A/N - Howdy ponies! It's been way too long since I've been able to write, let alone post a chapter, and for that I apologize. My recovery is going well, though the cardiac rehab courses I had to take made life much more complicated for me, stealing away what precious time I had for writing, as well as robbing me of over a dozen hours of sleep a week. I've successfully completed those courses though, and can now focus on my writing once more. For all of you who stayed loyal, and are still waiting on an update; thank you, you guys are beyond awesome, and I plan to make up this lost time to you all somehow. As for why I haven't done any review responses this time around, well... for whatever reason, the page won't load for me. I don't understand why, but it won't, at least not completely. I've sent off an email to staff of the site, and hopefully the issue gets resolved so that I can do them up in the next chapter. So for all of you who left me reviews, I apologize, but for the moment, I can't read them. As always, don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly; enjoy!

Derpy stayed with me for a few hours, and we talked about a number of things; how Dinky was, what she had been up to in the past few days, and especially how this new turn in our relationship was going to work. I knew right off the bat that it was something that Dinky was too young to know about, so we decided that she should tell the others in the herd about it so that they could help us keep it a secret from both her and Scootaloo.

Eventually though, my marefriend and new pet had to leave, and so I took the collar off of her, so that she didn't have to walk around town with it around her neck. With a last smile and a sweet kiss, she left the room, looking back as she closed the door.

Once again I was alone, and I found myself looking over my own body. It still looked nearly the same, but it felt like it belonged to someone else; all the strength and speed that the strange artifact had given me felt alien, and I wasn't so sure that I liked it.

I quickly distracted myself from those thoughts however, by thinking instead of my friends, and what they were up to. I thought of Fluttershy, and all the little animals she cared for, including Aurora and Pabu, both of which seemed to like spending time with the buttery yellow mare. Rarity came to mind next, the beautiful fashionista likely concocting some grand garment fit to be worn by any member of the Equestrian royalty. I made a quiet note to myself to spend more time with the two mares, whose friendships I cherished dearly.

After that was Pinkie Pie, who's endless giggling came to mind as clearly as though she were in the room with me. "Whatcha thinking about, Blakey? Is it me?"

I yelped as the crazy pink mare's voice sounded off right next to me, nearly toppling off of the bed as her face was thrust in front of my own. It seemed that even with my enhanced senses, the pink devil-mare could still sneak up on me. "Gah! Pinkie!?" The physics-defying mare giggled from her perch atop my head, and hopped down onto the floor. "I um… I was, as a matter of fact. What're you doing here, Pinkie? Don't you have to work today?" I did my best to take her strange antics in stride, but it was still shocking to see her do some of the things she could.

She giggled again, and shook her head, causing her cotton candy like mane to sway to and fro. "Nope! Mister and Missus Cake gave me the day off; I've got a party to plan!" If I wasn't already so well acquainted with her, the mare's big, toothy grin would have been off-putting.

Her words caused me to tilt my head in confusion; usually, Pinkie didn't need time off in order to plan a party. "Why though? I've never known you to need a day off to plan a party. Is it some sort of special event for Celestia and Luna?"

The pink ball of energy continued to giggle, an act which never seemed to stop with her, and shook her head yet again. "No, silly! You're getting released from the hospital today! I'm throwing a party to celebrate it, and everypony in town is gonna be there! Mayor Mare is even going to make a speech about how totally awesome you are for beating Nightmare Moon twice in a row!"

That was news to me; as far as I knew, I would still be in the hospital for a few more days at least. "Where did you hear that from?" I had a few ideas where she may have gleaned the information, but with her, the obvious was only rarely the answer.

Pinkie bounced excitedly around the room, that weird springing sound that always seemed to accompany the act filling the room as she did. "My Pinkie senses told me so! I got a bouncy leg earlier, which means that a close friend of mine is A-OK!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at her as she hopped around the room. "It looks to me like you've got four bouncy legs right now, Pinks." I had to admit that as crazy as she was, Pinkie was always a lot of fun to be around.

She stopped suddenly, somehow halting all her forward momentum in midair, and dropping straight down to the ground, where she promptly zipped back over to the bed. "No silly! Like this, see!" Her left front leg began to bounce up and down as she stood there, springing up off of the ground like her hoof was made of some sort of rubber, which given how she hopped around so easily, wouldn't have surprised me.

I shook my head as I watched the strange sight, and then looked back up to Pinkie. "You're so random sometimes, you know that?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I got the strangest feeling that I wasn't the first person to say that to her, which again, didn't surprise me.

I watched as she turned towards the door, and hopped over to it. "I know, Blakey. I have to go now though; I've got a party to plan!" In a flash of pink, she disappeared through the door, and I was alone once more.

Over an hour passed before I started to feel hungry, and just as I was about to press the call button and order some lunch, there was a brief knock, and the door opened once again, revealing Isabel. The goo-mare trotted into the room, holding a clipboard in front of her and smiling broadly. "Well, it seems that Pinkie Pie already spoiled the news for me, but you're free to go home today, Blake. I've already notified the Princesses, and they should be here soon to take you back to your home."

"Correction, Isabel; we are already here." I smiled broadly as Luna's warm voice floated in from just outside the door. "And we are not alone, either. Blake's entire herd has accompanied us to see him home."

I watched happily as Luna, Celestia, Applejack, Twilight, Derpy and even Rainbow Dash all filed into the room. My smile widened when a pair of fillies hopped off of both Luna and Derpy, and leapt up on the bed, snuggling me close. "Papa! I missed you so much! I'm glad you get to come home today!"

I wrapped the fillies up in my strong arms carefully, being mindful not to harm them with my new strength, and hugged them close. "I'm glad too, girls. I've missed you all, and I want to go home and spend time with everypony again, peacefully." I felt a twinge in my mind as Nightmare Moon seemed to pout at the words, almost as though she saw the remark as being aimed at her, which in some small way, it may just have been.

Isabel brought the clipboard she was carrying over to me, and held it out to me. I knew the routine well enough, and started signing and initialing the release forms. She watched the speed at which I made the needed marks, and blinked. "Wow… you must be in here pretty often if you know what to do that well…"

A rueful chuckle escaped my lips as I made the last initial and handed the board back to the gooey mare. "You don't know the half of it. Since I came here about eight months ago, I've been hospitalized, blinded or otherwise seriously injured no less than five times."

The goo pony was silent for a short while. "Wow, that's pretty intense. I hope you've got some pretty good medical insurance to cover all of that."

Luna chuckled dryly. "He has the very best; since he is a Knight-Defender of Equestria, all of his hospital bills are paid for by the crown. As they are with all soldiers and guards under our employ." She and Celestia both turned their attention to me then. "Speaking of, my dearest; my sister and I have had time to discuss the compensation we think you should receive for your latest acts of heroism in bringing an end to the threat of Nightmare Moon, hopefully once and for all, as well as rediscovering the cursed Sunny Town, that we may monitor its inhabitants."

Before I could say a word, Celestia raised a gold-slippered hoof. "We know what you are going to say, but you must remember that you are a knight, and any such actions you take are to be considered in accordance with the duties of your station, and you are to be compensated as such. This is true of any of our militia members, not just yourself. As for the compensation itself, we felt that such feats were worthy of a sum of four hundred thousand bits."

My jaw dropped in disbelief at the sum they were giving me just for performing what I had considered to be little more than a personal affair to set our lives back in order. "B-but… that's almost double what you gave me the first time, and I got hurt a lot worse back then."

Celestia giggled, and nodded. "That's right, my dear. But, you were not a knight then, as you are now. What we gave you then was merely to compensate your act of valor. Now though, you're officially a Knight of Equestria, and that means that we can compensate you properly, as laid down by our parents during their reign."

I looked at her, and shook my head. "Wow… your parents really liked to reward their soldiers, didn't they?" The fact that I had received just shy of a million bits for my exploits over the course of just over six months was crazy to me; then again, I had no idea how much these two had stashed away in the royal coffers.

I stood from the bed then, and walked over to my clothes, which were sitting in a neat pile in a chair in the corner. "Anyway, mind giving me some privacy so I can change? I'd really rather not go out in the snow wearing just a flimsy hospital gown."

The others murmured their agreement, and turned to leave the room. "Uh… h-hey, mind if I stick around? Y'know, in case you need any help?" I was a little caught off guard by Rainbow's request, partly because it was the first thing she had said since she entered the room.

I looked to the others, who had paused as well, and seeing the accepting expressions in their eyes, I nodded. "Sure thing, Dash; I might still be a little unsteady, and who better to keep me up than Equestria's number one flyer?" I of course knew what she was after, but I decided to keep that under wraps for now.

The others looked us over for a moment longer, and walked out of the room. "Come, my little ponies; let's wait in the lobby for Rainbow Dash to wheel dear Blake out to us once more." Celestia remarked as the door closed, her voice having returned to its matronly tone, probably due to them being in a more public setting, where she needed to keep up appearances.

Once the room was silent, Dash turned to me. "So… I guess you already know why I stayed behind, right?" She asked sheepishly, her hooves tucked behind her back as she hovered in the air with a deep blush on her face.

I chuckled, and started to untie my hospital gown. "You're worse than Lyra sometimes, you know that?" The minty green mare had asked me on a few occasions to take off my clothes and let her examine my body more carefully, but I had refused each time.

The brash Pegasus giggled at my words. "That's because she had those egghead books to tell her about what you look like down there. I don't have that; I have to use my imagination." She scratched her head nervously at that point, looking anywhere but my direction. "Err… I mean…" She stared at my flaccid penis with interest, and perhaps a little lust as the gown fell away.

A playful smirk crossed my face at the accidental revelation, and I decided to tease poor Rainbow Dash a little. "Oh really? And just what were you imagining, Rainbow Dash…" I leaned in to whisper huskily into her ear. "Did you think about how wonderful it would be to have my big, hard human cock slipping in and out of-"

Poor Rainbow Dash jumped back with a yelp before I could say more, her face a bright, cherry red as she shook her head vigorously. "N-No! I-I was thinking of… of…" She hung her head in defeat, and I could smell her sweet arousal in the air. "F-fine… you got me. I-I dream about… making love with you… but it's more than that. I want to know that it's like to be loved by you, not just bucked by you."

I had always known that Rainbow Dash had a thing for me, and I had to admit that she was a pretty special mare herself, and I quite liked her, even with everything that had happened. "Dash… Are you saying you want to join our herd?" The herd itself was getting fairly large, but I didn't see any reason that Dash couldn't join as well, if she wanted.

The brash, blue mare looked at me long and hard before speaking again, uncertainty clear in her magenta eyes. "I… I… don't know." She sighed, and nuzzled my thigh lightly. "I mean, I want that, but… after all the bad things I did, I know I don't deserve it. M-maybe let me think on it a bit?" She looked up to me with hope in her eyes, and I nodded, causing her to smile. "Thanks Blake. For now though… I want to see this puppy at full size~" It surprised me that she hadn't commented on how different it looked, but I supposed that she'd expected that.

Before I could reply, or even react properly, Dash's head shifted, and she took the head of my soft dick into her mouth, sucking and swirling her tongue around it with surprising expertise, obviously wanting to make me hard quickly, which she was succeeding at.

I couldn't help but run my fingers through her mane as she continued to suck and lap at the head of my quickly hardening shaft; it felt good, better than any of my current marefriends, I was sorry to admit. I could only guess that Dash had had some previous experience with other stallions, though that honestly didn't bother me; I couldn't expect to be everyponys' first, and Dash was a mare that knew what she wanted, and wasn't afraid to go for it under normal circumstances. As she pleasured me, the headstrong mare gazed up into my eyes with her own, lovely magenta orbs.

I didn't allow her to continue for too long however, though she seemed determined to continue, fighting against my gently pressing hands until I physically backed away from her. She looked at me with a half-lidded gaze, and her tongue lolled from her mouth.

It didn't take her long to allow her eyes to wander from my chest, down to my crotch, and the scent of her arousal intensified as she openly ogled the hard, twitching shaft and the heavy sack resting beneath it. "Mmm… it's not the same as a pony's, but it tastes so good~" Her voice was a sultry purr, and I was tempted to allow her to know more of what I had to offer with it.

I knew that Equestrian dating customs allowed stallions to have little flings with other mares like this, and occasionally vice versa, to determine if they would make good herdmates, but I also knew that the others were waiting for us. "S-sorry, Dash. Much as I'd like to take you to cloud nine, the others are waiting for us."

The look on Dash's face showed that she didn't understand the reference, but before I could speak up to clarify, the notion seemed to click with her, and she grinned. "I think I'll take a raincheck on that then, big guy~" She purred out again before sultrily approaching me, and giving my lower head a lusty kiss. "And I do mean 'big'~"

Her kiss caused me to shiver slightly, and I grinned at her. "I look forward to it, Dash. You're definitely a sexy mare, and if you have as much experience with the rest as you just showed me, then I'll be very much looking forward to it~" I leaned in close to her ear to whisper. "I really wouldn't mind if you joined my herd, you know. I've already forgiven you for everything that happened between us, so there's nothing stopping you, but you."

It was Dash's turn to shiver, and she looked up to me with a somber expression before turning away. "I-I know you did Blake, but I haven't forgiven myself yet, and until I do… I don't think I could be a part of your life like that. I mean, it feels weird enough just being your friend and knowing how bad I hurt you. And I don't just mean with the melon." She shook her head, and her visage brightened. "But, it'll happen, sooner or later. And when it does, I hope you'll still be willing to have me as your mare. Heh… well, one of them anyway." She gave me a big, goofy grin, and turned towards the door. "Anyway, I'm gonna go use the bathroom. If I'm not done by the time you get out, go on ahead without me, I can catch up in ten seconds flat!" I didn't have a chance to respond before she disappeared through the door to my room.

It only took a few minutes to dress once Dash was gone, though I had to save putting my pants on for last due to a certain part of me that didn't seem to want to go back to sleep after the sexy Pegasus woke it up. After that, I left the hospital room with the get well cards and other trinkets that I'd been left while I stayed in the surprisingly pleasant hospital. As I passed one of the bathrooms, I heard a faint, wet sound coming from within, as well as a familiar voice mumbling quietly.

I chuckled softly as I realized what was happening, and continued on my way. "Poor Dash… you wouldn't need to clop if you'd just listen to your heart." I muttered under my breath as I made my way to the lobby. No sooner had I rounded the corner, than all of my closest friends and loved ones came into view.

Surprisingly, Lyra and Vinyl Scratch led the bunch when they all approached me. Vinyl was the first to speak, lifting her glasses up to look at me with those lovely, crimson eyes of hers. "So dude, I heard you're like, way stronger now. Mind if I… have a feel of those new muscles?" Lyra's eyes shone with excitement as she stood next to Vi, just waiting for another chance to touch her favorite conversation topic; me.

With a shrug, I held out an arm, and flexed. My own eyes went wide as my shirt, which normally fit me just right, actually stretched and almost ripped as I flexed my newly enhanced bicep. "Woah… that's so awesome…" The mare with the minty green coat exclaimed under her breath, blinking as she took in the sight.

Rarity groaned softly from among the small crowd of ponies. "Ugh… all that work for nothing. I'm going to have to redo Blake's entire wardrobe from scratch!" The beautiful mare grumbled quietly under her breath after that.

Applejack sighed, and nudged the seamstress with an annoyed look. "Why tha hay're y'all thinkin' about that?! Ain't it good enough that Blake's still here with us? Ah know ya put a lot o' work inta those, but they c'n be replaced… Blake can't."

The lovely fashionista sighed and deflated. "Yes, I suppose you're right; I would be quite upset if something were to have happened to Blake." She turned her gorgeous sapphire gaze to me, and smiled softly. "I'm sorry… it was silly of me to put some bits of fabric over your own safety like that. I… I truly am glad that you're alright. And I think I speak for everypony when I say that you've gotten more attractive than when you went into this thing…"

Her eyes widened, as though she realized she'd said something terrible, and she looked down. "Err, no offense, Darling; I didn't mean to imply that you were unattractive before." She trotted up to me, and reared up, giving me a warm hug and a nuzzle as I wrapped my arms around her. "Thank you again for what you did. If you hadn't done something, one of my dearest friends might not be here at this moment." The wonderful, vanilla scent coming from her made me feel warm inside, but before I could truly savor it, she released me, and trotted back into the group.

The others nodded and murmured their agreement. "That's right, you're awesome, Blake!" I turned around at the sound of the voice behind me to see Rainbow Dash standing in the hallway behind me with a huge, confident grin on her face. "I'd kick some flank with you any day of the week!" She trotted past me, and as she did so, I could smell her arousal, my heightened senses causing her intoxicating scent to slam into my senses like a brick wall.

"Blake, are you alright?" Twilight asked as she stepped up to me, a worried look on her face. "You look like you're about to pass out." Her tone was just as filled with concern as her face was.

The purple mare's words brought me back to reality, and I shook my head to clear the lewd thoughts that were forming from it. "Y-yeah, I'm ok. Not really sure what happened there, but I'm ok." I didn't enjoy lying to her like that, but telling the truth would be more than a little embarrassing for Rainbow Dash, so I held my piece.

The studious mare looked me over briefly, a suspicious expression on her face, but then she looked back to the others. "Alright then, why don't we all get going? I'm sure our favorite human here is itching to get home, and relax in a warmer, more familiar environment."

The others all nodded their agreement, and started to file out of the doors to the entrance to the hospital. It was at that moment that I noticed something missing; A certain, pink bundle of laughter and energy wasn't bouncing around among the group, and in fact was nowhere to be found.

I didn't dwell on that long though, remembering that she had a big party planned for today. "So, what shall we all do when we get home? Should I cook us a nice meal to stave off the cold?"

The others looked back to me, but it was Celestia that spoke. "You are going to do no such thing, Knight-Defender." I blinked at her use of my title, though I caught a hint of playfulness in her tone, so I wasn't worried. "You have just come back from the hospital, which means that you are to be on bedrest for the time being. In the meantime, we will be cooking for the home."

Her words caused Luna to giggle beside her. "My sister, if I recall correctly, it was your 'cooking' that put poor Blake in the hospital to begin with~" Her tone was obviously teasing, and it caused the rest of us to laugh.

For her part, Celestia held together surprisingly well, though her cheeks did take on a slight, rosy hue. "I did no such thing! You know as well as I that it was that strange artifact that caused Blake's ailment! And besides, I have been teaching myself to cook, and even eating the dishes I make to ensure that they are satisfactory."

The white mare puffed out her cheeks indignantly, and we all laughed as we walked, the feeling of a normal day coming back to me as we all headed for home, and what a good feeling it was.