The wind howled through the thick forest, whipping up snow and swaying trees along its path.

Ryan went out that day, a Tuesday, the fifth of January, early and bundled up, wearing his usual setup plus his scarf. The scarf was gentle and silky, just like he remembered when he took it from that dresser in Narendra’s home in Vietnam, and it did wonders against the cold. It protected his silver Shen pendant on his chest from the cold, and kept the searing cold metal from getting too cold and warping.

During his trek through the forest, he was constantly thankful that his makeshift armor was so light. On his head, he wore his helmet, the basic construction helmet he bought that day in Canterlot. So far, though, it had yet to see any real use.

Ryan set a large crate down in the center of his cave and let out a long sigh of relief. The crate landed on the ground with a loud crack and sat still as Ryan leaned over it. Inside was a plethora of potentially useful items for when he moved in.

The most important, and most dangerous, item was a large number of sticks of dynamite. Ryan had spent a massive portion of his money to buy about five kilograms of the explosives from a local mine. He figured he might be able to use it to expand his cave if necessary later, or maybe to fight off much larger creatures. Other than that very prominent item, he had several lighters, boxes of matches, blankets, and wooden planks and plywood for building any furniture he might want later. He could also take apart the crate for that, adding more to his stockpile.

Of course, he would want to keep the crate to safely store the dynamite sticks until he got a better case. After spending so much of his funds on the explosives, though, it would take some time, especially without his best-paying job, to get enough money to get through the rest of it all. It would take time, but this little project was finally taking shape.

In the meantime, though, he had some other things he had to do. But that could wait until he got back to town; right now, he needed to set up some stuff in his cave home. So he carefully unpacked his things, being sure to separate the dynamite from the fire-starting materials, and thought about what he needed to build.

Ryan pulled out the wood and blankets and set it aside and started scanning the room for anywhere that would be good for building. After a bit of thought, Ryan felt that, at least in the early days, he would have little or no no need for a bed, so that idea was scrapped immediately. He could sleep on the ground and the blankets would do a good enough job of keeping him warm. But if he wanted to blankets to be dry, he would need a rack to hang them if they did get wet or need washing.

So he set aside several planks of wood next to the firepit, but far enough so as not to risk burning anything, and went about the rest of what he had. Given the nature of the cave, and how it angled down, if it were to rain, the water would get all over the place inside and potentially flood the entire place, destroying his house and livelihood. Then, there was the matter of not having a place to store any non-perishable foods.

So the first thing he did was give a little fix to the flooding problem. To start off, he thought about how he would be able to sleep in a flooded area. The boy concluded that he would need to st up some way to keep himself off the ground during floods to avoid severe exposure to the elements and potential disease, so he did end up having to build a bed. But, like with the sheet rack, he would have to just set aside his building materials, since he had no nails or screws, and for quite some time now, he was out one hammer.

Down five wooden boards and two sheets of plywood, Ryan took the remained of the wood up to the entrance. He wouldn’t have enough left after this to address the issue of storing food, so he might as well use everything there.

Up at the entrance to the cave, Ryan looked around and thought about what might be a weakness and what he could make into a strength. His door was a massive rock, thankfully round enough to move, but it didn’t cover the opening very well. At the top, base, and sides, there were several good-sized openings where water and small animals could get in and cause all kinds of hell. So that was a problem that would need to be taken care of quickly.

Ryan moved the rock aside and tried to see what he could do to fix the holes. To take care of the openings, he would need to boards of wood to place at the base of the rock to block off water flow inside and some rocks to cover any spots where the wood failed. The sides would take some more effort, probably needing something above them in order to keep them dry. That left him with just the top, which he could address by building a makeshift awning or tent out of wooden boards and plywood to redirect the water away.

That took up the remainder of his wood, and even then, he still didn’t have enough, so he would have to earn some cash and make another trip to the carpenter’s store when he got back to town. Maybe over the weekend weekend, he would get back out and start building the stuff he was thinking about. Then again, he might be busy with his drinking buddies, so it was hard to say.

He stopped.

“Whoa.”

They were his drinking buddies. His close personal friends.

That was an odd concept; he had never thought of himself as a drinking person before. He actually couldn’t stand alcohol for the longest time. But then...

“I should get back now...” he said softly to himself.

With what few things he could do done, Ryan set out back through the forest to town, eager to get out of the cold and back to work so he could earn the money he would need.

**********************************************************************

Luna yawned deeply as she woke up, stretching her stiff limbs in all directions. Her wings felt the stiffest, so she pushed them all the way out, forcing them to stretch and regain usefulness.

Her left wing bumped up against the familiar form of Starstep, drawing a little smile onto her face as her friend attempted to roll away from the prodding appendage. Luna decided to have some fun, though, and flipped herself around to look at her guard.

He was sound asleep, jaw open wide, snoring softly. His own wings were all the way out, but they looked suspiciously stiff as opposed to Luna’s now floppy wings. Snickering, Luna inched her way closer to the stallion, ultimately ending up against his chest, and hunkered down there, nuzzling her face into him. Starstep just groaned in his sleep, and Luna could feel the covers being pulled in his direction by his wings.

Curious, but already really knowing what she would see, Luna raised her head up and looked behind her guard. Sure enough, his wings were as stiff as wooden boards, yanking away the covers and exposing Luna to the elements. Or at least those which were in the room.

She giggled like a little filly who had played a joke on some poor colt and moved back to her spot at Starstep’s chest, feeling silly. It wasn’t a joking kind of silly, though, more of an excited type of silly. No, not that kind of excited; just... excited. She couldn’t really explain it, she was just feeling silly.

She wrapped her forelegs around her guard and pulled him extra close ,causing him to stir just a little bit. His response ended up being to hug her back and bury his muzzle in her name. There was something pleasant about that to Luna, just the feeling of somepony nuzzling you and you nuzzling them back.

She removed her head from her guard’s chest and took a good look at his face. He had a strong jawline, and his fur was clean and handsome. His open mouth closed itself when he went to adjust, an action Luna hindered so that she could look at him some more. When he found himself unable to move, his face made a scowl and he grunted, but he didn’t try again. Now, his mouth was mostly closed, and not drooling all over Luna’s nice bed.

Luna needed to get a better look, so she started moving her head closer. She was hoping to see her guard’s eyes, as soon as they opened, but she would need to be right there when they opened in order to get a good view. It wasn’t that she wanted to see the color, she already knew that. She wanted to see into his soul, to find out just what he wanted-

And before she knew what was happening, her face got too close, and her lips landed on his.

It took her a second to realize what was happening, but when she did, she didn’t move immediately. It felt... interesting. This was what it was like to kiss somepony one cared about. Wait, did she care about him that much? Of course she cared about him, he was her best friend. But that much? They had all kinds of fun, but she had never really thought about him this way.

An wait, if she wasn’t sure, why was she still locked in that position with him?

Slowly, so as to avoid waking him up, she told herself, she removed herself from his face and stared at him. As she left, she noticed that his face was trying to follow, trying to get back into the position they had been in prior. Luna used her hoof to stop him, staring at his face, trying to make sense of the whirlwind of thoughts going through her head.

“Is this right?” she wondered, going back to Starstep’s chest. “What would he tell me?”

She started thinking about what he would say.

“Starstep, I need advice on love.”

“Uh, sure, my princess. What is it?”

“I think I might love one who is not royal, but I do not believe that I am supposed to. What should I do?”

“I believe that you should follow your heart, princess. That is the way that one must live life if they wish to achieve true happiness.”

But how would he react if she told him that it was HIM that she might have fallen for? Would his duties take priority, making him say no, or would he give her the chance? What would result from such a relationship?

“Bah,” she said softly to herself. She had no need to trouble herself with such thoughts right after waking. She could deal with it later.

*****************************************************************************

When Ryan returned to town, it was only seven-thirty. He had enough time to get into less battle-oriented clothes and get to work at the boutique. The trek through the forest was fairly uneventful, with the only notable occurrence being that Ryan saw a Manticore way in the distance.

Once he was back in town, he drudged through the snowy streets and forced his way to the store in which he lived. Luckily, since it wasn’t Twilight running the place, he would have time to think rather than answer questions, and he could figure out how much wood he would need and how much extra to get. Thinking about it now, actually, he would need an axe to gather more firewood in the future. Onto the list it went.

Ryan slowly cracked the door open and took a look inside. When he confirmed that no one was awake, or at least in the foyer, he opened the door and strode in, shaking himself off to get the snow off and warm up.

He immediately went down to the basement and took off his exploration clothes. The outfit was warm, to be sure, but he wouldn’t be needing it any longer today. To continue wearing it would only be suspicious. He briefly contemplated keeping the scarf on, but ultimately decided it was unnecessary and tossed it onto his bed.

Rarity had upped the heating, and Ryan noticed that the heat was way up in the basement, to the point where it was actually getting fairly uncomfortable. To avoid overheating, Ryan took off his jacket, and then, still feeling hot, he removed his shirt, exposing his scars to the world. If he found himself having to go somewhere, he could come down and get his jacket, and since he didn’t expect to go anywhere today, he could leave his weapons down here as well. But he would still where the Shen around his neck.

After all that, it was about eight in the morning, and Ryan was starting to feel hunger taking over. He walked up the stairs to the boutique and went to the kitchen, where he would hopefully find something good to eat.

He walked straight into the kitchen and to the fridge, hoping that there would be something there he could eat.

“Good morning, Ryan,” Rarity’s voice said from seemingly nowhere.

Ryan sucked in his breath and turned around, taken completely by surprise. When he turned, he saw Rarity sitting at the table, sipping a coffee, looking disheveled. She hadn’t prepared herself for the day yet, obviously, and her eyes were barely even open all the way. Her coffee smelled wonderful, the scent alluring and inviting.

Ryan turned back to the fridge and opened it up. “You seem up a bit early,” he said.

She shrugged behind him. “Well, a lady does sometimes find herself waking up early.”

“Why is that?” Ryan asked.

“When a pony has a guest, she usually wants to know that all is well. I woke early, and when I went to see you, you were gone. What were you doing so early in the morning, Ryan?” She sounded suspicious and unhappy.

“I was out, doing stuff,” Ryan answered, dodging the question as best he could. “What got you up so early?”

Rarity huffed at him; she saw that he was reluctant to answer. “Well, I was feeling a bit creative, and I thought you might be able to tell me a bit about your home fashion. Evidently, you weren’t here, so I was wrong.” She wasn’t going to let the answer slip away, not this time.

Ryan sighed. “Alright, I was out in the forest this morning looking around. Nothing happened though, and I never saw anything.”

Rarity sighed this time. “Well, I suppose I can’t tell you what to do, but please, don’t go out there without telling somepony first. it just isn’t safe.”

“I’m not taking anyone with me, if that’s where you’re going," Ryan said, narrowing his eyes. From the fridge, he pulled out a carton of milk and went about pouring himself a bowl of cereal.

“That isn’t what I was saying,” Rarity replied. “If somepony knows, then at least if something happens, we know where to look. Won’t you please tell me next time?”

Ryan pulled the cereal out of the pantry, poured it, and stuck it back where he found it. When he turned around, he looked at Rarity, who was giving him the most pathetic pouty-puppy face he had ever seen. He couldn’t fight the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ faces, so it was no shock that he couldn’t fight Rarity’s.

He sighed and went to sit down. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll tell you next time.”

Her face lit up. “Good!” she exclaimed. “Now, if there is one more thing you could tell me...”

Hmmm. Ryan wasn’t too sure about this.

“What got you up so much earlier this morning?”

Ryan was about to stick his spoon in his cereal, ut froze. Should he tell her? He had woken up earlier than usual because the nightmares were back, and they were stronger than ever. They had been in a period of remiss for a while, but last night, when they came back, they were enough to make Ryan wake up almost screaming. The previous night’s nightmare was uniquely horrible, to the point where he didn’t feel he could speak of it. The Wraith had a special part in it, as did Narendra and his little minions. When Ryan tried to look at himself in the mirror, he almost vomited.

“Just got up early,” he lied. “Felt like going out.”

“Ah. I see.” Did she?

Ryan went to eating his breakfast and scanned the room for anything else to think about. There wasn’t much new stuff here. Little changed. Of course, that was something he noticed about the town as well. Not a lot typically happened here, not to him, at least. Things were slow to change, easier on the residents. The only troubles were usually either silly or could occasionally be serious and nation-affecting. It was nice.

Ryan’s eyes fell on the newspaper under Rarity’s hooves, and he noticed a strange-looking creature on the front.

“Hey Rarity, mind if I see the paper?” Ryan asked.

She looked down. “Certainly.” She picked it up in her magic and tossed it over.

Ryan caught the paper and opened it up, looking for the story about the creature on the front. When he found it, he read the title softly to himself.

“Gryphon Colonies to the south in dire need...” he read. He continued reading to find that there were some serious troubles in the Southern Gryphon Colonies, mostly dealing with terrorism. Some group called the Hawkanni, something Ryan tried desperately not to notice, felt that Equestria had no business being in their country at all. The paper didn’t exactly have details, but from what Ryan read, it looked like they lost some kind of war, and then were occupied shortly by Equestria. Then, Equestria set up a friendly government, which this group was not a fan of.

“Ain’t it a bitch,” Ryan said to himself.

“What?” Rarity said.

“Nothing, just this story reminds me of some things.”

Interesting that these ponies had war as well. Ryan had given them a bit too much credit, by the looks of it. Now, the wars they had were nowhere near the scale of what humans had, and no doubt, the atrocities here were nothing compared to those back home. But this was still a war. Ponies still died. It was ruining the perfect view Ryan had of Equestria.

“Do you remember the war with the Southern Gryphon Colonies?” Ryan asked.

Rarity shook her head. “I do. It was a nasty bit of business, I remember. Almost all of us ponies wish to forget that it happened. But, if we want to avoid repeating history, I suppose that we have to make sure we remember it.”

Ryan snorted. “True that.” If only humans could remember how awful war is.

He kept on reading, taking note of anything that looked like it might be important. There was actually a plethora of information in the article, from the weapons and armor being used to some of the preferred tactics of the gryphon fighters. Their numbers were unknown, but the article said that they had an estimated one thousand plus fighters.

He would need to look more into their culture and look at the history behind the war. What had driven this group to start doing this, exactly? To attack innocent civilians is a cowardly way to fight your war. They were too scared to attack military targets, so they instilled fear in the population by attacking civilians.

One he gleaned everything he could from the article, he set the paper down and started thinking. What exactly could stop them? If their leader was killed, he would likely just be replaced by someone worse. If you destroy all of their things; their weapons and armor, homes, infrastructure; they just keep going, because they feel more justified, since you’ve taken everything from them. To make matters worse, that means they have nothing to live for, and that’s when you start seeing suicide attacks.

“The only way to stop an enemy such as this is to kill every last one of them,” Ryan concluded.

But such an endeavor is no easy feat, or even a doable feat. If you killed every last one, someone would see you as a monster, and then, you would have another enemy to fight, one who fought you not because you were in their home, but because they thought you were evil, and needed to be stopped. And that’s if you succeeded in killing all of them. The odds of actually doing that are slim to none.

The only way to effectively fight them would be to kill them when you can and to prove that you can kill them whenever you want, but not just killing all of them. You have to show them that they have little power over you, that you can do anything you want. That the only reason they still exist is because you are kind enough to allow it.

It got Ryan to thinking. He couldn’t do it now, but he would have to go to the library for work soon, so he could do some research then. But he would need to find out what the culture was behind these gryphons and how they defined honor.

But that was to be done later. “So, Rarity, what’s on the agenda today?” Ryan asked.

“Well, I have to make several dresses, one for each of my friends. We’ll be going to the Grand Galloping Gala. I assume that you will receive an invitation as well, so I’ll be sure to make you a brand new tuxedo for the occasion,” she replied cheerily.

Well, now Ryan had three things on his list; Prepare the cave for living in, learn more about these gryphons, and, perhaps most difficult, prepare himself for a huge event where tons of ponies would be.

“I have no idea where my life is even going.” Do any of us really know?

**************************************************************************

Luna held her grip firm as she battled on.

“Do you submit?!” she asked.

“Never!” Starstep replied with a grunt.

She had put him in a headlock some time into their little wrestling match. Starstep had been joking around and poked and prodded at Luna, until finally Luna started coming back at him. Imitially, it was just them going for pokes, but eventually, Luna started grabbing at him. Each time, Starstep managed to get out of it, but now, Luna had his neck, laying on the ground behind him, trying to get at his exposed belly.

Starstep was rolling around, trying to get free, while Luna used her magic to bring a feather over to tickle him with. He could see it coming; she brought it slowly to torment him with the knowledge that it was coming; and squirmed about, trying to liberate himself from her iron grip. When nothing seemed to work, he tried other methods.

“So I guess that you love holding my head, don’t you?” he asked, still struggling to get free.

“Of course!” Luna responded. “I find it requires great effort, and it is a good workout!”

“Well, my bulging muscles make me a lot bigger, so I guess that I can understand your grunts of enjoyment,” Starstep said, grinning.

“To be certain!” Luna shouted back. Her grip was beginning to weaken. She tried to tighten her grip. “I love having you within my grasp.”

Starstep chuckled. “You hold me much tighter, and my head might just explode!”

With that last word, Starstep was able to break free and flip himself around, getting belly to belly with the princess and grabbing her in a big bearhug. Luna tried to fight against it, but she was too exhausted to do anything. She dropped the feather from her magic grip and resigned herself to her new fate.

“Now, do you submit?” Starstep asked.

Luna sighed and relaxed herself, letting out little giggles of joy. “Okay. I submit to your superior strength.”

“I am the champion!” Starstep announced, holding Luna close.

She just giggled some more and pressed herself into him. “Yes, you get to be my champion,” she said. Starstep grinned a silly grin and hugged her as tightly as he comfortable could.

He liked these moments, where he could just hold her, and they would stay there. he would ever tell her that, of course. That might make the whole relationship weird, and he didn’t want that. She was a princess, he a guard. She probably wasn’t interested in a relationship, and at that, not with a mortal. Though he wasn’t sure if he could given the same life span; hadn’t Shining Armor gotten something like that after marrying Cadence? Even so, Starstep liked their friendship, and wouldn’t dare do anything to ruin it.

Luna, meanwhile, was just feeling cozy and warm in Starstep’s embrace. She liked it there herself; it felt nice. She hadn’t snuggled with anypony since her parents stopped doing that when she was just a filly, millennia ago. It was nice to get to just hold somepony you care about for a little bit. She couldn’t explain it, but that wasn’t her job.

So she just held him tightly to herself and hummed a little tune. “Princess?” Starstep said.

“Hmm?”

“I like what we do.”

“As do I,” Luna replied warmly. “We should do it more often.”

Starstep chuckled. “That sounds like fun.”

They didn’t say anything after that, just lay there in each others’ embrace. It got Luna to thinking.

What had happened this morning? Was that an honest mistake on her part, a random occurrence, or did she do it on purpose? To be sure, she had never kissed anypony before. Was she just curious at the time, and felt Starstep was safer than anypony else? What exactly had happened and why? Why was the most important question.

She had no idea how Starstep felt about her, so she had no idea that he would have liked to have been awake when she kissed him. But alas, not all of us are lucky enough to have been kissed by a princess, and fewer are lucky enough to know that it happened.

Starstep pulled the princess tighter. “Is there anything that must be done today?” he asked.

“No,” she replied, bringing her head up to him. Her muzzle was just an inch from his. “Nothing that comes to mind.” She looked into his eyes; the princess desperately wanted to ask him about how she was feeling, but, because he was the subject of her confusion, she couldn’t. So, she simply let herself be hugged, and snuggled in.

“Let us enjoy the day shall we?” Starstep smiled at her in agreement, and the two dislodged and went about figuring out what they would do for the day.

***************************************************************************

Thursday the seventh came by faster than expected.

Ryan was glad to be working in the library now, as it provided him with a means of doing research on these gryphons. He felt curious about their culture, and believed that it might provide him with the reasons for why they were doing some of the things they were doing. The greatest cause of war; a disagreement between two cultures. In reality; people being asswipes and not just letting each other be.

Ryan was going through the anthropology section, trying to find anything he could on gryphon culture. He had found a couple of books already, but they were about the gryphon colonies to the northwest and ancient gryphons across the sea who were all dead and gone now. The northwestern gryphons had some intense disagreements with the southern gryphons, it seemed, so their culture would provide few answers.

Twilight came up behind Ryan as he searched. “What are you looking for?” she asked.

“I need to find books on the culture of the southern gryphons,” he replied. “I find myself curious as to the hows and whys of the war down there and the instability there now.”

Twilight smiled obliviously at him. “If you want that, you’ll need to go to the recent history section. There should be several books about the war over there.”

“Gracias, chica.” Twilight blinked her lack of understanding as Ryan turned and walked to the other section.

As Ryan reached the section and started sifting through it, Twilight came up behind him. he pretended not to notice, like he was so engrossed in his search, but she just stood there, her curiosity practically dripping from her soul.

“Yes?” he finally asked.

“I don’t know that language. What was it?”

“Spanish?” Ryan replied. “It’s a really, REALLY widely spoken language in my world. I’d even go so far as to say it’s the second language of my country, so many people speak it. Also, our neighbor, Mexico, speaks it.”

“Where does the language come from?” Twilight asked.

“It comes from the nation of Spain. Within Spain, there are at least dozens of dialects. Then, when you leave Spain, you get even more versions. Geography and distance tend to change languages in different ways.”

“How did the language get spread so far?” Twilight asked, setting herself down on the floor.

“Well, in the early days of colonization, Spain pretty much took half the world. Or at least the western hemisphere,” Ryan replied. “When they took over, they, as all conquerors in history do, tried to lessen the native culture’s presence and replace it with their own. Be it by force or economics, they managed it at least to an extent. England did the same thing later when they started the thirteen colonies that became my country, and then my country did it later when it wanted to get more land that was held by Native Americans.”

“Why would your country do that, or that England place? Didn’t you say that they’re free countries, that they look down upon that now?” Ryan had tried explaining that to her some time ago.

“Well, I never quite said that,” he replied. “We as people in those countries tend to look down on that, but economics mean a lot. Colonization doesn’t happen the same way now; now, the empires are made of business, not land. And anyway, that was a very different time from modern England and America. I like to think that the countries have gotten a lot better about human dignity.”

“Ah, I see,” Twilight replied.

Apparently satisfied with Ryan’s explanation, she walked back to her desk, where she had her own book, and went back to reading it. Ryan kept on searching for the book he was looking for, going across several rows before he finally located it. It was titled The Conflict in the Southern Gryphon Colonies. Pretty straightforward.

Ryan pulled the book out and walked over to a comfy-looking chair and sat down, curious as to what he might find. Before he could start reading, though, Spike came by and preemptively interrupted him.

“Whatcha’ reading, dude?” the young dragon asked.

“I’m reading an account of a war from years ago, one that you wouldn’t remember anything about. I feel curious as to what exactly drives them to do what they are doing now. Maybe it’s similar to what happens in my world,” Ryan said, mostly to himself.

“Oh, okay.” Spike turned around and made as if he was about to leave, but he didn’t move. Instead, he just stood there, doing something with his hands out of Ryan’s view.

“What’s up?” Ryan asked. “You’ve got a question in you, I can tell.”

Spike turned back around. “Well... can I ask you for advice?”

Ryan shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

“What do you know about mares?” Spike asked. It took RYan slightly by surprise.

“Well,” Ryan said, trying to formulate an answer. “Assuming that they’re like the women back home, I can tell you what I know, but my knowledge is limited, I think. What do you need to know?”

Spike looked back and forth, like he thought someone would see him stealing a valuable jewel.

“How do I get a mare to notice me?” he asked. “I’m not sure what need to do. It’s like she doesn’t even notice the things I try to do...:

Ryan looked at the open book in his lap, sighed, and shut it. “Well, it depends on the wom- mare. Is this Rarity you’re talking about?” Spike’s face turned red. “I thought so.”

“So what do I do?”

“Well, son, I can’t say that my advice is what you’re looking for, but I suspect it’s the best thing you’ll hear,” Ryan said. “I think you might be trying to climb the wrong mountain.”

“Huh?” the dragon replied.

“You like Rarity, right? She’s pretty.”

“Yeah,” Spike said, seeming to lose some of his attention.

“But think about everything, not just that. Is she nice? Certainly. But so is Fluttershy, and Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, and Twilight-”

“Why did you include her name?!” Spike shouted, evidently disturbed.

“My bad,” Ryan conceded. “Anyhow, they’re all nice ponies. They all have wonderful characteristics to their personalities. So when you get down to it, it’s decided pretty heavily by physical attractiveness.”

Spike frowned. “When you put it that way...”

“Exactly,” Ryan said, leaning forward. “Now, think about this. Rarity is an adult. You, are a baby. You see the problems?” Spike seemed to draw a blank. “Well, first problem; difference of interests. A couple should have a few similar interests to be happy.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Spike replied.

“Good,” Ryan replied. “Second problem; I don’t know how it works here, but there are some... societal issues to be had with the age difference, at least where I’m from. As in, it is HEAVILY frowned upon. No need to go into it, though.”

“Well,” Spike began. “Age differences tend not to be much in Equestria.”

“Yeah, so you see the problem there.” Spike nodded. “Good. Third...” Ryan was about to speak, but opted not to. “Well, it’s something you’ll learn about when you’re older.” When in a relationship with someone you love, a healthy sexual relationship is recommended. But Twilight would murder Ryan if he told Spike that.

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Okaaay,” he said suspiciously. “But what should I do then?”

Ryan blinked. “Now I’m confused. You understand why you won’t have luck with Rarity so... what are you asking?”

Spike looked down. “I’m not sure,” he said. “But... I don’t know, what if I keep feeling this way?”

Ryan chuckled. “Trust me kid, you won’t. I used to be in your position with the daughter of my parent’s friends. It’ll pass.”

“I guess I believe you,” Spike said, seemingly in defeat.

Ryan didn’t like seeing a young boy have his dreams shot down, even if they were silly. But then he thought of something. After scanning the area quickly for any signs of Twilight, and confirming that she was out of earshot, Ryan leaned forward right up to Spike’s ear.

“You know, though, I bet there are some girls your age who you might find interest in later,” he said.

“Seriously?” Spike replied, taking interest.

Ryan kept scanning. “Yeah. You never know, if you go crusading for them, you might just find one that you like.”

Spike took a second, but when he understood, he had to try hard to suppress his laughter. “Okay, that’s absurd. No way am I gonna be into them.”

“Oh, really?” Ryan said with a knowing grin. “Just you wait. I’m sure you’ll be thanking me later, IF you start hanging out with the girls now. Just you wait.”

“What are you two scheming about?”

Ryan and Spike’s eyes shot wide and they whipped their heads around to see Twilight on the stairs, looking suspiciously at them. They just stared at her, unblinking, like deer in headlights. Spike slowly turned to Ryan, who slowly turned to him, and they took one look at each other. Already, their plan was formulated, and already, they knew exactly what to do.

“She’s onto us, RUN!” Ryan shouted.

He bolted off his chair, dropping the book to distract Twilight, and Spike ran the other way, toward the door. Spike was able to get through the door before Twilight used her magic to shut it, but before Ryan could get out the back door, that was closed as well. Panicking, Ryan saw the circular window.

“What is going on!?” Twilight shouted.

“You’ll never take me!”

Ryan sprinted for the window and dove at it. Twilight had nowhere near enough time to react, so Ryan could easily get through the window and out into freedom, leaving her to wonder what it was that he and Spike were talking about in there. He went for the dive and-

THUD

He ran into the window face first only to find out that it wasn’t about to break any time soon. With that strike against the glass, Ryan slid down the window with a loud, continuous squeeeeeak, feeling the burn on his face as he was dragged down the glass by gravity. At the floor, he peeled himself away, putting his hands to his face to ease the burn.

Twilight gasped loudly and ran over. “Oh my gosh, are you alright?”

Ryan nodded through his hands. “Yeah, I’m good,” he replied, though it was muffled. “When did you install special glass?”

“I installed it after I caught Rainbow Dash sneaking in to steal books to read, since she didn’t want to rent them,” Twilight answered with a giggle. “And to stop her from crashing into the library all the time.”

“Ah,” Ryan replied.

“Come on, let’s see it,” Twilight said. Ryan lifted a finger to look defiantly at her. “If you don’t show me, I’ll pry your fingers away.”

Knowing he couldn’t win, Ryan released the grip on his face, earning a somewhat annoyed sigh from Twilight.

“Is it bad?” he asked.

“No, not if another broken nose and blood all over your face and my window qualify as good,” Twilight answered. “Come on, I’ll fix you again.” She lifted the human up in her magic and carried him away.

Ryan didn’t fight it; he rather enjoyed not having to walk himself. When Twilight set him down, he found himself laying on a couch, facing up.

“You know, you keep this up, and I’ll have to start charging,” Twilight said as she started her magic.

“I’m pretty sure that the one on their back charges and the one top one receives service,” Ryan replied. Twilight ignored him and kept at his nose.

“So what were you talking about?” Twilight asked. “I overheard most of it from the stairs, but when you started whispering, I got suspicious.”

“So you know what I told him about Rarity?” Ryan answered, trying to keep away from his indication of the CMC as girls for Spike to consider. They were all sisters of Twilight’s friends, after all.

“Yeah. I’m glad you told him; he wouldn’t believe anyone else.” She sighed. “He really does see you as sort of a brother, you know.”

“Ha, nice. Wait,” Ryan thought for a second. “Does he think of you as his mom?” Twilight nodded. “Well, that makes everything weird, then, I guess.”

“Only if you make it weird,” Twilight replied without thinking.

Ryan grinned. “Now that’s how you should look at things.” Twilight laughed lightly at him.

“But seriously. What did you whisper to him?” Twilight asked.

“Sorry, can’t tell you. Bros before...” Whoa, think before you speak. “...females.” Twilight raised her brow at him, but let it go.

“Well, I’m sure that you’re integrity is important to Spike,” Twilight said. Her magic grip tightened. “But I still got your nose.”

“So that’s your game, huh?” Ryan replied. Twilight nodded, getting Ryan to sigh in defeat. “Alright. I told him that he might find nice mares in the future that are his own age.”

“Aaaaand?” Twilight knew there was more.

“I... might have told him that one of the CMC could be the one.”

SNAP

“MOTHER..!” Ryan’s hands shot up to grab his nose.

Twilight gasped loudly. She seemed to be doing that a lot today. “Oh, oh, oh, oh, I’m so, so sorry!”

“What was that for?!” Ryan could feel the blood coming from his nose.

Twilight levitated a rag from the kitchen. “Sorry, I-I was just surprised, is all!” She removed Ryan’s hands and shoved the rag onto his face. “I didn’t really think you would do that... those are my best friends’ sisters! Spike is like... my little boy, my tiny dragon assistant! I can’t imagine him growing up and... being, with a mare. Thinking about him with them is just, weird!” She seemed to have trouble comprehending her little man growing up to be an actual man.

Ryan held the rag on his face. “Aren’t you the one who said it’s only weird if you make it that way?” he asked. Twilight blushed. “Besides, you know that it’s fine. As long as your friends NEVER find out it was me who put that idea in his head,” Ryan said with emphasis. “They might actually hunt me down and murder me.”

“You don’t need to tell me,” Twilight said. Ryan was really hoping that she would say ‘They would never do that!’ But alas, he was not so fortunate. “But why did you guys run from me?” She tried to feign hurt, but it wasn’t working. The shame of rebreaking Ryan’s nose was still there.

“One: It was funny,” Ryan explained. That just got Twilight to narrow her eyes at him. “Two: I was afraid you would hurt me, or tell your friends. Evidently, you hurt me.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” Twilight said, going back to work her magic. In no time, she was done. “There. Need me to kiss it and make it feel better?” She said with added ridicule.

“Are you gonna charge me extra for that?” Ryan laughed as Twilight gave him a punch to the shoulder.

All fixed up and with no more distractions from the young dragon, Ryan went and picked up the book from where Twilight didn’t pick it up and returned to his chair. Once down and comfortable again, he found himself being joined by Twilight, who sat at his side without a word and simply looked at his reading choice.

“The war with the Southern Gryphon Colonies? Why are you interested in that?” she asked.

Ryan looked at the book. “I think that what I read in here won’t be unsimilar to what happens in my own world. I’m just curious, is all,” he responded.

Twilight furrowed her brow at the book for a moment. “Why don’t you take it to the couch?” she suggested. “I never read this book because I wasn’t that interested in reading about war. We can read it together.”

Ryan shrugged. “That seems fine, I suppose.” He stood up and walked over to the couch, where Twilight hopped up and sat next to him.

She couldn’t find a comfortable way to sit, though. “Mind if I lean on you?” she asked, a sheepish smile on her face.

“Only if you think you can behave yourself while you’re on me.” Twilight hit him in the shoulder again as he laughed at her self-consciousness.

He opened up the book and started at chapter one, which read about the old, still relevant culture of the southern gryphons. They were generally a nomadic group, or groups, seeing as they were very tribal most of the time in the olden days. Now, they were supposed to follow a single government, but that government was grossly ineffective and all it seemed to do was breed violence between itself and the tribes by trying to claim their ancient land and force them all under one banner.

They were brutal fighters, these gryphons. They lived in the most mountainous region of Equestria and in one of the much hotter climates, it read, and would fight to the death for hunting grounds and such. Their lands were not only their lands; they were their lifebloods. To lose the land would be to lose the areas in which the food is hunted.

So they were constantly at war with each other, trying to get the best hunting grounds. They held honor, seeing as they had few worldly possessions, as the most valuable thing in their lives. As often as for hunting grounds, the gryphos fought and killed each other for honor and glory. There was nothing written on what was done after one side claimed victory.

They had no armor or weapons, save for a few ranged weapons, like bows and crossbows. They primarily used their talons and beaks for battle, ripping apart whatever foes they encountered. Gender had no relevance to them, for anyone who could fight well was considered a warrior. All honors and ceremonies were the same for males and females.

What they did with their dead was actually interesting to Ryan. To them, if a gryphon wasn’t buried within twenty-four hours of death, it was dishonored by whomever had failed to bury it, an offense punishable by honor killing. Ryan had to guess that it came from the fact that it was a hot climate; it the body wasn’t buried quickly, it would naturally begin to rot away and stink up the place, plus bring in disease.

And they had this code of honor. It was no ordinary code; they followed it until death. Ryan couldn’t pronounce it, but it reminded him of something he once read about called the Pashtunwali. The gryphons, at least those who were considered honorable and respectable, would always show hospitality, have honor, courage, bravery, and loyalty, sought justice, and gave asylum to those who seemed to be wrongfully accused. Overall, they tried to live righteous lives.

“Wow,” Twilight said, moving her jaw against Ryan’s now sore shoulder. “I never thought I would learn all that from a book about a war.”

“War is terrible,” Ryan said. “But that doesn’t mean that there aren't things that we can take away from it. That’s why it’s up to us to remember war; if we don’t, then what did we learn?”

The first chapter had been fascinating, providing an uncommon look into a culture widely unknown to most ponies. Ryan knew that the rest of the book would provide him with all kinds of information.

Hopefully, all kinds of useful information.