He awoke. Consciousness was no longer a gradual thing for him. Years of training had seen to that. He was looking up at a bright pink ceiling, which registered as odd for a moment, before his brain caught up and he remembered where he was. A noise from the bed next to him caught his attention. He looked over, and saw the still sleeping form of the odd, bubbly, and adorable Pinkie Pie. She let loose with another snore, mumbling something with a faint smile on her face. He couldn't help but smile in response.

~Hell, she even snores cute.~ He thought.

He watched her for a few more seconds, then began to move slowly off the bed, taking care not to disturb the happily snoozing pastry chef. As he moved to sit up, he was hit by a stabbing pain shooting up his left side. He bit back a plethora of inventive profanity and lay back down.

~...Yup, that's at least two ribs broken...this'll be fun...~

The pain from his left side reverberated throughout his body, bringing all the little aches and bruises that had faded into the background back into play. This was a familiar sensation for him, but no more welcome for its familiarity. It wasn't his first time waking up to the dull, all encompassing ache that reminded him, as if any reminder were necessary, that he'd taken on a mob last night. He sighed quietly.

~Something tells me this won't be the last time I wake up like this...so much for leaving that life behind...~

He lay there for a few moments silently, giving his battered frame time to adjust to the returning pain. He closed his eyes, and concentrated on slowing his breathing and heart rate like he'd been taught years ago, which had both been kicked into over drive by the flash of sensation from his ribs.

He laid prone for several minutes, listening to the cute murmurs and mumbles, punctuated by the occasional, impressive rattling snore coming from the other side of the bed. He laid there until the screaming pain had faded to a faint whimper, before taking a deep breath and trying to rise again.

He made it up this time, and almost fell as he tried to put weight on his left foreleg. It felt as if shards of glass were being ground inside of his recently dislocated shoulder joint.

~Dammit, I'm getting too old for this nonsense.~

Moving slowly, he made his way to the half open door of Pinkies personal bathroom. He flicked on the over head light and was almost blinded by a ruthless assault of hot pink. The floor, walls, ceiling, towels, even the overhead lights gave off a vibrant pinkish hue.

~Huh.~

He stopped, blinked a few times and surveyed his surroundings.

~Under other circumstances, this might be horrifying.~

He gently closed the door behind him, and turned to face the mirror over the sink. A midnight blue beast looked back at him. Scarred and filthy, short cropped black mane matted with both dirt and dried blood. The solid white orb of his right eye in stark contrast to usually glinting gold of his left. That glint dulled a bit now from the extent of his pain.

~Ah well. At least I'm still pretty.~

He turned his head to get a better look at the impressively large bruise behind his good eye. Over night it had taken on shades of purple, blue, black, yellow...

~Hmm. Lucky that one didn't pop my jaw. Should make for an interesting conversation starter at any rate.~

He shook his head, then moved over to the shower. He cranked the hot water on full, and let it run, billows of steam starting to spread as he dealt with other biological necessities. Testing the water with a wing tip and finding it just short of the point where it would burn, he stepped over into the shower. It was massive. An amorphous, somewhat circular shape about fifteen feet across at its widest point. More then a dozen shower heads were situated seemingly at random all around the circumference.

"Wow. That's...unexpected." He looked around, nodding in admiration, before slipping under the torrent of water.

His mind blanked as the liquid heat poured over him. The almost painful water seemingly hitting all his aches and pains simultaneously, dulling them. With a barely audible groan, he leaned his forehead against the wall under a shower head.

Mismatched, black tipped cobalt wings slowly unfurled straight up,the corded muscles of his back forming a deep valley that the steaming water pooled in, its heat soaking into his large frame.

He opened his eyes and looked down at the trails of brown and crimson as they swirled together and disappeared down the drain. The blood and grime from last nights violence. The way the red drained away, it reminded him of...

Canterlot was burning.

The screams of the injured, the moans of the dying.

Licking flames reflected in a pool of crimson.

A pool emanating from him.

The jet black blade buried in his chest propped him off the cobblestone, slick, sticky with his blood. Almost a foot of its tip jutting out of his back. He was dead, and he knew it. All that was left was the dying.

"NO."

With that single word and a violent shake of his head that sent droplets of water flying from his mane, the memory faded away.

"Not now, not here."

He sighed, closed his eyes, and lifted his face up into the spray of water. Warmth running down his neck, chest, and legs, heat chasing the memory away, just as it had chased away the physical pain. Slowly a hoof rose to the huge, puckered indentation just to the right of his sternum. It ached. He leaned forward again, once more resting his forehead against the wall and opened his eyes...and looked straight into the upside down, toothy grin of Pinkie Pie.

"Hrrrrrnnnnnghhhh..."

"Mornin big guy!!"

Somehow, the instinct to scream obscenities and flee was overridden, and with a interesting display of facial twitches and a series of odd noises, the ponderous pegasus stood his ground.

~HOLY UNCLE FUCKING CELESTIA ON A CRACKER!!GAH!!!HOW THE HELL DOES SHE DO THAT!!!!!~

"...Good morning, Pinkie."

He looked at her upside down grin, then to his left, at her body facing the same way as his, then back to her face.

"Umm...Pinkie, you seem to be violating both the laws of physics and basic anatomy, simultaneously."

"Uh huh!! But, more importantly, we gotta get you cleaned up an over to your sister pronto!! I gotta be back in time for my shift." She said as she bounced over to a large alcove set in the far wall and started rummaging around in a frankly silly amount of bottles of various shaped and sizes.

"I think I can manage to...clean...myse-...yeah..."His train of thought derailed as he watched her plump, inviting rear wiggle as she bounded across the shower.

He stood there, water streaming down his face, enjoying the view as she rooted around.

~So cute, so innocent, and yet so...entirely...~ his thoughts were cut off as she turned around with a sound of triumph, and a large pink bottle in her mouth.

"Ear ee guuu!!"

She hopped back over to him...

"Whaddya got the-OOOF!!"

...And up onto his back with a single bounce, the impact popping his back about a dozen times.

As he was adjusting to her sudden weight, he felt a cold glob hit the back of his head, just behind his ears causing them to flick involuntarily. The sensation quickly trailed down his neck, between his wings and down his broad back to the base of his tail. He looked back and up at her, standing on his back, as with a quick jerk of her head she tossed the bottle back over towards the alcove.

"Ok, what in Equestria are you doing up there?" The eyebrow over his good eye arched quizzically.

"Helping!!"

And with that, she began to rub, massage, and knead his flesh, starting at the back of his neck and moving slowly down to his back, working the gel into a thick lather.

He closed his eyes once again and smiled, a deep, guttural sound that started deep in his throat, emerging as a low, satisfied groan. He settled in, letting her work her magic.

"Ohhh...damn Pinkie, is there anything you're not good at?"

She giggled cutely and continued her work.

"I dunno, probably something."

The beast let lose another rumble of approval, his eyes shut...until she started working the lather into the base of his wings. That got his attention. A tingling bolt of pleasure shot through his bulky frame, from his wingtips to his hooves and then back up, coalescing in his loins.

"Uhhmm, Pinkie, you...my wings, they're...might not want to..."

"Oh," he could hear the smile in Pinkies voice, as she ruffled his primaries, gently caressing the nearly translucent membranes of his wide wings. "Is something wrong, big fella?" She giggled again, and he felt her shift around, then the heat of her breath against his ear.

"You didn't think you were the first pegasus I'd played with, did you?" Before he could respond, she flicked her pert little tongue along the cup of his ear, working her hooves along the leading edge of his wings with a little more vigor.

~Ahhhh...damn, she's good at this...~

His pulse began to pick up, he could feel his wings throb as blood thundered up through them, mirroring the sensation from his stallion hood as it began to grow, drooping towards the shower floor, jerking slightly in time with his heart beat. She nibbled at his ear playfully, knowing full well what she was doing to him.

She climbed down off him, a huge grin on her face as she moved around to face him.

"Lay down ya big blue beastie, we gotta get the rest of ya all squeaky clean, don't we?"

He looked down at her for a moment,that one eyebrow raised again, before silently complying. He sat, then lay back slowly, his extended wings helping ease him back. They were quickly laid flat, sticking straight out to either side. In contrast to his thick erection, that was standing tall and proud, pointing straight up. It throbbed, slick and shining, wet from the shower.

Pinkie trotted across the room, retrieving the bottle she had tossed earlier. She came back and stood over him, her normally frizzy mane hanging straight down her back, bottle held at the ready. She popped it open, pointed it down at him...then stopped, a smile spreading across her face.

"Hmm...I know a funner way to do this."

She turned the bottle around, and squirted a thick line of gel from her neck, down her chest, and ending just below her belly, before dropping it once more.

"Taa daaa!! I'm a genius huh?"

Without waiting for a response she dove onto his chest, the impact splattering the goop between their bodies, adding a delightful sensation of slickness to her movements as she squirmed around on his chest and stomach.

"Hee hee, weeee!!!" Giggling, she slid up onto his sternum, smiling down at him.

"You're like a fuzzy blue ice rink, but not cold. Or icy. An not really rink shaped. And for more then my hooves!!"

A sonorous laugh echoed through the shower, his chest pitching with the mirth, sending her sliding down his torso.

~Heh, dont usually laugh when I'm this hard...~ Behemoth thought with a smirk.

Her 'body skating' came to an abrupt end as she continued down, and felt the girth of his erection slide up between her outstretched legs, the vertical shaft stopping her in her tracks.

"Oooooooh...." she moaned and leaned up, looking back over her shoulder at the tower of flesh jutting up from where it was firmly nestled between the healthy expanse of her rear.

"Ice rinks don't usually got one of those either..."

She flexed her hips, making her rear bounce, enjoying the feeling of a few inches of his thickness rubbing against her nether lips and plot hole. The heat radiating out of him was amazing.

"Mmmm, that feels nice..." she drew her legs up under her, trying to stand, but kept slipping. He reached down, giving her a hoof and helping her to keep her balance as she stood, her sex twitching as it slowly trailed up his length, the lips flared apart as she balanced on the apple sized head.

She sat there for a moment, almost standing on him, the front of her body easily supported with his help. Pinkie wiggled, running the head back and forth, stretching her nether lips around it, smearing her own juices with his plentiful precum.

"Oh wow," she was watching it slip back and forth. "Didn't look this big last night..."

"Yeah, being savagely...oohh... beaten an tackled through a fence kinda hurt my...mmm...libido."

She took a deep breath, then slowly started downward, impaling herself on his beast of a cock. He stifled a groan as he watched the first few inches disappear up into her. His wings gave an involuntary beat, his haunches shaking as he restrained the urge to buck his hips, letting her get used to his new and improved girth at her own pace. Until she lost her footing.

The slickness of his soapy coat and the way her legs were trembling proved too much, and she slipped. Half of him slipping into her all at once Her eyes bugged out and her mouth hung open in silent exclamation. An audible thud was heard as the back of his head smacked into the floor.

~Aw fuck fuckfuckfuck-...~

She felt stretched, her sex aching like a sore muscle. She could feel the way his erection throbbed inside her. He could feel the way her tightness squeezed down on him, the way she was shuddering at the sudden fullness.

He lifted his now slightly sore head and looked up at her. The heat and wet of the steam billowing around them had flattened her normally frizzy mane and it now hung straight, framing her face on one side.

"Hmm...you...look good...with your hair down..."

She smiled down at him, biting her lower lip and slowly rising back up, his stallion hood gleaming in the pinkish light with their mingled juices. She fell into a steady rhythm, sinking a little deeper onto him each time she came down.

With a moan he laid back, his entire consciousness concentrated into they way she felt around him. She pulled her fore hooves away from his, and he felt them a second later on his stomach. She lay on his stomach, her ass up in the air, her haunches working as her rear half bounced up and down.

"Ahh, damn Pinkie, now you got it."

She started moving quicker as he spoke, her sopping wet cunt making a squelching sound each time she brought her hips down, each time she was brushing against the globes of his large testicles. He matched her motion, thrusting up into her each time she brought that magnificently plump ass down.

They both quickened their pace, her rear an intoxicating pink blur as she popped up and down, legs flexing quickly and smoothly, her ass an almost constant ripple as his throbbing cock filled her over and over.

Pinkie stopped suddenly, moaning loudly against the coat of his stomach. Behemoth grunted as her pussy clamped down around the base of his shaft, squeezing him spastically as she came. The Beast's back arched, clearing the shower floor by over a foot and lifting Pinkie up into the air effortlessly, only his shoulders and hooves still touching ground. She came up off her forelegs, leaning back, her face pointed to the ceiling in ecstasy.

"oooh ooh wooohooo hooo!!"

She rose off him quickly, hugging his pulsing dick to her belly, pumping it furiously with her hooves as long, thick ropes of his cum arced up into the air. He shot almost a dozen times, leaving them both splattered. As she squeezed the last few drops out of him, Behemoth finally collapsed under her, his back returning to the tiled floor.

With a happy sigh, Pinkie leaned down and planted a gentle kiss on the sticky, slowly shrinking head, before bouncing over to one of the many shower heads and beginning to wash off their combined juices.

"That was fun again big guy, but c'mon, we got places to go an sisters to see!"

He lay there for a moment, completely still, staring up at the ceiling and enjoying the aftermath.

~That, has definitely gotta be one of my favorite ways to start the day.~

He sat up, rolling over and getting his legs back under him, wincing a bit from another stab of pain from his shoulder and ribs. ~Oh yeah. Almost forgot about those.~ He joined Pinkie under the hot water, rinsing the soap and other substances out of his coat. They finished up and headed back out into her bedroom, each grabbing a towel as they went.

Behemoth sat at the foot of the bed, briskly drying himself as she did the same. He glanced over at her as she finished with her mane, the long, straight hanging hair disappeared with an audible "Pooomf!", puffing out into its usual frizzy madness.

He shook his head with a chuckle at the sight. ~These things probably shouldn't surprise me anymore.~ He thought as he reached down into his bags, rummaging around. He emerged a moment later with a large, frayed, and faintly stained roll of bandages, and began the familiar and laborious process of wrapping up his shoulder and ribs, as Pinkie continued toweling off. They wrapped up at about the same time.

"Ready to go?"

"Yup, lead on."

The two of them headed down stairs, the delicious aroma of fresh baked goods hitting him as soon as the door opened, his stomach rumbled loudly, demanding sustenance. He changed direction in mid stride, maneuvering his bulky frame into line behind a half dozen customers.

"Oooh, something to snack on sounds great biggy, good idea. Good morning Mr. Cake, Mrs. Cake!!" The two smiled and nodded in response, hustling behind the counter, working together like a well oiled machine. The line moved quickly, and after just a moment, Behemoth was standing at the counter. A quick image flashed into his mind, he and Pinkie, right here, last night, her, bent over the counter, him behind her...

"Hi there," a voice spoke from under the counter, snapping him out of his reverie, "what can I get for you this morning?"

He looked down at a orange and white hat moving back and forth, the only thing visible as its owner worked on something under the counter. He tilted his nose up into the air, taking a series of small sniffs.

"I'll take the...ten...no, the twelve apple and cranberry muffins that'll be coming out of the lower oven in...twenty eight seconds."

A pleasantly gruff laugh rose from behind the counter. "Fella, you sound just like a colt who used to come in here every day, ordered the same thing you just did, only he always got a-"

"Oh, and tea, please, Earl-"Behemoth chimed in, before the voice behind the counter cut him off.

"-Grey, hot..." Mr. Cake came up from behind the counter, a look of confusion on his face as his voice trailed off.

"Behemoth is...is that...really you?"

"Yes, sir. Good to see you Mr. Cake, its...been awhile."

A series of conflicting emotions ran across Cake's face, eventually settling on a not entirely convincing smile.

"It's uh..wow, it really has been quite a while." The bell above the door chimed as a new wave of customers arrived for their morning pastries and coffee.

"How, uh, how long have you been back?"

"Got in just last night, Pinkie here was kind enough to invite me to stay till morning." At the sound of her name she poked her head out from behind her monolithic companion.

"Mornin Mr. Cake!!"

"Uh, yeah, good morning Pinkie, so, Behemoth, wha-" The obviously struggling Mr. Cake was interrupted as a tan earth pony in line chimed in.

"Hey, whats the hold up, I got places to be, lets get this movin!!" Behemoth's smiled dropped off his face in an instant, and he slowly turned to face the rude customer. If looks could kill, the loud mouth stallion would have quite simply exploded. He swallowed nervously as the monster stared him down with his one good eye. After a few seconds, Behemoth spoke.

"He's right Mr. Cake, you've got customers, I'll swing by later, and fill you in on the last few years." his single eye never blinking, never wavering from the now quaking customer.

"Oh, uh, sure thing. Let me get those for you." He hesitated for a moment, not sure if he should stay and try to spare Mr. Loudmouth for a horrific death. He decided against it, and quickly moved into the back to fill Behemoths order.

The Beasts glare of doom continued for a few seconds, before he did the most terrifying thing he could under those circumstances...he smiled. "Thanks for your patience, you'll be up in just a minute." At that, he turned back to the counter to await his order.

It didn't take long, The Cakes, as usual, were on their game this morning. The two of them emerged from the back room. Him with the muffins already bagged and ready, her carrying the tea to give her an excuse to come out and see for herself the returning pariah.

"Here you are that'll be nine bits."

Behemoth nodded, reaching back into his bags and retrieving the money, deciding not to call them out on the way they were staring at him.

"Like I said, I'll stop by later." He quickly paid and headed outside as the Cake's verbally tripped over each other saying goodbye. He stepped out into the bright mid morning sunlight, wincing at the brightness.

~Gah, damn you, evil sun, that was my favorite retina!!~

He stepped back under an awning near the front door to wait for Pinkie, having already acquired one of his glorious muffins. A moan of almost physical pleasure escaped him as he took the first bite.

~Mmm...together again at last my darlings, I missed you so...~

Ponies passing by did their best to ignore the massive creature lurking in front of Sugarcube Corner making strange noises and devouring baked goods. After several minutes, the door opened and the ever lively Pinkie bounced out into the sunlight.

"Pinkie, over here..."He waved to get her attention, brushing his face free of the crumbs that resulted from violent muffin carnage. He tucked the rest of them away into his bags as she came over.

"Hey, you ready to go?"

"Yup, lead the way."

She started off, crossing a small bridge and heading out of town, as full of life and energy as ever, greeting almost everypony they passed by name with a smile. This time of the morning, the town was just as lively as she was. Dozens of citizens were out, on the way to work or going home from it. Running errands, or just out enjoying what seemed sure to be a beautiful day.

~The more things change...the more they stay the same. This is all so familiar, even after so long.~

But...something was off. He stopped in his tracks. The bustle of a busy morning flowing around him like a stream around a boulder. A tingle ran through him, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. His head tilted to one side, and stood perfectly still for a span of seconds, before turning. His gaze locked onto a small, shaded passage between two of Ponyville's signature top heavy homes...and the figure standing concealed in those shadows.

Sickly yellow eyes, filled with fury and malice were met by a single, shining golden opponent. A faint suggestion of a too thin body, and a coat the same vile color as those hate filled eyes. They stared at each other, the hundred yards of distance and the crowds passing between them diluting the very clear message not a bit. The world seemed to fade between them, Behemoths attention so focused that everything else was muted and drained of color. Everything except...him.

After a span of what seemed to be hours, but couldn't have stretched for more then a few seconds, the figure backed away, those yellow eyes disappearing around a corner, out of sight. Behemoth remained, staring into the now vacant stretch of space as everything seemingly came back to life around him. He felt a nudge against his side, looking down to see the ever joyful face of his pink guide.

"Everything ok Behemoth? You froze an got this really weird look on your face."

It took him a few seconds to respond. "Yeah, everything's fine. Just realized there's something else I'm going to have to take care of." He smiled faintly down at her. "Lets keep going, we've got a long way to go."