Flash made his way through the corridors of the castle sluggishly, the Private trying not to shuffle his hooves as he wiped what felt like a river of sweat from his face. And Ares wonders why I always try to skip back-leg day, he thought sourly. I can’t bucking feel my butt, for goodness sake!

Flash’s mind slowly started to wonder as he auto-piloted the hallways. Going from average thoughts, like what he had eaten for lunch, to more… sensitive matters.

I wonder what she’s thinking, he mused, giving himself a little shake. Princess Luna can’t be that cruel, can she? Not that Flash was bothered when he had found out that his friend was getting his own guard.

Really, he was perfectly happy with it.

Echo seemed like a perfectly adequate guardspony—even if Ares and the bat mare didn’t seem like they liked each other very much—and he was looking forward to an easier workload; having to watch out for the princess and him at the same time was a little much.

That being said…

Clearing his throat, he gently but firmly knocked on his bedroom door. “Twilight,” he said. “It’s me, Flash. Could you unlock the door please?”

The stallion rocked back and forth until he heard a sigh, which was followed by a loud click. “There you go,” a voice quietly said through the door, Flash resisting the urge to smack his head against the floor in frustration.

Don’t worry, Flash, he thought to himself, opening the door and stepping into his and Twilight’s pitch-black room. You just need to be there for her. Twilight will be herself in a couple of days. A coltfriend needs to be there for his fillyfriend.

Yep, all he needed to do was look cool, give Twilight a smile--and maybe a back rub-- and she’d be that much closer to getting better.

Thud!

“Ooof!”

Flash, caught up in his day-dreaming, tripped over the rug and stumbled forward. It looked like he was going to save face, until he rammed right into the nightstand. “Oh horseapples!” With a pained squeak, he crashed onto the floor.

A bundle of books that were sitting on the stand tumbled off, hitting the poor stallion on the head, finishing off his humiliation. Pulling what looked like an encyclopedia on everything and trying to keep a blush off his face, he mumbled, “Why does this always happen to me?”

On the other side of the room, there was a weak giggle, Flash squeaking when an unseen force helped him back to his hooves. “You need to watch where you’re walking, silly.”

Suddenly, the room was flooded with light, Flash blinking before he looked upon his tired, and sad-looking, marefriend.

Now, he would never ever say that Twilight looked anything less than stunning in his eyes, but he had to admit to himself— very quietly-- that she looked a little… ‘off’.

The purple mare looked haggard. A pair of dark rings under her eyes, along with her messy mane, made Flash want to walk over, pick her up and hug the heck out of her. At least she looks better than she did the other day, he thought, limping over and giving her a nuzzle, which she returned after a moment’s hesitation.

“How was your workout, Flash?” she asked, giving him a sniff. “It smells like you were working hard.”

Flash had to keep himself from smiling. She’s joking now? Good. Hopefully that means that I can get her out of this room so she can talk to the princess.

“It was fine, honey,” he said, trying not to blush as she giggled.“You know, everypony missed you at lunch today.”

Days ago, that would have been the wrong thing to say. Days ago, when Twilight was still fuming and angry and throwing things, that would have gotten him kicked out of the room with an angry shout. But now, all she did was sigh and look away from him.

“I was mad at them days ago,” she told him, her ears pinning themselves to the side of her head. “Really mad, but then with everything you said and when Shining sent me that letter and…” she trailed off, looking back up at him with those sad eyes that almost broke his heart.

Keeping himself calm, Flash nodded understandingly, walking over and wrapping his hoof around her while trying to ignore his still-fresh boo-boo’s. “And you don’t know what to think?”

Come on, stallion up!

“Twilight,” he started, trying to figure out a way to get the bookworm out of her little funk. “I know it might be hard, but maybe you should go and talk to Princess Cadence.” He stroked her mane while he smiled down at her.

“She and Ares are leaving tomorrow, and I know she’s real beat up about how you’re taking this. Heck, even Ares keeps asking about you, and I know Princess Cadence would love to see you before they went back to the Crystal Empire.”

Twilight nodded, wiping away a stray tear from her eye. “But what if we get into a fight, Flash? What if I say something that I’ll regret?” she whispered, Flash blinking away his own tears as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Just say what feels natural, Twi,” he advised. “It might not be nice; in fact , it might hurt you both, but I know that if you keep avoiding each other, you two will regret it.”

Twilight looked up at him, a little smile on her face and she reached up and yanked him into the bed and wrapped him in a hug, the two staying like that until she finally said, “I’ll go talk to Cadence later today.”

“And thank you, Flash. You’re the best coltfriend a mare could ask for.” Flash blushed as she kissed his cheek. “Your hygiene could be a little bit better, but other than that, a grade-A stallion.”

“You just ruined the moment, Twi.”

“Go take a bath, Flash.”

“...Yes, ma’am.”

#~~@@~~#

Have you ever been in one of those situations where there are two ponies that hate each other—for some reason—and you don’t know why they hate each other but you have to basically be a referee when they see each other so nopony starts throwing chairs?

Well, I can now officially say that I have.

After the little scare that Echo gave us the other day, and after she apologized, we all went to Luna to get an explanation as to why Ares now had a guard that he didn’t want and didn’t like. At first I was upset with her, but the more she explained it, the more I was kind of grateful for it.

The Sergeant had one of the most impressive records that I have ever seen: over five thousand hours’ of combat-training, she had seen some action in Saddle Arabia, she had been in the guard for over five years, and she knew how to guard a single individual because of all of her time protecting Luna.

So all-in-all, she was a pretty tough cookie.

Other than her helping keep Ares safe, she could help train my guards back at the Crystal Empire. So, the longer I thought about it, the more I saw the mare as a gift from Luna.

Not that Ares thought of it that way, the man not breaking eye contact with her as they glared at each other across the table we were all sitting at.

“You better watch it, colt. If you keep looking at me too long, your marefriend over there might get jealous.”

Are snorted, glaring at the mare like she was a dangerous animal. “Mangos are the worst fruit.”

Echo squawked before slamming her hoof against the table and pointing at him. “You shut your whorse mouth!”

My human leaned across the table with an angry snort. “And you’re the worst bat pony.”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

“If I am then give me one good reason why I’m so bad!”

Ares narrowed his eyes dangerously before roaring,“You keep trying to bite me!”

Echo shrugged, pulling a mango from… her armor? “It’s not my fault,” she said defensively. “Your blood is tasty.”

I blinked in confusion, looking between the two. What’s... Why?

Ares leaned back with a little wince and crossed his arms. “You guys aren’t even supposed to drink blood.”

The batpony shrugged. “Maybe I’m a vampire pony; not some silly bat that just eats fruit.” She showed us her fangs. “I have fangs, I sleep upside-down, and I want to drink blood like a vampire dammit!”

I fiddled with my drink, looking away from the two. “Um, Ms. Echo,” I said, getting the mare’s attention. “You’re fangs are made to bite through the skins of fruit, not necks, batponies don’t naturally sleep upside-down, and I think drinking blood is bad for ponies.”

And they said taking that Oddity's of Equestria anatomy course in highschool was a dumb idea, I thought smugly, crossing my hooves as I looked at the two.

They looked at me, confused looks on their face, as, with a nod of my head, I got out of my chair.

“I guess that you two don’t like each other for,” I waved my hooves. “Some reason, but, Ares, I want somepony else to guard you. Flash might want to stay here with Twilight, and I don’t want to break them apart, so this might actually be better for everyone.”

“I looked at Echo’s credentials and she’s actually really qualified,” I walked over and nuzzled his cheek. “I know you don’t like it, but I just want to make sure that nopony hurts my human, so could you please just try to get along with her, please?”

The angry look that Ares had been sporting for about an hour vanished as he looked down at me. Touching my cheek, he sighed, “I don’t like it,” He scrunched his face up. “I don’t like how Luna threw her on us. It was a shitty thing to do when she knows that I hate this bat’s guts.”

“I’m still here, ya know,” the guardspony said irritably, leaning back in her chair and huffing when we ignored her.

“But,” he continued, giving my ear a scratch. “If you want her to watch me, I guess I’ll try to deal with her.”

I smiled, nuzzling his hand. “I just don’t want any more fighting between you two,” I looked at Ares, then at Echo. “Pretty please?”

The two looked at each other before grumbling, “Alright.” I nodded when they leaned over and shook hands/hooves.

There we go, I thought brightly, looking between the two. At least I could nip that in the butt before it really escalated.

Knock, knock

We all looked at the door.

“Somepony’s at the door,” the Sergeant said, rubbing her mango against her chest before taking a bite out of it. “Somepony should get that.”

“You’re my guard; aren’t you supposed to make sure that no one’s behind that door with a knife?” Ares asked the batpony, who guffawed.

“There’s a stallion behind the door,” she said, taking a bite of her fruit. “He has no metal on him and his heart rate isn’t accelerated, so there’s a good chance that he isn’t here to stab you or any of that stuff.”

Ares and I looked at each other in bewilderment. “And how do you know that?”

Echo grinned at us before pointing at her ears. “These babies are sensitive enough to hear a fly from across a valley if I concentrate hard enough, so one pony behind a door that’s twenty feet from me is nothing.” She tapped her nose smugly. “There’s a reason that Lady Luna picked me to be your personal guard, big guy.”

Knock, knock

I stopped Ares from getting to his feet with a wing. “I’ll go get it,” I said, making my way to the door. “Some people being paranoid about being murdered and all…”

“I’m not being paranoid; it’s her job to open doors and stuff,” Ares said, trying to defend himself while Echo giggled.

“That’s not my job, silly,” she tittered, while I opened the door to see Flash smiling nervously at me.

Saluting, he said, “Hello Princess, I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

I shook my head, giving him a smile. “No, we’re just,” I looked back at the two to see if they were behaving. “Getting situated.” I cocked my head at him. “Did you need something, Flash?”

My guard nodded. “I talked to Twilight a little while ago.” My heart skipped a beat but I let him continue. “And she said that she wanted to talk to you.”

I sat down. “She does?”

Flash looked past me to Ares. “And the Princesses said that they wanted to talk to you too, Ares.” He hopped in place. “Princess Celestia said that we all were probably just going to order pizza today and stay in, so we don’t have to worry about going to dinner on time.”

He smiled at me, rubbing his hooves together. “I can’t wait!”

A full grown adult and he’s still excited about a pizza night? I resisted the urge to pinch the stallion’s cheek. Please, Flash, please never change.

“Did she order out from Tin’s again?” I asked, not able to help myself. If whatever me and Twilight were going to talk about went bad, I needed to remember this something to keep me smiling.

Thankfully, Flash nodded, almost hopping in place. “Yeah, they’re—”

“You’re a big boy, Flashy,” Ares interrupted, appearing at my side. “You can buy pizza whenever you want; there’s no need to get so excited over it.”

I frowned up at him. “Don’t be like that, Ares,” I chided.

“He can just go and walk to a place; there’s like ten pizza shops in Canterlot!”

Flash looked away from us. “It’s not my fault that I like pizza,” he muttered.

I patted him on the head. “Well, if Ares wants to be such a big boy, he doesn’t need to get any pizza, he can go get something in the kitchen,” Flash grinned as Ares frowned.

“I want pizza,” Ares muttered, before looking back at Echo. “We’ll be back in a little bit, so don’t touch our stuff, ya hear?”

The mare snorted, leaning back on her chair. “Yeah, yeah, just go. You don’t want to keep them waiting, do ya?”

My human narrowed his eyes at her before getting down on a knee and wrapping me in a hug. “Don’t worry, Candy,” he whispered, giving my neck a kiss. “Everything’s gonna work out.”

I closed my eyes and smiled, leaning into him for a few seconds before breaking the hug. “Thanks, Ares.” I gave him a peck on the cheek. “I needed that.” With a little smile I added, “And I’m sure that Aunty Celestia won’t try to light you on fire this time.”

Laughing, he hopped up to his feet and made his way into the hallway, leaving me with Flash and Echo, who was eyeing Ares’ cabinet in a way I didn’t like. “Um, Ms Echo?” I said carefully. “You can go back to the barracks if you want; Ares and I won’t be needing you for the rest of the night.”

The mare blinked before nodding and rising from her chair. “Alright, I’ll be here in the morning with my bags,” she said before saluting. “Goodnight, Ma’am.” She winked at Flash before leaving the two of us alone in our room.

“Um, Princess?” Flash said, gesturing toward the door. “Would you like me to walk you to Twilight’s room?”

I smiled at him thankfully. “Yes please, Flash. I’d appreciate it.”

I turned off the lights before the two of us made our way out of the room, me, nervous as all Tartarus, and Flash, who looked like he was trying not to look as nervous as me, as the two of us slowly made our way down the hallway.

“So, Flash,” I said, trying to keep my mind off of what I saw going to say to her, or what she was going to say to me. “How HAS Twilight been doing? Nopony’s seen her in days.”

Flash ruffled his feathers in irritation, a scowl coming to his face. “I’ve been making sure that she doesn’t starve herself, but other than reading half of the castle’s books, she’s just been laying on her bed, so she’s fine.”

I smiled at him. “It’s good that somepony like you is there for her, Flash.” I frowned gently before touching him with a hoof. “You know, Flash, if you want to stay here with Twilight, I’m sure that my Aunt would be happy to have you in her guard.”

He frowned at that. “But I’m your guard, Princess,” he said stubbornly.

“But if you’re here then you get to stay with your marefriend,” I pointed out. It wasn’t like the two couldn’t have a long distance relationship, but if I had the power to make it easier on the two, I was going to do it. I wasn’t going to step in the way of love; if anything, I wanted to encourage it.

To my surprise, Flash waved that away dismissively. “Twilight said that she was looking into something that would make a long distance relationship easier,” he told me. “Some kind of super teleportation spell that she wants to start working on.”

When he stopped in front of a door—and when I realized it was the door to Twilight’s room—my heart almost jumped into my throat out of sheer panic, but I resisted the urge to run away. You can do this, you big baby, I thought, taking a deep breath and giving Flash a weak smile before knocking on the door.

All you need to do is make sure that you remember that shielding spell Shining taught you. You don’t want to get smacked with furniture or anything.

“Come in.”

I stopped for a second, resisting the urge to groan when I remembered that I didn’t remember how to cast that particular spell, before I reached for the doorknob.

~~##$$##~~

Despite himself, Ares couldn’t help but feel a little nervous as he made his way toward the royal chambers, whistling a little tune as he waved at a group of guards.

Let’s hope that Candy is alright with Purple, he thought. I don’t want a big yelling match to be the last thing she does with her before we have to go back home.

Truth be told, he was looking forward to going back to the Crystal Empire. A little worried about all of that cold and ice and snow and how he was going to deal with it—just because he went a head-doctor a couple of times didn’t mean that it helped— but he was looking forward to see the Crystal ponies again.

I wonder if the Doc got that stick out of her rump, He thought in amusement, turning a corner. Or if one of the nurses’ finally told her to piss off.

As soon as he made it to those giant familiar doors, his stomach reminded him that it actually wanted pizza with a loud growl. Looking down, he patted it. “We’ll get something to eat in a little bit,” he said, before knocking on the door. “So shut it, I need to get some discussing done.”

“Come in,” a gentle voice said, the door creaking open to let him in.

Squaring his shoulders, Ares grabbed the handle and opened the door…

To see Celestia, Luna, and about six boxes of pizza, all sitting on a couch.

Celestia smiled when she saw him enter, the alicorn opening a pizza box and passing him a paper plate. “Hello, Ares,” she said brightly. “How are you doing?”

He looked at the plate before, rolling his eyes-- and resisting the urge to throw the plate over his shoulder--he walked over, grabbed a whole pizza, threw open the lid, and sat next to her, shrugging. “I was talking to my new personal guard,” he said, giving Luna the stink-eye, the Princess of the Night ignoring it as she helped herself to a piece. “We came to an agreement,” He grabbed a slice of his pizza.

“I don’t know if it’s gonna work out. Someone knows that I don’t like the mare, and she knows that we don’t get along, and it was idiotic of her to make the bat my guard, but I promised Cadence that I was gonna play nice; so I’m playing nice.”

Celestia-- along with Luna-- ignored the slowly rising tension in the room, gesturing toward a small projector that was behind them. “Well, since this is your last day here, I thought that the three of us could just sit back, relax, and enjoy a good movie.”

Luna decided to sit close Ares, her muzzle buried in a pizza box that she had levitated over. “Yes, we thought that thou would like to see the newest action movie before thou went back to the Empire,” Ares shied away from her as she tried to scoot closer toward him.

Ares couldn’t help but shake his head, a big grin forcing its way to his face as he quickly ate another slice of his pie. “A pizza and movie night? Thanks mom.”

Celestia snorted, using a series of spells to turn off the lights, pull down what looked like a white bedsheet, and turn on the projector.

Luna leaned away from him. “We were also hoping that thou would humor us with one last night of cuddling,” she said innocently, while the man looked between the two, now feeling nervous and a little uncomfortable about how things were turning out.

“I don’t know about that last bit,” he said quietly, as the previews started to flash on the makeshift screen. “This movie and pizza stuff is fine, but with everything going on with me and Cadence,” he almost seemed to crawl into himself. “I don’t know if sleeping with you guy’s is okay anymore.”

Celestia patted him on the back while Luna frowned. “I understand,” she said. “But you should expect to sleep alone tonight then. Cadence and Twilight are probably have a heart-to-heart with each other at the moment and, if they’re anything like they were when they were little, I’m sure the two will be sleeping in the same bed.”

She gave him a ‘look’. “And I’m sure that you know neither of us would do anything like that,” she make vague gestures with her hooves. “You’ve slept with the two of us enough times to know we’d never take advantage of you. You know it’d just be sleeping.”

Ares pointed at Luna. “I’m sure that you won’t do anything. Her on the other hand…”

Luna huffed quietly, crossing her hooves. “We would never force thee, Ares,” she said. “We told thou and young Cadence that we would court thou at a later date and that is what we will do.”

The two leaned away from each other, angrily eating their pizza, while Celestia shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Well, she thought. Hopefully those two won’t bite each other’s heads off until after the movie.

“We cannot understand as to why thou wouldst think we would just jump thou like some bandit in the night.”

“You set me up with a guard that keeps trying to drink my blood for some fucking reason, Luna. I honestly have no idea what you’re going to do with me if I don’t keep both eyes on ya.”

“What I’m doing will ensure that everypony will be happy in the end, Ares, and that is all.”

Celestia sighed, hopping off the couch. “I’ll go get the three of us something to drink.”

@@~~##~~@@

Pleasedon’thitmewithanything, I thought, poking my head through the door, ready to hop back encase a chair was coming my way.

I creaked open the door enough to look around the room, seeing Twilight, with a few boxes of pizza and a big bottle of pop by her bed, looking at me with a small smile.

“Hello, Cadence,” she said quietly, levitating me a plate.

Wellll, Twilight’s not attacking me; she doesn’t even look mad, I thought in confusion as she stared expectedly back at me. Goooood?

I smiled back at her, trying to mask my confusion. “Hello, Twilight.” Trying to keep myself composed, I made my way over toward her and sat down a across the bed from her; not enough to be distant, but enough to give her her space.

Imagine my surprise when she crawled across the bed, leaning into me as she passed me a piece of pizza.

Flash poked his head through the door while I looked down at her. “Um, I’ll be back in a little bit,” he said. “I have to, um… go get another bottle of Maretain Dew! Yeah, that!”

Twilight and I giggled quietly as the stallion quickly closed the door, leaving the two of us alone with each other in the quiet room.

“The Princess gave me a projector and a bedsheet for a movie night,” she said, nuzzling my neck.

I wrapped a wing around the mare. “Oh, what movie is it?”

I don’t know why Twilight was snuggling up to me, why she was acting all calm and cool and collected and not throwing me off her her balcony, but I was kind of happy about it. It almost felt like there wasn’t anything wrong.

But, since I wanted to talk to her, try to explain to her why I did what I did, I decided to go right into it.

“Twilight, I—”

The mare sighed, looking away from me. “I’m sorry, Cadence,” she said with a little sniffle. “I’ve been hiding in my bedroom like a little filly for no good reason.” Her shoulders sagged. “I was sitting in here, mad, but now? Now I don’t know what to feel…”

I nuzzled her cheek. “No, Twilight, I’m sorry,” I told her, looking down at my plate sadly. “I should have told you personally instead of bringing it up like a pony talking about the weather in front of everyone,”

I looked away from her in shame. “I should have chased after you and tried to explain myself, but I acted like a coward and pretty much avoided you,” I looked back down into her eyes, trying to calm myself with a deep breath.

“And I’m sorry about that. I’m so, so sorry. You deserved better, you deserve an explanation why I did what I did with your brother.”

Taking a leap, I leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I just want you to know that I know that there’s nothing I can do to make you forgive me—”

Twilight shook her head, sniffling again while she blinked away tears. “I forgive you, Cadence,” she said quietly. “I just don’t want anypony being miserable at the end of this. I want you and Shining and Ares to sit in a room together as friends. I want mom and dad and both of the princesses all proud of us…”

She nuzzled my cheek again, the tears that were streaming down her face wetting my face “And don’t want to lose my sister,” she whimpered while I sniffled, my wing tightening around her.

“I don’t want to lose you either, Twily,” I murmured, the two of us sharing a hug before, wiping a tear from my eye, I hopped off of the bed and made my way over to the projector. “Now,” I said brightly. “How about we set this up?”

Twilight smiled, wiping her muzzle and face with her blanket. “I’ll set up the projector,” she said, getting up.

With a spell, I had the bed sheet in my hooves. “I’ll get this thing up.”

“Remember to use pins this time; last time you used duct tape you had to buy me new sheets.”

“Don’t remind me, please. Your dad still won’t let me live that down.”

~~$$##~~

It had not been a good couple of days for Luna. She had been getting dirty looks from half the castle staff, her sister wouldn’t stop giving her this sad/disappointed look, and now, to top it all off, Ares wouldn’t even let her snuggle up with him during the movie.

To be fair, you WERE being a little pushy; everything considered, a small part of her mind said, making her snort as she scarfed down another piece of pizza.

We only wished to protect Ares from harm, she countered, trying to focus on the movie. He and Sergeant Echo may not like each other, but the Sergeant is one of the best of my guard. She will be able to help Cadence with her troops and keep my Ares safe.

He’s not your Ares. He’s Cadence’s Ares.

The Lunar Princess faltered, almost losing her grip on her box, tears coming to her eyes. B-but—

“You know, I’m still upset with you.”

Luna blinked, looking over at Ares, who was calmly eating another piece of pizza, not looking at her.

“You could’ve done this later; when all of this bullshit with me and Cadence was all over and done with,” he continued, pointedly looking at the screen. Luna looked down and sighed sadly, perking up when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder.

“But.” Ares finally looked down at her, his expression tired, but at least he was looking at her. “I know you don’t mean anything by it.” He handed his pizza box over to Celestia, who was ‘watching’ the movie like her life depended on it.

“And besides, Luna, you’re my friend; I can’t be pissy with you just cause you have a crush on me. If I did then I’d be like every one of those girls that slapped me in highschool.”

Luna wiped a tear from her eye and smiled up at him. “We thank thee, Ares,” she said quietly, snuggling up to him.

Ares just chuckled, winking at a now-smiling Celestia. “It might just be the pizza talking, so don’t go thanking me.”

Celestia levitated a piece of pizza toward her face, the alicorn sizing it up for a moment before bringing it closer. Rolling it up and taking a big bite out of it, she said, “That’s why I got pizza tonight.” She licked the cheese off her lips. “Nopony can stay mad during a pizza night.”

@~~%%~~@

“Are ya sure that ya want ta leave already, Shining lad?” Shield asked as Shining quickly packed. “Me an’ the boys would be happy ta hold ya up fer a few more days.”

Shining shook his head with a small smile while he turned his head toward his friend. “No thanks, Shield,” he said, checking to see that he had everything in order. “I’ve been here long enough. You were right; if I don’t start doing something soon, I might just lose my mind.”

And if I stay here any longer, there’s a good chance that I’ll either get arrested or get alcohol poisoning… Or both, he thought to himself, walking over and pulling his friend into a hug.

Shield grumbled good-naturedly. “Well, make sure ta write or come see us again. Ya ‘ave us worrying after ya like a mother,” he said, as Shining broke the hug and made his way back over to his pack.

“I’ll make sure to keep in touch with you guys,” the unicorn promised, slinging the pack over his back and making his way toward the door.

“Ya didn’t tell me where you were goin’,” Shield said offhandedly.

“I’m going home for a few days; let my parents and Twily know that I’m okay,” Shining said without stopped, his hoof going to the door.

“An’ after that?”

Shining stopped at the doorway, not turning around as he said, “You know where I’m going.”

“The Crystal ponies do probably need ya.”

“They probably do. Even if they don’t, I’m sure I can make myself useful up there.”

“Did ya tell ‘er that ya were coming back?”

I don’t even know what I’m going to say to her when I see her, he thought before making his way out into the hallway. “Nope,” he said, making his way toward the exit. “To be honest, I’m just making this up as I go along.”

Though he didn’t see it, Shield had pulled out a bottle of wine from under his stack of armor, a small smile on his face as he turned to the door. Biting the cork and pulling, he said, “It’s yer funeral, Lad,” Spitting the cork onto the ground he took a big gulp of his drink. “I’ll be sure that yer buried next to me mom; that old lass might need a special somepony in the afterlife.”

“Buck you, Shield.”

“Don’t tempt me, Lad!”

Author's Notes:

Stuff happened, and the author was late in getting this out and can't find a kur to give.