Several weeks had passed since Titus and Twilight's date at the pond and the human, currently on his back under the speeder bike, couldn't help but grin as he thought of the numerous outings they had gone on as he carefully replaced the last of the burnt-out overdrive cores to the tune of one of the songs he had sung as a duo with Twilight at her birthday that had been floating around in his head since then whenever she was on his mind.

He had no way of knowing outside of a happy warmth in his chest that he couldn't quite place but at that very moment as the lyrics drifted through his head somewhere about town Twilight was humming the tune as Harmony bridged the gap between them; the pair had become closer than ever since then and simple activities such as the reading nights at the library where they would curl up on the living room couch had been immensely enjoyable because they could just be together and bond and though it wasn't some grand frolicking event like the tour of the market she had taken him on or the hike up a nearby mountain to show him where she and her friends had met a dragon or the balloon ride he had been given to Cloudsdale but both he and Twilight had come to find it was probably their favorite activity to do together, at least until they could be a little more open, and though occasionally a reporter would interrupt they had found it was easy to pass off that they were examining data on the portal and Titus' arrival (which wasn't a lie, he had been down in her lab running tests and scans for the past several days) with Twilight easily talking circles around the unprepared interloper until he or she would leave more confused than they had arrived, and if that didn't work he was beginning to feel a bit more comfortable asserting himself to firmly show them the door thanks mostly to being around Sgt. Quickbolt who "never had much tolerance for their shittery to begin with," though he did so a bit more politely than she ever would.

Guiding the core housing rack back up into the bike and torquing it to specification Titus pushed his feet against the floor and the mechanic's creeper rolled him out from under the bike where he double-checked the safeties so that it wouldn't take off before he hit the ignition. To his utmost satisfaction the bike climbed a bit into the air and let out a excited whine as if it finally felt it was back to full power, the machine almost pleading with him to rocket out of the cargo bay on a high-speed trip somewhere, anywhere, as long as it meant freedom from the supports it had been resting on for so long. "Let's leave you to get warmed up while I change, then you and me have a very important interview to go to," Titus said with a pat on its seat, his odd habit of talking to the machines he worked on seemingly quieting the bike's call to escape the cargo hold as the whine turned into a gentle but aggressive hum. Pushing the sidecar onto the coupler and securing it Titus gave one last look over the freshly blacked-out bike he had finished undercoating the previous night before he headed through the ship toward his quarters where he changed out of his grubby work clothes and into something a bit more fitting before slipping into the protective suit he had arrived in. Miss Cheerilee said I was likely to get questions about my clothes so I bet her class would like to see a variety of the stuff I wear. Grabbing a few more items he thought they'd enjoy he headed back to the cargo bay, Dex joining him somewhere along the way though when Titus covered the seat of the bike's sidecar with a tarp and began loading it up the dog's head cocked to one side and he whined softly.

"Sorry boy, I know you're itching to go for a ride but you'll have to stay behind today," Titus hoisted the last of the cans of paint and bundles of brushes he had picked up from the market into the sidecar before gently removing the goggles Dex had fetched in anticipation from his mouth and affectionately roughed up the dog's ears, "You stay here and watch the ship and when I get back we can go for a ride. Oh, if Twilight stops by give her a big kiss for me, okay?" Attaching a small note to Dex's collar to let Twilight know where he was if she should happen to visit while he was out Titus got a lick of his own so he playfully shoved the dog away and roughhoused with him for a few moments to burn his excess energy, or at least a little bit of it, before he threw a leg over the humming bike and slowly left the cargo hold, remotely closing the doors on his way out with his wristpad as he drifted down the ramp though the commotion drew the attention of the reporters hanging around the front door and the crowd quickly migrated to the rear of the craft.

Most of the questions thrown his way today seemed to revolve around the photos Snappy and Action had taken on their tour a few days previous which had been a massive success; rather than guide the two around he followed them as they were free to move about the ship, answering their questions about anything they took pictures of which they jotted down in their notes for use in captions. Nothing had been off limits to them and the pair had spent a long four hours documenting as much as they could until their cameras were full of pictures of everything from the semi-restored Piloting to the stocked armory to Titus' own quarters which had been undergoing a secret renovation, one which Twilight was kept in the dark about.

"Morning folks, no time for questions today," Titus raised his voice above the commotion as he carefully maneuvered the speeder through the group, noting how very few of the reporters even paid it any mind aside from the ponies from the scientific magazines who had readers interested in his tech, but very quickly the Human Watchers moved in and created a bit of space for him when several earth ponies formed a wedge in front of the bike and walked forward, slowly plowing a path until Titus was clear of the crowd at which point he thanked the three before turning the bike partially around to speak, "I'm headed to an interview this morning so once that's been published I'll be willing to take some questions as I'd rather not have to answer something twice. For you guys from the science and technology mags: my Astromech droid, R6, will be doing some more work on the outer hull today repairing several key systems for flight so you could probably get some good shots of him doing that and when I get back I'd be more than happy to take a look at what you've snapped to explain what he's doing. The bipedal droids you've seen, the MG-100's, will also be out here again and will continue salvaging large debris." Titus was reluctant to provide the same level of courtesy to any of the gossipy or smutty papers but when it came to the science magazines he'd had nothing but rewarding conversations and thoughtful dialog back and forth between him and their reporters so if he could cut them a little slack and make their readers happy he was willing to go a bit out of his way to do it and judging from the way a few of the ponies he had dealt with before grinned at him and pulled out their cameras there was probably going to be another large article somewhere in their magazine's future.

Taking off at a slow speed compared to what the bike was capable of but still fast enough that he easily kept ahead of the moving crowd (at least those that weren't airborne, anyway), Titus glanced to one side to see a mint green unicorn pushing through before she let all of the lead out and galloped after him as fast as she could, prompting him to stop and allow her to catch up though he ended up doubling back to scoop her up with one arm as the mass of tabloid reporters suddenly surged after her in hopes of capturing something juicy for their trashy paper before he took off. Once they had gotten enough space between them that they wouldn't be overrun he slowed back down to let Lyra get behind him in the same way Twilight had taken her first ride on the bike, the mint unicorn pulling a set of goggles and a headset out of the compartment behind her out of habit.

"Hey big guy! Nice scoop and scoot maneuver back there; this early and we're already on the run, huh?" she said teasingly into the mic as she peeked over his shoulder, using the rest of his body as a windbreaker when they sped away at a speed even the fastest of the pegasi reporters couldn't keep up with, easily leaving the camera flashes quickly behind them in a wave of jetwash, "I'm glad Bon-Bon woke me up early and made me run errands or I wouldn't have caught you."

"Good to see you, too... but you're going for a joyride instead of helping your roommate out," Titus pointed out dryly while angling the nose of the bike up to gain a bit of altitude before really giving the hungry craft more throttle which elicited a joyful squeak from his passenger. After her first ride in the sidecar to pick up Dex from Fluttershy's cottage Lyra had fallen in love with speeder bike rides, partly because of the speed and the feeling of wind whipping through her mane and, not so secretly, she thoroughly adored watching him handle the numerous controls with such finesse and confidence that not once had she never worried about encouraging him to push the bike to faster and faster speeds - she had even asked she be allowed to ride behind him during his eventual race with Rainbow Dash, which was something she pestered him about on an almost daily basis.

Lyra gave a harumph and bopped him lightly on the back of his helmeted head for being so blunt though quickly she went back to gripping him when in response he purposefully dropped the bike a foot or two to playfully jostle her which caused the fluttering butterfly feeling in her tummy, "Woo! Okay maybe, but also not entirely because I needed to talk to you and you were just a short walk out of my way. So, by all accounts you're feeling better and Sparkles isn't completely freaking out that you're back to working on your ship and carrying heavy stuff around, right?" When Titus answered that he had been feeling fine for a while now and just had been trying to ease Twilight's worry for him Lyra gave him a very tight squeeze which reminded him that ponies were much stronger than they looked, especially for their size, "Great! That means she can't hog you anymore!" The bike launched off a small hill and rocketed down the dirt road at a breakneck speed but nowhere near needing to draw on any of the extra power of its overdrive cores, the wind whipping through Lyra's mane and battering at her ears got the usual happy squeal of exhilaration which drove the human to give the throttle more freedom and the bike eagerly devoured the road before it like a starving beast, however a moment later a small speck in the distance grabbed Titus' attention when the sensor in his helmet detected something and provided a small zoomed-in image off to one side of his vision.

"Hog me?" he asked a little distractedly, noting that the familiar cart was slightly off in the ditch and one of its large wooden wheels broken at the rim though it wasn't until he had watched for a few seconds that the owner came out from behind it to shove it a little further up onto the road though she was clearly struggling to do so.

"Yeah, hog you, meaning she's been keeping you to herself so you and me have hardly had any time to hangout... aside from the lunch dates and stuff we've put on for the papers, which don't count, and for the few minutes you stayed for Sparkles' party. You're um, not very good at karaoke, by the way, but I'll give that you've got a few dance moves-" Lyra heard the acknowledging grunt before she felt a gentle shift as the bike changed trajectory and slowed slightly; curious as to why, she looked off in direction they were traveling and strained to make out what the speck was before identifying the cart and orange pony struggling with it, "Hey, isn't that AJ?"

"It looks like she ran into some trouble getting to market. I want to make sure she's okay and see if she needs help."

Cruising up and coming to a stop beside the disabled cart the understandably grumpy farm pony gave them a half-hearted greeting as she continued to shove with all her considerable might, grunts of exertion cutting off her reply to Titus asking if she was alright, "Little sore is all *Grrr!* but seein' you up means *Nnnf!* I'm runnin' later than I thought-"

As Lyra and Titus soon found out the banks of the ditch were crumbly and offered no good purchase for her hooves and the cart slid back down to the bottom despite her best efforts to stop it. "Dang nab it! It's just one buckin' thing after another!" Applejack continued to cuss and grumble at the cart for several long seconds, even going so far as to toss her prized hat in the dust at her stomping hooves before she took several deep breaths to calm herself and went back to shoving.

Lyra exchanged a worried look with Titus before hopping off of the bike, "Do you want us to give you a hoof with that?" A quick glance down the ditch revealed the cart had gone off the road a good distance from them and the evidence indicated Applejack had likely been struggling with trying to get it back up for a while because the dry dirt of the embankment was disturbed for the entire length which meant that this wasn't the first time the cart had slid back down.

"I reckon if I was a unicorn I coulda just magicked it out by now," Applejack grunted hostilely through gritted teeth as she shouldered the weight of her family's wagon and managed to get it a few inches up the hill, "Sure must be nice to just wave your horn around and have everythin' done, but I'm 'just an Earth pony' so I've gotta actually sweat and put my back into my work. I'll have this back on the road in a second, no help from a hornie needed-" she was cut off when a mint shoulder joined hers against the side of the cart and a somewhat-annoyed Lyra glared at her at which point Applejack noticed the bandage wrapped around her horn and immediately realized the unicorn probably couldn't use magic or, if she could, it would be rather painful to.

"Can it, Apples. Yeah it sucks not having access to my magic because of this stupid injury," Lyra snorted as together they managed to push the cart halfway up the embankment with a heavy grunt though their hooves scrambled to find a hold in the crumbly dirt embankment, "but just because I'm a unicorn - sorry, a hornie - doesn't mean I'm afraid to get down and dirty if I need to. You should know that perfectly well by now-" Lyra probably would have gone on with her retort if the cart didn't suddenly float up the rest of the way, both ponies watching and panting from exertion as Titus gently set it down on the road with the wave of an outstretched hand.

"Look at him. He doesn't even need a horn," Lyra snorted, her previous annoyance shifting to mock irritation, "Human magic."

Picking up her hat and holding it close to her chest, Applejack faced her unicorn friend and looked down at her hooves apologetically, "Sorry for gettin' nasty with ya, sugarcube. It's just that... well, after a long list of stressful events the cart breakin' down today was the final straw and I didn't have anypony to vent to 'til you two showed up. I shouldn't have gone and bit the first ear that showed up to listen, and I'll understand if'n you got words ya want to say." Much to the farm pony's relief Lyra held no hard feelings and proceeded to tell her that everything was fine between them and she understood that stress could lead somepony to say something they didn't mean to, the pair sharing a quick spit-filled hoofshake before Applejack watched as Titus bent at the knees to balance on the balls of his feet to inspect the broken wheel before sitting beside him a moment later with Lyra taking the spot opposite to listen.

"Not trying to make an alien pun, but I've got some universal tools in my bike's toolbox if you think you can fix it-"

"Yeah, universal. Har har. Not gonna be able to do any repairs out here, mister. Take a look; the flat steel tire is twisted off and the felloe - that's the rim, if you didn't know - is splintered clean off, and it looks like the spoke snapped on top of that." Not surprisingly this wasn't the first time the farm pony had dealt with a broken wagon wheel and she'd had a lot of experience changing them out with her brother, but this time something felt clearly off about it because these were fairly new wheels which prompted her to inspect the rest of the cart where she found signs of tampering. "What the hay! Some troublemaker's gone and sawed into the wheels!" if AJ hadn't been mad before, she certainly was now and angrily washed away the caked on dirt to show where almost unnoticeable cuts had been made deep into the wooden rims.

"I-I can't believe somepony would vandalize your cart!" Lyra was almost as mad as Applejack was - this cart was the Apple family's means of making a living and for somepony to maliciously mess with it and, more importantly, potentially hurt one of them when it broke was really getting her blood boiling, "You should report this to the guard. Titus can zip us back to town, right, big guy?"

Applejack, however, would hear nothing of leaving the cart in the middle of the road to go get a guard, "There's a full day's worth of produce on it! What if whoever did this is waitin' for me to leave so they can make off with the fritters and pies!?"

"No one on my motion sensors... and I'm not sensing anyone watching," Titus said as he crawled under the cart to gauge their options, "Kark. The axle is broken, too, so it's not going to be a matter of swapping the wheel out."

"The ruttin' axles blown, too?! Oh, if I get my hooves on whoever's behind this..."

"Violence only begets violence, AJ. Focus that energy into helping me get your cart mobile again." Towing the cart was out of the question as the braces that held the front axle - which were the prime candidates for where he'd be hitching it to his bike - must have been jarred loose when the axle broke and now would need to be replaced but judging from the strong construction of the crippled wagon's frame Titus believed it would be sturdy enough to balance on the nose of his bike if it were secured properly. Titus laid out his plan for Applejack who, when questioned, indicated she'd rather get the cart to market instead of taking it back to the farm to fix, which had been one of the issues she had struggled with on account of being half way to either destination. Following the plan, both Applejack and Lyra crawled underneath the cart and put their backs against it, slowly lifting the end of the loaded wagon up off of its broken wheel so that Titus could maneuver the nose of his bike under, though he had to drop the repulsorlifts to their absolute minimum to the point he was barely a hoof's-width above the ground and once the wagon was secured and a few further adjustments were made to the repulsors for the odd distribution of weight Titus mounted the bike though he had to wait as Lyra showed the farm pony how to ride behind him.

The cart, however, caused another potential problem as it was a bit taller than he had estimated and blocked the majority of his vision in front of the vehicle and even though he could get by using his helmet's sensors to safely operate it Lyra scampered up in front of the handlebars to rear up against the cart to act as a lookout, dismissing his grumblings that her rump was now blocking what little vision he had with a waggle of the eyebrows and a small teasing wiggle of her hips. Applejack, meanwhile, was clinging so tightly to Titus' shoulders the suit's reactive armor was hardening to prevent bruising and small alerts were popping up on his visor however she quickly warmed up to the ride and soon they were making remarkably good time back to town, though they certainly cut an odd image as they flew back over Titus' ship.

Titus dropped the two ponies off at the edge of the market before regaining enough altitude that he could slowly fly over the other stalls that had already opened which naturally resulted in quite a few ponies stopping to watch as the craft trailed its two guides below like a large helium balloon before coming to a stop over Applejack's usual spot; with her being later than normal the positions to either side had already been filled however Titus showed no signs of having any trouble and, after a quick scan of the area to ascertain the best approach, deftly lowered his craft and the cart into the tight confines of AJ's allotted space where she and Lyra had procured cinder blocks to prop it up on. While he crawled under the cart to unfasten it he could hear the barrage of questions lobbied toward the farm pony who retold of her morning discovery of the vandalism and by the time Titus was finished and emerged a guard was already talking to her for a statement.

"Where to now, big guy?" Lyra inquired as she approached, looking over her shoulder at the guard who was now examining the wagon's wheels before watching Titus put the straps he had used back in the small storage trunk on the bike before he made a quick glance at the clock on his wristpad and voiced he was glad he had left his ship early to take the bike for a spin because it meant he still had time to get to the school and not be late. When asked why he was going to the school Lyra came to learn of his interview with the students and immediately decided it would be best if she tagged along on the off chance she needed to field any questions that might have to do with her which was a sound enough reason for Titus to hold back on commenting that she had errands to run.

Applejack caught sight of them climbing back on the bike and left the guard's side to stop them briefly. "Hold on now, were you just goin' to up and leave without letting me say anythin'? Because of you and that machine of yours our stall can open up like normal, so you really saved my flank - just look at how many customers we could have lost," she said with a nod to the already forming line of customers waiting to pick up a morning fritter or other yummy pastry before holding a hoof out wide and waving him closer, "On behalf of the Apple family... thanks, sugarcube."

Titus had to lean over pretty far in his seat into what was a crushing one-hoofed hug from the farm pony, "It wasn't a problem, Applejack, just repaying the favor of somepony giving me some rides to town when I was new to the neighborhood-"

"If you really want to thank us have some of those fritters baked fresh for Friday night," Lyra eagerly inserted herself into the conversation and leaned a little closer to the farm pony, "Mmmmaybe even let us test that secret flavor you've been working on? Just a suggestion."

"I don't know if I can have the recipe perfected by then, I've got a lot on my plate what with Big Mac being out of commission..." Applejack suddenly shook her head and shifted her attention between Titus and Lyra, "Friday night? That mean you're finally comin' over to watch EFC with us?"

"He's feeling better so buck yeah he is!" Again Lyra spoke up just as Titus opened his mouth and though he quickly interjected that he'd need to make sure Twilight didn't have any special surprises planned for them before he could commit the mint unicorn only giggled and gave him a reassuring squeeze from behind, "Jeez it's like you two are attached at the hip! You let me work out a deal with Sparkles, big guy. Once we're done at the school if you could drop me by my place for a brief second I'll go have a chat with her to sort out the details."

"Wait, 'sort out the details?' Lyra, you make it sound as if you're checking me out like a book," Titus teased and they both shared a chuckle over how close to accurate that might be before saying goodbye to Applejack, who asked if they could pass along a message to her little sister when they got to the school. The trip to the small schoolhouse was uneventful and short thanks to the speed Lyra coaxed her friend to accelerate to and they made it just under the wire for when Titus said he would arrive, the bike dropping low to land behind the building where Cheerilee was waiting for him as planned, which happened to be out of sight of the road the foals would be approaching from.

"Good morning, Mr. Aelius! I hope you don't mind that I've kept your identity as our special guest a bit of a secret from my class- oh!" Cheerilee had been busy eyeing the sidecar full of painting supplies so the sudden appearance of Lyra peeking over his shoulder caught her by surprise and she cast a curious look at both as Titus pulled collapsible supports out from the trunk and stuck them under the nose, sidecar, and aft of the bike before shutting it off.

Titus greeted her and apologized for appearing rushed as he disconnected the power and locked out the controls then went about unloading the tarp and cans of paint. "I was hoping to arrive a bit earlier to run the idea past you as I only thought of it last night, but I was thinking maybe after the interview some of your class might enjoy sprucing my bike up with whatever pictures they wanted but if you don't think that would be okay I'd be glad to donate these supplies for arts and crafts," he explained before jerking a thumb at Lyra who was still seated on the bike with her hooves on the handlebars and pretending to pilot it, "As for her, we bumped into each other and she thought it'd be a good idea to tag along in case any of your students have questions about or for us - I know your paper draws in a bit of extra money for the school and with how hard I get hounded for details I'm sure including her would help sell some extra copies."

Miss Cheerilee was very enthusiastic about his ideas and helped him spread the tarp out below the bike in preparation before laying out a pile of smocks for the students to wear and by the time they had finished setting everything up the noise from down the road signaled the approach of the foals. Indicating she would let him in through the school's back door when it was time the teacher disappeared around the side gate to usher the kids to the front door to make sure nopony accidentally stumbled upon him, leaving Titus and Lyra a few moments to prepare themselves.

Lyra watched as Titus knelt down in the grass and put his hands on his thighs before going stock still, the only movement visible being the slight rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathed though, unlike Twilight who was familiar with the practice by now, she didn't know he was meditating and cocked her head to one side as she examined the expression on his flat face for a moment before taking a seat in front of him, "Nervous, big guy?"

"No, I'm just relaxing and mentally collecting myself," he replied slowly so as not to break his concentration though when she remained uncharacteristically quiet he peeked through one eye to find she had snuck much closer and was still staring at him, "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You look funny doing that; your face gets all serious like you're a big grump. Hmm..." a hoof poked his cheek and manually turned his mouth up in a smile, "There, that's what I like to see! No more Mr. Grumpy Gills!" Unexpectedly she squeezed his cheeks together and made several glubglubglub noises like a fish before he playfully shoved her away and said something along the lines of he'd show her he wasn't the only one that could make funny faces though she didn't really hear him because she was focused on dodging the hands that swiped to grab the closest hoof as she danced just outside of his reach and stuck her tongue out at him. It was a game they'd played before: she'd do something borderline annoying until he "snapped" and pushed her away, then he'd chase her for a while or act like he'd given up and wait for her to get close before catching her and giving her a big noogie, though he was always sure to end it with an ear rub so she wouldn't feel like he had actually been irritated. While Lyra deeply enjoyed the game she eventually tired of it and let herself get caught, giving a not-entirely concealed giggle as Titus' hand wrapped around her forehoof and the fingers squeezed before he pulled her toward him; she put up a fake fight and pretended to dig her heels in to sell her act and gently bit him on the wrist when he put her in a headlock for the noogie, though it was obvious he took special care not to bump her horn as he ground his knuckles into her forelock. When he let her go a short time later after the always-satisfying ear rub instead of breaking away to continue playing Lyra stayed under his arm and sat down, leaning a shoulder against him, "You sure you're not nervous? I mean, it would be understandable; foals are highly impressionable and even the smallest misstep will get blown completely out of proportion once the parents catch wind of it-"

A squeeze and a huff from Titus cut her off, "Gee Lyra, thanks. If I wasn't nervous before..."

"Meh, you'll be fine. Plus, I've got your back!" she replied and looked up at him with a big grin, "I'll always have your back."

"I don't doubt you'll watch my back... from a few paces behind so you can stare at my butt, er flanks. Sorry."

"Mmm... well they are nice, but when it comes to you I'll take fingers over flanks," the mint unicorn countered without missing a beat and brought his nearby hand up for a nuzzle, gently poking at his digits with her nose for a moment before stopping to look at him a lot more seriously, "I mean it, big guy, I really mean it when I say I'll always have your back. I know I can sometimes come off as a flake or whatever, but I want you to know... you can count on me." She felt Titus' eyes as they bore deep into hers searchingly for a very long moment before she became a bit self conscious and looked down at her hooves. Why is he just staring at me? Come on, big guy, I sorta stepped out of my comfort zone right then, so say someth- Her thought was suddenly cut off with an audible squeak of surprise when she felt both arms wrap around her as she was engulfed in one of his signature bear hugs that up until that point she had only heard of through Twilight's descriptions which, she now realized, really did no justice to them and though she had been hugged before, this time she couldn't help but think it felt different and meant a good deal more.

"It's been a while since someone told me that, and even longer from someone I can believe," Titus finally said after a few seconds of silence and gave her a small squeeze which was rewarded with two hooves slipping around his sides to return it, "You don't know how much it means. Thanks, Lyra."

"Better make this quick, big guy," Lyra joked and did the exact opposite of try and make the embrace quick by tightening her grip, a small lump forming in her throat from her heart fluttering up into it, "I'm pretty sure there's rules against PDA on the playground-"

"We're almost ready, you two. Why don't you come inside?" Miss Cheerilee's voice came from the school's back door which caught both Titus and Lyra off-guard and before they could separate there was a bright flash from one of the windows where a small face with a camera quickly retreated. The teacher identified the face when it peeked back through the window as the school paper's new editor-in-chief and assured Titus that he would be given final say on what pictures made it into the article before making it perfectly clear the newspaper club was out to learn about him and where he came from, how he and ponies were both similar and different, and how to share that knowledge in an unbiased manner with their readers without stirring up rumors or trouble for either the human or his pony companion. Miss Cheerilee lead the pair through the back door and into a hallway where she held a shushed conversation with the small pegasus foal they had seen in the window before she sent him through the classroom door and explained to Titus that he should expect a wide range of questions before she too ducked through the door, only popping her head back in to give them a wink, "And no public displays of affection on the playground, please."

Several ticks-tocks of the clock echoed down the hallway before Titus felt a tap on his knee, "Hey, big guy, let me see that." Titus had decided to slip out of his protective suit in favor of the plain burnt-orange t-shirt and black pants and had tucked his helmet under his arm with his other show-&-tell items he had brought for the class; with no mirror available Lyra waited for Titus to pass the helmet down to look at her reflection in the visor, her hooves turning it to get different angles as she tried to fix her mane and check her teeth for bugs, "How do I look?"

"It looks like you just took a speeder bike ride," he replied sarcastically, a hand roughly mussing her forelock which, oddly enough, had the effect of fixing it to some degree and got a happy chirp from the unicorn who quite literally tossed the helmet back up for him to catch, "How about me? Everything where it should be?" Titus remained squatted as Lyra tooled a short circle around him, doing a few things like flipping the turned cuff of a sleeve down with her nose before she disappeared behind his back for several seconds before suddenly he felt a hoof on his back and he pitched forward and had to catch himself with a hand on the floor as she leaned on him. "Hey, what are you-" he started before he felt a tug and his hair fell free of the knot he had put it up in and a second later Lyra reappeared with the small band between her teeth which she recognized was one of the ones Twilight used in her laboratory to keep her mane from falling into chemicals or from drifting into lit burners.

Poor guy, Sparkles must have hooked him up to all of those nefarious machines. Spitting the hair-tie into his open hand with an exaggerated *pleh!* she grinned at him and batted a hoof at a long strand that hung to one side of his face, "There, that's how I like your mane. Natural." It genuinely was how she liked it, though she had heard Twilight had voiced her own preference to seeing it put up in a bun or knot and since then he had been obliging his official undercover fillyfriend - right now, however, she would have him entertain her inclination as her friend had monopolized Titus' attention and free time and Lyra figured this was just the beginning of making up for it, and when Miss Cheerilee poked her head out the door to call them in she waited until the teacher had retreated to give him a playful swat on the flanks as a form of friendly motivation.

Thankfully the sound of the swipe had been muffled by the fabric of his pants and the sudden whispers as the first few students at the front of the class caught sight of him drowned out the rest, though the quick glance over his shoulder at her did little to convey that he thought that was a little foolish because she simply beamed at him and gave him a hammy wink before squeezing herself though the door past him. "I'm sorry, Miss Cheerilee, Lyra is... she's, well..." he paused to whisper briefly as they both watched the mint unicorn snag an empty chair and push it near the one that had been arranged front and center of the classroom for him before hopping atop it and eagerly waiting for him to join her, "What can I say?"

"That's alright, Mr. Aelius, it is rather obvious you two care about each other," she replied as more whispers of increasing excitement and volume circulated through the seated foals which the experienced educator knew was a sign to get things moving and gently shoo'd the human toward his seat, "Now, why don't you start with a short introduction and then we can move on to the question and answer segment?"

Titus took his seat and immediately the classroom fell silent which had the effect of making him shift on his chair slightly.

*Thunk.*

Just as he was opening his mouth to speak Lyra's chair jostled a little closer to his with an audible noise though through the corner of his eye he could see she was acting as if nothing had happened and figured she was just readjusting her position or her chair was wobbly so he started with his introduction again, "Good-"

*Errrk!*

This time a small slide of the feet across the wooden floor gave a loud screech at which point Titus knew it would be best to just wait for her rather than try and ignore the interruptions and with a simple look he communicated she should just stop trying to be subtle and get it over with which she obviously picked up on as she gave him a helplessly sheepish grin. That got a muffled giggle from the foals watching and Titus couldn't help chuckling himself as he watched Lyra loop both forehooves under the seat of her chair to hop several times.

*Bonkthunkbonkbonk.*

Once she had come to a stop just short of bumping against his own chair he tweaked one of her ears before draping an arm over the unicorn's shoulders and returning to face the class, "Now that the lovely Miss Heartstrings has found her seat... good morning everyone-"

"GOOD MORNING!" the class answered in unison out of habit and slightly startled the human with their enthusiasm in the process; Titus, however, quickly resumed where he had left off and gave them a brief backstory of who he was and what he had done before his arrival in Equestria, starting with his induction into the Jedi Order all the way up to getting sucked into the portal though he naturally watered down some of the less kid-friendly aspects of his tale such as the things he'd seen and done on the battlefield. Titus waited for the sound of scribbling pencils to stop before shrugging and looking to Miss Cheerilee for confirmation, "And that's more or less my story, I hope that answered a few questions and I guess if it didn't I'll try to answer what's left." Hooves shot up into the air and stretched to be the highest in hopes of being called on first and as he answered several inquiries ranging from information he hadn't covered on the Jedi Temple and the Order itself to his thoughts on Equestrian society, many of which seemed beyond the scope of what ponies their age would be thinking about though a questioning glance to their teacher only got the proud response that her students were serious about their paper.

Meanwhile Lyra, who had been leaning against him in wait for a question for her, readjusted herself to lay down on her side and rest her head on his leg and rather unexpectedly the mint unicorn had to stifle a yawn as she stretched out, which must have been a position that was photogenic as Featherweight, the small pegasus from earlier, snapped a few photos of the pair. Once she had settled in the arm that had moved during her shift returned to rest on the side of her neck and a moment later the fingers began lightly scratching in circles, though by the best of Lyra's assessment it was a subconscious action judging by how he hardly gave her glance any mind and seemed fully focused on answering the wide range of questions tossed his way. Either way, that's nice, big guy. The lack of attention in combination with the comfy position and the gentle, rhythmic scratching was making it hard to keep her eyes open and try as she might they were staying open for decreasing amounts of time as her brain tried to reassure her she was just taking long blinks and more to the detriment of her staying awake it was telling her it was perfectly okay to do so.

Titus only gave Lyra's change of position enough attention to lift his arm as she shifted and instead focused on answering the question he knew would eventually come up; clothes, and why he wore them all the time - and kark did they have a lot of questions. "Many cultures wear various styles and amounts of clothing for numerous reasons, whether that be for religious ideals or protection against the environments they live in," he explained, citing the earlier examples of hostile planets he had visited as his suit and its accompanying helmet were passed around as demonstration, the latter of which the majority of foals stuck over their heads to look about excitedly when the array of sensors lit up the visor and the voice of IANA greeted the wearer because Titus had stayed up to upload the computerized navigational assistant to the helmet's computer the night before, "Everyone that wears clothing has their own reasons, though for the most part it can be attributed to parents raising their children the way they were brought up; as for me, I grew up in the Temple where everyone wore garments which is how I became conditioned to wear clothes at all time."

"Mmm, or most of the time, at least," Lyra unintentionally muttered though only Titus was close enough to hear her but even then it wasn't at a comprehensible volume and a few seconds later she finally drifted off and began snoring lightly under the soothing scratches of his fingers.

"We have time for one more before recess. Mr. Aelius will be staying a little longer than scheduled because he brought along a surprise activity for anypony interested," Miss Cheerilee intervened after a quick glance at the clock above the chalkboard and before the human could call on another student, "So, which of my little ponies has a question that doesn't revolve around anything we've already covered?"

Numerous hooves dropped at that criteria though one voice called out from the back that they had a question for Miss Heartstrings and when she didn't stir when asked how she was coping with all the attention she was getting for dating the large alien Titus briefly checked that she was alright and realized for the first time she had dozed off and, rather surprisingly, that he had been lightly scratching her coat in the same manner Twilight enjoyed. So much for having my back. Brushing a small, errant white strand of her mane to be in line with the rest Titus resumed the small scratches and caught the faintest signs of a smile as he did so. Titus sighed and then chuckled; while he couldn't have known that Lyra had been up late helping her roommate prepare for her short trip to Manehatten and that she couldn't help but nod off, this sort of behavior - falling asleep without a care for where she was - was precisely what made Lyra who she was, or more simply "Lyraisms" as Titus liked to refer to them.

"Sorry, um... it would appear she isn't used to being up this early, though as you can see I don't think she's overly stressed about it and seems to be taking things in stride," he answered softly before remembering how much of a heavy sleeper she was and returned to a normal speaking voice, "If there's still time, perhaps there was anyone else with a question for me?"

A neutral grey earth pony foal with glasses and a pearl necklace raised her hoof and was quickly called upon, "Do humans have cutie marks? Or are humans... blank?"

There was a definite tone to the last word and Titus caught both her and what was undoubtedly a friend share a giggle while casting a slight glance toward another part of the classroom which had an obvious effect on a trio of foals he'd seen playing games with Spike once or twice, all of whom looked none too pleased with the topic as if they knew where it was headed. "Um, no... humans don't naturally have those," he answered but began rolling up his sleeve until his tattoo was visible, "But I do have a tattoo my Master gave me when she took me on as her apprentice; the design isn't human however, it's taken from her people, the Zabrak, and each line represents a trial or accomplishment-"

"So even humans can earn their marks? That's surprising," the foal interjected with a mix of haughtiness and teasing in her tone before she and her friend looked back to the same group as before, "There's some of us here who still have blank flanks... isn't that right, Applebloom-"

"That's enough! Silver Spoon, go wait in the hallway on time out," Miss Cheerilee scolded sternly and watched as the small pony, who obviously wasn't concerned, walked across the classroom and out into the hall before turning to the questioning human to explain how her class was at the tough age where cutie marks divided the foals into two groups, those that had them and those that didn't - the "Blank Flanks" - and proceeded to tell him how it was a common point of teasing within the age group.

Titus' brow furrowed as he thought for a moment before turning to the teacher to ask if he could touch on the subject before she sent the students to recess which surprised her a small amount but she motioned to the class to tell him she was eager to hear what he had to say as an outside observer. "I actually understand how discovering your cutie mark is a point of pride in your lives because Jedi have a similarly important event that every Youngling about your age eagerly looks forward to - constructing their lightsaber. To do that we travel to a remote planet in search of a special crystal to focus the beam... but it's not as simple as it sounds, you can't just sift through the dirt for one or pick one out of the ice, you have to go on a journey of self discovery and only then will the right crystal call out to you; even when you find the right one another trial awaits - the assembly of the hilt itself can take hours of meditation just to get the pieces to fit together and then there's no guarantee it'll work, you have to learn to feel the way it wants to be put together. Across the galaxy our blades are recognized as the symbol of the Knights... it becomes your mark," remembering how Twilight had asked a similar question Titus unhooked his lightsaber hilt to hold above his head for the class to see and briefly ignited the brilliant blue blade - and somewhere in Canterlot Palace Luna felt a slight tingle run up her spine - before he deactivated it and returned it to his hip. "While my lightsaber is definitely a part of me it doesn't make me who I am, all of that is dictated by what's in here-" he tapped himself on the chest right above where his heart was, "-so all that really matters is that you know who you are and that you're honest with yourself. I'm Titus Aelius and I'm a Jedi," he shrugged and shook his head, "And I don't need a mark or symbol to tell me who I am."

A small round of applause accompanied Ms. Cheerilee's thanks for being their guest speaker before she herded the students out of the classroom for their recess, though several waited to speak briefly to him and one of the foals he had recognized, Applebloom, even gave him a hug before he passed on the message from Applejack but once the room was empty the teacher thanked him again for giving her students the opportunity to share his story and the responsibility that came with that of producing the best paper yet. Casting a short glance to the contently-snoring Lyra she gave him a warm smile, "Mr. Aelius, I think you would make a wonderful teacher... in fact, judging from how well you managed I would guess you've dealt with foals before, haven't you?"

"Foals of one sort or another, yes; there was one time that I was asked to briefly take on the role of a teacher at our Temple," Titus nodded gently and the scratching against Lyra's fur slowed as he remembered when he had returned to the Temple after the first mission he had been sent on without Krua shortly after becoming a Knight which he recalled had been a difficult recon and recovery on an unforgiving planet, and upon return to the Temple to submit his report Master Yoda had welcomed him into the classroom with a brief introduction before spontaneously asking him to lead the lightsaber lesson he was teaching. At first Titus had thought he was joking because the ancient Jedi had a humorous streak in him that he enjoyed sharing with Younglings though when the little green Master had sat in his small chair and stared at him expectantly Titus had realized it had been no joke and that he had already handed control of the Younglings over to him right then and there despite the fact that the human was still wearing the same clothes he had been when he had left several days prior and was now covered in reddish dirt and mud from head to foot and exhausted nearly to the point of collapse. After a second of further reflection of the event he noticed that Cheerilee's grin had widened at being correct, "To my regret I don't think I was a very good teacher, and in hindsight I fear that I could have done better."

"That is something every teacher worries about and it shows you cared for your students, Mr. Aelius. I'm sure they learned something, and it's safe to say my students certainly did today," she responded as she headed for the door, "Now, we'd better get out to the playground before we have foals covered in paint and upset parents to explain things to."

Nothing good would come of telling her it's more than likely most of those Younglings were in the Temple for Order Sixty-Six... and none of their lightsaber skills could combat the full Clone contingent sent against them. Titus faked a smile and nodded again, "I'll be right there, just got to sort out what to do with this snoring lump." As he carefully picked Lyra up and gently lay her head over a shoulder one of her hooves instinctively looped behind his neck to cling to him which made things much easier than expected, though when Cheerilee pointed out that his fillyfriend was an adorable snoring lump and lucky to have a very special somepony Titus couldn't help but blush which also earned him the label of being adorable himself; with one arm slung under the mint unicorn to support her and a hand on her back to keep her upright in a manner almost like carrying a napping toddler he followed the teacher out to the playground to find the foals had gathered around the large speeder bike where he quickly explained that he would like them to decorate it as they saw fit which turned out to be an idea that was met with an uproarious amount of support as a mad dash for smocks and paintbrushes was made, and after pointing out the areas that weren't to be painted the foals eagerly began while Titus headed for a nearby bench, careful not to wake Lyra as he held her close and lowered himself into the seat before watching as his bike was transformed into a tapestry of colorful flowers, ponies, and smiling suns, though one little orange pegasus broke the norm and painted an impressive open-mouthed shark on the nose and shooting flames on either aft turbine housing that had the effect of making the bike look much faster and as he watched the foal finish with the flames and move on to begin painting a lightning bolt Lyra finally stirred, humming briefly as she took in her new surroundings.

"Mmm! That was a nice nap," with a full body stretch accompanying a cute yawn that ended in a content squeak the unicorn went limp again and squirmed her shoulders in what seemed an attempt to get comfortable for another nap before whispering in his ear, "So, did you do anything to me while I was out?"

"W-what?! No!" Titus wasn't so much concerned what she was saying as he was that a foal might have overheard, though thankfully they all seemed preoccupied with their recess to be listening in.

Lyra sat up and faked a pouting expression, "You didn't even try to steal a kiss?" Her nostrils flared at him and she leaned backwards to cross both hooves over her chest and she would have toppled off of his lap if he hadn't kept his hand on her back though judging by how carelessly she had relied on him to catch her she hadn't been worried about it, "Not even tempted?"

"No, not even tempted," he replied, pulling her forward again to place a rough smooch on top of her head so he missed the instant where a somewhat disappointed look appeared on her face, "Now, how about we-"

"Camera, four o'clock!" was the only warning Titus got before Lyra giggled and swooped in to rub noses an instant before a flash went off somewhere to one side and a moment later Featherweight, who had thought he had turned the flash off and found he had been discovered, sheepishly appeared to apologize for intruding and offered to erase the picture if they wouldn't tell Miss Cheerilee he had tried to sneak a snap of the two. "Tell you what, you take a photo of me and the big guy and we'll forget all about it. Deal? And don't worry about him; he looks grumpy and annoyed..." Lyra reassured the nervous foal as she nuzzled the human's cheek, "but he's actually a real big teddy bear and, just a secret between you and me, a total cuddlebug."

"Lyra-"

"And you can zip it, mister! I don't have good picture of us that I haven't clipped from a newspaper like some creepy stalker weirdo," the mint mare shushed him with a hoof pressed against his mouth and returned her gaze to Featherweight, "So, how about it, little dude? You take a nice picture of us and Miss Cheerilee doesn't have to hear about your snooping." With no leeway being given Titus begrudgingly conceded to the photo but pointed out through a grumble that what she was doing was essentially blackmail however the little colt seemed happy to oblige and motioned for the two to squish together to fit in the frame as he backed up to align his shot while Lyra squirmed to lay against the human, a small giggle being issued as one arm looped around her shoulder and rested on her barrel just above her hip to effectively secure her and, as an added bonus for the unicorn, it pulled her in to be that much more comfortable.

A few minor adjustments later Featherweight came to a stop and nodded, "A-Alright, I think I have a shot framed. On three; one... two... three-" At the last moment Lyra twisted her head to return the earlier smooch, planting it directly on his cheek as the flash went off and with a overly dramatic Mmwah! ended it but had to stifle a giggle at Titus' equally-dramatic expression of exasperation. After confirming with Lyra that the snap he had gotten was acceptable - because Titus' input was dismissed with the wave of a mint hoof, though the pegasus foal thankfully took his request that the image not appear in the paper to heart - with a quick farewell their photographer dashed off to the printing room to hold up his end of the bargain.

"So... what did you mean you didn't have a good picture of us?" Titus began, scooting a little down the bench to give the unicorn room to sit in her usual odd way before returning his attention to the work being done on his speeder bike, "I think the ones in the papers are pretty good. Did you need one as a prop in case someone comes over and doesn't see something genuine?"

"What? No, nothing like that," Lyra rolled her eyes and, again, giggled at his curious expression, "I just wanted a picture that wasn't something that had been in a paper of us having fun, big guy. Ooo! Speaking of pictures and fun, I want to do some painting! I get to paint on your bike too, right?" The unicorn didn't even wait for an answer and took off to pick up a brush and begin which was the spontaneous behavior that was't alien to Lyra, in and of itself, but under these circumstances it was more than a little suspicious.

She's hiding something. Getting himself up from the bench with a grunt Titus trudged after the unicorn only to be called over to the swing set by several foals where he spent a good deal of time between alternating which foal he was pushing and answering casual questions about the friends he had made growing up and what human children were like. By the time the swinging ponies had run out of questions the human could answer Miss Cheerilee was ringing the bell for her students to return to the classroom and after a giving the three a much-requested piggyback ride to the door Titus finally got close enough to the bike to see that Lyra, who had been working on the opposite side away from the swings, was still working and had acquired several splotches of paint to adorn her coat in the process. "Still working? What're you painting?" he asked as he crouched down so the foals could hop to the grass though the mint unicorn must have been concentrating because she jumped and issued a small squeak before hastily shifting to block his view.

"Oh, it's uh... n-nothing. And it's not finished, either."

"You're 'not finished' painting 'nothing,' huh? So you're saying you painted something on my bike but you're not going to let me see it-" He suddenly stopped and stared at her and very quickly a small blush was detectable under the fur on her cheeks. Oh please... please don't have painted a dick on my bike, Lyra. When he tried to crane his neck to peek around her she shifted to follow him and successfully intercepted any of his attempts though she had to resort to almost laying atop the bike to shield her creation with her body when he stood and tried to use his height advantage to look over her and by now most of the foals and their teacher were curious as well and watched from an open window, "Come on, I want to see what you drew."

"Okay... but-" Lyra looked at him hesitantly before quickly peeking between her hooves and back at him, "P-Promise you won't laugh?" Though she still hesitated to move away after he knelt down and nodded she eventually retreated from the bike to display the picture which was not the adolescent defilement of flying or spurting genitalia he had feared (much to Titus' relief) and instead was a green unicorn and crudely-drawn human hugging set on top of a large pink heart, though it was obvious the painter had miscalculated the distance between the two figures and had tried to rectify this by making the biped's arms longer over several evident corrections though by the time they had looped around the pony's neck they were comically long to the point of dwarfing the rest of the human. Titus covered his mouth with a hand as he took his first look at the image which Lyra must have taken as an attempt to stifle a chuckle because she shrank back and her ears folded down, "Big meanie... you said you wouldn't laugh."

"I'm not laughing at your drawing, Lyra. I like it-"

The unicorn didn't believe him but deep down knew he wouldn't have laughed to make her feel bad, however that didn't mean she wasn't above playfully getting back at him. "S-Sure you weren't. It didn't come out the way I saw it and in my head where it looked a lot better. After all, my talent is music, not art..." she said, the human still close enough so she subtly crept a hoof toward a glob of paint on a nearby discarded smock some foal had been using, "But still, I think I got your noodly arms right! Boop!" With mischievous giggle she planted her paint-laden hoof on his nose which left a large blue spot before adding two more to his cheeks, each with their own "Boop!" sound effect added and when Titus looked at her in exasperation she danced away and stuck her tongue out at him, "Ha! Told you not to laugh, Mr. Paintface!"

Dipping his own hand into an open can of white paint Titus stood up to grin at her menacingly, "Lyra... you know what? I've suddenly got the urge to paint something as well."

The glimmer in his eyes was Lyra's cue to run and boy did she take it, tearing across the playground as fast as her hooves would carry her though a quick glance over her shoulder showed that Titus was in hot pursuit and, more frighteningly, with his long legs he was gaining on her. "Come on, big guy! Blue looks good on you!" she laughed and took a sharp turn to try and lose him as he got close and, as Dash had guessed, ponies could take sharper corners in a race but the human quickly recovered though changing direction at that speed caused him to skid and he needed to catch himself with his paint-free hand before he could launch after the pony again like a sprinter out of the blocks and close the small gap she had created at a rate that startled Lyra, "H-Hey! It was just a joke! Just a joke!"

"So why don't you slow down so we can laugh about it?!" Titus hollered back as he vaulted over the teeter-totter Lyra had ducked under and cleared the sand box in a single bound.

Several more sharp jukes and dodges were made by the mint unicorn who, much to her dismay, couldn't call upon teleporting magic to escape her pursuer who consistently got closer and closer to the point that she would change direction just as his fingertips would brush against her coat while the group of foals watching the scene unfold split into two camps, one crying "Get her! Get her!" and the other shouting "Run, Lyra, run!" as they cheered their favored individual on with excited glee and the rest of the class did the same from the open windows.

Speeding through the playground Lyra attempted to lose Titus, zipping under the swings to double-back on him through the set of low-hanging monkey bars before making a beeline for the large jungle-gym structure where she sprinted up the slide with the intent of disappearing in the multicolored maze of snake-like tubes to safely hide out of his reach but she failed to realize just how steep of an incline the slide had and lost all of her speed on the climb, the crest and her promise of shelter a tantalizingly short distance away. No! No, Celestia, please no. No! Nooo! A peek over her shoulder discovered that the human was waiting at the bottom of the slide for her, one painted hand at the ready while the fingers of the other twitched and wiggled comically in anticipation of catching his prey, "Nononono!" Her absolute, all-out scramble to climb the last whisker-width to safety was for naught as her forward momentum came to a complete stop and, despite her legs moving like she was still running forward, she made no headway and only managed to wear herself out whereupon the unicorn collapsed on her stomach and slowly slid back down with a drawn out *Squeeeeeeeeeeek!* right into the waiting arm that latched around her firmly though Lyra was too worn out to put up much resistance anyway and instead whined and feebly batted her hooves at his hand as he returned the favor of painting her face, each white splotch drawn on her nose and either cheek flourished with a "Boop" sound effect before a white handprint was put on her shoulder.

Then the two took the time to look at each other and saw how ridiculous they looked before both burst out laughing, Lyra hooting and smearing one of the blue blobs on Titus' cheek as she poked at it and left a hoof-print on his forehead which launched her into even further chortles, one pig-like snort from the unicorn having a similar effect of reducing the human to wheezing laughs as they both collapsed on the grass together to catch their breath. Though her words were distorted by the heavy breaths they both were taking, in the distance they could hear Miss Cheerilee calling her class back in which left the pair alone on the grass; Lyra had rolled onto her back beside Titus when he flopped down and now wiggled her hips and shoulders to shimmy against his side for support before letting out a deep sigh which was followed by Titus moving his arm to prop her up from the other side - something that had become the natural thing to do in such a position. "I wasn't laughing at your picture, you know," he said, turning his face to look at her, "I really do like it."

Lyra just rolled her eyes before also turning to face him. "You're almost worse at lying than you are at karaoke, big guy. It's okay, I know my painting was bad. I mean, I probably couldn't even make abstract art if my life depended on it," her expression slowly changed from disappointment in her own artistic inability to one of anxious hopefulness as she searched his face, "But... do you actually mean you like it?"

"I like it, noodly arms and all," he sighed as his heart and breathing both returned to normal rates before jostling her with his shoulder, "I thought you were going to draw something else that might have gotten me into some hot water, so I was pretty relieved to see you hadn't. Now come on, you never got to do that shopping and I'd hate to be the cause of your roommate being mad at you." Saying farewell to the class and Miss Cheerilee, as well as discretely picking up the picture Featherweight had taken, Lyra eagerly scampered into the sidecar while Titus hopped aboard the speeder bike and the two took off for the market though when they drew near they got a lot of funny looks which the human attributed to the paint on their faces as he hadn't noticed the large green flank imprints Lyra had centered at the back of the bike when he hadn't been looking.

After parking in an empty spot outside the market entrance, Titus was finishing locking out the bike's power when Lyra suddenly hopped on his back for a piggyback ride where she could see over the crowd to direct him to the booths they needed to visit and it didn't take them long to procure all the articles on Lyra's shopping list, a task made much easier in that the unicorn that couldn't levitate her purchases like she normally would was able to rely on Titus to carry everything though they did get delayed by market-goers stopping to hit up the celebrity pseudo-couple for idle chit-chat or, in the human's case, to sign something or take a photo. After returning to the bike Titus and Lyra found it had become a minor photo backdrop though one guard tried to keep the small crowd at bay and when they approached the young and obviously newly-recruited guard launched into a torrent of apologies for letting the human's property be vandalized on her watch at which point they had to pause to explain how the bike had come to have all sorts of paintings on it which understandably relieved the mare beyond measure and they briefly posed for a picture with her because she insisted her herd wouldn't believe who she had met on her first day on the job. Titus and Lyra began packing their items in the sidecar a short while later which turned out to be just in time because several of the more obnoxious reporters they had dealt with on previous occasions pushed through the crowd and assaulted them with questions or had their camera crew begin setting up a shot though the new guard did her best to keep as many as she could from getting directly up in their faces as they both climbed onto their respective seats and took off.

This being his first visit, Lyra had to direct Titus to where her house was and as discretely as a roughly six-foot human on an highly-advanced speeder bike in a town full of multicolored ponies could be he set down at her front door to help her unload the sidecar which was packed with paper bags and boxes though before he could ask where she wanted them she had hopped out and headed for the door. It wasn't a big hassle to carry everything in, what with the bags and boxes being pony-sized, but when he turned around after getting everything balanced in his arms he found Lyra checking under the cheerful welcome mat and patting herself down like someone looking for keys in a pocket which, of course, she didn't have.

"I could have sworn I left this unlocked..." she mumbled and looked a little pensive though Titus was fairly certain her thoughts had little to do with her disregard of securing her abode from intruders but any comment he was going to make was dismissed as she shook herself of the concern and resumed her cheerful grin, "Oh! Hang tight for a second, I'll be right back!" What felt like several minutes passed though with no real way to tell how long it had been because of the armful that prevented him from looking at is wristpad Titus was left to stand outside the door but more uncomfortable than the packages that slowly began to feel as if they were gaining weight was the looks and giggled conversations of passing residents, several of whom stopped to watch and say hello. Thankfully the sound of the deadbolt rattle saved him before any of the idle chit-chat he had been hit up with became any more awkward than asking if he was moving in with Lyra which he gave a non-committal answer to, but instead of being met with the mint unicorn's face he was instead greeted by the earth pony he had only seen at a distance. Shifting uneasily he gave the rather unamused-looking mare a small grin, "Oh, h-hello. You must be Bon-Bon; Lyra was just here but she-"

Physically leaning to one side to look past him Bon-Bon turned her unwelcoming gaze to the small gathering outside of her door which, surprisingly enough, had the desired effect of causing them to disperse without so much as a word being said and once the stoop and surrounding area had cleared she sighed and looked from the bags Titus was carrying to the painted bike then up at him. "Huh. I thought you'd be... taller," she mumbled before clearing her throat, "Oh, right, Lyra. She went around back to the kitchen and... asked me to let you in." That sounded a little odd to Titus because during the trip from the market Lyra had been enthusiastic about getting to introduce him to her roommate and he was about to ask Bon-Bon when Lyra's voice from down the hall called out to him to come in and drop the stuff in the living room to which the earth pony stepped aside and nodded her head to indicate to follow her.

Locking the door behind him Bon-Bon skirted around him to lead the way down the hall which was a bit narrower than Twilight's, something that was understandable as the library was a public building while this was a private residence, so he had to watch that his elbows didn't bump into anything and the door frame the earth pony lead him through was also smaller to the point that he just barely brushed the top without having to duck. The earth pony hopped into a comfy-looking chair and, after putting the numerous parcels down nearby, Titus took a seat on the couch to wait for Lyra but by the time he had finished nibbling on one of the offered cookies she hadn't made an appearance and he felt compelled to ask.

Bon-Bon stopped going through the bags briefly to snag a nibble on a biscuit of her own before washing it down with a sip of tea, "She tried to climb in through an open window but it closed on her-"

"What? Is she okay?"

"Oh yeah, she's fine. The window jammed when it fell so she's stuck half in and half out and quite frankly I'm of the mind to leave her like that for a bit because she was supposed to have been back with this stuff a while ago... " even with his alien face Bon-Bon could easily see his concerned expression and shrugged in conceit or annoyance, Titus couldn't be sure which, "But I know she probably would have forgotten and come back empty hoofed which would have left me to do it myself, so I'm guessing you reminded her... okay, fine, I guess she's been there long enough and she should be let out. I'm not helping, though." With a heavy sigh she hopped to the floor and lead the way to the kitchen where a limp Lyra hung from a window at her waist before she bolted upright with a big grin at their approach.

"Heya big guy! You and Bonie were gone a while; must have finish packing or something, right? Well whatever, just... help me get down." Lyra wiggled her hips which shook the whole windowsill but the bottom rail remained jammed in its track against her back and held her in place until the wiggling stopped and she went limp again from the exertion, only expending enough energy to look at Bon-Bon and Titus expectantly. "So, I'm thinking one of you pushes while the other pulls..." she paused and caught the glance shared between them before the earth pony shrugged and leaned against the door's frame in what was clearly a gesture that the floor was all Titus', "Okay, never mind, it looks like my best friend and roomie would rather watch-"

"When I got home the front door was open, anypony walking by could have come in," Bon-Bon shot back with a huff, "And you were supposed to have been back an hour ago; if you had forgotten to go to the market I would have been in real trouble and probably would have missed my train trying to do it myself!"

Lyra scowled at the accusation, "Open? I know I closed it because I made sure to check that it was unlocked before I closed it!" Ignoring Bon-Bon's frustrated groan at how that wasn't much better Lyra continued and explained that she had had everything under control and that Titus had needed a hoof with the school's interview before she returned to her current predicament of being stuck in a window, "So I don't think I need to tell you how uncomfortable this is, though Bonnie is going to be a meanie and just leave me here but... you'll help, right big guy?" Thankfully Titus seemed eager to get her out of the window and moved in front of her to examine the situation and quickly found the movable section of window was jammed at an angle and that Lyra's wiggling had made things worse as she was now squished in the corner of the sill which had allowed the window to jam itself further.

Pulling a chair over for Lyra to rest her front hooves on and take a bit of weight off of her stomach Titus wormed his fingers under the edge of the window holding the unicorn in place before he explained what he was going to try, "Alright, I need to move both sides of this so it's aligned again, so it's going to get a little tighter on your end before I can wiggle this back to normal." Pulling up with the hand he had under the edge of the window while hammering on the top of the other with a fist and after a few attempts (and some uncomfortable grunts from Lyra) the window was back on track but still jammed and the unicorn was just as stuck as before; taking a step back he tried taking a look at the problem from a new perspective, metaphorically speaking, and might have said something about the window needing to be replaced.

"No buck, big guy. You want to go get the repairpony? I'll just hang out here while you run off to find one," Lyra huffed before dropping her sarcastic tone to flash a playful waggle of the eyebrows, "Or maybe you could try going outside to give me a push-"

Bon-Bon's snort cut her off, "Oh, you mean through the door that's been unlocked this whole time?"

Sure enough when Titus checked the door not an arms-length away it swung open freely and the are-you-kidding-me look he gave Lyra caused her to shrink back under a sheepish grin; a quick peek outside revealed Lyra's rump hanging out the window into the back yard which was, much to her relief, lined with a tall wooden fence so she wasn't on display. Titus, however, wasn't about to go plant his hands on those wiggling flanks to give Lyra a heave-ho through the window and instead went to the fridge and with a little help found what he was looking for - a stick of butter - and after warming it in his hands he worked a little into the window's track which in short order lubricated the pane enough that he could hoist it just a little higher and Lyra could squeeze out though when she tried to walk around she discovered her hind legs had fallen asleep which left her to wobble through the kitchen before stumbling to Titus as he washed the butter from his hands and, after Bon-Bon made a point of not asking how the pair had come to both have the colorful markings, to scrub the blue paint from his face.

"Thanks, big guy! I knew I could count on you to get me out of a jam and hey, you had my back!" Lyra came at Titus from behind as he was stooped over the sink to wrap her hooves around his stomach which almost pitched him into it in the process, "And like I said I've got yours, literally!" Even when he stood up she held on and did her best to stay behind him as he tried to twist around to get her, giggling as she stumbled on her sleepy legs to dodge his poorly-acted attempts to get a hold of her until their game came to an end when he stopped playing and got a hand over her shoulder and could pull her off.

With Lyra out of the window and finally able to go about getting cleaned up and ready to visit Twilight to sort out the plan for the Equestrian Fighter's Competition viewing night, Titus was left to wait in the living room to nosh on cookies with Bon-Bon as she continued sorting through the items from the market, however the human quickly noticed her glancing at him oddly and though he tried to pay it little mind it eventually came to the point that she was just outright staring.

"You're weird... not in a bad way, I mean you're weird like Lyra," she responded with blunt honesty when asked what she found so intriguing, adding in a shrug before her head tilted to one side and she looked him over from head to foot, "and she's still acting weird around you... and I mean her normal weird, not her weird weird."

Over the lip of his cup of tea Titus' eyebrow arched a bit up his forehead, "She has different types of weird?"

"I've lived with her for a while, so I guess you could say I'm a bit of an expert on them and the way she is with you is strange," Bon-Bon was quiet for a while before she nodded and her eyes narrowed as she tried to read the human; Titus' did the same at the sudden extreme scrutiny being run over him, his gut telling him this pony was far more than what she appeared, "It's a bit of a puzzle that I'm working out; I don't know if you're privy, but half of Ponyville is convinced you've got another special somepony - no definitive consensus on who, at least not yet - I think Lyra knows, though, because I've heard something about a cupcake with raspberries, and I know Lyra hates raspberries... then there's the fact that she's acting totally normally weird with you and not her weird weird that she gets when she's-"

The thundering of hooves coming down the stairs cut the earth pony off and a second later a still-wet Lyra came tearing around the corner before leaping into Titus' lap with a laugh, "All clean and ready to go, big guy! So, just so you're aware in case Sparkles asks, the plan for Friday is-" She paused when she caught the stare-down happening between the human and her roommate and cast her own looks at them trying to figure out what was going on. Are they mad with each other? What did I miss? Sitting up a little bit Lyra gave each of them a worried glance, "I feel like I'm watching the standoff scene from a western movie. Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, we were just having a cookie and talking about rumors and how some ponies act strangely and aren't what they seem," Titus emphasized the last bit with a subtle nod toward Bon-Bon to communicate that he had felt something about her was off as well and, judging from her slight change in expression, she had. Not wanting to dwell on it or let the mint unicorn inquire further though the unpleasant feeling of damp fur slowly soaking his clothes in a distinctly Lyra-esque shape was what really got him to his feet where he looked down at the wet outline she had left on his shirt and part of his pants.

Before he could ask if she had even bothered to dry off after her bath she gently took the nearest hand in her mouth to lead him to the stairs, understandably having a bit of trouble speaking around the palm and fingers that she refused to let go of as she exclaimed she had something to show him before they could leave. Practically dragging the hunched human up the stairs she shouldered her way past her clearly marked door and into her room where she came to a stop beside the nightstand where the picture Featherweight had taken for them was framed. "Looks great, right?" she asked with a face-splitting grin before a short gasp turned into a giggle and a jab in the ribs, "What was it that you said that first time I was on your ship, it was something like 'Welcome to my bedroom; don't think me letting you in here is an invitation for any funny stuff'?" Out from under a pillow she pulled a set of glasses with an obnoxiously large false nose and mustache attached and quickly donned them before wiggling her eyebrows at him, "I mean, not that I'd have a problem with any funny stuff."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just pull those glasses out so I don't have to think about why'd they be under your pillow to begin with," Titus shook his head and stepped closer to the picture for a better look and noticed a photograph roughly the same size as the one in the frame face down beside it but when he slowly lifted a corner out of curiosity a mint hoof gently laid atop his hand to stop him.

"It's nopony, big guy; nopony worth being in a picture frame, even one that's been face down for so long," she gave him a smile of thanks when he slowly removed his hand and patted her on the shoulder with no more questions asked before she reared up to give him a hug and quick peck on the cheek, much like the one in their picture, "Now come on, I want to get to Sparkles before she hogs your Friday night."

When they left Lyra failed to notice that the datapad she had left on the hall table to remind herself to return it to Titus was gone, the same datapad she had brought home when Titus had gotten sick that contained the complete creature compendium which she had left open on the entry covering humans.

------------

"Thanks, Miss Rarity, these look great!" Titus exclaimed as he held up the robe and hat he had commissioned for a quick inspection, "Sorry for the short notice."

"Darling please, working on you is so refreshing because I don't have to worry about styles, I can just design to my heart's content! I just wish I could have had a bit more time to piece together something far less... shabby," Rarity sighed as she looked over the large garments with a bit of disappointment even though the costume had come out remarkably well, "That will need to be washed by hoof, by the way; the only unreserved fabric I had in that color doesn't come pre-washed."

"Good to know. And you're sure you don't want me to pay? I mean, you were busy with other things and it really looks like you did a lot of work-"

"I hardly think it would be right to accept payment for you already have paid by proxy: using the garments you've let me get measurements of you in and with inspiration from several prominent objects from your ship I've produced a few outfits sure to be a hit at the show!" she motioned a hoof toward a group of mannequins sporting various takes on some of the clothing he had worn, ranging from the earthy brown and white robes that made an appearance at the Palace garden party to the simple pants and shirts he would work in and on one particularly prominent mannequin was a flowing dress bearing the colors of his protective space suit though, Rarity being Rarity, each bore some form of subtle flair the fashionista had masterfully worked into the design - one outfit even looked like it drew inspiration from R6, judging by the large off-white dome hat featuring some of the same red iron oxide trim present on the droid which Titus thought his astromech would probably take great amusement in hearing of. Rarity interrupted his perusal of any of the other outfits on display when she cleared her throat (in the most ladylike of ways, of course) and when she had his attention again she fluttered her eyelashes alluringly, "However, you were to find any more clothes that you could do without for oh... say an afternoon or so, I certainly wouldn't turn those down."

Titus chuckled at the overt bid for more design references as he carefully folded his costume for travel before he paused and gave it genuine thought, "Now that I actually think about it, my Master's quarters has a closet of her clothes; they're not much different than mine as she wasn't one to dress fancy, but they're definitely more feminine-oriented in their cuts and dimensions. If you'd like to come by you can go through them, otherwise you'd have to rely on my poor fashion sense to box up what I could only guess would be useful to you." Needless to say Rarity was very keen on that suggestion so they quickly arranged a time she could swing by before lunch at which point another customer entered the boutique and Titus took his leave to run the last errand he had in preparation for his surprise for Twilight which involved a certain cyan pegasus he needed to make a deal with.

------------

"Be right there!" Twilight hollered at the door as she passed the clock which got a quick glance to see that Titus was running a little later than he said he would have. Because the library is closed today he told me to keep the afternoon free, so I guess he thought we might be able to do something. There was another metallic knock at the door and after a quick check of her appearance she opened the door, "Hello, Titu-" Rather than the human at the door his familiar cylindrical astromech happily chirped and beeped at her appearance; in the past week Twilight and Lyra had accompanied the droid on a trip to the market to pick up a good deal of scrap metal from the junkyard dealers for use on ship repairs and while the droid did make a bit of a scene everypony in town had heard about the aggressive Academy scientist that had gotten a well-deserved face full of gross black liquid so they kept a respectful distance and didn't crowd him though Lyra still made introductions for him which, as it turned out, seemed to have greatly lessened his fear of being picked at and studied so he now could occasionally be found tooling about town on various errands for supplies to fix the ship though Junker and Salvage - the two ponies running the town's recycling yard - got most of the droid's business.

"Hi, Arsix! Come on in," Twilight greeted and gave him a hug to which the droid wobbled from foot to foot with a few happy beeps of in return before rolling into the hallway far enough so that Twilight could close the door, whereupon a small pincer arm popped out of his body to hold a ticket toward her, "What do you have there?" Several more chirps was the response but with Lyra being the only pony thus far that could understand the droid's language although Spike, who had finished his chores early to go hang out at the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse, had shown a knack as well which frustrated Twilight all the more at her inability as she would have had to play a small game of twenty-questions to figure out what R6 was trying to convey, though thankfully this was fairly straightforward and much easier than it had been previous times because of a stored hologram video he played back for her, "So Titus wants to meet me at the cinema and I need to wear my Star Swirl costume... an odd request, but I guess it sort of makes sense if we're seeing a movie about him." Despite being the massive Star Swirl fan she was Twilight had never really been interested in seeing any of the movies surrounding her idol outside of seeing how factual they were but this particular movie, titled Star Swirl & the Lost Tome of Saddle Arabia, she had seen in theaters because it had gotten good reviews and what had been more interesting to her was that it was based off of a series of entries in his most well-known journal (which, of course, she was immensely familiar with) in which he had gone on a journey in search of a book that had been lost to the sands and was said to contain the secret to alicornhood, though there had been a good bit of Applewood movie-embellishment of the details to keep the audience engaged.

Twilight still had small chunk of time before she would have to head to the theater so she called her two dating experts together for a quick meeting over lunch for their insight on a movie night and picked up a few pointers as well as a slick move that Dash assured her would up her game and net her a bunch of style points with Titus though she pointed out that under normal circumstances the movie was "rather dorky to take your date to" before amending her comment to add that considering it was Twilight and, to a lesser extent, Titus as well, the pegasus felt safe in saying it was a good fit for both of them and commended him on his choice. On her way back to the library to get ready Twilight mentally went over everything that had been covered at the meeting to organize it into easily-accessible packets of information and because she was partially distracted she only just caught sight of two ponies out of the corner of her eye wearing Star Swirl costumes of their own. That's odd... they must be going to the movie as well. Here I thought I was the only pony in Ponyville with a costume, though I think one of them was just wearing a blue bath robe. Twilight took a second to rubberneck and confirm that it was indeed a bathrobe while the other wore a blanket with a starry design but had no beard. Well, I guess we can't all have accurate costumes created from hours of research. "A" for effort, though!

After stopping by the library to don her own costume as well as leave a note on the door that she would be unavailable for a few hours she headed out for the theater. I wonder why he wanted me to wear this, maybe it's so he can find me easier? But he already knows what seat I'll be in... unless he wants to bump into me beforehoof. Twilight continued to try and think of other reasons he would want her to stick out from the other movie-goers as she wound her way through the streets and ended up passing almost the whole journey in thought, not that it was a long walk or anything, she was just going at a slower pace so she would arrive relatively close to when the ushers usually let ponies into the theater after a quick cleanup from the previous screening. Well, at the very least my admiration of Star Swirl is basically common knowledge to everypony in town, so I guess that would be enough of a reason that I'd take Titus to see a movie about him and if I were to do that I probably would wear my costu- Her thought processes came to a grinding halt, as did she, when she rounded the last corner and found herself in a sea of starry blue cloaks and jingly magician hats like hers and for half a second Twilight wondered if maybe she was ill and seeing things.

"What in Tartarus' name..." A quick assessment of her mental faculties disproved any sort of hallucinations and she tentatively worked her way toward the end of the long ticket line though her usual sense of curiosity drove her to listen in on as many conversations as she could, and from the relatively short wait to reach the ticket booth she had learned through eavesdropping on ponies near her that the theater had been rented out for a special showing of the movie with free admission for anyone in a costume. Seems to be a publicity stunt to hype up the fans, so maybe the rumors of a new film are true. Twilight was excitedly considering the idea of a movie exploring Star Swirl's other journals and was so engrossed in thought that she bumped into the pony in front of her when the line stopped a bit sooner than she had expected, though to her it felt more like walking into a brick wall muzzle-first. "Ooof! Oh, I'm sorry!" she winced and rubbed her sore nose before cracking an eye open to look at the immovable object she had run into, "Are you alright?"

"YEEAAH!"

Twilight immediately realized that she had run into Snowflake, recognizing him from several of the times she had seen him hanging around Titus' ship while he was working outside after Lyra had pointed him out as a fellow Human Watcher, his physique rather distinguishable though currently the hat perched between his ears and cloak draped over his bulging muscles did little to disguise the pegasus. "Sorry, again, for bumping into you," she repeated with a friendly smile as the line moved forward again; Snowflake might look a like he was on the verge of roid-rage but from her experience he had never shown any sort of hint at anger toward anypony, "I never would have pictured seeing you in this line. Are you a Star Swirl fan, too?"

"YEEEAAH!" he shouted and threw a hoof above his head, "Star Swirl rules!"

As usual the response was enthusiastic and loud, something which would often unsettle anypony that visited and happened to encounter the bodybuilder though Twilight, who had become familiar with all of Ponyville's residents (more or less), was unfazed and gave a small cheer of her own. "I guess it's true that you learn something new every day, huh? Oh, I don't suppose you've seen Titus recently? I had some, um... Night Court forms I need him to sign," the generic excuse was something she had utilized on a few other occasions before when she hadn't wanted any probing questions asked and, like before, it seemed to work as Snowflake shrugged his shoulders and shook his head before passing his ticket to the clerk in the booth and heading for the snack bar and long after losing sight of him she heard a loud yell of "Buttered Popcorn, YEAH!" over the noise of the crowd as she climbed the stairs to the private box seats Titus had gotten. Waiting for her was a small machine quietly pumping out fresh popcorn while beside it a soda fountain's sign glowed warmly; Twilight knew from past trips to the theater that only two of the elevated booths had such amenities and both were guaranteed to be sold out as she had wanted to rent one for her and her friends a few times but somepony had beaten her to the reservations which made her wonder just how her coltfriend had managed to get the seats reserved.

"I think I can say with some certainty that if there was going to be some form of Star Swirl Convention - in Ponyville, no less - I would have been the first pony to hear about it," Twilight whispered to herself as she looked over the balcony railing at the theater chock full of shadowy figures dressed in robes and pointed magician-style hats and even with the lights set to their pre-movie dimness, because of the darkened nature of the theater Twilight couldn't readily identify most of the ponies who didn't have an overly distinguishing body trait like Snowflake or the ball of fluff that had dyed her fur blue and had a hat made of construction paper and glitter that she was currently chewing on; other than that some ponies had items she could link to a name or face such as the two Star Swirls seated several rows away with cameras that she could guess with a good degree of certainty had to be the photographers Snappy Scoop and Action Shot. Odd that they'd be covering something like this now that they're the go-to ponies for any photos regarding Titus. Maybe they know he's going to be here? Might have to watch ourselves... A theater full of Star Swirl fans was something Twilight never thought she'd see, especially in a fairly small town like Ponyville, and as she drank in the sight and leaned further over the balcony rail to try and identify the ponies below her a familiar voice came from behind her.

"By my beard, another doppelganger! This theater is teeming with them!"

Despite an obvious attempt at sounding old Twilight immediately identified the voice as Titus' and realized he had snuck into the booth while she had been preoccupied. "I was wondering when-" her statement dropped from her throat when she caught sight of the back-lit human in the doorway; he, too, was wearing a Star Swirl costume, the tip of his magician's hat catching on the top of the door frame when he stepped into the booth with a jingle as the attached bell bounced about until a hand got it under control while the other arm was occupied with closing the door behind him. Twilight was a bit shocked and not sure if she should laugh at how odd he looked in a head-to-foot starry-patterned robe and hat or admire how well the outfit seemed to fit him. Rarity's work, no doubt, judging from how well the fabric flows but still hugs him in just the right spots. She quickly decided on the latter and reared up to give him a hug which he wholeheartedly returned in full before they both headed for their seats. "I'm not sure what he would think of it, but for a biped you pull off Star Swirl's clothing very well!" she complimented, watching as the robe folded around his frame when he sat down and giving him a big smile when the hoof she had on her armrest was taken up in a hand though it quickly turned into worry, "W-Wait, what if somepony sees us?"

"I saw you looking over the edge, so tell me: how many ponies could you point at and name?"

Twilight thought about the question for a second before agreeing with the point he was making; the theater was too dark for her to be easily identified and the fact that they were in one of the private booths above the general seating meant nopony could get any sort of decent look at them though even after telling herself they were safe she still took a quick look around for anypony that might be watching before returning her hoof to his hand and quickly zipping in for a smooch, "I had no idea the Lost Tome of Saddle Arabia was playing at this theater or I would have brought you to see it because it's my favorite one; of all of television and movies inspired by his journals this movie comes the closest to being factual. I've even read the entries it's based on from the original journal in the Canterlot library! Though I-I may have snuck in after hours and gotten caught by Princess Celestia to do so... She said I should have asked."

"I'm glad you're as excited as I am to see it, and glad the Princess didn't throw her star pupil into the dungeons," Titus said and gave her hoof a squeeze. It was annoyingly difficult to talk with the beard he had picked up from the joke shop so he pulled it down over his chin much the same way Twilight wore hers, though in her case it was because the beard had gotten so much use that the elastic band was worn out, "I was a bit worried about the level of turnout, but it looks like Lyra got the word around-" He was cut off as Twilight looked at him curiously in wonder of what he meant so he explained how he had asked Lyra to pass the word around the Human Watchers that there was a screening of a movie that the members were invited to and the tickets for which would be free for anypony in a Star Swirl costume, though judging by how every single seat was filled by somepony in a costume Titus leaned more to the possibility that the mint unicorn had communicated that the outfits were required and to bring a friend or two.

"Y-You organized this?!"

"Well... yeah. I told you I wanted to take you on a date where we could act like a somewhat normal couple in public," he responded and nodded over the rail toward the filled theater, "So I figured for that to happen we'd need to blend in, or you would, at least, because let's face it I don't exactly melt into crowds without a little Force intervention; then I remembered something about a Daring Do convention where a bunch of ponies had all dressed up like her - I think it was Rainbow, and she thought it was all pretty dorky - but that's what gave me the idea for all of this. You've shown me your costume before, so after renting out the theater all that was left was to get bodies to fill similar costumes, which Lyra more than accomplished with her Human Watchers."

"But if we're in a private booth and nopony sees Lyra they might get suspicious," Twilight quickly pointed out.

Just as quickly, however, Titus pulled a small set of what Twilight might call futuristic binoculars out of a pocket to pass to her to use; holding the device up to her eyes, the entire theater was immediately lit up almost as if a night-eye spell had been cast in what she recognized was something similar to one of the features he had on his helmet. She gave the crowd a quick scan, but even with the night-vision she had trouble identifying more than a few faces behind their beards and, catching that he was talking into his wristpad, followed as he pointed at the private box on the opposite side of the theater, "One Lyra Heartstrings, in attendance." Indeed there was a mint unicorn across the theater in a Star Swirl costume, though her hat and beard were sitting on the seat beside her as she merrily waved a hoof in their direction though it was evident from the way she glanced in their general direction in search of them that she couldn't see either Twilight or Titus in the shadows of their private booth to which Twilight's powers of reasoning quickly deduced that his wristpad had allowed him to communicate for her to wave. "The third seat here is a safety measure; Lyra has the ticket for it so if for whatever reason we need the cover my robes make it easy to subtly send a signal through my wristpad and Lyra can join us under the excuse that she was in the bathroom or something and all three of us can be seen leaving together."

Twilight's horn glowed and a small click could be heard from the booth's door as the lock was engaged, soon followed by the unicorn leaning in for a nuzzle as the theater lights dimmed further which was indicative of the start of the movie, "I sincerely hope we don't have need of that plan because I want you all to myself."

The movie, as expected, was an absolute blast and the audience obviously was enjoying it - the plot was spot on and engaging, the actors were all likable and believable in their roles, and the director had a great eye for composing action scenes; Titus was on the edge of his seat as Star Swirl explored a dark tomb, the scene's ambiance enhanced by the soundtrack ceasing so that only his hooffalls on stonework were heard and the entire screen was black except for a small circle of flickering light from his torch (which Twilight wanted to point out was redundant with unicorn lighting magic but she kept her muzzle shut) that illuminated just enough of the actor's face to convey expressions and catch the eerie set pieces as he moved forward.

The big jump-scare scene is coming up. Just like Dash showed you, be cool about it. Leaning back in her seat Twilight checked out of the corner of her eye that Titus was fully engaged with watching the movie before she feigned a yawn and stretched a hoof over the back of his seat, following the motion exactly as her pegasus friend had demonstrated in their café chairs she intended to have a reassuring hoof on his shoulder after he jumped. Alright, cool as a cucumber! Here it comes, cue cursed mummy in three, two, one...

That, of course, doesn't work when the pony you're trying to put the moves on happens to be a much taller human and even less so when the seats aren't designed for someone his size, leaving your hoof somewhere on his mid back rather than over his shoulder, and when Titus did jump and recover with a foolish grin in her direction he glanced at her hoof for a moment before giving it a raised eyebrow. Realizing she probably wasn't as smooth as she had hoped she shrank back to using her own armrest and was more than a little annoyed with herself, mentally berating herself for thinking that somehow that trick would work until a moment later, during a lull in the action after Star Swirl had run away through a trap-laden hallway comically dodging and avoiding everything, Titus subtly caught her eye with his and made an exaggerated yawn and coinciding stretch that ended with his arm across the back of her seat.

Twilight made a play at being miffed that she had been lead on and mimicked his raised-eyebrow look but quickly zipped in for a playful smooch before she nudged the arm off to actually rest over her shoulder where it stayed for the rest of the film.

------------ roughly 2 hours later... ------------

"If you're waiting for a scene after the credits there isn't one," Twilight said a little disappointingly, having seen the movie somewhat recently; when she had given Luna that crash course on movie nights at Princess Celestia's request Lost Tome of Saddle Arabia had been one of the Princess' picks from the large library of titles supplied for the event and the recovering lunar alicorn had insisted on sitting through the credits to acknowledge everypony's contribution, though she had been a bit shocked that it was fairly normal for most theaters to empty before they had progressed very far.

"Oh, that's unfortunate but I uh... had something else in mind. Sometimes you don't go to a movie just to watch it..." Titus waited until the majority of the movie goers had left before leaving their seats and descending to the bottom of the stairs that lead up to their booth, staying on the other side of the curtain that hid them from the main hallway, and while the theater was still using the dimmed lighting he quickly pulled her with him into the shadows a little further where he could answer her curious squeak by lifting her off her hooves and into a heated kiss. Twilight was quick to catch on that this was Titus' way of indulging her desire to do the normal date stuff and without any hesitation she went about checking "movie theater make-out" off her to-do list though their beards posed a small problem when they got a little tangled. They only got a few minutes in before approaching hooffalls broke them apart and Twilight re-donned her beard just before a theater worker with headphones and a small trash bin attached via a saddlebag strap pushed through the curtain and bounced her way up the stairs to the beat of the music she was listening to, completely oblivious to either figure plastered to the wall behind her that snuck out a second later amid stifled giggles, at least until they made it to the nearby exit that deposited them out the back of the large building where they could openly laugh.

Heading back home at a fairly casual pace Twilight sought Titus' opinion on the film and much to her delight he revealed it had sparked his interest in learning more about her hero's exploits which she was more than eager to open the veritable floodgates of knowledge she knew by heart though she didn't get very far into what would have taken a trip around Equestria to scratch the surface of before they began to notice the flurry of activity that had been occurring above them as numerous pegasi rushed about pushing clouds into place and covering what had been a clear blue sky patch by patch under supervision from Rainbow Dash who quickly spotted the pair and rushed down to Titus' eye level with a dull grey cloud of her own.

"Nice getup, Stretch... but didn't anypony tell you Nightmare Night isn't for a couple of months? Pfffah-ha ha ha!" Dash rolled onto the cloud amid hooting laughter at her own joke over which she couldn't hear Twilight grumbling that his costume looked great aside from the minor inaccuracies like it being a shade of blue too dark and the hat not having enough bells and she only noticed the unicorn after she had recovered and wiped the tears from her eyes, "No, no, it's a nice costume... Heya Lyra, think it helps hide the big 'scroll' he's got for the egghead?! Hoo ha ha ha-! Oh. Uh... wait, is that you, Twilight? *Aheh* I um, the big lanky dude here was easy to spot but you took me a second what with all these Star Beards running around."

"Close, it's actually Star Swirl the Bearded, and-" Twilight jumped in to correct out of habit but that was as far as she got.

"Yeah whatever, that old nerd with the movies," Dash's genuine shrug of complete disinterest in learning who Twilight and Titus were dressed up as got an irritated look from the unicorn that she ignored and instead quickly jerked her head at the last few clouds the weather team was moving into position behind her, "Anyway, we're due for that rain storm to counteract the heatwave we had a few weeks ago and the pencil pushers figured we'd better get as much of it over with as we can before it starts crowding up the other forecasts so it's about to get pretty nasty out here. You two better hoof it if you don't want to get caught out in it!"

With a nod of thanks for the warning they took off as the last cloud was put into place and the whole sky began to turn ominously dark but run as they might both were quickly caught in a downpour of sheets of rain so thick it was hard to see from one side of the street to the other and very quickly the gutters turned into small streams though that didn't stop Twilight or Titus from having a good deal of fun splashing through the deep puddles together and their laughter drew many funny looks from the windows they passed on their way back to the library, Titus' ship being much too far and when they finally got inside the rain had just begun to lose the warmth that had carried over from the sunny day just prior to the storm.

Titus dragged a sleeve across his face to keep some of the water from flowing into his eyes but when he pulled it away he felt an almost clingy residue left behind which he quickly came to realize was lint and dye from the costume's fabric and a moment later when Twilight had finished shedding her costume and was drying herself with a towel she seemed a bit startled at the sudden blue tone he had taken on and the towel she offered did a good job of wiping the lint from his face but did little to remove the dye that had already soaked partially into his skin. "Kark, Rarity did say this would run," he joked, taking a peek inside a sleeve to find that every bit of wet fabric was leaving the lint and dye behind and, unfortunately, he was soaked pretty much all over.

Twilight, of course, didn't want him to be blue for Celestia knows how long and helped him out of the cloak that clung to his skin and left streaks of dye down his arms, back, and chest as the layers were pulled off until he was standing in the hallway in nothing but the soaked form-fitting undershorts which soon lead him to start shivering so she quickly ushered him through the library, careful not to let the costume touch anything that it might stain. "You're going to catch a cold, and you know how I am when it comes to you getting sick," she scolded when he protested that he was fine, magically grabbing him by the wrist and leading him upstairs as a tinge of déjà vu kicked in, "Go hop in the shower to warm up and scrub yourself clean while I hang up your Star Swirl costume to dry. I doubt the storm will let up anytime soon, so you're more then welcome to stay; in fact, I'd really like you to."

"The last time I took a shower here I had a Princess barge in and shout me into unconsciousness," Titus pointed out playfully but found Twilight rolling her eyes.

"I can promise there won't be any Princesses this time. Now come on, get in there!"

Moments later Titus was willing to admit that Twilight had been right, the hot water felt wonderful and as luck would have it the little bench Spike would use was still in the shower which gave Titus a place to sit which, in turn, made the otherwise cramped enclosure feel much more comfortable for someone of his frame; he wasn't sure how long he sat contentedly under the light massage of the raining water before there was a knock at the bathroom door and a few seconds later a violet muzzle poked inside just as he peeked around the edge of the shower curtain.

"It's just m-me. I made a few t-t-teleports over to your ship and brought back-k a change of clothes. It's s-still pouring out t-there."

"Thanks, Twi, sorry you had to go back out in this weather," Titus watched as Twilight carried a complete set of dry clothing across the bathroom and placed them in the empty laundry basket on the far side below the window where raindrops battered at the glass in the high wind though it quickly came to his attention that she was drenched to the bone and, if her teeth-chattering was anything to go by, she was cold. "You must be freezing, I'll jump out and get changed now so you can take a turn in here to warm up."

"No, I-I'm f-fine-"

"Okay come on, that's not fair; you can't be all worried about me being cold and getting sick then brush me off when I voice the same concern for you. Give me a minute and I'll get dressed..." Titus disappeared from her sight to reach for the faucet but the small grumbles from Twilight could still be heard that he was overreacting so he poked his face out again to stare at her from around the shower curtain and after a moment of thought he cleared his throat, "Or, um... would you rather join me?"

"S-Sure!" Twilight's answer came directly on the tail end of the question which left little room to doubt her enthusiasm for that alternative despite knowing it would be crowded in her small shower and when she slid past the curtain opposite where Titus had been peeking out she found he had seated himself on the small bench which was obviously too low for him as his bent knees were almost at chest level. His back was to her and still covered in the blue dye and lint from the costume though his arms and face were slightly red from the thorough scrubbing they must have received and small swirls of colored water trailed from him to the drain in what was a bit of a sad but somewhat amusing sight, not that it detracted from the spectacle of the water streaming down his shoulders and over his flanks which she gladly took a moment to admire. Twilight's mind immediately having gone back to the book Princess Celestia had given her for her recent birthday which had been none other than the one she had snuck into the Princess' quarters to secretly read as a growing filly, though Twilight had forgotten the title up until the wrapping had revealed the gold filigree font of "Steamy Shower Stallion" on the spine and even though she wasn't even in the water she already felt warmer as several scenes came to mind. But there's no way Princess Celestia would know I had snuck into her chambers to read it, right? But then, why was she smiling like that... Titus pulling the stool a bit closer toward the faucet end of the shower broke her train of thought and she realized he was moving so she could get under the hot water which she happily did, closing her eyes and turning her face into the gentle spray; it felt so wonderful that she placed a hoof on Titus' shoulder to lift herself a bit closer to the shower head where it was even warmer. She stayed like that for a few moments, rolling her head around and letting the water play over her ears, through her mane, and down either side of her neck before she felt a hand wrap around her hoof and a second later he was nuzzling it affectionately, prompting her to lower herself back down to place a small kiss on his turned cheek. "Seeing as we're both in here why don't I scrub your back?" she asked and got a warm hum and more nuzzles to her hoof in response which continued as she lathered up his back with a bar of soap and went to work with a washcloth that she floated over the top of the shower curtain from the towel bar.

Twilight gently worked the soapy cloth in small circles, first cleaning the shoulder her hoof was resting on so that she wouldn't have to worry about the dye transferring to her coat before slowly working her way across to the other shoulder though she took particular care when she got closer to the outer tendrils of the spiderweb of scars that she still was hesitant to comment on despite how comfortable they had both become with each other over the past few weeks.

The extra careful dabs of the cloth betrayed her curiosity and the sudden answer to her unvoiced question caused the unicorn pause, though his hand never left the hoof on his shoulder, "They're from a MagnaGuard staff."

While thankful to finally have an answer Twilight was a little alarmed and looked over the scars with a bit of worry, "Y-You got hurt this badly during training?" After his recovery and the additional resting period prescribed by the unicorn Titus had gone back to his usual training regime, though Twilight's first introduction to it had been walking into the ship's exercise room to unexpectedly find two of the bipedal droids she had grown accustomed to seeing peacefully salvaging larger components from the crash site instead swinging electrified staves at her coltfriend; she had blasted the two assailants away and instinctually teleported herself protectively between Titus and the droids only to have him greet her with a chipper hello and a kiss as if nothing was out of the ordinary which had come as a minor shock to the concerned unicorn who, after his explanation, had been extremely squeamish as she watched the rest from the sidelines.

"No, it happened during the war; Master Krua and I were sent by the Council to support some Clone Troopers as they set up a small listening outpost to pick up any remote Separatist comm chatter in the sector. Krua told me to stay behind and help several of the specialist Clones with upgrading from the field sensors to something a bit more permanent while she and a small platoon secured a landing zone for future shuttles," Titus explained as Twilight resumed scrubbing but rested her muzzle on the hoof he had in his hand to receive and give a few nuzzles of her own against his cheek, "It was supposed to be an introductory mission for a Padawan close to advancement, something that a new Knight might be sent on with their Master or another Jedi. The Separatists got wind of the installation and didn't much appreciate us eavesdropping so they covertly deployed a battalion of droids under the cover of a snowstorm that obscured the weak sensors we were in the process of upgrading though one of the two dropships they sent crashed; Krua was off-base when they attacked and we held out as best we could but had to keep falling back deeper into the installation until we were on the verge of being overrun at which point I called for a ceasefire and negotiated with their commander, a T-series tactical droid, and under our agreement the surviving Clones were released into the storm and once they were out of range scanner range I surrendered myself - apparently a young Jedi was worth the risk of the Clone Troopers returning, but they sacked the base and I was thrown in their landing craft and transferred to the dreadnought in orbit. Once I was aboard I was handed over for interrogation, though when General Grievous heard of the terms of my surrender he wasn't too pleased and had the droid scrapped as punishment before trying to get me to tell him where the Clones and my Master had gone so he could wipe them out." As Titus went on to describe how he had been restrained in a cell and repeatedly jabbed in the back by a MagnaGuard with an electrostaff whenever he refused to cooperate or simply whenever Grievous had wanted to hear him scream Twilight felt a strong fire of anger build up in her gut that someone could do that to him so she tightened her grip on him and continued to affectionately nuzzle at his cheek as he continued, "That went on for two planetary cycles, but in that time Krua and her platoon had met up with the Clones that made it through the storm and stowed aboard the crashed dropship until the droids got it airborne again which easily got them into the dreadnought's hangar and their arrival couldn't have been better timed because they just missed the General and his hunting party heading planetside to search of them. While the clones captured a shuttle for an escape Master Krua slunk through the corridors until she overheard what cell I was in from two droids on patrol, she told me later. I remember the door sliding open and Krua stepping in, each hand reaching out with the Force to crush and shear the MagnaGuards that were torturing me to pieces before she got me down from my restraints, then the next thing I know I'm being tossed over one of her shoulders and carried like a sack of grain. Our withdraw was significantly less stealthy - she bent blast doors outward or pried them from their track rather than allow them to open normally, she spaced entire rooms by crushing the bulkheads to breach the exterior walls, and any sort of surface with blinking lights got a slash from her lightsaber as we passed, but she made a particular effort to destroy any droids we happened across by pulling them apart at the seams and joints so by the time we got to the ship there were so many alarms for different systems going off no one noticed another for an unscheduled shuttle launch. I woke up on a medship with several Council members at my bedside telling me I had completed my Trial of Flesh and that I was now a Knight."

"From what you've told me of the Master/Apprentice relationship it always strikes me that in some ways you were like her foal, so when Grievous took you, and more so when he hurt you, she wanted to send him the message that was a deadly choice he'd better not make again; she loved you, like I do," Twilight hummed and when Titus turned his head to look at her for the odd metaphor she gave him a heartfelt but off-center kiss on the lips before pulling back with a small giggle as her hoof and washcloth slipped under his arm to gently scrub at his chest, "Well not exactly like I do, thankfully... that would be weird."

Titus and Twilight were both under the warm stream of water at this point, so it would have been hard to tell if the lidded gaze she was giving him was an attempt to keep water out of her eyes had it not been for the hungry look in them. Sitting up from the hunched posture he had been in allowed him to twist a little further around to briefly return Twilight's kiss, "And thank the stars for that. Unlike you, Zabrak-" His comment that Zabrak weren't known for being overly gentle lovers was interrupted as Twilight's hoof slid further down his chest to draw little soapy circles on his stomach and when he pointed out that he had already scrubbed the dye from his front she brought her playfully grinning face closer to his.

"Well, your back is done and I want to make sure you got it all-" was all she managed to say before he suddenly closed the distance between their lips while his free hand worked its fingers into her wet mane to play with an ear. With Titus no long hunched over Twilight had much more range of motion and could move herself a bit closer to take advantage of her longer neck and lean a bit more on the shoulder opposite her hoof though she wasn't prepared for him to push a small amount into the already-passionate kiss so with a hum of gleeful surprise she pushed back, using her hoof on the opposite shoulder to pull as well, and quickly retook her territory in what became a short-lived game of back and forth displays of enthusiasm before the unicorn pulled away, briefly and gently pulling his bottom lip with her in her teeth before resting her cheek on his shoulder to nudge at his jaw where she locked eyes with him.

Titus stared back for a moment before nudging at her chin, at which time the slow scrubbing on his stomach began again after having been forgotten, "Think maybe it's time to get out? I wouldn't want either of us to get pruney, plus we can take this someplace a bit more comfortable-"

"Magic shower head; water it sprays gets enchanted so we can't get pruney," Twilight smirked with that accomplished look that told Titus she had made the spell herself and a second later she was nuzzling the special spot under his ear though occasionally she would venture a gentle nibble that sent a visible shiver up her human's spine that she took great delight in eliciting, "Which means there's no reason for us to get out before I make sure there's no more blue dye on you... anywhere."

After reenacting several scenes of Steamy Shower Stallion, the pair stumbled the short way down the hall locked in each others' embrace, completely oblivious to the pictures bumped from their place on the wall or the sharp corner of a table that jabbed into a thigh as they were both far too excited to relocate to Twilight's room for a bit more comfortable environment to finish the activity that had begun and when the door shut it took on a faint sheen as a soundproofing spell was cast;

"My mare..." Titus finally breathed into the panting unicorn's fur, any sort of movement sending wicked spikes of pleasure resounding through their entire bodies from where they were still connected, though that only heightened the sensation of the nuzzle he gave her, "Your stallion." Eloquent words they were not, but they and the tight embrace they were locked in conveyed what wanted to be said with what little power of thought he had; they remained clasped together in each others limbs, nuzzling, cuddling, and generally just sharing in the moment for what felt like forever which at the same time felt completely inadequate to communicate their feelings before Twilight let Titus sit up, her hooves limply falling outward in either direction as she stretched and hummed warmly, her eyes gently closed to bask in the afterglow though the destruction they had wrought on her sheets became apparent to him and prompted the human to begin moving in search of a towel of some sort; neither had bothered drying off from the shower so the dampness from their skin and fur had turned a human-sized portion of the blue sheets a few shades darker which probably did a good job to conceal any of the fluids either had contributed to the event.

Twilight only became aware when he gave her a long smooch, complete with fingers winding into her wet mane, and harboring absolutely no desire for him to leave her side even to fetch a towel from the bathroom so she could clean up she rolled to her side and pulled the nearest arm against her chest as he swung his feet to the floor; despite his warm but questioning expression she only nuzzled against his upper arm which was more than enough to say she didn't want him going anywhere though that still left the matter of the sheets eating at Twilight's need for everything to be in order. "♫Dirty sheets go in the laundry,♪" she sing-songed with a mischievous glint in her eyes before completely engulfing Titus in her magic to float him above the bed as she hopped to the floor, though she found she was a little wobbly on her tired hooves; meanwhile, the naked human put his knowledge of moving in zero gravity to use as he kept himself from spinning head over feet to grumble that he felt like a sack of potatoes being hefted around while Twilight levitated a fresh set of sheets and covers from her closet and replaced the old ones amid several giggles at his flailing and twisting to stay upright, "I've always thought my room could use a neat mobile hanging from the ceiling because I miss the one I had in my room in Canterlot..." Even after everything was neat and tidy and the corners were all tucked in she held him aloft while she climbed onto the bed, only then drifting him closer and lowering him into her waiting embrace, "On second thought, scratch that; having you in my hooves is much better."

All memory of his grumble evaporated as she pulled him as close as she could, her muzzle seeking out the secret spot along his jaw that only they knew about to nuzzle affectionately while Titus settled with simply enveloping her in his arms, "There's no place I'd rather be, Twi." The two got into comfortable cuddling positions again, Titus rolling onto his back to allow Twilight to slide into her usual spot between his side and the arm that draped around her while the other hand moved to hold the hoof that lay on his chest; Twilight's nuzzling continued while Titus reciprocated by squeezing her and the hoof he held, both of them satisfied with just being close as their exhaustion carried them steadily toward slumber.

"Oh Celestia... that was so worth it, Rainbow," she mumbled subconsciously from the edge of sleep, squirming a bit closer to the warm, clothing-free body next to her in the process though the odd statement understandably stirred a bit of curiosity in Titus so he propped himself up on an elbow where he twirled a lock of her still-damp mane casually before inquiring what she had meant.

Twilight was instantly awake.

Oh buck, I... dang it, brain, stop verbalizing my thoughts! Her sudden jump from near-slumber to alertness as she tried to play it off that she hadn't meant anything by her remark did little to lend credibility to what she was saying and the look he was giving her told her clearly he knew something was up. Shrinking back and suddenly finding the table lamp very intriguing Twilight tapped her hooves together nervously, "I um, I may have schemed with Rainbow to start the storm a few minutes early so we'd get caught in it so you could spend the night here... but not because I was trying to force this to happen! It's just, um, I-I'm just always spending the night on your ship and I thought it might be nice to actually just have you over instead of me slinking off under the cover of darkness like it was wrong for me to be with you..."

"Wait wait wait wait..." Titus pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head in a bid to make sense of things, "You arranged something with Dash? Like, you paid her?" Twilight pleaded with him not to be mad and again restated she had only wanted him to spend the night before explaining she had traded a favors in that the pegasus had given one or two clouds a good kick to get them started a little early in exchange for Twilight agreeing to pick up a few choice items from an upcoming convention, the whole reason for their arrangement being to provide any of the media ponies that might see them together a plausible reason for him to spend the night. A hand flopped down heavily to muss her forelock reassuringly and rub at an ear though Titus' displeased expression remained unchanged, "I think I'll be having a chat with her because I promised her a race through the gorge for a somewhat similar deal-"

"So you wanted the storm to start early, too?" Twilight said after a moment of contemplation where she mentally double-checked that she had heard him correctly before her ears flattened back and she scowled at a sudden revelation, "S-She played us both and double dipped! Ooo, I am so not getting those Daring Do bobble-heads from the next Con for her!"

"I've heard pirates say on a several occasions 'it's just good business' to play both sides, but a deal is a deal, even if it was underhanded and opportunistic of her. We'll hold up our ends of the bargain like we would have," Titus gave his own opinion on the matter before laying down and drawing the fresh covers over them both, wrapping one arm over Twilight as she snuggled up against him again, "Though if I had to say so I think it was more than worth it and that we came out ahead in the long run."

"Mhmm. By multiple leagues, at least," Twilight finalized with a kiss and a nuzzle before they said their love yous and he reached over her to click the light off for the night and as she drifted off she found herself humming the tune of a familiar song as the lyrics floated through her mind.