It had been a short but heartfelt walk to the castle for Princess Celestia and her little group. Words were exchanged, hugs and nuzzles were had all around, and the Princess of the Sun had made it a point to have a wing draped over her younger niece for the entirety of it. And though Cadence hadn’t said it Celestia and her little group could tell that she appreciated their kind words and hugs after the horrible, horrible few days that she had had.

The Crystal guard, having already been informed of Celestia’s coming by Princess Luna long before they had even stepped off their train, had let everyone in without a fuss, though Ares (who staunchly refused to speak to anyone without cursing them out) was given a few odd looks and a chuckle or two. But the merriment was short-lived as Celestia told everyone but her, Cadence, and Luna to wait in what was going to be one of their guest rooms before whisking Cadence away so she could be properly looked over. And with all three alicorns gone that left Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie in a rather awkward situation with one Ares the human, who looked about ready to pop a blood vessel.

“…Ares?” Twilight said as the human rolled around on the ground, muttering curses to himself and struggling against his wrapping paper confines for all that he was worth. “Do you want me to help you out of all that?” The bookworm was about to make her way over to the poor man when Rainbow stepped in front of him.

“What the hay are you talking about, Twi?” Rainbow asked, looking at her friend in confusion before giving Ares the stink-eye. “We can’t let him go now! We gotta wait until one of the princesses comes back here and makes sure that he’s not evil or whatever!”

Ares stopped to look up at the Rainbow-maned Pegasus. “Hey, fuck you too Rainbong Splash!” Growling he started rolling around again. “I was the one that thought it’d be a good idea to jump someone and their boss for no good fucking reason!!”

Rainbow gasped. “HEY! My name is Rainbow Dash you weird diamond dog thing and we weren’t the ones that—“

Snorting, Applejack took a step forward, silencing her friend with a stern look, and walked over to Ares.

“Now partner,” she said, stopping his rolling by gently but firmly placing a hoof on his back. “I’ah know yer ornerier ‘as a fox locked out of a hen house, but we’re gonna need ya ta calm down.”

The farm pony looked down at Ares with her most disarming smile. “The Princess is just tryin’ ta do what’s best fer Cadence an’—“

Ares stopped his struggling and growling to look up at Applejack as best as he could from his position on the floor, and, looking her over for a moment or two, he said, “You will rue this day, you silly little horse.”

Applejack stopped mid-sentence, her mouth agape, and just looked at him while the other girls just looked at each other uncomfortably. “I’ah… I’ah beg yer pardon?”

Ares’ eyes narrowed. “I said that you’re about to get the rueing of a lifetime you country-sounding, hat wearing, freckle-faced little horse,” he said, all emotion leaving his voice. “I’m going to rue your socks off, and that cowboy hat of yours…. You know what? I’m going to rue all of you while I’m at it. I’ll rue you all good and hard.”

Now frowning, Ares rolled onto his back and just stared up at the ceiling while Applejack very slowly lifted her hoof off of him and stepped away. “Oh… Alright then partner… Twi?”

With a look of concern Twilight took a step forward. “…Ares? Are you alright there?”

Ares didn’t answer Twilight for a long while, simply staring up at the ceiling as if deep in thought. But when the young man did open his mouth to speak, every single mare in the room leaned forward to hear what he had to say.

“Well, Twilight, I’m hung over and the headache that had started going away a little while ago is now back because I got jumped by two random horses that beat my ass--”

“And we beat your flank too!” Rainbow added smugly, getting an elbow to the ribs by Applejack as Ares continued.

“I got tied up by said two horses in Christmas wrapping paper that seems indestructible for some inconceivable reason and carried outside and thrown onto the ground like I was a sack of fucking flour—“

“You were heavier than you looked and me and Dashie really didn’t mean to drop you mister,” Pinkie Pie said with an apologetic smile.

“Where Celestia then hops on my poor beaten up body talking so fast that I couldn’t fucking understand her, and then you pick me up, ignoring whatever the hell I had to say, and carry my ass back to the castle. And, the second that Cadence sees me, you grab my girlfriend and drag her away to god knows where while I once again get carried off to some random part of the castle.”

Ares rolled onto his side so he could look at Twilight. “Of course I’M NOT FUCKING ALRIGHT! NOW GET ME OUT OF THIS SO I—FUCK! I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT I’M GOING TO DO WHEN—“

Rarity slowly walked forward until she was side by side with Twilight, the two of them watching Ares, practically foaming at the mouth, once again started rolling around on the ground trying his hardest to break free of his admittedly silly confines while he cursed and swore and shouted..

“Well dear… you weren’t wrong in saying that Mr. Ares was a... character….”

“One of you little marshmallow horses just get a little closer, I fucking dare ya! I’m gonna boop you so hard not even your mother's will recognize ya!”

Twilight couldn’t help but smile as she looked over at her friend. “It takes a bit to get used to him,” she admitted, while Pinkie hopped around Ares giggling to herself as he tried to bite her. “But Ares will grow on you. I promise.”

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_

“Cadence could you please lift your left wing for me?”

I did as my Aunt Celestia asked, doing my very best to ignore both of my aunts poking—both by physical and magical means—and prodding. I couldn’t stop them since auntie Celestia had put a magic dampener on me the second that she laid eyes on me, and looking at fear and terror in her eyes, coupled with her shaky and extremely nervous tone and the way that she was carrying herself, I knew moving any other way than what she wanted me to wouldn’t do me any favors. So all I was able to do was try to ignore them while silently wondering why the hay was Ares all wrapped in Heart’s Warming wrapping paper.

Probably not the best question to ask at that moment but I really needed to keep my mind occupied so I just didn’t explode from embarrassment.

I twitched as a numbing sensation passed through my body. “Epp!”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw my auntie Celestia looking at me with a small smile. “I’m sorry, Cadence honey,” she apologized. “I should have warned you first.”

I opened my mouth to say something but another squeak escaped my mouth when Luna gave my flank what suspiciously felt like a squeeze.

“We already told thee that We had Cadence checked out the other day, dear sister,” she said, ignoring my glare as she moved my tush this way and that with her hooves. I don’t know why she was poking my bottom like that – I’m pretty sure the only evil there was the result of eating too many cookies late at night— but once again I managed to keep my mouth shut about it. Barely.

I felt Celestia’s wings brush against my sides before a hoof prodded my stomach.

“And I believe that I told you that dark magic has a way of hiding itself when somepony’s trying to look for it,” my aunt answered, leaning down and pressing her ear against my barrel. “And it’s not like checking a second time is going to hurt anything.”

I twitched once again and bit my lip when I felt somepony giving my thigh a pinch. “My dignity, that’s what it’s going to hurt…” I grumbled while flexing and unflexing my wings. “Heck, the only way you could make this any worse is if you start poking around under my tail…”

Which I was going to make sure that neither of the two were going to even try by the way. I might have understood the whole checking me for magic thing (kind of) but there was no way in Tartarus that I was going to let them do that. I might not have had that much shame left but even I knew when to draw the line!

I heard Auntie Celestia chuckle. “Oh, don’t be such a baby, Cadence,” she told me with a teasing poke to the shoulder. “I used to bathe you all of the time when you were little, so I’ve seen, and scrubbed, all of you already honey.”

I couldn’t help but blush, squirming in embarrassment as Luna chuckled behind me. Oh sweet gods above please let this be over soon, I begged.

“Worry not, Cadence, we will be finished with our inspection in a few minutes,” Luna assured. “And after we see that thou art free of any corruption thou will be free to go about the castle as thou wish.”

I shivered slightly when I felt Luna’s magic encase each of my feathers, the ticklish sensation almost making me want to flap them.

“And after we hath finished with thee we will go to Ares to see if he is clean as well.”

Celestia nodded, walking around so she was face-to-face with me. “But even if everything turns up clean I still have to insist that the elements and I stay here to watch over you,” she said with an apologetic look on her face as she leaned in and nuzzled me. “I still need to know what happened and what made you turned into that… thing…”

Though my aunt had done her best to keep her voice even, I couldn’t help but hear just a bit of fear in it. So, with one of my first genuine smiles of the day I leaned over and nuzzled her right back.

“You all can stay as long as you like,” I said as Celestia began gently touching my face with her magic for… some reason. “If what happened was nothing but nerves and some bad luck then at the very least I get to spend some time with you all.”

My aunt’s smile widened as she continued to look me over. “I’m sure everything’s just fine with you, honey,” she chirped, sounding a little calmer. “And your old aunt would love to hear how you’ve been these past few months since you’ve left.”

I tensed as another burst of magic passed through me before relaxing with a sigh. “Oh, nothing really out of the ordinary happened… well other than what Luna told you about.”

The smile slipped from my aunt’s face. “Yes… I heard about what happened to Ares.” She shook her head. “Why on earth would anypony try to take such a sweet stallion is beyond me...”

I had a few ideas why Higher and the others would take my Ares, but once again I decided to keep my mouth shut. I had Echo dealing with that little problem, and there was no need to get Celestia any more worried than she already was.

“And speaking of Ares, how has he been doing? I would have asked him but we were all in a hurry getting to you.” My aunt smiled again. “And I suspect that even if I would have asked him the poor dear wouldn’t have said anything from the sour look on his face.”

“Oh, he’s been doing fine,” I say with a quiet giggle, the image of an angry wrapped up Ares filling my head. “I’ve been making sure he’s adjusting to life in the empire and it looks like he’s happy here.” I shifted my weight from left to right, giving myself a shake to keep my body from going stiff. “Did Luna tell you that he managed to get a job at a flower shop?”

My aunt bit her lip. “Well… Two of Twilight’s friends might have found Ares and… incapacitated him, along with his boss in a small flower shop… So I suppose that makes sense…”

I groaned and closed my eyes. “They didn’t hurt anypony too bad did they?”

Celestia shook her head. “No, though I’m afraid that I may owe the owner of that flower shop a wagon full of bits because of all of the damage…”

I groaned again. Oh I hope that she didn’t get poor Ares fired, I thought, biting my lip.

If I had known that my aunt was going to do all of... this I would have said something to my little human before he left for work this morning. The two of us could have just stayed in bed while Luna watched us. Yeah, that would have been nice…

Seeing my face, Celestia patted my cheek with a wing. “Oh I’m sure that young mare will be completely understanding if I go down there and apologize myself. I don’t want poor Ares to lose his job over something so silly as a simple misunderstanding between him, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash.”

I sighed, once again closing my eyes. “And speaking of Ares, I think that he should know what really happened yesterday.” This time I barely twitched when Luna poke me, my ears flattening against the sides of my head as I thought about how that conversation was going to go.

I mean how was I going to tell my coltfriend that I had turned into a monster and nearly killed four ponies?!

You’ll just need to look him in the eye and tell him the truth, I thought. He’ll love you no matter what… no matter what…

With a final pop of magic, which sent a small jolt from the tip of my horn to the bottom of my hooves, my aunt took a step away from me.

“There doesn’t appear to be any corruption in you as far as I can tell, Cadence,” she said, sounding relieved.

My eyes snapped opened and I couldn’t help but smile. “Really? Oh thank goodness…”

I could almost feel Luna’s grin behind me. “We told thee sister mine,” she said, rubbing against my side as she walked over toward Celestia. I blushed and was about to say something when her starry tail tickled my nose.

“Aurgh!” I yelped, taking a few quick steps back.

Luna looked over her shoulder, flashing me an uncomfortably lewd smile and a wink before standing beside Celestia, who glared at her for a moment before shaking her head and muttering something under her breath.

“Alright, now that we’ve checked you out I believe that it would be best to look to Ares.”

Luna nodded while I walked over to the other side of my aunt. “Aye, though I fear that the results will be the same. I made sure to check Ares thoroughly whilst he and Cadence slept.”

My eyes widened. “Wait! You were poking at Ares while he was sleeping?!”

Luna shrugged. “We wouldn’t have been able to do it while he was awake and inebriated as he was. Ares would have needed to stay still during the examination and even as drunk as he was there may have been a chance that he would have become suspicious as to what We were doing to him and why we were doing it. And since We didn’t want to tell him what happened yesterday...”

I calmed down a bit at that. “…Oh, alright then.”

“And if it makes thee feel any better we also searched thee while thou were slumbering in his arms.”

“That… that does not make me feel any better, Luna.”

Rolling her eyes, Celestia nudged her sister. “Come on you two, no dilly-dallying.”

The walk through the castle was uneventful. My aunts and I chatted about nothing in particular while I did my best to stay away from Luna’s grabby hooves. I don’t know if she was just teasing me or if she was trying to seduce me so I would be okay with me, her, and Ares being together but I knew for a fact that it was weird. Don’t get me wrong, I was more than a little flattered (in the barest possible way mind you) but I had no desire to be groped and teased by one of my aunts while the other watched… Or at all for that matter.

“HA! IS THAT THE BEST YOU GOT!”

Me and my aunts froze as those words echoed through the halls.

“…Was that Ares?” Luna asked.

“YOUR RESISTANCE ONLY MAKES THIS WORSE!”

“NO ARES NO!”

My aunts and I looked at each other before taking off down the hall like their tails were on fire. Without a second thought I sprinted after them.

Nononono! Pleasepleaseplease don’t let this be what I think it’s going to be, I begged, running around both of my bigger, and therefore slower, aunts. I made a beeline for the door, and I tried to run over and grab it but Auntie Celestia yanked me back with a spell.

“Get out of the way, Cadence!” Celestia snapped, her tone hard and authoritative as she all but shoved herself past me and opened the door…

…Where Ares was hunched over a hysterically laughing Twilight, who was on her back kicking her hooves helplessly as he tickled her.

“Ares no! Noooooo!” Twilight cried, trying to bat his hands away with her hooves while she wiggled and rolled.

Blinking, I looked around to see that Twilight’s other friends were scattered throughout the bedroom, each and every one of them red-faced and giggling and on their backs. Seeing that my Ares hadn’t turned into some horrible nightmare monster my legs very nearly gave out in relief.

“Oh thank Faust,” I muttered, leaning on the door frame and just taking a couple of deep breaths.

Ares, not having noticed my aunts or I yet, continued with his merciless tickle attack with a cackle. “You think you can wrap me up like some present and get away with it purple?” he demanded, his fingers dancing across Twilight’s belly, chest, and even neck. “Well how about this! And this!”

I couldn’t help but smile as Twilight started to giggle-snort like she did when she was little. Her legs started to kick all the harder, and her horn kept sparking up for some kind of spell, but it did nothing to stop the tickle monster that was my coltfriend. “A-Ares, stop! I-I’ll tell the p-princess o-on y-you!”

Dropping down on his knees, Ares grabbed Twilight and brought her close against him. “Sun bottom has no power here, Twilight! You’re in my realm now!”

Twilight’s eyes widened when she realized what he was about to do, and with a yelp she began squirming and wiggling as fast and as hard as she could. “ARES! ARES! DON’T YOU BUCKING DAR—AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! STOPITSTOPITSTOPITPLEEEEEASE!”

Luna sighed in relief next to me as Ares continued to raspberry Twilight. “Oh thank the gods,” she muttered while me and Celestia just watched as Ares did his best to tickle Twilight senseless. “I thought that something—“

“Don’t worry, my faithful student!” Celestia yelled, making both Luna and I jump in surprise. “I’ll stop this terrible beast!”

With a battle cry that made me roll my eyes my aunt charged forward with a great big smile on her face. Ares was just able to look up from Twilight’s belly before he was tackled by Celestia, who, with a merry giggle wrapped her hooves around him and started to roll into the ground.

Since my aunt was such a heavy mare (though it looked good on her. Really it did!) and my human was caught unaware, Ares was sent tumbling across the room with my aunt until he ended up on his back while my aunt, sitting on his stomach, looked down at him. Ares’ eyes rolled around in his head for a second before his gaze focused on my giddy (and incredibly silly) aunt.

“…Celestia? What are you—“

“Silence, foul beast!” my aunt yelled, standing over my Ares with her wings flared. “You have broken out of your bindings and have attacked a group of poor defenseless mares! And as their ruler and protector I cannot let that stand!”

Ares tried to squirm but Celestia pinned him in place with her hooves, her wings managing to lift up the bottom part of his shirt as he wiggled around.

Ares’ eyes widened. “Now wait just a fu-fu HEYDON’TDOTHATDON’TDOTHATGETOOOOFFFFFF!”

With a smirk on her Face, Celestia's wings snaked down, her feathers brushing along Ares’ stomach. “There’s no running, Ares! Now feel the wrath of the sun!”

“GETTHEFUCKOFFMYYOUFUCKINGHORSE!” Ares sputtered before he broke down into a fit of laughter that couldn’t help but warm my heart.

Twilight and the other girls, having finally collected themselves, looked up to see Celestia turning Ares into a red-faced and laughing mess. Smiling, and with some quiet giggles coming from each of them, they all crawled to their hooves.

“Come on girls! Let’s get him too!”

They all let out battle cries as they charged forward, almost knocking Celestia off her hooves as they crawled over each other to get to Ares.

Mrs. Rarity and Twilight magicked up great big feathers while also taking Ares’ shirt off all of the way, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy (who Twilight had told me was supposed to be a rather shy mare) had their wings at the ready, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie had gotten feather dusters from… somewhere and were brandishing them with an ill intent.

“Yes, come my little ponies!” Celestia said with a grin, rolling off Ares to stand by them. “Give this beast a taste of his own medicine!”

Ares, still shaking and giggling from Celestia’s tickle barrage, wiped a tear from his eye before getting to his knees and doing his very best to look intimidating. “You think you can stop me?” my human said in his best “evil” accent. “Me? Oh no, Sunny buns, you didn’t bring nearly enough cute little horses to stop MY PATH OF TICKLE DESTRUCTION!”

Before Twilight or her friends could say anything Ares launched himself forward toward my aunt. “CUDDLES FOR THE CUDDLE GOD! SNUGGLES FOR THE SNUGGLE THRONE!”

Pinkie Pie pointed a feather duster at him while the other elements stepped in front of my aunt to protect her. “Come on girls, we can take him! We can--”

Before she could finish Ares took two big steps before launching himself into the air. Twilight and her friends gasped, and I could see that they were already trying to stop him from getting to her but I knew they were already too late. My aunt seemed to know it too as she just stood there frozen in place as his arms reached out toward her.

Time seemed to slow down as Pinkie Pie and Applejack tried grabbing Ares out of the air while Twilight and Rarity smacked him on the head with their dusters. The other elements were also either reaching out to stop him or trying to push their princess out of the way but there honestly wasn’t going to be any way to stop Ares from getting to Celestia.

…Well, one of us could use our magic and lift him up into the air by his pants or something like that, but that would be cheating. Faust knows that you have to be honorable turning tickle battle! To cheat would make you no better than an animal really.

“Come ‘ere!”

“Ares, don—umph!”

Pinkie and Applejack went flying as Ares collided with my aunt, knocking her off her hooves and onto the ground.

“Princess no!” Twilight cried dramatically as Ares raised his hands to the heavens.

Luna snorted. “‘Tis but simple tickling, Twilight--”

“Somepony do something!” Fluttershy said, covering her eyes with her hooves. “H-He’s going to t-tickle her!”

“It’s tickling time princess!” my human gleefully told my aunt while everypony watched in “horror”.

Seeing that the tables where turned against her, Celestia looked up at my human with a nervous smile. “N-Now wait just a second, Ares,” she said, tucking her hooves against her chest in what I assumed was an attempt to shield herself from his fingers while her ears folded back against her head. “Why don’t we just talk about this for a moment, we don’t need—“

“FOR GLORY!”

And with that all Tartarus broke loose.

Ares started his tickle assault while my aunt, who instantly started giggle-snorting so hard that I’m sure half of the castle could hear it, did her best to bat him away with all four hooves.

Twilight and the others, not willing to let the cold-blooded assault on their princess stand any longer, slammed themselves against Ares, trying to knock him over while they all did their best to tickle every available part of his body, Twilight screaming something about protecting the princess, Ares screaming something about tickle gods, and my aunt just laughing her horseshoes off, all of them looking like they were having the time of their lives. And standing on the sidelines of all of this, still trying to figure out what the hay was happening, was me and Luna.

“Our sister truly knows when to leap into the fray,” Luna mused as the two of us watched Twilight and her friends wrestle Ares to the ground.

I nodded with a giggle. “Auntie must have missed Ares,” I chirped, sneakily taking off my royal vestments and putting them on a table in the corner of the room with my magic. “When she saw that everypony in here was playing around she must not have been able to help herself.”

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Luna had gotten the same idea as me, the midnight blue mare taking her crown and shoes off and putting them on the counter on the other side of the room while she sized everypony in the room up. Myself included.

The two of us exchanged quick glances at each other before looking back at the scuffle before us.

“What do you say that if the two of us come to poor Ares’ aid, my dear niece?”

I gave my wings a quick flap before crouching low with my rump in the air. “I don’t want my little human to be overwhelmed,” I said, giving my but a little shake as I readied myself to pounce.

Luna nodded. “Then let’s join the fray shall we?”

I won’t say that mine and Luna’s battle was an epic struggle. I also won’t say that the moment I tackled both Twilight and Rarity it was an uphill battle to keep myself from being overwhelmed. And I most certainly do not have it on good authority that, after a furious two and a half hour battle, Luna, Ares, and I, after nearly losing to a bigger and more powerful group, somehow managed to pull ahead and win the day like the heros we were. Nope, I won’t say that any of that happened.

…But I’m not saying that it didn’t happen.

All that I knew was after rolling around for Faust knows how long, using my magic, my wings, and anything else I could get my hooves on to tickle everything around me, I found myself in my loving human’s giggling arms with my auntie Celestia holding the two of us close to her chest with her wings wrapped securely around us.

I nuzzled my human, sighing in contentment as I wiggled myself against my aunt, enjoying her warmth and the softness of her coat. “I leave you alone for ten minutes and look at what the hay happened,” I murmured, smiling as Ares brushed a bit of hair out from my face. “You’re attacking a bunch of helpless mares with those paws of yours like some kind of brute.”

I squealed when I felt Ares’ hand give my stomach a tickle. Thinking fast I quickly grabbed the weapon of ultimate tickle doom and clenching it close to my chest.

“Helpless my ass,” Ares snorted, giving my chest a scratch as he lazily looked around our little battlefield. “Those six had me tied up helpless in some random room in the castle; if anything I was the helpless one.”

My human looked over at a smiling Twilight, who was busy talking to a half-asleep Applejack. “Lord knows what the hell would have happened if I hadn’t managed to get out of that wrapping paper when I did.”

Rolling my eyes, I give Ares a little nudge with my wing. “Oh I’m sure they would have done horrible, terrible things to you, my little human,” I teased as my aunt gave the top of my head a nuzzle. “How did you even manage to get out of that wrapping paper anyway? Last time I saw you were wrapped up pretty tight.”

“When Purple and her friend’s weren’t looking I managed to roll over to a table that had some scissors on top of them.” Ares gave himself a little shake as he shuddered. “I damn near poked my eye out, and I had to do some things that I don’t think my arms will ever forgive me for, but I managed to get them off the table and free myself so I could issue my brand of tickle based justice upon my captors.”

With a grin Ares looked up at my smiling aunt who in turn gave him a nuzzle. “And I believe that my student and her friends got their just deserts, Ares,” she said, her eyes twinkling in amusement. “Though I fear that this old mare might have gotten a bit too much dessert for her own good. I swear it already feels like I’m going to be sore in the morning after all of the laughing I did…”

Ares chuckled, before once again looking all around the room. “Yeah… this was pretty… something, but…”

When my human looked back up at my aunt his smile was gone, replaced with a look of curiosity and concern. “Do you mind telling me why I got jumped down at the flower shop?” Ares’ brow furrowed. “ Or why you were wearing that armor the first time I saw you, or why Twilight and all of these other little horses are here?”

I felt the warmth and comfort and happiness that I had been basking in drain away from me the second that Ares turned to look at me. “Candy here probably would have told me if you guys were just visiting…” He looked thoughtful for a few more seconds before once again smiling. “Wait! Did Candy not tell me so you guys could stuff me in that fucking wrapping paper?”

He chuckled as everypony in the room looked at each other solemnly. “That’s what it was wasn’t it? Oh and I bet that you got my boss in on it just to bust my balls that little bit—“

“Ares,” Celestia interrupted quietly. “Could you please get up for a second?”

All around us, Twilight, Luna, and the other girls were slowly getting to their hooves while I just laid against my aunt wide-eyed. The smile on my human’s face slowly disappeared when he saw the sea of now serious and business-like faces.

“…Oh, so that wasn’t it huh?” he asked, gently pulling his hand away from me before rolling off Celestia and onto his feet. “So what’s got you coming all the way up here then? ...Is it because of that weird monster thing I heard running around the castle yesterday?”

With an almost mournful look my aunt rolled to her hooves, walking over and nuzzling my human’s shoulder. “Ares, I’m going to need you to be a dear and take off that shirt of yours. I need to cast a spell on you to see if everything’s alright with you and I don’t want clothing to take away the full effect of the spell.”

Looking more confused by the second, Ares took a step away from my aunt, looking around the room warily before his gaze settled on me. “You know… I’ve never been a part of a surprise orgy but I think I know the signs of one when I see ‘em. First it’s ‘take your shirt off Ares,’ then it’s the pants and after that it’s getting tied up to the bed while you all have your way with me…”

Ares took another step back as a few of Twilight’s friends gasped in shock (more than one of them blushing), though everypony else didn’t react from the joke. My auntie Celestia may as well have been made out of stone, taking a step toward him. “Ares, please,” she said gently.

Working up my courage I stopped my human’s retreat with a wing. “Ares, honey…” I looked away from him before reaching up with both of my wings and cupping his face.

He has every right to know what happened, I thought in determination while I tried my hardest not to cry. He IS going to know what happened…

So I told him everything. I told him what all of that yelling and all of that “weird castle-shaking shit” was. I told him that I, in a moment of weakness, had turned into nothing less than a literal monster. I told him what I did to the clan leaders and what I had wanted to do to them, and I told him that the reason that my aunt and Twilight and her friends were here was to make sure that I’d never turn into that horrible, hateful thing that I had turned into. Or at least stop me if I turned into it again despite their best efforts.

Throughout my shaky explanation, an explanation where I had to stop in the middle to have a good, long cry, my little human listened with the kind of focus and attention that I don’t think I’ve ever seen from him. He didn’t say a word as I spoke while my aunt (carefully) made sure that there weren’t any evil magicks in him, just nodding every once in a while he looked at me with a blank expression.

Everypony in the room listened to what I said, and I don’t think there was a dry eye (other than Ares) in the room. I know for a fact that I had tears streaming down my face and my voice was cracking and I couldn’t look anyone in the eye by the time I finished.

But that was alright. Even though I was afraid that my human would be terrified to be around me, or, even worse, would want to leave me, I had done what I set out to do. I didn’t hold anything back and I had told him the whole truth. I might have had to lie to most of my subjects but there was no way in Tartarus that I was going to look my stallion in the eye and lie to him. He deserved better than that.

“S-So that’s what h-happened, honey,” I said, wiping my runny nose with a hoof while I sniffled.

“That’s w-why I w-was crying t-the other d-day, and t-that was why L-Luna kicked y-you out s-so early t-today.”

When Ares didn’t respond I kind of slumped forward a bit, keeping my gaze glued firmly on the ground. “I-I’ll understand i-if you w-want to l-leave t-the castle for a-a—“

There was a flurry of activity in front of me, causing me to look up. I watched as my human slowly got down on one knee and cupped my face with both of his hands. Wiping the tears from my eyes with his thumbs, my human looked me over for a long while before leaning in and kissing my nose. “Hey Candy?”

I sniffled again, feeling just a bit better now that I saw that Ares just hadn’t up and ran out of the room. “Yes H-Honey?” I whispered, nuzzling his hand.

“How do you feel about going on a date?” Ares ignored the gasps and looks of confusion that filled the room, giving me another kiss on the nose before giving me a toothy smile. “I was thinking about taking you to this nice little place down Emerald alley where all they do is put food in a chocolate fountain and make you eat it. And since you like chocolate and I like chocolate… well, I don’t know... I thought that it’d be fun to go to this weekend. Whatcha say?”

When I didn’t say anything (heck, I don’t think I even blinked) Ares frowned, gently closing my open mouth, what had just opened by itself out of sheer shock, before huffing. “Well tough shit. I got reservations, so we’re going whether you want to or not.”

Still smiling Ares pulled me into a tight hug. Reflexively I wrapped my wings around his shoulders and laid my head on his shoulder. “I don’t give a shit if you turned into a monster, Candy… not when the reservations were so fucking expensive.”

I looked around the room as I placed my head on my human’s shoulder. I could see the looks of shock, the looks of confusion, and the looks of disbelief on every single mare in the room. I’m sure that they were all expecting Ares to say something meaningful, something… more than just kind of joking his way through everything that I just said.

...But for some reason this felt… better than that. It didn’t feel forced, he didn’t say something that could have come out of a story book, heck, he didn’t even say that he was sure that everything would be alright and I’d get better quicker than you could wiggle your tail.

But I could hear the warmth in Ares’s voice when he spoke, and I could heard confidence in his voice. He wasn’t worried about me because he knew that I was going to be alright. He didn’t have any facts, he didn’t really know what was going on (he knew just as much as me and I had no idea what was happening or what was going to happen), but he just… knew that I was going to be alright. He knew that I was going to be alright and he was going to stay by my side the whole time until I got better.

My wings tightened around him just a little bit more and I couldn’t help but sniffle at the revelation. “I love you, baby,” I said in a tone only he would hear. “With all of m-my heart…”

My human’s grip tightened around just a little bit more. “I’d really hope so,” he said, kissing my cheek. “Otherwise those reservations would be fucking worthless.”

Author's Notes:

Hey, sorry that this one took so long. The last couple of weeks have been kind of hectic so I just kinda forgot to load this puppy up.

...My bad