Twilight Sparkle awoke in the hooves of her coltfriend once more, the grey furred stallion’s hooves wrapped around her barrel, his muzzle resting in the crook of her neck. She felt him breathe gently as he slept soundly, more than likely taking in her scent as he did.

To stave off the ideas of not having showered in a long while, Twilight took to staring at the ceiling vacantly to be alone with her thoughts and her stallion’s company. She frowned gently as she gazed at the patterns above the bed, elegantly swirling stars and moon dust which were strangely soothing to her as they danced across the ceiling-wait, what?

Frowning again as she concentrated on the patterns harder, she noticed that they were actually swirling and moving and dancing across the ceiling as she stared at them, getting more playful and energetic as she stared longer. Twilight cocked her head and smiled sleepily, mewling contently in her grogginess. She giggled as one bumped into another, one of the small stars giving the other a look that seemed annoyed to her somehow, before they floated dreamily apart again.

She raised her hoof blindly as she tried to poke one in her sleepily dim state, only for them to scatter from where she’d have poked if she could reach the roof from her spot wrapped up in her lover’s hooves. She cocked an eyebrow and tried again, poking at another cluster, only for them to scatter again and gather into smaller groups again, stars and wispy trails of moon dust gathering together like small galaxies and nebulas.

Drowsily giggling again, she moved her hoof through the clusters of stars again, watching them dodge her sleepy swipe before grouping together, almost like they’d finally figured out the game as she moved her hoof around in an attempt to catch one.

She could almost hear them laugh and squeal as she played with the animate artwork vacantly. Her stargazing mind found herself enjoying the game she played, distracting her mind and allowing her a moment to relax her mind properly as she distracted her frontal lobes with the moving images while her subconscious mind put its hooves up and took to some light reading. Astro physics, this time.

She felt a yawn rising through her system, the long breath pushing through her maw as both fore-hooves reached for the skies, feeling her back pop in relieving spots as her legs stretched out, feeling that strange point between pleasure and pain grip her joints as she woke herself up properly. The purple mare felt somepony stirring next to her, looking over to find the assassin lying next to her squeeze his eyes together as he groaned and grumbled in his sleep, mumbling something about hating Mondays, rolling to his front and stretching himself out as though he was on a stretching rack ponies had used for torture way back when. She grinned easily as she watched him go limp on the bed, the stallion smacking his lips vacantly as he finished the daily struggle of rising in the morning.

He looked to the side lazily and put a goofy grin on his face when he saw her, Twilight giggling into a hoof.

“Morning” he greeted, rolling to her side and draping a hoof across her chest, kissing her cheek gently. The mare gave a small smile and turned her head to the assassin’s pressing their lips together gently. She melted easily into the kiss, relishing the early morning contact with him. Their kiss lasted for a minute, the pair mutually pulling away from each other and leaning their foreheads together.

“Morning” Twilight replied softly, snuggling up to him. The couple curled up together, Twilight’s gaze remaining on the patterns on the ceiling. She felt the dark stallion grunt behind her.

“I see you found my party piece” he mumbled quietly. Twilight nodded, her neck loose in her drowsy state.

“Yeah, it’s…vaguely amusing, I think is the way you’d put it” she murmured, lifting a hoof slightly as she rolled to her back and swirled it around, watching the stars dance around to avoid her hoof again.

“You know me so well, Twi” he replied in a dry tone. She noticed another swirl developing on in the patterns and looked over to Blood Moon, noticing that the hoof that wasn’t curled under her was making similar movements as her own as he amused himself in his sleepy state. Twilight snuggled into him happily, kissing his cheek back as she rested her head in the crook of his neck. They quietly amused their sleepy selves for a while longer until Twilight turned her head to the stallion, prompting him to return the gesture, and smile at him wordlessly. He returned the gesture without comment, his lopsided grin stretching slowly across his maw. She leaned in and pecked his nose softly, earning a wide smile in return as he nuzzled her. The relaxed together again, both of their gazes going back to the ceiling as they moved their hooves around and played with the stars and dust.

“So…” Twilight started, resting her head in the crook of his neck as she held his spare hoof with her own “why the fancy ceiling” she asked in a slightly amused tone. She felt the assassin shrug.

“It was Luna’s idea, actually, when she was still young, well, comparatively. Said she wanted to be able to practice ruling the night, and since she was convinced that making a pretty sky was gonna be the most important aspect of ruling the night she felt she needed practice. This was her solution.” Twilight frowned gently.

“The practice thing I get, and her solution” she motioned to their current plaything “is pretty ingenious, but…” she trailed off.

“Why is it here rather than in her room?” She nodded once, flicking her hoof to the side and scattering some of her stars over to the assassin’s cluster of stars. They both moved their hooves in together, watching the stars scatter above and below them. “Well, by the time she’d been born, the war was at full steam; she rarely saw her parents, making me her ‘go-to daddy’-”

“Go-to daddy” Twilight repeated with a chuckle “whatever happened to ‘father-figure’, huh” she wondered aloud. Blood Moon only smirked.

“By her own words, she never liked the term. Always said it sounded too much like she didn’t have an actual father, where she actually felt…well, put bluntly-”

“How out of character for you” Twilight interrupted dryly. The assassin only grunted.

“Put bluntly” he restarted, a grin still on his face “I was just…better at it. More attentive, closer, less strict, warmer to be around and just…well, around to actually be her father” he explained. Twilight frowned again, cocking her head as she lowered her hoof and rolling to face her coltfriend, laying a hoof over his chest.

“That…doesn’t seem fair” Twilight murmured “I mean, weren’t they fighting a war? Even my historical knowledge doesn’t go back that far… And I live in a library” she finished in a mutter. There was a quiet moment when Twilight gazed into the void for a second, waiting for the assassin’s answer, but there was only silence. She looked up to find him wearing a faraway expression, staring at the far wall as though it held the answers to the mysteries of the universe. She brushed her hoof down his chest fur, looking up at his red eyes. She couldn’t help but feel frustrated, knowing that he was more than capable of –quite literally- reading into anypony with ease, but with equal ease could hold an expression that might have of well have been a flat piece of grey slate. She leaned up and kissed his blank face, over the scar, bringing him from his thoughts. “Blood Moon, you okay” she asked quietly. He smiled weakly, nodding once.

“Yeah, I’m just…” he trailed off again, leaning his head against the pillows and looking back at the ceiling blindly. He sighed gently. “I agree with you” he said quietly. “He…he experienced, lived during the height of Discord’s rule, lived as a lord amongst other ponies perhaps, lived relatively well actually, but…not well enough to be blind.” Feeling a history lesson on the horizon (cue mental squee), Twilight sat up and rested on her haunches, looking down at Blood Moon as he continued to stare into nothingness before something occurred to her.

“Wait, what do you mean he lived well? Discord’s rule was…well, it was hardly the nicest of times to live” she managed, scratching the back of her head as she tried to piece together an image of the whole of Equestria with soapy roads, candyfloss clouds, drinking glasses rather than the chocolate milkshake inside caught from the rain produced from said candyfloss clouds from her memories of Ponyville’s short stint as the ‘Chaos Capital of the world.’ As it happens, she found herself unwilling to put the image into her imagination. The assassin shrugged as he sat up himself, resting his head on his fore-hooves.

“Well, back then there was only one commodity: order. During his rule, as you might guess, your average farmland wasn’t exactly easy to farm. But then, when was the last time you’d tried to harvest a crop of staplers or plant a row of tutu-trees? I think my favourite image was when somepony started up a herd of cows to try for milk, went to sleep one night and woke up with a bunch of tricycles rolling around instead cattle.” He chuckled to himself. “Ahh, that idiot still tried to milk them” he murmured. Lacking a reaction from his purple marefriend, the assassin glanced down at her to find her giving him a disapproving look. He simply gave a sheepish ‘heh’ and shrugged. Twilight shook her head at him.

“Sometimes I forget that you’re fifteen thousand years old, but then you explain to me how somepony’s attempt to make the world a little better was crushed and how cows were turned into little more than redundant pieces of metal with rubber wheels for legs. And you’re just so…” she sighed sadly, brushing a hoof down his chest again as she fixed him a concerned looked “numb to it all” she whispered. Blood Moon wrapped his hooves around her and hugged her tight.

“Yeah, well…” he trailed off, shrugging and scratching his mane slightly “the worst part is that I’ve laughed off far worse” he muttered. Twilight sighed and cosying into him again.

“I worry about you…” she murmured.

“The only thing I can say to that is…” the dark stallion looked down at Twilight, their gazes meeting for a second before he pushed his lips to hers and said more in act that he ever could in words. They enjoyed their intimacy, Twilight pressing her body to his intimately as he pulled her into the kiss they shared. His hoof strayed south on her, feeling her flank as he gently groped her. A nice mix of hard muscle, no doubt built from all of the galloping around brought on by her adventures with her friends, with a layer of soft fat coating it, more than likely thanks to her…well, ‘adorkable’ was the most polite world that came to mind, tendencies.

Twilight’s purple hood snapped down and pulled it back up to less questionable places. She put a hoof to his chest, rolling on top of him and straightening up, arching her back in ways that made the assassin less than capable of thinking straight. He swallowed lightly as he gazed up at his marefriend, smiling up at her as she grinned down, a pink blush gracing her cheek as she gazed down at him.

“You know” she cooed, stroking his chest “you…seem to be taking a great interest in my plot” she murmured. The assassin rested his hooves on her backside defiantly, smirking up at her.

“Well, I’ve always been a sucker for a good story” he replied, massaging her gently. Twilight giggled into her hoof, rolling her eyes, and lay down on her coltfriend’s hard chest, crossing her fore-legs and resting her head on them.

“So” she said in a low, sultry tone, giving him half-lidded, bedroom eyes. Or at least, how that one book Cadence had ‘misplaced’ described it. “You never did finish that lesson just now.” He grinned and cocked his head, resting his legs on her back, wrapping them around her.

“Well, as I was saying, back way back when, the only things anypony could trade at all were the spaces that Discord allowed us to use to farm for food so we could survive. The ponies who owned those spaces tended to be what are considered mayors or nobles today. Only, they more often than not enjoyed their little slices of sanity and were unwilling to lose them, so, to keep in Discord’s good books, they…followed his example.” Twilight could only swallow gently as their topic of morning conversation once more began to prove somewhat morbid. Blood Moon grunted. “If you were to ask Discord, he’d more than likely say that he’d never done anything worse than ‘pull a few pranks’.” By the look on his face, Twilight guessed her coltfriend looked fit to spit in disgust. “That he never killed anypony, because there’s nothing more boring in the world than a dead body.” He huffed, his eyes showing his anger.

Twilight rolled off of him, finding his mood unsuited to any kind of physical intimacy and instead held his hoof in her own once again, reminding him that she was there. And hoping it would help him to not get lost in his memories.

“No, he did worse. Set ponies on other ponies. Ponies, hay, everything not in Discord’s ‘let them cause some misery for a hoot’ books were treated less like workers, employees, and more like slaves. Before long, entire villages, towns, were little more than slave-built mini-kingdoms, the ponies at the top often glad of their little kingdom to lord over.” He relaxed, deflating against the bed, as his voice took on a nostalgic tone. “One of my first tastes of my career now, killing to cut away the cancer, was when I murdered a noble bullying one of his workers in the middle of town.” He took a long breath, looking over at Twilight, finding her concern filled eyes gazing back at him. He shot her a small smile, closing his eyes as he continued. “Nocturnal…he lived in the Everfree, a certain palace you may be familiar with, and lived off of the lands he kept orderly with his own magic. That was how it was for most Alicorns back then. Any pony of both horn and wing was hunted down vigorously by Discord’s lackeys, knowing that they were the only beings of Equestria that were powerful enough to stand up to him and, well, one of the few who cared to as well.” Twilight frowned.

“How do you mean?”

“Gargoyles were too aloof, Dragons too lazy, preferring to align with Discord, the creatures of Tartarus Discord didn’t trust enough to release and the beats of the Everfree preferred to kill and destroy rather than wreak the kind of chaos Discord liked. Anyway, Nocturnal made a home, a life for himself one the backs of ponies looking for nothing more than a second of sanity. He watched them flock to him, cramming the limited space he could provide full of refugees, ponies looking for aid and everypony else” he recalled with a faraway look on his face, remembering days long past. He sighed gently, deflating a little. “After a while, he decided that he’d had enough of watching ponies suffer under Discord. He and Illumination formed a plan together; take down Discord’s pony supporters first, or convince them to join their faction, use said ponies and whoever else had had enough of Discord’s rule to amass an army and eventually pull him off of his throne” he explained. Twilight frowned.

“That seems…very simple” Twilight commented. Blood Moon just grunted a laugh, holding his face in a hoof.

“Yeah, well, the semantics are detailed, longwinded and boring, I just thought you wouldn’t want to hear it all” he defended with a smart-flank smirk on his face, watching Twilight chuckle into her hoof. He grunted a laugh and sat up on the bed, sitting next to his lover. “Anyway, a part of that plan was Celestia, somepony to rule when the war was over. As you might guess, that part of the plan created a problem” he posed. Twilight only nodded.

“Raising her during war” she murmured before looking up at him “that was where you came in” she guessed. He nodded.

“Aye, alive for a thousand and a few years, out of that training facility for just under forty and already I was being horn-hunted for my…specialities.” He grunted, looking down at his hooves. “They offered, I accepted, they introduced me to Tia and…well, things went like that. I shadowed her every hour of every day, whether she liked it or not, and just…kept an eye on her, really. I remember thinking it was a pretty good gig at first; Illumination and Nocturnal would be gone for a few days at a time, conferring with Platinum, Puddinghead and Hurricane or other allies and then they’d return to Canterlot. Illumination would spend time with her daughter, Nocturnal and I would butt heads and they’d just be a happy little family.” Twilight felt something warm in her chest when Blood Moon grinned at days long past, the smile on his face showing a pony recalling a truly happy family he’d admired, perhaps envied even and, unless she was wrong, had come to love himself. But then his smile dropped, ever so slowly, as the rest of the story played along in his mind.

“What happened” she tried, wondering if she’d like the answer. Her coltfriend only huffed a gentle breath, his body shifting with it in a way that said ‘exactly what you’re thinking happened and really wish you were wrong about happening.’

“Then…then the war kicked into high gear, the fighting went from small cold war-esc skirmishes to full-blow battles.” He looked up as he remembered it all. “The clash of the Five Legions” he said in a heavy tone “the first major battle of the Discord Wars. It was Discord’s idea of strategizing: let’s get everypony we know and their mothers together, pick them up, and throw ‘em at the other guys” he exclaimed in a dry tone. “The Illuminating Night uprising came from the east, pushing back against the en-mass assault of forces after unsuccessful attempts at negotiating. Discord’s followers and those loyal, charging west like a freight train. The Dragons were already there, and they apparently didn’t like us fighting on their mountain so they decided it would be fun to muck things up. Griffons from the north, trying their claw at taking out all other forces to get a good grip in Equestria so they could properly throw their own hats in against Discord, though I might add they had no intentions of fighting alongside anypony” he said bitterly “and finally, the Zebras from the south, who I still hold to, to this day, were just wondering what the heck was going on and they were just fortunate to have their best troops and warriors on hoof to help fight when they got swept up in it all” he finished. Twilight could only nod a few times.

“Wow…” she said at length, the assassin only shrugging.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself. As you might imagine, it was quite the cluster buck, with everypony fighting on four fronts at once, with only us and Discord posing as enemies at that point while everyone else was just throwing rocks at everything that moved but their own guys. This was before the Dragons joined Discord, mind you, and before the Griffons and Zebras joined the Ponies” he clarified. Twilight just frowned.

“Wait, you said the Griffons joined with us, I-I mean them, I mean you” she frowned deeper, looking up with a sheepish smile for support. Blood Moon only laughed.

“It’s us…I think” he responded with a small frown of his own. Twilight only shook her head.

“Well, I can see why the Zebras joined us, and why the Dragons joined Discord, but why would the Griffons join us? I mean, it kinda sounds like it was racial borders more than anything else, with the equines standing together against all the other races, I mean, we were, and are, the race with the highest population across Equus, with everyone else against us until Discord got bored of being friendly with other factions and started ‘chaosing’ them too” she said, impressing the assassin with her historical knowledge. She shook her head clear of her tangent. “Anyway, why did the griffons ally with us?” Blood Moon shrugged.

“I understand your confusion, after all, mishmashes of races are sort of Discord’s wheelhouse, but yeah, they sided with us. The only explanation their leader gave us was that it was because we ‘won’ the battle, despite it being largely victory-less. I suppose being the last guys to retreat has gotta count for something” he murmured with a shrug. He shook the thought away. “Anyway, that was when things really hit the fan. Illumination and Nocturnal were gone for longer and longer periods of time, fighting, conducting battles, making deals with potential allies, undercutting Discord’s own, securing ground and patching the wounds left behind.” Twilight frowned gently; she knew that any war had wounds of all sort to patch, but the way he said it… “When Discord realised he was losing ground, he…well, it’s hard to describe. He didn’t exactly worry, but he acted differently… more… drastically. One of the things, and one of his first major mistakes, to change the course of the war was…was…” he swallowed gently, Twilight watching in concern as the memories made his eyes water.

She took her hoof in his and held it tight. When he didn’t react, she used her magic and muscle to pull him into her, hugging him tightly, reassuringly, reminding him that she was there. He swallowed again, sighing into her hold.

“One, battle…it was a disaster; our forces arrived early to out maneuverer Discord’s, ambush them, but…he was a step ahead. He ambushed us right back. An ingenious trap, a beautiful trap…but a trap nonetheless. We lost…everypony, all dead, except one: Commander Hurricane” he sighed again, leaning back against her, into her grip. “She’d…she’d been getting on in years, just a quick witted, but…just not as quick. She was captured, tortured, humil…” he swallowed, shuddering slightly “humiliated” he breathed. “We thought she was dead for the longest of times, until her body turned up at one of their camps. I…I won’t describe to you what…what condition she was in. It was one of the few times I’d been out in the field, after the Clash. A routine hold point we’d taken to get a look at a nearby settlement. I was there because it was largely un-scouted land, and I knew the territory. When I heard that…that dead ‘thump’ just outside camp I knew something was wrong, but when I went out, pushed my way to the front, saw her…” he inhaled sharply through his muzzle, pushing his face into her chest like a child would and shaking his head. Twilight just stroked his mane gently.

“You don’t have to go on” she told him gently. He paused for a second before he shook his head, fighting back tears he was determined to not let fall.

“I…I… She’d been my friend Twilight, the only one of the three leaders I got on with… Platinum was too much of a snob, Puddinghead too…Puddinghead, but Hurricane…she reminded me of myself. Hard-headed, brash, proud.” He chuckled gently. “She often said I had to have some Pegasus blood in my veins, to be so hard-headed, brash and proud” he recounted fondly before he grunted. “We’d had a short fling, when we fell for the military commanders in each other” he murmured, prompting a short, ever-so-slightly disgruntled smirk from Twilight while he frowned to himself “I think that means that I loved her as a whole, minus her damn snoring” he droned, awful, awful memories of trying to sleep next to her coming to mind “but I get the feeling it wouldn’t have gone anywhere. She’d never been much for the whole ‘assassin’ thing” he muttered before he sighed. “Anyway, the next thing I knew, I heard Illumination gasp from behind and her eyes flickered open for a second. She was alive, bloody, bruised…wingless” he managed “violated” he breathed, those tears coming back as he covered his face with his hooves “but she still hung on…for about as long as it took for her to apologise to Illumination and Nocturnal for failing in her duty.” His voice went hollow, more so than before somehow. “They’d managed to break her, gotten troop movements and strategies from her…the existence of Celestia” he shook his head “and she died, thinking that we were in anyway disappointed in her” he muttered, deflating in her grasp.

He straightened up again, standing from Twilight’s grip, a hard, angry pride walling off his tears aggressively. He stood and trotted around atop-

‘Wait, who made the bed’ Twilight mentally demanded, looking down at their suddenly pristine sheets. Blood Moon, unfazed by their suddenly tidied sleeping arrangements, hopped off the bed and paced back and forth.

“Right after, we buried her, a few words were said and we all got right back to work” he said in an almost annoyed tone “but, it was clear that moral was down, why wouldn’t it be… Nocturnal and Illumination, they were clearly both dismayed at the loss of one of the best military commanders as well as a good friend” he gave a long sigh, looking to the floor as he paused in his pacing “I…I heard them agree to visit her grave, to honour her, once a year…”he grunted, a bitter smirk on his face “that lasted maybe…three years? After that, they were too busy, the war, as I said, kicked into overdrive and things finally got moving. But, that also meant they were both away for longer and longer periods of time…” another sigh “they barely even had time for their daughter” he almost growled.

The assassin trotted towards the window, Twilight following him and standing a short distance behind him.

“It was…five hundred years later, they finally found time to visit her grave” he snorted “I’d already been there…sneaked out to visit her, as I’d been doing for the last five hundred years, every year, on the day she said her last words…” he trailed off, glaring at the outside world, the story his words told playing out in his mind. “A twig snapped behind me, and I was already in the shadows…the stepped into the grove, of course, I couldn’t let them see me, I was supposed to be standing outside Celestia’s door at the time, stood to attention” he chuckled emptily. Twilight took a step, placing her hoof on his shoulder.

“What happened” she asked carefully. He grunted, shrugging a shoulder.

“Well…they…” he shook his head “they did exactly what I would have done” he admitted “that gravestone, hidden in a little opening in the woods around the Everfree Palace, the name, the cutie mark, Tartarus, the date…” he looked back at his marefriend, looking into her eyes for a second before he continued “it brought it all into perspective for them” he finished at length. “Both of them, they broke down, only each other for comfort in that moment of dire weakness…” he glared at his memories “and they didn’t last five minutes” he growled “it was too much for them, they left, staggering back into the woods to sit with each other, just let it all sink in…everything that war cost them, cost everypony…” he shook his head “and…well, you remember what I said about them being each other’s only comfort?” Twilight frowned before her eyes snapped open, unable to believe what he was implying.

“N-no…” she breathed. He nodded his head.

“Yep.” Her mouth hung agape.

“No way…” she murmured, her eyes widening as she continued to make sense of what she was hearing. “Y-you mean…” He nodded his head once. “No way” she repeated, falling to her flank.

“Not to say I stuck around to watch but… Well, that was the night the beautiful miracle of an accident, Luna was conceived” he revealed. Twilight was speechless. Princess Luna, ruler of the night, mistress of dreams, the Mare in the Moon, was the result of…cheer-up sex?

“But…but…I don’t…” Blood Moon only shrugged.

“Make of it what you will. Celestia was planned from the start, as was somepony of my skills to take care of her, her nanny to see to her more elderly ‘feminine’ needs, her tutors to teach her and the guards to protect her castle. But a sister? Somepony to grow up with her, to, well, become what she is today? They’d never even considered it until the day Illumination started showing.” Twilight’s face snapped to a frown.

“Wait, what?” Her blunt demand said it all to the smirking assassin.

“They’d been somewhat miserable and without forethought, and the day after it must have never occurred to them due to their shared misery, alongside the fact that they had an army to conduct and a burgeoning country to rule… Anyway, it was a while before Illumination became sluggish, became tired, and gradually a little more rotund, but she did all the same. Then, everypony figured out what had happened. Nocturnal, Faust and myself all demanded she finally stop exerting herself and after a while, she relented.” He grinned at the memory. “Well, it was more because she couldn’t trot around properly, and that she’d grown fond of Faust’s baking, but all the same…” he chuckled, Twilight finding herself unable to stop herself from giggling when she imagined somepony as graceful and regal Celestia or Luna struggling to waddle around.

“And, after a few major battle’s worth of loving time with her daughter, Princess Luna was born. Of course, this princess did make her word heard around the world” he said with a vaguely devious smile, remembering just how damn well loud that filly had screamed when she’d first entered this world. “And, after that, neither mother nor father saw their daughters much after Luna’s first hundredth birthday.” He glanced up to a gawking Twilight, astonished that they’d spend so long off of the battlefield, filly or no, and shrugged again. “Not too long a time for immortals” he tacked on offhoofledly. “Now, Nocturnal had never been for the whole second daughter idea to begin with, he loved her to be sure, don’t get me wrong, but he saw it as a tactical disadvantage…not to mention, his pride of ruling the night was only just matched by my pride as a whole” he muttered. “Anyway, despite a great amount of internal love for his offspring, he’d never been good at conveying it. He’d always been a little cold and distant around them. If they’d grown up around him, they’d have seen it to be sure, but…” again, he shrugged “well, Celestia had just turned what amounted to eleven years old and she’d warmed up to him much more than when she’d been younger, even with their sporadic visits, but Luna…well, she was too young to understand, and by the time she was old enough to understand, she didn’t care; the war had been going on for much longer than anypony had anticipated already, and to Luna, that war was just another part of her life, something natural. She’d had to grow up without her father around very often, so she came to…” he searched for the proper phrasing.

“Resent” Twilight offered. The assassin shook his head.

“Nah, there was still affection in their gazes, but…” he trailed off again “it just…wasn’t right. Love, but no friendship. They were close, but also incredibly distant” he tried to explain, scratching the back of his head, as fresh frown on his face. Twilight only nodded her head.

“I...I think I get it” she murmured, looking at her hooves. The assassin only shrugged.

“Well, in any case, that, far outside any nutshell, is why Luna had her training stars in here” he finished when he remembered what they’d been talking about. Twilight frowned with him.

“Yeah…we really got off topic there” she noted, a small smile on her face as she hopped off the bed. Blood Moon grunted.

“Just a sign of a successful conversation” he replied easily as they sat at one of the tables around his chambers. Twilight glanced absently out of one of the windows, her gaze meeting the training grounds towards the rear of the palace; she saw faint blobs that might have been ponies setting something up down there, what looked like an arena’s seating area being put up.

“What do you suppose they’re up to” she asked quietly as the assassin cracked his back in a few reliving spots. He looked over at what she was looking at and shrugged.

“Probably preparing for the fight later” he muttered. The purple mare frowned as she looked over at him.

“Huh? What fight” she asked as she watched him relax into their seat, his fore hooves behind his head as he closed his eyes.

“The one between me and the rest of Equestria” he replied in a laid back tone. Twilight blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice.

“What?” He opened an eye, frowning, and looked over.

“Yeah, when me and Celestia were in court yesterday, I decided to give them a release for all their pent up aggression against me.” Twilight stared, agape, and blinked again. “Didn’t I mention that?” She laughed shortly.

“Heh, no, no you didn’t” she informed, her eye twitching, a smile the assassin wasn’t comfortable with stretching across her face “hon, Blood Moon, when you say ‘the rest of Equestria’ do you mean…” They’d both stood by now, the assassin slowly backing away from his marefriend.

“Well, technically, it’s me and the rest of Equus, Equestria included” he answered uneasily. Twilight blinked once and seemed to calm down.

“Oh” she said pleasantly “ok” she said before she lunged for him. They rolled over each other, Twilight beating her hooves into the assassin’s head valiantly as he fended off her attacks. “YOU DUMMY” she screamed as she continuously hit him “YOU COMPLETE, UTTER, DUMMY” she screamed over and over. Her hoof met his jaw sharply and his head snapped to the side with the force, the dark stallion’s temper flaring for a brief second as he rolled with her next strike, taking her fore-leg in his hooves, standing, and twisting her to the floor in a lock.

“Twilight, calm down” he tried as she flailed in his grip; her horn flared and a bolt of purple magic flew at the Hunter, singing his mane slightly. Her horn sparked again and he released his lock, rolling away from her spell and coming up on his hooves, horn sparkling. “TWILIGHT” he roared as she sprang up, watching her snort heavily, a vein on her head pulsing.

“You…you…you…DUMMY” she roared back, a pulse of purple magic exploding from her as she raised her voice to impossibly loud volumes, the stallion covering his face from the blast of dust that went with it. “Why” she demanded “why would you do something like that” she growled.

“I-”

“SHUT UP” she cut off “I mean, you-you-you” she sat on her flank, gripping her mane and growling again. “First, you practically destroy Canterlot, then you almost kill my teacher, then you get yourself killed and now you’re going to fight each and every race on the face of Equus!?” He just nodded once. “You DUMMY” she shouted again “say it, you’re a dummy aren’t you! Say it!” He frowned.

“No.”

“Say it!”

“No!”

“Say. It!”

He blew a raspberry.

Twilight growled again and had to stop herself from lunging again.

“Just…why? Why would you do that” she asked, slowly deflating again. The assassin tried to approach her, only for Twilight to whip her head up to him and grow a little, gritting her teeth at him. Blood Moon felt incredibly motivated to back away a touch from his fuming marefriend.

“Well… It seemed like a good idea at the time?” Twilight took one look at his sheepish, almost apologetic face, feeling her mane tempt catching alight in her rage as he scratched the back of his mane. “Sorry” he tried as he grinned gently, offering her a hoof up. Twilight only felt the anger and frustration drain from her as fast as it had sparked up, her body deflating and relaxing against the assassin.

“Hehhh” she sighed, her head resting in the crook of his neck “you’re a dummy” she mumbled, defeated by the sheer disbelief that came crashing down on her with the weight of the assassin’s news.

Blood Moon only shrugged.

Author's Notes:

Sooo...

Yeah...

Where the hay have you been mister?

Well, my planet needed...you know what, nah, imma give it to you straight; put bluntly, my sister moved back in after a while and a few kids away, commandeered my usual writing space to, well, live in and I just haven't had the time to sit down and write this thing, despite really wanting to whenever I can get the chance. I'm aware that this is a paltry chapter for how long I've been gone, and I'm also gonna say that It might be another long while (hopefully not as long as last time) before another chapter comes out, and with the first, er, bit of The Assassin's Song having been reviewed (check it out, somewhere in the comments) I'll be going back to revamp my earlier chapters, like actually rewrite them. So maybe look forward to that. Anyway, Pinkie's pouting at me now so I better get gone

Productive -and Pinkie Pie!- Faffer out