for the order, they let it slip away. The result was the same form of government that the unicorns of Unicornia had had; the Oligarchy.

“Though the principles of the Oligarchy lasted a good deal longer than the Timocracy due to the less fallible nature of determining who would rule next, it did not hold out in the long run. The Oligarchical rule does not impose any great demands for quality leadership. At least in the Aristocracy and the Timocracy, leaders had to prove themselves worthy and keep an image of civility or power. Because the Crystal Empire did not suffer conflict with other nations, the rulers during the Oligarchy gradually became more and more volatile. Every generation became more lustful for money and pleasures than the last until it finally came to a head. The wealth of their society continuously trickled upward until the ponies at the top were fabulously rich while the ponies at the bottom were starving from hunger. After almost a hundred and fifty years of dynastic rule, the commonwealth of the Empire rose up against their own greed driven rulers in revolution. The reasons for the revolution were simple enough. The poor wanted the goods of the empire redistributed to the poor and hungry, level out the playing field as it were. Staging the revolution was the easy part. It’s relatively easy to break a society. What was far more difficult was finding a working model of government that would protect against overbearing rulers. The solution they came to was that of the Democracy, the government of the ponies of the Earth during the Dark Era.

“Democracy seemed like a fool proof plan to protect against injustice at first. Leaders were to be elected by a majority of the total populace. Every pegasus, unicorn, and Earth pony was given equal voting rights so that no race could come to power without the acceptance of at least one other race. In this way, they felt certain that any leader who came to power would be from general consensus. Even when he or she came to power, they could still be removed by popular vote if the nation so chose. In this way, the elect were pressured to appease the populace by keeping whatever promises they made to receive their vote. All of society was perceived to benefit from this common cause arrangement.”

Having been very intent and silent for her story, Daemeon found it difficult to not pressure her with more detailed descriptions of their governments. Of all the things Daemeon took time out of his life to learn, history was what he believed to be both the most important and most interesting subject. What others might have called boring, he would have called riveting. This eagerness was reflected in his voice as he beckoned, “Did the Democracy work out the way they thought?”

Colgate chuckled sweetly at his expression. It was one that desired knowledge, and she had the means to sate it. She answered him, “It worked marvelously well at first. Famine and revolution have a way of getting ponies to care about who’s in charge. It seems like all good things come to an end though. All of the ponies who lived through the revolution and the previous government worked very hard to educate themselves on exactly who should be ruling. There was energy and excitement at first. For the first time in history, there was a place where the voice of every pony mattered. It was seen as such a grand and beautiful thing, truly the work of genius and enlightenment. Unfortunately, the very points of the system that the ponies of the Crystal Empire praised were the very points that ultimately lead to the downfall of the empire.

“The system only succeeded at first because of the energy garnered from the revolution. As years passed and one generation was replaced by another and another, the populace lost enthusiasm in the Democratic process. Ponies became less worried about who came to be in charge. Because of this, they did not make the effort they used to to elect good leaders. As good leaders were gradually replaced by leaders of poorer and poorer quality, ponies became frustrated because they felt the Democratic system to be failing them. While perhaps this should have driven ponies in the empire to become more invested in politics, it caused the opposite. More and more, ponies felt that their votes didn’t matter and many gave up on voting altogether. This of course only aggravated the process worse. Opportunistic stallions and mares took advantage of this situation and convinced the ponies that did vote to vote for them so they could achieve grandiose and impossible promises. When they came into office, they would use their power to concentrate wealth and amnesty onto themselves while ignoring their constituents. Because many ponies did not vote and the rest did not agree, the removal process proved flawed and such bureaucrats remained in power. Just like in the Oligarchy, money again trickled to the top and the populace became discontent. Having already tasted the ‘success’ of revolution to remove the old kings and queens, it did not take as much motivation to make it happen again. This revolution however, was not successful and the result of it proved to be more terrible than any government the Crystal Empire had experienced before.”

Colgate rolled onto her back and stretched her petite hooves skyward. A silent suspicion rolled through her as she stretched. A quick sideways glance proved that suspicion correct as she found Daemeon’s grey eyes following the length of her body a bit more intently than they had before. Instead of blushing at the gaze as she’d done that morning, she only smiled and welcomed it with both satisfaction and frustration. The satisfaction came from the feeling of being desired, something she had never felt so firmly in her life. The frustration came from knowing they could do nothing about it without hurting each other. “Even then,” she mused secretly to herself, “I still enjoy it more than I’d like to admit.”

She looked to the sky with smiling eyes and said, “When the government of Democracy was overthrown in the Crystal Empire, the ponies were left with two choices. They could either go back to the commune and rejoin Equestria, or they could come together and choose a new government. Unfortunately for the ponies of the Crystal Empire, they would not give back in to the commune, and there were no known forms of agreeable government to which a Democracy can devolve to. There was no government that adhered to a less strict form of morality.”

At these words, Daemeon found his curiosity piqued. He asked, “What do you mean by that?”

The mare gave her man a sidelong glance and stated, “Surely you must see the pattern. The Aristocracy was created to survive on only the strictest form of morality such that ponies were educated from foalhood to understand, respect, and become intellectual authority. When this education of morality lost respect, society devolved into the next best thing. When the Timocracy lost its honor, it devolved into a society that only survived because it still respected authority. When respect for authority was lost, the Crystal Empire devolved again into the Democracy, an even lower form of government where there are no morals or respect except that which is briefly given by temporary consensus. When even this lowest form of government is abandoned because consensus cannot occur, we come to the worst possible state for an intelligent society to fall.”

Knowing human history as he did, Daemeon felt he could fully suspect what that possible state was. Still, he had to be sure. “And just what was that?” he asked with a grim face.

“Anarchy,” Colgate answered with a stern visage. “Anarchy, the complete loss of proper government. That is what the Crystal Empire suffered when the ponies residing there could no longer agree on how they should be ruled. The empire was split into factions of ponies fighting violently against each other. Some groups wanted one of the old orders returned. Other groups claimed to have whole new governments to test. The ones who took the most control of the chaos of Anarchy, were the ones who knew how to incite anger and hate in the populace. It was during this state of Anarchy that Starswirl the Bearded became powerful enough to escape the bonds of Equestria and seek out a solution to the Equestrian desire for a new order.”

“Did Starswirl ever go to the Crystal Empire? I should think he’d have been accepted there, but you never mentioned the empire in reference to him before.”

Colgate shook her head and answered, “Though Starswirl sympathized with the plights of the ponies who made up the Crystal Empire in the distant north, he never approved of the idea of abandoning Equestria to its wretched duties for eternity. He very easily could have made a place for himself in the bitter cold of the Crystal Empire, but he remained adamant in his desire to save the Equestrians. In fact, he is said to have scorned the Crystal Empire even as he went to great lengths to study its history and understand precisely how it rose and how it fell. It was from studying this five hundred year history of a nation that Starswirl based his beliefs on how best to form a new order.” Colgate stopped to heave a great sigh before saying, “And this finally brings us back to the point of what cutie marks have to do with the Crystal Empire.”

Trying very hard to follow the logic of what she was explaining, Daemeon interjected, “I enjoy hearing about your history. Really, I enjoy listening to any history. I am confused however as to why you should put so much emphasis on how their governments worked. Are they really so important for understanding Equestria?”

Colgate nodded her head emphatically and stated, “Yes, very much so. I wanted you to understand that the governments of the Crystal Empire broke down because of critical flaws in their systems. All of those flaws were perpetrated not by a weakness in the system as an idea but a weakness in the ponies who tried to uphold those systems. Starswirl saw that, if given the choice to, ponies will tend towards laziness and will only continue strive for better living if they are left unsatisfied or in danger. A lack of motivation or pride will ultimately cripple any government if given enough time. Just as the Crystal Empire fell to ruin, Starswirl believed the commune would ultimately fall to ruin and the world would slide back into the Dark Era if things weren’t changed for the better.”

Daemeon propped himself up on his elbow and looked down on his mare to say, “A thousand years is a long time. I don’t know of any human government that has lasted so long. Certainly nothing as corruptible as a Communism could last that long here. Then again, we don’t have the benefit of an upset cosmos to induce us to act. Just what was the new government Starswirl wanted to set up?”

Looking up into the eyes of her man and giving him a sincere smile, she said, “He created the Moral Aristocracy. Well, it wasn’t just him, but he was the one to conceive of and follow through on the idea. In studying the fall of the Crystal Empire to Anarchy, he discovered that there are three things necessary to running a perfect government in Equestria.

“The first step was to undo the commune in some fashion so that a new government could take its place. Though that may sound like the end of the world as they knew it, Starswirl’s plan was to create two beings, i.e. the Matriarchs, who would be powerful enough to rule over the sun and the moon. As it stood in Equestria then, as many unicorns as could be gathered were necessary in creating the most consistent seasons. Starswirl’s hope was that the two Matriarchs would be endowed with enough power at their creation to completely relieve the unicorn race of this responsibility. By just allowing one of the three races to give up their duties, the entire system would open up to the possibility of artistic and intellectual development. The other two races work loads would also be significantly lightened with the added cooperation of the unicorns.

“The second step Starswirl saw as necessary was to instill a system whereby a ruler of true moral merit was always in control, no matter what trouble the state might be in. At first, Starswirl had hopes that this could be achieved by establishing a strict system of education just as the founders of the Crystal Empire had. As he studied their history though, he concluded that such a thing would not be permanent due to the susceptibility of ponies to eventually blame the current governing system for any societal shortcoming. No matter how good of a leadership education was established, it would eventually fall through and Equestria would fall to Anarchy. He believed that the best possible solution was to have the Matriarchs he planned to create not only control the cosmos but the state as well. If they were bequeathed with all of the inherent traits of perfect leaders, then they would be able to hold Equestria together indefinitely.

“Even with the perfect leader at its lead, Equestria would not have held together to this day if it weren’t for the third part of Starswirl’s plan. Almost all ponies laud it as the most important part of the plan and the most effective change to come over pony society since its conception at the end of our days of roaming as herds.” Colgate rolled off of her back and stood up. With her head hung low to the ground, she concluded, “I must say almost everypony because I view the third part of his plan as the doom of my unhappiness.”

Her man flashed a worried frown and beckoned, “What do you mean?”

The mare turned her head to reflect on the hourglass symbol adorning her flank and explained, “The third part of Starswirl’s plan was to remove all dissatisfaction from ponykind. He wanted to remove all fear of determination and reveal to each of us exactly what we were meant to do in Equestrian society. After all, you can have the greatest leaders possible but they will be all for naught if the populace they are trying to lead prove to be resentful of a leader they had not chosen. The Matriarchs Celestia and Luna could not simply rule. They had to rule with the acceptance of the populace. For this reason, Starswirl also wove into their creation the most complex and powerful charm known to ponykind.”

“By charm, you mean a spell right?” Daemeon asked, bringing a hand over to run the length of his beautiful mare’s back. He had to silently marvel at how the feel of her soft fur still caused him to have goosebumps. For all the tactility, he still felt the same rush touching her as he had when he’d first met her the day before.

Colgate arched her back against Daemeon’s warm hand, moaning slightly at the touch. Her answer was slow in coming, “Yes. It is a charm much like the charm between us. It will not end until some element of the spell has been dismissed whether it be the point of provocation, the focused energy, or the target subject.” A chill breeze rustled the leaves above the pair. The chill nipped at Colgate who found herself falling back towards that ever more familiar chest of her human. As Daemeon brought his arm down around her to encompass her in warmth, she smiled and continued, “To understand how the charm works, I’ll have to start by explaining its parts.

“The point of provocation, as you may remember, is the point from which magic is directed. If I enact a spell on you, then I am the point of provocation. Starswirl wanted the charm he was to enact to last forever. As such, he could not set himself as the point of provocation. He was not permanent and there was no guarantee that there would be a continuous line of ponies such as he who would be able to continue the charm. Thus it was for fairly obvious reasons that Starswirl give the Matriarchs the ability to enact this charm and set themselves as the points of provocation. So long as Celestia and Luna live, the charm will continue on unhindered.

“To understand the focused energy which actively drives the charm, I first have to explain the target subject. I guess it would be more accurate to say target subjects. You see, the target subjects of the spell are every single pony that is in the image of the Princesses Celestia and Luna. Remember when I said before that Celestia and Luna are both fully unicorns, pegasi, and Earth ponies? This is important for the spell to work because it links the three races together. If Celestia and Luna were only amalgamations of the three races then the charm would only affect other being just like them. Because they are three in one however, the charm works perfectly.

“So finally, we can come to the focused energy.” Colgate sat back on her haunches and faced Daemeon. Grim faced, she puffed out her chest and tapped her hoof against it saying, “We, every single pony in Equestria and beyond, provide the focused energy necessary to find our mark. It is our very desire to know who we are and what we should become that powers the spell and guides us to our careers. It is when we discover what we are very best at in the whole world that our desire to know ourselves sets off that charm vested in our Matriarchs. Then, when that charm goes off, the negative feedback loop throws a log in the fire, and we receive our cutie marks. This is how I came to be branded with a career that causes me unhappiness.”

“You love your job,” Daemeon reprimanded. “You said so yourself.”

Colgate was quick to retort, “Don’t you sass me. By your own words, you said people can still be angry while loving something. They can still be unhappy.”

Her man smirked at her answer and reached an arm over to pull her once more to his chest. Sliding to his back, he said, “That they can, Colgate. And brava, might I add. It’s not often that someone can turn my own words against me.”

Giving a smirk of her own, Colgate returned, “Maybe I’m causing you to lose your edge a bit.”

“Ain’t that the bleedin’ truth.” Daemeon shook his head to himself and said, “It’s marvelous how you ponies live. And I do mean that literally. I can only marvel at a society that has been constructed around the idea of perfection. That isn’t to say it’s a new idea here. Humanity has tried it time and time again. The Greeks tried it with Democracy in Athens. Caesar tried for perfection in Rome. Old Louis cried L’Etat, c’est moi’. The Puritans made their City upon a Hill. And I’d like to meet the man who hasn’t heard of the Manifesto. For all our noble attempts however, we have never even come close to utopia. Our failures are often so severe that the word utopia is never more than a hundred words from dystopia. It seems the closer we think we are to perfection, the further away it actually is.”

“Aren’t you being a little grim?” his mare said with a frown.

“No, unfortunately. I’m only being blunt. What would be grim is if I gave you the details of our failures. Frankly though, I don’t see why you’d need to know that.” Giving a lighthearted tussle of her mane, he concluded cheerfully, “I’d rather not make you sad.”

“Has it really been so bad?” his mare pressed.

Setting aside the cheer for a moment, Daemeon answered grimly, “Yes. Imagine taking all of the grim aspects of your history and multiplying them by a factor of ten. Maybe then you will begin to understand that this world has not just one nation whose history bears turmoil. We have hundreds of histories spanning thousands of nations over the course of humanity’s existence.”

A part of Colgate wanted to argue the possibility of such a complex existence, but she herself had seen that city of eight million in its glory. She had seen more people in one glance than she believed there to be ponies in all of Equestria. With so many creatures having to cooperate over hundreds of thousands of years, she could take Daemeon’s word when he tried to have her imagine the scope of the simple question she asked. Instead, she contented herself to note, “I guess it would be less practical for me to ask about the history of humanity when I am finished with telling my history.”

“I guess,” her man returned. He issued a grunt as he pushed himself off the ground to sit up. Loosening his grip so that his mare could rest comfortably in his crossed legs, he said, “That being said, we seem to have no fewer things in common because of it. In fact, I’m quite impressed by how much human history you’ve captured in your story.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I’m just impressed at how many governments and civil conflicts your nations have gone through that is so very similar to what humanity has gone through. Democracy, Oligarchy, Timocracy, Aristocracy, and even Communism you’ve had! Civil wars, racial wars, and even revolutionary wars. Yet even after all of those wars, your race, much as my own, has been moving forward. Your history might be on a much smaller scale, but it is no less relevant because of it.”

Colgate gave a broad smile and said happily, “I’m glad I’m able to tell it to you. I hope you can learn from it as much as I have been.”

Daemeon raised an eyebrow in curiosity and asked, “Just what have you been learning? You’re the one telling the story.”

His mare gave him a more mocking smile and said, “You call yourself a teacher? Don’t you know the best way to learn about something is to teach it yourself. Otherwise, knowledge can lay fallow as unplanted fields. Once you have to teach somepony something, you are challenged to garnering a greater understanding of it yourself. I’d hope that you of all your people would understand that the best way to learn anything is to teach it.”

Truly impressed, her man remarked, “I did know that. It’s just a rare thing for me to meet someone else who understands. You continue to surprise me, Colgate.”

“Well,” she chuckled, “maybe that’s because you don’t know much about me.”

“Indeed I don’t.” Bringing a hand down, Daemeon curled a lock of her mane around his finger and said, “I’d love nothing more than to get to know more.”

Planting a little kiss on her man’s hand, she answered, “Then I guess I’ll have to continue the story. You could hardly know more about me without knowing where I came from.”

“You’re more right than you know.”

Colgate tapped a hoof against her chin in a moment’s thought before asking, “Do you remember where I left off?”

“You’d just finished explaining how a cutie mark is made. Quite a marvelous story by the way. What you haven’t really explained is how those new queens, Celestia and Luna, were to get rid of Discord.”

Daemeon was caught off guard by his mare as she aggressively shook her head and explained, “Princesses! They are not queens. They did not lead an Oligarchy like we had in the Dark Era. They administer to ponykind, but they did not come to power through election, bloodline, or force. They rule over us because they are the best expression of each of the three pony races. They do not enforce edicts over their subjects. They lead, and we follow. There is no willingness or unwillingness. There are none who could rule better. To put it in an unfairly pessimistic sense, we get no say in the matter. They don’t either for that matter.”

Continuing to curl her mane, Daemeon noted, “That doesn’t sound like the safest system to me. I mean, what would you ponies do if your leaders became corrupt? What’s stopping them from becoming corrupt in the first place? Do you have some contingency plan for in case they do?”

His mare frowned in thought and answered him, “I would say that that was impossible due to the nature of their creation. The Princesses were created with all of the positive aspects of ponykind. They would never fall to corruption on their own. Unfortunately, I cannot say that it can’t happen, nor can I say it hasn’t. It was not long after we set up our reformed Equestrian order that just such a thing occurred and one of our own Matriarchs turned against us.”

“And just how did that happen?”

His mare rolled in his lap so her four hooves pointed skyward. In a rather subtle show of openness, she did not pull her tail over herself in modesty as she was want to do before. Instead, she just smiled and said, “I’d be getting ahead of myself if I told you. I still have to tell you about how the Princesses defeated Discord.

“The biggest problem with defeating Discord was that he cannot be killed. At least, I don’t think he can be killed. I’ll tell you differently if one of them ever dies. What they did instead was use a very powerful spell that has kind of become the hallmark for the Equestrian answer to capital punishment.”

Intrigued, Daemeon asked, “Your culture doesn’t have capital punishment? What do they have instead?”

“Well,” she explained, “when a pony or citizen of non-pony descent is seen as an uncontrollable threat in the eyes of the state, they are put into a magical imprisonment wherein the body does not deteriorate from the decay of time but the mind experiences the passage in slow agony. This is how Discord was dealt with a thousand years ago. The Princesses Celestia and Luna enacted a spell that put him into what should have been a permanent such prison.”

Very intrigued by the idea of a permanent incarceration that is nonlethal, Daemeon pressed, “Where is this prison in Equestria?”

“No, no,” she said with a shake of her head. “The prison isn’t any one place. The prison is the individual bodies of those judged by Celestia and Luna. They don’t have to constrain them in a physical prison. She constrains them in a bodily prison. That is, they turn them into stone.”

“Really?!” her man exclaimed. “Wow. I don’t even know how to react to that one. Criminal offenders are literally turned into stone in your society?”

Colgate nodded with a grim facade and explained, “They don’t do it often. It is considered the ultimate punishment. We used to have execution before the instating the Princesses but capital punishment was seen as counter productive to a more perfect society.”

“I guess their alternative form of punishment is convenient for their grasp of humanitarian values but I must know for sure.” Daemeon gripped his mare’s two forehooves, both clean and cut and asked, “Can you tell me exactly why you ponies decided against capital punishment? You see, it’s a pretty hot topic in this world. There are many who wish execution to be illegal in any scenario, but there are also many who feel that some people are too dangerous or violent to be trusted with life, especially if that person has killed others with intent and without remorse.”

“I can understand why,” she discerned. “If humans don’t have the benefit of magic then you must be fairly limited to either execution or physical imprisonment. That would be expensive and a little cruel either way. Even if we were without magic however, we would not allow for execution based on a fairly simple and fundamental system whereby we determine the proper action to take when a crime occurs.”

“That’s what I want to hear,” Daemeon said with a smile. “You know me. I don’t care so much for practicality. My mind wraps itself more around guiding principles. Life, after all, runs on principles as founded and irrefutable as those theories both mathematical and astronomical.”

“What do you know about math or astronomy?” his mare inquired curiously.

“Enough to know for certain that the pony control of the cosmos is fundamentally impossible in this universe.” He let go of her hooves and traced a finger around the ovular bite mark scarring her beautiful blue coat. Saddened by the slight wince she gave as he traced his finger, he said, “That being said, I am just smart enough to know that I know next to nothing for certain. So, I like to learn more rules that may or may not reform the old ones. Ptolemy had a fantastically complicated way of following the cosmos. Though they worked in part, his theories were wrong on the whole.” Forcing a small smile for his mare’s sake, he begged, “But please, don’t worry about him. I want to know; what is the reasoning you ponies have for allowing even your most violent criminals to live?”

Colgate opened her mouth to give what would first have been her definitive answer but closed it again as she considered the question her man with the beautiful smile had asked. She felt it pertinent to explain a couple things before answering directly, “You have to understand, Daemeon, that there are very few ponies under the description you just gave. Crime has not been a major problem since we instituted the cutie mark education system. Usually the ones who do become violent or bear criminal intent suffer from a mental illness.. These ponies are not incarcerated in the punishing sense. Often, they are placed into institutions that carefully administer to their particular needs. Those of less severe cases are taken care of by their families. That’s the benefit of having a society formed around the family unit you see. Most problems are taken care of within the home before they become a more civil matter.”

“Alright, alright!” Daemeon groaned in exasperation. “So you don’t have so many criminals that it’s a big problem, but it is a problem nonetheless. You keep telling me your society isn’t perfect anyways. Now, what’s your reasoning?”

Giggling at her man’s mood, Colgate answered, “It’s simple. You can’t change the past. You can only affect the present and place hope in the future. Do you agree?”

“You know I do. The past is passed. What of it?”

“So you understand that nothing we can do in the present will change what has already happened?”

Nodding curtly, he returned, “Of course.”

Leading her man in a train of thought very much as he had done when they’d first met and he’d explained to her the nature of chaos, Colgate asked, “And would you say that any intelligent society should strive always for future good instead of evil?”

“Of course.”

“So,” she expounded dramatically, “what is the possible good of ending a pony’s life when the act itself prevents all goodness that pony may have had to offer in his or her life? You cannot claim any positive reaction to events in the past if what we do now does nothing to change what has happened. While you might be able to claim that an execution will prevent future harms, you cannot guarantee that the pony executed would actually have continued doing harm. There is always a chance to change the perspective of somepony so they may see the world in a more positive light. Thus, there is always a chance for somepony to do good. A pony who is executed cannot change who he or she is. Therefore, there can be no good that comes from an execution. The very best you can hope for is preventing a potential evil while committing a certain evil. For certainly I don’t have to tell you that murder is no good for society.”

Daemeon frowned slightly and responded, “I’d never thought about it like that before. Taking the world situation by situation, men tend to have a difficult time wrapping their head around logical certainties. Often when men do decide to believe something with conviction, the conviction is arbitrary and unfounded, like the belief in God. Their judgements become premature and unfounded to the point of being ludicrous. Perhaps the most ludicrous faith a man or woman can have is any sort of certainty in the future.”

“Are you so sure about that?” his mare jeered. “You seem awfully certain about some aspects of the future. You seem certain that our two worlds are striving to the same goal.”

Her man shook his head and explained, “It is more as you have said before. We can only hope in the future. The future being necessarily that which has not happened, we have very little ability to affect it. I have hope in something better because we, both ponies and people, have only been earning better for ourselves. It may come with violence or tragedy, but it always seems to come in the end. The best that characters like us can do is play our small part in it and maybe even be the ones to help ensure it happens.”

“Well that is an optimistic deduction.” Colgate grabbed her man’s hand up in her hooves and stroked them softly. The feeling of his soft hand beneath her hard hooves brought a smile to her face. “I like those hands. They must be a lot of fun to use. Only using two legs must make all of them pretty slow though. He could barely catch me when I’m tiny. Why am I so tiny anyways? I guess it’s convenient, but it’s also annoying.” Lifting her eyes from his hands to his gazing greys and wondered, “Maybe now is the time to ask him his side of the story.”

Taking a deep breath, the mare asked, “And just what part do you play, Daemeon? What do you do to help your world along?”

Just as she feared, her man’s face reddened, and he cast his eyes away from hers. She gave him a moment to collect himself and say, “I told you. I really don’t want to talk about that.”

Making her words a touch more stern than kind, she said, “I know you did. You are going to have to tell me eventually though. If I’ve got you as wrapped around my hoof as you say, then you will understand why I don’t want you to keep your life a secret.”

Flustered, Daemeon returned, “I know. I just don’t want you to know yet. Please don’t make me tell you, Colgate.”

Softening her rich voice so as not to seem so accusative, Colgate explained, “I don’t like holding this over you, Daemeon. It’s really starting to scare me. I feel like I know you so well. I’ve fallen in love with you, but I don’t even know who you are. I don’t know why the authorities are after you. I don’t know what your job really is. I don’t even know your last name!” The mare stood and reached from his lap so that their faces were hardly an inch apart. She whispered sadly, “I hate not knowing who you really are.”

The mare observed what she knew to be her man falling back into thought as he bit his lip with a worrisome look in his eyes. While she hoped he would give her the honesty she asked, her heart was terrified by what could bring such fear to her man. If his life had been lived in the state which she had first found him, she could only imagine what he had done and what he was keeping from her. It came as no surprise to her when her man copped out and begged, “Please let me hear the rest of you story first.”

Colgate frowned and asked, “Why do you want to hear the story first?”

“Because,” he whispered despairingly, “I’m afraid you won’t talk to me anymore when I tell you the truth.”

His mare blanched a bit at his answer, her fears confirmed that his was a past of some terrible repute. She tried her best not to show it, but her heart was heavy with despair of her own. His answer made her afraid, and it was only with great effort that she could manage a false smile and say, “Okay. I’ll finish the story if you promise to tell me the truth when I’m done.”

On seeing her man nod his head softly, she pressed a small kiss on his bristly chin and rested her head on his shoulder. When she felt his arms slide up to envelope her, that smile returned slightly, and she felt a bit happier to continue, “You asked whether or not our Matriarchs could be corrupted. Despite all the positivity we put into their creation, they are not completely incorruptible. It took only three years in fact before our younger Princess, Luna, was warped and twisted by a powerful magic from a dangerous foe. Only three years after the start of our new order, our perfect Aristocracy, it was threatened with complete destruction and everything we had worked for would have been for nothing.”

“How could it almost be destroyed so quickly? What was this foe?”

She answered as she enjoyed the warmth of his body, “As you will recall, the creation of the reformed Equestrian order coincided with the Anarchical state of the Crystal Empire. Though the cutie mark system affected all ponies and the members of the Crystal Empire were made to benefit from them the same way we did, they were beyond the jurisdiction of our state. Remember what I told you about how leaders came to power in the later years of the Democracy? Rather than the best qualified stallion or mares coming to power, only the most ambitious made their presence known. While at least a Democracy demands some consent for ambitious ponies to lead, Anarchy makes no such demands. It was thus that, in the time after the fall of the Democratic state, the pony with the most ambition, the most power, and the most cruelty came to hold dominion over the Crystal Empire. From there, the Empire was no longer in Anarchy. Instead of ponies having only to fear each other, they had to fear the Tyrant Sombra. The Crystal Empire went from Anarchy to Tyranny, a government worse than no government at all.”

“Curious,” Daemeon muttered. “I never thought there was a system worse than no government.” Furrowing his brow as he regarded his own statement, he thought, “Then again, Germany could have gone without the Third Reich.”

Colgate explained, “When a government seeks only to oppress the ponies it is supposed to protect, it can be called worse than no government at all. Sombra was a unicorn of no small power who came to rulership by subjugation and violence. He gained the support of the masses by promising to restore order with a firm hoof. After the chaos of Anarchy, the crystal ponies believed that even a Tyrant would be better than no leader at all.”

“What does Sombra and the Crystal Empire have to do with the downfall of your Matriarch Luna?” Daemeon asked.

“Well,” she began, “our Matriarchs, being created for the purpose of servicing not only Equestria but all of ponykind, decided that we could not allow the Crystal Empire to suffer the despotic rule of Tyrant Sombra. I know it might sound fairly militant and forward, but the Princesses Celestia and Luna, having heard the history of the Crystal Empire from Starswirl the Bearded, realized that the rule of Sombra was not from the consensus of the ponies living there and made it their goal to overthrow Sombra in the most peaceable form possible so as to guide the Crystal Empire back into the Equestrian state. Their hope was to reunify ponykind under one government as we had over a thousand years before. This time however, we would be unified under the Aristocracy instead of the commune.”

Drawing conclusions of his own, Daemeon interrupted, “I suppose they must have been successful. After all, your society is utopian.”

Colgate chuckled and said, “You’d be wrong Mr. Not-So-Smarty Pants.” After Daemeon’s own laughter had ended at her remark, she explained, “It’s a bit of a difficult to explain, but the Matriarchs were not successful in bringing the Crystal Empire into their fold. The Crystal Empire remains a sovereign state to this day, separate from Equestria. Their failure came for two reasons.

“The first and most immediately obvious reason was their initial failure to overthrow the Tyrant Sombra until a year ago when Princess Cadence revived the spirit of the Crystal Ponies. . .”

“What?!” her man explicated, holding his mare out at arm’s length. “I thought Sombra lived over a thousand years ago. What do you mean he was overthrown a year ago?”

Groaning in hyperbolized exasperation, she kicked her hooves at her man’s face and scolded, “Stop interrupting me!” Even in her reprimands, she could not help but chuckle, “You are such a foal. Question after question after question. Next you’ll be asking me why dogs have paws instead of hooves and why the sky is blue.”

Daemeon coyly countered, “Do you know why?”

“Oh hush up you!” Colgate again kicked her hooves in the air until her man took her meaning and enveloped her once more in his arms. Smiling, she explained, “When I say he was finally overthrown a year ago, I really mean that his reign of Tyranny ended last year. And yes, he also lived a thousand years ago. And no, he is not an immortal. The Tyrant Sombra may have been very powerful, but he could not match the power of our Matriarchs. At least, he could not match the power of Celestia. I’m sorry to say that our Princess Luna was not made strong enough to overtake his subversion and cruelty. You see, after the reformed Equestrian order was founded, our Matriarchs decided that the Crystal Empire must come back into the fold. To do this, the Princesses convened and it was agreed that the younger of the two sisters, Luna, would go forth and bring an end to Sombra’s Tyrannical rule.

“Unfortunately for our Princess Luna, Sombra suspected the intervention of the two Equestrian Matriarchs and had already laid out a trap. The trap was a unique creation of Sombra who had learned to control the power of despair.”

Unable to contain himself, Daemeon asked, “What do you mean, the power of despair?”

“Well,” Colgate started, “I suppose I’d have to explain the Crystal Heart to you for you to understand that.”

“Okay,” he said. “Then what’s the Crystal Heart?”

“The Crystal Heart is a relic that dates back to the foundation of the Aristocracy in the early years of the Crystal Empire. Physically, it is a literal heart shaped stone cut out of crystal and enchanted with the ability to ward off the bitter winter of the north. As with every enchanting charm however, this charm needed to be fueled by a continuous source of willing energy. As it happens, the founders of the Crystal Empire believed that there would always be one benevolent energy that could not be stricken away. They believed that there was one sentiment that would always exist in pony history. And that sentiment was love.”

Genuinely confused, Daemeon stroked a hand down the length of his mare’s back and asked, “What do you mean, love?”

Colgate’s smile widened as she explained, “The founders of the Crystal Empire were very smart. They knew that if the charm was going to last through the ages, then it must rely on an energy that would never burn out. The founders knew that they could not use anger as the energy, like the anger that fuels our linking charm. They knew it would be ineffective because not everypony would be angry enough to provide the energy necessary to keep the heart going. They also saw however, that joy would not do. After all, there are always ups and downs in a society. There could always potentially be a time when there is no real happiness in the empire. For those same reasons, such emotional energies as fear, hope, trust, pride, respect, and even hatred would not do. All of these energies were seen as inconsistent and prone to fail at some point. The only energy they saw as being permanent was love. Their argument was this, that the populace would never allow their friends or family or even themselves to fall to death in the arctic cold without having the love inside of them motivate them to power the Crystal Heart.”

Her man listened silently as she spoke. Though he would have liked to interject, he knew it would be better for her to finish her story. Even as he held his tongue, Colgate thought to herself in the midst of her speaking, “I can’t believe I didn’t think about this before. This is important and it could finally do away with his disdain for love.”

She continued, “And it worked! All throughout the five hundred years of the empire, the power of the heart never burned out. The Crystal Empire praised the power of the Crystal Heart that every year they would gather around it purely for the sake of celebrating love. The magic of the empire was always strong enough to ward off the winter so long as the ponies gathered around the heart in the name of love. The system seemed flawless throughout the nations history except for one factor the founders did not anticipate.

“They never expected that any outside or inside force would truly wish to bring harm to the Crystal Empire. It was not heavily defended or regulated. It did not have to be. What pony was going to march into the cold desolate north for the sake of bringing down a kingdom that only had any value as long as it stood? For this reason, they did not take any great precautions to protect the Crystal Heart, the source of the empire’s power. It was readily accessible to the eyes of anypony at the empire’s center. This might have seemed foolish in hindsight when Sombra rose and stole the heart for his own purposes, but it was necessary for the love of the ponies to be freely given to power the spell. It would have been far less effective to hide it away for safe keeping.”

Knowing full well what Daemeon would ask next, Colgate thrust one of her hooves up to cover her man’s mouth. When she felt a rather unsanitary kiss planted on the bottom of her hoof, she giggled like a school filly and said, “Don’t make me laugh. This part’s important. Sombra stole the heart in order to instill his unquestioned Tyranny. He hid it away from the crystal ponies so that they could not use their love to fuel its power.”

Daemeon pretended to bite her hoof, causing her to pull it back and give him a skeptical look. Her man too the opportunity to ask, “If Sombra hid the heart, wouldn’t the winter have closed in on the empire? You make it seem like the heart is necessary for the empire’s survival.”

Nodding her head, Colgate answered, “You’re right. If Sombra had just taken the heart and hidden it away, then the power protecting the empire would have failed. He however, gave it just enough love himself to keep the empire running. In a very twisted sort of way, Sombra had a heart overflowing with love. The only problem was that that love was not shared. Sombra was a unicorn of the ponies who had abandoned the responsibilities of the commune. The Crystal Empire had been founded on the principle that ponies should seek pleasures beyond responsibility to each other, to enjoy life to the fullest. I guess Sombra was the epitome of what the empire stood for. His love for himself was powerful enough to fuel the heart to keep the empire alive. Because it was hidden, none of the crystal ponies could afford to kill him for fear of losing the heart and the empire forever.

“It was in this state that Princess Luna first found the Crystal Empire. The spirit of love and unity had been broken among the crystal ponies. Sombra had worked dark magics over their minds to cause them to forget about the Crystal Heart and the love they had given it. Eventually, he caused them to forget who they were and what purpose they had existing. He deprived them of joy, hope, love, and even hate. They had no purpose but to serve him and his excessive desires. Princess Luna found them miserable and defeated, like they had lost something important, but they couldn’t remember what. Luna recognized what they lost though. They had lost love both for themselves and for others.”

Rather suddenly, Colgate’s words faltered. She could not see the look of concern that took hold of her man’s face as she closed her eyes and cast her face downward. She could not believe the flood of emotion that came over her as tears sprang to her eyes and her chest heaved shakily for air lest she break down with too much emotion. Daemeon reacted by pulling her to his chest, but the mare resisted so powerfully that he let go of her. She stumbled out of his grasp and stood on four wobbly legs, breathing heavily while Daemeon pleaded to know what was wrong with her.

“Could it be!” Colgate’s mind screamed. “Could that be the reason? Is that why I’m unhappy? Sweet Celestia, I’d never thought of it like that. I know I’ve been missing something, but I never dreamed it could be that. But that simply can’t be true. It can’t be. There has to be, has to be something else I’m missing. It can’t be that. I’ve always had that. Haven’t I?”

In her terrific fit of tearful frustration, Colgate slammed her face into the cool grass and covered her head with her hooves. She groaned loudly in inward pain as she tried desperately to banish the thought from her mind, the thought that the only thing really wrong with her life could be something so small and insignificant, yet so very monumental. Every ounce of her being wanted to deny even the possibility. That denial might have been the smallest bit possible if she were left alone to stew in her own sadness but that was not to be.

The terror of her unwanted thoughts subsided almost as soon as they’d started when she felt a relatively huge hand come to a rest on her back. Her shaking and shuddering softened and her breathing returned to normal. She let her mind mellow and her thoughts dim as her small equine body was lifted from the grass with as much care as a new foal is risen with levitation. And, like that same metaphoric foal, she was cradled close against a strong and comforting chest so that her ears could be graced with that same lullaby to which she had so quickly grown accustomed. It was only upon the cessation of her inward trauma that Colgate found the words to speak, “I’m sorry.”

Looking up into her man’s dark grey eyes, she heard him beg, “What’s wrong, Colgate?”

To which she responded, “I don’t know.”

“You’re lying,” Daemeon whispered sadly. “Please don’t lie to me. Please tell me what’s wrong.”

“You’re right,” she returned. “It’s just. It’s just that.” She paused. She inhaled deeply and exhaled in equal measure. Mustering her courage, for indeed courage was needed to face this fear of hers, she answered, “I’m afraid I may have just realized the answer to why I’m here.”

Daemeon blinked his eye multiple times in confusion before noting, “Aren’t you here because you’re unhappy?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding her small head. “But the answer to why, why I’m unhappy; I think I may have just discovered the reason.”

“Well,” her man whispered expectantly, “don’t keep me in suspense. What’s the reason?”

To this question, Colgate pursed her lips tightly and said, “I don’t want to tell you the answer.”

Becoming even more confused, Daemeon brought a hand up and brushed his thumb against her fuzzy cheek and asked, “Why don’t you want to tell me?”

Closing her eyes and leaning into the strength of his hand, she answered him, “Because I don’t want this to end, Daemeon. I don’t want to leave you, and I’m afraid I will if I’m right. I’m afraid that, if I tell you, the charm will reach its conclusion, and I will be sent back to Equestria.”

Daemeon’s face paled at the thought and his arms seemed to instinctually clutch her closer. Lips trembling, he asked in horror, “Is that how it works? You just learn your lesson and poof! You disappear? Like that? Is that how it’s going to be?”

“I don’t know.”

Agonized, Daemeon demanded loudly, “What do you mean you don’t know?”

Colgate cringed and answered, “I just don’t know! I wasn’t the one who cast the spell. Princess Celestia did. I don’t know exactly what completes it or even how I’ll get home when it’s done.”

“Are you so certain you will be going home after this?”

His mare nodded her head and explained, “She would never have sent me here if she didn’t have every intention of me returning. After all, she said this was a journey, not an exile.”

They sat in silence for several moments, both of them trying to absorb the situation. The sun above slid ever closer to the western horizon, already touching the tops of the skyscrapers across the park. A hefty wind blew through the trees, causing a torrent of withering leaves to break off their branches and flutter down into that tiny glen between the bushes. Both man and mare watched absently as the fiery reds, yellows, and oranges drifted and caught themselves in a little whirlwind that spun them in circles as leaves are want to do. The breeze was chilling and caused Daemeon’s hairs to stand on end. Hugging his little Colgate even tighter for mutual warmth, he said softly, “I don’t want you to go.”

Colgate sniffled, her nose wet in the chill Autumn air, and responded painfully, “We knew it had to come to an end, Daemeon.”

“They say all good things do.” The torrent of leaves closed around them, and Daemeon deftly snatched an especially bright red leaf from the air. His thoughts dwelled on the five tipped maple leaf as he pinched it between his finger and thumb. Its soft, smooth structure was still moist with the lingering vestiges of life the tree had given it. Or perhaps, it was the leaf that gave to the tree. Daemeon supposed it was both really. After all, one cannot live without the other.

Not being privy to each other’s thoughts, Daemeon could not know that Colgate’s own mind dwelled on the leaf in his hand with the very same thoughts. “It’s dying,” she mused. “The season’s dying. It’ll be winter here soon, just like in Equestria. I wish it would stay warm. I can always put more wood on the fire, but I’ll still be cold. Now it’ll be even worse. Now I know what it really feels like to be so warm.

“Now I know what it feels like to be loved.”

The mare stuck out her two forehooves and grasped the leaf between them. Her man relinquished his grasp so that she could clutch the red maple leaf to her own red stained chest. Wincing the tiniest bit when her hooves struck her bite, she wondered in silence, “How can I tell him now? Even if I’m not right, how will I tell him later? I don’t want to leave him. He’s right though. I can’t stay here. Where would I fit in with this world? What would I be but an oddity or a monster? Even if he were to keep me to himself, what life would that be? I might be happy alone with him for a while, but he is not a pony. He is not my kind. Even if he were, we could someday grow weary of each other. Life isn’t a fairy tale. The story doesn’t end with happily ever after. It ends with death after a long and hard life where ponies had to sacrifice much to maintain order. And what has my life been before this but long, hard, and unhappy? And just when I get a taste of happiness, just a taste, I am to live with the fact that it must so quickly come to an end. To Tartarus with the story! If I don’t finish it, then maybe we won’t learn the lesson. Then maybe this moment doesn’t have to end. He doesn’t need to hear the rest of the story after all. This is good enough. Being here with me right now is probably the happiest he’s ever been. Who am I to take this away from both myself and him?”

Even as that last thought slipped through her mind, Daemeon spoke, “Before it ends, Colgate, do you think you can do one thing for me?”

Her smiling eyes lifted from the leaf as she answered gladly, “Of course. I’d do anything for you, Daemeon.”

Managing the best smile that he could, her man asked, “Can you finish the story? I think you’re right when you say we might learn something from it. I really do. Now it’s coming back to present day, and I think I might finally be able to understand you, Colgate. I mean really understand you and your people. Then I can understand why your world works so beautifully while ours seems to be on the precipice of disaster. There could be some way where I could build a model of your world in this one and help humanity live a better life.”

A little distraught by his words, the mare begged quickly, “Don’t you already have a model of your own? You’re the smart one, Daemeon. You’re the one that taught me about love and hate. You showed me that hate is never justified.”

“I thought you said you didn’t believe that was true?” he countered, his smile growing sad.

Sighing heavily, the little blue unicorn muttered, “I’d thought you would have realized by now that I have no clue what to believe in. I thought I did, but you had to go and turn everything upside down. I’ve never been so uncertain of everything in my life.”

“And you think you haven’t flipped my life upside down?!” Daemeon shook his head viciously, trying to keep the tears out of his eyes, and said, “The only thing I know for certain anymore is that I love you, Colgate. I’m more certain that I love you than I’m certain that you’re actually real! A part of me really believes that I have gone completely and utterly insane, and that you are my own imagination trying to torment me for the things I have done. I used to believe so many things. I used to think I was so brilliant and that the world was an open book to be studied. It’s easy to judge the world when you are the one reading the book. Now I know the heaven and hell of being a character.”

Colgate opened her mouth to speak, but her man spoke over her, “That’s why I want you to finish it. I need you to finish it. Maybe then I’ll know something again. Maybe then I’ll have a purpose.”

His mare shut her eyes in sad contemplation of his words, “So much for not telling him. He’s right. Celestia was right. We can change things. I realize that now. We can change who we are, and it is so much simpler than I’d ever thought. If I finish the story, I will leave him, but I will leave him a happier human than I found him. I guess that’s the best thing I can do. If I really love him, I will give him this. If I really love him, I must make him understand the truth.”

With this thought both disdainful and hopeful in her heart, she answered him, “Okay.” Taking a deep breath, she fiddled with her red leaf and continued, “When Princess Luna arrived at the Crystal Empire, she went to Sombra and demanded that he step down and relinquish the Crystal Heart. As she had come to save and not to conquer, she initially had no intention of harming Sombra. The Tyrant recognized this and laid out a trap for her. The trap was an enchanted door. Sombra, knowing well how to suck the love out of a pony from many years of rule, had designed the door to show any pony who looked within a world absent love. From what I understand, a world that is absent love is one where only fear lives. As such, our Princess Luna was subjected to a reality where the whole of Equestria scorned her existence and her purpose.”

“How long did Sombra have her trapped?”

“I don’t know for certain,” she said, petting her leaf. “It must not have been too long. Luna’s sister, Celestia, was quick to react. Leaving Equestria for a short while, she flew to the Crystal Empire where she found both Sombra and our younger Matriarch. She broke her sister from Sombra’s bondage, and together, they combined their powers to seal him away just as they had to imprison Discord. Capital punishment, after all, had been declared a crime against ponykind. This right to life extended to all intelligent ponies, even the likes of Sombra. The two of them thus turned Sombra to stone, locking him beneath the ice for what they had intended to be forever.”

“Now I understand,” Daemeon interjected. “I’m guessing Sombra escaped from his prison somehow. You said he wasn’t defeated until last year.”

The mare nodded her head somewhat sadly and explained, “Unfortunately, imprisonment was not enough to contain him. His greed was too great, and Twilight Sparkle was forced to end his life.”

“Twilight Sparkle?” Her man chewed his lower lip in thought and stated, “You’ve mentioned that name before. Who is she? Is she someone important? I suppose she must be if she was the one to kill Sombra.”

Ms. Minuette scowled ever so slightly and clenched her hooves together, ripping the small, fleshy leaf in her hand. She cast her eyes away from her man’s and shook her head.

Though Daemeon could not claim to understand every aspect of Colgate’s being as he might be expected to understand a fellow Manhattanite, he could easily read a charged emotion in her that he’d seen in the faces of many humans. This was possible in great part because his mare’s face seemed so very human to him. It made her emotions understandable and even relatable to him. That is how they could speak the same language. Daemeon interrogated softly, “Is that a hint of jealousy I see?”

Colgate scoffed and rolled her eyes at the question. As she opened her mouth to usher a retort however, she was stopped by a small self-realization. Scowling again, a bit harder this time, she muttered, “Maybe.”

Having never witnessed this particular side of his mare, Daemeon pressed the issue with intrigue, “Who is she? And why don’t you like her?”

Though neither of the questions related to the mare directly, she almost felt offended for having to answer them. “Even in a whole other world, we still have to talk about her.” Colgate sighed and explained, “She’s the Student.”

“A student of what?”

“Not a student,” Colgate clarified. “She’s the Student. She’s the current Student of Princess Celestia. I guess now that includes Princess Luna.”

“What does the Student do? Is that a special title?”

His mare nodded and explained, “It is a special title, one that only goes to a single stallion or mare at any point in time. It is usually a privilege reserved for unicorns as our magical nature is usually the critical point, but there have been exceptions in the past from what I’ve heard. It’s hard to say though. I don’t know the history of the Students very well. All I know is that there have been hundreds of them in the past thousand years. Some Students study under Celestia for a lifetime. Many last hardly more than a year or two. Twilight Sparkle is the current Student and just so happens to live in the same village I do.

“As to what exactly the Student does, I’m not really sure. To be frank though, I don’t think anyone aside from Celestia herself know the purpose of their existence. They do the bidding of the Princess and there seems to be some ultimate goal the Student’s are trying to achieve. Whatever that is however, none of them have achieved it. They grow old or abandon their studies and Celestia eventually takes in a new Student to replace the last.”

The concept of a student teacher relationship held to such a serious level greatly intrigued the man who saw himself, be it premature or not, as the ultimate educator. Though his mare was hesitant to explain who this Twilight Sparkle was for some reason of jealousy, Daemeon pushed the point. He quickly fell under the belief that this Student system was somehow very important for Equestria. “And just what exactly does the Student learn under the tutelage of the Princess Celestia?”

Colgate unclenched her hooves and let the little torn leaf float from her grasp caught on another twirling breeze. She watched as it went, going so far as to crane her head until it disappeared behind a bush. From there, she cast up her eyes at the trees that grew ever more scantily clad with color. She answered, “They learn how to see the world.”

Daemeon held his tongue for a few seconds, waiting for her to expand on the ridiculously vague answer. She did not expand however and her man was forced to ask, “What do you mean, how to see the world?”

The little, blue unicorn looked to her man curiously and said, “I thought you of all people would understand what I meant. I guess I don’t know any people other than you, but you make it seem like you are one of the few who try to understand how to see the world. You don’t just take everything that happens in your world for granted. You try to look beyond the immediacy of little, present situations and put them in a grander scheme. It’s just like how you told me the couch was white. It was hard for me to understand at first that its color could have any relevance to anything but you trotted me through the steps. You showed me how there could be dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of different reasons that could lead to that couch being white.”

“I did do that,” Daemeon confirmed, “but I was trying to show you that all the different reasons don’t matter because the couch is still white.”

“Then you are contradicting yourself.” The comment caught Daemeon off guard and caused him to shake his head in surprise. Colgate almost chuckled but refrained so that her point might be driven home, “You say that what happened in the past doesn’t matter, and yet you try to tell me that understanding each other and fully embracing logic and reason is the only way we can come together to make a perfect society? By that reasoning, you would have me try to learn everything I can about why something happened and do nothing because of it. What would be the purpose of knowing then?”

“To make sure mistakes don’t happen again,” Daemeon countered severely. “What happened in the past doesn’t matter because there’s nothing you can do to change the past. That’s why we tell our children not to cry over spilled milk. Knowing it was an accident doesn’t change the fact that there’s milk on the floor. Heck, even knowing it was done on purpose doesn’t change the situation at hand. Whatever the cause might have been, the effect is still the same. Yet knowing what it was that caused the milk to spill is crucial for teaching the one who spilled it how not to spill it again. Since we can’t make changes to the past, we can only address the situation at hand and ensure a better future.”

Colgate Minuette flashed a rather mischievous and coy smile. That smile widened to include her pearly white teeth. When Daemeon furrowed his brow in confusion, she stated simply, “Exactly.”

“What?”

His mare giggled and explained, “That’s exactly what I mean by how to see the world. You see more than just the instant. That is what Princess Celestia teaches her Students. She teaches them more than just the instant so that they can make truly educated decisions. She teaches them to look through time and understand the world as being a grander scheme to which we all play a part.”

Realizing just how easily his mare had lead him by the nose through their conversation, Daemeon smiled and said, “You’re a far faster thinker than I’d given you credit for. You really do understand. What’s more, it seems you understood before I even told you.”

The mare’s smile diminished as she said in turn, “Don’t give me too much credit. I didn’t really understand it all at first. I’d never really thought the way you do until I started trying to piece together my history. It seems the more I teach it to you, the better an understanding I earn from it myself. I guess this must be what Twilight Sparkle does.”

Slyly, Daemeon beckoned, “Why are you jealous of her?”

Frowning, she explained, “Because she’s a self important know-it-all who got to be exactly what she wanted to be in the world. Pretty much her whole life was just handed to her, and it’s the best possible life to have. She doesn’t have a job like the rest of us normal background ponies. Her calling in life is to be doted upon by the Princesses and live comfortably with an inordinate amount of power given to her.”

His mare’s cold negativity starkly contrasted the kindness she’d been showing throughout that beautiful autumn day. Daemeon could hardly help but return her frown in full measure and ask, “Are you only angry because she has more than you? Or is there anything perhaps a bit more reasonable that would validate how you feel?”

Colgate scoffed and demanded, “Since when do my emotions need validation? Am I not allowed to feel what I want to feel?”

Her man whispered softly so as to lighten the mood, “You want to feel angry?”

Looking away, she grunted, “Maybe. I’ve got a right to, don’t I? Nopony gets a say in how I feel other than myself. If I want to be angry, then I can be angry.”

Instead of arguing her point, Daemeon spoke again in his lowered tone, “Do you want to be happy?”

Confused by the question, his mare retorted, “Of course I do. That’s why I’m here.”

“Then by your own logic,” Daemeon explained, “the only reason you are unhappy is because you’re allowing yourself to be unhappy. Clearly this must be the case if nobody has any say in your emotions other than yourself.” Almost as a personal aside, the man turned his gaze away and added, “And here I thought maybe I had a say in your happiness.”

Those sarcastic words hit their mark quite a bit more aggressively than Daemeon had intended. Seeing error in what she had said, Colgate lurched out her man’s cradling grasp and through her two forehooves about his neck in the tightest hug she could manage. In a consoling tone, the beautiful mare said, “I’m sorry, Daemeon.

I was wrong. You’re right. You do have some say in my happiness. I’m actually a little scared to admit just how much say you have. It would be one thing merely to say you have my life in your hands. That alone grants you massive power to affect how I feel. That however is nothing compared to the fact that you got me to fall in love with you. Here in this place, you’re my whole world, Daemeon. And I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy as I am with you.”

“Neither have I, Colgate. Neither have I.”

The pair leaned into that tender embrace for a long while. The restatement of their earlier confessions to each other made them smile and desire a blissful moment of silence. Their words were good and beautiful. The passage of information is a marvellous thing when two willing parties are so ardently seeking the truth. It is unfortunate that not all information can be passed through word of mouth. The information of emotions are very much limited when words are all that are used to convey them. Infatuation, desire, and love need so much more than words. They need actions. They need tenderness. They need embraces. They need commitment, if only for a short while. Above all, they need mutual exchange. All the love in the world can be given, but it is made cold and unwanted if it is not freely received. If love could be adequately given through words alone, then a man or woman need only have ears to receive endless love. Since it requires so much more however, personal boundaries need to be broken down and mutual respect earned for the proper application of love. It can’t go only one way. It needs to be reciprocal. A body and deeds must be given with the words. Words are good, and the Word was good. More importantly however; the Word was.

After many minutes had passed and the wind had risen up to produce a more permeating chill, Colgate whispered, “Do you think we can go somewhere warmer, Daemeon? It’s beautiful out here, but I’m afraid it will get dark soon, and it’s getting too cold for me.”

Daemeon looked at the watch on his wrist and was stunned to find how many hours had passed in that glade. He shivered slightly at the cold himself and answered, “Of course.”

Her man stood and pulled open his shirt so could climb into its warmth and closure. When Colgate felt herself close and comfortable with the smooth chest of her man, she asked, “Where are we going to go?”

“I don’t know.”

The mare had already figured that he didn’t know where he was going, but she was surprised by his honesty. She’d expected a white, reassuring lie, but instead she was given the cold hard truth. That truth made her smile. His insecurity gave her security. They needed each other and she would be glad to give him any help she could. With optimism in mind, she asked, “Why don’t we go back to that big place we stayed in last night?”

“The cathedral? I don’t think Fr. Allen would let us in after we ruined that robe.”

Smiling, Colgate suggested, “Then show me to him. If he’s as close to death as he says, then maybe he won’t kick up a fuss. Besides,” she added slyly, “who’s going to believe that I’m real without seeing me myself?”

“Her logic’s infallible.” Daemeon smiled and said, “We’ll just have to see if we end up there.”

With that, the man turned his feet to the city and fell into a slow pace. Chill as it was, he felt warm enough to enjoy even that brief walk with his little Colgate. They would come to the cathedral all too soon for his taste.