I am certainly no stranger to taking on more than I can handle, but most of the time I always had a way out or someone that could come help me with whatever problems I was attempting to solve. There are however a few occasions when all you can do is to face the music and admit that you were overambitious. What’s important to remember in such situations is that no matter how embarrassing it might feel you will without a doubt survive it, and who knows? Perhaps you might actually learn something from the whole ordeal.

To say that Berry was less than pleased with how I had skipped work for about a week without any prior any notice would be the understatement of the century. I had come there with my set on the possibility of being fired on the spot, and for a while that had seemed to be the truth I was about to face. But then the steam and anger had just seemed to vanish from Berry, and she had asked me to explain my actions. Needless to say I had tried my best to explain just what I had been doing and the more I talked the more the feeling of shame grew inside of me. After all I had completely neglected some very basic courtesies you’d normally be expected to make.

When I finished my summary of what I had been doing Berry’s features held an unreadable expression. It wasn’t until she finally spoke that I understood just what she was feeling.

“In all honesty Cloud I should fire you for that,” She told me in a disappointed voice that cut deeper than her previous ire.

I let out a short sigh, as the shame I felt continued to grow inside me. “I understand Berry, all I can say is that I’m sorry and that it was nice working for you while it lasted,” I said extending my hand to offer a shake.

To my surprise though Berry pushed aside my hand before she spoke again. “If only it was that simple,” She muttered.

That statement confused me. “What do you mean? I acted like an idiot so I get fired, there’s nothing complicated about that,”

Berry fixed my gaze with one of her own, a steely glint making its way into her raspberry eyes. “Yes Cloud, there is. Take a second to imagine what would happen if I were to fire Princess Celestia’s coltfirend, Princess Luna’s best friend, friend to Princess Twilight and close friend to the rest of the Elements of harmony,”

I opened my mouth but couldn’t find my voice. I felt weird, what Berry said probably held more than an ounce of truth but that didn’t mean that it sat right with me. When I found my voice again a moment later I wasn’t slow to put my objections into words. “But that is complete garbage! Why should I get special treatment just because I’m dating Celestia?!”

“And what would you have me do Cloud? Fire you and risk having every tabloid in Equestria reporting on it? It would quite possibly ruin my entire business if the fallout is bad enough,” She challenged, the frustration shining through clearly in her voice.

“I don’t know. I just… it doesn’t feel right, that I get a free pass just because I’m involved with important people,” I replied lamely.

Berry held her steely gaze on me for a few seconds before finally letting out a sigh. “That’s the truth of the situation though, all I can and will do is dock your pay for the week you weren’t here,”

“As is more than right,” I agreed with her. “However as I said before it doesn’t feel right that get special treatment, if you can’t fire me I could quit,” I suggested.

Berry gave me a stern gaze that made me wonder what kind of misstep I had just made. “Don’t make this more awkward than it already is Cloud! Do you want to lose your job here?” She exclaimed.

“Of course I don’t, but I-” I tried but was interrupted by Berry.

“Then nothing, my decision has been made for me and I’d rather put this whole ordeal behind me,” She all but growled.

I raised a finger as I drew breath to protest, but Berry cut in once again. “I thought I said to not make this anymore awkward than it is! Now go home so that you can cover the shift you’re supposed to work tomorrow,” She said with finality.

All I could do was nod and accept my situation as I found my way out of the diner. Well outside I looked sky ward wondering just how far my luck would carry me, because at the moment I felt most undeserving of the treatment I was being subjected to. What had started out as a rather pleasant morning at Rarity’s boutique had taken a rather harsh turn and I feared that the more recent incident would color my mood for the remainder of the day. Truth be told, I would’ve wanted nothing more than to stay and apologize some more but I had to agree with Berry’s statement that the situation was awkward enough already.

My meeting with Berry had reminded me of something else I had put off though. When Twilight and I had gone to acquire Rainbow’s weather schedules and to apologize for waking her up in the middle of the night I had decided to offer her a revised training regimen the next time I found her. In other words I had planned to introduce one day of training her in how to wield a staff properly. Hopefully she will accept this idea as an additional apology for my actions. I thought to myself as I took to the air to search for Equestria’s fastest pegasus.

The remaining days of the week went by surprisingly fast and was filled to the brim with activity. So when the weekend finally came around I was happy to actually get a chance to relax. Now while I say filled with activity it was more a sense of me surviving the, as predicted, awkward atmosphere at Berry’s diner during the day coupled with research and practice of my conductivity ability at Twilight’s during the evenings. That alone left me tired to my core, leaving me to only wanting to go hide under the blankets of my bed and let sleep claim me. I had however struck a standing deal with Rainbow to train her in bipedal Karate and was now in addition to that training her in the art of the staff. In other words every other day of the week I also had to come home to a super hyped pegasus that was intent of pushing herself and me to our physical limits.

Now it may sound as if I was complaining about my current lot in life but I’d say that was only a truth with a rather major modification. While the busy days certainly were draining I was enjoying myself. And so I actually felt like I had earned some rest this weekend as I pushed open the door to my home, heading straight for the kitchen to prepare a quick snack. Seeing no real reason to be tidy in my own home I discarded pieces of my garments as I moved through my home until I was only wearing one of my tank-tops and a pair of the pants Rarity had made for me. Opening the fridge to see what I had available I opted to just grab a tangerine to satisfy my immediate need for energy. I walked back over to my couch and sat down in front of the laptop I used to control the music system and with few quick clicks music filled my home. With a content sigh I leaned back and started to lazily peel the tangerine.

A flash of magic caused me to blink, and stop peeling for a split second as Luna appeared in front of me. Her head darted around wildly before finally settling on me. “If sister drops by I’m not here,” She stressed before rushing of to hide in my training room.

Starting to countdown from five in my head I let out another sigh and as I reached zero another flash signaled the arrival of my marefriend. “Has my sister come through here Cloud?” She asked the moment her eyes found me.

I let out the third sigh in a very short timespan as I pointed a thumb towards my training room. “Thanks Cloud,” She said warmly giving me a quick peck on the cheek before stalking off towards my training room.

“Oh sister dearest come out, come out,” She purred as she entered the room.

I finished peeling my tangerine just in time to hear Luna cry out in the royal canterlock voice. “Cloud you tartarus damned traitor!” Causing me to chuckle to myself.

I popped a piece of fruit into my mouth and was simply enjoying the sound of the two royal sisters arguing over what I thought was night court duties when a light tapping from my front door caught my attention. Putting what was left of the tangerine onto my coffee table I rose from my comfortable position and walked over to the door. Pushing said door open revealed a pony I hadn’t spoken to in quite some time, namely Bonbon.

Unable to stop myself I felt my eyes widen in surprise, last thing that I had heard was that she was still avoiding me due to my relationship with Celestia. “Hi Cloud, do you have a moment to talk?” She asked sounding surprisingly calm for someone that had been avoiding me for the better part of a month.

I shook my head slightly to end my surprised stupor. “Sure, I have time for a moment or two, what do you need?”

“Well I was wondering if you could just come with me for a second or two, I’d like-” She began but was interrupted by Luna using the royal canterlock once again.

“Huzzah! You can’t catch me sister, thine flanks are much too heavy!”

I turned my head to look over my shoulder just in time to see Luna shoot out of my training room and up the stairs to the second floor and a moment later Tia followed while crying bloody murder. When I looked back down towards Bonbon I found the mare running away quickly, disappearing down the makeshift staircase of floating stones before my mind caught up with what was happening.

“Bonbon wait!” I called out as I rushed after her.

I thought I saw a greenish flash of light from below the edge of my floating island, but when I reached the floating stones that made up the makeshift staircase Bonbon was nowhere to be seen. Nor was anyone else for that matter, so scratching the back of my head in confusion I looked around to immediate area to see where she could’ve possibly gone. When I found nothing I headed back to my home only to find the two most important figures in Equestria wrestling back and forth on my living room floor.

Oh for crying out loud… I complained to myself before whistling loudly to catch their attention. The effect was the two alicorns shooting up into a sitting position looking around in a bewildered fashion, most likely trying to figure out what had caused the shrill sound. Almost at the same time their respective gazes found me and my less than impressed expression, raised eyebrow and all.

“Ehehehe…” A nervous or perhaps embarrassed laughter rang out from both princesses before they noticed that both of them were doing it. Instead they quickly quieted themselves and settled into glaring at each other instead.

I cleared my throat loudly to make them focus on me again. “Okay, would the two of you please tell me what all this is about?”

Celestia was first to speak. “Well somepony doesn’t want to run night court,” She said, shooting Luna a meaningful glance.

Luna harrumphed loudly before muttering to herself. “It’s not like anypony goes there on the weekends anyway,”

Celestia was quick to reply but I interrupted her before she could say much. “Now that’s sim-”

“Enough out of the both of you. Now I’m not going to pretend that I understand Equestrian politics but Luna has been visiting here quite a lot in the past and so have you Tia so why is it a problem now?”

Celestia said something too quietly for me to hear. “What was that Tia? You need to speak up,” I told her.

She sighed. “I said that it doesn’t really fulfill a purpose but tradition states that we as princesses should be available to the general public during the hours we hold court,”

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. “Since when did you care so much about traditions Tia? I understand that you’re feeling a bit upset at your sister but if the situation is as Luna describes there’s no point of her actually being there, right?”

Celestia frowned slightly. “Are you taking her side?” She said, a strangely aggressive tone had slipped into her voice.

My eyes widened slightly. “I’m on nobody’s side, but I’m trying to understand why you can’t simply put up a spell or something to alert you if a potential petitioner was to approach,” I said, trying to disarm the situation best I could. On the inside though I was mostly trying to make sense of why Celestia was acting so strangely.

Though before I could draw any conclusions Luna spoke up. “See sister, Cloud makes perfect sense,”

Celestia just glared at her before turning to glare at me. “Hmpf, fine take her side instead of mine see if I care,” She declared angrily.

“Come on Tia, you’re hardly being fai-” I started but was interrupted by the flash of Celestia teleporting away.

I was left with a flabbergasted expression plastered on my face. Did we just have our first real nonsensical fight? I wondered as I slowly turned my head to look at Luna. “Care to tell me what the hell all that was about?”

Luna refused to meet my gaze, instead opting to stare to my left while she rubbed the back of her head nervously with a hoof. “Well… I may have neglected dealing with the nobles over the week while Tia was busy dealing with the visiting Minos politicians…” She trailed off.

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. “So if I’m understanding this correctly, Tia wasn’t frustrated about just tonight but the entire week?” I asked the lunar alicorn.

Luna’s eyes flickered to my face for a second before she gave a murmuring answer. “Yes, I may have neglected a few key points,”

“Right… So now Tia is pissed off at me and we had something akin to a completely unnecessary fight because of this,” I commented tiredly.

“I wouldn’t say pissed off,” Luna began but silenced herself when I shot her a glare of my own.

A moment later I dropped the glare and spoke instead. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen I’m going to train a bit to clear my mind and to give Tia a moment to cool off. After that you’re teleporting the both of us to the castle so we can discuss this like adults,”

Luna held a defeated expression. “Understood Cloud,” She said, sounding very different from the princess I’d come to know.

If I thought about it I’d probably have noticed that Luna had slowly started to become more and relaxed around me over the months she had spent visiting my home. What I had witnessed this evening was nothing but the two royal sisters without the masks they displayed towards the world, but such realizations didn’t come to me until later. Instead I marched off towards my bedroom to change into a set of clothes more suited for training.

After having changed clothes I had moved into the training room and had after a quick warm up started to run through a couple of more advanced katas. The main reason being what I had told Luna, I simply wanted to clear my own mind and what better way to do that than to let muscle memory take over. So for probably twenty minutes my world was one of strict focus and movement that had been ingrained through years of practice. There was a strangely calming quality to performing what I had once struggled to learn with the skill I had today. At the same time it was humbling knowing that I would never perfect it, especially now that I was slowly creating a completely new style of karate that would allow me to incorporate my wings. Though I had lots of work left to do before I could truly call it a style of my own, so for now I took solace within the techniques of the original style I’d been taught.

With a final burst of motion I performed the last technique of the current kata, freezing in place as my gaze was fixed were the imaginary opponent I had just defeated lay. Then ever so slowly I returned to the opening stance, bringing the kata to a close. I narrowed my stance and brought my heels together before bowing, paying my respects to all who practiced this before me and improved on the techniques. As I straightened up again I caught the sound of clapping and turned towards the sound only to find Luna sitting in the doorway, clapping her front hooves together.

“That was a most excellent display of concentration Cloud,” She praised, seemingly having collected herself from the embarrassment she appeared to feel a short while ago.

“Thanks Luna,” I said as I walked over to a small towel I had brought with me, starting to wipe of the light layer of sweat I had produced.

As I put down the towel and instead reached for the water bottle I’d brought I heard Luna move over to me, hooves on hardwood floor makes it tough to be quiet. “I just want to say that I’m sorry to have dragged you into my little mess Cloud, I never imagined that this would happen,” She offered sincerely.

I turned my head to look at her. “I understand Luna, but it wasn’t exactly fair towards me. I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t make me a bit frustrated,”

Luna hung her head. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t think the situation would fall apart so fast,” She murmured.

I kept observing the remorseful alicorn when an idea struck me. A crazy idea, something I had never tried before but suddenly felt a strong urge to test out. “Hey Luna, if you’re really sorry would you mind doing me a favor?”

Luna’s head shot up and her hopeful eyes met mine. “Anything!” She exclaimed.

“Well, would you mind sparring with me before we teleport to Canterlot?” I asked her, tilting my head slightly to the side.

Luna recoiled slightly, clearly not having expected my request. “I… well… you see… I don’t know Cloud, have you ever sparred against an alicorn before? We don’t exactly follow the standards of a regular pony,”

“Don’t worry Luna it’ll just be a way to clear both of our heads. Just a friendly bout of competition is all,” I tried to calm the lunar princess.

“Oh, alright then. We’ll have a sparring match. Just let me warm up my limbs a bit,” Luna agreed after a few seconds of pondering.

Just what have I agreed to? She wondered idly as she stretched her limbs. She knew that Cloud was a formidable fighter but against an alicorn she doubted he’d be able to do much. But she had decided to humor his request since she definitely felt that she owed him that much. Despite that though she knew that she was faster and stronger than Cloud so she would need to tone down her strength to a level where they would be somewhat evenly matched. I just need to figure out what level that is. She thought as she finished stretching her wings. The only time she had actively observed one of Cloud’s fights had been the one where he fought her two personal guards. I guess I’ll use that as a rough starting point. She finally decided as she ran a final check of her limbs.

Feeling satisfied with her warm up she called out to Cloud who had been shadowboxing to keep from cooling down too much. “Okay Cloud I’m ready, what rules will we be using?”

Cloud stopped moving and looked over towards her. “Aight, I thought something not overly complex would be best so,” He made a small pause to inhale. “What we’ll be doing is four rounds of three minutes each with sixty seconds of rest between the rounds, sound good?”

That seemed like an agreeable setup but she had two questions. “Are there no victory conditions? And are there any limitations to what is allowed?”

Cloud adopted a thoughtful look for a moment before answering. “Naa, no victory conditions except perhaps a knockout, oh and that should tell you what you need to know about what’s allowed,” He said with a grin.

Too late to back out now. She thought when she heard Cloud’s plan for a sparring match. “One last question who will keep track of time?” She asked.

Shooting her a grin Cloud walked over to a digital clock of some sort. “Way ahead of you princess,” He said as he fiddled with the clock and a moment later a beep rang out from the clock.

Cloud hurried over to stand in front of Luna. “Okay get ready, when the long beep sounds the first round starts,” He called out, a grin finding its way onto his face.

Okay that’s simple enough. She thought as she lowered herself into a ready stance. Five more short beeps sounded before the long beep Cloud had mentioned finally rang out and in an instant Cloud crossed the distance between them. Her eyes widened slightly as she felt her body start to react to the rapidly approaching fist. A moment later though one of her wings shot forward, deftly diverting the whip like strike from Cloud and masking the fact that she had almost been taken by surprise. She retaliated by striking at Cloud’s left shoulder, grazing it slightly as she forced the human to retreat backwards. Fool! She berated herself. When he had fought against her guards it had been a two on one fight and this time Cloud didn’t have to watch his back.

Before she had time think further Cloud shot forward again, striking twice with those long arms of his only to follow up with a pair of fast kicks from his right leg when she tried to retreat out of his reach. The last kick grazed her neck slightly as she moved backwards while trying to find a good level to spar at.

“One for one Luna,” Cloud called out tauntingly as he kept dancing back and forth on the spot.

Despite her better judgement a small spark of competitiveness ignited somewhere inside Luna, she would show him that she could match anything he could possibly throw at her without having to get serious. Grinning to herself she pushed herself forward faster than Cloud had in his first attack, causing his eyes to widen at the quickly approaching promise of violence.
The human quickly leapt into action, avoiding whatever blows he could while attempting to block or divert those he couldn’t. Yet despite his considerable skill he couldn’t quite keep up with the level Luna had set and ended up taking three hits to the left thigh, left shoulder and abdomen, the last causing him to grunt a bit. For second Luna thought she had overdone it but in the next second Cloud’s eyes met hers and told her all that she needed know. What she saw was excitement and some sort of mirth that she couldn’t quite place. What she hadn’t expected though was for Cloud to use the small window after her assault to instantly counter attack. Soon she found herself avoiding a flurry of blows but this time none of them would even graze her. So instead of continuing to avoid she countered, slipping past Cloud’s defense only to stop mid attack as a another long beep signaled the end of the first round, her hoof hoovering a mere centimeter form Cloud’s face.

A shocked expression was visible on Cloud’s face but it slowly morphed back into a grin. “Damn Luna, I had my suspicions but didn’t think you were this strong,” He commented as he stretched out a couple of kinks.

“I’ve just begun young Cloud,” She promised, returning his grin.

“That’s what I wanna hear,” He boasted undeterred, using a hand to wipe some sweat off his brow before settling into a ready stance again.

His confidence again struck something within Luna, fanning the already smoldering pyre of competition within her. She settled into her own ready stance and before long the clock started beeping again, counting down the remaining seconds for round two. As the long beep rang out signaling the second rounds start Cloud shot forward again. A flurry of strikes rained down upon Luna and all she could do was fall back to weather the assault. By Tartarus! Did he evolve as a fighter during our last bout or did he hold back in the first round? She wondered as she dodged and weaved while looking for a way to counter attack. There. Her mind cried out as an opening in Cloud’s offense finally showed itself, wasting no time she instantly switched to attack and dove forward to strike at the spot Cloud had left open. Only for her head to snap back in the next second as Cloud’s knee collided with her chin.

She stumbled backwards, more due to surprise rather than actual pain. A part of her was very happy that she was in fact an alicorn and not a normal pony as any normal pony would’ve been out cold after taking such a hit. What in the? Was all that just a ruse? She wondered as her mind tried to reevaluate what she knew about Cloud as a fighter. It was becoming increasingly clear that Cloud was indeed much more skilled than he had been back when he fought her guards. I guess I need to step it up even further. She reasoned as she readied herself for the follow up attack. An attack that came just as fast as the previous barrage in the form of a low kick aimed at her fore hooves. She effectively danced to the side while countering mush faster than she had before. Surprisingly Cloud managed to track her movements and was able to block her counter, although barely.

Her eyes met with Cloud’s for a brief moment and all she could see was a predatory glee that she had described as mirth earlier. How was she so certain now? Well for one she was feeling the exact same glee as she hoped back to create some distance between them. Cloud would have none of that it seemed though as he matched her current speed, although again barely. She continued to block his onslaught of attacks, a wide variety of punches and kicks, while taking every opportunity she saw to counter. Though it slowly started to become apparent that she was indeed still faster than Cloud. Alicorn beats human. She thought gleefully as she kept her own level just above Cloud’s speed. Although I have to say that I’m impressed, if he pushed me any harder I’d eventually have to get serious. She mentally applauded her young sparring partner.

Dashing forward she aimed a strike towards his head which he managed to block with relative ease, but she wasn’t done there. No, it was her turn to go on the offensive. With growl she followed up the first strike with a mass of attacks just as unrelenting as Cloud’s earlier attacks had been. The difference in speed meant that he couldn’t duplicate her feat of avoiding or blocking everything though, but he was certainly not taking any decisive hits. She pushed him even harder, adding more speed to her attacks but impossibly enough Cloud kept up. Another chance meeting of their eyes almost caused her to flinch. Gone were the eyes filled with glee and in their place were two orbs devoid of emotion. Suddenly she became acutely aware of something building in the air and in with a strange flash Cloud jumped into the air with a speed almost too fast for her to track. In midair he turned, his leg shooting out towards her in a flying roundhouse kick. She felt her body start react to the impending assault like it would in a real life scenario. Her eyes widened slowly as her mind struggled to catch up with the impulses that flowed throughout her body. But despite her best efforts to stop, her body reacted just like countless battles in the past had taught it to. She reared onto her fore hooves and pivoted as both of her rear hooves shot out, catching Cloud mid-air with enough force to send him flying into the nearest wall with a dull thud.

“Oh no. oh no, oh no!” She cried out as she rushed over to the slumped over form of Cloud. Please don’t be dead, Tia will kill me! She lamented to herself, completely forgetting the fact that for a second Cloud had made her become serious.

I felt great, Luna was clearly the better fighter and was pressuring me hard but I still felt great. It was as if everything just seemed to click, I could see her attacks and I could keep up with my defense. But every time I thought I had her she just increased her speed again, forcing me to push myself even harder. And somehow my body responded to my urge, slowly everything but the contest melted away. I needed to be faster, I needed focus, I needed to win. She increased her speed again and I was forced to push harder yet again, and at the edge of my consciousness I could feel something, something familiar but I paid no heed. Then I saw it, an opening in Luna’s defense and so I jumped. Everything slowed for a second as my jump carried me over Luna, my right leg going through the motions of a flying roundhouse. But then Luna moved as if moving in real time compared to my sense of slow motion. With a powerful buck she kicked me out of the, the initial kick driving the air out of my lungs before the feeling of me hitting the wall behind me caused the world to go dark for me.

The next thing I knew was a, faint, muffled sound. “…oud, …loud, Cloud, Cloud!” My eyes shot open and almost immediately closed again as a dull pain shot through my chest, causing me to groan.

“Oh thank the Stars, you’re alive Cloud!” Luna’s voice cried out, sounding incredibly relieved.

I opened my eyes carefully again and almost recoiled, seeing how Luna’s worried face was relatively close to mine. “How many fingers am I holding up Cloud?” She questioned, shoving a hoof in my face.

“You don’t have fingers Luna,” I deadpanned before forcing myself to sit up, another pained groan escaping me as I did.

“So, how do you feel Cloud?” She asked hesitantly.

“Like I was hit by a truck,” I replied as I carefully pulled up my tank top to reveal the massive bruise across my chest. No wonder my breathing feels a bit labored. I thought idly as took the damage Luna’s buck had caused.

“I… eh… I’m sorry Cloud I didn’t mean to get so into it. Nothing is broken anymore but I-” She started to almost stumble over her words before I raised a hand to stop her.

I gave her something between a grin and a grimace. “Come on Luna don’t be like that I was the one dumb enough to ask for this,” I told her, chuckling slightly only to wince almost instantly as another dull pain spike shot through me.

Luna looked a bit relieved by the fact that I was well enough to joke about it but still rather worried. “Can I at least offer a pain relieving spell? At least until you can have a doctor take a look at you,”

I nodded. “I’ll gladly take the painkiller spell or whatever it’s called but after that we’re going to Canterlot to talk to Tia,”

A panicked expression flashed across Luna’s face before she hung her head in defeat. “Okay Cloud, we’ll do it your way,”

Luna charged a spell with her horn before gently using it to touch my chest. The effects were almost instantaneous as the dull pain subsided and my breathing grew easier. I carefully used my right hand to apply some light pressure on my chest, discovering that it still felt incredibly sore and painful if I touched it but I should have no problem moving around if I was careful. Happy with the results I stood up slowly, waiting for Luna to scramble onto her hooves as well.

“Well then let us be off,” Luna announced, lighting her horn once more and in a flash of light my training room disappeared.

I blinked repeatedly, trying to get the after image from the flash to fade from my retinas and to actually see where I was. As my vision started to return I started to notice the night themed décor in dark blues, purples and silver. Yep, definitely Luna’s quarters. I thought to myself as I took in the view. It was certainly an extravagant room and had my business not been elsewhere I wouldn’t have minded to admire and explore it a bit. Instead I walked over to the large double doors that I assumed lead out into the rest of the castle and pushed them open, startling the two bat ponies currently on guard. I was about to march of towards Celestia’s quarters when a realization struck me, I had no idea how I would get there from this part of the castle.

I turned back towards the room I had just come out of to find Luna watching me with a bemused expression. “Uh, how do I get to Celestia’s quarters from here?”

Luna’s expression devolved into an amused snort, which I let her have. After all I preferred this Luna over worried Luna. Once she collected herself she walked up beside me. “Just follow me and I’ll take you there right now,” She told me, motioning with a wing for me to follow.

I fell in behind her as she started to lead me through the many corridors of Canterlot castle, leaving behind the two confused guards.

The two of us walked in relative silence, the only sounds being those of my bare feet and Luna’s hooves on the marble floors. It didn’t take long for us to enter a familiar hallway though where two of Celestia’s guards stood posted outside a second set of large doors. I had been in this hall once before as a human, although be it briefly. As I had spent that time running from a, at the time, frustrated alicorn. Hopefully it won’t turn out like that this time. I prayed to myself as I walked up to the door.

The eyes of the guards widened ever so slightly before they crossed their spears in front of me. “Halt, the princess wants to see nopony toni-” One of the two started to say, but shrunk back quickly as he received a withering glare from Luna.

I nodded my thanks to her before turning my attention back to the large double door and reaching out to knock loudly three times. “I thought I said I didn’t want to be disturbed tonight!” Celestia’s voice rang out slightly muffled from behind the large door.

“Well I’m coming in anyway!” I shouted back, pushing open the door before she had time reply.

My eyes found her almost instantly as she lay on her bed, wearing a surprised expression and if the slight red tinge around her eyes was any tell she had been crying recently. “Cloud? What are you doing here?”

“Coming over to talk things through like an adult, what else?” I said, walking over to her before sitting down beside her.

“But I was so mad, I thought I had-” She started to babble only for me to put a finger on her lips.

“So what?” I asked, making her turn her to me.

I looked into her beautiful eyes. “You were mad yeah but, so what? It’s not like there’s never misunderstanding or heated feelings in a relationship. And if it doesn’t survive a bit of stormy weather would it really be worth keeping?” I reasoned.

A soft smile formed on her lips. “How do you do that? How can you just reset it all back to good again with a few words?”

I returned her smile. “The same way you do it. If I recall correctly your words have helped me through stupid things I’ve done in the past too,”

She blinked as my words seemed to spark her memory. “Well for what it’s worth sorry for this time,”

I put an arm around her graceful neck and gave her a soft one armed hug. “No need to apologize either Tia. We’re only human after all. Er, alicorn? Pony?” I said, eliciting crystal clear giggle from her that sent shivers down my spine.

“So much for being eloquent, eh?” I said with a grin on my face.

“Oh shut up and kiss me!” She exclaimed before pressing her soft lips against mine, taking me slightly by surprise. It didn’t take long before I reciprocated the kiss, briefly inviting her tongue into my mouth before we separated. A thin string of saliva connected our mouths before it snapped.

For a few seconds we stared into each other’s eyes completely lost to the world until a cough rudely brought us back. “While I’m happy that you two made up, I’d like to have a chance to offer my apologies too before this gets any more heated,” Luna declared, reminding me that she had probably witnessed our entire interaction. A quick glance towards the doors told me that at least the guards hadn’t seen anything since Luna had closed them behind her. That didn’t stop mine or Celestia’s cheeks from turning bright red though.

Luna gave us a knowing smirk before turning serious once more. “Well I shan’t be long, I wish to apologize sister for my behavior this evening and hope that we can talk it through tomorrow?”

“Apology accepted Luna and that sounds like a wonderful idea,” Celestia agreed, somehow avoiding to sound flustered.

“Then I bid you two good night,” Luna declared before teleporting out of the room.

A few moments of silence reigned before I spoke up. “Well, that was a thing,”

A small giggle escaped Celestia. “It sure was, now where were we?”

I let a hand trace along her slender neck. “Oh I think we were somewhere down this path,” I whispered in her ear as I leaned in closer to give it a soft nibble.

My marefriend let out an intoxicating low moan at my sudden attack on her sensitive ears and before I could react she had tackled me down onto the bed, causing to give a yelp in surprise and pain as she put her full weight on my chest.

A worried look flashed across her face as she quickly sat up again. “What’s wrong?”

“Calm down Tia, it’s just a recent sparring injury,” I said, leaving out just how recent it was.

Worry still played across her face. “Show me,” She demanded.

Seeing no way or reason to deny her I carefully removed my tank top, causing her to gasp slightly as she saw the bruising. “Oh you poor thing,” She exclaimed before adding in a much sultrier tone. “I guess I have to kiss it to make it all better,”

Author's Notes:

Well here's the overdue chapter 30. I had this chapter planned out for a long time and then I just kept adding to it and hopefully it turned into something enjoyable. I really don't have much more to say except to give you the preliminary title for the next chapter, Three surprises

Until next time, have a good one.