Alex and Stanton's jaws were still left unhinged, their bodies nearly petrified as their brains registered a series of functional errors. Luna quietly crept from behind the pillar and finally walked towards the throne. When she stood beside the two men, her eyes grew from the shock of the new human sitting before her. The younger princess immediately recognized her sibling from just the hair alone, but the rest of it seemed like she was looking at a complete stranger.

"Tia... you pulled it off?" Luna questioned.

"Yeah she did!" Stanton called out, reaching his hand out to the confused royal, only receiving a painful smack to his arm.

"Calm your shit, dude." Alex commanded before turning his attention to the transformed princess. "Now your majesty, can you wiggle your toes?"

"Wiggle my toes?" She asked, looking back to her posterior. "WHERE IS MY CUTIE MARK!? WHERE IS MY TAIL!?"

"We don't have tails." Alex calmly explained. "And we don't have cutie marks either. So I can understand what you're feeling like right now."

"I'm so confused, terrified, I have no idea what I'm doing!" She said as she looked at her leg. "And how am I supposed to stand like this!?" The transformed princess tried to walk on her knees, falling over as a result and leaving her posterior pointed to the air, giving both Alex and Stanton a graphic view of her completely barren womanhood. The two men tilted their heads, both oohing to themselves. "Can somepony help me, please?"

Snapping himself out of it, Alex took off his shirt and closed his eyes. Draping his shirt over the woman's exposed body, he removed the distraction from view as he talked to the princess. "Your highness, it is as you told me when you first transformed me to a pony..."

Stanton smacked his brother in the stomach. "When the fuck were you a pony?"

"Long story." He said, brushing off his brother and returning his focus to the human. "But it's as you said, the first clean step is often the hardest, the ones to follow is a learning experience. From there, it comes naturally."

"Did you tell her about the part where it took us months to learn how to walk as humans?" Stanton mumbled, causing the princess to look back at them with horror.

"That's because we were undeveloped mentally." He rebutted.

"Didn't your brother take days to relearn how to walk?" Luna added, making her sister feel even more concerned.

"He had to because he had torn tendons and ligaments, plus the whole comatose for a week thing that made the difference." He said with a groan. "Either case does not apply to you, princess."

"Then what's going to be my case?" Celestia asked as the shirt that was draped over her rear end slid off, giving the men another glimpse of herself.

Stanton quietly whispered to himself, placing his hands together as if he was in prayer. "Fifteen minutes... Just give me that much, God. Please."

Following his comment was a quick slap to the back of the head from his older brother. "Should I remind you that Nondis is in trouble over the same shit you're thinking about?" He whispered back.

"If she's a human, would it really matter?" Stanton quietly asked, causing Luna to intervene.

"Perhaps if you were willing to suffer for my sister's sake." She added with a stern frown, just moments before placing a hoof on her chin in inquiry. "Other than that, I think this could prove to be the perfect loophole to the Approval Process law. It mandates the punishments for ponies, not for humans. I don't think the event will even register─"

"Luna, Alex, anyone, HELP ME, please!" Celestia whined, hiding her face as she grew even more embarrassed where the conversation led to.

The older man shook his head and grabbed the shirt, sighing as he closed his eyes again. "Okay... Your highness I've got to do something but I just want you to know that what I'm doing is in your best interest as well as mine."

"Well whatever it is, I'm sure that you are more than virtuous enough to see it through." She said shyly. "I am not aware of how I may look to you humans."

Alex knelt down, calmly opened his eyes, tore the shirt and quietly calmed the princess. "Your highness, by human standards and I say this as honest truth... You are absolutely divine."

"Wife material." Stanton cosigned. "I'd consider it."

The princess took a deep breath as she remained in place. "Okay, Alex. I've given you my trust. Do as you will."

After tearing the shirt down the middle, he surveyed how he was going to dress her. When his eyes met with her womanhood again, he swallowed his spit and closed his eyes. "Oh if my wife caught me like this, my funeral would be next Saturday."

Planting the torn cloth onto her, the princess shrieked lightly and turned back as she propped herself up with her knuckles. "T-t-that felt like m-my─"

Alex cracked one eye open to see if he had any success in his endeavor. "If it's because you feel a little bit of a tingle that kinda feels familiar to a certain part of your true body, then yes. I'm so sorry, I'm trying to avoid that."

Celestia's face reddened deeply, her eyes clenched shut as she gritted her teeth. Luna took notice of her older sister's distress and grew a devilish smile. "Hey. Hey Tia."

"Shut. Up. Luna." She replied with a groan.

While Alex continued to wrap the princess a make-shift loincloth, Luna snickered to herself for a few moments before continuing. "So is this the first touch you felt in over a thousand years?"

"LUNESTE SELINE VALKYRIE!" The princess screamed rather loudly, causing Alex to jump.

The pony princess continued teasing her sister. "What? It's been over a thousand years, and now there's someone touching─"

"I swear by our mother's name, if you don't shut up, I will ship you back to the moon for another millennium." She said as Alex finished up. With a final tug, she winced slightly as he wiped the sweat on his brow.

"Okay... You should be good to go. Now let's get you standing."

The princess turned her body towards him, seeming to understand how to move on all fours. She didn't dare to look at him but she did hold out a balled-up fist for him to grab, almost as if she was still with hooves.

"Now first thing, princess. We don't have to keep our fists balled up. So just try relaxing your... erm... forelegs."

She took a second or two to think about it and placed her fist in his hand, and then relaxed her muscles. The soft fingers of the princess finally unfurled, letting Alex pull her up and guide her onto his arm. When she stood up, her exposed breasts pressed against his arm. And whenever she stumbled on her knees, she quickly found the use in her new fingers by grabbing onto him and dragging his hand into her inner thighs.

"Ah! Sorry!" She called out, clumsily allowing him to get a handful of crotch.

"It's fine, one step at a time." He replied with pursed lips, his mind trying not to dwell on what he just saw moments earlier. He pulled her up from her knees, finally onto her feet. But when she rose to her toes, she lost balance again and drove her elbow into his crotch, causing the man to bow over in pain. "Aaaaahhh! Don't... hit that... spot again."

"What happened?" Luna questioned.

"Hit him in the baby baster." Stanton said with a cringe, bending down in sympathy. "Not a fun place to get hit."

"I am so, SO sorry, Alex." Celestia apologized as she continued to grasp at his arm, her breast heating up his arm with each passing second.

Feeling like he was already getting too much contact with the princess, Alex turned to his younger brother. "Stanton, take off your shirt, please. She needs a top."

A bit reluctant of losing the view of the princess' naked body, he did as he was ordered and begrudgingly handed his shirt over to the princess. He held her hands up in the air as he pulled the shirt over her chest, leaving a partially bare midriff, but her breast completely concealed. "Well at least she's covered, for now."

Luna shrugged at the both of us reacting the way we did. "I'm not sure why the two of you are even acting like this. Ponies don't normally wear clothes."

Celestia, even as a pony herself, soon found herself aligning with the human's plight. Not from the embarrassment of having herself displayed before the two men, but because of the many years she hid her blemishes from the eyes of her subjects. "Luna, I know you are free spirited now that you've returned to this world from a thousand years of isolation, and with it came so much change that made most of what we considered to be beneath us a casual experience for all. But it's best to keep in mind that not everypony's ideals and customs are not reflective of your own."

"This we know, dear sister." Luna replied.

As Celestia was finally stood to her feet, Alex allowed her to let go in order to stand on her own. "Okay, how do you feel now?"

Standing with her knees buckled and arms extended outward, bracing for support, she found the balance to carry herself for a short while before stumbling forward, causing Alex to stand behind her. Grabbing her from underneath her arms, he guided her to stand straight. "Oh... This will take me some time to get used to."

"Well we've got all day tomorrow to work on it. So we don't have to go over everything tonight." She replied, standing a clear inch higher than him.

Celestia looked towards her fallen crown and raised her head. Nothing happened. She looked at the crown and squinted in concentration as she moved her head again, yielding similar results. "It appears that my magic is completely nullified." She said, leading up to moments of silence. She followed up with rapid breathing and panic. "My magic is nullified, I am stuck like this!"

Alex scratched the back of his head as he thought aloud. "Huh, I didn't quite think about that part... Oopsie."

She turned to him nearly on the verge of an emotional breakdown as she flailed her hands at her sides. "Oops!? Alex I need to be able to defend myself! How am I supposed to defend myself in your world without magic!?"

Stanton walked over to pick up the crown and hand it to the princess. "You can pretty much leave that to us. We'll look after you and make sure no one takes advantage of you." Alex promptly looked at his younger brother, causing Stanton to roll his eyes. "No, Alex, I'm not gonna do anything to the princess."

Luna crept up behind him as he said that and used her wing to lightly trace a feather down his back. "That's if you were willing to take the risk of getting us into trouble. We don't mind the idea."

"I DO!" Celestia growled as she reached out for the crown.

Stanton's hand lunged out as the item gave resistance, pulling in towards the princess. He quickly let go of the crown, watching it zip towards the princess' possession. Celestia gawked as the crown landed in her hands, much to the surprise of both men. She looked at the crown, let it fall to the ground, and used her hands to summon the crown back up to her hands, complete with her usual golden aura. She was then relieved to see her magic still take shape. "Oh thank Faust, I'm still with magic here."

"Well that's one crisis averted." Luna replied with a relieving breath of her own. "Now about that wife-material comment you made about my sister." She teased.

Celestia, starting to get used to her new hands' magical properties, called out her sister. "I am not up for any marriage proposal! I have no interest in him! I have no interest in Alex! I have no interest in anypony!"

"No crushes at all... sure." Luna said with a smirk. "It's not like the humans started to bring up the idea of you being married off made you feel all tingly inside."

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

"You'll have to catch me to stop me, sister. Oh and please send me an invitation to your wedding, I'll be sure to give my blessings to the groom."

"That's it, back to the moon!" The woman, suddenly enraged, made her first step forward, but tripping over herself as she felt a ghostly limb telling her to move her foreleg. She fell forward, hitting herself in the face on the way down. The three ran over to help her back up, causing Celestia to hold her nose. "It will be back to the moon for you when I learn how to walk in this body."

"You know you can transform yourself back, right?" Luna deadpanned.

Celestia grimaced as she stared at her sibling. "...I will deal with you when I am done. YOU can go to bed, or better yet, don't you have dreams to be looking after?"

The lunar princess shrieked as she realized that her shift was on. "Oh curses." The night princess teleported from the room, leaving only the three humans to remain. Celestia looked to both Alex and Stanton, shaking her head.

"Younger siblings are the worst."

Alex nodded in response. "Yeah, it happens."

The Next Day...

My eyes cracked open, revealing a brightened room and an even brighter sun beaming in my face. I rubbed my eyes, looked down at my chest to see a somber Rarity resting in my arms. She stirred a little, but the mare didn't show any signs of waking up at the moment. She seemed completely knocked out, poor thing was at the grind all weekend. If anything I'm actually amazed that she would still plan an entire day out with me on top of all of this.

The more I think about it, the more she amazes me.

I just stayed in bed for however long she wanted to take, she deserved the rest. And even though I had a bit of an urge to use the bathroom, I dedicated myself to keeping her comfortable. I just closed my eyes and patiently waited until she finally nudged enough to stir herself from her slumber. She looked around groggily, seeing my arms draped over her still. With a sweet hum, she laid her head against my arm.

"You seem comfortable." I murmured quietly.

"With friends like you, why wouldn't I be?" She responded, nuzzling my arm. "I'm actually surprised you stayed in bed for me."

"I just wanted you to know I was still here when you woke up. You didn't want me to treat you like some common whore, right?" I taunted.

"I think you would've thrown me out the door if that was the case." She replied. "Or at least left the bits on the nightstand and a letter telling me not to tell anypony."

"I think that part is still up for discussion. I'm not too keen on telling everyone about my personal sex life, still kinda uncomfortable about it." Especially given the surrounding circumstances and the following media backlash.

"A true lady doesn't kiss and tell." She said with a yawn. "But we're allowed to allude to the subject. I'll just call you a stallion and everypony will write you out of the equation anyhow."

"I'd much rather not have my name out there in the Canterlot social circles again." I added.

"And it won't come up. I promise." She replied, quietly turning towards me. "I never betray a promise to a friend."

I looked down at our naked bodies, recalling the events of last night. "So... what does this make us anyhow?"

"I thought we discussed this." She answered with a kiss on the lips. "We are merely two good friends who are just working their way through life."

"Nothing else?" I asked.

"Sex doesn't always need some obscure strings on it. Let's just wade out the fun and see where the road takes us."

"Even if it changes our perception of one another?"

"That's just par for the course." She answered. "We knew what we were getting ourselves into and we're perfectly grown enough to handle the consequences."

I brushed a bit of her mane out of her eyes and kissed her on the forehead just before I sat up from the bed. I stretched my arms out and stepped out of bed. "Oh man, I have not felt this good in ages."

"I just figured you needed the night to decompress. But I'm glad to know you're happy."

"You're just saying that cause you had a hand in all of it." I joked. "But honestly... I love that you did that for me."

She shrugged her shoulders, looking at me with all of her disheveled glory. "I think friends are supposed to do that for one another."

I walked towards the bathroom and closed the door. As I approached the toilet to relieve myself, I could hear a giggle from the other room, followed by a shriek and the sound of her jumping up and down. Next was the muffled scream of her yelling in her pillow. I couldn't help but laugh at her as I finished up my toilet run. Flushing the toilet and approaching the mirror, I examined myself for a bit.

Already, I could see a massive smile on my face, looking as if I accomplished every feat mankind ever thought to be unachievable. Curing cancer, solving the riddle to AIDS, ending world hunger, world peace, total denuclearization, ending all of society's problems, all of it, it felt like I did that much even though I didn't. I could've just got through telling my world of he existence of Equestria and they decide to welcome them with open arms, it would't amount to what I was feeling at that moment.

I know she had her victory dance on the bed, it's about time I had mine.

Breakfast went about as well as one could've imagined it to be. At least the hotel was offering a complimentary breakfast in the dining area instead of just some plain old cereal and toast. Instead they had a full bar with fruit and yogurts, some muffins, some eggs done sunny-side up, bagels, biscuits, an assortment of juices, coffee, and of course tea with the various fixings. Even though I got away with drinking coffee yesterday, Rarity wouldn't let me get away with it today.

Well... It was worth the shot.

While we were in the breakfast nook, we reunited with Coco. She seemed just as cheery as ever, but she went on in some rather raunchy detail about the stallion she met with last night. From what she explained, the stallion she met was well-endowed, heavy hoofed, a real shit-talker, and he was pretty well versed in the art of positioning. The only complaint she had was that he never warned her when he was getting close to finishing, so he ended up finishing inside. She then proceeded to explain how much she paid for an extra room to sleep in for the night after that whole fiasco. Lucky for her this isn't the estrus season.

The three of us made our way back to the suite, mainly on clean-up duty. We gathered all of the remnants of the materials lying about on the floor and some of the scattered remnants of the jewels she used on the dresses. But the one thing we failed was to mask the scent of the room we slept in.

It was obvious that some debauchery had taken place the previous night.

Coco wouldn't shut up about it. She instead vouched to ask Rarity about every single detail of our affair last night. As she promised to me earlier, she didn't tell her much other than we had fun with one another. She even dared to ask me about it, but I was keeping my lips sealed, in case she felt like a round two was in order.

We finished our clean-up and damn near left very little for the maids to clean up after. Rarity even went as far as to clean the sheets so that the maids in the hotel wouldn't get too suspicious of what we were doing. I was already being advertised to stay in the hotel as it is, we didn't need anything to go out in the social sphere telling the nation that Rarity and I were messing around. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind telling people that we're involved, but that's only within my personal circle.

And as promised, we finished our chores and started making plans for ice cream.

Meanwhile at the Royal Palace...

Celestia stood in pony form behind a curtain in her room. Both Cadance and Luna were in attendance as they watched Alex and Stanton unpack a book bag filled with clothes. Being uncertain of her humanesque measurements, they just bought whatever size they thought they saw that would match her best at a local Walmart. The two just stood idly by as a golden flash behind the curtain signified that she cast the transformation spell on herself again. The five conversed as Celestia took the moment to practice with her new form.

"So how did you manage to use changeling magic to give yourself a human body?" Cadance questioned.

Celestia, who had become well practiced in how her new body worked, stuck her hand out from behind the curtain. "Changelings are shape shifters, I just thought it would be more appropriate to take a page from their book. But as to the secrets of their sustained capabilities to maintain their forms for an extended period of time, I needed to conduct more research."

Alex handed over a bra from the bag. "Apparently their abilities go a little further than turning into a pony. From what I gathered, they can manifest into the images of someone's nightmares if they wanted to."

"How did you gather that?" Luna inquired.

"Nondis kept talking about one of his nightmares after we ran into some creepy ass shit in the castle ruins back when we got Cheese Sandwich out." He stated.

"Yeah, it was an alicorn with a broken neck and plucked wings. Her fucking head was tilted upside down and everything, it was like some Exorcist shit, scars, gray hair, and all of it." Stanton added with a shudder. "I didn't know what it was but I sure as hell dreamed about it the night of."

Celestia grew silent as she took the bra behind the curtain. "Was there any other things that stood out?"

"I don't think we stayed long enough to find out." Stanton confessed. "We were damn near pissing ourselves while we ran away."

"Intriguing figure." Luna pondered out loud. "I've never seen such a creature in my dreamworld."

"They say that changelings feed off of the emotions of their victims, but the most common one we'd find is that they'd always feed off of love." Cadance said.

"That's what made me curious about their magic." Alex continued. "It seemed they didn't know much about Nondis, but it's like they already knew what he was scared of and made it into a reality. So I started to think of all the ways they could transform themselves. Could they turn into little things like ants, flies, spiders? Could they turn into inanimate objects like rocks or trees?"

"When I got the information from Alex, I realized that their range of shifting would go to extravagant lengths. The possibilities were endless, but they would have to learn how to move like these creatures in order to pass them off so perfectly." Celestia concluded.

"Which is why impersonating a pony is so easy, it's their rooted nature because they're an equine breed as well." Cadance explained.

A few grunts behind the curtain sounded out before a quick sigh from the princess as she shoved out the bra Alex gave to her earlier. "I think this one is far too small, I can't get it to reach."

Stanton looked through the bag himself, rummaging until he could find the largest size they had. "It's fair to say that your chest is way too damn huge for normal." He said as he handed Alex the bra.

"Not that there's too much of a problem with it." Alex said as she snatched the item from his younger brother, glaring at him over his choice of words.

"So there are other females of your species with this particular issue?" She asked as she grabbed the bra.

"Oh yeah." Stanton answered quickly. "And the guys love it. You might be getting a few more eyes on you than usual."

"Not to mention requests for your phone number, you Facebook account, your Instagram, Twitter, all that other shit." Alex further explained.

A quick pause of silence occurred before the princess hummed with dissatisfaction. "I'm not quite sure if this is normal or not, it feels like this is going to fall off."

"Oh... Then maybe you're not as big as I thought you were." Stanton said as he rubbed the back of his neck, already feeling what Alex was going to dish out at him.

The princess passed the bra back out and left her hand out to wait for another candidate. Alex fumbled through the bag and pulled out a rather unappealing, solid-beige bra with a light grimace. "Eugh... Granny floppers."

As she received the new pair, Celestia latched the item into place and palmed each of her breasts, pressing them upward and letting them fall back down as she checked their security. After confirming that the pair was firmly set in place, she tucked herself in and made her final decision. "These will do. Now for the bottom."

Alex dug around the bag to pull out a partially translucent pair of panties, done with the appearance of flowers. Stanton shook his head as he judged his older brother. "You know that's gonna be mismatched as hell."

"I don't think it matters right now. It's not like she's going on a date." He replied, handing the panties over to the princess.

What followed seemed to be a series of grunts and groans followed by a frustrated sigh. "These won't make it past my upper legs."

Stanton looked to his brother with a sarcastic smirk. "And you thought she'd be that small, smart one?"

"I was trying to be modest." Alex replied sheepishly as he grabbed the panties from Celestia.

Stanton shook his head again as he rummaged through the bag and pulled out a matching set of underwear for the bra she wore. Alex rolled his eyes as he handed the item over. The younger brother then made fun of his elder. "Yeah, I'm sure your wife would be happy in knowing this is how you'll treat her in the future."

"To start off with, my wife won't be looking like she's playing bingo at the local retirement home for some thirty years, so fuck you." He replied with a middle finger directed at his younger brother, who laughed in response.

"These will work." Celestia replied shortly after a seamless trial. "Now I'm ready to hit the town."

"Not quite." Alex stated as he stopped her from reappearing from behind the curtain. "You can't just go walking around town with just your panties on. You gotta get dressed."

"Surely there isn't more than this." Celestia said with an exasperated groan.

"A lot more if you wanna look the part." He replied, handing her a pair of black pantyhose. "Those go over your legs and bottom, try putting them on."

Stanton went through the bag again, pulling out a black skirt. After handing them over, the princess quickly applied both of the items to herself. "Okay, is there any more I should wear?"

Alex pulled out an extra large button down shirt and a red sweater. After a while, the princess pouted as she spoke to the two men. "Is your species really so constricted?"

"At this time of year, there's no other choice unless you want to get sick." Stanton replied. "Late November weather means it's getting a bit chilly out so you're gonna have to wear something warm."

The princess then walked out from behind the curtain, catching the attention of her two peers. Alex and Stanton both nodded with approval as she came out. The sweater she wore still accentuated her curvature but hid just enough to leave any onlooker with several inquiries of curiosity. Her skirt didn't fall any shorter than her calves, leaving only her foot and ankles exposed. Her toes were unpainted, yet immaculately attractive while she walked forward. She eyed the humans, moving a bit of her hair out of the way. "So how do I look?"

The two nodded in unison as they answered her simultaneously. "Yes."

Cadance stared at the woman, completely at a loss for words. Luna, who had already seen her sister in her human state, looked puzzled as she examined the outfit. "Are humans truly so prudish?"

"Eh, we've been more uptight in previous generations. A long while back, having your ankles showing like hers would've been considered as sexually suggestive." Alex explained, causing Celestia to blush fiercely.

"I'm sexually suggestive!?" She cried out.

"Not even in the slightest." Stanton answered calmly. "This is more like conservative busty librarian or fiercely attractive school teacher."

Alex unzipped the front compartment of the bag and pulled out three scrunchies and four hair clips. Folding the long locks of hair, he pushed her hair back until it revealed all of her face. With two on each side, he proceeded to grab a hand full of her hair and started working on suppressing the regal locks that flowed to her knees. After a few minutes of effort, he smiled at his work. "Okay, she's good to go."

With her lavender eyes, she looked back at Stanton and asked. "So what do you think? Would I pass as a human?"

"Her hair might look a little wild with all the colors, but we got enough people dying their hair back home. She'll pass." He stated.

"With flying colors." Alex added. "I don't think I've met someone so beautiful."

Celestia chuckled as she tried to hide her blushing. "Mister Alex, you have a wife to consider."

Cadance tapped her hoof as she responded with a strict tone. "And I know you won't react in the same manner of your younger brother, correct?"

"I wouldn't dare cheat on my wife." Alex answered bluntly. "Meaning I have an eye for beauty doesn't mean I have a heart for infidelity. If you need to preach to anyone, it's Stanton."

"What's the fun in being tied down? I like the option of exploring my sexual side without any strings attached." The younger male admitted openly. "At least I can tell a girl that all I'm looking for is fun for a night."

"You're speaking as if you're completely inexperienced with the opposite sex." Luna chided.

"And you're speaking like you have the experience to put me in place." Stanton rebutted, stepping towards the princess of the night. "Don't talk, about it be about it."

"Are you truly opening up the possibility of engaging in a relationship with that of a pony?" Luna teased. "I know your older brother is a fun little tart, but I don't expect you to pass for anything more than a treat, much less a meal."

Stanton gave her a long look as he bent down to whisper to the night princess. "...You're a virgin, aren't you?"

Backing away, Luna giggled as she waved off his suggestion. "Me? That? I'm just... uh... a mare of preferences."

"You have no idea what you want, do you?" He asked quietly. "You're just talking because you have an idea on what gets my attention. You think you're being cute, but the reality is that you're shy about it. You wanna do it, but you know you can't, so you talk all big not realizing how small you really are in the conversation."

Luna looked towards her sister, quietly whispering to her. "Tia..."

"Oh don't mind me, sister." Celestia playfully responded. "I'm just watching you squirm in your own mess."

Luna was taken aback by her sister's decision to let her fight her own battle with the human. She grew flustered and took a step forward. "Well... You wouldn't last a month trying to be my suitor!" She stated to Stanton.

"Nah, I like fucking too much, my dick don't wait for nobody." He replied, getting a gasp from the other two princesses with the exception of Celestia. "I ain't got time for paperwork, I ain't gonna put my life in danger, I sure as hell ain't getting married for it to happen, I ain't putting up with them salty-ass politicians, I ain't gonna have my relationship judged by anyone, and with all due respect I ain't attracted to ponies like that. And I ain't gonna wait no eight months to get my dick wet with some chick I don't even love over some stupid ass contractual obligations."

A loud smack was heard throughout the room, even so loud that a few guards had their ears tilt towards the direction of the room. A deep red mark on the back of Stanton's neck was just result of the thunderclap of an impact his older brother provided. "Mind the fuck who you talkin' to." Alex hissed through a clenched jaw.

Realizing his colorful commentary had gone out of hand, the young male bowed his head as the sting on his neck served as a good reminder. "Sorry, your highness. It's just that I don't see how Nondis can put up with all of it. It makes me angry."

Luna, who was stunned to silence over his rant just blinked in response. Celestia then intervened on her behalf. "I truly understand how frustrating this is. And I know how absurd this all appears to be. But I'm certain that Nondis' admiration for Twilight is indeed genuine. And it's true that his obligations to us are slim to none at this point, but that still doesn't allow me to let these things go on without some method of showing my appreciation for his sacrifice thus far."

Alex bowed as he forced his brother's head down in tandem. "Forgive us for the show of informality, there was a line that should've never been crossed─"

"I've crossed that line first." Celestia confessed, causing her younger sister to look up at her. The two men also looked up to see Celestia raising Stanton's head by the chin. "I too felt the way you did, that my love and admiration should've been without consequence, that my body was free to give to anypony I saw fit. And I did just that, with a stallion who's name in one dimension meant one thing, where in this dimension meant something else. I was accused of high treason because of my willingness to love. So in every way, you have a right to be angry, but only at me because I am the cause for it."

Stanton shook his head as he pushed her hand away. "That ain't the problem! The problem is that he's suffering because of them politicians. I don't know what he said or did to piss them off, but he don't deserve what he's got going on. My big brother shouldn't have to relearn how to walk because of them. Honestly, I feel like he shouldn't even be here... But he is and now that they broke up, I'm feeling like he did all of that for nothing."

Alex interrupted his brother and stepped in front of him. "You remember your first girlfriend in middle school?"

"I don't even wanna talk about that." Stanton said, pushing his brother away.

"But you said you wanted to do whatever it took to keep her with you, right?" Alex questioned.

"Okay, and we always say some shit we look back and realize was dumb as hell."

"Yeah." Alex agreed as he placed an arm around his younger brother's shoulder. "And that day you came home mad because she hit up some dude in high school."

"I got played, how else am I supposed to feel? Like I can dust that shit off and try again?"

Alex nodded with understanding for his brother as he continued. "I want you to think about how you felt at that time, how you were wanting to see to it that the two of you were gonna try and make it work that whole first month."

"That shit was stupid." He responded.

"Yeah it was. But that first one left an impression on you that made you want to change who you were, right?"

"It made me realize that I shouldn't take relationships early in life too seriously."

Alex nodded. "That's also true. But I want you to think about this. Visualize for a second that you had to deal with all the shit Nondis went through in life, the bullying, us picking on him cause he was the fat one of the three, how isolated he felt since gramps died, that night he fought dad and took a gun to his head cause he felt like that was it for him, the day he told dad he was no longer a Christian cause he felt like God left him a long time ago. He drove his car in the gulf on accident, but there had to have been some part of him that said him dying was better for the world."

"You ain't gotta remind me of that shit."

"Now, think if you were given the chance to start over from the top, a whole new world and a bunch of new people to impress, what would you do? Wouldn't you try to live your life differently?"

"I wouldn't put my own life in danger!" Stanton replied angrily.

"Think about it, Statts. He's found a purpose in life. Now that purpose ain't quite something we can be on the same page with, but at least we can try to support him. He does stupid shit, that's gonna happen. But you tell me the last time he had the energy to do all the shit he does now."

The younger sibling shrugged his shoulders in defeat as he thought back on their childhood. "Going to grandma's farm. I remembered how much he loved taking care of the horses there. And he was always wanting to go hunting with gramps whenever the offer came up. Summer vacation there was always his favorite until he started playing video games a little more often. Then grandma got sick and grandpa got worse after she died. The horses died after that too, it made him real sad. I was probably too young to understand what was really going on, but I remember he was sad all the time."

"Then he got real quiet after all of that, remember?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, and the rest is pretty much history."

Alex planted his hands on his brother's shoulders, holding him as he spoke softly. "I know this shit doesn't make a lick of sense and it feels like he's doing it all for nothing, but I'm pretty damn excited that he's finding a reason to keep moving forward, especially if you compare it to who he was way back when."

Stanton shook his head. "I just don't wanna see him get hurt again."

"You know life's gonna hit us with everything at once, you should especially know that playing sports."

The younger brother nodded as he cracked a smile. "Yeah, and coach tells us to get as many yards as possible. But I don't see how any of that matters in this situation."

"What we're doing right now is we're sitting in the red zone, there's nine yards between us and the goal line. Nondis is relying on us to help him get to that place so that the next drive feels a little easier for him. After we get all nine of those yards, it's up to him if he wants to go for two or not. Savvy?"

Stanton lightly punched his brother in the chest with a chuckle. "You know that shit was corny as hell, right?"

"But you know I'm right, don't you?" Alex questioned.

Stanton dismissed his brother and turned to the princess. "Whatever, so what are we doing now?"

Celestia looked at herself in a nearby mirror and turned to various angles, examining her human body and it's curvaceous features. "I'm not quite sure, Alex never specified what was to come next."

The older brother looked at his phone to tell the time. "Well I know we've got a few hours to burn and I don't have to work today, Stanton doesn't have any practice to go to. But you have a lot to learn before we set you up for the big meeting."

"And I trust that this day will be for learning those things?" Luna inquired.

Alex cleared his throat as he took the human princess by her hand. "Your highness, though I really don't have any title worth a damn, I formally welcome you to the municipality of Austin, the land of your captain's birth."

She extended her hand, still partially folded out of her equine habit. "I hereby decree that I do accept this invitation to your lands, may our visit be peaceful and inspiring. To when do we depart?"

"Now."

Later at Canterlot City Park...

After our little clean-up operation at the hotel, Rarity finalized her mailing list for any of the staff that helped with the show, namely those who were unable to stick around for the dinner. After dropping their checks in the mailbox, she and Coco discussed future plans for the next show she'd host and how everything would be laid out. Of course I had no idea on half of the stuff they were talking about, so I just sat idly by while the two mares gossiped and chattered about their next endeavor.

After a little bit of discussion, Coco poked fun at me for what happened the other night before leaving back to the hotel. Meanwhile Rarity damn near yanked my arm out of the socket in dragging me down the street for some ice cream. And as you guessed it, she purred like a playful kitten as she nursed her double scoop of pistachio almond. I only ordered a vanilla single just because the bits for it were a bit pricey. A bit cheap on myself, but there was one thing to consider:

We have to go to a damn spa in the country's capital, either that or the ice cream.

She did tease me over how frugal I was with myself and watched me quickly file down the vanilla scoop. And she didn't want to walk with the ice cream, for fear that it would spill on her if someone were to bump into us. I didn't quite get her reasoning initially, but when she told me that some parts of town are quite heavy with pedestrian traffic, I understood it then.

Oh, and there was the usual paparazzi ponies wanting to ask me more questions to file on top of what I answered from Friday afternoon. This time there was a bonus question pertaining to me and Rarity being in each other's company. I was willing to downplay the situation, but Rarity hammed it up for the media, quoting how much of a gentlecolt I was for helping her with her show and holding my arm with the biggest smile on her face. She even elaborated the time I saved Sweetie Belle and Spike from a swarm of changelings in Ponyville. Basically whatever story she had about me and my heroics, which mostly turned out that I was the one in need of saving, she expanded upon with great exaggeration.

For most of the paparazzi, it was more of the same so they left us alone shortly after.

To be honest, I didn't mind her going out like that to bore them to death. In fact, I was welcoming to the idea of letting her answer all the questions. And if they pointed out to the fact that they were asking me the question, I would point out that they were ignoring one of the element bearers, which carried a significant weight for the ponies in Canterlot. Apparently any disrespect to them would be frowned upon in the court of public opinion, so she used that to her advantage in handling the press.

When we reached the park, it appeared that almost all of them had fanned off somewhere else for a new scoop. But in every situation, she didn't dare say that we were involved with each other. She knew I didn't need the extra drama compounded with everything I experienced recently, so she made no mention of us. I couldn't find any way to thank her enough. But the two of us finally had a chance to exchange when we sat on the bench near the river that traveled through the city.

As we sat, we saw a myriad of things that sparked a conversation between us. From the ponies flying through the air to the fillies running around the bend. It brought up some interesting questions that I would've never asked in any other setting, which actually surprised me.

I didn't know I had these many questions. "So what do you think was your most nerve-wracking moment in your career?"

She politely turned her head to me with a straight face as she responded. "Which one?"

Just her lack of emotion as she said it made me chuckle a bit. "So there's more than one, huh?"

The mare shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You know how there are several ponies who have no means of being able to communicate their commissions correctly. When I give them a product, it's like there are some things that need a few alterations, others that needed a tiny bit of a touch-up, a cut here or a tuck there, and we're all good to go."

"I guess it's a lot better than having to starting over, right?" I asked.

She giggled at the idea and placed a hoof on her forehead. "Oh, that had to be my worst debut right there."

"Was it a bad line?" I asked.

"Remember that commissions thing I talked about? It was because of that." She said with an awkward smile. "It also happened to be my very first fashion exhibition to a major brand name."

"Ouch..." I said with a slight cringe. "I know you dropped them real quick."

"No, I still work with them." She answered to much of my surprise. "After all, they are considered to be my best customers."

"So the ones that pretty much scrapped your entire debut are the ones that turned out to be your best customers?" I inquired. "I'm kinda lost here."

"Well they are the ones who got me back on my hooves and gave me a second crack at it."

"If you don't mind me asking, how did they mess up your debut?" I asked. "I get the whole miscommunication on commissions thing, but I'm curious to know what all happened."

Rarity glanced back to the castle overlooking the city with a forlorn expression. "At one point I was invited to the Grand Galloping Gala, I was so excited that I started working on my dress for the occasion the night I got my ticket. Of course I had a particular goal in mind when I went there, as I'm sure you're familiar with."

"I'm afraid not." I responded truthfully.

"Blueblood?" She deadpanned.

"OH!" Oh yeah, she tried to marry in and found out he's a total douchebag. Got it. "Well that was a bullet dodged."

"I'm sure glad that didn't go as planned." She said with a sigh. I couldn't agree with her more. "But I digress, I finished my dress and then a friend who was also invited presented me with a dress she wanted to wear and asked me if I would patch it up for her."

"So if I'm guessing you correctly, you offered to make a new one?"

"If you saw the dress she gave me, you would not be impressed the slightest bit. It was like a... bland little outfit you'd wear to a public community gathering or something. And her coat color was just not meshing with the dress, it felt like she was trying the red because she wanted to be bold, but it didn't quite work on her."

I paused for a second and started thinking about this friend she talked about. Mismatching colors with a tendency for not being fashionable. In other words, a Plain-Jane trying to be bold in the wrong outfit. And a red ugly dress I remember seeing in an old photo inside of the castle. "...You're talking about Twilight, aren't you?"

"I guess you can figure it out who the others were." She chuckled behind a hoof.

"They were that bad, huh?" I asked quietly.

"Horrible." She answered bluntly. "Pinkie wanted a shade of green that was repulsive in the light and a large white frilly collar over her waist. Applejack wanted a tall red hat the color of Big Mac, jean overalls, and a pair of yellow rainboots. Fluttershy wanted a sun dress akin to something a sick geriatric would wear on her deathbed with a birds nest as a hat."

I shuddered uncontrollably as the imagery ran through my head, making my stomach crawl a bit. "Heuuugh..."

"I haven't even mentioned the fact that Twilight wanted the constellations on her dress, mapped out exactly to the specifics of how you'd see it in the sky, done as a frock more than a ballroom dress. And Rainbow Dash wanted rainbows on rainbows on rainbows... on gold."

If all of that was at my debut, I'd probably have to go hide somewhere until a war broke out in a neighboring country. And then I'd leave to that country anyway. "Yeah... Not a proud moment."

"Far from my finest hour, but the girls managed to get it straightened out with themselves in realizing that they didn't quite have the eye for fashion... Though Fluttershy is the lone exception. She performed wonderfully as a runway model for some time."

I'm sorry but what? "FLUTTERSHY? RUNWAY MODEL? Did Discord put her up to it?"

"This was long before Discord even came into the picture. She did it mainly because I asked her, and then ultimately because she didn't have the courage to say no after a while. She was really timid and wasn't really looking to upset anypony at that point in time."

"I still can't believe she has a younger brother." I added.

"She's not easy to speak to when it comes to him. That's just something she's actually adamant in saying she doesn't want to talk about."

"I'm not sure why not."

"You've met him." She replied with a dull tone. "What was your interaction with him like?"

Thinking back to the time he ate my food and talked about how much he wanted to sex Rainbow Dash didn't make me feel any better about him. "Yeeeaaahhh, I can see her point. I know I'm cringe central but he outcringed me."

Rarity looked at me with a smirk, poking her hoof at my side. "I don't think you're all that bad."

"How about I start stripping my clothes off again?" I joked.

"Dear foal!" She said with a blush and a clasp of my hands, giggling all the while. "No, please. I don't need to laugh like that in public."

"What? I'm just taking off the shoes."

"You can stop that right now, mister." She urged with a dying guffaw. "I am not going to let you embarrass yourself any further."

"I think I've been publicly humiliated enough for the past week, thanks." I answered, looking at the time on my phone.

"Did something happen?" She asked as I looked on my phone. "A message from one of your friends?"

"Nah, just checking the time." I replied as I heard the sound of foals running right past us. The trio of unicorns all played together as they paid us no mind. I looked at Rarity and saw a light smile on her face.

"Those three remind me so much of the CMC's."

"I wonder how those three are doing." I asked quietly to myself.

Rarity grew silent as she took my hand in her magic. "You know, Sweetie Belle was very sad in hearing what happened when you got back. Even Apple Bloom was visibly distraught. Scootaloo just got real quiet like. But out of the three, Sweetie Belle was the one who was really crying over you."

"I guess I should go back to Ponyville then?" I asked somberly.

"I'm sure it would put a huge smile on their faces to see you again. And there's even been a little birdie that told me another filly by the name of Diamond Tiara was doing whatever she could to travel here to see you. Apparently she wanted to cheer you back to health."

"Aw, that's mighty sweet of her."

"You know an older mare by the name of Persimmon Plush, right?"

"I'm afraid not." I confessed.

"Her son was the one that used to work the counter at the inn you stayed at. She just buried him the Saturday you went out to the mountain. She was not happy in finding out you were threatening to join him."

"Ah... I'm sure of that. My condolences to her." I answered quietly.

"Mayor Mare, Mrs. Cake, and Filthy Rich were all leading a community effort to do whatever they could for your brothers if the worst were to happen. Everypony there really wanted to see you pull through again. I think that a visit would pretty much cheer many of the ponies up down there."

I can't say that I wasn't touched by that, I was truly honored. But somewhere inside of me made me feel like I was doing nothing but reopening a wound if I went down there right now. Even though there were many things on my mind when it came to that, I just felt like I wasn't quite ready to face that situation just yet. I needed a little more time, and some time to sort out with my folks, then I can go back to that. "I'll come by there one day, I just need some time to feel out what's gonna happen with my family, you know."

Rarity's ears fell as I mentioned that. The image of my face as I took that phone call and the sound of my voice ended up resonating with her, enough that she leaned against me. "You know if you ever need a home to call─"

"I'm fine." I answered quickly, turning to her with my best smile. "Thanks, but I can take it from here. Gotta face the music eventually. Guess there's no better time than now, since I damn near died. I don't like having to do it, but I do owe pops an explanation."

She and I sat on the bench for a long time, not talking to each other for several minutes as my mind sulked on the upcoming visit I had to make for Thanksgiving. A lot went through my mind on how I was going to convince my dad that I wasn't in need of pushing back into human society, that I was somehow still apart of it. But for now, the beauty of the Canterlot midday sky was enough to distract me from it. Even the clouds resembled shapes I could vaguely trace out with my fingers.

I guess I needed the distraction anyways. I'm on a date, no need to stay depressed.

Later That Evening
The Boardwalk Trail
Austin, Texas...

"Oh. Days. Of. Faust."

Those seemed to be the only four words the princess could utter as Alex and Stanton accompanied her on the boardwalk. The trio stood just at the rail, looking past the river at the sun-stained sky, the river below and glass buildings in the distance reflecting much of it's colors. An assortment of other people walked by them on their own business as Celestia reached her hand out to the city standing across the way.

"So how do you like it, your highness?" Stanton asked proudly. "Of course it ain't like Canterlot with it's castles and shit, but it's home to us."

"This land is positively futuristic!" She said, glancing down at the reflection of herself and the others. "I would've never imagined such a place in my wildest dreams, even after a thousand years would I have never seen such a sight. Manehattan can't even compare with it's buildings. This place is so... reflective!"

"Yeah, glass and steel will do that for you." Alex answered as he peeked at his phone. "For us, it's been kinda interesting to see a few new buildings pop up every now and then."

"Yeah, after a few decades of living here, it starts to get old." Stanton added. "Pretty much why I decided to go to A&M instead of UT."

"You do know that Johnny Football ain't gonna be there to carry you guys anymore, right?" Alex said in mocking his younger brother.

"Fuck off, we can do without him." Stanton replied. "Besides, what have your guys won recently? I don't even remember a single bowl game you guys were in since Mack Brown got sacked. Coach Brown was the only reason I wanted to go to UT, but that Charlie Strong guy ain't my type of dude."

"You know you could've been the hometown hero if you went to UT, right?"

"Like I'm gonna be the hero of anything at a college that's too busy trying to take away five-star recruits from Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. I was a four-star looking at a bench-warming position here."

"You know damn well you'd burn the running core out of it's cleats if you went there." Alex stated, patting his brother on the back.

"I know, that's why I'm at A&M. Show my talent in the best damn conference in all of college football."

"The SEC is overrated." Alex said with a shrug. "You're better off showing your legs in the Big12 anyways."

"Hanging on to those old bones, eh? Meat's gone, move on to something still living."

Celestia just stared at the reflection of the two men arguing with one another, laughing to herself as she watched the two brothers bicker at each other. Eventually, her giggles grabbed their attention. "What's so funny?" Alex asked.

The princess cleared her throat as she rested her back against the railing. "It's just that I see so much of my sister and I in the two of you. Probably the whole sibling rivalry thing that's probably got me feeling a little nostalgic."

"Sibling rivalries, they never really die." Stanton said as he gave his brother a playful hit on the arm.

"Fucking asshole." Alex called out as he reared his fist to return the favor before a voice called out from behind him.

"Alex!"

The group turned around to see a woman walking up to them with a smile, holding her purse over her shoulder and a phone in hand. She quickly ran over and embraced the older man. "Vanessa, when did you get here!?"

"I got here around ten minutes ago. You told me to meet you on this end of the boardwalk and I had gotten a little behind due to the traffic." She said, giving her husband a peck on the lips. "It's like I haven't seen you in days, how's Nondis doing?"

"He's back on his feet, moving a bit slower, but he's on the up-and-up. Don't tell dad or ma I said that." He replied.

"As long as he's fine. I just can't believe he got hurt like that."

As soon as she finished exchanging her greetings with her husband, she looked to the tall curvaceous woman standing behind Stanton. Her eyes grew as she looked at him with awe. "I didn't know tree climbing was a hobby of yours, Stan."

The younger man groaned with displeasure. "Eugh, that office name again."

"Sorry, I just shorten names out of habit. Workplace things." She said before walking up to the woman. She eyed the quad-colored locks of the amazonian figure and took admiration of her hair's length. "Wow, is all of that yours?"

Celestia, unsure on how to respond to her question just froze in place. "Uhhh..."

Alex quickly intervened, whispering to his wife. "Sweetie, this is Celestia, she's the one I told you about earlier today over the phone." His voice then dropped low enough to where no others could hear. "She's from that other place I told you about."

Vanessa's mouth opened as her eyes expanded, expressing a realization of who she was. "Oh, you!" Quickly, she extended her hand out to the woman, causing some confusion to the princess. "It's an honor to meet you miss Celestia. I'm... not sure which one you are, my husband kinda filled me in on some of the things since Nondis was hospitalized, but he didn't tell me all of what was going on and who was who."

Realizing that her hand was extended to show a formal greeting, Celestia replicated the gesture making minimal contact with Vanessa's hand. "Yes. I am actually the employer of your brother-in-law. He's a wonderful, wonderful stal─" Before she could continue, Alex forcibly cleared his throat, causing Celestia to correct herself. "Wonderful man, well worth his promotion."

"Alex never told me exactly what it is he does for his job. From what Nondis told us, it was something that had to do with security." Vanessa explained.

Celestia nodded as she answered her. "Why yes, security happens to be one of his main assignments. But his purpose takes that a little further than what could be considered as a run-of-the-mill security guard stationed at the outside of some dubious establishment."

Vanessa looked to her husband and frowned a bit. "Is that so? What does he really do then?"

"He does a lot of fighting." Alex explained quietly. "He does a lot of that, pretty good at it, watched him do it one time."

"Yeah, can't stop fighting for whatever reason." Stanton added, flexing his muscles. "Too damn strong, he's pretty damn quick too."

Vanessa looked at the two men and finally turned her attention to the princess. "Now if I'm correct, my husband made a mention to some sort of royalty."

"I hold the title of princess of the realm, but you may call me Celestia."

The younger woman continued to examine the princess. "I have never seen anyone with purple eyes, that is so beautiful. You know, there's only about six-hundred people in the world that has that naturally."

"Well, these were the eyes I was given from birth, so I must be one of the lucky few. But I don't recall them being so rare, I had a student with purple eyes, far deeper shade than my own."

"So is there like a planet full of people with purple eyes? Because that's not considered normal here on Earth." Vanessa said as she started to play with the princess' hair. "And who dyed your hair? I love the color scheme, it goes well with your eyes, not a lot of people can pull this look off."

Celestia looked at her flowing locks streaming down her back to reach her calves. "Oh, this is actually my natural color."

Vanessa stared blankly at the princess, holding some of the multicolored locks in her hands. "...Which one?"

Alex quickly stepped in and grabbed his wife by the shoulders, kissing her on the cheek. "Sweetheart, don't you think you're invading her personal space a tad bit?"

Vanessa then dropped the flowing locks of hair from her possession, stepping back a bit as she realized that she was being overtly invasive. "Oh my God, I am. I am SO sorry. It's just that you're showing me this tall beautiful lady with purple eyes. I'm kinda thinking to myself like... I'm gonna have a problem."

Celestia shook her head as she reassured the young woman. "I can safely say that I have no interest in the pursuit of a mate taken into account." Alex cleared his throat again, causing the princess to reword her statement. "I mean, I don't participate in the debauchery and vileness of domestic malcontent." Stanton rolled his eyes as he cleared his throat, causing the princess to simplify her words. "In other words, I'm not a homewrecker."

Vanessa nodded her head slowly. "Okay. Even though I do appreciate a good vocabulary, it is beyond obvious that you are not from around here. Bless your soul."

"That obvious?" Celestia questioned quietly.

"You speak too proper, you say every syllable and consonant, and your daily vocabulary is too extensive. I'd say you're a tourist from someplace like Virginia Beach or San Francisco."

"Is that bad?"

"Not at all." Vanessa responded. "But it's a little weird to hear that from someone who were to run a club in a rural area of Texas. Doesn't fit with the lone-star diction we have here."

Celestia tilted her head in confusion. "Run a club?"

"Nondis really cooked up an interesting story of how he disappeared."

The princess looked at the two brothers and realized their silence. Recognizing that they were trying minimize the topic, she stepped forward to expand upon the idea. "Would you believe me if I told you that I'm not from this world?"

Vanessa gave her a slow nod as she answered the princess. "That would explain a lot."

Canterlot Comforts Spa

Time passed by us so quickly in the park. I suppose we were so into each other that our conversations ran through hours without so much as a blink from either of us. It was unusual. But at the same time, we had to show some restraint to one another with everything that was going on around us. We were in the public view, so some of the things we wanted to do secretly like hold each other a little bit, snuggle up, maybe a kiss every other minute, we restricted ourselves from these things.

Neither of us were happy about that, but we were content in knowing we had each other's company to look forward to later this evening. And it wasn't like we just met and we're completely trying to put our best foot or hoof forward. We're just treading the waters of our friendship and seeing how it feels to be into each other. And it also helps that we already pushed the sex thing out of the way so that there's no expectations or ulterior motives. We've already crossed the line.

And truthfully, I think it feels better to do it this way. How many times have anyone just went out with someone and did all these things, mounting the anticipation for that one moment where the two of you finally cave to your carnal desires, then you finish and you feel like you don't wanna touch or be next to the person you got through getting nasty with? There's no cuddle because it starts to feel like an obligation, no real aftercare because you got what you wanted out of the deal, and you don't find a reason to keep going because you're just satisfied with what you got. It could've been mind-blowing sex and you look at the person next to you saying 'why are you still here.'

It's even more risky when you consider that person is actually your best friend.

But since we haven't known each other for that long, and we were so turned on by each other, it made us think about a second go. And since the predetermined layout of this engagement was that we're friends who'd mutually benefit from each other's company, it takes away the limitations of having to wine and dine just to get the remote possibility of a green light. With this, light's always green, just say the word and the panties drop.

And yet, even with that seemingly simplistic explanation, there had to have been a lot of trust invested in that person for you to decide that you're willing to be adventurous enough with that individual. The wine and dine comes whenever because it feels like an opportunity to gauge where you two are. And if you get tired of each other, then there's no hard feelings to look elsewhere for a thrill. You also use each other for practice and it tends to be really helpful when you want to learn more about pleasing your interests. And then there's the golden rule we established.

If either of us get into a relationship with someone else, put it on hold until further notice.

She made it very clear that if I were to get with any other pony or person, she'd slam the breaks on what we're doing. And it brought up the interesting question of what if we started to become jealous over the situation. She of course explained that she'd try her best to not be that way, and if she felt overtly so that she would come talk to me about it. Likewise if the instances were reversed and I was the one sitting out in the rain watching her chat it up with some unknown stallion. But then I started to ask what if our jealousy would drive us back to each other.

She never really gave me an answer outside of 'we can talk about it when we get there.'

As far as our spa visit, she and I were separated because of gender reasons and they didn't know how to service me and had made no provisions. So they left me in the lobby while I waited for Rarity to finish up with her treatments. It took a good two-and-a-half hours before she walked out feeling completely refreshed. She asked me how my session went and I told her that I didn't go. The bill was posted and I offered to pay up, but she grew upset that they wouldn't service me and offered to pay her own bill. It went without saying that she was very dissatisfied with their lack of diversity in service, guess she won't be coming back here anytime soon with the way she told off the manager.

I don't think I've ever seen her handle a consumer dispute so angrily.

So we went back to the hotel and ordered our dinner from room service. And from there, we did all the things we couldn't do outside of the room. She nuzzled my chest, resting calmly as she cooed in my lap. My fingers traced her outlines, each vein I saw became a canvas for me to play on, her horn glowed softly while she brushed her hoof against my thigh. Already I could feel myself getting a little riled up again. We kept going until the sound at the door indicated that the room service had arrived. She got out of my lap and walked to the door.

"Who is it?" She called out.

"Uh..." A very distinctive voice sounded through the door as they continued to speak. "I was wondering if the captain was in?"

Rarity cracked open the door, peeking her head through as she prevented the mature unicorn stallion from entering. "I don't recall there being any captain in this room."

Trying to bring his head higher than her, the stallion tried to get a peak into the room. "Sure there is. I just saw him walk in this hotel earlier and I asked the guy at the front desk if he saw him or not. He pointed me to here so here I am."

"I'm not sure what you're here for, so even if he was here at the current moment, I wouldn't give you any kind of access to him even if you paying me to sell him out."

The stallion summoned a leather wallet with a badge decorating the center. He pressed against the door as he spoke. "I'm sure the Equestrian Royal Protection Bureau is more than interested in hearing from him than you, miss Rarity Andalusia Belle."

"Oh shit..." Realizing the seriousness of the situation and the sudden appearance of a higher level officer, I jumped out of my seat and ran to the door. The door swung wide open as I looked down to the brown unicorn stallion with silver steely eyes. "What's the problem officer?"

"Nondis P. Haines of the Equestrian Royal Guard, I understand that this is your day off, but there's been an issue that requires your attention. Surely you've heard something of it if you at least checked in the castle every day."

"Even on a day off?" I asked with a shrug. "It wouldn't be a day off if I did that."

"Well you should know better than to take one without checking in on the well-being of the royal family. Even if it is your day off, it should be the first and foremost assignment you should complete before carrying on with your day. If you checked in this morning, you would've realized that Princess Celestia has gone missing."

My eyes quickly shot back down to the stallion as I hunched over. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Her royal highness has gone missing." The stallion reiterated.

"Are you sure that she didn't just have a walk in the garden or something?" I asked. "And even if she went missing, she's a damn good fighter. If anything, she probably went somewhere for a bit of privacy."

"She is not the one to forego a strict schedule for something like a day out of the castle without any escort."

I tapped my chin and thought to myself. "Now I did hear a few stories of her wandering off without any security detail. Are you sure she didn't do that?"

"That brings up another thing as to why I targeted you specifically." The stallion said as he pulled out a manila envelope. "It was reported at approximately 9:34 this morning, she was seen with another two humans before she disappeared."

Okay, so that means one of my friends or my brothers might have went with her. "Okay, then it's safe to assume that she did go out somewhere with someone I know. If that's the case, then I'm certain she'll be back home without any harm done."

"Mr. Haines, your job is to guard those of the royal family and the boarders of this country. I would take some appreciation of you treating this seriously."

Really, I just told you that she's with someone I know. If anything, she's probably making friends with them without you guys turning her schedule to Hell. But to satisfy you, I'll do my job today. "Fine. I'll send out an APB."

"Come with me then, sir." The stallion asked, not realizing I was already shooting out a text to my friends.

"No need. Give it a few." I said as I pocketed my phone again, causing the stallion to protest in anger.

"Sir, you need to take your job seriously. This is a matter of national security." He stressed.

"And I'm giving you 'matter of national security' speed so just wait." I responded. "I promise you're not gonna get your answer any faster than I can give it to you."

The stallion, still protesting my decision, used his magic to pull against my arm. "Sir, you are deeming yourself incompetent and I should bring you in for a reevaluation of your performance."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you are not treating this seriously. Our princess has disappeared and you are going about this like you've got no need for urgency."

"And flailing my arms in a panic isn't going to help us either." I responded. "Now let go of my arm so I can finish."

And almost on cue, my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. Using my non-captive hand, I pulled out my phone and saw my older brother calling me. The stallion watched as I tapped my finger on the screen.

"Yo!" I called out.

"Nondis, hey what's with this APB notice you sent out?"

I put the phone of speaker mode and allowed the officer to listen in on the conversation. "Apparently Princess Celestia has been reported as missing. Last she was seen was in the company of two other humans."

"Yeah, she's with me and Stanton." He replied, causing me to turn to the stallion with a 'I told you so' expression.

"Okay, so is she safe? Apparently she left the castle without any notice and this one guy is bagging me on my day off over it. Let me guess, she made a request that nobody know about it, right?"

A few moments of deliberation came up before we received any answer. But instead of Alex answering the call... "♫Caught me!♪" It was Celestia on the other end. "Wait a minute... Is this thing on?"

The officer then spoke out. "Your highness, I am relieved to know that you are well."

An exasperated sigh came from the other end of the line, indicating that this was something familiar to the princess. "Chief Deputy Hard Case... this again?"

"I wouldn't have to be involved if it wasn't for the fact that your newly anointed captain decided to take his job seriously for a change." He answered while glaring back at me. "I don't know why he was your first choice out of the many that should've been placed ahead of him. If anything his field promotion was supposed to be temporary."

Rarity finally broke her silence and spoke in my defense. "I'd like to think that Nondis earned his position with the deeds he's performed throughout the course of his short career, taking into account the expedience he shows in executing those tasks. Wouldn't you agree, your highness?"

"I couldn't agree more, Rarity." The princess cosigned. "Nondis, when was it you discovered that I was missing?"

"Bout five minutes ago?" I answered as I looked to the officer.

"Don't you think five minutes is a short ass time to find some motherfucker gone missing?" Stanton asked in the background.

"Right!" Alex called out. "If anything, you got on that shit real quick. Most APB's would take hours or days, weeks even. Ol' dude needs to chill out."

"What a total hard-ass." A distinctively familiar female voice called out from the background.

My body froze in place as I heard the voice come from the background. It only took a few seconds for me to process who it was and suddenly I felt a bit afraid to ask. "...Vanessa?"

"Hey Nondi! How ya doin!? Is your recovery going well?"

With my sudden fear becoming reality, I grasped at my chest as my heart jumped into my throat. "Alex!?"

He responded with a casual chuckle. "Oh yeah, she's here. We're just riding down the highway now to find us someplace to eat."

Panic ensued from both me and the officer. The officer was more in panic because I was panicking, and I was doing it because of the simple fact that A FUCKING PONY IS ROAMING AROUND FUCKING AUSTIN LIKE THERE'S NOT A SINGLE PROBLEM TO BE HAD. In a fit of hysterics, I raked my fingers down my face and grimaced while I laughed nervously. "Alex, I'm gonna fucking kill you, you know that right!?"

"Eh, whatever! We're just taking in the sights. No need to be so uptight about it." He replied calmly.

"ALEX THIS IS FUCKING SERIOUS! THIS AIN'T FUCKING FUNNY!"

Celestia chuckled on the other end. "I see you and Hard Back are kindred spirits." She joked.

"Hey, Alex, you know what you should do? Facetime." Stanton called out from the back seat.

"Yeah, I wanna see his reaction!" Alex responded.

"Then you need to hand the phone to Stanton so he can do it. You're driving." Vanessa chided.

"Yeah, hey Nondis, give me a sec." Stanton said just before hanging the phone up.

At that point, the officer was looking at me with righteous anger while I couldn't really blame him for it. In fact, he and I seemed to be on a similar page when it came to the princess just waltzing about dimensions without any notice made to me or her security detail. And quite frankly, I was just as livid as he was.

In just a few seconds, a chirping ring sounded on my phone, indicating that they were trying to reach me via facetime. The officer grumbled as I answered the call, Stanton's face taking up much of the screen with my face being shrunk to the lower left corner. "Stanton, you see how pissed I am. Get Alex's happy ass on the line."

Vanessa quickly shot her face in frame as she waved at me. "Hey little-Oh my God, your face! Where did you get that scar!?" She asked, tracing her hand down the right side of her face.

"Came with the package that put me in the ICU." I answered quickly, trying to rush back to the subject. "Now where the hell is your husband?"

"He's driving, I'm not gonna let him get us all killed." She replied, alerting the other two ponies in the room. "You're gonna have to make do with us."

The unicorn stallion quickly grabbed the phone with his magic and screamed at the device. "I NEED TO SEE THE PRINCESS THIS INSTANT!"

Quickly grabbing the phone back, I was greeted with a more-than-shocked Vanessa. "Nondis... Did I just see a talking horse?"

"Oh God." I whispered to myself, covering my face with my hand as I showed nothing but pure frustration over the fact that this asshole grabbed my phone without any kind of warning or discussion. I was also on the verge of punching him in the face with the nearest solid object. "...It's a long story."

"One that will be discussed later." Celestia said in the background. "But for now, I want to see how this 'facetime' thing works for myself. I've seen it in operation once before, I'm curious to know if it works like the last time."

"Yeah, I need to speak with you too." I sternly responded as the screen warped with the change of possession. What I saw next was the highway followed by the princess expressing some concern.

"Oh... I think I might have done something incorrectly."

"Hold on, you might've hit something." Alex answered as he grabbed the phone for a short while, much to the protests of his wife in the back seat. Finally, I was face to face with my older brother, or more like looking up at him from his leg. "Okay, I got it back."

"Alex, I'm gonna fucking kill you, I just want you to know that." I said vehemently.

Suddenly a hand grabbed most of the screen and the view shifted yet again, only to bring me to the face of an unfamiliar woman. She looked at me with a bright smile as she waved her fingers hello, her eyes closed as she did it. My only response to her was blunt. "Okay, who the fuck are you?"

"Greetings, captain." Her eyes opened, showing a familiar lavender shine, her hair showing the four colors of Celestia's mane but in static motion. Her voice was easily identifiable, her demeanor just as obvious. "I trust my new visage is to your liking and approval."

My jaw fell to the ground almost as fast as my phone did. In just a few seconds, I felt myself lose strength in my legs and collapse on the ground. From there, I just stared at my phone, not even into the screen. I just leaned against my arm, completely speechless over what I just saw. Rarity poked her head over the screen and looked at the unfamiliar face staring back at her. "Whoops!" She called out, realizing she exposed herself to another human. "I thought I just heard the voice of the princess."

"You heard right, Rarity." She replied, causing the pony to peek her head back onto the screen.

"Well that's odd, I could've figured that the human on the phone sounded just like the princess. Surely she must be somewhere close by."

"Then maybe you should keep looking at the screen." Celestia answered back, causing Rarity to shriek in response.

While I'm aware that Rarity isn't quite used to how facetime works, she was more than surprised by the sudden surprise. Meanwhile I couldn't even move as I spoke. "She's a human. Celestia's a human... She's a human. Question... what the fuck?"

"Captain, I'm still speaking to you." The princess demanded as Hard Back approached the phone, staring his suddenly-now-a-human superior staring him right in the face. "Oh, hello Hard Back."

Even he was stunned to silence as I crawled over to the phone and picked it up. Looking at her face, I shook my head with disbelief. "...What... the actual... ffffffffffuck?"

"Perhaps my new appearance has answered many of your questions when it comes to my being in your world?" She said with a cheerful tone.

"Oh no, I still have several. Starting with 'when, what, where, why, and how.' I need all of that in a twelve page essay."

The princess chuckled. "You should be happy, Nondis. This should make your situation a lot easier when it comes to your visitation throughout the week."

"Ecstatic." I droned, still in disbelief. "Truly."

"Wow, I never seen such an anticlimactic reaction before." Alex said as he continued driving. "I figured he would've did a little more than that."

"I remember seeing the screen swirl for a bit and a loud thump before I was looking at the ceiling." She replied.

"Wait, he dropped his phone!?" Stanton asked from the back seat, peeking over from the side. "Oh yeah, he's brain fucked!"

I finally found the ability to blink again as I quietly spoke. "Cella, please come home. We have a lot to talk about."

With a warm smile, the princess answered with a sweet tone. "It's probably the first time in a long time you called me by nickname. How about this, I finish up here in a few hours and I return home. From there, you can ask as many questions as you'd like."

"Super." I quietly answered with a soft nod.

"Meantime, I'm going to be roaming around your hometown for a bit. It is truly a beautiful world you live in, I am more than honored to have this experience and I am thankful for your brothers in allowing me to see it like this. I know you would've had objections to this, which is why I never said anything about it. I'm also sure your brothers would've know you'd have some objections to the matter as well, so I instructed Luna and Cadance to keep this classified as top secret. Can't have the whole castle catching on to my new disguise."

"No shit." I deadpanned.

"I'll leave you to your day." She said before pausing for a few seconds. "Yes, and Rarity, I would like you and Hard Back to keep this a secret as well."

"Yes, your highness." The duo droned in unison.

"See you in a bit, Nondis. Ta!"

The call ended with the three of us staring at the phone in silence. I just simply placed it back on the floor as I lazily looked to the officer. "So... what just happened?"

The stallion stood up, dusting himself off as he answered my question. "The princess is on a top-secret mission. You were omitted from the briefing and therefore have no culpability. Carry on with your day, sir."

I gave the stallion a quick salute as he walked out the door. "Same to you, bub. Don't get too drunk."

"Yes... I could go for a strong drink right about now." He said as he disappeared down the hallway, the door closing behind him. Leaving me and Rarity in the room by ourselves again. She stood back up and quietly walked to the service pipe.

"Rarity." I called out softly as she lifted the lid on the pipe.

"Room service, I'd like another two bottles of your strongest wine, please."

Sometime Later
University of Texas Austin Campus...

The sun quietly crept to the horizon, leaving behind only the dusk to trail it. As much as the night sky started to swallow up the remaining light the sun gave off, the tiny glow it gave off was enough to keep the grounds well illuminated, even with the aid of the bright lights that ran along the walkways. The clock tower the university was known for sat in the distance as the four walked along their way.

"My goodness, if only Twilight were here to see this." Celestia mumbled.

"If I can recall much of anything about her, she loves books. Maybe she'll love the price of the books in the school store. Can't wait for that." Alex mumbled.

Vanessa looked at the tower in the distance as it was engulfed by an orange light. "Hey Alex, remember when we worked on our finals for sophomore year?"

"I remember needing you to bail me out because my book got stolen." He said with a groan. "Seriously, go buy the shit online, don't steal it from me."

"Well to be fair, books are hella expensive." She mumbled. "But you were running around campus all day looking for me because we had the same class."

"Yeah, and I didn't have your phone number at the time, just your Facebook account. I had to instant message the shit out of you until you told me to meet you up at the clock tower."

"That day was the main reason why I thought about deleting my Facebook account at first." She confessed with a light chuckle. "But then we studied together and I realized that it was the most fun I had in studying for a stressful ass final exam."

"Yup, I got away with a B because the professor was a total dick."

"He had this thing about me so he gave me an A minus." She said awkwardly. "I know he was hunting through classes to creep around his wife, but thirsty-much."

"Didn't he get fired for that?" Stanton questioned.

"He didn't get fired, he resigned beforehand." Alex explained. "Got caught with his pants down, literally, like just got caught sending dick picks in the bathroom by his wife."

"Oooh..." Stanton cringed. "He's getting divorced."

Alex looked back to the clock tower with a smile on his face. "Yeah. This place was probably the one place Vanessa and I met up whenever we needed each other's help for classes. And then it went from classes to just hanging around each other."

"And in a couple of years, Nondis and Melanie came here too." Vanessa added. "It's too bad that we already sold our books though, they could've used them."

Alex leaned back as he stretched his arms and legs. "Ah, college problems. Sell old books at a sixth of the purchase price to buy new ones at a third of the retail. Losing more money than you gain to stay educated."

"Oh, and don't forget the student loans." Stanton added.

"And the frequent updates to the curriculum, which requires you to buy more books." Vanessa cosigned.

"Don't forget the generation gap bullshit of baby boomers screaming in our ears about how they worked through college to pay their way through the tuition and books." Alex concluded. "No fucking wonder why Nondis is taking the military gig that pays him in gold. He's got enough to pay back Sallie Mae and then start his life with no debt whatsoever."

"Yeah, I envy the dude." Stanton admitted quietly.

"Wait, don't you play sports? You got a full-ride on athletics." Vanessa pointed out.

Stanton sighed with displeasure and annoyance as he replied. "Everyone says that without realizing how fucking cheap the NCAA is. I get a full-ride, my books are paid for, my tuition's waived, my room and board is tossed, but then when the practice is over and most of the food places around campus are either closed or don't accept school store credits, then what? We're left hungry while the suits make bank on our backs. You can't even make any money on the side to help get you the food, or you get punished. It's pretty much why I can't wait long enough before I get eligible for the NFL Draft."

"Your day will come, at least you'll be able to pay off whatever debts you owe when you finish your first year of the league." Vanessa argued.

"That's still another two years from now." He answered quickly. "And it's not a guarantee that I'll even get drafted. Only thing I can do is wait until I get some serious spotlight."

Celestia looked at the trio of humans as they discussed their worldly problems, feeling some level of pity towards their plight. She listened closely to their issues and then looked back to the strife of her captain for further insight. After some moments to reflect, she finally spoke up. "It seems that your world still has some strife to overcome."

"You thought your politicians in parliament were bad, wait till you see our government at work." Alex answered with a scoff. "Arguing to avoid progress in either direction, bullshit evolved."

"Now that's a topic I can join you in." The princess said with a crackle. "And here I was starting to think I was feeling left out."

"AY!"

A voice from somewhere behind the group caused them to turn around, realizing it was two of the students who attended the university. The pair of students ran up and greeted the group. "Stanton, Alex, the hell y'all doing here?" Cliff asked.

"Didn't you graduate a while back, old man?" Rickey asked to Alex. "You're a little too old to be roaming around some kids."

"Ha, it's because I'm older than you. Yeah, whatever. I can walk my old stomping grounds as much as I please." He replied, giving Rickey a fist bump."

Rickey pointed at the young woman standing beside him. "So I take it that this is your wife?"

"Oh yeah, I never introduced you two to Vanessa, have I?"

Cliff shook his head. "Nah, but it's nice to see you guys outside of an emergency situation where Nondis is either in the process of getting himself killed or pretty damn close to it."

"Ha ha! Say it again!" Stanton hollered with agreement.

"Yeah, but you an Aggie, I gotta limit myself with you." Cliff replied. "In speaking of which, why are you guys here?"

"We're giving this young lady over here a little tour." He replied, tossing his thumb back at the woman sitting on a nearby bench.

Rickey and Cliff both eyed the woman for a lengthy amount of time, the first thing their eyes were drawn to was the shapeliness of her figure, the curves of her body that spoke to the desires of their lustrous appetites. Slowly they approached the woman until she stood up, revealing that she was taller than both of them.

"GADDAYUM YOU TALL!" Cliff called out. "You play ball?"

"Hell, I don't mind climbing trees." Rickey whispered as he extended his hand to greet her. "Nice to meet you, ma'am. This is my friend Cliff, I'm Rickey. And we heard you were on a tour of the campus."

The princess finally spoke up with a devious smile. "I remember seeing you. The first time we met was at a weapons demonstration on Sweet Apple Acres."

Both Cliff and Rickey slowly turned around to Stanton with their jaws hung low. The Aggie student snickered as he nodded. "Yeah, she ain't the one you should be trying to smash, bruh."

The two students looked at each other and pointed back to the princess. "How?" They both asked in unison.

Alex dropped his head as he started to tell the story. "Okay, let's go from the top."

Twilight's Castle
Ponyville
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Canterlot Canticles Vol. 26... that should be placed in the section with historical dramas. History of Historical Dramas should be placed in references. Clandestine Unicorn Coronations should be placed in the romance section. The Lord of the Rings... maybe I should put this in adventures for now until I develop a section for human literature. Fahrenheit 451... Horror. And Spot of Tea should be placed...

On second thought I'll read that one tonight, I need a good stress reliever with my fruit bowl.

Ever since I came back from Canterlot this morning, I've been keeping my brain busy by reorganizing my library to accommodate the new shipment of books to replace a few more that got lost in Tirek's attack. Took me forever to find some original hardback copies and even a few of the classics that were destroyed. Some are so rare that I had to send out a royal request nationwide to find these books and have them copied into hardback format, especially since paperback seems to be the cheaper way of doing it. Every author wants to have paperback for their books instead of a strong hard case and a old cloth and glue reback.

They don't ever make books the same anymore.

But yeah, my day's been pretty eventful. I got back home, I cleaned the castle, I went through several volumes of Daring Do again, quizzed myself on the events of the lore to keep myself ahead of Rainbow Dash, and reorganized my library. All in all, it seemed to be a pretty eventful day... rather I'm pretending it was.

All this busy work I've been doing was all a distraction from the junk stuffing up every magazine and newspaper headline from here to the Crystal Empire. I'm just sick of it, the image of Cadance standing over Nondis while he's on the ground made my heart sink the first time I saw it. And now that it's become a spectacle raising more questions out of the love for drama instead of critical thought, I'm often asked about the situation like I have some answer for any of it. I don't and I'm so drained of it.

But that wasn't the main thing that had me hiding in my castle for most of the day.

I guess it's more of jealousy than anything else. Right now, I know Nondis is in Canterlot with Rarity, who should be finishing up her post-show activities and getting as much rest before traveling back to town. And if I know anything, she's probably with him right now, doing Celestia knows what with him. She's probably feeding him all those cute little words, those little phrases that make him want to snuggle up.

And knowing him, he's biting for it. And I can see why, she's far prettier than I am. It's like every time I'm next to her, there's almost no competition when it comes to the stallion choosing who'd they take up first. I'm a princess bound by law and duty to keep myself chaste until the protocols are complete and permissions have been met. She's the normal filly who'd entertain the thought of giving them what they want until she breaks their hearts by saying no. She's had that power for a long time.

And it never stopped there. Even before I was a princess, I ended up being not-as-attractive friend of the six of us. Fluttershy had the quiet girl thing about her, compounded by the fact that she's so pretty that she could pass as a model, that made her so irresistible, it was a competition of who could corrupt that image first. Then there's Pinkie, who's always the party girl and everyone knows her, so she's outgoing and easy to talk to. Rainbow Dash was always trying to be the center of attention, but she'd be the first to shut down every stallion that comes her way with anything long-term, she's in it for the fun and most stallions are okay with that. And Applejack had her fair share of the stallions trying to play farm-hoof for her attention, but they usually bow out when she starts working them a little too hard.

And me, I was the niche librarian who kept to herself more often, always had a dragon assistant who could keep up and sometimes put my perfectionist tendencies in check. But I suppose much of that is a bit of my fault because I've always put out a plan for the long-term ideal relationship first. I'm completely OCD and I panic whenever something on my list don't go as planned. A lot of my dates didn't go as planned because I pushed the issue of a perfect date too far, too often. And then there seemed to be someone who liked me because I was that way.

Of course, the Flash Sentry of this world didn't share the romantic ideals that human Flash did. I thought he would like me as well, and I planned around the idea of us entertaining a relationship and even a future marriage. But maybe I did something wrong one day, cause his whole attitude towards me changed. He stopped wanting to be close to me, he stopped telling me jokes every time he passed by on patrol, he even rejected my proposals for a night out. And I was hurt by it, a lot. It was like my best chance and I felt like I blew it because I was being myself.

I hated it.

I hated being alone because I was different. I hated seeing my only consolation, being my brother, getting married off without him telling me that he was doing that. I hated how the world seemed like it was being engulfed by love and I was sitting in some cave watching the love birds fly. While they were singing and dancing, I was holding my ears shut hoping that it would end someday.

But then in what was my most vulnerable moment, Nondis came. He showed me that I wasn't without hope, that I wasn't uninteresting all the time. Granted I knew he was from a different world and the concept of magic was a foreign language to him, but his ways almost reminded me of myself. And I started to realize that I had to slow down my ambitions in order to walk him over. I wanted to prove to myself that I could change my approach, change myself at least that much to where I could be something he'd grown an interest in.

One day, I found out that it could've been possible. It was by accident, a slip of the mind and an obvious show of frustration, I whiffed my tail and he got curious. That first half of the day I was so terrified because I never let anypony or any human see me there. But he did and he wasn't disturbed by it, by my status.

I was so happy that I practically clopped myself to orgasm at least four times that night.

That's when I started to shift. My innocent conversations with him started to have ulterior motives. The thought of him doing these depraved things to me while we simply walked down the street, I wanted to do whatever to get him to take me. It wasn't like he was going to get punished severely for it, he was a protected species and he was staying temporarily, or so I thought at the time. Then came the day of the journal confession and there was something that came up. There was a confession written in, at least I know now who put it in. It was obvious from that point that I didn't have the time to take things slow.

So I panicked.

I brought him back home, I found a way to get him into my room, and I made an opportunity of it, all because I was scared that he'd look somewhere else. And even then, I kissed him like we even had some discussion on his comfort levels when it came to dating a pony. I didn't even ask him if this was something he'd be okay with, I just gambled. And when we separated, I was terrified that he'd leave and never speak to me again.

But the opposite happened. He pretty much met me where I last left off, going even further, pushing me to go even further. And the moment he touched me, I knew then that I wanted him. I had to have him, I was so tired of being closed off throughout my life. I went from wearing chastity rings to not wearing them with a male presence fondling every inch of my body. And somewhere inside me, I went dark, I just said 'to hell with the consequences' and my one desire turned into many, like a seed sprouting many roots, creating a monster with each breath I took.

The monster took over, and I got in trouble because my brother was paying a visit.

From there, I realized that his protections wouldn't matter if I did what we did that day again. My lust grew to fear, the fear that I'd lose this one person who dared to even touch me like I was normal. From the days of my being a student, I was locked away by my mother for fear that I would become this creature lacking self-control and flunking out of my classes. But the longer we were separated, the more I realized that the monster she tried to cage was the very thing I let out on my own. So I did my best to quarantine it, at least before I got him killed by my brother.

For weeks, I suffered in knowing that he was suffering from me. And when the day came for him to leave this place, I broke to say goodbye one final time. I at least wanted him to touch me again, to kiss me, to hold me. I wanted to be treated like I was a normal mare, like I was something worth being attracted to. And in my mind, I was already drawing out my plans to do whatever to visit him in his world as often as possible, just so I could see him again. But again, he went further than me.

He stayed for me.

So for the first time in a long time, I got to feel like a mare. I got the opportunity to feel adventurous. I finally found a chance to be myself with somepony who didn't mind. And the longer we stayed together, the more ambitious I grew. I knew that my brother didn't like it, but I didn't care. He had the fortitude to not tell me that he was getting married, so I showed it back by having a special somepony who I could be a little perverse with. I felt like a total bad girl, separate from my whole 'Princess of Friendship' label. I finally had something naughty worth hiding from my friends, and it was fun.

And yet again, he went further than me.

He fought my brother, and won. He did it while calling out to me, telling me that he loved me. I mean I know I heard him say it before, but that one time made me hurt so much. I started to realize that what I was doing was only hurting him, that he was looking past everything that I was and who I was, just to say that he wanted a shot at me being his wife, that he would support me no matter the cause.

At least until then, I played by the rules of our process. And it was fun for a while until it happened again. Rarity got involved, she started to show him the things she could do that I couldn't. She started playing to my shortcomings, and I felt threatened by it. Even though he said he loved me, I felt so possessive that I needed to stake my claim. Even if she was one of my best friends, I couldn't lose to her. It wasn't because she was my best friend, it was because she was just as I was: a mare. So as a loving mare would, I gave him everything I had to offer.

And there is no doubt in my mind that she'd do just the same.

That one night we shared each other, it was the happiest moment of my life. I got to go to sleep feeling like a grown mare with her stallion. My lifelong fantasy complete, I dreamt a happy dream. And it was the peak of our relationship. But from there, the reality of my situation took my happiness from me. And I ended up taking it out on him, pushing him away from me because I was in pain and unwilling to see things from his perspective.

"This is completely my fault. Had I not..." I whispered to myself, recounting the words he spoke when we were discovered the day after. To me, it was like he rejected everything I gave him, every bit of me that I gave him and he tossed it and tried to wash himself clean of our crime. It made me feel... betrayed.

I couldn't stand being betrayed, finding out that my first time was with someone who changed his mind about the whole thing. The other thoughts came pouring in like viscous lava rolling from the top of a long-dormant volcano. And it made me realize just how easy it is for a stallion to say those things to get what they wanted, only to retract some semblance of those words when the rain came, when the volleys started pouring in. It felt like he ran to leave me to fight on my own, when in reality he was saying that he should've made another choice.

But I was too stubborn to see that. I wanted to see it the way I wanted to see it because I wanted it to be that way, not because it was that way. It wasn't but I made it feel like it. And all it did was get Cadance involved, adding to a narrative that I was mostly contributing to because I was so afraid of losing him. Fast forward to current time and now I've done just that. I'm sitting in my library reorganizing my books to keep my mind off the fact that him and Rarity probably have gotten intimate already.

And I hate it. All I've done was make one large mess of our relationship when we could've worked things out rationally instead of letting the stress of outside influence dictate which direction we should go. And now I'm wondering what he's up to with this plan he's got going on. Cadance and Nondis are at odds with one another because of me, all of this mess in the press is all because I made it public to break up with him, when the truth is that I needed to do it to save him from himself.

Now I'm in need of saving, because being away from him is nothing short of agony.

I broke out of my train of thought to answer the door. "Yes?"

The door creaked open to reveal a familiar face, a long-time companion gone missing from my life for weeks at a time. Spike walked into the library, holding yet another book. "Uh, hey Twilight." He said rather quietly.

"Hello Spike." I answered plainly. "Haven't seen you in this castle since..."

My discontinued dialog made the young drake more uncomfortable as he looked off and folded his claws into one another, stuffing them between his legs nervously. After a brief period of silence, he finally spoke up again. "So... reorganizing the books again?"

"By genre today. Next weekend will be by reference number." I answered flatly.

"You... need some help?" He asked sheepishly.

"I'm already ninety-nine-point-seven percent done." I glanced back at him through the corner of my eye. "Whatcha got there?"

"Just... theory." He announced as the book in his possession was consumed by my magic, I levitated the item towards me to read the cover.

"It seems you're studying debate. Going over some basic rules of engagement for the politicians?"

The young dragon winced a bit as he corrected me. "I wouldn't say that exactly. It's more for... arguing for your sake."

"I don't need you to argue for me, Spike." I answered sternly. "I'm more than capable of that, you already know this."

Spike grew silent again, not even moving this time. I took the book and tapped my hoof while deciding which section it should be filed under. When I made my decision, he spoke up again. "I really think it should be in the guidance section instead of self-help."

"Anything that can be used to educate yourself can be in the self-help section." I replied.

"But that applies to stuff like cooking and nick-knacks, not so much to a guidance on debate for intermediates."

I took another glance to the young dragon and smirked. "Already picking up the habit." I said as I placed the book in guidance.

"...Twilight?"

"Yes Spike." I answered, turning back to the book shelf.

"...Can I come home?"

I stopped tending to the books, even the titles caught within my magic have dropped to the ground lifelessly as I didn't face the young dragon. But my heart was deeply warmed by his request. "What exactly makes you think you have a home to come back to, Spike?"

I could already hear the young dragon's voice breaking in his throat as he spoke again. "I know I don't deserve one, especially after what I did."

"It was bad, Spike. I for one didn't appreciate it."

"I know. I'll never do it again." He said with an increasingly unstable tone. "I made the mistake of doing something to somepony because of my own greed. I'm sorry."

"Are you sorry because it hurt someone, or are you sorry because it came back to hurt you?" I asked strongly.

"Both." The dragon admitted. I picked up the books lying on the ground and started to place them in their designated sections as he called out to me again. "But I ended up hurting you more! When I found out what he was doing, what he wanted to do to you, I got away as far as possible. I didn't want to see you hurt like that, you don't deserve something like that."

"I'm sure I would've been strong enough to deal with it." I lied.

Sobs started to sound out behind me, at first softly. "For a while now, I've been living out on the streets, no bits or gems to take care of myself. I thought that if I did what I did, I'd stop Nondis from hurting you and Rarity. But it only ended up with me being the one hurting the both of you. And I didn't like seeing it. So I stayed away from you guys, thinking that it was better for me to just stay out there, that maybe I could make a living for myself. And I couldn't."

"The real world is never a nice place, Spike. That's a lesson we all learn eventually." I answered solemnly.

"I know." He replied, swallowing his sobs the best he could. "It was my worst fear, being alone in this world without anyone to guide me to the right place. I know now that I'm far from ready to take the world on right now."

"That's a consequence you're gonna have to face, Spike. We're never ready..." I replied, this time holding back my own tears. "But we have to stand up when we're thrown down."

The dragon finally let his tears flow as he mewled sadly. "I was so alone, so hungry yesterday. The first pony that helped me was Mrs. Velvet last night. She brought me to the house and cooked. She told me to sit at the table and wait for the food to be done, and I asked her why she still helped me in spite of what I did. She never told me anything, I just... I..."

I finally turned around to see my little dragon rubbing his eyes, failing to keep the tears from rolling down his scaly cheeks. I walked up to the young dragon and scooped him in my hooves, holding him tight against my face as he cried uncontrollably. He couldn't stop wailing as I petted him on the top of his head. "Spike, do you know why she cooked for you, why she helped you when no one else would?"

"Why?"

"It's because in spite of what we do wrong, family will always be in your corner to help you back up. Maybe her cooking for you was her answer and you just didn't know it, but we still love you. But it's up to you if you want to throw that back at us or take it for what it is."

His claws gripped tighter around my body, his nose pressing against my chest as he wailed into me. His eyes completely shut as he repeatedly apologized to me. He even collapsed at my hooves as he cried.

"I'm not the only one you should apologize to, Spike. There are plenty of others you should make your rounds at."

The dragon never left my chest as he spoke. "I promise, I'll apologize to everypony!"

"Not just everypony, Spike, everyone."

"I'll do it, whatever it takes. I'm tired of being alone, I'm tired of hurting, I'm tired of knowing I hurt others. I just─"

I leaned down to give my draconian sibling a kiss on the forehead, rubbing the back of his head tenderly as I whispered. "Welcome home, Spike. We missed you."

The dragon continued to sob in my chest, but as I leaned down to hug him back, my heart ached so terribly that I ended up not letting him go. My eyes grew watery while the tears ran down my face, the two of us rocked back and forth, expressing whatever emptiness we had to each other, trying to fill the void that was left behind. And in spite of all of that pain, there was a moment of release, a strong sense of joy that filled within me. I knew he had a lot to do to make up for everything he did, but I'd rather him take the time to straighten himself out than keep walk the crowded streets of Canterlot on his own.

Today was an eventful day.

My eyes shot open as I heard the sound coming from within my saddle bags sitting on the table nearby. I didn't break my contact from Spike as I levitated my phone out of my bag. I looked on the screen as it indicated who was calling me. I quickly gathered myself together before I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Twilight, thank goodness these things work like they do!"

Completely in shock over who was on the other line, I promptly broke my contact with Spike. "Princess Celestia, I thought this was Alex's number!"

"Apparently I'm calling from his own transmission device. These things are a wonder and I'm more than impressed with their sound quality."

"Tell me about it. It's like keeping in contact with ponies is so much easier." I agreed.

"Indeed." The princess said. "As much as I would like to check in on you, I do have two things I need to ask of you."

Spike, in hearing the princess' voice, he released me to allow me some space to move. "Whatever you need, your highness." I responded.

"Firstly, I need you to clear your schedule for Monday through Friday. That includes any meetings, summits, and/or engagements. I know this is a tall order, but I need for you to keep your days open so you can go on a very important assignment."

Spike and I looked at each other as he shrugged his shoulders, recovering from his crying fit. "Eh, I think I can manage another five days on my own, as long as I can stay here."

I quietly nodded to him as I continued my conversation with the princess. "You can count on me. What's the mission?"

"You and I are going to be on a sort of envoy mission. The location is none other than Austin, Texas. I trust that you will be ready by tomorrow afternoon for your departure."

"Austin, Texas? I don't think that's on the map." Spike mumbled.

"I don't think it is either. Maybe I need to do some research." I replied as I pulled out an encyclopedia from one of the shelves.

"This location isn't in a book Twilight." Celestia stated. "Austin, Texas is the name of the hometown of our esteemed captain."

Both Spike and I jumped as he hollered out in unison. "WHAT!?"

"You and I will be in Nondis' world tomorrow. In fact, I am already here and have gotten a little tour of the college he attended before his sudden appearance in Equestria."

My jaw fell to the ground and then hit the very foundations of this castle while I felt my legs wobble underneath my own weight. The sheer amount of envy I felt at that moment couldn't be measured in words. "YOU WENT TO AN INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING IN THE HUMAN WORLD!?"

"Yes I did, and I've met with Alex's wife as well. She seems to be in on the loop of what we're trying to accomplish. So for now I need you to get prepared for your visit to the human world tomorrow. Can you do that for me?"

Could I? I would be more than happy to, but first I needed to know something. "Can I visit the library over there?"

"You can visit the library after we finish with everything else. After that, go wild."

"YEEEESSS! Well I know I've been there before but I never went past his living room! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!" I screamed, prancing in place as I happily chanted to myself. Any kind of negative feelings I had earlier throughout the day had suddenly died off while I danced around the room. Spike just shook his head and smiled at my juvenile reaction. "I'm going to Nondis' world! I'm going to Nondis' world!"

"Now there is another thing." Celestia said, causing me to pause for a moment.

"What else your highness?"

A nervous laughter came from the other end as Celestia muttered on the line. "Can you lower the sun for me? The sun here set on it's own so I thought that I was setting the sun but apparently not because their sun is tremendously heavy and their planet has a rotation of it's own. Our worlds are so vastly different."

I practically gawked at her other favor, feeling a bit incredulous. "Uh, I don't think I can do the sun thing again, I ended up giving Equestria two extra days for that one."

"Just do it like I taught you, and Luna will take care of the rest. And also be sure to get plenty of sleep after so your magic can recuperate. Don't need you having migraines over a little bit of heavy lifting." She said quietly.

Spike blinked widely before putting on a hard hat and ducking under the table. "Don't mind me, I'll be right here in case you drop it or something."

I rolled my eyes with a groan but I couldn't help but smile at the young dragon. "Good to have you home Spike."

The Sun Cryst Resort...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The hotel room was a bit of a mess while a slightly buzzed Rarity giggled at my inebriated antics. My phone was losing more charge with each passing minute as I had it playing some music in the background. The fashionista clopped her hooves while I bowed before her. She and I tore into the two bottles she sent up, but we weren't as nearly as drunk as we thought we should've been because of the alcohol content. Room service botched our order with someone else down the hall, so we got the cheap stuff.

We still made the best of it. I had ran through a bottle and a quarter on my own while Rarity just kept to her glasses like a proper individual would. But those glasses started to pile up on her, knocking back a bottle of her own. And since unicorns were lucid drinkers, she wasn't too hammered to where she couldn't operate like normal. And I can handle my liquor very well, thanks to many drunken nights at the college. In short, we were too drunk.

But the two of us made out like we were.

I was stumbling over her and she was just laughing every time I did something stupid. But she wasn't so prim and proper herself, dragging me down to sloppily lick my face. I pulled off of her just long enough for the mare to whimper about it, but I joined her once again, this time shoving my tongue down her throat with a slovenly smile. The alcohol had clearly kicked in with us and we weren't too disturbed by who we were in our state, but I can assure that this moment will probably stay between the two of us.

That along with the fact that Rarity popped the button off of my jeans and broke the zipper in trying to tear them off. Straddling me, she wore the most lust-drunk smile on her face. I offered to help with whatever she tried to do, but she used her magic to cuff me in place. She kissed me again, pressing her wine-tainted lips against mine, our mouths still fresh with the taste of fermented berries. Her eyes remained locked on me as she worked her tongue against mine. My hips instinctively thrusted upwards, her posterior falling back on me as she did. The mare forcefully slammed her hips into mine, but soon her eyes shot open with a terrible realization.

She quickly climbed off of me and trotted to the bathroom, leaving me on my own to feel a bit frustrated. I got back up and walked over to the bathroom, knocked on the door, and asked. "You okay in there? You just left me hanging."

The mare shyly squeaked through the door. "I'm fine! I'm just... getting rid of a little issue."

Shortly after her answer, I heard the toilet flush. By then, I understood what she ran in there for. "Oh... that would've been something."

"Tragic, to say the least." She replied. "I couldn't have lived with the embarrassment. I'd sooner bear the shame of a public humiliation than doing that to you."

"I know I shouldn't be asking, but what exactly were you going to do?"

Rarity poked her head out of the bathroom with a scrunchy frown. "Well if you know you shouldn't be asking, then why did you ask?"

"Touché." I still would like to know what ill fate awaited me if you didn't intervene as quickly as you did, just morbidly curious.

"I'm sorry Nondis, but these issues are strictly reserved for ladyship. We will never speak of this again." She quietly whispered. "I'm afraid that took me completely out of the mood."

Yeah, I could see on her face that she's too embarrassed to keep going. And it wouldn't be fair for me to force her to do something because I'm feeling a little anxious. Plus the buzz from our drinks have died off a little so we're not as out of sorts as earlier. It would be better to wait a while before we even try to reset the mood. "Well I can respect that. I'm sure that whatever you were going to throw out wasn't going to be a fetish of mine. I mean to each their own, just not for me."

My phone chirped once, telling me that the battery had gone down to less than ten percent charge. I walked over to cut the music off and put it to rest on a charger. Rarity quietly watched as I did it and watched as I gently put the phone back on the table. She finally spoke up after a little bit of silence. "You know, I had quite a bit of fun dressing your little device there."

"Obviously, but did you have to make it to where it would outdo the GDP of a small developing nation?" I asked. "I gotta keep this damn thing in a vault."

"Do you not like it?" She questioned.

"Of course I do!" I quickly replied. "It's just that this is going to run well over ten million bucks in my world. The most expensive case in my world has to be priced in the upper hundreds-of-thousands. How many diamonds did you put in this?"

"Well over a hundred and twenty."

"Yeah, this might be the most expensive phone in the world now, and I haven't even taken into account the rubies making out the apple brand on the back. My folks are gonna be looking at me like I pulled a heist or some shit."

The mare shook her head with a giggle. "Oh no. I already told you that gem finding is my specialty, my special talent if you will."

"You are a rarity." I joked with a wink.

She promptly responded by throwing a pillow in my face. "And you are a flatterer of the highest order."

"Look who's talking." I replied, throwing the pillow back at her, only for her to catch it in her magic, summoning another two to throw at me. I quickly threw my hands up in surrender. "Hey, hey, hey, hey... hey.... No need for the war."

One of the pillows launched at me, making me duck for cover. Rarity smiled as she used the other two pillows to hover just above my position. "So what terms do you have to present for your surrender?"

"Pistachio almond?" I weakly squeaked.

"Deal!" She said, the pillows dropping harmlessly to the ground and her climbing over the couch I hid behind. "We must seal the armistice with a kiss! It is the only way!"

"For peace." I pushed myself higher and met with the mare's lips, appeasing her violent spirit for the time being. She smiled as she pulled away. She then proceeded to play with my hair while she leaned over the back of the couch.

"So, what do you think now that Princess Celestia's roaming around your world in your own skin?" She quizzed.

"I'm thinking she's batshit crazy, and how weird it is that the sun hasn't gone down yet." I pointed out, looking through the window.

"That is a bit odd, especially considering that this time of the year we're supposed to be in the dark by around an hour and a half ago."

"Right. It looks more like midsummer than late fall." I said while Rarity continued to fashion my hair in various ways.

"Well it could be that Princess Celestia's not able to set the sun from your world." Rarity stated.

"And she ain't gonna need to do it in mine. Sun sets all on it's own." I added.

The fashionista started to weave some braids in my hair as she mumbled in a low voice. "I wonder... I wonder what it's like in your world."

"Well since Celestia's got a spell that can turn ponies to humans, I suppose it would be possible to show you around one day." I answered, causing the mare above me to pull my hair uncomfortably from excitement.

"What a fabulous idea!" She squeed loudly. "You could probably take me later this week! I know I don't have much planned out because this was supposed to be my slow-down week, but I don't mind roughing it in your world for a while!"

I quickly adjusted myself to ease the tension of her pulling my hair out of my scalp. "That would be fun, but there would have to be a lot to consider when we do that."

"I'm sure we can ask all the questions when we get around Celestia again."

"Yeah, but we won't have all day to do it. Your train back to Ponyville is at eleven tomorrow morning, right?" I asked.

"It is." She confirmed, loosening the grip her magic had on my hair.

"So when do you think you'll be up and at it for us to propose the idea? I kinda promised my parents that I'd bring my girlfriend over this go around, would be a little awkward to tell them that she conveniently broke up with me just the past week. It would open the door to a lot of questions I don't feel good about answering."

Rarity carried on with braiding my hair as she tapped her hoof on the couch. "Hmm... I suppose that would be a bit too convenient in their eyes. But what about..." She paused for a moment before continuing with some hesitation. "Why not ask Twilight to go as well?"

Her question had me thinking for a while. Even though bringing her would've been optimal and my story would at least have some sort of consistency, it would open a lot of wounds behind closed doors. And I know it would bring up the topic of my situation with Rarity again. All of that would've made it into a massive distraction that would've caused me to work more on what I needed to say to not make her angry as opposed to keeping the situation congruent with my parents. In simpler terms, I'd be trying to keep her visibly happy while trying to satisfy my parents, I don't know if I can take the stress.

And even if I did bring Twilight, it would mean that I would have to keep Rarity out of the equation just to start off with. So that would put me in the doghouse already with Rarity right now, especially since we're trying to figure each other out. Before I could speak, Rarity offered an answer of her own. "Personally, I'm beginning to think that my being there with Twilight would present a bit of an issue with you and her trying to create some facade of your relationship status."

At least she knows what's up. "Yeah, but I would really like for you to go as well. I want you to see my hometown instead of just pictures of it."

Rarity finished braiding my hair as she giggled at my juvenile appearance. "Well, maybe I can wait until the smoke's gone. Then drag me along as much as you'd like."

"Basically, you're saying come swing by on Friday to pick you up?"

"Oh, I don't know if I'll be working on a commission that day." She replied.

"It's Black Friday." I teased with a singsong voice.

"And then I'll have to keep up with my schedule for that weekend, I'll be hitting the ground running."

"It's a pretty big shopping day. I can take you to the mall and let you pick out some things you'd like to keep as a souvenir." I added.

"And then there's the─" The mare stopped herself short, almost staring blankly at the wall ahead of her. "Shopping... in your world?"

"Yeah, we can go shopping and I can take you to see a movie, then we can pretty much roam around town, take in the sights, go someplace to eat, all that fun stuff. And I promise to have you back at the boutique before it gets too late."

The mare lifted my chin as she looked down towards me. "A date in your world, this Friday, I expect you to take me to ice cream at least once."

"Oh, I know a few places, especially around the college. You'll love it there." I assured with a grin.

"Good form, sir captain." She said with a kiss to my lips. "I will wait with the highest level of expectancy. A new experience in a foreign land is never a subject of disappointment."

"We still need to go to Celestia in the morning to talk about casting the spell on you."

"That's tomorrow. As for now, I believe some celebration is in order."

I proceeded to poke my finger against her muzzle, making fun of her ice cream obsession. "Let me guess, call in room service to get you some ice cream? I swear I'm gonna put you on a restriction like you do to me and coffee."

Suddenly, the three pillows she threatened me with earlier had reentered the picture, all three of them aimed directly for my head as she mumbled. "The armistice is broken, we will have war!"

I quickly grabbed her horn before she could run off, cancelling her magic. She looked at me with a stoic face as I cheerfully whispered in her face. "War's over, I win."

"Check again, darling." She said with an innocent smirk.

I looked above me to see the pillows still dangling over my head, only this time she added all the pillows from the other chairs, the cushions from the couch, and the pillows off of the beds. I looked back at her, realizing my hand was firmly grasped on her horn, but her magic continued to glow through my fingers. I looked back at her, this time seeing a pony with long streaks of purple, blue, and yellow in her mane. Instead of her magic being it's usual light blue, it was a pure white with an even warmer glow than before.

"I-aauh... I... When could you do that?"

"Element bearer, dear. The horn trick doesn't work with me too well." She said with a sinister giggle. "Now... while you have your hand on my horn, I believe it's time we'd discuss some things about my ice cream."

...Yeah, rule number one: DON'T FUCK WITH RARITY'S ICE CREAM.

Well this was a fun chapter to write. Of course this one seems a bit slow but I assure you that the shenanigans of the ponies in the human world will be somewhat entertaining. At last, Alex's plan has come to idealization, or at least parts of it. But this chapter I wanted to expand upon the two individuals in the discussion being Twilight and Nondis.

In speaking of Twilight, I do intend on giving her some more spotlight to explain her side of the story a little more from her perspective. Obviously she knows what she did wrong and admits that her personal desires have gotten in the way of seeing reality. But as far as why she is the way she is, it's more based from the perspective of someone getting into something for the first time with unrealistic expectations.

Now to answer a question some of you may have on the humanization of Princess Celestia. I actually based her off of the rendition by the artist [lvl]. The picture is on Derpibooru and it would be under the number >>1088732 (as per rules of FimFiction, I cannot post links to NSFW art). Here's a safer edit.

Needless to say she's going to have problems with men throughout her stay.

But the next chapter should be pretty interesting in dealing with the preparations for the initial meeting with Nondis' folks.

Again, thank you for sticking with me thus far and being patient. If there are any issues, do respond as that helps me improve and seek out any little mistakes I might have overlooked in writing the chapter (I know one of you will at least, you're always a help).

Until next chapter...