“Um, Ares?”

Ares looked up from the orchid that he had been trying to carefully put into pots to look up at his boss, who was smiling down at him with an expectant look. Wiping his hands on his pants and making sure that the plants weren’t going to go anywhere, he stood up with a grunt.

“Do you need something, Boss?” he asked politely.

Tulip looked past him at the plants, her smile becoming just a little bit wider. “You’re doing a good job, Ares,” she complemented. “Most ponies don’t know how fragile orchids are.”

Ares looked at the plants that he had spent the last ten minutes prepping and potting, his chest puffing out with pride. “Oh, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with these fragile little bas--buggers,” he told his employer, his smile diminishing slightly as he looked off into the distance with a thousand-yard stare. “Back home we had people always asking for the things, then coming back into the store complaining about how they died two weeks later…”

Almost before he could walk, Ares had been around his uncle’s flower shop; at first as a little kid that did more to mess up the place than to help, then as an actual employee, and then as a sort of co-owner. In that time he had gotten to know a lot about being a florists and the people that spent their lives supplying people with some of the most beautiful flowers possible.

Back home, flower shops were becoming something of a dying breed. Nowadays people just bought their flowers online from some big-wig company that mass produced everything instead of helping out the mom and pop stores around their towns. The big companies could make more, sell more, and keep their prices lower than the smaller locally owned flower shops, and everyone in the flower business had been hit in some way.

Ares, as a young man, had seen some of the nicest people in the world get thrown out into the streets because no one would buy their flowers, and for a while, he had considered not following his uncle’s legacy as a big macho-man powerlifter who also happened to own a flower shop. His parents warned against it, outright forbidding him at one point, and told him to go get an “education” to get a “real” job. To his shame he had almost caved in to his family’s wishes, even going so far as to look into a few of the local colleges, but in the end he could couldn’t bring himself to abandon his uncle and all the beautiful flowers.

So, against the wishes of his parents, his friends, his high school guidance counselor, and pretty much everyone else that he knew, Ares moved out of his parent’s house, moved into a crummy little apartment on the bad part of town where it always seemed to rain, and began his life as a professional florists.

Almost as soon as he had settled down to work he had to buckle down and hit the ground running, fighting tooth and nail with his uncle to keep “their” little flower shop thriving and relevant.

Endless nights were spent keeping the shop maintained and looking pretty, and Ares had lost more nights of sleep that he cared to think about spreading the word about “his” flower shop in any way he could, using everything from facebook to twitter to even paying a homeless man to stand out in front of the store with a sign (it wasn’t one of his better ideas, and in the end he almost got arrested along with the bum that he had paid, but at the very least it had been an interesting day).

They tried lots of things, some silly, some inefficient, and some that may or may not have been a teeny tiny bit illegal but, for a while, it seemed like all of their hard work was paying off. The shop was busier than ever and it almost looked like they were going to have to expand the shop because of all of the customers. Most of their clientele might have been hipsters, who for some reason kept asking for them to put a coffee shop in their store, but at least they had enough money to feed themselves, pay the rent, and to keep the store open.

Ares and his uncle couldn’t have been happier with their work, and Ares in particular couldn’t help but rub his success in his family’s face, but, like all good things, it had to end; and for Ares it ended with him waking up in the middle of a tundra in the middle of a world filled with magic and talking horses.

It had been hard losing everything that he’d ever known. What made it even harder was that he had no way of knowing how his family was doing, or if his little shop was still running at tip-top shape, or how everyone was holding up after his disappearance. In fact, if it wasn’t for Cadence, Twilight, and the other princesses, he still might not have gotten over it.

Despite all of this though, losing his family, his life, and his little shop, he had managed not to lose hope on any of it. His uncle was a smart, strong-willed kind of guy; there was no way in hell he was going to let the shop go under while he could still move around, and his family was a tough bunch, they’d be alright. All they’d need to do was hunker down together and they’d be able to get on with their lives just as he had.

The fact that he had been dropped into a world where florists were thriving also took a bit of the sting out of losing everything he knew too. Sure, most ponies were using flower shops as sweet shops, but at least he wasn't going to have to worry having to stop doing what he loved because people were too busy to go into his store. In fact, maybe in a few years, he’d be able to open his own little store in town somewhere; teaching a colt or two about how to water a sun flower while muttering some life lesson that would always center around lifting, just like his uncle had done before him.

Tulip’s shop was like his uncle’s had been, so much so that he had been expecting a six foot seven hulking old man to pop out the back asking Ares if he’d watered the Good Morning’s yet.

The flowers were all out in the open, like they should be, there was a little rickety little cash register in the corner on top of an oaken counter, the walls were just the right color of off white, and everything smelled like dirt.

And to make things even better, Ares had found out that his old green thumb hadn’t left him during his months in ponyland. His hands were steady and all of the old tricks that he had learned over the years seemed to just come right back to him as soon as he started working; and work he did.

For hours he had did what he did best, trimming and planting and restocking and watering and even dealing with a few customers, quickly becoming dirty and sweaty, but he couldn’t keep a smile off of his face. His new boss had been ecstatic when she had seen his work ethic, complementing him and telling him how much easier he was making the whole new employee thing on her by already knowing how to do everything, which made the job all the more sweeter to him.

Tulip herself seemed like a sweet mare, albeit a shy one. It had taken half the morning of working with her before the mare had finally warmed up enough to him to begin an actual non work-related conversation, and even then it was a little touch and go for a little while.

After a few slightly awkward questions, and more than a bit of dancing around each other, the two hit it off, Ares telling her about his time working at his uncle’s shop along with a few tales about his old life and Tulip telling a few stories of her own.

“Hey, it’s about lunch time,” Tulip said, blowing a bit of her mane out of her face before smiling up at him. “I was just going to see if you were going to take your lunch break.”

While he really wanted to tell her no, he was having a little too much fun to stop now, he nodded. “Yeah, I promised my fillyfriend that the two of us would have lunch together,” Ares said with a slightly embarrassed grin. “Is it alright if I take my lunch break now, or do you want me to—“

“Remember you can take your lunch break anytime you like,” Tulip interrupted. “I don’t want you rushing back and forth trying to get something to eat. Just make sure that you don’t go missing all day and you’ll be fine.”

Ares nodded. “Okay, ma’am, but I’ll still make sure to keep my lunch breaks at an hour max.”

Tulip nodded. “Just make sure to get something to eat, Ares; a full employee always works harder than one who’s barely eaten,” she pointed toward the sink in the corner. “Now go wash up before you get outside; I’m sure the princess doesn’t want to see you covered in dirt.”

“Alright, thank you.” Ares was about to walk to the sink but he stopped. “Ms. Tulip, would it be alright if I snagged a few of those yellow roses?” He smiled at his boss. “I promised my—“

Giggling to herself, Tulip waved a hoof dismissively. “Take as many as you like,” she said kindly. “And since you’ve been working so hard today why don’t you take the rest of the day off?”

Ares frowned. “Are you sure? I don’t wanna leave you here with the rush hour on the way.”

Rolling her eyes, Tulip trotted over to him, nudging his leg with a hoof. “We’ve already had the lion’s share of customers here today; most ponies only come here in ones and twos after lunch, so you don’t need to worry about me.”

She giggled again before trotting toward her register. “Now go on home and enjoy your lunch! No buts; get that fanny of yours out the door.”

“...Are you sure?”

“Yes I’m sure; now get!”

What a nice mare, Ares thought, cleaning himself up before making toward the section of the store dedicated to roses.

He casually walked through the aisles until he came upon what he assumed to be plain old roses yellow roses. “There you are,” he mumbled, leaning in and intently staring at the big, thriving bushes. “I thought you guys were here…”

Though the human was, admittedly, an experienced florists, he failed to take into account that there were different species of flowers on this plants that he was unfamiliar with. He also failed to assume that his boss might have a magical flower or two out in the open along with the normal flowers, but, since everything, at least in the flower shop, seemed to look and smell the same as they did back home, one could forgive Ares in his lapse of judgement.

Since Tulip was busy at the counter she wasn’t there to tell him that instead of taking a bakers dozen of just plain yellow roses, the poor human took a bouquet of the rare and magical plant fleur de la luxure, which, to be fair, looked exactly like a rose. Since she knew so little of his world, and since she may have forgotten what her aunt had said about the human, and since he had shown that he knew what he was doing, she automatically assumed that he knew what to watch out with magical flowers. And, since every magical flower in her store was safe (all except the one that he was now handling, as a matter of fact), she didn’t bother showing him the different flowers or how similar some of them were with other normal flowers.

The fleur de la luxure was one of these flowers that blended in with the common yellow rose; in fact, the only significant difference between the two was the very slight glow that the magical flowers gave off, something that Ares assumed to be a trick of the light as he carefully cut the flowers from their bushes and placed them into a little plastic cone.

The fleur de la luxure happened to have another name, as it were: often it was simply called the “lusty rose”. Ares would find out why it was called this in the best of ways.

<><><>~_~_~_~<><><>

The streets were crowded with ponies, all who were probably trying to get something to eat, but all of them stopped what they were doing to go and say hello to the infamous cuddle monkey. Ares waved and chatted with a few of them, and played with a few kids, but he made his way to the castle as quickly as possible, the thought of filling his belly spurring him on.

I wonder what we’re gonna eat, He thought, nodding at a few of the guards as he made his way through the castle’s entrance. I could really go for some more piz—

“Hey, Ares!”

Ares stopped and turned toward a smiling Flash and a stone-faced and statue-like Shining Armor, both who appeared to be guarding the hallway. Ares raised an eyebrow when he saw that Shining was armored and armed with a spear.

Huh, it looks like he got the job, he thought. Well… good for him.

For a second, he wondered why the hell Cadence had given him the job, but after giving it a second thought, he mentally shrugged. If Shining got the job that only made it easier for the two of them clear the air with each other, and that was just what Ares was going to try to do. If he wanted to be a Crystal Guard that was fine by him, and since they were probably going to be seeing a lot more of each other now, he felt that the least he could do was offer an olive branch and at least try to be friendly.

“Hey Flash,” he said, hoofbumping his friend when a hoof was offered. “What are you two doing?”

Flash’s chest puffed out. “The Cap-er, Shining here got the job this morning, and the two of us got assigned together!” Flash winked and nudged Shining. “I’m supposed to show him the ropes.”

Shining’s eye twitched slightly. “I was a guard a heck of a lot longer than you,” Shining muttered in annoyance. “And the two of us are supposed to be watching this hall, Flash, not just talking to ponies will-nilly.”

Not able to help himself, Ares said, “Well, lucky for you I’m not a pony then huh?”

Ares and Flash looked at Shining expectantly, the two of them frowning when Shining simply ignored the comment. Ares and Flash looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes, a silent conversation going on between the two, one that simply said awkward.

While Ares had just told himself that he was going to try and play nice with Shining he couldn’t even pretend to ignore the slight tension that was building in the hall. He didn’t know if Shining had a beef with him or not, but he couldn’t help but admit that, until the two of them managed to talk it out, it was going to be weird being around each other, since Ares had the whole I’m-probably-going-to-be-having-sex-with-your-ex-wife-while-you’re-in-the-same-castle-on-the-regular thing going on.

It was honestly a situation that he had never been in, and he really wasn’t sure how to deal with it. Should he talk to Cadence about this whole thing first? Should he bring it up with Shining right now? Should the two of them just go and beat the shit out of each other like he’d first offered? He didn’t know; but what he did know was that he probably should stop just standing around like an idiot and say something to make this whole situation a little less tense and weird.

Come on you pussy, stop just standing there and say something!

“Hey, good for you, Shining,” Ares said with a smile. “I’m happy that you got the job.” Shining frowned when Ares flicked his helmet but remained silent.

Biting his lip, Ares fumbled, trying to come up with something to ignite the conversation. “...So you’re all suited up now? You’re looking pretty spiffy.” He crouched down and looked him over. “Did Candy give you your old rank back or…”

“Cadence made me a private,” Shining said, eyes still forward.

Ares nodded, reaching over and patting Flash’s side before getting back up. “Well it was nice talking to you guys... but I gotta go and get something to eat.” Ares turned back toward Shining, who was still looking forward, debating on saying something more before shaking his head before starting to walk down the hall.

“Ares!”

Ares looked back at Shining, who was still looking forward.

“…You have a good day and thank you; it means a lot to me to be back in the guard.”

Ares nodded, cracking a smile. “I’ll see you two around.”

Flash smiled as his friend made his way down the hall and around the corner, turning and smiling at his old captain. “I told you that it wasn’t going to be that bad,” he chided with a shove.

Shining shoved him back, almost knocking the pegasus over. “Will you be quiet and stand still,” he growled. “I swear I’ve seen green recruits move around less than you.”

With a grin, Flash looked forward and adjusted his grip on his spear. “Whatever you say… Private.”

“… Buck off.”

^#@#$

You know, I was surprised with how little paperwork that was waiting for me in my little office. Don’t get me wrong, there was a stack that reached the ceiling, but I was honestly expecting there to be ten times as much. Drafts for new laws, approval for construction around the city, even letters from some of the local schools; pages upon pages of things that I had to read and either sign, hold for later, or throw out.

I’d gotten up bright and early (not as early as Ares, but it was pretty close) and after having that slightly awkward conversation with Shining, I had trotted to my office eagerly with the intent to work my flank off.

Surprisingly, diving headfirst into my work wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be; in fact I may have enjoyed myself just a little bit. I breezed through most of the bills; put aside any letters or cards from foals that I had gotten to look at later, and wrote at least fifty letters, all with a big smile on my face.

My little vacation was just what I needed, I thought, dipping my quill into my inkwell and quickly putting my signature onto a document and putting it in the finished pile. I hummed a little tune as I started reading another paper. I might be able to get all of this work finished in an hour or two in fact!

I know that sitting behind a desk signing and writing things all day may not have sounded like the most excited job, but I could honestly say that it was good to be back. After being gone from my ponies for months, I was back with a fresh mind and lots of new ideas on how to make their, and my, lives easier and better. With each letter read and with each document thought over and signed, be it a draft for a law, somepony asking for a building permit, or just somepony asking me for a recommendation for this and that, my little ponies lives became better and better.

Now I just need to make sure that this work ethic stays around for a while longer, I thought with a giggle, frowning when I finished reading a nobles written request to tear down a museum next to his house so he could put in an in-ground swimming pool.

“The nerve of some ponies,” I muttered, crumpling up the letter and tossing it in the trash can. “I swear to Faust there’s something wrong with the gentry…”

I was about to reach for the next piece of paper from my ever-decreasing “need to look at” pile but I heard a knock on my door.

“Candy, are you in there?”

There’s Ares, I thought with a smile, putting down my quill and leaning back into my chair. I guess I don’t have to send a guard to get him after all.

“Come on in, Honey,” I called. “I was just finishing up some paperwork.”

The door was opened, revealing a tired-looking, but smiling, Ares. “There you are, Candy. I was wondering where the hell you were holed up.

I eyed the roses in his hand hungrily, my stomach suddenly reminding me that it had been empty since early this morning with a quiet growl. “I see you got me my snack,” I said, quickly hopping out of my chair and trotting toward my human. “Thank you; I was starting to get a little hungry.”

Giving him a peck on the cheek, I took the roses out of his hand and started nibbling on one of the buds as Ares started walking around my office.

Boy, these taste weird, I thought, eyeing them. And, now that I look at them…Wait, are these GLOWING?...

“...Ares, honey, are you sure that these are roses?” I asked, staring down at the bouquet. “They taste a little… odd.”

Ares snorted good-naturedly, eyeing me and crossing his arms. “Candy, I think I’d know what a rose looks like,” he replied, pointing at my trash can. “But if you want to stop eating them if you want.”

I hugged the roses against my chest protectively. “No, that’s alright,” I said. “These might taste a little… funny, but they’re still good. And besides; I’m hungry.”

Ares nodded, going back to walking around my room while I went back to eating my flowers, which seemed to be getting better and better with each one that I ate.

“So this is where you do all of your princess-y stuff?” Ares mumbled, his hand sliding along my
desk.

I nodded, finishing a rose in just a few bites before all but attacking the next one. “Yep, this is where the magic happens,” I chirped. “Make sure you don’t touch any of those papers; I need to still look at some of those.”

Ares walked around my little office for a minute or two, poking or picking up this and that, before becoming bored, walking over and hopping into my chair with a plop and a thoughtful hum. “You know, you should think about putting something interesting in here,” he said, waving around the, admittedly, Spartan room.

I nodded in agreement. “You might be right,” I admitted, walking over and plopping myself into his lap, still stuffing my face. “I’ve been thinking about giving this office a more personal touch for a while now.” I leaned back against him. “But I’ve just never got around to it.”

Ares wrapped his arms around me, one of his hands tickling my belly. “I’ll make sure to get you one of those little water bird things.”

“How was work?” I asked, finishing another one of the odd tasting roses. I cooed as my human hand rubbed my stomach in a slow circular motion.

“It was great; my boss is a little too quiet for my taste, but I’m sure I’ll get her to warm up to me in a week or two,” Ares replied.

“How longs your lunch break?” I tried to get myself to move around to look at my coltfriend but found that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I guess finishing all of that paperwork was more tiring that I thought it was going to be.

“I got the rest of the day off,” I giggled when Ares laid his head on my shoulder and kissed my neck. “She said that she didn’t want to keep me any longer since I got in so early.”
I brought the bouquet closer with my magic, and I was about to take another bite out of the yummy flowers, but then I noticed that I had finished each of the roses down to the stems.

Wiping my face with a hoof, I tossed the remnants of my snack into the trash can. Wiggling out off my human’s lap, I said, “Well, that’s great that you have the rest of the day off, honey.” I looked back at my paperwork with a small frown. “How about I spend the rest of the day with you after I get all of this finished, hum?”

It was a reasonable suggestion; I was, after all, a princess that had duties to her kingdom and her people. Ares though didn’t seem to be in the reasonable mood.

Getting out of my chair, he nudged his head toward the door. “Naha; you wanted the two of us to eat together so don’t give me any of that.”

I tried to move toward my desk but he stopped me, nudging me with his foot while keeping his arms spread out wide. “But honeeeey! I have to finish all of--epp!” I yelped as my human picked me up, placing a hand firmly under my rump, and began carrying me toward the door.

I was about to struggle, but then I noticed that there was something… odd about Ares at that moment; or rather, there was something odd about his scent. I couldn’t help but inhale the oddly intoxicating scent of sweat and flowers, pressing my nose against Are’s neck, to my own surprise.

Sweet Faust does he smell nice, I thought, letting Ares fiddle with whatever he was fiddling with in my room.

My tail curled partly around his waist, and my wings encircled his back; Ares’s smell was honestly… doing things to me, starting to make me want to do things with him in my office that would be considered wildly inappropriate.

...I’m I going into an early heat or something?! I thought in confusion , managing to getting some sense back into my head by giving it a shake. Biting my lip, I looked up at Ares with a mixture of trepidation, eagerness, and worry. Because it bucking feels like it!!!

I knew for a fact that I wasn’t going into heat for at least another three months (I had been dreading having that conversation with Ares for a while now) but I swear to you that I could barely think straight. I tried to take deep breaths to calm myself, but all I did was breath in more of my sexy honey’s scent, which made it worse and worse until I was ready to just jump him and tear those clothes of his right off!

You need to calm down and figure out what’s going on, I thought, wiggling out of my human’s grasp, trying to look as calm as possible. Maybe there was something in those flowers, or maybe…

I couldn’t get the thought of my Ares standing over me naked, with a hungry look in his eyes as he tackled me into our bed. I tried to rub my back legs together to try to calm myself down, tried to do some breathing exercises that I had taught Twilight when she was little, but nothing was working. I wanted, no, needed to feel Ares inside me, rutting me again and again and again until either of us could so much as think.

Youreallyneedtobuckingcalmdownand--

I froze as my human threw open my office door and walked out into the hallway, eyeing his flank. Against my better judgement, I slowly cast a very weak love spell, the small heart floating into the air before hitting Ares’s back.

Pleasedon’thurthim!

Ares stopped in the middle of the hallway, looking around before looking over his shoulder at me. “Are you coming, Candy?” He asked, seemingly normal, to my relief.

“Y-Yeah!’ I squeaked, trotting after him. “I’m coming!”

I had barely put any magic into that spell, so there was a good chance it wasn’t going to hurt him; at worst it might give him a little stomach ache or something like, but if it works…

Then momma’s getting some tonight!

~--~--~<><><>~--~--~

“Spike, could you please get me Silver Salon’s book of advanced magical formulas and logarithms?”

Twilight watched as her little assistant saluted before darting toward another section on the library.

“Hang on, Twi, I’ll have it for ya in a second!” Spike called.

She leaned back into her chair and eyed her notes with a smile. “Just make sure that you don’t knock over anything, Spike,” she called back. “I don’t wanted either of us making a bigger mess than we already have.”

Even though it had been nice to take a little vacation from her studies, Twilight was happy to be home with her friends and her books. The girls had been curious, and worried, as to why she had seemingly just left out of the blue one day (she hadn’t been able to tell them about Ares at first), but, as the weeks had gone on, and she had written more and more about the alien that had become her friend, they understood why she had to go away. In fact, it seemed like they were almost disappointed about not seeing the “alien” for themselves..

That and Rarity still can’t believe I got a coltfriend, Twilight thought with a smug smile, quietly thanking Spike as he handed her the book she had asked for.

The little dragon himself, for the hundredth time that day, took a second to just look around the room. The main lobby of the library, usually spick and span, was covered, from the floor to the walls, in notes, papers. Looking to his left, Spike saw a dozen little projects, in various stages of completeness, scattered around tables and chairs, along with cups and cups of coffee.

While he was pretty much used to Twilight’s study-binges, he hadn’t seen a doozy like this in a while; which could be a really good, or a really bad thing. And, since he really didn’t feel like dealing with another one of Twilight’s accidental world-ending spells (he was still cleaning up from the last one) he decided to dragon up and call her out on it.

Twiddling his thumbs, the drake looked up at his boss/sister/mentor. “So, Twi, why are you trying to create a long-distance teleportation spell?”

“Because Princess Luna asked me to look into it, Spike,” she said matter-of-factly, quickly writing down a few squiggles of what looked like gibberish on an ink-stained piece of paper. “She wants to see if we can teleport a pony long distances without having to waste an impossible amount of magic doing it.”

Twilight giggled excitedly, clutching her notes. “Just think about the social applications of this, Spike! We could send a pony from one point of Equestria to another in an instant!”

Spike, a frown coming to his face, slowly crossed his arms as the unicorn practically skipped around the room.

“Nopony would have to worry about the dangers and general stress of travel. All you’d need to do is find a unicorn that is sufficiently powerful and bam: you’re anywhere you want to be!”

“…But you need to find somepony with enough power to do it, right?” Spike questioned, getting up on his tippy toes to look at the notes. “If this actually works…”

Twilight stumbled, her excited grin fading slightly. “Well, at first the princesses will probably be the only ponies that would have the power to ever be able to attempt the spell,” she allowed, before her grin came back full force, “but if this spell works, that means there’s a chance that it can be modified until the average pony could do it.” Twilight giggled again. “And I’ll be the pony that pioneers something like this! Ponies will be writing books about me, Spike; books!”

While Spike could have pointed out that he had been helping with the spell just as much as Twilight, therefore earning him at least some of the credit, and while he was also sure that ponies must have tried to make a spell like this before, and obviously failed, he just decided to keep his mouth shut; trying to argue with Twilight would be worthless at the state she was in.

He would try to explain to Twilight why this might not be the best idea, she’d argue with him that this was, in fact, an amazing idea and that whole world would be revolutionized when she made it work, they’d argue some more, he’d leave, something bad would happen, she’d apologize to him and buy him a load of gems, he’d forgive her, and the cycle would then start again.

The best thing that he could do was let the crazy scientist do what she wanted until he either had to call the princess to come down here and beat the snot out of some other-worldly creature, she actually managed to do it, or blew up in their faces. Luckily for Spike, dragons were a hardy race, so he was sure that he’d be alright… probably.

You know, I wanted to go see Rarity today, he thought, waddling over and grabbing another stack of clean paper. But I guess going to sit here and make sure that Twilight doesn’t summon some archdemon… again.

“I swear to Celestia I don’t get paid enough for this,” Spike muttered.

Twilight, overhearing him, said, “Spike, I don’t pay you at all silly!”

Spike looked back at her stone-face. “Exactly.”

~-~-~-~-<>~~<>==<>~~<>~-~-~-~-~

“Do you require anything else, your Majesty?”

Luna looked up from her book at the servant that was looking back at her with a smile. Humming in thought, she shook her head. “Nay; that will be all,” she waved a hoof at the door, “thou may leave.”

Luna looked back down at her book as the pony quickly left, a small frown on her face as she quickly read the lines. “It appears that this spell may be more difficult than We thought,” she muttered, leaning back into her pillow.

Since she wasn’t able to woo Ares and Cadence for a while longer, the Princess of the Night had focused her attention elsewhere: namely on her sharpening her wooing/cooking/swave skills. Romance novels, how to guides, even asking ponies for advice, Luna had been busy making sure that she’d be able to woo their socks off the next time she saw them.

They will be eating out of our hooves in mere moments, she thought with a giggle. Young Twilight Sparkle simply needs to complete her task and all will be well.

Though it didn’t sound like a particularly difficult task for one who rose the moon, long distance teleportation was something that had always eluded Luna. For a number of years her, her sister, and their teacher had tried to come up with a spell to travel long distances in the blind of an eye, something that would greatly benefit pony kind as a whole, but they always seemed to end in failure.

Traveling a few feet or even a mile or ten was doable, tiring but doable, but any more than either left one of the sisters incapable of using magic for a long while, or not all of them made it to where they teleported (thank Faust that the only thing that they had lost was their manes and a bit of dignity), or they accidentally summoned something from a spectral plane. One would think that all you needed to do to travel further was just add a bit more magic for a simple teleportation spell but it seemed like it went deeper than that.

Sister and I may have failed but We are sure that Twilight will be able to think of something.
With a hum, Luna flipped a page. She always seems to “think outside the box”, as they say.

The countless nights wondering if what she was doing was selfish or cruel wouldn’t matter, all of those evenings of her sister begging her to stop the little “crush” and go out with that nice pizza colt down the street would be just another day dream if she could just feel Ares’ hand on her cheek. Luna was tired to dancing around nobles, and her sister, and the world, she just wanted to look up at somepony, tell them that she loved them, and hear them way it back. Was that really too much to ask; couldn’t she just have a little love and happiness for herself?

Pausing mid page, she looked out her window at her sister’s sun. “Everypony should be settled in now,” she muttered, ears splaying back. “We do not wish them to hate us; even with our confession they are still our favored companions, so if they truly wish us to stop we will end it.”

Luna gulped at the thought but still looked into her sister’s bright star. “But all we ask for is one chance; one chance to show Ares, and Cadence, that we truly, truly care.”

A frown came to her face. “If we fail, there is always that pizza colt; sister would hound me until
Tartarus rose up from the earth if I didn’t at least give the poor colt a chance…”

Author's Notes:

Sorry if there are any errors in the ch, my editors busy moving and stuff, but the edited ch should be out in a day or two.

Also, sex in the next ch, fair warning.