Storm looks like he's on the verge of a mental breakdown. He's sweating, hyperventilating, and staring at the stairs wide eyed with a slight twitch. His wings keep twitching as well.

"Are you going to be alright? We're just sleeping. It's not like she's gonna come down here and just throw herself at you." Storm stops and thinks about this-

FWOOSH

"Aw come on! Another one! Are you serious!? Damn man, put your wings away and come here so I can slap some sense into you." He sits there for a minute until he looks back and sees his erect wings.

"Aw what the buck!" he yells as he tries to get himself under control. After a while of failing to get them down he begins to panic. "Buck, buck, buck, buck, buck, buuuuck! Miles you've got to help me out!"

"Whoa man, I know I said a lot of stuff about being there for another, but I ain’t gay." I say as I step away from him with my hands raised.

"What? No, you feather head, fight me!"

"What?"

"Well, I need to get my mind off of.... somethings. Fighting will do that for me." He looks between the stairs and me with panicked eyes.

"Can't you read a book or something? What about that chant you-"

"Not fast enough, Twilight will be down here any minute, please." He pleads, running up to me and groveling at my feet.

"*sigh* Alright, fine. But body blows only, no head shots got it?" He nods and gets in a readied stance. I take a deep sigh and get ready. Without warning, Storm begins to charge at me. When he gets close enough, he pivots and tries to kick me with both his back legs. I side step this and grab one of his legs. Damn, he must only weigh like thirty kilograms, I swing and toss him across the room, sending him crashing onto the ground and slamming into one of the bookshelves. He stands and shakes his head before charging again. This time when he closes the distance, he tries to jump onto me. I catch him mid flight and, with a twist, quickly slam him onto his back on the ground. Once he's down I kneel down and give four quick jabs into his stomach, getting grunts in response. Once done, I stand back up and take a few steps back. "You alright?"

"I'll live, thanks," he says as he stands back up, wings down by his side.

"Alright, lets never do that again-"

"What's going on down here!?" I look over to see Twilight standing in the stairway, hair sticking to her soaking wet body as suds roll down her side.

FWOOSH

Of fucking course. I look over to see Storm staring wide eyed at Twilight, wings standing straight back.

"Bucking pervert!" Twilight yells as she runs back up the stairs, leaving a trail of water in her wake.

"No, wait, I'm sorry!" Storm yells out as he runs to the stairway, but stops when he hears a door slam. I walk up beside him and look up the stairway with him.

SMACK

"Ow, what was that for?" Storm asks, rubbing the back of his head.

"That was for being a perv, now you stay down here and get yourself under control while I go diffuse the situation."

"Maybe I should go tal-"

"Trust me, the last person she wants to see right now is you, just hang tight." I walk up the stairs to Twilight's room, following the trail of water to find the restroom she's using. Smoke still fills the room, but is flowing out through all the open windows. The trial takes me to the next floor, to a doorway that sits on top of the stairway. I walk up to the door and give it a couple of soft knocks.

"Go away you perv!" Twilight yells from inside.

"Hey, how would you know if I'm a perv or not?"

"Miles!? Sorry, I thought you were Storm Cloud," she replies much quieter.

"It's alright... so... wanna talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about! Once I dry off I'm sending the princess a letter to get rid of that pervert!" she practically yells.

"Now hold on there, let’s not do anything hasty right now, I mean, look at it from his perspective."

"Are you trying to say this is my fault!?"

"No, but would you say it's obvious that he likes you?"

"Well... maybe. But that's no excuse for losing control like that!"

"Did you see yourself? You came down here soaking wet with suds and everything, it was pretty hot." Twilight remains quiet for a bit. Fucking dammit, I just called her hot, now I'm the perv. "Twilight?"

"Do... do you think of me l-like that?" I sigh and take a seat against the doorway.

"No, I don't have that kind of mindset. But I can still tell when something is attractive or not. You're an attractive person Twilight, if at the very least in personality. I'm actually surprised you’re on your own to be honest." After a few seconds the door slowly opens and I look back to see a now dry Twilight with her hair wrapped up in a towel. She walks up to me and wraps me up in a hug. If Storm walks in right now he'll kill me.

"Thank you Miles, that was sweet of you. But I'm not forgiving that perv just like that," sh whispers into my neck. I awkwardly pat her back, a little caught off guard by the hug.

"Hey, I never said anything about forgiving him, I'm just saying don't send him away just yet." She gives a small nod before getting off me.

"Alright, I won't send the princess a letter... this time."

"Good enough for me, and if he does do it again, just tell me and I'll knock some sense into him for you." Twilight gives a small laugh before returning to the restroom, a few seconds later she comes back with another towel and sets it on my lap. I give her a confused look, to which she just gives a flat look.

"You need to take a shower, you smell pretty bad." I take a whiff from my pit- Whoa, I reek.

"Alright, my turn I guess." I say as I begin to walk into the bathroom.

"Feel free to use my soaps for now, we'll get you your own in a while, but mine will do for now." I look back and nod as I shut the door.

The room is fairly small, only having a sink to my right, a toilet across from me, and a bathtub to the left. Around the tub is a light purple curtain, that is pulled back to reveal an assortment of various bottles of soaps. Behind the sink is a mirror mounted on the wall. The mirror doubles as a door to a cabinet. Everything in here is made for someone half my height. Makes sense, every pony here is basically that size, except for Luna. I toss the towel onto the toilet seat as I walk to the sink and bend over so I can see myself in the mirror. I've got some stubble coming in, a quick shave and I'll wash off. A quick wave of my hand ignites the arcane flames and a flick of the wrist makes all of the stubble fall into the sink.

Satisfied with the quick shave I undress and step into the shower. I can see that ponies use a similar plumbing system, just different symbols. I twist the left knob and get a blast of water from above. I do a quick rinse and turn the water off, I was planning on using the soaps, but seeing how there are like ten different bottles I decided to keep it short. I step out and dry myself off before getting dressed. I put everything except my shirt on, I prefer to sleep without it.

I walk out and can barely see, due to all the lights being turned off. I make my way back to the front room to see the two cots from the other room in the middle. Twilight is in the pink one while the blue one is unoccupied. I look around and find Storm laying on the floor in a corner, without his armor. Ha! I get the blue one now. I make my way to the cot and lay under the sheets. Sleep doesn't come right away, but after awhile of staring at the stars from the window, sleep finally takes over.

---

After my little chat with Celestia, I make my way to the royal chambers. It's my job to come here and make time for my subjects to voice complaints or concerns. What usually happens is I sit here for hours, bored out of my mind. Most of my little ponies don't even know we have nighttime court and only come during the day time. Despite that, I'm glad there's nopony here tonight, I have too much on my mind.

Miles.

He knew them. He did say he was born over three thousand years ago, but I've never heard of the humans. How could there have been a secret society of beings that were able to avoid detection by all historians, but were able to contact my parents. How well did he know them? Why did mother never speak of him before? Given she wasn't around long enough to really tell me anything, but she never told Celestia anything either. I wanted to ask her, but I have a feeling that if Celestia found out that he knew mom and dad, she would pull me off this project. I want to find out more before I get my sister involved, I want to prove to her that I can handle things on my own. I can still redeem my past. I look over to a nearby clock and see that it's eleven o'clock. If I'm going to get anything done, I'm going to have to do some research of my own. I stand up and walk to the closest guard.

"Good sir, I'm closing court early tonight. If anypony needs me, I'll be in the library."

"Of course Princess." I make my way to the library quickly and stop by the gates. The two guards waiting by the door take one look at me and open the doors. I walk in and go straight for the historical section. Hmm, most of the books here are from more recent times, I need something from a long time ago. I should head to the Starswirl the Bearded section, it contains the oldest books in all of Equestria. If nothing there can help me, then nowhere can. I make my way through the library, heading to the upper levels until I make it to the gated door.

"Good evening Princess, doing some research?" Asks the guard by the door.

"You could say that, can you unlock the door to the Starswirl section?"

"Right away Princess." He uses his magic to open the doors and stands at attention as I walk through. Strange, it seemed a little too easy to get in here. Maybe Celestia told all of the guards to let me through. Why she didn't let me in before, I'll never know.

I spend the next few hours going through every book, scroll and scrap of paper with no luck. Not a single word on my parents, the humans, or anything even closely related. I slam the final book shut and toss it back into place. There has to be some way of finding out whether or not my parents had dealings with these humans. Wait, Miles said he knew them. I could try to ask him about them, but I can't just leave Canterlot to go ask him questions, then Celestia would know something’s wrong. I guess I could just ask the next time I visit, but that won't be for a least a week. I could just go early, hopefully I can think of a good excuse as to why I would have to visit that won't draw too much attention.

"Excuse me Princess Luna." Says a guard from behind, ending my train of thought.

"Yes?"

"Princess Celestia has sent me to retrieve you, she says you're late."

"Late for what?"

"She didn't say." Hmm... Oh! Shoot, what time is it? I look out a window to see the sun already beginning to rise. I quickly teleport myself to thee raising platform and land directly next to Celestia.

"You're late." Celestia chides in her motherly tone; horn shining as she raises the sun.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. I was caught up in some reading." I take hold of the moon and begin to lower it in the horizon.

"Reading? Didn't you have court last night?"

"Well, I did, but... I left early to get this research done."

"And what research would that be?" Shoot! Gotta think of something quick...

"I was reading oooonn, past... lunar phenomenon." I say with a sheepish smile.

"Past lunar phenomenon?" She raises an eyebrow to me, giving a little tilt with her head.

"Yeah, you know, like the calendar of cycles and different effects on the land due to that." Celestia gives me another look before looking back out towards the horizon.

"You could of came to me, I would have told you the cycles at least," she says indignantly, looking back out to the horizon.

"I know, but you were sleeping, so I decided to read up on it instead." I continue on with the lie, looking out with horizon with her.

"Alright, just don't make it a habit to shirk your responsibilities, okay?" she asks innocently, buying into my lie.

"Alright, sorry Tia." We finish setting the sun and moon into their appropriate trajectories and turn to one another. I advert my eyes for a moment. I don't like lying, but it's far easier than telling her the truth.

"It's alright dear sister, now are you going to stay up for a bit, or are you going to bed now?"

"I'm going to sleep now, I didn't get a good days rest yesterday, good day Tia." I tell her with a sweet smile.

"Sleep well, Luna." I walk through the door of the balcony and head to my chambers. I'll make plans to try and talk to him in a few days, for now I just need to work on how to bring up the topic.

Next Chapter: Chapter 19 Journey to Mt. Sky Scraper Estimated time remaining: 84 Hours, 26 Minutes