A young noble stood in front of a mirror, the curl in his mane. His father was speaking with his other siblings in the other room while one of them walked up to the young aristocrat in the making. The older lord assisted in the younger's appearance, twisting his mane until the curl had stuck.

While it appeared that they were getting ready for a day out at a formal event, it was quite the opposite. Instead of dancing with the nobles, it was merely them heading towards the town square for a public event. And even the event itself wasn't what one would consider something to be dressing up for, but the aristocratic family vowed to make it a day of celebration, a day of jubilee, one that would be unforgettable.

Today was the day they were to watch the criminal who killed one of their own to be executed.

"Uncle?" The young stallion asked to the mirror.

"Yes?" The older stallion questioned as he stood over him.

"What do you think happens after that mongrel who killed Ivory Spiral gets his comeuppance?"

"Nothing, dear nephew." The stallion replied quietly. "Justice will be done, and our beloved Ivory will be at peace."

"Do you suppose I can get in the front row?" He asked excitedly.

"No. I don't think there's a reason for somepony as young as you to see such a thing. You're much too young." The stallion replied to his dear nephew.

"I'll be in officer training in the next two years! I'm not that young!" Argued the young noble.

"Sanctus, listen to me." The older aristocrat turned the young adolescent colt to him and explained to him in a soft voice. "What's to be done today is not for the feint of heart. We're only making a day of it so that our fallen Ivory may know joy of seeing justice done. While he may not attend in present, he attends in spirit."

"I still want to see the face of the mongrel who killed my cousin! Please, uncle!" The young colt pleaded fervently.

The older stallion then replied. "In case there's an accident, I don't want you being covered in filth. Just stay back for a while until it's all done. Then you can see the face of his killer when it's all said and done."

"But I want to see them first!"

The uncle kindly corrected the young colt. "Sanctus, patience is a most important virtue. If we don't have that, we don't have order, every worthless rat will be getting a seat at the table instead of the ones who earned their keep." The older stallion placed his hoof on the young colt's shoulder and smiled the best he could. "As much as I want justice to be done, we must wait. Do you understand?"

"Yes, uncle." He replied.

The elder patted the younger on the back. "Good. Now powder up. We'll be heading out to the gallows very soon."

The Unknown Lab
Present Day...

Umbra snipped away at the corpse on his table, placing down many a tiny stone to insert into the various nerves he exposed. The stallion gasped as he stifled a quiet comment. "Ah, a distant memory. Working on you has me feeling a bit nostalgic. You may be some work, but you are an enjoyable template."

The stallion placed down his scissors and gently tugged at the tendons running down the length of the forearm, admiring the unusual length they traveled to anchor themselves to the muscle attached to the elbow of the man formerly known as Jasper. The stallion picked up his notebook and started jotting down the details of what he saw, speaking them as he went on.

"Tendons, five prominent attachments to connect with the muscle tissue located in the midsection of the forearm. All fingers are naturally curved at the point of rest." He looked to the human's neck where he had previously worked on in the early hours of the morning. "The neck is not as sturdy as those of equines, but mental capacity is estimated to be equal to that of our own. Exhibits complex emotions such as sadness, happiness, anger, arousal, confusion, curiosity, amusement, and guilt." He stopped writing his notes to make another comment. "As if I need to be cutting one of you open to find that out. I'll just torture the captain for another five minutes to learn more of that. Perhaps I should perform another case study for control value... But I'll need more humans for that, and they don't just pop up out of nowhere like this one did."

He looked at his notes and then back to the multitude of books of data he had written throughout the years.

"All advancements of modern equine medicine at my hooves, but nary a one can ever replicate the first experience I had in touching the dead. What beauty it is to see nature run it's course." The stallion placed down his tools and walked over to his phonograph. "You know, Jasper, you open up so many memories for me, disgust, curiosity, nausea, and nervousness. I've never been so careful with a body since I was given a whole hydra to pull apart. And even that took some ripping and tearing. After so many years of dealing with ponies, you learn what's where and how much tension and stress a certain part can take. You can afford a few more risks when you know what you're doing. You learn shortcuts. But I don't get to do any of that with you. Perhaps it's why I feel like I need some music for this incredibly sensitive affair."

A servant knocked at his door. "My lord."

"What now, fools?" He replied, moderately annoyed at the sudden interruption.

"Sir Damper Trot awaits you at the confessional."

The stallion sighed as he placed back a record he was about to play. "I swear these fools don't know how to leave a gentlecolt to his craft." He clopped his hooves, summoning four puppets to the room. "Take him back to the cold storage, I'll get back with him later. I'm not done planting what all I need to." He then brought his attention back to the servant. "You."

"Yes sir."

"See to it that the puppets don't mess up my little project. After this, I'm going to the old tavern for a drink. Keep an eye out... Oh, and do persecute any stragglers."

"Of course, sir."

Barton Creek Square Mall
The Next Day...

Under most situations, I wouldn't be able to find an excuse to drag almost every royal out of the castle for a day out. But they surprised me and brute-forced an exception. Both Blueblood and Shining were all for paying a visit to the barbeque place, but the trade-off was that Shining had to bring his wife along for the ride.

That became our first obstacle.

Apparently the transformation spell wouldn't take to Cadance. We tried three different casters, Luna, Celestia, and myself. I even tried casting it twice to make sure, but no dice. Shining made the noble decision to stay behind and hold the fort until we got back. Truth was that he knew Cadance would tear his ears off if he went anyways. I promised him a plate for his troubles.

In his place was none other than Princess Luna, who had to find herself an outfit to wear. And since it was her first transformation into a human form, she was a very clumsy girl. So clumsy that she had tried walking two steps forward, ended up falling backwards with her leg cocked up in the air. Yeah, both she and Celestia had assets to flaunt, but Luna was inadvertently flaunting hers a little too liberally.

Celestia was the epitome of a jealous sibling today, she threatened to blind me for the next three hours if I had dared to even peek at her sister in the nude. I didn't mind going through with her request, but Luna took notice of that same instruction and decided to intentionally stumble in my line of sight for thirty minutes straight. And it wasn't like closing my eyes made it any easier, when Luna discovered that she could use her hands as a replacement for her horn, she'd repaint the image of her body in the back of my eyelids, just like a dream. I had to look at the ceiling with my eyes wide open, hoping that I wouldn't see her. One problem with that, Luna was also six feet, six inches tall. Still shorter than her sister who stood at six-foot-ten, but still an inch taller than me. All she had to do was raise an arm and her chest was well in my peripherals.

Inverted nipples, she had me seeing those for almost five minutes.

At some point I gave up and went to a corner like I was in time-out. And she took strong exception to that. Luna went the extra mile to annoy her sister, learning how to wrap her arms around my shoulders to hug against me closely. It was so bad that I had to lock myself in the bathroom, she could still teleport. I tried going across the portal, she trailed me like a little puppy begging for food. I even put on a blindfold, she still had the magic to yank it off.

Celestia had enough of her sister's antics and threatened to blast her into the sky, but I had to calm her down and remind her that we were in a world where magic didn't exist outside of those who already had it. And plus I didn't want the landlord to come down too hard on Mel's lease, she was already gonna be a month behind on rent.

Once Twilight got back with some clothes for Luna, I thanked the stars above and waited in the den while Celestia forced her sister to undergo the same training I had to give her in regards to wearing underwear. And wouldn't you figure, Luna was made to wear her underwear while Celestia willingly omitted hers out of spite.

This was how we started the day... Fuck's sake.

Blueblood, Luna, Celestia, Twilight, and I had gotten loaded up in the car and I started riding them over to the frat house to meet up with Cliff and Rickey.

I had completely forgotten that they were still over in Equestria, Twilight had to remind me of it.

After that bit of wasted gas, we met up with both Alex and Stanton, who were also with mom, dad, and Vanessa. We trailed behind one another and our location finally landed at the mall. Stanton's reaction to Princess Luna was nothing short of his horn-dog self. If it wasn't for the fact that her body had all sorts of paperwork to fill out just to get engaged, I'm sure he would've tried his luck at the first opportunity. Hell, knowing him, he's probably using me and Celestia's relationship status as a template on how to get away with dating royalty under the table.

Not that it mattered to her, she was more hellbent on annoying her sister for making her wear a bra and panties. So any attempts he had in trying to sneak a feel at the humanized princess would end in abject failure.

The moment we walked in, all eyes were on us. Not so much as any of us normal humans, but rather the outlandish ways Luna's blue hair had shimmered, how Celestia's quad-toned hair and her natural lavender eyes had almost captivated every unfortunate man who found himself walking into a support column. With their height, they also gained a lot of attention from both kids and adults alike.

The first thing we did was pick out a move to watch, something that we could all agree on. No scary stuff that would trigger my paranoia, no war flicks that would trigger my trauma, no comedy that our foreign dignitaries wouldn't understand much of, and no movies with a lot of sex. The outlines were simple, but the choices were not. Dad wanted to see American Sniper, mom wanted to see Heaven is Real, both of the options were nixed. Alex and Stanton wanted to see Exodus: Gods and Kings, Twilight pointed out that she wanted to see something that none of them could imagine seeing in a movie. Her choice, Interstellar.

We went with that one... and we thanked her immediately after.

Luna had walked out of the theater with a whole new sense of wonderment, thinking of her night sky and the many things that were out in that dark abyss beyond our planet's reach. The idea of seeing the cosmos beyond our planet's surface had held hostage her attention, and began to birth ambition within the princess of the night. Celestia was just happy that her sister had become distracted with something other than annoying her, but she was very pleased with her former student's selection. Twilight was on the moon with Luna, discussing theories and ideas over what they had just saw. Mom and dad didn't have anything against the film, Alex and Vanessa was pleased with it as well. Stanton was disappointed that he didn't get to sit next to Luna, he had to park next to mom.

Once we got out of the theater, we started window-shopping for a few things. Though in my case, I was literally shopping for more than one. The royals had all but clung onto me while we scoped out a few places to browse. And with each place, I started to gain more and more of an understanding for who liked what.

A new bit of something I found out about Celestia, she likes plushies. She REALLY likes plushies. She walked into a Build-A-Bear Workshop and I started to worry if she was expecting me to buy out their entire stock. The first thing she did was snuggle a bunch in her arms and snag me in the pile. She was at least reasonable with her request, opting for the biggest size they had. And by the end of our time there, it still looked kid-sized in contrast to her dominating height.

Blueblood was more interested in fragrances and scents, so he stormed a Bath Body & Beyond with all intents of conquest. Going through the number of perfumes and colognes, he was pleased with some, not so much with others. He seemed pretty set on what he wanted to get out of there, that was until he discovered what a bath bomb was. Once he did that, he decided in his mind that he was going to take the most luxurious bathing experience once he got back home. He had me by at least twelve of the damn things.

Twilight had ran across a Barnes & Noble, and she was face first through the door. There was no stopping her from consuming as much human literature she could get her hands on. She even managed to locate the novels of the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings series, and even the namesake series Twilight. She decided to grab a set of each, which I thought would be the most expensive endeavor being that those books were classics, and she ordered six copies of each.

And then there was Luna.

With it being Luna's first experience in the human world, she was absolutely engrossed in everything there was to offer in the mall. From the nearby Hot Topic where she blew a solid two-hundred dollars on belts and accessories, to the far off arcade that entertained a good amount of retro gamers. She picked out a few outfits for souvenirs, then played about ten dollars worth of games. But that wasn't the thing that really had her hooked.

The one thing I knew about both Celestia and Luna, they were petty towards one another. And if one had the benefit of doing something that the other could not, the other would return that a good ten fold. If one could have an ice cream cone with a double scoop, the other had to have an ice cream cake. If the latter had ice cream cake, then the former had a personal bakery. So on and so forth is how that goes. So you can already imagine the look on my face when she clutches my wrist and walks me over to the one place I least expected to be.

Princess Luna, in a bid to piss her sister off, dragged me into a motherfucking Victoria's Secret.

Everyone walked in, seeing an assortment of lingerie pieces. Blueblood could care less about the store, but he was more interested in seeing how Celestia would respond to whatever Luna had planned. I knew I was walking on eggshells, but it was still somewhat fun to think about how the two was going at each other's throats... if I hadn't been in a relationship with one of them.

So Luna browsed the entire section, thinking her size was relatively modest. And whenever she had the concern that something didn't fit, she called for me first. I would send in Twilight to make sure, and fetch her something in her size. Twilight also got curious about it and started perusing the store for something to try on for herself. Once Luna found a few selections in her actual size, she walked over to the changing room and dragged me along to wait.

That did not sit well with Celestia.

Since she was more than aware of her own size, Celestia questioned one of the clerks and picked every possible selection that she felt would grab my eye. Some were elegantly lacy, the others were much smoother to the touch. It was a wonder to see just how far the two would compete. Luna walked out first, wearing a plain combo of black cotton, no special designs, no fancy embroider, no flashy stuff, just something that could show off the girls up top and the plump the goods behind.

Celestia walked out in a much more seductive outfit. A lavender one piece assembly with lacy embroidering, transparent sides, a translucent mid-section to display her wares, but tease the features enough to fuel the imagination. She turned herself around, placing her hand against her hip as she tilted her backside to flaunt her abundance of curves.

She was damn-well aware of how to turn me on, she had every intent to do so.

The humanized sun princess giggled, biting her lip as she slid her hand up her thigh, looking back at me to see the reaction on my face as her fingers grazed her hips. And without warning, she slapped her plentiful posterior, allowing me to take in the rippling motions of her flesh hiding underneath the barely-conservative apparel. In her most intimate voice, she spoke to me. "A gift..." She walked closer to me, pulling me in and raising her leg to curl around my hip. "For you."

Luna snatched me and planted my hand on her backside with a smirk. "You already know what you'll get with me in one form. Perhaps you will like what I have to offer in this one." She said, guiding my hand to the front of her underwear.

The older sister then pulled me aside as she stood before her annoying younger sibling. "As if he would even be interested in something so plain."

Luna then teased her older sister. "So much for all that prude attitude you had once before. I guess if you get one finger, you get an entire arm."

Celestia gasped at her sister, snarling at her. "You. Take. That. Back."

The younger sister giggled. "The great hall of Celeste."

The solar princess was fuming at her younger counterpart, offering to heat up the argument. "Well at least I can't say that my hall isn't sitting in abandonment."

"That's funny coming from a mare who hadn't had a visitor in well over a millennium. Do the star spiders treat you to some silk undergarments in exchange for their residence?"

Oh God, I just stumbled into World War 3.

"Do the bats clear that cave of yours free of any wandering pests?"

...Complete with nuclear fallout.

"At least I frequently rehearse."

"Rehearsing for the party of one?"

Okay, it was time for me to put an end to the burn clinic. I stepped in between the two and held them apart from one another. "Princesses, ladies, your highnesses, can we please not throw the entire night sky at one another?"

The two folded their arms and pouted away from one another, Celestia's pose being more natural, Luna's fist were still curled up like she was still using hooves. The clerk came back with Twilight, who had a simple dark red see-through two-piece in her hand. "Is there anything you three need help with?"

I quickly jumped in with a response. "Uh yeah. I'd like to buy both of these ensembles." Twilight then raised her own to correct me. "Okay, all three ensembles."

"Okay, I'm going to need the tags for those if you plan on wearing that out." The clerk stated.

"These two will wear these out." I said as I pulled out my debit card. "I'll pay you whatever they cost. Sorry, I'm working with a tight schedule. We're trying to get moving."

"Right this way, sir." The clerk instructed, guiding the four of us towards the front counter.

The two princess put back on their clothes and joined me and Twilight at the checkout. Luna crept up to my ear and whispered. "Echo. Echo. Echo. _Echo."

I squirmed as I tried my damnedest to not laugh, not with Celestia giving me the ugly eye. I instead cleared my throat, beat my chest, and took a deep breath.

Celestia then sang into my head. "♫Dun-nun nun-nun nun-nun nun-nun Batmare.♪"

...I'm going to hell.

After that bit of a scrum, we walked to our designated meeting place. Luna and Celestia continued to exchange barbs and looks towards one another, my stomach was weak from laughing so much, Blueblood was in the same condition along with me, Twilight was more than nervous to even be between the two, moreso when she felt obligated to take one side over the other.

Stanton took notice of Luna's shapeliness and how much more pronounced it was. He was determined to find himself riding with us and offered to trade places with Twilight. The young princess agreed on the terms that he would refrain from making any brash moves towards the princess. Stanton placed it on scout's honor, knowing damn well he wasn't a scout to begin with.

As this point, I was just going to let things play out.

When we got in the car, Blueblood found himself behind Celestia, Luna was on the outside, which left Stanton to the middle. While we were riding down the highway, we started listening to some music in the car. He requested the aux cord, I gave it to him, he pulled up I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys. He went along and started singing the verse, mocking a music video next to Luna.

Celestia saw her sister's displeasure through the rear view mirror and smiled. She started tapping her hand on the arm rest we shared. While I knew the song, I initially started mouthing the words myself, and then started singing out some semblance of the words quietly until the chorus. By that point I had belted out the words 'tell me why' and the both of us broke out into song. Celestia giggled at my antics as I took one hand off the steering wheel and waved them like I was in a concert.

When the second verse came on, he held an invisible mic in front of me, asking me to sing the song. I tried my best to mumble through the words, I didn't quite remember all of the words as much as I thought I did. But once we got around to the chorus, he belted out the 'tell me why' offkey, I couldn't help but laugh. Celestia started picking out a few words and bobbed her head along with the music.

The bridge came up and neither of us knew it, so we just snickered at each other like one of us was supposed to take the mic. And neither of us bit. Celestia made fun of me not knowing the song all the way through and suggested that we start the song over so we could all sing it, which me and Stanton were more than happy to do. He ran it back and we were right back into singing the first verse. The chorus was just around the corner and both Stanton and I were ready to belt out those famous three words. Blueblood then went into full-send mode and blurted them out.

Everybody in the car had busted out laughing as we tried singing along. Stanton was so proud of the blond prince that he gave him a fist-bump to show his whole-hearted approval. While Blueblood was an asshole in many instances, he showed himself to be a total bro in the moment. Even Luna had broken past her initial pouting and joined in on the chorus exclusively. So the five of us had bobbed and sang happily down the interstate following Alex and my parents. But as we were driving, I realized something as the song started to end. We were turning off the exit, but not to the barbeque place. Instead we were riding the surface roads to the Texas State Cemetery.

Oh yeah, it's been a while.

It's been some years since I had the fortitude to even come here and visit. My stomach went from hurting from all the laughing to twisting up in knots. We slowly rode up to the plot where we had gramps buried. And from that thin road, we got out of our cars and took in the quiet. Both Stanton and I looked at one another quietly as mom and dad got out of the other car. As they did, it seemed they were very much prepared for this. They took out some flowers, a rag, a spray bottle, and even a small portrait of him to set on the headstone.

We walked from the road on, crossing the many silent souls resting at peace until we came to the one we sought after. While the royals took in the work my mom and older brother had started to do, they watched in silence. Once the grave was cleaned, we went about our visit on this cold, partially-cloudy day. And since his headstone was shaped like a bench, we took the time to sit ourselves as we talked to him.

"Good morning, dad." Mom said, happily placing flowers on his gravesite. "You treating mom alright?"

Dad joined with her. "Hey there, pops. We brought you a little something." He said, placing a black and gold vase filled with water for the flowers. "I know it's not much, but we thought we should make you look all fresh and shiny. You always loved dressing up for the occasion."

Mom glanced up to my brothers and blinked as if she had done something out of order. She quickly stood up and moved away from the headstone. "I know I usually want to have my time with you, dad. But we brought you an extra special surprise today."

Alex smiled warmly as he stood next to his wife. "Hey, Grandpa! Or rather... great grandpa now." Vanessa laid a flower at the headstone as her husband briefly explained to him. "So yeah, Vanessa and I are expecting now. I'm gonna be a dad. I sure wish I could've seen your face the moment I told you, but I'm sure you're smiling along with grandma."

Stanton laid a helmet at his headrest. "Hey grandpa. You know I'm still getting in trouble. I'm trying my best to stay out of it. But you already know me. So, I'll be a Longhorn next fall, and I know how much you love football. Between you and dad bickering at each other over stupid arguments over which players should be traded and picked up for the Cowboys, I miss the sound of your voice as you called dad stupid sometimes... Well, me and dad pretty much picked up from where you were. It's... it's been weird." He closed his eyes and moved himself aside. "But, I'm not the one who you wanna talk to right now, am I?"

The sky didn't quite open up to the sun all the way, the clouds still covered much, but the small instance of sunlight did peek out as the gravestone started to shine a little brighter. Dad guided me to the bench and sat me down. "So, look who we got here for you."

The sky showed just a bit more of the sun, a light drizzle started to rain down from the skies above. I felt myself shudder as I swallowed the growing knot in my throat. For the first time in years since the funeral, it was time for me to say hello. "Hey, gramps."

Mom placed the portrait of him right next to me. The glint of sunlight perfectly illuminated the smile on his face. I tried swallowing back more knots, more and more of them. Realizing that I needed the time to myself, the others walked back to the car, leaving on the royals to watch from a distance.

The warmth from the winter sun started to hang over me, allowing me to feel a seemingly familiar embrace. I cleared my throat and wiped my misted eyes. "Hey gramps.... I-uh... Yeah..." I sniffled. "It's... been a minute. Had a bit of a rough time back there, but it felt like you were there to get me out."

The drizzling rain intensified a tiny bit, but so did the sun.

"I know it's been a long time since we saw each other. And I'm sure you understood why. I never really had the opportunity to really tell you... how much I learned from you." I wiped my eyes again. "I know it looked like I was just some troubled teen who wanted to go about his own way and do a bunch of shit... things that I had no business doing─sorry for the swears. But I'm sure you have a lot of questions on what I'm doing right now. I'm getting into trouble... some good, some bad... but mostly for the good."

I looked at the photo of grandpa, the sun had started to hide themselves behind the clouds again.

"I know back then, I didn't really listen to you too hard, I was being a knucklehead believing in what I wanted to believe in. I didn't take into consideration what all you went through, what all you lost, what you had to push past. I never really asked those questions because I was so caught up in the image of being a guy who had it all, without realizing that you were the man who went through it all." I sniffled to clear my throat. "I never knew what it was to weigh in on the experiences you went through. And I know that ours are a lot different from each other... I just wish you were really here, so I can talk to you about it."

At that point, wiping my eyes was almost a pointless endeavor.

"I see a counselor almost every Wednesday, but he ain't you. I get some good advice from friends, but I don't get to tell you about it. I found a really wonderful girlfriend, and I don't get to hear you cheer me on sometimes. And I know you wanna cuss me out over the stupid... things I do. But I know when you finish, you wanna hug me and tell me it's going to be alright." I had stopped trying to hold back. "But I miss having you, I miss seeing you, I miss when you used to tell me the truths about life, to talk to me about the things I didn't understand, from the man who went through it all. The reason I never came here was because I felt like you abandoned me, never really seeing that you were trying to get me ready for what was to come. And I never thought..." A pair of arms had latched themselves around me.

That was all I really needed.

I didn't look up to see who it was that hugged me, I just hugged them back like I needed it. I was so captured by pain that I didn't even realize how much I needed this release. I just cried into them, never really finishing what I wanted to say. But I believed my point got across to him somehow, even if he wasn't there in body to hear it.

I stayed there for another ten minutes in the cold, hugging against the warmth that held me so tenderly. When I opened my eyes, I saw the pair of arms leave from around my body, slowly releasing me back to the present. My eyes were red and puffy, and I could breathe again. The knots in my stomach had resolved themselves. A kiss was left on my cheek. I turned around to see Celestia smiling so warmly at me, she leaned me down, kissing me on my forehead. "He heard every last word."

What I also noticed was that she had also brought with her the large teddy bear she had made. She had placed the large stuffed animal down at the gravesite, organizing the vase and flowers in between it's legs to appear that it was sitting against the bench. The sun briefly shined and the rain stopped altogether.

"I think he's happy to be able to talk to you again." She added.

The princess wiped my eyes and stood by me as I went back to speaking to gramps. "I know that our experiences are different. But I come back to you as a man who knows first-hand the struggles we face in our lives. Yours is different from mine, I can admit. But what they do to us will remain the same." I cleared my throat for the last time. "I hope you can understand, and still be there for me. I love you, and I miss you. And I hope to be seeing you again sometime soon... well, in this manner, of course."

The doting princess leaned my head into her chest, and whispered back to the grave of my grandfather. "You are a good man. And I hope you know that you've help raise a great one. Thank you."

As we walked away, the clouds broke even more, allowing the entire cemetery to bask in the sunlight.

After our visit to the cemetery, we rode over to the location of the barbecue joint. There began Blueblood's and Shining's tales of the human world, namely their first experience with meat. While Celestia and Twilight wasn't new to it, Luna definitely was. At least I could enjoy the various reactions of the night princess as she sunk her teeth into some southern cuisine.

If there's anything that we Texans were proud of, it's the five values. Football, guns, Christianity, our own nation, and if it ain't those four things, it was food. And boy did they serve us like it was their pride to do so. We opted to order the last plate for takeout after we were done, that way his food wouldn't be sitting around while we ate.

Luna's reaction was ravenous, to say the least. Once the food came around and she she followed our example, the princess seemed to have forgotten that it was actual meat that she was scourging through. She didn't care about any of the sauce that remained on her cheeks, or the loud noises of her scarfing down her food.

The pinnacle of Equestrian royalty.

Luna leered past her plate, still with a rib in her teeth as she saw the entire table staring back at her. Once she realized that we were all watching her, she blushed and corrected herself. Blueblood, who understood how she felt in the moment, offered yet another rib of his to her.

Once we were all settled down, I had stared into my wallet and noticed the wrapped up debit cards in my possession, each of them with a receipt for how much was left on the balance. Of course, those cards had to be activated later, but they were all tied into a number of waterfall accounts I had made during my time off. They were all Wells-Fargo checking accounts, so at the very least they could see the money they had available to them. And if there was ever a concern for limits, all they would have to do is ask and I would transfer some of my savings to replenish the account. I pulled out the cards, each with the various information on the receipts and their pin codes written at the bottom, to make sure it was easy to remember, I just set them to everyone's birthday.

Once I had them laid out, I tapped on a glass to get everyone's attention. "Okay, everyone. Can I get your eyes and ears for a moment?"

Everyone watched quietly as Stanton started to raise his glass. "So what are we toasting?"

"That'll come later. But as of now, I wanted to discuss an important matter." I replied, clearing my throat as I stood up to distribute the cards. "Seeing that something as of recent had really put in a dire strait, I figured it would be best to ensure that I have every possible avenue covered. At least if something happens to me, you guys would be alright."

"Son what are you on about?" Dad questioned as I gave him his card first.

"You'll find out." I replied. "Also, don't open that paper yet until I tell you you can."

I gave mom her card, she just pressed her thumb against it. "Honey, this feels like a credit card of some sort."

"Just wait before I tell you to open it." I said as I gave Alex his. "Congrats on the baby, dude."

"Yeah, you're gonna be an uncle soon enough. So please try not to die before that happens." He replied.

"I can't promise that, but I can say that I'm not looking forward to dying anytime soon." I stated as I gave Stanton his. "The NCAA don't mind if you keep this a secret, right?"

"If it's in your name, they can't do shit." He replied.

"It is in your name, so that's why I'm telling you to keep it a secret." I answered before I got back to my seat. "Now I know you're wondering 'what the hell am I holding onto', after all they feel like a bunch of debit cards. They are. And they're my insurance policy in case something were to happen to me. And if not, then they're something that you can use for whatever. I can at least tell all of you that there is no such thing as financial instability for this family."

"What are you talking about, dude?" Alex questioned.

"Well, you're about to find out. You can open those pieces of paper now." Each of them did as they were instructed, They looked at the receipts to see what was on them. But once they saw the number, each of them had almost shouted in the middle of the restaurant. "Yeah. If I could give you more, I would. But apparently no one told me that checking accounts had a hard cap set to around $250,000."

Stanton chuckled as he slid the card back over to me. "Nah, dude. You trying to get me in it deep with the NCAA."

"Dude, that only applies if there was a branding or advertising deal done without the NCAA's consent. There's nothing in the legal binding that points out how you can't have an allowance issued from a family member." Alex explained to Stanton before turning back at me. "Now as far as I'm concerned about you, where the hell did this money come from?"

"I had some bits appraised by a specialist, ran it up to a bank with a certificate of authenticity, sold them off in exchange for a cash amount. Since bits are basically pure gold and they weigh a gram each, they sell for the market value. I just dumped a total of 700,000 bits in exchange of American dollars."

"You know, they're gonna put a nix on that pretty soon thanks to fake sales, so you should be happy you dumped now rather than later." Vanessa added. "But still, if you're saying what I think you're saying, you might be sitting on some insane millionaire status."

"We'll talk about that later." I said as I pulled out my phone to check the time. "For now, I just want you guys to know that today was something I needed in my life. I know that time is becoming short-winded for us, but I do want to say that I enjoyed today for what it was. I know that in the coming weeks, it'll be really challenging for all of us. I'm sure that I'll come across some fresh hell that will deprive me of my sleep for a few days. But when it's all said and done, I'll hope to see you all again and we can talk about what comes next."

"You mean like your future?" Dad questioned.

"Yeah, and where I'll go from there." I replied. "But if something happens to me, just know that there is a fallback plan already in place."

"I sure hope we won't have to see that." Vanessa said with concern.

Celestia pointed towards herself as she replied to the newly-expecting mother. "I can assure you that we'll do whatever it takes to keep him in one piece. If anything else is to happen, we will notify you immediately."

The waiter came around to our table collecting our plates and started to distribute our receipts. Everyone present paid for their respective parties as I made the final order for Shining. Blueblood chuckled to himself. "So... I wonder if he'll mind his plate being lukewarm."

"The better thing to ask is if his wife is going to eat his food before he can enjoy it." Alex added, earning a nudge from his spouse.

"Cadance has had some questionable cravings as of late." Luna also pointed out. "Perhaps it would be best to err on the side of caution."

I simply looked to the waiter. "Okay, so I'm gonna have two more orders, to go please."

Once we were finished with our trip and I collected the food for both Shining and Cadance, we all went our separate ways. I drove Twilight to my apartment to get back to Ponyville, the other royals rode back with me to Mel's apartment to get back to Canterlot. When we crossed back over, everyone was transformed back to their usual forms and the astral siblings took their newly-acquired wares to their rooms.

I had pretty much walked into my room with a small sense of closure. Everything about my experience so far being more and more of what I needed. I needed the escape, and had it not been for my job I would've taken another few days off. But given who I was dealing with, I couldn't afford to lose his attention on me.

There was one more week before our agreement had settled through.

A lot of what happened was warned of, but never really explained on what all I had to face. A lot of my issues was that I had to make drastic changes in order to try and keep up during those first two weeks. But then he started throwing in the curveballs, some that I easily knocked out of the park, a lot I had the discomfort of getting caught by. But if this was my last week, then it had to be something really fucked up waiting for me at the finish line. He had a straight-line heater aimed for one of two things, the catcher behind me to strike me out, or my face to knock me out of the game. And there was no way of telling which.

My phone buzzed, indicating I had a notification from Instagram. Once I had pulled up my screen, I saw that Celestia had sent me an invitation to navigate the secret passages for a night in her room. I was more than happy to oblige as we didn't really have a lot of time together this week.

When I arrived at the room from behind one of her bookshelves, she waited on her bed with not a piece of gold on her. "Captain, how scandalous of you to appear in my chambers this late into the night."

"It's almost midnight. I expected you to be dead sleep by now." I said as I closed the access behind me.

The mare sat herself up as she looked to the open space next to her. "Sleep, rest, it's pretty much overrated if you've lived the life I had for a thousand years." She patted her bed in invitation. "Some moments are worth staying up for. You'll learn not to close your eyes all the time."

"I guess you've lost enough to know." I replied as I sat next to her.

"I lost friends, family, students, guards, fights, wars, favor among the public, court battles, and sure enough patience." She said as she latched onto my back. "In speaking of patience, why are you still sitting up?"

"Do you want me to lay down?" I asked with a smirk.

"Down with you." She commanded, pulling me to the bed with all of her strength. The princess hovered over me, her mane cascading down her face. Her eyes shone their lavender brilliance as they took me in. "Now let me explain something to you. You're spending the night here, and we are going to have our time together."

"I love the idea. But what do you think your wakeup detail will say if I'm discovered to be in your bed, much less your chambers?"

"You are being mentally evaluated." She replied as she leaned in closer. "By that, I mean that I'm evaluating you to see if you are truly happy with being around me."

"The better question is if you are happy being around me when I sleep. I'm all over the place, and sometimes I might sleep in the nude."

The princess giggled. "Ponies don't usually wear clothes anyways."

"Humans usually do." I replied.

Her horn began to glow, her eyes listing downward as she started to lift my shirt from over my abdomen. "Then maybe it's time for you to get back to nature's intent."

"You just want me shirtless." I deadpanned.

"Shirtless is such a tiny tribute." She replied with a bitten lip. "I demand much more of you."

"Like what?" I quietly inquired.

"Well there's a rule in my bed, no regalia, no accessories..." She tugged at the button against my pants as she lifted the shirt over my head. "...no secrets."

"Seems to me you want to break some laws." I chuckled.

"We've already broken it as much." She replied as her hoof slid up my chest. "It's just that I plan on giving you the reward you deserve when you've made provisions for us to love unabated."

I aided her in taking off my pants, but leaving my boxers on. "Okay. But I'd like to think there's some way we can nudge the goalposts a little more."

The mare smiled as she whispered in my ear. "There are a few, but there is one I want."

"And what is it?" I asked her.

She licked my cheek and whispered. "You could kiss and cuddle me for the rest of the night."

I know that many would feel cheated if they got pulled into a late-night meetup, only to get asked to cuddle and spoon. But I was fine with what she offered. Naturally, I'd want her to be in her human form and put on that lingerie for the rest of the night, but she has a way of making me appreciate the work I have to put in. At least when I finish, there's often a reward for my, as many older adults would call it, good trouble.

I began to nestle my fingers in between her feathers, lightly tickling them and her wings. She squirmed in response, laying against my chest. She sniffed against my chest, seeming to take comfort in my scent. My hands continued the work of preening her wings, her eyes listing from me to the slow hands that brought relief to her tense appendages. While my hands were at work, her hooves had anchored herself in place as she anticipated more of my ministrations. As I finished with the tips of her wings, she made it known that she had every intention to reward me for my labor.

She slipped the boxers right off of my waist, tossing the last barrier between me and her off of the bed. As I laid next to her, she climbed on top of me and nuzzled me. I took moments to grow accustomed to her warmth, the sleekness of her coat, the heavenly aroma of vanilla and honeysuckle. The princess was eager to have my hands wander to the many places of her body where attention was scarcely paid. Some places I did think to wander, but she would giggle and playfully reject me.

It was a week since our lips last met. That count was reset to seconds, with her exclusively to blame. While our moments had much of our usual flirting and playing around, there was a certain greed that came with us being where we were and the manner in which we were situated. I couldn't ignore my carnal desires for very long, and her own she couldn't deny for any less.

Celestia loved it when my hands were brought to her back as she was laying on top of me, the feelings of my fingers running across her and grasping down to tug her apart. She enjoyed it so much that she felt compelled to slow our tempo down. She knew she wanted to rush the gun, we both did. But she valued patience, despite the little she had in her own account. So she strapped my hands to the back of my head, held me down in place while I laid in submission to her. And for her own amusement, she left the thin satin sheets over my lower half, so that she couldn't see the prize she sought after.

One would think that she would leave it off, but it seemed that she was very much into hiding her gifts from her eyes until it was time to partake. Even last time we met, she did not once look to the part of me she held in her auras, just gauging my reaction to what she was doing. Holding and touching, grasping and tasting, those were the unusual limits she placed for the both of us. Though I'm sure it was my pushing it that far is why she had grown to be so needy and ambitious.

It was now her turn.

She began with a playful ascent from my ankles, worming herself between my legs and nesting beneath my crotch. She planted her hooves into my legs, gently pressing in and rubbing downward with care. But before she came back up, she would tease me with light kisses against the inner parts of my thighs. I was forced to watch as she came up slowly, gently teasing at the features around my loins. Her face had been brought to the tent that stood within her satin sheets, and she smiled as she allowed for it to rest beside her cheek.

Her magic knew what to seek, and she sought to grasp at it. However, she was meticulous in her method, clasping the sheets around what I desired to hold for myself. My hands twitched while I watched her rub her face along the standing tower, lightly running her lips around the summit. She gazed towards me, letting her lips touch the satin and pulling them away with a light suckle. Her eyes stayed on me as she opened her mouth, submitting her tongue to my length. The high princess watched as the greed started to consume most of my facial features, observing as my eyes started to close and envision the process of unsheathing me and offering to me what was real.

"And where do you think you're wandering off to?" She said as she gave me an amusing tug beneath the sheets. The sudden envelopment of warmth, the subtle glow of gold, all to disappear as quick as it manifested. I was roused from the fantasy of my mind and reintroduced to her eyes. She didn't seem to like that as much. "You don't get to let yourself go without me." She warned.

"Sorry. I was really working at that." I mumbled in defeat.

The princess teased herself, battering the sides of her face with my enveloped show of arousal. "Losing your interest? Perhaps I should make it a little more interactive for you." She released the bindings around my right hand, allowing it to move freely. As my hand started to caress the side of her head, she spoke with a devious grin. "You know what you want, don't you? Show me what it is you want."

I started to guide her head towards me. As her lips were brought back to me, she looked to the very topic of my interest and paid investment. Her lips continued to worship the veiled instrument of my succession. I started to lift a finger, manifesting a small amount of my magic to slowly uncloak the flesh that proudly stood for her. She was quick to notice me and freed her head from my hand, suckling my finger.

"You didn't think that would work, did you?" She teased. "I see now that you're already wanting me to give you back what you gave to me." She rose up, covering my face with a pillow. "Now's not the time for that yet."

As my face was covered, I could not see what it was she was doing, but I did feel much of it. It felt like she had readjusted herself, she had pressed her weight on top of me again, but this time with intent. The giggling princess retracted her weight and reapplied it, but to a distinctive location. I took the pillow from off from over my face, seeing that she had straddled me with the sheets separating us from one another. She held her hoof to mu chest as she kept her balance. Her comforter had concealed a lot of what was taking place down below, making me impatient and curious of what it was she was hiding.

She wiggled her hips lightly against me. "There. No more distractions. Now we have each other." She whispered as her mane fell past her face, brushing onto my face. She promptly adjusted that and gave me a sultry look. "You know, I was almost jealous yesterday morning. Could you tell?"

"You mean with Kalimba?" I asked.

The princess pressed her hips against me, causing me to flex into her. I started to realize just how aroused she was as she started to moisten the sheets above me. I sighed in reflex and placed my hand around her waist. I whispered profanities as she ground herself on me slowly. "I know the two of you may have done much together, but this is my moment now."

"Oh, so you work harder when you're jealous?" I questioned.

"I never said that." She said in a low voice.

"What you say and do are two different things." I replied. "Did Luna doing all of what she did today made you feel upset?"

"Upset in the way where I felt like sending her to the moon for another month." She answered.

My eyes started drifting down to where our hips had met with the small layer of separation. I started to peel back the sheets before she latched my hand back to her flank. "C'mon, let me see it." I whispered playfully.

"No." She answered childishly.

I gave her a firm smack against her flank, grasping at her on contact. She paused for a moment as I felt her hindlegs shake in response. The princess gasped and clutched to my chest, clenching her eyes as she shuddered. Her eyes popped back open and she regained her breath after a short pause. The moisture between us grew significantly. The princess had commonly kept her voice under suppression, but she couldn't hold back the light whimper she made with every surging pulse of her unexpected climax. As a result, her magic was quenched in full while she recovered.

"Dammit, Nondis. I wasn't supposed to go off this early." She complained.

"Seems to me someone doesn't know how to control herself as much as she would like to believe." I joked at her expense.

"Well maybe if you weren't so rough, I'd control myself a little better." She mumbled between breaths.

A most sinister smirk formed from the corners of my mouth, I was reminded of what was the trigger that caused her to act so ravenously the last time we met. I coiled my hand around the dock of her tail and lightly pulled upwards. "Oh is that so? So you like it when I'm rough?"

"Please don't." She pleaded bashfully. I gave it a quick tug, watching her collapse into my chest in her secondary peak amidst her attempted recovery. Her eyes rolled back as she formulated whatever words she could. "You... you just can't keep doing that. If you do, I'm trying for foals."

I laughed at her, giving her a kiss on her forehead. "I know that's what you want."

The princess snagged some of my hair, pulling me up as she still recovered from her previous orgasm. "You'll have enough of teasing me."

"You're the one who has a sheet between us." I pointed out.

"I have it there so that I don't abandon all reason and just dive in at you." She replied. "You haven't even finished, have you?"

"Nope." I answered before setting myself up and pulling her waist back down on to saddle me. "But you can help me right where you're at."

My hand started to grasp at her throat, the princess squeed with glee. "You know, I don't think I've been so assaulted since..." Her enjoyment had started to taper off for a moment as she gave her situation some thought and comparison. I went from grasping her throat to holding her cheek instead.

"Hey." I murmured into her, holding her face towards mine. "The difference between now and then is that I care for you enough to know how far you're willing to take it."

The princess froze in place, uncertain of how she wanted to answer me. She looked down at herself, especially the mark on her chest. "I... guess I am pretty nervous about this. I never really thought of what I was doing with you until now."

I gave her a light peck on her forehead once more. "If you need a moment, we can just do something else."

She firmed the position of her hips, wrapping her forelegs around me to show her dedication. "No. I want this. I'm just thinking of the past at a bad time."

"You're comfortable with me?" I questioned.

"Why wouldn't I be? I love you." The princess answered softly. Her ears twitched the next second as she realized what it was that ejected from her lips. She tensed up, covering her face with one of her wings. "Oh gracious mother, tell me I did not say that out loud." While the sudden confession caught me off guard, I couldn't help but to find my spirit soaring to the sky. The princess, however, tried to lessen the impact of her words. "I... I mean... I-i-it's not that I don't, I just can't really put myself into the perspective of not having you around is all. And I know that sometimes we royals can rush a little faster than we want to... I just... why did I just say that? I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry if all of this is too much for─"

"You're gonna make a beautiful wife."

Celestia separated her feathers, peeking at me through the opening she made for her eyes. I leaned down to get a better view of her face.

"Uh, hello. Equestria to Celeste?"

Her ears turned red as she brought another wing to hide her face. "D-Don't speak." She whispered.

"I know the other day you wanted to say a lot to me when I came back in the condition I was in. I know you had to hide a lot of you in doing that. But I want you to know that I love how you sometimes try to play it off." I leaned my forehead into her. "What you did for me today was nothing short of what I need for the rest of my life. Is it too soon for me to say that, yeah maybe. But when you came to me in that moment, I really did feel the closure I needed to have as well as the comfort and warmth I wanted."

"I was just─" She began before I interrupted her with my continued confession.

"Everything about you is... yeah. Like what way can I put it, I'd be here all night talking about it. You may not think it, but you radiate so much love that it's an addiction at this point. I dreamed of you even before I started speaking with you, before you even gave me that first kiss. Maybe it's the what all I've had to face thus far, and now I'm just coming to the point where I don't see a need of holding back anymore. I faced death twice in the matter of two weeks, why the hell not? You only live once, well I do anyways. I don't know if I'll ever get this chance again, this moment, not after this week. But if I do, I want to be as flagrantly in love with you as much as I am your harshest critic."

The princess quickly shook her head, lashing back at me. "Please stop talking."

I reached under her wings holding to her chin as they slowly separated. "The scars on your body, I want to hear every story they have, just like you know of mine. The fears and horrors you faced, I want to be able to exchange the ones I suffered, with you. I don't know anyone else who could ever give me that security in my life other than you." My heart was still racing from the confession she gave me, much like it did from the first moment she laid her lips onto me. I trembled as I offered my own declaration. "Celeste Delanise Valkyrie, I─"

The princess interrupted me and pushed her head back into mine. "...I was serious about the foals." She added, looking off to the side as her hips sank into me.

I snickered at the princess, mainly in disbelief of her timing. "That's an interesting response."

"I'm serious." She muttered, breathing heavily as her hooves still coiled around me. "I'll retire this instant and will try for a family tonight, right now. Don't you dare think that's funny."

"Well as much as I would love to see you try to make that work between two different species, I don't think retiring from the crown right now is a good idea." I replied, earning an eye roll from the princess of the sun.

"To hell with it!" She hollered out loudly in a fit of frustration. She then caught herself and covered her mouth in shock that she screamed as loud as she did. "Sorry, I'm a little excited." She said, sinking her hips into me for another time.

While I could feel the moisture between us almost render the satin sheets pointless, I was caught in an odd state between arousal for the immediate moment and absolute pleasure of the heart. I wanted to be able to give attention to both of my bodily needs, but I struggled to do so because of how each had become so overwhelmingly blissful. "I want to love you, and get to know you, at the same time. I know that's a lot to ask."

"We won't be able to marry for a while." She said, brushing her lips against mine.

"I feel we can wait it out." I said, leaning into kiss her.

"I'm possessive." She said, leaning back to not allow me the chance.

"Who isn't in any way?" I whispered.

She turned her head from me, glancing down at where our union was all but certain. "I like nicknames... and sonnets... and flowers... and─"

"And plushies." I finished, tilting her chin up to me again.

"Soft stuff, yes." She whimpered, shuddering at the continued warmth of me against her. "But I also like being small at times."

"Submissive?" I questioned.

"...Maybe." The mare clenched her teeth, slowly sinking herself against me, her hips started to pick up a slow rhythm.

"When the time is right?" I asked.

"Like... right now." She said as she finally reintroduced her lips into mine. For just a few seconds, we lost ourselves verbally and started discovering the comfort of each other's tongues. Her lips ravaged mine as her hips rocked back and forth into mine. My tongue flicked at hers playfully, hers danced around mine, pressing and caressing into it with an immeasurable aggression. Our eyes partways opened to see one another so unquestionably in love and lust. There was only one word that came to my mind in seeing her the way she was right now: Breed. I wanted to sexually prosecute her into total and unquestioned obedience, just for the chance to recreate life.

She was serious about foals, I was more than willing to provide.

The both of us came to a cold stop, our ears flinching at the knock that sounded at her door. While I was driven to hide myself, the princess held me down and buried my head into her chest. "Who calls?" She called out to the door.

A guard stood at the door on the outside, hailing back to the princess. "Your highness, I heard a scream. Is everything all right in there?"

While I looked up to her frantically, she continued to feign a calmness in her voice despite the fact that I could hear her heart pounding in her chest. "I was just frustrated over some paperwork. Don't mind me."

"Your highness, it's customary that you get your daily rest." The guard responded.

"I will. Thank you." She replied to him also.

The both of us were motionless, listening out for the hoofsteps in the hall to fade further and further away. As the guard started to sound distant, I craned myself from under her and looked for my shirt. "I guess that's my cue."

Before I could levitate my shirt off the ground, the princess slapped my hand down. "No it's not. You stay there and love me like I told you to." She said as she went back to having her forelegs wrapped around my shoulders. "I want to wake up to you before I raise the sun. I want to tell her what all we've done together."

"Just as long as she can keep secrets." I joked.

The princess giggled. "She's great at that."

For moments, we just laughed at what we narrowly avoided, the awkwardness of being interrupted in the midst of our heated romp, and then in silence as we looked at each other, taking joy in being in one another's reach. It didn't take long for her to go right back into warming herself back up, and neither did it take me as much time to get back to where I was. In fact, the idea of almost being caught was in itself a bit of a thrill, not one I would like to experience again but it dared me to continue. The princess kissed me softly as she looked at me with such passion and endearment.

My mind was made up, I wanted to wake up to that face every morning. And I would go to hell and back to do it. "I love you, Cella."

She chuckled and replied. "I love you too... Nondie."

The Next Day...

There was a knock at the princess' door. She looked down to her golden wind-up clock and noticed the time, 5:37. She rose from her bed and stretched her forelegs, her hindlegs, her entire body before plopping a hoof down next to her. In doing so, her eyes jumped open to feel another body next to her. She looked over and saw the human she had spent time with the previous night.

A smile awoken to her lips, her eyes were filled with a comfort unknown to her for a millennium. She leaned down and kissed his cheek before leaving the warmth of her sheets. The princess yawned as she summoned her regalia to her head and chest, walking into her slippers before approaching the door.

The sun princess opened the door to see three other guards along with a familiar face. "Morning, your highness."

"Solemn Oath, I see they've put you on wake-up." She said to the guardsmare.

"Actually, I volunteered, your highness." She announced proudly.

"So I see."

A loud snore erupted from the bed. The two looked over to see the human who tossed and turned over to his other side. Solemn, as well as the other guards outside, were confused. "What is he doing here?"

Celestia tried to hide her expressions, remaining visibly stern. "I had him stay overnight. I needed to evaluate his mental state to make sure he was suitable for his work."

"Don't we have specialists for that?" Solemn suggested. "I mean, I don't think it's reasonable to have someone as important as you to do something so... is it offensive to say 'trivial' in this subject?"

The princess gave a fair response. "He is my responsibility, as there has already been an incident involving a human in recent days. It's only right that I keep an eye out for any more developments. And it's not that I don't have the time, it's that there are very few ponies I have grown to trust regarding this matter." Celestia bent down to quietly address Solemn directly. "I'm sure you remember Thursday afternoon quite clearly."

"Iron Hoof, I didn't know he was so obsessed with you." The guardsmare confirmed with understanding. "But he shouldn't be in here, your highness, much less in your bed."

"My personal kindness is extended to those who aid me the most, Solemn Oath. I'm sure you already knew that."

The mare glanced past the princess at the door, seeing the peaceful human at rest with a smile on his face. "...Understood."

From there, Celestia went on to bark her first orders of the day. "Go on and ready the other patrols for their shift change. I'll continue dealing with him until he wakes. Then I'll dismiss him from my room."

"Yes, your majesty." Solemn answered with a salute.

The doors closed and the princess was left to her lonesome with the human still at rest. She walked past him and towards her balcony. Upon arriving to her post, she saw that the moon had been already brought down by Luna. She ignited her horn and hummed to herself while she raised the sun from it's rest. Once the celestial orb was brought along it's way, the princess walked into the bathroom to take a dip in her bathing pool.

She stayed there for some minutes, thinking fondly of the previous night. Often times she would sink into the water, letting the warmth take her along the familiar memory of his hands grasping at her wings, her forelegs reaching around him to anchor herself against him, the many climaxes she shared with him without a moment of crossing the line she set aside for herself. Even though she wished for more, she was still excited with what she had gotten out of it. She became irrationally exuberant as his words played back in her mind.

All she could think of was their next meeting, even if it had to be in secret. Despite the fact that she knew what they were doing was very much illegal, she couldn't care less for it. She had the happiness she hadn't experienced in quite some time, much less the very brief and bittersweet encounter she last had with the good King Sombra over two years prior.

Ever since that moment, she almost accepted that fate had no desire to see her happy in the company of another. In fact, of her personal contacts, they were either killed, sealed away, or was corrupted to darkness. But today felt like a change of fortune for her. She felt truly loved for the first time in many years. There was nothing she felt that could take that moment from her...

...Nothing except fate.

The thought of anything that could go wrong had started to break away at the fond memories she recalled from the previous night, replacing them with many alterations of bad news that could come in the following week. After all, he still had to go back to Canterrot, anything could happen.

After rinsing off, she got back into her bed to greet the human that started to stir awake.

My eyes fluttered open to see the mare of the sun smiling at me with a young countenance. "Good morning, Nondie." She greeted ever so sweetly.

"I almost forgot where I was." I said as I started to fully open my eyes to the world. "What time is it?" I asked tiredly.

"It's almost time for breakfast." She replied, giving me a kiss on my cheek.

"Ugh, that means I need to be up and at it." I said, yawning and stretching as I stumbled out of her bed.

The princess snagged my arm and pulled me back down to the bed. "Slow down, you. I can't let you go without a proper greeting."

She gave me several pecks on the lips before giving me a much more open invitation. I hummed with amusement. "So I take it that you're just making up for the time we spent sleeping."

"I almost overslept because of you." She said as she looked at the golden windup clock on her nightstand.

"I'm sorry to be a distraction." I teased back.

"Oh no, far from it. You're a source of a lot of my energy today." She said happily.

"Well I'm happy to know that." I said, giving her one more peck on her lips before I started searching for my clothes. "I have to get back to my room to shower."

Celestia had beaten me to the punch, grabbing my clothes and setting them up beside her. "Just take a dip in the bathing pool, you'll be clean all the more."

"And have me going around the castle smelling like the princess' personal assembly of perfumes?" I deadpanned.

"Consider it a badge of honor." She responded gleefully.

"No, my badge of honor would be me going as is, smelling like you." I joked.

The princess tried to hide her little devious smirk from me, showing that she was somewhat interested in the idea. She had to snap herself out of the idea for a second, clearing her throat. "Well that version of me is not what I want out there for my maids to talk about. It's bad enough Luna already had you do that once to piss me off."

"What? You, the princess of petty, don't want your man to go out smelling like a marked target?" I questioned sarcastically.

"Absolutely not." She said through a half-chuckle.

"The thought of it excites you." I pointed out.

The royal mare played with her forelegs before pointing me in the direction of her bathroom. "Yes it does, but we have a reputation to uphold. Now get in that room and bathe in that pool for fifteen minutes. You'll smell like the royalty you are in my eyes."

"Aw, that's sweet." I said, taking her advice.

I closed the door behind me and started sitting in the pool, contemplating over what had taken place last night. I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear over what we had done and said to each other. The mere fact that she came out and admitted she was in love with me was still so surreal to me. And after last night, I understand why she would want me to stick around. We had almost gotten to the point where we were about to give a middle finger to the marriage law and just go all-in. But most importantly, I had a feeling in my chest I haven't felt in months.

Maybe we were rushing it, fine. But I was happy with what we had, and I didn't see much of a fault past the first time we shared a bed together. I don't feel the possessiveness as much, I don't feel the underlying current of external oversight aside from a marriage law that's soon to be thrown in a retirement home with the rest of it's staunch supporters. All I had to do was make it through the week.

And all of yesterday was a great way to refuel, reload, and recharge for the week.

I stepped out of the bathroom, still covering myself because the the princess was still holding my clothes. She handed them over for me to wear, and I walked back out with them on again. I checked the time and saw that it was well-going into eight. I walked over to give the princess a parting kiss on the cheek. "Alright. I'm out."

When my lips made impact, she snagged the collar of my shirt to prevent me from leaving. "Before you go. We need to talk about something." There wasn't a smile on her face, apparently something serious came to mind.

"Sure, what's up?"

She took a deep breath and started speaking. "After this week, that makes four weeks your friends have been here. As agreed, we'll return them to your world this Saturday."

"I hope that's the case. I bet they're sick of being on all fours." I replied.

"That also means you'll be done in Corrotto, right?" She inquired, the look on her face becoming a bit more dire.

"Should be. Our agreement was a month, this makes it a month and then some. Friday should be the last day I drop by. And if not, well I guess I'll have to do another week to make sure."

Celestia was not in agreement to the precautionary timeline I provided. "Nondis, after this Friday, I don't want you going back there."

I can already tell she was pretty firm on me being done with the VIP Lounge, probably had her mind made up on Friday night when I came back the way I did. However, all I could think of was if he had some other plans that would put any more humans at risk, my friends for that matter. And there was still the thought of him just simply reneging on what we agreed on for some extra bullshit. "But who's to say that Slade wants me to get everything I want on Tuesday instead? I know I want to be out of there by Friday, no fucking less than that. But if I have to, then I will try to put an end to him for good."

The princess yanked me further down, disagreeing with my ultimatum. "I told you not to involve yourself with him."

"Cella, that bastard took one of my own and made me kill him. This is personal at this point."

She used a hoof to cusp at my cheek, quietly pleading with me. "I know how you feel, but don't let yourself be consumed by vengeance. You must see to it that you can make Friday your last day there and come back home, to me."

I know that I want to be able to promise her that I could just come back and be done with it, but there was no way of knowing if he was going to put me through something I couldn't physically or mentally recover from. "I can't promise that, but I can try my best."

She grew even firmer with her plea. "I don't want you to try. I want you to do it."

"Cella, you know that life is fickle and fate is far more of the same." I argued.

"Yes I do, that's why I want you back here no later than midnight. You bring yourself to me, no late-night stays, no distractions, if my guards don't see you at a checkpoint by the minute before, I will send Luna to snatch you up and out." She outlined, even going so far to get personal over the matter.

"What if he has reservations?" I pointed out.

"Those no longer matter after Friday, you have my word." She insisted. "Now you get what you're supposed to get out of him, leave him be, and come back home. I'm not losing you, I'd sooner become the beast I feared becoming again than to lose you for the first time."

I knew there was no winning against her. If she says that she wants me to be done by a certain day, that she would give me her word that it comes to an end on that day, then I have to take it. Even then, my mind went back to the Instagram post she made, the way she punished Iron Hoof and his conspirators, the way she intervened when I was down for the count in Everfree. I've seen her fight, and I know she'll do it with no hesitation.

If she had something planned, then I know it will be good. "I'll give it my best."

She leaned in, kissing me before letting me go. "Get what you need. Get out. That's your mission for the week, captain."

"Yes, your highness." I acknowledged her request.

I turned to leave and she called out before I could open the door, making sure no one could hear her. "Come back to me. Don't give me another memory to mourn... I love you."

"Tell me something I don't know." I said looking back at her with a smile and a wink. "I love you too. See you at breakfast."

I walked out of the room, seeing a patrol walking by to relieve the shift of the guards. So far as I was aware of the numbers that came marching back, my new security rotation had gone uninterrupted. The results were promising. I walked further down the hall and checked the time. 8:05 on the dot. An irregular shift adjustment by five minutes, and an even sturdier measure of having guards rotate in pairs as opposed to entire squads. The week before, the halls were so scarcely filled in the morning, this was a promising change.

"Patrols have completely shifted, sir." I looked down to see Solemn standing before me with a salute. "Seems your swap-around is a lot more airtight than previous weeks."

"Solemn, didn't expect you to be here." I greeted the mare.

"I'm just getting off of wakeup patrol. A lot of what happened in past few days have gotten the officers frantic." She said as we started walking alongside each other towards the cafeteria.

"What is it this time?" I asked with an eyeroll.

"Division in the ranks, regulars taking sides, all because Iron Hoof was dishonorably discharged post-mortem. Some say you're to blame, others point out the obvious. Also there's seems to be a young group of students protesting outside of the castle, something about marriage laws and 'the freedom to love'."

I scoffed at the development she informed me of. "The rest sounds pretty bad. But why is that last bit so much of an issue?"

"Well, it's more of a political issue that's starting some division in the city streets between the older conservative Equestrian crowd and the younger liberal Equestrian working class. They say that they should be free to love who they want to."

"How did this come up?"

"Well, with some breeding laws still in place from the old civil war, some mares have gotten pretty tired of following the old herding approach to stallions. They just want to be able to love who they want freely. There are even some stallions getting in on the action."

"Ah, civil rights." I concluded.

"I suppose." She said with a shrug.

"You don't mind me asking, where do you stand on the matter?"

"I'm on the side of free lovers. I mean, we should be able to love who we want freely. Hence why Thursday's incident caused such a dispute when it got out from behind castle walls." She replied. "It's a movement that pretty much takes aim at a lot of the marriage and breeding laws that are in effect right now. A lot of conservatives see it as immoral, saying that ponies should have a moral obligation to breed males back into a higher percentile of the population, at least more than the current one-in-three ratio. Having same-sex relationships threatens that in their eyes."

"Don't they know that those ponies won't be breeding either way if they're unhappy? At least if they choose to have a stable relationship, build a home together, they can offer the idea of being artificially inseminated or adopt a kid to make a family, even so much as being a sperm donor for someone to have your child, they have ponies out there willing to make that happen for someone. There's a number of ways to do it, and it should even matter to those old crusty ponies anyways." I stated, offering my own perspective. "You can't force someone to love the opposite sex if their heart is in someone else who happens to share the same set of tools, or if they're a different sapient species, whatever. All relationships follow a set of boundaries. If someone's happiness is predicated on your expectations or norms, then you can't play victim when they still want who they want and bitch about them removing you from their life."

"Ugh! Finally, somepony gets it!" The guardsmare erupted. "My parents wanted me to settle down because they believed I needed to have a family to come home to when my day was done. They even outlined my entire career once I got in, do my fifteen years or so, find a decent guard or doctor, settle down, have some foals, retire in year twenty. Every time we meet up, they ask me if I found a boyfriend or husband. Then don't get me started on all the stupid recruits thinking they can get lucky after a few drinks! It irks me to no end!"

"Trust me, I've been privy to the conversation." I replied. "Most times, the boys want you out of the way to shoot their shot at your friends."

"I know. And I'm the main thing that stops them. It's pretty much why they keep me around, I'm the guard dog of the group who chews out anyone looking to try."

"I hear you're pretty good at it." I said with a chuckle.

"The girls say I'm too good at it too. They say I scare the fish away, but I really do it for quality control. No friend of mine isn't getting with some insecure punk who doesn't have a roadmap for his own life, no matter the age." She said with a proud smile.

"I'm curious. How is it that you don't have guys lining up to try and tame the beast that is you?"

"A disinterest so strong that it serves as the foundations of Canterlot." She stated in a sarcastic manner. "But in all seriousness, I just don't see my future bogged down by my parents expectations of me. Maybe I just don't want to outright disappoint them with the truth that I don't want a stallion in my life."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because I feel like my family will hate me for it." She answered somberly.

"You're a lesbian, maybe?" I questioned casually.

The mare's eyes popped open and she gave me a painful nudge into my leg. "Can you not say that out loud?"

"Sorry. I forgot that this stuff is a stigmatic conversation here. Being gay in my world, at least in my country, is less of a big deal than what people want it to be. In fact, there are several focus groups looking to make gay marriage a legalized practice back home. And most people favor it. Some countries have even made it legal before we did."

"Sounds like a pretty awesome world to live in." She said with a soft, but envious smile.

"Of course, there's some violent opponents of that idea, as well as some families who disown their own kids for it out of religious spite, but that's about as far as it goes."

"The Faustian faith preaches firmly against it as well." She added, sighing with defeat. "Guess that makes our worlds more alike than different."

I looked at the mare who appeared slightly disheartened. "I'm only speaking from my perspective. But I think we should love who we want to."

"I agree." She said with a more comfortable smile before it faded into uncertainty. "Um, about our conversation. Please don't tell anypony."

"Classified." I replied with a wink. "Top secret."

The Guild's Tavern of Corrotto
Later That Evening...

Umbra sat as his table watching the many members walking by and raising cheers to him. Each of them raised a mug of cider in his honor to pay homage. As he sat in his seat, a wooden throne fashioned for a king, he watched as the festivities and merriment took place. the alcohol he consumed had started to take a toll on his impairment. The stallion drunkenly waved his hoof at the celebrating guild, who wished him a happy birthday.

"Oy Doctor, Hearts and Hooves day is comin' up! Maybe you'd fancy a hairy spider or two in your knickers!" A mare called out with a thick Highland accent, much to the glee of surrounding guild members.

Umbra drunkenly laughed back. "As long as they don't bite!"

"AYYY!" The stallions in the crowd all called back.

"Hey Doctor! So a Faustian priest called in a mass to pray for the miners! What say you!?" A stallion called out to the merry Umbra.

"Give them a break, they've been working the shaft all day!"

"AYYY!" The crowd cried out in celebration of the joke.

"Herr good Doctor, you seem to be in fine spirits today!" Yet another stallion called out.

"That and gin!" Umbra replied.

The crowd laughed at his witty reply. "Doctor, you're always so good to us!" A griffon called out to the seated stallion of the hour.

"Am I, am I really!?" Umbra playfully questioned, earning the cheers and approval of every guild member in room. The overwhelming praise for him had him feeling quite enthusiastic in his drunken stupor. He stumbled to his hooves and slammed one into the table before him. "I'll tell you what! Whole night, it's all on me!"

The crowd began to cheer until a changeling mare called out to him. "But you already gave us the whole night!" She said, prompting many of the others to think about and shrug at his offer.

Umbra smiled as he hollered out in quick succession. "Well fuck it, the whole week on my tab!"

The eruption of cheers and singing that came from the crowd was far louder and more pleasing to his ears than what he could possibly have on a given Friday night. The pony began to hear the chorale being sung to his name and conducted along.

Umbra finished conducting as he raised a mug to chug down another helping of cider. Much of the drink splashed on his face as he held it up high above his head in an attempt to pour it into his mouth. After he finished, glanced over to his side to see the multitude of mugs that hand sat empty, each attesting to his own count. Also resting with them were a number of bottles gifted straight from the bar.

The stallion grinned before he slumped back into his seat. His vision blurred and blacked repeatedly as he started to think to himself. "Ah, this place... this place has so many memories... good and bad." He looked down to the crowd of creatures all laughing and joking amongst each other, more of the bar maids working overtime to bring the members drinks upon drinks upon drinks at their leisure.

His eyes drifted to the front window of the tavern, he saw the streets outside. The smiled faded from his face as he started to drop his head, unable to fight against his drunkenness any longer. The cheers of the present soon began to fade into the familiar noise of the crowd in his past. He faded out with one more murmur on his lips.

"Memories... good, bad... and infuriating."

The scene around the town square of Corrotto was one that was filled with frenzy and even some celebration. The denizens of the lower classes called for the release of the pony responsible for Ivory Spiral's death. But their cries mattered very little in the eyes of the higher influence, who treated the spectacle like the beginnings of a picnic. They waited impatiently for the young colt to receive his just due.

That impatience was further exacerbated for the family of the deceased. "How long must we wait!?" The influential noble called out angrily.

"But uncle, I thought we were to be patient." The young adolescent rebutted to his uncle.

"Patience is a virtue, but when things are dragged out for the sake of being dragged out, it's perfectly fine to verbalize how your patience is wearing thin."

"So what do we do now?" The young Sanctus questioned.

Meanwhile, the grieving mother who's makeup ran down her cheeks had started to lash out. "I can't bear it anymore, Hallow!"

The aristocratic stallion nodded in agreement. "I know, Glister. It will be fine, once the day is done, all will be well again."

She shouted at him, her tears running down her cheeks as she expressed her pain. "Our son is dead because of him! There is no such thing as it being well!"

At long last, the drums started to sound throughout the town square. The deep punching sound of the snares played out a haunting rhythm of quarters and eighths. While the voice of the crier could barely be heard over much of the commotion in the town square, the snares weighed past the cries of release from the multitude. The young colt was brought from his cage and walked to the stage, his face being concealed as he was guided up the stairs. Dirtied and bruised, he tried to feel his way around until he slipped against the dew-soaked wood. He was yanked from the ground, his mask falling off for a moment to reveal his face.

"Is that him?" Sanctus asked.

"That's him." Hallow murmured angrily before turning around to quickly restrain his wife.

"YOU MURDERER! YOU VILE BASTARD OF THE DIRT! BE JUDGED LIKE YOU JUDGED OUR SON! YOUR FAMILY WILL BE CURSED! YOUR PARENTS WILL SLAVE THEIR LIVES AWAY TO REPAY US! MARK MY WORDS, YOU LOW-BORN BRAT!"

The hood was placed back on his head after the rope was tightened around his neck. From there he was left alone to wait until the stool he stood on was to be kicked from under him. The drums broke into a sustained roll, waiting for the moment the stool was to be taken away. The executioner stood pat, looking to Hallow for the final word. The aristocrat nodded, and the stool was kicked way. The snares stopped rolling as the young stallion unexpectedly fell to the ground with an unceremonious flop. "What happened?" Sanctus asked, confused by the occurrence.

"The ropes have been cut!" The angry aristocrat announced as he directed his ire to the executioner. "HEY! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"

But while he paid more attention to the executioner, he paid little mind to the golden halberd lodged in the wood of the rope's support beam, and even less to the crowned mare waiting right beside it. "The princess." Sanctus said excitedly, gawking in awe at how close she was to his eyes. "She's so beautiful. Why does she not smile?"

The princess loudly called out to the crowd to make her announcement. "Citizens of Equestria! It has come to my attention that this execution will come to a change in order!"

Very much frustrated by the circumstances, Hallow stormed past the crowd to reach the front of the stage. "Like hell it will!"

"Uncle!" Sanctus called out, trying to join him.

"Stay back! I'll deal with this! You stay put!" He angrily reprimanded the adolescent colt, then directing that same energy towards the presiding princess. "Your highness! Your highness!"

"Who calls?" She asked to the silenced crowd.

"I am Count Hallow Bastion, father of the young lord Ivory Spiral! I seek retribution for my slain son! We shan't postpone an hour later for any reason! We demand for justice now!"

"Surely seeing a body struggle to breathe isn't the grand vengeance you seek, is it?" She asked him.

The stallion gawked at the princess as he saw her holding the halberd in her possession, it's blade lodged in the wood where the rope once swayed. The young colt breathing heavily with relief as his life would continue for a little while longer. "Your majesty, he is a murderer! I cannot allow him to live!"

"But surely you'd rather a more fitting spectacle. A bloodless death for a bloodied one doesn't seem very just. If your son's blood was spilled, then why simply give him the common criminal treatment? I would like to think that you'd be more enthusiastic about my willingness to rent my blade for a more fitting method? Perhaps you would prefer that a criminal's head be on display for the others to know their place?"

While the young stallion's heart began to race as he heard the drastic change of how his fate will be brought, Hallow's criticism soon fell to excitement as he made his request. "Why your majesty, why haven't you presented this idea earlier!? I would've easily allowed the executioner to lop off his head! The message that would send would be substantial! If you would, would you allow me the honours of seeing to his end myself?"

"As you wish!" She said, holding her hoof to her halberd. "Come!"

While the stallion marched up to the side of the gallows to join her and the condemned on it's stage, his wife cried out to him emphatically. "That's right, Hallow! You give our son the proper rest he deserves!"

The princess placed the halberd on the stage, and invited him to pick it up. As he made his attempts to wield it, he quickly discovered it's weight was not ideal for his physical capabilities. The princess even aided him by magically holding his hind legs in place to give him more leverage. Eventually, trying to grab the golden halberd had made him too weak to do much outside of pant and concede defeat, much to the disappointment of the crowd. "Well... I suppose that this is a matter that only you can rectify, your highness."

The audience chuckled at his weakness. The princess merely brushed it off. "Indeed, I wouldn't have expected you to get this thing to budge in the beginning. After all, I did configure it's weight to crush armor and bone alike. It's much easier to use in battle as opposed to the traditional sword or spear. Though the blade is beautiful, would you like to see the details up close?"

"Why yes, your highness." He said as the blade was brought closer for him to behold. "I see. It's a very beautiful blade. It is only a shame that it's majesty is soon to be tainted by the blood of a murderer."

"I agree. It is shameful that I would use it in such a manner." She said before hiking the blade underneath his chin. The once-passionate stallion froze, looking back to see her magic still grasped around his hind legs, holding him where he stood. "You're so right, it's nothing short of a disgrace."

He loudly and nervously informed the princess. "Your majesty, the blade is on my throat."

"I know. But you want to know something else? There's always this look a pony has when they've done something terrible to someone and just moments later, they get their comeuppance. It goes without saying your son had that same look of desperation on his face when he died. It's almost funny, you're wearing that same exact face. So is there any reason why you'd wear that face right now?"

The princess leaned in, whispering low to where no one else could hear. The anxious wife called out to her husband on the gallows. "Hallow! Hallow, what's wrong!?"

While she cried out to her husband, urging him to tell her what was wrong, his eyes expanded and he began to nod at the princess whispering in his ear. His mouth barely moved, and very little could be heard from him. The princess' eyes narrowed as she stepped forward, driving the blade of her halberd through his neck until the flesh of his neck could no longer resist the weight. In simple fashion, the aristocrat's life came to a tumbling end as his head rolled from off of his shoulders.

The crowd was stunned quiet. Glister croaked in seeing her husband's head tumble to the front of the stage. The mare held her remaining son, covering his eyes while she wept for her slain husband.

Sanctus shuddered as the princess' laugh filled the square, piercing so loudly that not even the previously rattling snares could overshadow her. The look of absolute bliss appeared on her face as she released the magic holding down the hooves of the headless body. In grizzly fashion, the body slumped before her. She shoved the remains aside and announced loudly to the crowd. "Ponies of Equestria, my humble citizens!" She said with the largest blood-stained smile on her face. "Thine princess has arrived."

Glister trembled as she held her son, covering his eyes as she tried to stifle her wailing. As Sanctus started to reach out for his uncle, she grabbed him and held him close for a moment while the princess addressed the crowd. While doing so, she slowly raised the head from where she stood to up high for the entire square to see.

"My humble citizens, your princess hears your cries! Your calls for justice in a land ruled and owned by greedy lords and selfish aristocrats! Nobles who seek to take advantage of you by leaving you in squalor, forcing themselves upon you when you are at your weakest. Taking from you when you have very little and leaving you with nothing, then requesting that you give them more in exchange for your suffering! I know your plight too well! I've once known a stallion who suffered these things, and rose above them to challenge the ones who oppressed him. And this one who I've claimed is the MURDERER of Prince Fair Charity!"

Her magic disappeared from his mane, dropping his head from high above the stage to the ground below. The aristocrat's eyes wandered listlessly, with Sanctus' horrified expression being the last thing he saw before it all ended. The crowd began to cheer wildly as the family tried to bear with the sudden loss of one of their own. It was supposed to be a time of closure for them, only to be usurped by the horror they were made to witness.

The princess then pointed her hoof to the group of grieving ponies in the crowd, the first one being his grieving wife. "Her." Then his brother, Sanctus' own father. "Him." It then pointed to Sanctus' aunt. "Her." It even pointed onto himself. "Him." Then another one of his uncles. "Him." And finally his younger cousin. "Him."

Without warning, Sanctus felt himself being tugged at by his own father, who ripped the clothes off of him and kicked him into the dirt. He looked up to see that it was none other than his father who looked to him distraught with terror and regret. In that moment, he went out of his way to assault his own son brutally for the sake of visually disowning him. He then started lashing out against other stallions and mares who started to get violent towards the family.

The princess' voice called out once more, stoking the fires of wrath. "Those are the ones who carry his blood, do with them what you will, citizens! Make this your declaration against those who live lavishly off of your backs!"

Sanctus watched as his father exchanged blows with other ponies around him. After a few brief exchanges, he went back to hitting on him to further show divide. The crowd angrily shouted to the stallion, calling for his head for assaulting the adolescent colt lying bloodied and battered on the cobblestone street. Screams and cries of his family had grown significantly loud until they were silenced one-by-one. Sanctus was dragged away from the fracas, away from his father who vehemently called out to the princess his last discernable words. "Madness, you insinuate madness!"

The grunts and cries of his father were eventually drowned out by the sound of the many lower-class citizens cheering and celebrating in the town square. Some grabbed the spears of some nearby guards who also joined in the celebration, and they distributed them to some of the ones overlooking the bodies of the family. Sanctus watched as the first pike that hovered high above the crowd had shown his uncle's departed visage. Next was his aunts, his cousin, and finally his father. Sanctus was walked away from the scene by some of the lower-class citizens, the same ones who eagerly cheered seeing his family's heads swaying in the Canterlot sky above the town square.

As he was brought to a local tavern to be cared for, he couldn't shake the sight of his family looking down at him from high above. He shook violently, scared of everything around him. And it was especially for his fear of joining with his family in their farewell flight in the square.

A young bar maiden wiped the blood from his lips as she cursed the fallen aristocrats. "Bloody bastards! Assaulting foals and trying to execute young colts!"

The bar owner looked outside of his window as the crowd started a parade, marching down the streets with the bloodied pikes in tow. He looked up to see the dismayed and resigned faces of the ponies who once represented the higher class. "Blood-thirsty tyrants, the lot of them!"

"This one was being accosted by one of those headless souls." The maid called out.

"Well they're headed down the street now. I suppose business will be good tonight, best to prepare for the coming tide. Maybe I should run a deal, bring us an ear of those bastards, get a night of drinks on us."

The maid pulled out a bottle of whiskey, dabbing some to a cloth and applying it to the stallion's busted lip. Sanctus winced while she applied pressure. "I can't even call it cruel! Those aristocrats are always looking down on us, doing horrible things to us in the lower class!"

"Now it's our turn to make them pay!" The bar owner said with a cackle, he quickly went about the business of wiping his tables clean for the anticipated celebration to take place. He then called out to the young colt. "Hey, lad. You alright?"

"Poor thing is petrified. Got the shanks beat from under him." She replied, tending to more of his bruises.

The bar owner finished wiping down his tables and started to approach the young colt closely. "You got a name?"

"....Um..." The young colt stammered as he tried to come up with an alias to hide himself.

"What's your name?" The maid questioned tenderly.

"Um...bra..." He said, quietly resigning the state of his existence to a life of secrecy. "Umbra." He whispered at last.

"Poor little bastard. He's shaken to his core." The barkeep announced. "Where's your parents?"

"....Dead." He weakly announced, seeing the last pike march down the street along with the crowd.

"Ah, poor thing's an orphan." The maid concluded. "Of course those damn aristocrats are abusing orphaned younglings. It's like a past-time to them"

"Parents probably died in the mines, is that right?" The bar owner guessed.

"Y-yeah." Sanctus answered nervously, trying his best not to cry. "They died in the mines... a long time ago."

"Ah, well you're in here now. Might as well avoid the mines with a bit of honest labour. You help out with us tonight, we give you a bowl of stew and a bed. How's that sound?"

The young colt saw himself with very few options, ultimately agreeing to the offer. "Yes sir."

The Unknown Lab
Present Day...

"Sir."

A voice called out to the stallion sitting in his chair, contemplating the events of the past. He opened his eyes to see one of his loyal servants looking at him from across his desk.

"Sir, have I interrupted you at a bad time?"

The stallion sat up in his chair, stretching his hooves. "Oh no. Just caught my mind wandering on old things." He stood up and walked to the servant, wobbling a bit from earlier. "Yeah, just looking at my accomplishments throughout the years. I couldn't find myself being any less of an ascended being with all I've achieved. I mean, how many bodies do you think it took me to even get here?" Before the servant could say anything in response, Umbra held a hoof up to stop him. "Don't answer that. All you need to know is that I was around at a time where the bodies were plentiful and very sturdy."

The assistant summoned a clipboard and presented it to him. "Sir. The beast. It's ready."

Umbra happily eyed the servant. "Eight hours of stability?"

"Seven, any further would cause for lack of control over the beast's behavior, casing rapid degradation. Seven is the most we can offer between deployment, use, and a calm retrieval. She is a very young-minded creature after all."

The stallion shrugged, accepting the results. "Seven will do. After all, I'm only going to be using it for one night."

"Sir, it's stable enough to be used for seven hours per day."

Umbra paused, his jaw falling as he urged the servant to repeat that information. "Per day, you say?"

"Per day. We've perfected every possible parameter. It's ready."

The stallion clopped his hooves, more than pleased with the trade-off of that lost hour of his vision. "Hot damn, I only intended this to be used like maybe twice a week. But all seven days consecutively?"

"All it requires is sixteen hours of rest. It's almost a living being at this point."

Genuinely amazed, Umbra continued to question the servant. "Did the dolls implement the data I gave you?"

"To the fullest." The cloaked servant replied.

The stallion sat back down in his seat, proud of the results. "One project down. Another to go."

"Sir, we are also working on a possible equation that could take you to the dimension you've requested. However without the sufficient data, we may be months before creating it."

"I am fine with months. After all, I've been waiting for my chance for years." Umbra scoffed. "Patience is a most important virtue. If we don't have that, we don't have order, every worthless bastard will be getting a seat at the table instead of the ones who earned their keep."

"And what of the human body also?" The servant questioned.

"Have the puppets dissect it and gain more information on it's anatomy. I'll need to be fluent on that information if I am to make my move in that field."

"Yes sir." The servant said before dismissing himself.

Umbra sat in his chair, brimming with excitement before a realization had come to him. "Oh dear, I left one of my poor bodies over at the tavern. I'll definitely need to get that back." He said as he started to close his eyes to concentrate.

The Guild's Tavern...

Opening his eyes, he found himself back in the company of the rowdy crowd. The many had probably not even noticed his absence, but he was already in a good mood on all fronts. He looked up to the rafters where the bat ponies conversed to themselves and quickly thought of the only thing that he felt was missing. "Ah, yes, in speaking of the things I've turned upside down. Captain Nondis, I sure do wish you were here." The stallion sighed. "I told you that I would make it more interesting for you if you felt you were getting comfortable. Granted, I thought you were having to kill one of your friends, but silly me. That will change for the next time. I'll be sure to make it as interesting as I need for it to be... that's right. I can make it much more interesting for this week, can't I?"

Umbra sneered and giggled at the potential image of the human's face when he discovers what he has in store for him. The stallion was tickled with thoughts of how he could come away with not just the success of his plans, but also the potential chaos that would ensue. He kicked back in his throne and reclined himself onto the table.

"Oh my dear captain, it's like my uncle said. It's not what you do for others, it's what you'll do for me."

This was a fun chapter to breeze through. It's a light chapter (both in relative word count of the past two years and content) I at least thought this would've taken longer to finish, but it turned out that I managed to run through it as simply as I did the earliest chapters of the story.

I'm willing to admit that the part with Umbra's past was something I had to work on for a while, as I didn't have a solid direction until much later, like within the past fifteen months. Of course I do plan to reveal bits and pieces of him more as the story rides through, probably in similar fashion to this chapter.

I know it's been a long journey, but we're close. I'm gonna try to make this round off as best as I can possibly get it.