Fallout Equestria

Chapter 33.

Rain.

What had started out as a light drizzle in the morning was a gusty downpour by early afternoon with ambitions towards a brutal deluge by the evening. The Manehattan Ruins matched the clouds above in a montage of grey on grey, made hazy by a screen of precipitation.

Raindrops bombed the puddles on the roof of Tenpony Tower, swelling them until their edges pushed together, kissing and coupling into miniature lakes. Xenith's hooves splashed through them as she carried the last of our supplies across to the Sky Bandit. I watched as she rose up on her hindhooves and passed the bag to Calamity, who stored it inside. My gaze lingered on her, taking in the stripes that covered her back, rippling a little as the muscles beneath her coat moved. I had to agree with Homage; I liked her better this way. As pleased as I was to give her the opportunity to shop and mingle amongst the ponies of Tenpony Tower, I was happy to see her stripes again.

Removing the dye had been a little more difficult than I had anticipated. It would have taken weeks for her coat to resume its color naturally, or multiple herbal baths that would have depleted supplies Xenith insisted were best kept for other uses. So we sought out Life Bloom, hoping he might know a spell that would remove the false coloring. Fortunately, he did, and he offered to teach it to us for a small fee.

Velvet Remedy jumped at the opportunity. She was certain that the spell should fall within the boundaries of her magical prowess. Cosmetic magic was at least tangentially related to the medical and entertainment spells that came natural to her, after all. I recalled how easily she had cleaned the Sky Bandit with her magic once; I expected this to be even easier. But while Velvet was capable of casting the spell, it proved surprisingly taxing for her and yielded somewhat limited effects. The dye had faded only enough to turn Xenith's once-white coat a muddy grey.

I gave it my best effort, but in vain. My horn would not even deign to glow as I poured my concentration into the spell. In the end, we had to pay Life Bloom to cast it himself.

"You're staring at her ass, aren't you," Homage whispered into my ear, startling me just as my gaze had slid down to linger on Xenith's rear.

My ears shot up in alarm, and I felt myself blushing as I stammered, "What? N-no. I was just... plotting. That's it! With the plan and the plot and things."

Homage chuckled. "Sure you were."

Adopting a musing tone, the grey unicorn teased softly, "Next time, I'll try to give you those instructions you wanted." I blushed harder, thankful that she wasn't speaking loudly enough for my friends to hear. "Although I'm not sure how. You're such a delightfully sensitive thing that when I demonstrate on you, you have a hard time focusing on the lesson." Luna's mercy. My ears were burning. "And I'll admit it would be difficult for me to concentrate as well."

Homage leaned close and whispered in my ear, "Maybe bringing in a third party would be in order? Xenith perhaps?"

I felt myself splash into the puddle before I realized my legs had gone out from under me. The rooftop water was cold and soaked beneath my armor, getting trapped against my coat and skin.

Homage giggled. She was joking of course. She had to be. As I picked myself up, my mind had already dug out half a dozen reasons why a threesome with Xenith was out of the question, not the least of which being that the striped mare didn't like to be touched. But the little grey unicorn had planted the seeds of a fantasy in my head now, knowing it would not make my time away from her any easier.

I shot Homage an annoyed glare, deciding this was probably her revenge for my having responded to one of her favorite toys with a lack of enthusiasm.