Author's Notes:

Hey all, hope you have a safe and happy New Year!

I had this short buzzing around in my Ideas folder and this fit better here than where I originally had it planned and is actually canonical to the story, similar to "Guards on Duty." Luna has another brief scene in "17.2 Making Friends and Meeting Enemies" and had I kept both in the same chapter it would have been a lot of jumping around in an already long chapter.

Plus, I wanted to get something out there as a bit of a New Years gift for all of you exceptionally patient people. Thanks again!

The Lunar Guard that patrolled the Palace corridor didn't even see the hidden figure blended into the shadowy recess as they passed and once they were far enough away it melted silently from one dark pocket in the wall to another, just as it had done through the entire wing of the Palace until it was standing before the two large obsidian doors. Easing the door open slowly the pony snuck into the warm room, her hooffalls almost entirely silent on the carpet. Pausing with a hoof in the air she spotted her target sitting with his back to her in his reading chair where he was known to like to sit, a warm fire crackling not far away from the slippers and feet that were stretched out and relaxed. Using the furniture for cover she stalked closer, further peeks around corners revealing the biped was absorbed in reading a book. Good, he's got his guard down. Now is my chance to strike! With practiced movements she kept to the shadows and small rugs of the room to soundlessly come at the large armchair from behind whereupon she readied herself for her attack.

"Isn't it past your bedtime, little lady?" the human spoke flatly. Finishing the paragraph he had been reading since detecting her stealthy entry into his quarters Titus set the book down and leaned to one side to peer around the back of the chair at the little alicorn, "Close, but no cupcake." It was a regular occurrence for Aurora Streak's young daughter and Flurry Heart's great granddaughter, Joyous Song, to sneak in and try to "ambush" the fabled Jedi Knight whenever she was visiting but despite her numerous attempts and changes in strategy she had yet to successfully catch him.

"Darn. I thought I had you that time, Uncle Titus," the filly pouted as she came out from behind the chair and was summarily scooped up onto his lap at which point she caught sight of the dark metallic sheen of the mechanical right arm dancing in the fire light as it lay on the table in partially disassembly. Joy hardly batted an eye at it because it had been a long time since seeing the human without the wondrous prosthetic caused her any discomfort and she turned her warm smile to his face, "I got closer, though. Did you hear me or something?"

"You'll notice I have the windows closed - that's the type of intel to scout for before planning an approach. I felt the change in the air when you opened the door because it created a discernible draft," he gently bopped a finger off her nose with a coinciding boop! noise and the way her muzzle scrunched up was a small reminder of how Twilight used to do the same and he couldn't help the fond but pained smile, "I had the fire going and-"

"Oh! So it'd be warmer in here than it is out in the hall, right?" Joy deduced quickly, "Difference in ambient temperature!"

"Very good!" the human nodded. The filly was incredibly sharp for her age and displayed her ability at deductive logic on an almost constant basis, although Aurora had vented to him on several occasions that this trait could make it difficult as a mother at times. "Now then, munchkin, what am I supposed to do with you?" he asked rhetorically, turning his head to the door as his Force-heightened senses detected somepony coming down the hall. The grin he shot at Joy came a second before there was a soft knock.

"Titus, are you awake?" a voice called hesitantly and softly from the other side.

"Yes, I am. You may come in, Aurora, by all means," he responded which caused the little filly to look to him with worry that he was turning her in.

The grown alicorn mother came in and cast a quick glance around, clearly searching for something, but she soon turned to the familiar human peering from around the side of a wingback armchair and gave a small chuckle. "I am terribly sorry for disturbing you in the middle of the night like this. I put Joy to bed but when I checked on her she seems to have slipped off somewhere. Constellation and I looked everywhere, and I even interrupted your wife who was wrapping up duties with the Night Court and she suggested I try here," she said with a knowing look to Titus which included a glance to the familiar flank and tail she could see sitting on the armrest attempting to remain out of sight so when her gaze returned to the human it was understood he caught this.

While growing up she herself had been guilty of causing her parents some stress when she would sneak off to visit with the Palace's gentle giant, but at one point when Aurora was a foal Titus had lost his last herdmate (and Equestria a Princess) when she fought back the second coming of an evil centaur bent on destroying Equestria and made the ultimate sacrifice to seal the centaur away forever. Overcome with grief he disappeared and it didn't become known outside of The Royal Sisters that he had returned from seclusion until several years ago when Joy had wandered off in search of the ghost she had been trying to convince her parents she had seen around the Palace and after a frantic search Aurora and Flurry eventually found Joy in the gardens happily talking to the large biped with his hand gently in her small hoof. Since then the human still hadn't made any public announcement of his return and he kept to himself to the point that most of the common palace staff didn't even know of his existence or thought he was just a tale from the since-passed Age of Element Bearers. Aurora and the others that knew of him - naturally that meant his wife, Luna, but also Celestia and Flurry, then a few more he had chosen - did not unnecessarily talk about him out of respect for his desire to not be put in a position of widespread attention. Even Joy would contribute by saying he was her imaginary friend if she told anypony a story of her adventures, easily deflecting suspicions. Still, the filly had a knack for wandering off and finding the reclusive human and with both Luna's and Celestia's assurances that being in the Knight's company was likely one of the safest places in Equestria to be Aurora would never fret when Joy would find her way to his side.

Like mother, like daughter. She smiled playfully, but in contrast to her daughter catching sight of the robotic limb off to one side or the small bits of metal that seemingly grew out of his shoulder where the arm would connect sent a small wave of pained sympathy for a wound she had only been reverently told the story of it by Celestia with Luna's express permission to do so, so her smile wavered, “I-I take it you haven't seen her?”

"It's just me and a good book keeping me company tonight until Luna returns,” Titus continued with the ruse and made a show of looking about the room, "I haven't seen Joy tonight, would you like me to help you look?" He faked a motion to get up to sell the story to Joy but Aurora was quick to say she already had half the Guard looking and didn't need to trouble him further - she had found her foal, after all. "Alright, I'll wait here. If she comes to see me I'll be sure she gets tucked back into bed."

Aurora smiled warmly at the human's secretive wink, "I suppose I'll go ‘search’ our quarters again, if you do happen to find her please get her back to bed soon because we have to be on the airship early in the morning." Bidding him goodnight as well as mouthing a thank you she departed to head back to bed herself.

“That was close,” Titus said with a theatrical sigh when the big obsidian door closed then turned to the little filly, “We probably should get you back to bed before long though, we wouldn't want your mother to search the Palace from spire to cellar and start worrying.”

“Yeah, you're right… but before that will you tell me a story? I don't know when we'll visit again...”

“A story, huh? Will you promise to go to bed after, and tell your mom and dad you love them when you wake up?” It was an easily agreed to set of terms for the filly and with her excited promise he nodded, “Alright, what sort of story do you want?”

“An exciting, actiony one!” she chirped before her eyes went wide, “Oh! With romance and funny bits, too!”

Titus pondered and stroked his beard with a hand for a moment before coming to a decision, “I think I have a story that fits... how would you like to hear about a very smart mare that summoned a friendly creature from another dimension when one day she tried to check out a book from a library?”

“Well that sounds like it's funny, but is it exciting?” Joy asked dubiously and was quickly told with no amount of uncertainty that it was.

“Well, she and her free-spirited friend have to rescue him from an evil, one-eyed griffon that snatched him away and locked him up in a mountain...” he said with a questioning tone which was met with an excited ooo'ing as she lay down and wiggled into the arm that wrapped around her. Once she was comfortable Titus leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes.

“A long time ago, in a small town not far from here, a unicorn who loved books lived in a big library tree house…”

A little while later Titus was hanging his cloak in the bedroom closet when the latch of the obsidian door clicked and it swung opened. There was only one pony who would enter without knocking (maybe two, counting Celly when she tried to sneak in on them or set up one of her pranks) so Titus knew Luna had finished her evening Court duties and had returned to watch over the dreamscape for the rest of the night.

“Dhulsgae? I am back.” As he had guessed, it was Luna's voice although the word had come to mean much more than “friend."

“Where are you? Do you know?”

Hooffalls headed for where the chair and old game station were hooked up to an antique television but as Luna passed by their bedroom door she saw him. “There you are. I hear you may have had a little visitor?” she asked as she trotted over and when she saw he wasn't using the mechanical arm she favored his other side to rear up into a hug and quick kiss and when they parted she looked worried.

“Where are you? We are looking, we just need some sort of clue. Did you recognize anything, perhaps a landmark?” she asked but something was wrong because he kept his warm smile and gently lowered her down from the embrace.

“The rascal snuck off because she wanted me to tell her a bedtime story. I just got back from tucking her in,” Titus replied.

Luna saw the open balcony door behind him and immediately knew what he had actually meant and she looked a little displeased. “Please do not tell me you actually jumped with Joy from our-” she started saying flatly then grunted when she saw his eyes sparkled impishly, “An unfortunate play of words… don't tell me you leapt from our balcony with the little filly in your arms.”

“W-What? Leapt…? In my arms?! Of course not!” he looked fiery and indignant at the accusation but his wife of many years and best friend of magnitudes longer knew better and kept eyeing him until his furrowed brow crumbled and he grinned foolishly, “I only have the one arm, Lu, and I couldn't hold Joy when I needed it for climbing. She clung to my back like a papoose as we scaled along the Palace wall and I swung from handhold to handhold.”

“Oh sweet stars have mercy…” Luna facehoofed.

She tried again to ask if he had seen anything and if he knew where he was but her words fell on deaf ears.

“What? The laughter and excitement entirely drained her of her excess energy, she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow,” he said with an accomplished tone, “Aurora and Constellation will wake to find their daughter safely in her bed, as I promised her when she stopped by.”

“My friend, why do you not hear me?”

As she and Titus walked hand on shoulder toward the nearby bed she shook her head, “Safely… right. You had best hope Joy does not share that with somepony.”

“Oh, I was only using our climbing as an immersive tool for the story I was telling her. Rest assured, she loved it!” He paused then chuckled, “Heh… get it? Rest assured? Because it made her fall right asl-”

“Yes, hilarious. And you may rest assured that I shall make hers the first dreams I check in on. Before that, though, you are going to give me some attention because I need to loosen up...” Luna said, throwing the covers back before hopping up to lay down on her tummy and drag a pillow into her hooves to clutch. He followed, sitting himself just beside her hip and had started with a light kneading motion just behind her wings when a soft knock came from the closet door. After the Palace’s partial destruction the different wings had been restructured and Celestia had had her quarters built adjacent to Luna's and their bedrooms were now secretly connected by a door in each closet with a private hallway between.

“Are you two decent~?” Celestia called teasingly then poked her head in cautiously. Seeing Luna laying down with stretched wings and Titus seated beside her with his hand brushing down her back the solar alicorn didn't come any farther into their room and looked to the human, “Oh, perhaps you're not. I'm not… interrupting, am I?”

“I-Interrupting what? W-W-What would we be doing-?”

“Hardly, I’m just giving Lu a post-Court massage… unless she asks for more, of course,” Titus responded and his hand slid to her flank which got an ooo! and a waggle of the eyebrows from Celestia.

D-Did he just touch my rump!? Luna ignored that as best she could, she couldn't change what was happening here in this odd dream but she had to keep trying to reach him. “My friend, you have to tell me where you are. Where can we find you?!”

The solar alicorn's attention shifted to her sister. “In that case, might I join you both? With the new year comes additional stresses of Court of my own which have left me struggling to sleep these last several nights. The comfort of friends would be welcome,” Celestia asked humbly with slightly lowered head and was quickly invited over. She hopped stiffly up to the mattress and stretched out much like Luna had with a small sigh whereupon the three chatted about Aurora and her family's visit, plans for the holiday celebration being held at the Palace, and then the sisters got into some gossip about the Council.

Luna, through all of this chatting, repeated her question and attempts to get Titus’ attention to no avail. With no other solution apparent she opted to stick around in case there was some clue or sign her words had reached him or if he reached out to her.

“-and I believe that to be why he is being such a clotpole about keeping your bill from being passed, sister,” Luna finished the long explanation which left her elder sister groaning.

“Pettiness of the most extreme measure! Gah, the little... cretin!” Celestia rolled over and bicycled her hooves in the air in frustration before abruptly stopping and flopped onto her side with a hoof on her back. Luna and Titus both concernedly asked if she was alright and she sighed, “The lack of sleep and late hours hunched over my desk writing revisions of that bill have left me with a back which seemingly wants revenge on me for mistreating it so.”

“Would you like me to try to help?” Titus asked with a look to his wife, “I hear the Palace masseuse was a staff position cut to help fund the reconstruction.”

“Admittedly, in addition to the desirable company, one of your massages may have been an underlying motive in my asking to join you two. Although…” she said then looked to Luna teasingly, “When you are done with the massage, and I am content if my sister would like to be first as is her right, I imagine I may find I am in the mood for ‘more’…”

“Y-You do not even get to joke like that, sister!” Luna shouted, having become invested in what she was seeing even if it wasn't real, or her actual sister saying it for that matter.

Celestia’s immediate answer came in the form of a pillow magically swinging down on her with a soft *WOMF!* as she disappeared in a small shower of feathers. Once these had drifted clear of her head it was seen that the pillow had been impaled on her long horn and lay drooped over her face. This punishment seemed to satisfy Luna and earned a hmph! and a pouting cold shoulder turned toward the solar sister.

“Okay, well... I suppose that is an accurate representation as I could see myself reacting to her teasing like that... i-i-if we were in this ridiculous s-situation, o-of course…” she muttered aloud to convince nopony but herself.

As expected the solar alicorn never lost her usual composure despite all that could be seen of her under the pillow was her muzzle and the small triumphant smile she wore for riling up Luna with her teasing, “Hmm, I believe I am being told that option isn't on the table.”

“So it appears. Sorry, Tia, my lovely wife has spoken,” Titus said with a laugh as she pouted but this soon vanished when her ear got a scritch, “But I would be happy to do what else I can for those aches of yours. Go ahead and get comfortable.” Celestia promptly rolled onto her belly and stretched all four hooves straight out in front and behind her and lay down right against Luna who kept pretending to ignore her.

Celestia's massage was an innocent affair, he worked the large muscle groups until their knots had relaxed, popped her stiff lower back back into alignment, rubbed her wing muscles until they relaxed freely, and finished with a robust brushing all the way to the end of her hooves to promote circulation of her blood and an ear rub that made her hooves curl. When he was finally done she stretched delightfully, the dock of her tail even shaking frantically as all the once-pained muscles trembled with freedom again, and his reward for such remarkable work was a peck on the cheek and appreciative nuzzle. When it came time for Luna's, hers was equally thorough but by far more intimate in comparison and that was not even counting how he straddled her waist to put extra weight into the back rub like she liked him to; he massaged the highly-sensitive bundle of nerves and muscles between her wings gently but deliberately which had been avoided during Celestia's turn on account of it being an easily-triggered erogenous zone. Then, when the wing rub had been finished, she got a preening of both and like her sister everything was finalized with a vigorous brushing but when it came to the hind legs extended straight backward hers started higher up with a hand repeatedly sliding to her inner thigh before it compressed and slid downward toward her hooves.

Luna watched curiously and with squeamish interest at Titus’ apparent subconscious desire to do such things to her but kept trying to reach her friend, even using obscure methods like rearranging the stars outside into words or causing something that would grab his attention but even these didn't couldn't him. “My friend, do you remember being given anything; either a trinket or perhaps some symbols marked on you as a rune?” Luna asked hopelessly as he hadn't responded before and watched what her friend dreamed.

“There must be a way,” Luna thought to herself as Titus leaned in to meet the dream Luna halfway for a long, heartfelt kiss goodnight, “Something is blocking my means of communicating and controlling the dreamscape, I can't even take control of that image of me. I don't believe it to be your own doing, either-”

And then she saw it.

Although the walls were adorned with paintings or tapestries, an old iron spearhead hung above the nightstand. The top she knew had been empty before but there was now a small glass syringe and a dark bottle marked in griffon letters, and upon further inspection the spearhead seemed to be pointing east when gauging it from the moon visible out of their large window.

She realized that somehow Titus had gotten through. Although she couldn't read the gibberish letters Luna memorized them and every detail she could about the bottle and syringe for whatever clue that might provide upon waking before shouting into the ethereal realm. “Good job! Whatever they have given you continue to fight it, dhulsgae! I shall rally my Guard and set out post-haste in pursuit. Know that I will not let them take somepony I…” Luna halted abruptly as the words of how she truly felt for him stumbled and died in her throat. Her own insecurity crushed her tone in defeat as she picked up her statement where she had left off, but not without her ears folding back and head slumping below her shoulders, “Know that I am coming for you.”

Luna’s consciousness departed the dream as the three on the bed curled up, Titus in the middle nestling into Luna's back and wrapping his arm under her wing to her chest while behind him Celestia pulled the covers over all of them and draped a wing atop her two companions. Behind them the bottle and syringe had disappeared.