Marcus easily made his way back to Lyra’s house as the sun started to rise. He opened and closed the door silently as he snuck his way back to his room. He cracked the door open to see the four mares still asleep in the bed. They had apparently turned in their sleep as they tried to find him and ended up cuddling a bunch of pillows. Not wanting to disturb the mares in their peaceful slumber, he quietly stepped away from the door and headed for the kitchen. During his walk to the kitchen, he saw the front door open and noticed Bon-Bon walking in.

The mare noticed the human and waved to him as she put away her things. He waved back to her and continued to the kitchen. The mare was used to seeing the human up early, but he seemed different than how he used to in earlier mornings. Curious to see what has changed about him, she walked quietly to his room. She opened the door and blushed a little as she saw the four mares asleep. She took a small sniff of the air and her eyes widened in shock. She could still smell the faint odor of sex, especially the scent of her friend. She closed the door, leaving it crack a little to let fresh air in and headed for the kitchen. She saw the human cooking over the stove and approached him.

“Care to explain what you did last night?” Bon-Bon asked.

“I may have had sex with Rainbow, Blood, Lyra, and Spitfire,” Marcus answered nervously, but could see that she wasn’t mad.

“I could tell when I entered the room. There was a slight odor still lingering around,” Bon-Bon as she scratched the back of her head nervously.

“Damn, I thought that opening a window would help get rid of it all,” Marcus grumbled under his breath.

“Don’t worry about it. Ponies generally have a better sense of smell so it’s kind of hard to get rid of. I’m glad that you at least thought about opening a window so it wouldn’t settle in the room,” Bon-Bon thanked as she gave a small smile.

“This is your house and I didn’t want smelling it every time you entered my room,” Marcus said as he continued to cook.

“Thank you. Lyra used to have stallions or mares come over and they never opened the window,” Bon-Bon said with slight disgust.

“Well now that’s just rude. You want some pancakes, I just finished the first batch?” Marcus asked.

“I would love some. Also, Twilight saw me and wanted me to tell you that she needs you and the mares at her library now,” Bon-Bon said as she grabbed a plate and started to fill it with food.

“Can’t it wait for a few minutes? I’m making breakfast and I promised to preen their wings.” Marcus complained.

“She said she needed to teach you and your friends a few other things that aren’t mentioned in the books you read. She also said that if you weren’t there in the next several minutes she would teleport all of you to her library,” Bon-Bon explained as she took a first bite.

“Fine. I’ll wake up the others and head out to see what she wants,” Marcus said as he tossed the cooking ware in the sink and headed for his room.

He walked in his room to see the mares slowly stir awake. He walked to one of the dressers and started to pull out everyone’s clothes. The mares were finally awake and watched with curiosity as he got dressed. They saw their clothes on the bed and Lyra was the first to speak up.

“So what’s going on?” Lyra asked as she started to get dressed.

“Twilight asked for us to show up to the library. She apparently has something that she needs to tell us. If we don’t head out now we will be teleported to the library,” Marcus explained as he grabbed the feathers and his necklace.

“What about our wings though?” Blood asked as she displayed her messy wings.

“I’ll just have to do it while we’re at Twilight’s,” Marcus answered.

“That’s going to be really awkward,” Spitfire said.

“Yeah, but maybe thanks to that she will probably never ask for an early arrival,” Marcus said.

The three pegasi mares let out low grumbles as they started to get dressed. Once everyone was dressed they said their goodbyes to Bon-Bon and headed for the library. The walk was quiet as they tried to wake themselves up. They reached the library a few minutes later and entered the building without even knocking. Marcus noticed his friends standing over to one side and noticed them staring at the other mares that were in the room. He was given a kiss by each mare before they separated to join their friends.

“So am I just to assume that we all did it?” Marcus asked.

“Do what exactly?” Brandon asked as he feigned ignorance.

“We all ended up having sex with the ponies we were staying with,” Marcus said with a slight glare at his friend.

“Is there a problem with that?” Callie asked as she neared Marcus.

“I actually don’t care. You guys are free to do whatever you want. I even did the same thing and as long as none of us regret doing it. Do any of you regret it?” Marcus asked as he looked at his friends.

“Nope,” Everyone answered at once.

“So has anyone seen Blake?” Marcus asked as he tried to find his friend.

“He should be on his way along with the princesses and that includes Cadance,” Ryan answered.

“Why are they coming?” Marcus asked.

“Twilight just said they would be able to help with our lesson in magic,” Alex answered.

“So we get a lesson and then everyone is going to practice their magic?” Marcus asked and received nods in return.

“Okay then. I guess Andrew, Luke, Blake, and I will head out and do some of our own practice until your lessons are over. Before he gets here though, Drak, I would like to speak privately to you,” Marcus said.

“Sure,” Drak agreed as he followed his friend away from the group.

“So are you doing okay after everything. I know you don’t regret your actions, but are you sure that you’re okay?” Marcus asked as he placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“I’ll be fine don’t worry. I believe that I have some closure finally after everything that happened with Scarlet. I won’t forget our good times together, but I think it would be nice to continue to move on,” Drak said.

“I agree. We may not have held the same closeness the both of you had, but we did see her as a good friend and we do miss her. I also want to apologize for bringing her up several days ago,” Marcus said.

“It’s all forgiven. I understand that you were worried for us and your eyes gave it away just as clearly. You have nothing to worry about,” Drak said as he gave a reassuring smile.

“I want you to know that your whole reading other people’s emotions from the look in their eyes is still pretty creepy,” Marcus said as he gave a slight chuckle.

“Noted,” Drak said as he joined in his laughter.

Everyone was busy standing around the room as they waited for their final friend to show up. Seeing that he had time to kill, Marcus went to work preening his mares’ wings. The other mares had small blushes as they watched him work, but didn’t say anything about it. It was several minutes later when Blake finally showed up. He walked in with the three princesses following behind. Blake took a seat on a couch with his friends while the princesses sat with the mares and one stallion. Marcus noticed a slight glow around Cadance’s horn, but just ignored it. Rainbow took her seat in front of him as Twilight stood up and gathered their attention.

“Now that everypony is here, we can get started,” Twilight said as she fixed her glasses.

“So what exactly did you forget to tell us?” Luke asked as Molly nuzzled his neck.

“After a certain situation arose, I found it prevalent to share this information with you,” Twilight started.

“So pretty much after you and Alex had sex,” Jaeden said bluntly.

“If that’s how you want to interpret it, then yes. Everypony here already understands the basic mating rituals each race has, but there are a few special ones that weren’t mentioned,” Twilight said as she grew a small blush.

“What would that be?” Ryan asked.

“There are more intimate acts each race has that is only shared between ones that actually love each other. Most ponies never allow such acts unless they truly love their mate,” Twilight said as she took steadying breaths.

“Like what specifically?” Drak asked with interest.

“Unicorns can use magic through their horn, but is also a pleasure center and we only allow it to be touched by a lover. Pegasi fly through the air and won’t let anypony touch their wings unless it’s a lover. Earth ponies are tough, but won’t let others touch their ears, feet, and hands unless they are with a lover. All three of these apply to alicorns as well,” Twilight explained.

Marcus was surprised by what she explained as he looked at what he was doing. His mind was filled with confusion as he accidently pulled out a feather from Rainbow’s wing. The next thing he saw was the appendage spring back and slam into his face. He fell over the back of the chair and hit the floor with an audible thud. Everyone in the room looked over the back of the couch to see the human clutching his nose as he let out a low groan. He was able to get his bearings quickly enough as he got to his feet.

“Are you okay, Marcus?” Lyra asked as she looked at his nose.

“Yeah, I’m fine. My nose is broken, but that will heal in a few minutes. Back to the main point though, are you sure, Twilight? I don’t want to doubt your extensive knowledge, but I feel what you said is just a joke. I’m not trying to sound rude about it, but there is no way that those of you that have had sex didn’t allow your partner to touch those parts of your body,” Marcus said.

“We haven’t. This is the first time I let anypony besides my parents touch my wings.” Rainbow said.

“If that’s true, then why are you allowing me to do this? I mean why did any of you allow us to do this?” Marcus asked as he stared at the mares.

“It’s because you’re different. I’m not trying to say that in a bad way, but you treat us differently than a regular stallion would. I can’t explain our actions, but we felt better allowing our first experience to be with you,” Spitfire said.

“I don’t really know how to feel about that yet, but if none of you hold any regrets about opening up to us like that, then I don’t really see a problem with it,” Marcus said as he took his seat again and went back to preening Rainbow’s wing.

“Does this change the way that you feel about us?” Flutterhsy asked in her meek voice.

“No, it doesn’t. It’s just a little surprising to learn this now than before, but I think we’ll be fine with it,” Andrew assured her as he kissed her cheek.

“That’s all I wanted to share with you. Now that we have it out of the way, I believe that we can start your magic training,” Twilight said as she grew a bright smile.

Marcus knew what her smile meant and he quickly jumped to his feet and got his other friends’ attention. They were about to head out of the library when there was a knock at the door. Everyone saw Spike running down the stairs as he headed for the door. They all waited to hear who was at the door and they heard the knob turn. There was a few seconds of silence before they all heard a loud scream. Spike ran back into the room and hid behind Twilight’s legs as he shivered with fear.

“Spike, is everything alright?” Twilight asked with concern.

“Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis are standing outside,” Spike said as he shook in place.

“Don’t worry. I know exactly how to deal with this,” Marcus said.

Everyone watched as he walked towards the front door, closely following from behind in case there was trouble. He reached the open door and saw the mare and changeling standing outside. They had nervous smiles as they waved to everyone. They watched with slight fear as the human neared them and waited to see what he would do. He looked at the two mares standing outside and after a few seconds, slammed the door in their faces.

“Now they’re gone,” Marcus said as he brushed off his hands.

“That was your plan. Walk up to the door and slam it in their faces,” Blood said.

“They aren’t a problem anymore,” Marcus said with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

“They aren’t here to cause any problems. I asked for them to show up because they have come to a decision,” Celestia said.

“What exactly did they decide to do?” Ryan asked.

“They have agreed to stay with Marcus so he can teach them better manners,” Luna said.

“What?!” Marcus yelled.

“There is no way I’m watching over those two. I don’t even remembering offering to help with such an idea,” Marcus said as he crossed his arms.

“Actually, you did,” Molly said as she stepped forward.

“When?” Marcus asked skeptically.

“When we went to save your friends at the wedding. You made a Pinkie Promise to look after Nightmare Moon when needed and the offer has now extended to Chrysalis as well,” Molly said.

“Even if I did promise such a thing, I’m not going to do it,” Marcus said flatly.

“Is that your final decision?” Molly asked as she gave a knowing smirk.

“Yes,” Marcus answered simply.

As soon as he answered, two pink blurs jumped right in front of him. One of the blurs slammed him against the wall while the other stared at him angrily. He shook his head slightly to see two different Pinkie’s standing in front of him. He cleared his throat after having his back slammed into the wall to speak to the mares.

“What was that about?” Marcus asked in slight anger.

“No pony breaks a Pinkie Promise,” Pinkamena said.

“Well it looks like I might because I don’t want to help them,” Marcus said and felt Pinkamena’s grip tighten.

“Marcus, it would do you well if you just fulfill your promise. Pinkie is very adamant about promises made because if you break one, then you lose a friend,” Rarity said.

“Forever,” Pinkie said as she stared in his eyes.

“Fine, if it just gets her off of me, I’ll do it,” Marcus said.

Giving a look at him then at Pinkie, Pinkamena release her hold. Marcus popped the bones in his back and neck so he could get some feeling back. After a few good pops, he looked at the two pink mares.

“So who are you exactly?” Marcus asked.

“My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie. I was a subconscious for Pinkie and Molly used her magic to make me real,” Pinkamean explained.

“Fine by me. Magic made you real and I’m not going to argue that,” Marcus said.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and saw the two mares standing outside. They were shuffling side to side as they waited to be addressed. He looked back at Molly to see if there was a way out of this, but she gestured for him to go forth. Letting out a low growl, he gestured for Andrew, Blake, and Luke to follow. He got the mares’ attention when he called out to them.

“Let’s go Nightmare, Chrysalis, we’re going to train,” Marcus said.

The mares looked at each before looking at the four princesses. They gave slight nods and the two mares bowed a little before running after the human. Spike closed the door when they were out of sight and headed for his room. Celestia tapped her niece on the shoulder and gesture for her to follow. The pink alicorn looked at her sister-in-law before following the solar monarch. The two alicorns stepped into the kitchen before using a spell to keep their conversations private.

Celestia

“So what did you find out about them?” Celestia asked.

“They’re all in love with the pony they’re with,” Cadance answered.

“What about Marcus?” Celestia asked.

“That, I don’t have an answer for. His emotions all over the place. It seems that he wants to love them, but he wants to find an excuse to keep them away,” Cadance said with a slight frown.

“What do you think the best course of action is?” Celestia asked as she pulled out a seat.

“I’ve seen many cases where ponies would question their love, but nothing like this. There are only a few options and I don’t like most of them,” Cadance started.

“Many choices will never be simple, but you have to pick the one that will benefit your subjects. You need to choose what the best option will be,” Celestia said as she offered a warm smile.

“We could either banish him, separate him from his mares, or we wait and see if he will change. The first two are problematic since his friends might cause a problem if we send him away, even in secret and I don’t think his mares would like being separated, especially Blood Rain. So that leaves the final option, but that is just a gamble,” Cadance started to explain.

“What would you like to do?” Celestia asked as she gave a serious expression.

“I usually try to avoid taking a shot in the dark, but I feel we should. There is still much for them to learn and he might be able to change,” Cadance said with confidence.

“And if that doesn’t work?” Celestia asked.

“Then we’ll take the measures we need to take,” Cadance said.

Library

The two alicorns left the kitchen to see the friends sitting on the floor, Twilight standing next to a chalkboard. The board was filled with notes diagrams about the various forms of magic. The humans paid close attention as they waited for their chance to practice their magic. Celestia, Cadance, and Molly stood at the back as they watched Twilight. The other mares were standing next to her to help demonstrate some of her points. Celestia couldn’t help the small smile she gave as she watched her student teach the humans. She looked over at the clock and saw that it was starting to get late.

She switched places with Luna so she could lower the moon. Twilight finished her lecture on the basic uses of magic and started to pack things away. The humans got up from their sitting position and stretched their limbs so they could move again. Seeing that her prized pupil finished her lecture, she decided to move to the next step so they wouldn’t have to waste time with it later.

“Before all of you go, I would like to do something,” Celestia said.

“What exactly do you want to do?” Brandon asked.

“I wanted to see what forms of specialized magic that you all carry. Twilight already explained the basics that you can use already from levitation to teleporting. This next part would go with the next lesson and instead of wasting time on that later, we can do it now,” Celestia explained.

The friends looked at each other for a few seconds before nodding their heads. Celestia gave a warm smile as the humans came closer to her. Her horn flared with her golden aura as a beam passed through the humans. The beams passed up and down their bodies a few times before returning back to Celestia. Her horn stopped glowing as she looked at the humans with slight amazement and worry.

“Is everything alright, Celestia?” Jaeden asked.

“Yes and no, but this will be an interesting lesson for all of you here soon,” Celestia said.

“So what kinds of magic can we do?” Drak asked.

“Callie can use healing magic which is actually very nice. Brandon has elemental magic. Drak has a defensive and support combination. Jaeden has blood magic. Ryan has illusion magic. Alex has shadow magic,” Celetia said, but the last three had her worried.

“What’s wrong with the last three?” Drak asked as he caught her trembling voice in the end.

“The last three forms of magic are a forbidden art. They are a dark magic and I never thought I would see it again,” Celestia explained.

“Does this mean that we can’t learn our specialized magic?” Alex asked.

“You can, but there isn’t much that can be taught. There are only a few safe spells that you can learn and everything else will only lead you down a dark path,” Celestia said with a slight frown.

“Then I guess we’ll learn what we can,” Jaeden said.

The friends all nodded to each other as they started to leave. Celestia looked at the other mares and saw their worried expressions. She took a deep sigh as she sat on the couch and rubbed her temples.

“Will everything be alright?” Vinyl asked.

“We can only hope so,” Whooves said.

Park

The four friends made it to the park with the two mares that tagged along. The alicorn and changeling went to a table and took a seat to watch the humans. They looked back at them to make sure they weren’t going to do anything. Seeing the mares stay in their seats and looking at the ground, they turned their attention at hand.

“So what exactly are we training for?” Andrew asked.

“Two things. The first is to see how well Luke’s armor can hold up and the second is to see if we can unlock our secondary powers,” Marcus stated.

“The first one makes sense, but do you really think that we can train for our secondary powers. Luke was able to get his because of a crisis. I’m not against the training, but what if that is the only way to get our second power?” Blake asked.

“That may be true, but we won’t know until we try. So we will do what we can until stuff starts to happen,” Luke said.

The friends pondered this for a few seconds before shrugging their shoulders. They saw no harm in trying to see if they could get anything from training and went about their business. Luke stood his ground as his armor slowly enveloped his body. The armor offered him greater protection, but had drastically reduced his speed. They expected as much even though it would be funny to see him run at top speed in his armor. After taking notes about the looks of the armor and what it could do, they prepared or the next part.

Luke stood still, his arms lifted a little as he waited for the first strike. Andrew was the first to move forwards as he placed his hands on the head and chest. He let the acid cover their friend and stepped back to see what would happen. The acid fizzled on his armor and slowly traveled to the ground. They watched as drip by drip the acid fell and there wasn’t a scratch on the armor. Blake walked up and placed his hand on the chest to see if Luke was still alive. He waited a few seconds before he could feel his friend’s heartbeat.

He looked back at the other two and nodded his head. Andrew took a step back as Marcus walked forward. Black tendrils swirled around his arms as he summoned his weapons. Once he had his whip arm and claw hand, he charged forward. He grabbed Luke with his left hand and threw him into the air. His whip arm shot forth when his friend started to fall back down and wrapped around his waist. He pulled his arm back and slammed his friend into the ground. A crater formed where he impacted and bounced a little in the air.

Seeing that his friend was still airborne, he shot forth, rearing up his claw hand. He swiped his claws down the length of his friend and grunted in pain. He grabbed his right hand as it throbbed in pain. Luke finished bouncing on the ground before getting up. His armor slowly pulled back into his body as he ran over to his friend. Blake was the first to reach him as he looked at his hand. The other two saw it and were shocked to see the damage. His claws that could easily cut down an entire building with no problem were broken.

“You okay?” Luke asked with slight worry.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just in a lot of pain right now.

“You think that they will grow back?” Andrew asked.

“Give me a second and I’ll find out,” Blake said.

He grabbed his friend’s hand and covered it with his own. He shut his eyes as black tendril snails crawled out of his skin and cover Marcus’ hand. He gritted his teeth in pain as the snails did their work. The process took longer than usual and they feared that his claws were permanently damaged. Half an hour passed before Blake finally released him and took a look at his claws. The friends looked with slight worry as his claws were still in bad shape. He saw their worried looks and looked at his claws. They were healed and sharp again, but they were smaller than before. Not sure if it would be permanent or not, he just shrugged it off.

“Seems like that armor is pretty useful,” Marcus said as he got to his feet.

“Dude, aren’t you worried about your claws?” Blake asked.

“I’m a little hurt with the damage, but nothing can be done about it now,” Marcus said.

“Okay,” The three friends answered.

“I’m going to take a little break for now. You three have fun with training for now,” Marcus said as he walked towards the table with the two mares.

The friends watched him walk off for a few seconds before getting ready to spar with each other. Marcus took his seat and leaned back as he relaxed his aching hand. He stared up at the clouds for a few seconds before turning around to speak to the mares.

“So what is it that you exactly want?” Marcus asked.

“Just as Celestia said. We want to better ourselves, but at the same time we don’t want to entirely change,” Nightmare explained.

“So what do you mean?” Marcus continued to ask.

“We want to understand the way that ponies act and behave, but we don’t want to change our virtues for it,” Chrysalis said.

“So you both want to be able to care for the ponies, but you don’t want to change what you represent,” Marcus said.

“Precisely. I want to remain ruler of the night and she wants to keep her hive fed,” Nightmare said.

“I may not be able to keep it that way though,” Chrysalis said with a slight frown.

“What do you mean?” Marcus asked as he turned to face the changeling.

“Seeing as I failed to take over Canterlot, my sister will probably take over my hive,” Chrysalis said as her fists clenched.

“Will she try to attack the ponies?” Nightmare asked.

“There is no try with her. She will attack. The only question is when she will,” Chrysalis said, letting out a heavy sigh.

“Then bring it,” Marcus said.

“You can’t be serious. She’s my older sister and has more power than me,” Chrysalis said.

“I don’t care how much power she has. She wants to start something, then I’m more than happy to finish it. How many other siblings to do you have?” Marcus said.

“My sister Ambrosia will be taking my hive. Her clan has an orange color to them. Mynx is the second oldest and her clan has a pink color. The eldest is Miasma and her clan is blue. Each of them are more ruthless than me and far more successful,” Chrysalis with slight hurt in her voice.

“So what? They’re ruthless bitches that kill anything that moves. You’re better because you will know that you don’t need to kill everyone that you meet. I knew very well that your clan was starving and that is why I didn’t kill you or them,” Marcus said.

“If you knew that then why bother keeping me alive?” Chrysalis asked.

“Because there’s a difference between an actual attack and being desperate. I would personally know the difference. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life, but you need to start making choices. You can either leave here and go die somewhere or you can change and be better than your sisters. In the end the choice is yours about what you want to do,” Marcus said.

He noticed the sun disappear over the horizon and yelled for his friends. He got up from his seat and walked away as they all headed home. Nightmare looked at Chrysalis for a few seconds before getting up and following the humans. The changeling looked at the forest and then back at the retreating humans. Memories of her past filled her mind before she came to her decision. She got up from her seat and followed the humans back to town.