It was nice and quiet, the room was warm enough to be cozy, but not enough to cause any sweat. Kamina rolled over and buried his face into the pillow, only to stop when he heard it rip, and he sighed. 'Damn horn...really awesome, but a horrible killer of pillows.' He decided he'd rather not lay there with his horn impaling a poor, innocent pillow, and pulled his horn out before he sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?”

“About ten in the morning, two days later.” His mother's voice intoned, and Kamina jolted awake and turned to her, seeing her sitting next to his bed, which he noticed was in the Golden Oaks Library's private loft. “Good morning son.” She was prepared for him lunging at her and hugging her neck.

“Mom! I thought...I...wait...two days? The last thing I remember...is everyone alright?” Kamina asked after he recollected what he did just before blacking out.

“Yes, everyone is fine. I arrived at the scene of the final confrontation moments after the explosion. You were the worst off besides Twilight and Spike.” Kamina gasped and was about to rush off, but she held him still with her telekinesis. “Calm down son; they're fine.”

“What was wrong with us? I don't remember what happened after the explosion.” Kamina wanted to know exactly how he and Twilight were hurt especially; he wanted to make sure to refine their combined technique if it was their Giga Drill Breaker that hurt them.

“Your horn was extremely overtaxed, it was so hot the doctors had to use numerous salves, spells and ice packs to get it down to normal. Twilight was a bit more complicated, beings she was stuck in her Elemental Shift when she passed out. It was hard to tell if she was really ok beings her body temperature was literally as hot as a weak fire, but she woke up and was able to revert to her normal state. I had no clue she was practicing her abilities in secret...but that would explain how that gazebo burnt down when she was stood up for that date a couple years ago....” Celestia mused, and Kamina sighed.

“What about my little bro? He didn't do anything against Nightmare, but he looked haggard when he got to the ruins.” Kamina made a mental note to talk to Twilight more about her abilities, especially since in that form she was both literally and figuratively hot as sin, yet she could use her mane like Nightmare could to interact with things without harming them too. Kamina touched his cheek, remembering when she caressed him in worry with her mane.

“Spike had participated heavily in a lot of the fighting it took Twilight and her new friends to reach my old castle. However, he's still young, and he had also never used his dragonfire to attack before, so he'd strained his flame sac to near rupture. He'll be taken off his delivery duties for a week to ensure he heals properly.” Celestia informed him, making Kamina sigh in relief.

“Thank goodness everything turned out the way it did. It was almost like it was planned.” Kamina idly stated, making Celestia flinch, and he frowned as he looked at her critically, making her nervous. “You planned for all of this, didn't you ma?” Kamina asked with a hint of anger, and she looked incredibly sad at his accusation.

“Sadly...yes. I planned for nearly everything...well, save you.” Celestia reached her right hoof towards his cheek, and he pulled away while glaring at her, making her feel terrible. “Son...I know you hate ponies who manipulate others to their ends, but this was the only way I could ensure everything would turn out alright without forcing martial law on Equestria to prepare for Nightmare's arrival, and that wouldn't have ended well; only the Elements of Harmony could have saved my sister. This way there were no deaths...this time. Just as I had hoped.”

“You nearly got those poor mares killed!” Kamina bolted to his hooves, and leered directly into Celestia's saddened gaze. “They had no idea that this would happen! No preparation outside Twilight's last-second discovery! No prior experiences that could even suggest they were fit for the task, and you threw them into the lion's den!”

“I know...and it is inexcusable, but I saw no other choice. They were the only ones who could have wielded the Elements in this generation; when they were actually needed.” Celestia's ears were folded back, and she looked down at the floor. Kamina, however, wasn't going to drop it there.

“So how many of them actually led their own lives?” Celestia cringed, and Kamina grit his teeth. “Was Twilight just GROOMED for this?! Did Applejack find herself conveniently “stuck” in Ponyville when you discovered her? How about Rainbow Dash? That mare could be a Wonderbolt by now; but instead she's just a weather pony for a small town. Did Rarity decide to set up shop here on her own? Where her dresses would mostly be considered by ponies who couldn't regularly afford the FABRIC they're made from?! The Pie Family don't live outside their rock farms normally, so how did Pinkie end up here? And Fluttershy, my goodness, there must be safer places for such a gentle mare to work her talent than on the border of the Everfree!” Kamina shouted, him knowing these things from talking to them at the party Pinkie threw for them, and Celestia let a few tears drip down her muzzle and onto the bed.

“Yes...I...I trapped them here. I kept them in Ponyville; knowing it would be where Nightmare would return. Applejack frequently wanted to try working with her relatives on their farms, but I kept an ear to the ground, and ensured that something would come up, something would keep her here, until her own duties over her inherited farm would keep her here. I had the Wonderbolts screen Rainbow Dash out of their applications, and ensured that she'd be able to get a good job here when all the places she tried in Cloudsdale “weren't hiring”. Rarity's parents lived here already, it wasn't hard to make any attempt to move to Canterlot or other big cities like Manehattan too expensive for her by falsifying quotes with real-estate agencies. Pinkie Pie was simple; I granted a stipend to the Cakes to help them through a hard time, under the condition that they took their niece Pinkie in, I didn't tell them why, and I also told them not to mention it to anypony. Finally, gentle Fluttershy was a bit difficult, beings her parents were so protective of her...I ended up having to have the doctor they took her to on a regular basis declare she wasn't healthy enough for living in the clouds, so they helped her move here where they were “suggested” would be a good place....”

Celestia sniffed as she looked at Kamina to see his disgust, but she wasn't done. “I also ensured that they would meet. I subtly arranged agents in Ponyville to get the five mares to end up meeting in some way, and become friends. I tended to Twilight personally, I even tried to get her to make friends on a regular basis, but, that didn't improve until you happened along.” Celestia smiled sadly at Kamina, who was still livid, but couldn't ignore just how much it hurt her to do all of this. “Honestly, I don't think this would have worked if you hadn't been there, if you hadn't already started Twilight on the path of friendship.”

“So in the end, you used me too.” Kamina leered at her, making her close her eyes and nod sadly. “I can't forgive you for this...have you told them?” She morosely shook her head, and he growled. “I refuse to forgive you until you tell them. Tell them individually, or all at once, but until you tell them all; I won't let this go.” Kamina stood up, and jumped out of bed, but stopped at the door to look back at her. “I won't call you mom again until you fix this. Nopony deserves to have their life lived for them before they can even think of living for themselves.” Kamina left and slammed the door behind him, leaving a poor old mare with a broken heart, and a pained conscience.

===//////>

Kamina took a long shower, letting the cold water drench him thoroughly as he reflected on his explosion with his mother, and felt that while harsh, it was still true. What she'd done was no different than what Genome did with humanity, but with far less grand and harsh ambitions and execution. This also had the effect of poisoning his view of Ponyville; it being analogous to Jeeha Village now in a way, beings it was a trap, a cage. A gilded one, but a cage nonetheless. For all he knew; Celestia planned for the town specifically for this purpose, beings in his lessons he'd learned that Ponyville was a very new town, being founded only several decades ago.

After the water began to become irritating, Kamina dried himself off, and trotted down the stairs, to smile at the sight of Twilight; even if in her normal form her mane and tail seemed to naturally billow slightly now, like it remembered it used to be fire. “Twilight!” Kamina's call made the mare jump up from the table she was sitting at, and spin around to beam at him.

“Kamina!” Twilight squealed as she leaped at her friend, and hugged him around the neck with both forelegs. “I'm so glad to see you awake! Severe magic exhaustion can take weeks to recover from!” She nuzzled his cheek happily, and Kamina gently contained a soft laugh as he hugged her back with a single foreleg.

“I'm glad to see you're ok Twilight. Hey, I didn't think of this until now, but why am I here and not in some stuffy hospital?” Kamina finally had the sense to ask, beings he was too angry with Celestia to have asked her when he caught her out.

“Oh, Princess Celestia had you moved here after you were stable. There wasn't any need for you to take up a bed in the hospital when it was clear you'd be alright.” Twilight just now noticed she was still hugging him, and her face was so, so close to his, but she didn't get embarrassed. “Hey...Kamina?”

“Yeah Twilight?” Kamina asked, quietly enjoying her minty breath from her good dental hygiene.

“Which do you think is hotter?” She decided to tease him, and shifted into her flaming elemental form. “My normal look, or this?” Kamina's eyes widened as he looked into her red eyes, which matched his, and her mane's flames licked down at him to caress his cheek like back in the ruins.

“This, clearly.” Kamina offered, and he was shocked at what happened next.

Twilight gave him a hot, deep, steamy kiss, that radiated heat into his body, and he groaned before she released his lips, and smiled slyly at his dumbstruck face. “How was that?”

“Like I was just kissed by a goddess of fire. Where did this come from?” Kamina was surprised to say the least, but damn, that was a good kiss. Knocked the sense out of him. “Also, where did you learn to kiss like that?”

“Books, how else?” Twilight replied slyly. “We've been flirting since we met; friends or not, not being a little more by now would be just ridiculous.” Twilight giggled as she let go of him. “We're friends first, never forget that, but I can't think of you as JUST a friend anymore. The past day of talking with our friends got me thinking about that, especially since they all just had to talk about how handsome you are, how you're amazing and all, and I got to wondering just why I didn't even think of trying it.”

“Because we're friends? Won't that make it weird?” Kamina was worried about just such a thing; he didn't want them trying a relationship to ruin their friendship.

“Nope!” Twilight happily chirped. “I've been reading on the concept, and there is a thing known as “friends with benefits”, heard of it?” Kamina's nose exploded with a fountain of blood, knocking him to the ground. “Ah! Kamina! H-hold on!” Twilight frantically rushed into the ground floor bathroom, accidentally setting the door frame on fire with her panicked mane flare. “Ah! No!”

'I have such a great friend....'

===//////>

After putting out the fire, cleaning up the blood, and calming down after Kamina helped Twilight fully understand the term “friends with benefits”, Spike had returned from Rarity's, having been spending time with her for obvious reasons on his part, but it wasn't really clear what Rarity was intending with their shared time. Beings they're such close friends, they explained their current status to him, but he wasn't really getting it.

“So let me get this straight...you're together now, but not actually together?” Spike asked in confusion, making Kamina and Twilight; who had returned to her mostly normal form again after extinguishing the fire she'd caused, look at each other on the couch, before turning back to him and answering simultaneously.

“Yes.” Spike groaned and rubbed his temples.

“How can you be friends, but more than friends at the same time?” Spike asked seriously, requiring a serious answer.

“Well Spike, you see; couples go on dates, and usually exclusively spend time together romantically. But Kamina and I are friends, and we have a lot of platonic feelings along with our budding romantic ones. Usually in courtship it is the opposite, focusing on romance, and then building a stable platonic relationship. We already have a platonic relationship, and are just now beginning a romantic one. So we don't see a need to go on “dates” or seek out romantic scenarios. We're just going to let them come naturally rather than force them. So we're technically not coltfriend/marefriend, but rather friends with benefits...said benefits will become more enticing as we progress.” Twilight explained and finished off with a cute blush as she poked her hooves together.

“What? You mean you'll start off with just kissing, but then move on to fondling, full-blown make-out sessions, maybe even-.” Spike paused at both Twilight's and Kamina's shocked looks, Twilight’s one of horror and Kamina of being impressed. “Uh...I'm...kinda entering puberty....”

“I know that! But I didn't think you'd know about more...mature things until a while later.” Twilight stated, and then turned to Kamina accusingly. “Are you corrupting him?”

“Hey! Not any more than I corrupted you.” Kamina replied slyly, making her smile back at him, and they began to stare, making Spike groan.

“Great! Now I have to be reminded why it sucks to be so young compared to the girls I'm on equal mental footing with! I want what you two have!” Spike shouted in frustration, and noticed they were kissing now, eyes closed and oblivious to everything around them, making Spike fall to his knees, raise his fists, and scream into the air. “It's not FAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIR~!”

Author's Notes:

Hot Librarian GET~! Little Bro jealousy GET~! Parental Angst GET~! Relevance of chapter? NOT MUCH! Mostly filler, and so next actual chapter doesn't cause WTH at their relationship as much.