A Penny for your thought

by Damaged

35 - Another bad joke about aftermath

We made our way back to the palace, quiet and in our own worlds. I almost said something when Penny pressed herself a little closer, so our shoulders and flanks touched. That one action told me what I needed to know. She still loved me.

I didn't dare reach out to feed from her, she wasn't allowed to channel so if I drank it would be directly from her essence. Weakened as my reserves were from the incident, I was actually surprised I wasn't ravenous.

"Guess good eating has helped…"

Penny's ears twitched around to me and she turned her head. "What's the matter?"

The dark black burn on the tip of her horn kept catching my eyes and Penny tilted her head forward, catching where I was looking. "What were you trying to cast?" My self-examination was halted by my interest in her horn. It looked quite spectacular actually. It was always a dark color, but with the deeper black tip it really stood out. "When you… well, burned."

She tilted her head back. "I don't even know, I was going to try for fireworks to distract them, maybe shoot them up under the things… I couldn't remember one of the runes. And then I remembered a whole spell from Silver's book, it was complicated and long, but I needed to do something."

I leaned in and nuzzled her cheek. "It was something, that is for sure." She nodded and we reached the castle gates.

"How you feeling?" A guard was clearly addressing Penny and she smiled up to him.

"Like I miscast a crazy spell, burnt my horn and passed out in the snow." Penny delivered the line as dry as any joke I had heard before and it had both guards and me giggling.

The guards recovered their composure first. "Well, I would suggest not doing that in future." His reply was perfect and had us chuckling all the more. "We were told to not make a big deal of it." He looked unsure at this, clearly preferring honesty and openness.

Penny reached up a hoof to poke his heavy armor. "It's okay, it wouldn't be good to let everypony know that… well, that something like that could happen. I just hope it doesn't happen again."

My wings were not the same as a pegasus', lunar or solar, but I could rest them on Penny's back and, moving forward, she got the hint.

"You take care of her!" He mock scowled at me as we walked off and I knew that I needed to do more. Maybe I shouldn't be leaving Penny to learn her magic alone. I could do basic things, but I had heard a few rumors about Silver, about some of his magic.

I got a poke in the side. "You look deep in thought."

"Oh, just thinking. You know if Silver might be up for an extra student?"

Penny actually looked shocked. "But, you should learn changeling spells." I nosed her and kissed her cheek as we neared our rooms.

"I will learn whatever spells I need to to keep what I care about safe." A firm nod accompanied my statement.

We entered our rooms and closed and locked the door behind us. "Okay, now, what really happened, I want to hear all of it." I was guiding her to the tub. The day had been mostly a wash and, if nothing else, I would have Penny calmed and in bed early.

She didn't start telling me until I had the tub filled with both water and ponies. "The court is so boring… I guess I drifted off."

Working a brush into my mouth, I started at her tail and was working over her gently. My aim wasn't to clean, but to relax her.

"There was something… then I was walking in a big city." She leaned into my attention. "I dreamed you were there, like I usually do in my dreams. But you were eating me, really eating me. I had bits missing, it didn't hurt then."

I wanted to cut in, to ask her about 'then', but the story needed to be told in order.

"I ran and ran, but you kept eating and tearing flesh off me, I was rotting and falling apart."

As Penny told her story, I was suddenly so very glad she was looking at the mirror, inspecting her new horn. My tears were hidden.

"Then I woke up and was beside you but… you just had a little sip and all the agony that I didn't feel in the dream was real. I… even when you bite, even what those changelings did to me, it didn't hurt that bad."

Her flank trembled a little as she told this part, of the pain. I really wished I could find the creature who did this. My thoughts were very unponylike right then, my changeling nature giving me all the ways I could drink such a creature to death, all I needed was to get them to feel love.

"I needed to get away from you, from the pain. I was so afraid, I was all alone and had nowhere to run to. So I ran away."

I knew this part, my brush moving from her tail to her flanks now, getting the raven-dark fur just right.

"Everything was strange, just objects in my way…" She took a deep breath and settled herself. "Then you were on top of me. You said my names. You called me, each part of me. Then you called another part." She was smiling a little, her reflection in the mirror turning as she did to look back at me. "You called the part you helped grow inside me, my Queen."

Was it wrong to be giddy and a little turned on whenever she said that? I worked the brush up and over her body, getting her shoulders and withers done with not a word spoken between us. When I began on her mane she spoke again.

"Then you were hit by… them. What were they?" There were knots in her lovely mane, though thankfully no singed hair.

"I only know of them because they were used to try and scare little changelings into being good. 'Do what you are told or the shadows will get you!' The descriptions of them don't do the real things justice. At least I know what I am going to use when I really want to get in a fight next time."

"They knocked you down and I couldn't see you moving. I was trying to buy time to think up a spell, or for guards to come." She got really quiet when I worked on the hair at the base of her mane, Penny's eyes closing, I could even see some tension just leave her. Huh, I would remember this.

We just sat there, me brushing her mane more and more until she eventually sighed. "Please stop, I need to finish telling you and I can't even think straight when you do that." Well well, a find indeed. "So as I told you, I was backing up, trying to talk and delay them. Then two things happened. My rump hit a tree and reminded me the forest was behind me. If I had gone in there they would have gotten me without anypony seeing. But the second thing that happened was I remembered one of Silver's spells. He had flicked past it so fast that all I could remember was the timing and the patterns."

My next target was obvious. I returned back to brushing her mane.

"Stick…" The word was the worst attempt at a protest anypony had ever tried, I could hear her voice mellow and melt as she got to the end of my name.

"I know the rest. My little snack needs to relax now." I kept up the brushing, smiling as I saw her eyes close again. Penny's breathing got slower and slower and I finally judged her asleep.

---

My bed was warm, I could feel Stick beside me. I inhaled deeply, smelling the unique scent of my changeling marefriend. It wasn't strong, but when your nose is pressed to somepony's neck it is there.

I searched my feelings, there was no trace of the fear and pain that had hit me when… well when whatever it was had hit me. "You awake?" My words were soft but they found no reply. Perfect.

Stick had been there, even when I cut my love for her, even when I ran and left her alone. She had come for me, her love, and battered me back to my senses. I trembled a little as I reached for her. To touch her. I paused and closed my eyes. I thought about her protecting me from the diamond dogs, of her constant little lovely things she did for me. She fed me when I was hungry, she hugged me when I needed a hug and, lately, she had been my queen. I giggled as I reached further, not shaking anymore.

---

My dreams were parted, slowly, by something I hadn't felt before. My eyes opened as I groaned. Penny was there, in beside me, the most deliciously confused and determined look on her features.

"But-" My question was cut off with a kiss, one I returned as I melted into her attentions.

---

"That was a step."

I still couldn't believe I had done that. Done that. But I had.

"It was a gallop down the street." Stick was pressed so very close against me, we touched from tail to chest. It was nice. And frightening. Something can be both.

"A run can do a pony good sometimes. Maybe we need to run again sometime." It had felt good, but not in the way I thought it would. It was good because it was with Stick.

Stick kissed my nose, getting a little snort from me. "You mean that?" I nodded, realizing I did.

"I mean it, Stick. I guess maybe I was more mixed up than I thought. Mares just seem… right. Ugh, I thought I was over silly sexual labels but apparently old habits are the hardest to shake." She kissed my nose again and I realized I liked it when she did it. "If you don't stop that-" I baited her and it worked, I got another and giggled happily for it.

Stick tilted her head and I felt a brush of her senses within me. It didn't hurt, there was no pain. No, it was almost the exact opposite of pain. "Oh, I see how it is." She kissed my nose again and I couldn't help giggling, feeling her own laugh directly through our contact. "Penny, I love you to bits."

I didn't think, I didn't hesitate. "I love you too Stick."

---

Our day had been quite the rough one, ups, downs and all arounds, but after having spent the last parts of it learning new things about my feelings, my body and more importantly, Stick's body, I couldn't count it as a complete waste.

It hit me then. "Sombra…" I murmured the name softly, lest the speaking of it got his attention. "We are going to need to talk to Cadance tomorrow."

"Mmmm." Was all I got back from Stick.

As sleep came, I focused on my marefriend… my lover. I focused on all my love for her and hers for me. I couldn't feel it the way she could, not in another, but I saw it in every action she did.

---

My dreams were a repeat of my earlier ones. The shapes of my past now wore blazing red and green eyes. Their accusations didn't hurt as much and when a changeling queen leaped in and started smashing them I giggled. Stick was magnificent, she was bucking and stomping, zapping and headbutting the bad dreams away.

She was my Queen.

Author's Note:

Events can break you, they can tear you apart and scatter the pieces. But love can pull you back together, closer, tighter than before. Like a cavitation bubble in your heart <3

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Comments

[Gargon94]

This was very cute and wonderful. I like it!

[Daremo]

So much sweetness and cuteness to soothe a weary heart.

I'm feeling so warm and happy inside I think I'll be merciful to the typos.

...

Nah.
*****
really wish - really wished
unpony - unponylike
love and battered - love had battered
not shaking now - not shaking anymore
run again sometimes - run again sometime
I ever thought - I ever thought
dreams was a - dreams were a
past, now, wore - past now wore
much and, when - much and when

[harts fire]

a vary loving chapter.

[Damaged]

6898901 Thanks and all fixed :)

[tsaukpaetra]

Nice calm recovery.
And now I just realized my phone has been auto-correcting Cadance into Cadence. Yay...
Keep going! ;)

[Damaged]

6899969 I use libreoffice to write in. You would not believe how many personal dictionary entries I had to add to stop the red nasty lines being everywhere

[tsaukpaetra]

6900046 yeah, Equish just has all sorts of nuances, huh?

[Boulder]

I will learn whatever spells I need to to keep what I care about safe

Every now an then Stick says or does something that reminds of Pen Stroke's Nyx. Maybe that's part of what attracts me to this story so much.

[Boulder]

6900046 This

Events can break you, they can tear you apart and scatter the pieces. But love can pull you back together, closer, tighter than before. Like a cavitation bubble in your heart <3

reminded me of this

[Damaged]

6915289 By this logic, what does kill you would make you really really strong!

[Infernal_Flame]

Have they been having sex everytime and you cut it out? Because im getting really confused and i made an account just to talk about this

[Cursed Quill]

as a pegasi,

a pegasus

[The almighty bread god]

it's always the fucking Sombreros, man! those things are EVIL!

[Chrome Masquerade]

7347868