So the morning after my party, I learned that it had been a blowout success and that I now had fans of all kinds, but Twilight was mostly cursing me for making sure that she was still higher than a cloud when she woke up. I found that to be amusing to no end, but it got her mind off of the impending war, so I considered it a net positive. However, my nice feeling didn’t last all that long since Shining Armour came into her room and stared me down until I offered to leave. He didn’t stop staring until I was actually gone. When I went back to my room, I found that my door was open, and moments later he teleported into my room, still pissed.

“What were you doing in Twilight’s room?” He seethed.

“...Waking up?” I scratched my head. “Look, Shining, all we did was sleep-”

“I put you two in separate rooms for a reason.” He said, his voice low.

I sighed. “You know we’re engaged, right?”

“Oh, trust me, I’m well aware of that. I’m not happy about it, but I’m well aware of it.”

“Then how do you you expect us to be okay with spending so much time apart? It’s only natural that Twilight and I want to see each other, and in the two days we’ve been here, we’ve only been allowed to see each other for meals outside of sleeping in the same bed. You can’t tell me that you would be just fine with being separated from Cadance like that.”

He set his jaw. “When I put you two in separate rooms, I expected you to stay in those separate rooms.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t mean it as a slight to you, I just wanted to spend my free time with the woman I love most in this world. Seriously, Twilight keeps me sane, and that’s not an exaggeration.”

Shining didn’t seem to care. “If you didn’t mean to offend me, then why did you go to her room; something I practically forbid you to do?”

“Love.” I answered simply.

“You can’t bear to be apart from Twilight for two days!?” He shouted suddenly.

“Not if I don’t absolutely have to. When I went to Canterlot to train for a month, I had to, and not being able to contact her for three and a half weeks broke me down mentally. When I went into the Everfree to learn how to use my True Magic, it was so I could help defeat Discord, so I didn’t really have much of a choice there either, and that drove me partially insane as well. I don’t like being apart from Twilight. In fact, it’s one of the things I hate the most in this world.”

Shining glared at me. “So you’re practically dependant on her.”

I pursed my lips off to the side. “Not practically.”

We stood in silence for awhile until Shining said, “I heard what my father did to you while you were training with him.”

“Did you now.” I wasn’t asking.

He nodded solemnly. “Yes, I did.”

There was more silence between us for a minute or so. “Is there anything you want to add to that, Shining? I’m not surprised that you heard-”

“Did you hold back because of Twilight?” He interrupted.

I nodded. “It was a part of our agreement. She asked me not to retaliate against Night light and I asked for her hand in marriage.”

Shining’s jaw worked an interesting pattern. “So you asked my sister to marry you in exchange for not beating up my Dad?”

I nodded. “It’s worth every second of what Night Light put me through.”

“You’re not fighting for Equestria.”

“No. I’m not.”

“... It’s always been for Twilight, hasn’t it?”

“Ever since she swore to never betray me. Everything I’ve done for Celestia or Equestria has been for her.”

Shining stared at me. “... How did ending up back on your home world affect you?”

“I had nightmares until I finally came back to Twilight. It frayed my tenuous bond with sanity.”

“But what did you feel when you realized that two years had passed since you’d been gone?” He asked firmly.

“Hatred. I made Twilight wait for me, alone. I didn’t even wait half as long as she did to be reunited with her.” I said bitterly, my lip curling.

“... You haven’t let that go, have you?” Shining asked.

I ground my teeth together. “I don’t need a lecture from one of the people that’s been holding it against me since I got back.”

Shining and I stopped talking for a few minutes. He sighed heavily. “Maybe it’s time I stop holding that against you.”

“... It would mean more to Twilight than it would to me. I don’t need you to like me, but she wants you to.” I replied.

He nodded slowly. “I never was all that fond of you, but… You really do love her, and I can’t deny that. At this point, holding this grudge against you just makes Cadance unhappy, and I know Twilight hates that we fight whenever we see each other.”

“I’m not exactly fond of being at odds with you either, Shining. Even if I think you are a bit of a straight-laced dummy-head, I can’t deny that you’re a good soldier. I’d rather have you as an ally than an enemy.”

“We’re already allies-”

“We stand on shaky ground as it is.” I cut in. “We might be allies, but we’re not friends, mate. In the coming war, we need to be on the same page.”

“And we will be. Your tactics are strange and unorthodox and mine are pretty much by the book, but I’m sure that finding a happy medium will be key in winning this fight.” He said resolutely.

I nodded. “You take the open land conflicts, keep a phalanx in mind and I’ll handle the guerilla stuff. I was rather fond of reading about jungle warfare and the like when I was in between jobs on Earth, so I know a few tactics that might win us an advantage.”

Shining and I met in the middle of the room to shake hands. “... No hard feelings?” He asked.

“Just remember that I’d win a fight between us.” I smirked.

He gave me a look. “Nopony’s here right now. We can see-” I threw two punches on either side of his head as fast as I could, “Nevermind.”

“Remember, I was trained by Noir and Luna. I’d better be lethal.”

“Noted. So… I’m just going to go spend some time with my wife.” He gestured behind him with a thumb.

“I’m going to go see my fiance before breakfast.” I declared.

He pursed his lips and nodded. “... I still like the ring you gave her.”

“Good taste is an inborn art.” I gave him a small smile.

He rolled his eyes and cracked a smile. “We might not be friends, but I think we might be able to get there.” He turned to leave.

I put a hand on his shoulder before he could go. “Wait. Before you head out, I have a question.”

I removed my hand and he turned to face me. “Ask away, I guess.”

“What’s with the sudden change of heart? You’ve been acting kinda nice since I got here.”

Shining blushed a bit and scratched his cheek. “Well… I kinda stuck you with the whole party thing, and I knew that you were going to hate it. That and Cadance has been riding me pretty hard about being nicer to to you since you really haven’t done anything besides be snarky when I get hostile.”

“So you finally came to your senses?” I jibed.

He glared. “That’s when you’re supposed to say something nice about Cadance.”

I shrugged. “Cadance knows she’s my second favourite Princess. I don’t feel the need to shower her with praise like I do with Twilight.”

Shining frowned. “It wouldn’t hurt if you gave her a few more compliments.”

I rolled my eyes. “Tell her I said thank you for being compassionate, patient, and intellectually sound for me, if that’s how you’re going to be.”

“Are you just saying that, or do you actually mean it?”

I shook my head. “If I was just playing around, I would’ve asked you to thank her for looking good and having a sweet arse.” I said solemnly.

Shining gave me a look. “Did you just say my wife is pretty and has a nice flank?”

I raised my hands and backed up a step. “In my defense, both of those statements are completely and utterly true.”

“... I’ll tell her both of your messages, if you don’t mind. I think the second ones will make her happy in a different way.” He blushed.

“... Don’t you find it a little weird that your wife defends me so adamantly? I mean, I’ll happily compliment Cadance until she withers away into dust, but don’t you think that’s a little strange?”

Shining looked at the door and magicked it closed before encasing us in a bubble. He seemed rather nervous, but he still spoke thusly. “Look, what I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave the bubble, okay?”

I raised a brow. “Starting off our newfound peace with secrets, are we?” He gave me a pleading look. “Alright mate, I’m listening. This doesn’t leave the bubble.”

He took a deep breath. “Cadance wants to have you… Well, she wants to have you. Do you know what I’m saying?”

I suppressed a smile. “I could’ve gleaned that, but why me in particular?”

Shining looked very uncomfortable. “Well, Cadance has always been torn between guys like me and guys like you, to be honest. She likes the bad-colt thing you have going on, but she loves the good guy thing that I do.”

“You are a pretty straight-and-narrow kinda guy. So what do you want me to do about that? Do you want me to talk to her and turn her down or something-”

“No! I don’t want her to know that I told you about it! It’s just that… If she comes onto you, just don’t be surprised, okay? I don’t mind sharing her with one other Pony since you’re the only one she’s interested in, but… I can’t really ask you to reciprocate.” He made a face.

“Yeah, don’t sleep with your sister, mate. To be honest with you, Cadance already offered to let me do a few things with her as long as I let her know before I start doing it. I haven’t done anything since I didn’t want to ruin our already shitty relationship, but if I have your blessing, then I just need to run it by Twilight to see if she’s okay with it.”

Shining breathed a sigh of relief. “I don’t think you’re going to have too much luck there. Twilight sees Cadance like a big sister after all!” He smiled wide.

I looked around for a second and pursed my lips. “... Twily doesn’t see Cadance as a sister, does she?” Shining asked.

“Honestly? I don’t get their relationship at all,” I admitted, “but I know they love each other in ways that are hard to tell you about since you’re kinda connected to both of them in very deep, meaningful ways.”

“... Please don’t tell me my sister has slept with my wife.” Shining said blankly.

I shrugged and made a ‘What can you do?’ kinda face and Shining turned bright red, covering his face with both hands. “Oh dear Celestia, somepony tell me that you’re lying. Somepony- Anypomy!”

“Sorry mate.” I patted his shoulder consolingly.

He groaned and paused mid-way through it. “Wait.”

I winced. “I’m waiting.”

“... I swear to everything you hold dear, if you tell me that it was when I caught you doing it with Cadance…” Shining looked at me.

I cleared my throat and looked away.

“Oh for crying out loud!” He moaned.

“Oi! I didn’t say anything!”

He hit my arm. “Then why did you let me think that!? That would mean I saw my sisters stuff!”

It was my turn to do an impression of Macintosh. “That would seem to be the case. You know, if that was the case.”

Shining wiped his brow. “You suck, you know that?”

“I’ve been told similar things on multiple occasions. You know, the one time I did suck, Dusk Shine really did appreciate it.”

He looked at me. “I beg your pardon.”

I gave him a dirty grin. “Wanna hear about the time I changed into a girl and sucked a guy off?”

Shining Armour made a face. “Why would you want to change into a girl? And why would you want to do that anyway?”

“Twilight asked me to be a girl and she wanted to try sex-”

He clapped his hands over his ears. “Not listening anymore! Nope! I’m not dealing with that mental image!”

I patted his back and waited for him to uncover his ears. “If it’s all the same to you, I’m gonna go say good morning to Twilight.’

“... Yeah. I’ll tell Cadance you said thanks and gave her some nice words.”

I nodded and headed back towards my bags. “See ya, Shiny.”

“Don’t call me Shiny.” He replied before closing the door.

With Shining gone, I took the time to get dressed, but instead of wearing one of my other suits, I went with the Adstus one since I was officially on watch for suspicious business, and when I was done, I packed my bags and sent them off to my house so I wouldn’t have to deal with them later. Once I’d gotten everything home, I pulled myself to Twilight’s side and finally managed to stick a landing, something I found to be a landmark in my development of my True Theft. I reached into my chest and high fived the power itself since I thought it was that important when I was in Twilight’s room and I heard her shower going which reminded me that I hadn't taken one yet this morning. I was pretty sure that I’d gotten it done last night while I was still nice and high, so I wasn’t too worried about it. It’s not like my hair had gotten greasy or anything, which meant that I could skip it for the day.

Twilight eventually came out of her temporary restroom with nothing but a towel and when she realized that she had company, she froze until she realized that it was me. She gave me a look before going back into the loo, shutting the door behind her rather firmly to signal that I wasn’t welcome in there, but I could deal with that since I didn’t want to get undressed, which was the main reason I didn’t bother with the shower. When she came back out, she was fully dressed, though her hair was still a little damp. I reminded her that she would have wet spots on her dress and she told me rather than asked me to brush her hair. I warned her that I wouldn’t exactly take kindly to being given orders and she warned me that she wouldn’t take kindly to being drugged again, but when I asked her if she’d had a good time, she said that she had up until her fourth cookie, which was when the first one started kicking in and the brownies she’d had beforehand started showing their true colors.

Okay, so I may have incentivized Twilight to eat more of my snacks than I should have.

I combed through her hair before getting her brush, and when Cadance walked in with a face that spoke volumes, I just gave her a quick wave. “Hullo, Candy Arse”

She closed the door behind her. “Max! I can’t believe you confirmed that Shining caught us having sex!”

Twilight choked on her saliva. “Wait, what!?”

“Don’t worry, Cherry. He left the room thinking he didn’t see anything on you.” I said like a fucking idiot.

Twilight turned her head and I tried to stay behind her, be she eventually just floated me around to look at me. “Maximus, what did you just say?”

“Don’t worry?” I tried.

My fiance’s face was bright red. “I swear to the Heavens that I will beat and abuse you if you tell me that you told my brother that I was the other pony in the room that time.”

“I didn’t tell him that. I didn’t lie about it, but I didn’t say that you were and you want me to be more honest right? And that means that I need to be honest, especially when it means-” Twilight got up and hit me rather hard. “Ow! Stop before you actually start breaking stuff!”

“Max, you- you- you arse!” Twilight cried.

Cadance came over and hit the other arm. “What were you thinking, Max!? Of all the times to start lying about things, that would have been the perfect time!”

“I’m not the one who forgot to lock the door! You had magic! You should’ve done it!” I argued.

Cadance hit me again. “Don’t try to place the blame elsewhere! Now I have to deal with the fact that Shining saw Twilight’s-”

Twilight gagged. “Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh! I can’t believe my brother saw my marehood!” Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh, your suffering is delicious.

She and Cadance shivered hard and I kept my face nice and placid since I didn’t want to get hit again. “Let’s all agree to share the blame equally for not locking the door in the first place, yeah?”

I got hit twice for that. “You’re the stallion! Those kinds of things are your responsibility!” Twilight objected.

“Seriously? That’s a load of bullshit!” I levitated her and flipped her upside down. “Everyone here had a chance to lock that door and no one did! Hell, you weren’t even participating for the first part, so it should’ve been on your checklist or something!”

Twilight blushed and flipped me upside down too. “Are you really going to try and shovel the blame onto an innocent little filly like me?”

Cadance scoffed. “I knew you when you were an innocent little filly, and eating Max’s stuff out of me was not something an innocent little filly would do!”

Twilight spluttered and I righted her while I snickered. “She’s got you there, Cherry.”

Cadance turned me around. “Getting back onto topic: when did you and Shining get so buddy-buddy?”

“This morning, right after he realized a thing that I’m not going to tell you about.” I replied cryptically.

The taffy toned Princess gave me a look. “Right. So you’re just magically friends now.”

Twilight coughed and tugged at the collar of her dress.

Cadance and I stared at her. “... Are you fucking serious, Twilight?” I asked.

“W-Well, my Magic doesn’t work if there’s nothing there, so I figured it was worth a shot.” She said quietly.

Cadance looked at me. “Are you implying that this is a bad thing?”

“I’m implying that altering minds is some seriously dark shit.” I replied, disgruntled.

Twilight gave me a fretful look. “You really can’t say anything. I did it to one pony and you did it to five hundred million, but who even knows how many now!”

I winced and Cadance frowned. “What you did and what Max did aren’t even the same thing at all.”

“They’re awfully similar. You used magic to make someone change their mind, and that’s the gist of what I did. The only difference is that I gave orders and I’m guessing your magic works by suggestion.” I said critically.

Twilight and Cadance both looked away. “...It’s an absolute thing, isn’t it? As long as love or friendship previously existed, you can dredge it up.”

Cadance steepled her fingers. “... It’s more like we can create it…”

I groaned. “Lovely. So you have benevolent-yet-evil magic.”

Cadance bit her lip and Twilight looked at me, her jaw set. “Friendship isn’t evil!”

“It is when you don’t give people the option of not being friends.” I sighed.

Twilight looked down and Cadance put a hand on her shoulder. “Well… I don’t think it can possibly be that evil if you’re doing it for a reason as good as inspiring friendship or instilling love into ponies. It’s not like you forced Shining to be Max’s friend, right?”

“Right! I just suggested that he should give you a chance and backed it up with a little magic!” Twilight defended.

I decided to let it go to avoid making her feel like I still do. She and Cadance kept talking about the merits of their powers, but I didn’t have anything constructive to say and said as much when they asked for my input, so when Cadance left after apologizing for hitting me, I told her that I would be molesting her soon and Twilight hit me a couple times, but she didn’t do it that hard. When Cadance was gone, I asked Twilight if I could use my power to fondle the taffy toned Princess from time to time, and when Twilight asked why I’d want to do that, even after I got in trouble for it, I told her that Cadance had invited me to do so as long as I gave her fair warning. My fiance asked that I tell her beforehand so she could watch and said that she wanted to know exactly what I was doing as I was doing it and I had no problem in agreeing with that.

When we finished up with our conversation, we went to breakfast and found that my team was already inside , talking to the girls, Shining, and Cadance. Iron was talking to Rainbow and Applejack about something or other, Crimson was catching up with Shining and Cadance, and Swift was getting hit on by Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity, which meant that his morning was going pretty well. Twilight and I talked to each other, though I was sad that Noir had already up and gone to Canterlot with Celestia and Luna since I’d been hoping to have a little more time with her before she had to go. I tactfully avoided bringing up The War to avoid ruining the pleasant mood we had going on over breakfast, and once it was over, Twilight asked the girls to meet up with us once we were done with our meeting so she could just teleport everyone and their things back to Ponyville instead of having them ride the train.

Pinkie suggested that they all go shopping for Crystal Empire stuff and I asked Crimson and my crew if they would mind tagging along, though I told them that they were off duty for the time being. Crimson had a small problem with that, but my orders were what they were, so he followed them anyway and said that he was going to introduce Swift and Iron to some people he knew from his time here in the Empire. With the plebeians out of the way, the patricians got down to business and Cadance, Shining, Twilight, and I all went to a meeting room to talk about The War. It wasn’t a terribly important conversation, but Cadance and I were basically just catching Twilight and her brother up on the events that they couldn’t have learned about because of Discord’s spell.

Twilight was frankly terrified of the prospect of there being another war and Shining hid his unease well, promising to protect Cadance until his final breath. I swore that I would personally confront an army of thousands for everyone in the room and fully planned on doing so until Twilight said that she wanted me to let ‘real soldiers’ handle the fighting. I gave her a look like she’d lost her damn mind and told her that I was a veteran of dozens of wars that Noir had put me through and never came out of them with a kill count of less than a hundred, but everyone in the room argued that simulations weren’t like the real thing until I asked Cadance and Twilight if they could take us into my mindscape so I could set up a proper war for us to run through.

Cadance and Twilight had no desire to participate, but Shining was interested, so Cadance linked his mind to mine and I took us to my mindscape. When we got there, Noir was waiting for us. That is to say, a meter tall version of Noir was waiting for us. Her voice was considerably higher, more of an soprano than the low, sexy alto that Noir’s usual voice was, and when I saw the adorable little thing, I picked it up and gave it the biggest little hug. The tiny version of my giantess mentor hugged me back and told me to put her down, so I did and I asked her to conjure up a nice war for Shining and I to fight. She did so, but when Shining saw the sheer volume of the people in front of him, his eyes widened and he asked if they could all fight like real soldiers. I let him know that each of them were based off of people that Noir herself had fought and summoned my Kopis into my hand, throwing myself into the fray without further ado.

Shining took my rear in the best of ways, but when he started drowning in the sheer volume of people, I doubled back and saved his arse by stealing a spear and making us some room. He’d already sustained heavy injuries, so I kept up the fight around him to prove my status as top-mother-fucking-dog and killed fools like they’d personally insulted my mother with new ‘yo mama’ jokes that actually had a bit of bite to them. I glanced over at Shining from time to time to see him watching in awe as I slayed foe after foe, leaping into the air and bringing my Kopis down like it was my scythe and I was the Reaper himself. Once I thought he’d gotten the picture, I sent Mini Noir a mental message to have the soldiers cease and picked Shining up off of the floor.

I reminded him, or rather, just told him that he could think away his injuries like he’d thought up a sword, but he didn’t quite get how to do it, so I fixed him myself and bid Mini Noir goodbye after a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek since she’d been a real doll. When I booted Shining out of my mindscape, we awoke to hear Cadance and Twilight talking about what was happening in my mind, so I lifted my head and Shining groaned, his injuries feeling like they had persisted through the shift in reality.

Shining was quick to back me up when we got back from my mindscape, telling Twilight and Cadance that battling in my mind was incredibly similar to doing so in the real world, and when he mentioned that he’d gotten hurt because he’d underestimated my constructs despite my warning, I told him that things were only going to get harder since the people in Noir’s memory fought like people from four to five thousand years ago. Things weren’t going to get any easier if anyone was actually trained, but then again, I doubted that two thousand years of global peace meant that people were going to be prepared for an actual war.

Twilight and Cadance were convinced that I really could fight when Shining described me as a ‘whirling dervish of death straight from the ancient war stories’, and it didn’t hurt that I hadn’t actually gotten injured or been fighting at my maximum capacity. I was actually getting to be a bit of a murder machine from all of my training, and that was super dope, in my opinion. After a bit of further deliberation, Twilight told me that the only way I was going to war was with her at my back, but I told her that it was my responsibility rather than a desire of mine that made me want to fight in The War. I was- am, a Prince of Equestria, and as such, I need to be with the boots on the ground, grinding out victories on the field of battle alongside our soldiers while Twilight’s place was in a palace, making sure that things ran smoothly back home.

“Max, I am not going to just sit on my hands or twiddle my thumbs while you go off and risk your life!” Twilight said viciously.

I pointed at myself. “Immortal. Immortal as fuck, actually. It’s been proven at least three times that I don’t die too good, but we don’t know about you, Twilight. We don’t know about you or Cadance, and neither of you are going to be ready to fight in any capacity by the time The War comes, and that’s not me putting you down, that’s just a fact. You’re an executive, an administrator, a bureaucrat, a manager and a scholar above all of that. You are not a murderer. You are not a cold-blooded killer. You are not me, and God forbid you ever start to become like me.”

Twilight puckered her lips like I’d just fed her a lemon and her face colored. “I may not be a soldier like you, but I can help too!”

“Max isn’t saying that you can’t help, Twilight; he’s saying that you can’t be soldier like him and Shining. We’re not fighting ponies, Twilight. We just aren’t. I haven’t been in a single fight in my life, and I don’t think that you’ve ever actually been in a fight yourself. Max is right, Twilight. We don’t belong with the ponies who see bloodshed, and I know just thinking about it makes both of us squeamish.” Cadance reasoned.

Shining sighed. “I hate to sound like we’re ganging up on you Twily, but Max really is right. I was the Captain of the Guard because I can handle a little blood and I think Max is more used to it than just about anypony I know if what he did in the mindscape is anything to go by. If you’re safe in Equestria with Celestia and Luna, then I think that’s just one less thing for Max to worry about while he’s fighting for Equestria. Don’t think of it as leaving him to die, because that’s just not true. Think of it as letting both of you play to your strengths.”

Twilight’s lip quivered. “So what? I’m just supposed to accept that my special somepony is going to be out there, ending hundreds of lives all on his own?”

I shook my head. “No, Twilight. That’s not true either. I’ll have Nashoba, Noir, and Adstus backing me up on the battlefield.”

She looked at me. “You told me that Adstus was supposed to be our Honor Guard.”

I sighed. “Before Dicksword announced that The War was on, that’s what they were going to be. Keep in mind that I couldn’t tell you that I planned on bringing them with me into the battle.”

“... You lied to me.” Twilight said softly.

I glared at her. “I did not. Adstus is an Honor Guard, but they’re guarding mevinstead of both of us when we go to war. When we’re together, we share my team, but when I need to go fight, they come with me.”

“Lies by omission are still lies.” Cadance said softly.

Twilight looked at me sadly. “... I can’t believe it…”

“Twilight, I literally couldn’t tell you about their real purpose!” I defended. “What was I supposed to do? Tell you that I was putting a team together for a war that you would forget about every time it was mentioned!? I told you they were a fighting force! I told you that they would be getting trained for special missions!”

Twilight maintained the same sad look and I averted my gaze. “Tch. I didn’t lie.”

Shining shook his head. “You’re in the wrong room if you’re looking for someone to agree with you on that.”

Cadance looked at me. “I see your side of things, Max, I honestly do, but why would you not tell Twilight the real reason you were getting Crimson and the rest together?”

I spread my hands. “I couldn’t! You know what Dicksword’s spell did, and you know for a fact that if I would’ve mentioned that it was for The War, Twilight would’ve just forgotten it! I told her multiple times that I was putting Adstus together for a war, but not this war, and she still forgot!”

Cadance’s face eased up a bit. “So you told Twilight the truth, she just doesn’t remember it?”

I made a ‘There you go’ kind of gesture. “Exactly. After the first couple of times, there just wasn’t a point to it anymore.”

Twilight sighed. “I still don’t like that the only thing I remember is that you lied, but I guess I feel a bit better knowing that you at least tried to tell the truth.”

“I didn’t try, I just did. It didn’t do me any good.” I sighed.

“... So where does that leave us?” Shining asked. “Is there anything else we need to discuss?”

Cadance shook her head. “I think it’s agreed that we leave the fighting to Noir, Luna, you, and Max.”

“And the soldiers of Equestria, of course.” Shining added.

Cadance nodded gently. “Of course. I don’t think we need to say anything else without having Celestia, Luna, and Noir present.”

“Agreed. Our most experienced should be present since we’re the ones with the least experience out of our fighting force.” I said.

Twilight sighed. “I just want to go home…”

I reached over and held her hand. “We’ll go home soon, Cherry.”

“Are you sure you’re not leaving anything out?” She asked blandly.

“I’m sure I could leave you on the Moon if I felt like it.” I gave her a wry smile.

Twilight gave me a weak chuckle. “Do that with Discord and I think we’ll all be happier for it.”

“Oh no, Dicksword’s going to suffer.” I said casually. “Don’t forget that he ripped my sweet little Blackberry from her body and cast her into darkness for four thousand odd years, and he practically erased the Alicorns from the face of the planet, so I’m going to make his anus into a tea cozy and his horns into tea cups.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I sure do love it when you talk about senseless violence.”

Cadance’s voice hardened. “Twilight, if you knew the depths of Discord’s treachery, you wouldn’t call it senseless.”

My fiance looked at her, shocked. “... What?”

Shining stared too. “..I’m with Twilight. What?”

“Oh yeah, Dicksword’s easily the most evil thing on the planet. Like, the bastard beats Sombra and Chrysalis by a wide margin.” I commented.

“Max wasn’t exaggerating about Discord wiping the Alicorns from the face of the planet. The Alicorns used to be nearly as plentiful as Ponies are, but when Discord divided them into three pieces of themselves, all except Celestia and Luna were lost. Nightmare Moon was nearly killed in the same way Noir was, but they both had to take up residence in Luna to survive.” Cadance clarified.

“...Discord is the reason there are no male Alicorns?” Shining asked.

I raised a hand. “Besides me, pretty much.”

“Holy cow…” Shining muttered.

Twilight looked confused. “If that’s the case, then how are you an Alicorn, Cadance?”

“I became one, just like you.” Cadance said simply. “You’ve heard the story before, I think.”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t believe I have. Would you mind telling it now?”

Cadance blushed and curled a lock. “Well, all I did was go around telling ponies that they should remember why they fell in love in the first place for a few years. Eventually I realized that love was more important to a pony’s life than just about anything else and then I met Celestia in the Alicorn Dimension and she told me that it was time for me to join her as a Princess.”

Shining rolled his eyes. “That’s a gross oversimplification and you know it.” He looked to Twilight. “She actually got two ponies that were divorced to see why they fell in love with each other in the first place, and when they started having problems again, she helped them work through their problems until they could reach a fair compromise, and that’s the abridged version.”

I gave Cadance a little smile. “I’m sure they were arguing about some pretty young thing sticking their nose in someone else’s business.”

Cadance blushed brightly. “You make it sound as though I was just being nosy.”

“He did say ‘pretty’.” Twilight pointed out helpfully.

Cadance kept her blush. “And? Backhanded compliments are still backhanded.”

I raised a brow. “And they’re still compliments too.”

Twilight nodded and held my hand. “Be happy that they’re not insults. I think the only pony that Max doesn’t outright insult is me.”

I opened my mouth to dispute that, but I shrugged. “When you’re right, you’re right. I tend to do an awful lot of insulting when the occasion calls for it.”

Cadance gave me a look. “Give me your best shot, Max. Really, put your tail into it.”

“Your arse isn’t that sweet. I just call you Candy Arse because you taste like strawberry taffy.”

Cadance’s jaw dropped and Shining covered his face. Twilight hit me and said, “Max! That was wildly inappropriate!”

“It wasn’t even true! I call Cadance Candy Arse because I wanna lick it.” I grinned.

Twilight covered her mouth and Shining picked up where she left off. “Can we stop talking about my wife’s flank?”

Cadance cut him a glare. “What do you think of my flank?”

Shining was stuck. “Uh… I like it?”

“What do you like about it?” She challenged.

I raised a hand. “I’ll take over if Shining is uncomfortable talking about the booty.”

Shining wrung his hands and Cadance looked at him. “Well? Are you just going to let Max take over, or can you actually come up with something you like for once?”

“Why am I in trouble?” Shining asked, completely lost.

“Because you never compliment my flank! You always call me beautiful or pretty, but you never say what’s beautiful or what’s pretty!” Cadance huffed.

Twilight giggled. “Max tells me that he loves my eyes and my lips all the time.”

It was my turn to grow a little rosy. “We can leave the other stuff out. I don’t believe the present company wants to hear it.”

Cadance glared at me. “I want to hear how you compliment Twilight and I want Shining to hear it so he knows what he’s supposed to do.”

I looked at her coolly, my face still a bit warm, but Shining just sighed and said, “Don’t say anything about her body and we’ll be fine.”

I shrugged and Twilight and I turned toward each other. She gave me a gentle smile as I held her soft, fuzzy fingers and played with them, gently massaging the knuckles as I got started. “Twilight, Cherry, my love and my heart. I don’t need to tell you that I love the way your eyes gleam and glitter when you find something you research, or that I love the shades of violet that make up your eyes. From royal purple to the deep violet, I love them all, but the feature of your face I love the most are you luscious, kissable lips. I admit that every time I look at them, my own are drawn to your almost magnetically, and it takes so much resolve to hold myself from tasting your lips once more.” I let go of her hand and stroked her cheek. “And your cheeks, so soft and lovely; there’s little else I would rather do than to press my lips against them, even if for but a moment.”

Twilight smiled lovingly and opened her mouth, but I pressed a finger to her lips. “And if I may,” I touched one of her ears and she closed her eyes. “Your ears are so fine and velveteen that I would happily stroke them all day, though I believe you would rather have me rub your tummy, no? That too, I would do for hours on end and expect nothing in return if only to see your smile.”

Twilight removed my fingers from her ear and smiled at me. “Do you really mean all of that?”

“Every word, my love.” I replied softly.

Twilight leaned forward and our lips met for a kiss that was all too brief, but at least I’d gotten a good one. I let Twilight pull away first since I didn’t want the moment to end, but she hesitated when she did and came back for another one less than a second after we broke our kiss. Cadance sighed happily in the background and I decided that we’d had enough for the time being, though I wanted nothing more than to continue kissing Twilight for another minute or so and see where we went from there. When I looked over to Cadance and Shining, the former had a massive smile on her face and Shining had a small one that actually reached his eyes.

“See Shiny? that's how you romance a mare!” Cadance said jovially.

Twilight giggled, sounding a little embarrassed. “Max has always had a way with words. Maybe you should give it a try, BBBFF?”

Shining got a deer in the headlights look and turned to Cadance. “Um…”

Cadance looked at him expectantly.

“You have pretty eyes like… Uh… Rose quartz?” He half asked, half stated.

Cadance smiled encouragingly. “Thank you. Is there anything else?”

“A-And your mane is really pretty and soft. I like that it’s tri-toned instead of bi-toned like a lot of ponies. It makes you seem even more unique.” Shining said, warming up a bit.

“What about some other things?” Cadance asked, squeezing her breasts together in a distracting way.

Shining didn’t even notice. “Uh…” He glanced over at Twilight who rolled her hand forward for him to go on. “I-I think I’m stuck.”

Cadance sighed. “I guess you’re more of a physical love kind of stallion anyway.” Ha! Good thing I vary.

Twilight gave a disappointed pout. “I’m sure you can come up with more to say about your special somepony. Max, why don’t you give him some more examples?”

I gave her a look. “The next words out of my mouth probably aren’t going to be suitable for your siblings precious little ears.”

“I think Shining might to hear them anyway.” Candy Arse sniffed.

I shrugged and turned to face Twilight again. “Cherry, have I ever told you how I feel about your hands?”

My fiance gave me a strange look. “Not to my memory, no.”

I smiled and kissed her knuckles. “They’re simply perfect, if that’s not a complete cop out of a thing to say. They’re tender, ready to lend a helping hand or to reach out for someone in need of a friendly touch, yet firm enough to slap me out of a stupor when the need arises.” Twilight blushed. “Your fingers are so slender and dainty that I feel like I’m going to break them if I hold on too tightly, but I know that you’re made of stronger stuff than what I feel you are, even if you can be fragile in different ways. You’re physically tough, but I have to keep in mind that your heart needs to be treated with kindness. Your hands remind me a lot of you as a whole: delicate on the outside, but still quite resilient on the inside.”

Twilight held one of my hands to her face. “I think you contradicted yourself.” She said softly.

“Love is weird like that.” I stroked her cheek with my thumb.

“Aww! Even though you just insulted the thing that I’ve based my life on, that was so sweet!” Cadance cooed.

Shining coughed. “Can we just say that I can’t match up to Max when it comes to the flowery words and leave it at that? I kind of feel like we’re just rubbing it in at this point.”

Cadance looked disappointed. “We can stop for now, but I want you to be thinking of ‘flowery words’ for later. Maybe you should write me a poem?”

I gagged and Twilight made a face at me. “Poems are sweet, Amour.”

“Never had the hand for it myself, to be honest with you. I prefer to be poetry in motion rather than a poet.” I said arrogantly.

Twilight gave me a look and I gave her a cheesy grin. “What? I might be more like a skaldic epic or something, but I’m still poetry!”

She rolled her eyes and leaned in to kiss my cheek. “You’re a narcissist.”

“Don’t hate me ‘cause I’m beautiful.” I said, completely full of shit.

Shining chuckled. “You know, when I think of you as someone that shouldn’t be taken seriously half the time, it’s a lot easier to not despise you.”

I shrugged. “I’m telling you, Shining Arseman, you just have to get used to me over time and I get more likeable. Luna started off hating me and now she’d probably give me the sucky sucky if I talked to her about it long enough.”

He gave me an odd look. “What’s ‘the sucky sucky’?”

Twilight hit me. “You better not answer that!”

I levitated her into my arms. “If you hadn't hit me, I might’ve been tempted to listen to you.” I reached into Twilight through her back with my True Theft and coaxed her Magic out of her. Her eyes went wide when she felt the intrusion, which meant she was too staggered to stop me when I said, “The sucky sucky is a blowjob. When a nice person puts their mouth on your lower head and gives it a taste.” I let Twilight have her Magic back and she shivered in my arms.

Cadance and Shining both lit up. “Oh... “ Shining said softly. He looked at Cadance and she looked at him.

“... Do you think she would really do it?” Cadance asked.

“...I don’t know. Max seems to get his way a lot.” Shining said, rather unsure.

Twilight hit me once she got her bearings back. “Max! I can’t believe you stole my Magic from me!”

“Well I gave it back.” I said innocently, rubbing my chest.

She hit me again. “Don’t do that! I shouldn’t have to tell you not to, but I’m going to! Don’t do that!”

I hugged her closer so she couldn’t keep striking me. “Pwease don’t hit me anymore Twiwight. I pwomise I’ww be a good boy” I said pathetically.

Twilight hopped off of my lap and hit me twice. “You’re such an ass.”

I conjured up some tears and made my lips quiver. “I’m sowwy…”

My fiance averted her eyes and Cadance said, “You should apologize Twilight. He asked you to stop hitting him very nicely.”

Shining gave me a look. “Buck up, stallion! Don’t you dare cry over your mare hitting you a couple times!”

I sniveled and sniffed like a pussy, looking down at my lap. “I’m not crying…”

“Oh please!” Twilight huffed, still not looking at me.

I started shaking, letting a few tears fall. Shining took notice. “....You aren’t seriously crying right now, are you?”

“No.” I said unconvincingly, my voice thick.

Twilight huffed again, but Cadance teleported to my side. “Oh Max! It’ll be okay, Sweetie! We won’t let Twilight hit you anymore, okay? Nopony’s gonna hurt you, my handsome little Human, so you just let it all out with Caddy, alright?”

Twilight’s head whipped around and she glared at me. “He’s faking it, Cadance! Max is the best actor I’ve-”

“I think you’ve done enough, Twilight.” Cadance said critically.

“Yeah, Twily. Maybe you should take a breather.” Shining said softly. I felt him lay a hand on my shoulder while Cadance pulled me to her chest.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Twilight fuming about being had, so I gave her the most shit-eating-est grin I could conjure up. “D-Don’t be mad at Cherry… She was just upset.” I said weakly, my face snapping back into the ruse.

Cadance stroked my hair. “I don’t think you should be hitting ponies just because you’re upset anyway.”

“You do it to me all the time.” Shining grumbled.

“What was that?” His wife asked sharply.

“Nothing, Love Bunny.” He sighed.

Twilight growled. “When he laughs at you for falling for his little game, I’ll be laughing at you too!”

“That’s just mean.” I said normally.

Shining removed his hand and Cadance froze. “Max.”

I wiped my eyes and looked at both of them calmly. “Yes?”

“... Were you faking it the entire time?” Cadance asked neutrally.

“Nah, I just get over things quickly. Twilight hits me all the time, I just needed to let it out for a little bit.”

“That’s a lie! He was faking!” Twilight protested.

Shining scratched his head. “Honestly, from what Max has told me, he’s not right in the head, so it kinda makes sense that he doesn't feel things the same way normal ponies do.”

Cadance looked between me and Twilight. “... I don’t know who to believe, to be fair. I don’t think Twilight would lie, but Max’s tears seemed so real…”

“The tears are always fake! I haven’t seen Max cry in years!” Twilight huffed.

“...Wasn’t he gone for two years?” Shining asked. “I mean, it was only a month or so to him, right? I’m sure that statement isn’t really all that meaningful.”

Twilight made some frustrated noises. “Max, tell them that you were just acting!”

I shrugged. “It’s only half an act to be fair. I just dredge up the repressed pain from deep inside and let it flow naturally like it should have when I received it.”

“... That’s worrying, Max.” Cadance said softly.

Twilight looked at me. “... You never told me that.”

I shrugged again. “Why would I? I’m pretty sure that it would only worry you. I really shouldn’t have said it there, but I felt like you would want the whole truth rather than the half-truths I’ve been giving you since Discord put that spell on yourself and Shining.”

My fiance sat down and held my hands. “Max, are there some things you need to talk about?”

“Undoubtedly. Will I? No.” I replied.

Cadance and Shining both put hands on my shoulders. “Max… If there’s something weighing on you, it would help to get it out in the open.”

I shook my head. “A lot of what I have to say are things I’ve already told to Twilight.”

Twilight squeezed my hands firmly. “Then why not share something you haven’t spoken about?”

“Because you’re not the right person to talk about it with. No one in this room is the person I should voice the heaviest thing on my heart to.”

“Then who is?” She asked kindly.

I shook my head. “Nashoba is the only one who comes to mind, but if I tell her, she’ll either tell me to stop whining or start ripping out the throats of the ones I love.”

Twilight tilted her head to the side. “Why would she do that?”

“Answering that question would be talking about the thing.” I gave her a playful smile.

Twilight squeezed my hands again. “... What about Jovia? You could talk to her, and you know she wouldn’t betray your secrets since she’s bonded to you.”

“I wouldn’t want to take the risk of turning her into something malevolent. There really isn’t anyone I can talk to about this, so let’s drop it and go to lunch, yeah? I’ve got some jerky with my name on it, if I’m not mistaken.” I let go of Twilight’s hands, but she held firm.

“You swore to never keep a secret from me.” Twilight said gently.

“... You swore to never press me for information I didn’t want to share.”

“If it didn’t pertain to your health. I think getting this off of your chest will do you some good.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. When I reopened them, I said, “Just stop hitting me, okay? Shove me or whatever, just stop hitting me, please.”

Twilight blinked. “I… I didn’t realize that it bothered you.”

“I tell myself that it doesn’t, but you leave bruises more often than not, and I’m the only person you ever hit. It makes me feel like I’m the most despicable thing in your life every time you do it.”

I could hear Twilight’s heart throb. “I-I… I’m sorry, Amour.”

I lifted her hands to my lips and kissed her knuckles. “It’s okay.”

Cadance and Shining removed their hands from my shoulder. Cadance said, “Just teleport to us if you need us, okay?”

Twilight and I nodded, which was the signal for them to pop out. “Max…”

“Really, Twilight. If it was a bigger problem, I would have said something.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. You’d keep your silence to protect my feelings unless I practically corner you into talking about it like we are right now. Please tell me why you didn’t tell me sooner, Amour.”

“That would be talking about the thing.”

“Then let’s talk. I’m listening.” My ever-precious lover said.

“... The only person in the Royal Family who hasn’t emotionally or physically abused me is Cadance, and you all are the people I’m supposed to trust most in this world. That includes Noir.” I said quietly.

Twilight mulled that over. “... How did Noir abuse you?”

“Physically. I don’t talk about my training with her for a reason.”

“Why is that?”

“She took a piece of my sanity when she trained me. A bigger piece than Luna did.”

“And Luna also abused you physically?”

“Different methods, same effect. Keeping me away from you was the worst part. You were the only solace I had in the three weeks I spent with her, and not even being able to dream about you wore me down. I suppose you could call that emotional abuse too.”

“... How did Celestia abuse you?” Twilight asked shakily.

“The physical abuse was comparatively mild, but the emotional abuse was severe. When she showed me that she wasn’t afraid to wipe minds and told me that she’d done it to me multiple times… It hurt. It hurt knowing that she could have changed the way things ended with Velvet Breeze at the drop of a hat, but she didn’t.”

“Velvet Breeze?” Twilight asked.

“If you don’t count our initial romp during your estrus in the first few days we met, then Velvet was my first lover in Equestria-”

“Can you call her ‘Breeze’ so I don’t confuse her with my Mom?” Twilight asked.

I nodded. “Breeze was the person who consoled me after my first kill. She let me into her home, fed Nashoba and I, and when I told her that Celestia had betrayed me by spilling the secret about Maxwell, she’d been ready to take up arms for my sake. When I came back to Ponyville after I’d been healed, I slept with Fluttershy due to her estrus pheromones and Celestia’s encouragement, and when I told Velvet what happened, she didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I don’t know if she still hates me, but Celestia could have fixed things the right way, but instead, she ruined any chance of Velvet ever coming back to me.”

“Wow..” Twilight breathed.

I nodded. “I still hate Celestia for what she’s done. I still hate Luna for what she’s done. Deep down, I know I hate Noir for what she’s done, but I never let her see that part of me. I’ve kept that hatred so deep for so long, it’s warped me in ways that I don’t think I can fix anymore.” I barked out a laugh. “You must think I’m a fucking loser. After all, who goes back like a fucking dog with its tail between its legs to the same masters who beat it in the first place?”

Twilight cleared her throat and I looked up at her. Her throat was working furiously like she was trying to swallow her tears, so I said, “This is why I didn’t want to talk about it, Cherry.”

“Max…” She barely managed to choke the words out. “Why are you here?”

“... Because I had nothing in England. At least here, I have people who look at me with something other than pure contempt in their eyes. Here, I’m useful. Here, I’m productive. Here, I have you.”

Twilight sobbed and I kicked my chair behind me as I knelt so I’d have some room. I held Twilight’s hands to my lips and waited for her to speak. Through the sound of her weeping, I heard her ask, “How can you be with ponies who do this to you?”

“... You don’t want me to answer that. Not right now.”

She took a minute to straighten up a bit, the lovely features of her face streaked with tears and etched in pain. It was a heartbreaking sight that I knew I’d caused, and that I could’ve avoided it if I’d only held my tongue for a while longer. It hurt knowing that I’d reduced my Twilight, my love, my heart, to a sorrowful mass of sympathetic anguish. There was little else in the world that would make my heart ache more than seeing Twilight suffer, especially since I knew that I was the fucking pillock who’d caused it in the first place.

When Twilight could speak again, she said, “Please. Just tell me now.”

I closed my eyes and rested my head on her lap. “Fine.” I said softly. “I’m broken. I’m a broken shell of a person that’s too afraid to lose what he has. If I tell Noir that my fear runs deep into my very soul, then I’ll hurt her and I might lose her. If I tell Celestia that I’ll never love her like I thought I could, I’d lose her too, and Luna would follow. If I tell Luna that I hate her, she might tell Celestia and they’ll both go. I was afraid to tell you that it hurts when you hit me, but…” I took a calming breath. “I can’t afford to lose you. I’m afraid that every time I upset you, that you’re going to leave me and all I’ll be left with are these farces of relationships and I… I’m just some scared kid, Twilight. At my heart, I’m just some scared kid that has too much to lose now.”

Twilight lifted my face from her lap and cleared the tears from my eyes. “I swore I would never betray you, Amour,” She said shakily, “and to me that means that I’ll never forsake your love. Not for a single thing in this world. Not for my parents, or for my brothers, or for anypony in the Royal Family, Maximus. You could have chosen any mare you wanted. You could’ve had Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity-”

“But not Rainbow Dash?” I asked cracking a small smile.

Twilight smiled back gingerly, as if it hurt to do so. “Not Rainbow Dash, but you could’ve had Fleur if you really wanted her, Mary, or Strawberry Petal. I’m sure you could’ve charmed Trixie…” We both made a face.

“Let’s not talk about me charming my sister and I won’t talk about you charming your brother.”

Twilight nodded, gaining some steam. “Let’s. My point is, you pretty much have your pick of the mares in Equestria, Max. Your charm has crossed borders that friendship couldn't, and every time I wake up next to you, I realize how lucky I am that you picked me all over again. You picked me.” She said lovingly.

“You were always the one.” I replied adoringly.

“Which is why from this day forward, anypony- No, any person, that messes with you, whether that be hitting you, calling you names or just making you feel bad, is going to have to deal with a ‘pissed off’ Princess…” She paused.

“Yes, you used that correctly.” I guessed.

My loving fiance nodded curtly. “They’re dealing with me. If any person lays so much as an unfriendly finger on you, myself included, I’m going to fight with every ounce of my strength to make them suffer for it.”

I looked up to Twilight. “Thank you… That- That means a lot to me, Twilight.”

“I may not be male, but I’ll have your back like Maxwell did, but even better. I promise.”

“I’ll always protect you, Twilight. Say the word and the person who hurt you will be dealt with your way or my way, depending on whose fury you want them to face.”

“We’ll send them to the Sun together.” Twilight vowed.

“To the Sun and beyond.”

Twilight stood and I rose with her, and when we were both standing, we embraced each other. Nothing was magically healed. I still felt my feelings, as dark and tumultuous as they were, but I had a feeling that my heart would be a bit lighter for talking to Twilight, and as I held her, I felt the love between us deepen further. While we were hugging, I felt something warm on my chest, coming from my sternum, and when Twilight and I looked down to see what was causing the feeling, we saw that our book-shaped necklaces had connected at the seam and was glowing gently. My greyish blue mixed with Twilight’s magenta to make a purplish slate color that was weird but good in my opinion. Twilight and I looked at each other after a few seconds and our hands met by our sides. Words flooded my mind like they’d welled up from the depths and I knew for a fact that Twilight was experiencing the same thing.

“Divorced we are but halves of a whole. Together, we are complete, our strength knows no bounds, and our love lies betwixt respect and honor. We take each other now in the most intimate fellowship and swear to never break these vows.” Twilight and I spoke at the same time, in the same rhythem, and in the same tone. It was rather unsettling, but the warmth that flowed from our points of contact was nothing like I’d ever felt before. I felt like I was… Home.

“As the Vanguard, I shall speak first.” I said automatically, gazing into Twilight’s soul. Within, I could see her experiences. Her greatest pride, her most shameful acts, her triumphs, and her defeats. I knew her secrets and that which no other person would ever know. “Twilight Sparkle, born of Night Light and Twilight Velvet. I do swear on this day to comfort you before myself and all others, to treasure you above all worldly and heavenly beings, to give unto you whatever I may have, to hide no knowledge from you, to hold you only in affection, to be your bastion in the coming tides, and to love you without condition. By these vows, I pledge my body, soul, and Magic unto you, forever in your hands, to never be forsaken for the prosperity of another entity, living or conceptual.”

Twilight looked through me, seeing me for what I was, who I was, and how I came to be. She saw in me what I’d seen in her, but instead of feeling naked and afraid like I had with Noir, I felt accepted and loved. “As the Harbinger, I shall speak second. Kaid Gadai, born of Babs Grace and Kincaid Gadai, known by the name of Maximus. I do swear on this day to lend you my shoulder for support and comfort, to hold no secret from you, to honor you as the first in my heart forever, to share with you all I may have, to never lay an angry hand upon you, to protect and defend you and your name, and to love you without hesitation, faltering, or expectation. By these vows, I pledge my body, soul, and Magic unto you, to never be forsaken for the prosperity of another entity, living or conceptual.”

Twilight and I stood there, looking at each other for but a few moments longer before our eyes closed and our lips met as they had a thousand times before, but now, the innocent feeling I received from Twilight was mingling with a new, even more pleasant feeling that I surmised was true, unconditional, undying love. We spent our time in each other’s tender embrace like the moment would fade, but I knew somehow that I would always get a taste of the same bliss that I felt in the moment when our lips touched once more. The feeling… It’s like… I don’t know. I suppose it’s like knowing that you’ll never have to worry about facing another obstacle alone, that no matter what, this one person will always have your back and will never purposefully do anything to hurt you. It’s a feeling of utter safety that I can’t get enough of, but I could live without it at the same time. It wouldn’t kill me to be away from Twilight, but I would miss her with every waking moment, though I would always know when I was needed by her side, even if our pendants would fail. The feel is comparable to being unified with another being wholly, like you could jump from one body to the other without a problem, and when I pulled away from Twilight, I saw myself and actually felt shorter. We both blinked a few tips and kissed again because that was a strange little occurrence, and once we’d gotten our fill of the feeling again, we parted and we were back in the correct bodies.

“...Well that was…” I couldn’t find the right words.

“...I think ‘right’ fits it well. Except for the swapping bodies thing, that was odd.” Twilight replied.

“Right is right.” I looked at her for a little bit longer.

Twilight stayed silent for a moment and gazed at me in turn. “So what are you thinking about?”

I shrugged. “I was just looking at you for a little bit.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

And so we just looked at each other for a few more moments before kissing again briefly.

I tilted my head. “So do you know what that whole thing was?”

Twilight shrugged. “Don’t know. Do you think we should ask Cadance? I mean, that felt like True Magic at work.”

“We can, but I want to go home soon. We’re going to devote the day to cuddling and wedding planning.” I declared.

Twilight smiled. “My thoughts exactly.”

And with that, Twilight teleported us to Cadance though she was explaining to the girls and Adstus why we were nowhere to be found when arrived. Twilight and I asked her to stop talking for a moment and described what had happened with us swearing vows and the weird covenant we’d spoken automatically and Cadance’s jaw fucking dropped like she was trying to catch multiple dicks in her mouth. She stuttered her way through a congratulation and hugged Twilight and I for a long minute before asking how we’d managed to do whatever the ‘buck’ it was that we’d just done. Apparently what Twilight and I had experienced was a rare thing, even among those who were in true love and it basically meant that we’d be together forever.

That shit was radical as fuck.

Cadance congratulated us over and over again and told us the story of how she and Shining had done the same thing, but she’d assumed that she’d been able to do it because she was adept at finding true love and had found it in Shining. She spouted a lot of nonsense about true love being the best thing ever and that she could literally feel it permeating from us, and when Twilight and I announced that we would be getting married soonish. Cadance and Rarity glomped Twilight immediately while Fluttershy and Pinkie took the time to hug me. Rainbow and Applejack hung back and waited to give their congratulations, and when they were through, Crimson and Swift stepped up to give us some well wishes.

The taffy toned Princess asked us where we were going to have the wedding and Twilight said that we hadn’t decided yet, but would be happy to have some help with picking out a color scheme and decorations. Things like that were able to be taken care of sooner rather than later, and all of the girls wanted to be in on the wedding plans, and of course Twilight accepted. I asked if I was going to have any input and I got a lot of stares for that from everyone. I was quickly informed by Swift and Crimson that no self respecting ‘stallion’ would ever be caught doing something as girly as planning a wedding, but I let them know that I wanted to have a hand in the happiest day of my life and I earned many hugs for that from the ladies.

Twilight promised to keep me included for as long as I wanted to be, and when she suggested that we start by getting the color schemes picked out, I suggested that we have each of our favourite colors on either side of whatever room we decided to get married in and have them mix in the middle. Rarity was aghast at mixing random colors, but when Twilight and I joined hands on instinct and held our free hands next to each other, palms slightly cupped, we produced a new Seal. It wasn’t all that new to be fair since it was just Twilight’s Cutie Mark within my Seal, but Cadance was thrilled to see it and said that it was beautiful nonetheless

We let our Seal fade since Rarity and Cadance had committed the color to memory, and thus, we promised that we would start getting things settled for our wedding. Twilight and I didn’t bother letting go of each other’s hands since we didn’t want to, so we just didn’t and continued doing so until Twilight got everyone’s shit together. I helped her send stuff off and once we were through with that, Twilight teleported everyone into her house. Spike immediately peaced out to go do whatever, Applejack said that she had to get back to the farm, though she promised to be back in the coming days to help with whatever, and Pinkie said that she would be around if we wanted to start planning the reception. Rainbow didn’t want to be bothered with ‘mushy gushy love malarky’, so she ducked out, which left Fluttershy, Rarity, and Adstus to do what we needed to get done. I sent Adstus home since none of them wanted to do anything pertaining to the wedding.

Rarity and Fluttershy helped Twilight and I get a feel for what we wanted our decorations to be and Rarity promised to handle Twilight’s wedding dress like it was going to be her masterpiece, but when Twilight asked if she was going to make my tux as well, Rarity paused until I told her that she didn’t have to. Rarity shook her head and asked Twilight to cast a truth spell, and when she did, the marshmallow mare asked me if I’d really slept with her sister. I told her no, and much to Rarity’s surprise, Fluttershy was the first one to chastise her for even asking such a silly question. I requested that Fluttershy stop giving Rarity an earful, but Fluttershy still had to finish up and say that I liked my women to be more physically developed and I couldn’t help but lean around Twilight and smile at her arse. Twilight checked me with her shoulder and asked where I was looking, so I told her that I’d just been admiring the stylings of her tail and Twilight told me to shut up before she teleported me into the shower and turned the cold water on.

I didn’t want a cold shower at the moment, but Rarity took the opportunity while I was thinking of a response to say that she was sorry for thinking less of me and promised that she would be speaking to Sweetie Belle about lying, but I had a question.

“So why do you think Sweetie Belle lied in the first place? It’s not like I’m the most popular guy around town or anything.” I said, actually confused.

Rarity chewed her lip. “I don’t know, but when I asked Sweetie Belle who she’d given her virginity to, the first name out of her mouth was yours. I was under the understanding that you charmed her for a piece of a young mare, though I should have known that Twilight would never allow you to sleep with my sister.”

Twilight nodded. “You’re right. It’s one thing to let Max sleep with you, but I can’t really say the same about Sweetie Belle at all. It’s not that she’s a bad young mare or anything, it’s just that I think Sweetie wants to start a herd of her own.”

Rarity sighed. “I don’t think that’s quite right, but she does seem to have quite the rebellious streak in her.”

I scratched my head with my free hand. “So how did you know that Sweetie Belle gave up her V-card in the first place? I mean, it’s not like she had a flag or anything with it on it and stopped carrying it around, right?”

I got looks from the ladies. “What?”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “It’s an obvious thing when a mare loses her virginity, Maximus. She just… Changes, I suppose.”

I raised a brow and shrugged. “I guess I’ve never known anyone that well to tell besides Fluttershy.“ She let out a squee. “I know how to tell if a guy’s gotten laid for the first time, but girls don’t make as much sense to me.”

Twilight tilted her head. “How do you know if a stallion loses his virginity?”

“He walks a bit taller, has a bit more pride to him, and if he thinks he did particularly well, you can’t tell him a damn thing about sex.” I said drily. “If he lost his brown cherry, then his head is level with his shoulders and he might not be as forthcoming about information.”

Twilight blinked. “... I’ve noticed the latter things about Shining.”

“My bad.” I said, looking away.

Rarity and Fluttershy blushed brightly. “You didn’t!” Rarity cried.

“Oi! I didn’t stick anything in him, it’s just not my business to spread.” I said cryptically.

Twilight gagged. “Thanks a lot, Max, because I know exactly what you’re talking about.”

“...I guess I really can’t hide anything from you anymore.” I said, mildly surprised.

“Brain bleach. Somepony get me brain bleach.” Twilight moaned.

Fluttershy giggled. “I’m sure it’s not all that bad. Just think of Shining Armour as a handsome stallion you’ve only met a few times and I’m sure you’ll like it better.”

“Stop, oh my gosh, please just stop!” Twilight wailed.

I threw an arm around her shoulders. “No more talk of Shining. Instead, let’s talk about Twilight and how fabulous she looks, yeah?”

Rarity tittered. “She DOES look rather fetching in the dress I made for her. Why, I’m rather proud to call it one of my best creations yet!”

Fluttershy nodded. “Twilight looks very beautiful.”

I squeezed my love. “She’s always beautiful, isn’t she? I mean, I might be the only one who sees it when she wakes up with bed head, but it’s beauty nonetheless.”

Twilight blushed and looked up at me. “You think I’m beautiful all the time, don’t you?”

“Well, it’s not like I ever get tired of looking at you.” I said softly. “Every day it’s like I notice something new, but then I realize it’s just a new way to describe what I saw yesterday. Eventually I’ll run out of words, but I’ll never run out of the feeling.”

Twilight angled my chin downward for a quick kiss and gave me a smile. “If you keep spoiling me with compliments, you’re going to make me a rotten mare.”

I grinned and thought better of what I was about to say. “The only thing rotten about you is your cooking skills. Simply atrocious.”

Rarity and Fluttershy giggled at that and Twilight just rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky you’re cute, Amour.”

“Cute and cuddly, Cherry.” I kissed her forehead and looked at Rarity and Fluttershy. “So what now? Do we continue to plan, or are we done for the day?”

Rarity sighed. “As much as I would like to continue, I think we’re done for the day. I need to speak to Sweetie Belle, in any case.”

“There’s nothing I have to do, but I’m sure you two want some alone time.” Fluttershy said softly.

Which was completely true. Twilight and I just wanted to spend some time in each other’s arms, but the first thing we did was change out of our stuffy clothes and slip into something more comfortable, which for Twilight were pajama pants and one of my looser shirts while I went for some shorts I rarely wore and another one of my looser shirts. However, even my loose shirts had gotten rather tight with the gains I’d received from training, so I was looking forward to a bit of shopping. When I brought it up to Twilight, she said that we could get that done as long as we stayed together, so we got dressed inso some semi-formal wear for a stroll around town and she let Spike know that she knew he’d had sex for the first time. The poor fellow sputtered and flipped his shit, asking how she’d known and I told him that Sweetie Belle had lost her virginity somehow and I just didn’t believe that it would’ve been with someone she didn’t know. Spike admitted to it nervously and Twilight said that he wasn’t in trouble, but I could tell that she rather wanted him to be since she didn’t like the idea of her little Spykoranuvellitar getting down and dirty with a liar. My fiance, however handled it rather well and told him to be careful about indulging in such acts unless he wanted to leave some poor mare heart broken. He swore that he wouldn’t sleep with anyone he wasn’t dating, so that was nice.

Twilight and I went out to go shopping and we talked about Spike becoming sexually active, but neither of us were terribly fond of the idea. I understood why Twilight didn’t like it too much, and if the whole ‘vow thing’ was anything to go by, I imagined that my displeasure was due to Twilight’s own feelings on the matter, so we talked about that while we went to Blue’s shop. When we arrived, my mother was sitting behind the counter, ringing up some random stallion that I don’t remember ever having seen around town, so Twilight and I let them be for the time being. I bought a few more shirts that were more comfortable and some button-downs that weren’t really meant for someone of my… girth, I guess. However, I wasn’t terribly worried about it, and when we went to go bra shopping for Twilight because her current ones were getting a little uncomfortable. I didn’t go into the changing room with her, but she found the right fit eventually and we rang our things up at the counter with Blue.

When my Mum saw us, she beamed brilliantly. “Twilight! Max! It’s good to see you two!”

“Hullo Mum.” I said happily.

“Hi Blue. It’s good to see you too. Say, do you know what day Trixie’s wedding is?”

Blue blinked. “Well, it’s this week. I’ll write the date down for you, if you like.”

I nodded and accepted the piece of paper. “Thanks, Mum, we appreciate it.”

My Mum smiled again. “Well, I think I’ll need to ask a favour of you for providing such vital information. After all, you wouldn’t want Trixie to know you forgot about her wedding day, would you?”

I shrugged. “I’ll tell her the truth and say that I remembered that it was some time this week, but couldn’t remember the exact day. What do you need?”

Blue rolled her eyes. “I just need you to get a letter over to Rarity for me, “ She fished it out from underneath the counter, “which is something I would have done myself, but you know, she’s been out of town for a few days.”

I grabbed my Dragon Fire from my house and sent Blue’s letter off. “Done. We really need to get you one of these things.”

She sighed. “It would be invaluable, I’ll say that. When you were at Boot Camp, I was still asking Spike to send you letters for me.”

Twilight tilted her head. “You know, you could just ask him to fill a jar with a little fire for you. I’m sure Spike wouldn’t mind.”

Blue waved her hand. “I don’t have the money to properly pay him for it.”

Twilight and I gave her a look and Blue blushed. “Don’t look at me like that! It’s not like I can just spend money willy-nilly!”

“That’s not what we’re saying, Mum.” I said.

“We’re saying that Spike is Max’s little brother,” Twilight continued.

“And since he’s my little brother,”

“It wouldn't exactly be far-fetched for you to ask him a favour. Besides, Spike’s given all the girls a bit of his fire.” Twilight said kindly.

“I don’t see why he wouldn’t give you a little bit. I mean, he speaks highly of you when he does speak of you at all. Your cookies are still the best.” I grinned.

Blue smiled shyly. “They’re just a recipe I came up with, nothing special.”

Twilight looked behind her before leaning forward. “Don’t tell anypony I said this, but they’re honestly better than the chocolate chip ones at Sugarcube Corner.”

I nodded. “Don’t get us wrong: Pinkie’s a great baker and Mrs. Cake is incredible, but you’re the best at what you do.”

Blue blushed and waved us away. “Oh, stop! You two are simply too much!”

I held Twilight hand and squeezed it a bit. “We’re also the sexiest power couple you’ve ever seen.”

“I wouldn’t say sexiest, but we definitely do look pretty good. Well, you look pretty good.” Twilight flattered.

I rolled my eyes. “Keep it up and I’ll shut that mouth of yours with a kiss.”

“Did I ever mention how stunningly handsome you are? Or how fabulous your jawline is? I swear, I could kiss it all day.” Twilight flirted.

I gave her a quick smooch and we parted, smiling. “Aww, you two are so sweet it makes me want to add you to some cookies and bake you!” Blue said warmly.

I made a face. “Would you really want a furry, wine flavoured cookie?”

Twilight checked me. “Would you really want a meaty cookie that tastes like cologne?”

Blue giggled and we smiled some more. “So what’s changed between you two? You seem so much closer than you were the last time I saw you together, or at least, you seem so much more lively.”

I shrugged. “We made some extremely magical vows,” Blue’s jaw dropped, “and we’ve just been…” I looked to Twilight.

“I would say that we’ve been equalling out. I think Max and I have been influencing each other emotionally.” Twilight finished.

Blue shook her head. “That’s what happens when you find love in its truest form. I’m so happy for you!”

“Thanks, Mum, but we don’t really understand it ourselves.” I scratched my cheek with my free hand.

Twilight coughed. “I never did read too much into it. I never thought I’d find it and it always seemed like a filly’s Pseudo-Magic to me.”

Blue shook her head, pucker her lips slightly. “I assure you, Twilight, that love has a true form. There are a lot of legends about it, but I could tell you about the ones I’ve heard if you’re interested.”

I looked to Twilight and she looked at me. “It’s not like Cadance said much about it other than that she’d found it and was proud of us for it.” I said.

Twilight looked to Blue. “Could you tell us a few things?”

“Well, first off, I’ve heard that the two ponies who fall into the truest of love will forever be stronger when they’re together since their Magic is amplified between them. The story I read was very particular about saying that it wasn’t pooled together, but that it was mixed and multiplied.” Blue informed.

“Sounds like what the first vow said. ‘Divorced we are but halves of a whole. Together we are complete.’.” I rattled off.

“‘Together, we are complete, and our strength knows no bounds.’.” Twilight added. “I suppose that means nothing is going to stand in our way.

I grinned. “Wanna see if we can take Noir or Celestia?”

Twilight huffed. “Feel free to do that yourself. I couldn’t even keep up with them during that fight.”

Blue gasped. “You mean that tall blue mare you introduced me to fought The Princess?”

I nodded. “Fought and won. It was truly spectacular. I’d happily share the memories with you if I could.”

Twilight perked up. “I know a spell that would let you do that!”

“I know. I was waiting for you to offer.” I said playfully.

Twilight rolled her eyes and hugged my arm. “Which is why I offered, silly. What do you say, Blue? Do you want to see what happened? We’ll be seeing it from Max’s perspective and he was the closest pony to the action.”

Blue looked unsure. “Did anypony get hurt?”

“Celestia and Luna both took a cut to the right shoulder, but neither of them bled too much.” I answered.

She winced. “Well, it does sound like a once in a lifetime thing that I shouldn’t really pass up.”

I shrugged. “Don’t decide now. Bring Onyx by to my house later and we’ll watch it then, if you want. If we’re seeing it from my perspective, then you might be able to follow what goes on past the first round.”

Blue smiled nervously. “You say that like they fought like super-ponies.”

“They did.” Twilight and I chorused perfectly.

Blue blinked. “...Then I suppose I really shouldn’t let the opportunity go to waste. I’ll see if Onyx has any plans for the night and we;ll meet you at your house.”

I grinned. “Sounds like a plan, Mum. We’ll see you tonight.”

Blue waved us off and we headed back to Twilight’s house after I transported my crap back home. We spent a few of our spare hours on the couch doing a whole lot of cuddling and talking about nothing in particular. I told Twilight about how I felt towards neon colors and she agreed that they were simply hideous and she asked about how I felt about warm colors in general and I told her that I wasn’t too fond. She asked if red would go well with her coat and I told her that something close to wine would work well without clashing against her coat. When the time came, Twilight and I walked to my house and we met up with my team and everyone was present, though tired. Apparently Crimson had gotten the training started while I was away and told everyone that it was only going to get tougher. Iron was up for the challenge with aplomb and even wanted to do more so she could get into fighting shape better, but Starshine was dying slowly and asked if they could slow things down a bit so she wouldn’t keel over. Swift was fine, but he wanted the combat training to start since he’s a muscle head like that, and Crimson was playing things cool since he just wanted to make it through to the next weekend. He told me that he and Fleur had been keeping up a correspondence and that she’d requested his presence in Canterlot the next time he was available.

Iron asked for a word with me in private, and though I loathed leaving Twilight, she was in the middle of a boring sciencey conversation with Starshine, so I figured she could do without me. When Iron and I went to my Sun room, she said, “Max, I might have a problem.”

I nodded. “Then it shall be addressed. What’s up, Iron?”

“I think I’m falling for somepony…” She trailed off.

“Are you going to tell me who that person is?” I asked. Not like I don’t already know, but I wanna hear you say it.

“Well… It’s one of our team members.” She said nervously, her gaze flickering back and forth from me to the floor.

“I didn’t think it would be a problem otherwise.” I said patiently.

Iron waited for me to make a guess. “... You’re really not making this easy on me you know.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know who it is, I just feel like you’ll get more out of the conversation if you speak the words for yourself.”

Iron colored. “If you know who it is, then why are you making me say it?”

I gave her a look. “For the reason I literally just said. Just spit it out and you might feel a little less wound up.”

Iron pursed her lips for a moment and popped her knuckles. “... It’s Swift, alright? I think I have a crush on Swift.”

“You do have a crush on Swift.” I said frankly. “It’s not surprising, Iron. He’s a pretty decent looking guy and he’s built like a brick house. If I was female, and you know I have been, I could see myself being attracted to him initially.”

“Initially?” Iron asked.

I shrugged. “Crimson would be more my type, but I like the dedication it takes to get a body like Swift’s. It shows that he’s not afraid of hard work and heavy lifting. Another plus is that he’s not exactly an arsehole, and he seems to be a really genuine kind of fellow, if not a bit too simple for me.”

Iron’s cheeks grew rosier. “He’s actually pretty nice once you get to know him, and he can fight like nopony’s business. I always hoped that I would get to train with him, but Shoulder Boulder usually had me help teach the basics or spar with somepony else.”

I nodded. “So what are you going to do about it? I can’t say that I’m going to forbid dating within the ranks of Adstus, but I know for a fact that I don’t want you two to ruin the camaraderie you’ve built so far. If you want to talk things out with him or fuck him silly until he loves you…” I spread my hands.

Iron glared at me. “It’s not like that! It’s just… I don’t know how to approach him.”

“Lay out the facts. Tell him that you have a crush on him and that you want to try being together. Take things slow and see how they go at first glance, and then continue at your own pace.”

Iron twiddled her thumbs silently.

“...Is there something else?”

She sighed. “Max, Look at me.” She spread her arms. “I’m just too much like a stallion to have a shot with Swift, I mean, I don’t have a flank at all, I’m bulky, and my hands are HUGE! I don’t think Swift is going to see me the same way I see him, or if he does, he’s going to see me as practically another stallion. And it’s not like this is a good time to be getting all emotional either. War was just declared on Equestria for the first time in a thousand years, for crying out loud!” Iron buried her head in her hands.

“So what? Just because there’s a threat looming overhead doesn’t mean that your heart can’t have a bit of time to relax and fill itself as much as you’d like. Besides, I always thought that it was better to get things out in the open as soon as possible rather than letting things fester until things become unhealthy. I want you to come to Swift about how you feel, preferably in private, and hopefully right after we finish up with this conversation.”

“Wait, you want me to tell him now!?” Iron cried, completely out of character. “I-I- But-”

“No ‘buts’. Get out there and go get your feelings out in the open, yeah?” I said cheerfully.

Iron stared at me, mouth agape. “Do you even know what this is like?”

I raised a brow. “No. When it comes to love, if I want something, I ask for it. It’s worked well with what I do so far.”

“Yes, but you’re attractive! You’re a pretty-colt and I’m just some masculine mare!”

I shrugged. “My way isn’t always the best way, but it works out for the best in the end more often than not.” I stood and headed toward the door. “I’m not going to force you into anything, but I’ve said my peace on the matter. If you want better advice from a girl, I’d suggest asking one of my female friends other than Twilight. I’ll happily put you in contact with them.”

“...Why can’t I just ask Twilight?”

“Because she’s not good with relationships either. It took her months to warm up to me, after all.”

“... But you guys just seem so… I don’t know… Natural.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t learn for a while that Twilight was the only one I needed in my life, and until then I just slept around with women I was fond of. Of course I had her permission, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it in the first place, but still.”

“... So you had a herd?”

“In a manner of speaking. I dated Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight and Celestia-”

“You dated Celestia!?” Iron asked, staggered.

“Yeah. I dated her before anyone else.” I replied.

“... Why aren’t you two together then? I mean, I’m sure Celestia would be willing to work with you, no matter what-”

I held up a hand for her silence. “The problem wasn’t with me, though I had my own issues. No, Celestia makes mistakes too and some of them just hurt too much to forgive her for them.”

Iron looked at me for a moment. “You’re not going to talk about it, are you?”

“Wasn’t planning on it. I will, however, answer most questions about myself and Twilight.”

“Okay, I guess.” Iron thought for a second. “So how did you two get so close if you weren’t immediately connected?”

I checked my nails. “We took things at her pace. I didn’t push her for anything she wasn’t willing to give, and when the time came where she was ready to give more, I accepted what she gave and controlled myself enough to not ask for more. It hasn’t been all honey and roses to be honest with you. We have our ups and our downs, but the main thing is that we never let it keep us angry for long, and even if we go to bed angry in separate houses, we still come together when we’re ready to listen. I guess we’re just patient with each other when it really counts.”

“... Huh. I was kinda expecting you to say something along the lines of ‘Sometimes you’re just perfect like we are, sometimes you’re not. Twilight and I do everything effortlessly!’” She said, shitfully mimicking my accent.

“I’ll drop you, mate. Don’t forget who kicks the most arse around here.” I replied disdainfully.

She rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t hit me for doing something like tha- OW!” I’d slapped the fuck out of her leg with my tentacle.

“Keep it up. I’ll whack you for not flushing the toilet too.” I gave her a look.

Iron worked her leg. “Seriously, that hurt!”

“Then we’re not training you hard enough. Make fun of the way I speak again and I’ll spank you in front of everyone with your pants down.”

“You’re such an ass!”

“Don’t do stupid shit. I’m leaving.” As I turned my back, Iron threw a pillow at the back of my head and I tossed it back onto one of the seats.

I rejoined Twilight as she was talking to Starshine about the benefits of monitoring your Bunsen burner while cooking marshmallows or some shit and Iron eventually came out of the Sun room, taking a seat on the far end of the room from where I was sitting. I was writing more of Midnight Stroll and the Stolen Sword, getting some good progress made. Seriously, writing straight fiction was like the easiest shit in the world for me, and since I didn’t have to try and come up with terribly witty banter or intense romance scenes, things just flowed so much more easily. It didn’t hurt that, compared to the other Midnight Stroll books, this one was going to be a bit shorter. It was only going to be by a few pages in the end, but I was rapidly nearing the end of one of the last ten chapters and I was liking how it was turning out.

Iron Hoof eventually got up and asked to have a word with Swift in private, her body language signalling to anyone who could read it that she was incredibly nervous. I know that Crimson picked up on it, but he was still lazily reading through A Thousand Moments and evidently didn’t want to be intrusive or didn’t care enough to be bothered. Swift had been playing with a paddle-ball that was actually kind of soothing since he was was so good with it up until then and he put it down when Iron talked to him. He didn’t pick up on her distress, but he did agree to talk to her, and when she lead him to the sun room, he asked what they were going to be talking about before she closed the door.

Of course I heard the entire conversation, but I’ll skip it since I wasn’t supposed to be listening anyway, you voyeuristic fuck. All in all, Iron came out of the room with a little smile on her face and Swift followed her with a slightly brighter one of his own. They sat down in adjacent seats and started talking about some random things that they liked and disliked, so I stopped paying attention to them and went back to writing. Again, the process was going pretty well and I was having fun while doing it, so that was nice.

When the Sun started to set, Blue and Onyx showed up to watch my memories and I made dinner for a small army with help from me Mum and my kinda-sorta gay best friend. We made three different dishes of different specialties, all of which were pretty good if I do say so myself. Crimson made some kind of Carbonara that I can’t pronounce, Blue made a hashbrown casserole, and I made dessert in the form of a nice cheesecake topped with cherries for my Cherry. Dinner was nice, and when we got to the movie bit, Twilight and I had everyone riveted with the events that displayed across my wall with my eyes acting as projectors of sorts. I don’t really blink as much as the average guy, thankfully, and when I did, I kept it quick and accidentally timed most of them with my blinks from The Games. That being said, Crimson, Onyx, and I were giving play-by-play commentary on the events that were unfolding, and even though my eyes followed every bit of the action, Twilight, Iron, and Swift could barely tell what was going on.

Crimson pointed out that the look on Celestia’s face when she’d gotten cut by Noir spoke volumes of how she’d known that she was outmatched. Twilight asked how he knew that she knew and he said that it was a look of utter frustration that you get when you’re facing a clearly superior opponent. He’d seen the look on many faces in his years and Onyx backed him up, saying that Celestia deserved praise for carrying the fight onto the third round, even after acknowledging her defeat then and there. No one needed to praise Noir any further, but she still got some from Iron and Swift for being able to beat someone as capable as Celestia and I just shook my head. I’d known from the beginning that Noir was going to win since I just knew her too well for there to be any other outcome.

When the memory was over, I put on a movie from my laptop, though most of the people in the room hadn't seen it before. Twilight explained it as ‘Human Magic’ and everyone just left it at that until I corrected her and said that it was extremely advanced technology compared to what Equestria had. I asked if anyone had any particular genre they wanted to see and they asked what kinds of movies I had, so I rattled off a few genres. The males in the room said action and the females said romance, so I fused them together and went with a modern classic by the name of The Mask of Zorro.

The movie went over pretty well with everyone in the room and it satisfied the requirements, though Onyx grumbled and said that real men don’t use rapiers, a statement that Crimson, Swift, and I all agreed on. Starshine scoffed and said it was because we lacked any sort of elegance and preferred to use glorified clubs to beat down our opponents, but that was a straight up lie and I said as much since Crimson uses a longsword, Swift a glaive, and I myself a Kopis. Onyx was the only one who used a glorified club, though he debated that fiercely, saying that a battle axe required just as much finesse as strength to use. Crimson jibed at him, saying that you could finesse a war club straight into someone’s face if you knew how to swing it, but that didn’t stop blunt and two handed weapons from being crushing tools in the end.

Little known fact: different swords require different levels of sharpness depending on the intended use. Some longswords can be razor sharp, but others can be as dull as your father’s sex life: It all depends on what you use it for. If you intend on thrusting more than cutting, then only the tip needs to be sharp. If you’re going up against unarmoured opponents, then your blade is going to need to be able to cut through flesh at the very least, bone at the greatest, and if you’re really good, entire people.

The fellows of the group started in on a conversation about weaponry and the like while the fellettes talked about how violent and stupid we were, though Twilight defended me if my name ever came up in the conversation, which was nice of her. Leaving their conversation where it was, I talked to my boys about the benefits of my Kopis, namely its weighted side that was going to be perfect for hacking and the slightly forward curving spine that would allow to to stab decently enough, but Crimson lauded his simply longsword for being simple and practical as it had proven in a few of his missions where he went to the Dragon Lands or to Germaneigh. Swift praised his glaive for having a larger cutting surface and for being a proper two handed weapon, but when Onyx asked to see it, he was a little hesitant since he know that Onyx was our trainer.

Crimson and I also retrieved our weapons so we could show Onyx what they looked like and he looked at mine first, although he waited until Crimson and Swift returned to say anything. Onyx started off by saying that my Kopis was larger than it was probably supposed to be, but that the blacksmith had obviously known that I could handle the extra weight since it was actually a little on the heavy side. However, that heaviness meant more weight behind each swing and thus more lethality behind every blow. He hefted it a few times and gave it a few lazy swings, basically saying that it would do me quite well until I wanted to stab something. Armored opponents were going to be hard to deal with, but then I told him that I had Magic to back that up and he told me that it would be dishonorable to use it in a real fight. I shrugged and reminded the group that I used to be a fucking thief for Christ’s sake. Honor didn’t really come naturally to me.

We moved onto Crimson’s longsword and Onyx said that it was well balanced and well made, though the tip could do with a little tapering to pierce through plate armour, but I told him that Crimson most likely wouldn’t be facing knights in plate, and if he did, that he should be running the other fucking way since they were bitches to with. Crimson scoffed and told me that he could handle armoured opponents better than I could and I fucking bet him on that, but he remembered who my mentor was and backed out. When Onyx got our attention back, he said that Crimson’s longsword was a good piece against pretty much anything other than Dragon and that the same thing was pretty much true about my Kopis.

Onyx took Swift’s glaive next and gave that a few things, saying that glaives in general were good as chopping and as piercing weapons, but that Swift’s Guard issue was a little on the bad side. It wasn’t terrible, but he should have another one made as soon as possible and I told him that we were already taking care of it. I caught Iron looking longingly at us as we talked about different kinds of weapons and took a moment to call her over and asked if we could give her a quick rundown of what had been said. Iron soaked up the knowledge like a sponge and asked a few questions that weren’t terribly important or things that I didn’t already know, so I’m not going to write them down.

The rest of the girls started nagging us about excluding them from our conversation, but I pointed out that none of them were soldiers or had seemed terribly interested when we started talking about weapons. Still, Twilight asked if she could have my attention for a moment, so I levitated Starshine off of the seat next to Twilight on the couch and sat next to her for myself. My wife-to-be just wanted a little affection, so I gave it to her and Starshine told me to give her spot back to her, though Twilight told her that it wasn’t happening any time soon. We just looked at her until she found a seat on the other side of Blue, but then Onyx told her that he was going to be sitting there. He earned himself a certain finger for his words and Onyx asked for Starshine’s name. I gave it to him and told him that she was a member of the team, which made Onyx give her the most disturbing smile I might have ever seen. Onyx chuckled and shook his head at her while Crimson made a strangled noise and buried his face in his book.

When Onyx and Blue left for the night, Twilight asked me if I would mind spending the night at her house and I reminded her that I was going to have to get up early for our morning run. Twilight reminded me that she was going to be coming along with me anyway, so I bid my team goodnight and told them not to fuck anything up while I was gone. Crimson promised to keep everyone in line and Starshine promised to fill my house with noxious fumes, so I told her that Onyx was coming back tomorrow and she said that he kinda creeped her out. I let her know that he was going to be our instructor from now on and if she wasn’t already pale, she would’ve gotten a bit whiter. Starshine asked if she was in trouble and Crimson and I answered that she was fucked and bucked at the same time. From there, she groaned and went to bed early since she wanted to get a little extra sleep before her Hell began.

Twilight teleported us to her house shortly after that and we laid in her bed and wrote for a few hours each. Twilight’s reading over my shoulder at the moment while I’m writing this and she’s telling me to include that we talked about what she would be doing in The War for awhile. She’s not asking me to go into detail, so I’ll just say that I voted that she keep track of where our soldiers were and how many people we had in one place and I noticed that she actually said ‘people’ a few times instead of ‘ponies’. It was an odd transition at first, but Twilight let me know that she hadn’t even meant to say it when I brought it up and we attributed it to what we’re going to call The Covenant, aka the ‘truest love’ thing. I think The Covenant is going to have some interesting effects on us in the future, but Twilight thinks that the effects are already in action, which I can’t really deny. She seems to be becoming slightly more like her and I’ve noticed that I’ve been remembering random information that I have no recollection of ever having learned, like Starswirl’s Theory of Magical Decomposition. It’s a complex subject that I won’t get into now or even in the near future, but I find it oddly fascinating for some reason. Apparently that’s exactly how Twilight feels about it, so The Covenant must be doing something.

To actually cover my feelings about The Covenant, I’m actually a little surprised that it took so long for it to pop up. I mean, I’d never heard of it or anything and Twilight had ignored some rumors she’d heard, so neither of us were terribly knowledgeable about the subject, but I think it’s going to work in tandem with the Seal I put on our necklaces, and if that’s the case, then we’ll be receiving quite the power-boost when we’re touching each other. Twilight mentioned that she feels her Magic swell while we’re in contact, and I myself feel like I’m too big for my body, so I’m just wondering what that’s supposed to mean. Maybe I get a physical boost and she gets a magical one? It’s entirely possible, but I don’t think it’s going to be terribly useful on my end since I’m not exactly going to take Twilight into battle with me any time soon.

As for confessing that I feel like I have a target on my back with the entire Royal Family… I know that it was the right call, but I just didn’t want to think about it in the moment. I mean, who wants to purposefully bring up something they’ve been avoiding talking about or even thinking about. Honestly, it’s not even in my journals or anything like that, so I hope you understand why I was so hesitant to talk about it, Twilight. I know you do, and if you’re reading this, Noir… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I really am afraid of alienating you. I have a feeling that Twilight is going to bring it up the next time she sees you, Celestia, or Luna in turn, but I rather wish she wouldn’t.

Twilight just told me that she’ll hold her silence if I ask her to, but I know that she really wants to make sure that I feel safe and loved around the people who are supposed to be my closest friends. Honestly? I can’t find a good reason to tell her to not do exactly that since she would only do it for my benefit, but… I am scared. I feel like a fucking child admitting that, but I’m scared of damaging the bonds I’ve created so far, though Twilight assures me that they’re not bonds worth having if those on the other ends of them aren’t willing to hear what I say. She thinks we should go to Canterlot tomorrow after training to confront Noir, Luna, and Celestia, preferably in that order. I feel like it’s for the best, but… How do you confront someone you love and fear? Dealing with Graham was easy since I knew exactly where we stood. He was my tormentor, my rapist, the thief of my intimacy for a long time, all of which made it simple for me to decide what to do with him, but I can’t just sentence Noir and Luna to excruciating pain. No, I’ll have to find some other way to deal with them.

So help me, God. I know you’ve got an eye on me, so… I don’t know… Come to think of it, you’ve already given me the strength I need to face them, and I believe that strength is Twilight. I know you don’t really have your hands in the things that go on in Equestria, but it’s just easier for me to thank you for leading me to Twilight than to try and ignore the fact that you let horrible things happen all the time. Then again, you let the good happen too… Fuck, this is getting philosophical. It’s time for bed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The morning after the Covenant was sealed and Twilight and I had made our deal, I woke up at four or so. My fiance was only about a minute behind me, however, so I didn’t get to look at that lovely, peaceful face of hers for long. The small smile she wore as she slept told me that she’d enjoyed the dream sex rather well, but I didn’t let the images cloud my mind for too long since I’d somehow known that she would be waking up soon after I did. When Twilight opened her eyes, the ‘No kisses before coffee’ rule was absolved then and there, moments before our lips met for the first kiss of the day.

We each said good morning and laid there for a another hour or so before we took a shower together with a little funny business during and a little more afterward. I hoped that we would actually have some time to do stuff before we settled down for the night later, but Twilight doubted that we would be in the mood for much more than happy cuddling, though neither of us had to say anything. We both just knew what the other was feeling and how to put it into words, which was pretty damn cool if I do say so myself.

While we were getting dressed for our morning run, I received a message from Crimson asking if we were still on and I wrote back, hand delivering the note to him with my True Theft since I didn’t want to be bothered with grabbing my Dragon Fire. When I felt him take it, I got Twilight into gear and we headed downstairs to make breakfast for ourselves and Spike whenever he would schlep himself out of bed. I let my fiance do some of the prep work since she couldn’t set anything on fire with a knife, but she was still awful at chopping vegetables. However, I just made her a flower salad with some marigolds, and while she snacked on that, I made my stir fry and grabbed some of my Goat-thing jerky because it was pretty fucking good. I’d used black pepper and my own piss to season it after coating it in Twilight’s poo. If you really think I did that, then you’re a fucking idiot, but I felt like writing it so you’d have to read it. You’re my bitch now. My lingual bitch. How does that make you feel?

Bullshit aside, breakfast was great and Crimson told me that he’d had to scare Starshine out of bed since she had slept through her alarm. I told him to get a fucking school-bell or something so she would wake up properly, but he said that she’d always been a terribly heavy sleeper when he’d been with her and that he’d taken advantage of it a few times. He didn’t go into detail, but I couldn’t imagine that he was sleep-fucking her like some incredi-creep neckbeard with rapey fetishes. I told Twilight what he’d told me and we mused about what he could have been doing to her while she was sleeping. I said that he’d drawn glasses on her face, but Twilight didn’t think that it was likely since she already wore glasses. She thought that Crimson might have drawn phallic imagery on her since she could see how that would be funny and that made Twilight and I break into giggles like children. It wasn’t that the thought of Starshine walking around with dicks on her face amused us so much, but the fact that Twilight had been the one to say so was funnier than anything.

With the mood bright and chipper, Twilight and I jogged to my house to collect my team while the Sun was still breaking the horizon, but when my house came into sight, we saw Adstus coming towards us. We decided not to stop and kept going, which was when I realized that Twilight should have been panting or something since we weren’t exactly close to town. Apparently she’d learned some of my techniques for running more efficiently through The Covenant or osmosis. Either way, I was proud of her for doing better.

My team, Twilight, and myself met somewhere in the middle and we made an about face to head back to town so we could begin our usual circuits. We made it through a full one before Twilight needed a break, so I had everyone job in place while she caught her breath, and I noticed that her method of doing so had changed too. It was a good thing to see in her, but then I started thinking about the bones in Pony’s hooves and that made no sense to me at all. I suddenly knew what they looked like, how they worked, and that hooves were ticklish. A part of me wondered if Twilight always had random information running through her head that loosely pertain to what she was doing and she looked me dead in the eyes, nodding. She made a face and told me that she hadn’t meant to nod, but it’s not like I was surprised or anything. We’d been answering each other’s questions and finishing each other’s sentences all morning.

Swift commented on how weird it was that we had just been chuckling for no reason during the run, but when I told him that it was probably going to be a normal thing from now on, he said that it was pretty weird. Twilight flipped him off and I gave her the two finger salute before Twilight and I took off without warning. I knew Twilight had gotten her breath back and she knew that I was ready to go, so we just up and went, though when Crimson caught up, he voiced his opinion on the matter and said that our in sync actions were starting to get a little creepy and we both told him that it was just going to be like this. There wasn’t anything we could do about it, so we weren’t going to bother with it, which made him grumble.

Twilight took a break every lap, and since she was the one who needed the breaks, Starshine was feeling a little better about running. I didn’t need to ask her if she felt like she was dragging the group down, but it wasn’t because I knew her that well or anything. I just pay attention, dumbass. We eventually finished with that morning exercise, and when we got back home, Onyx was already waiting for us so he could begin combat training. There were already training dummies in the back yard along with multiple pull-up bars that hadn’t been there before, and when I asked where they’d come from, Crimson told me that Luna had them put there last night and was planning on having a few more things put in place later in the day. There would actually be a few contractors coming in to help with some of that kind of stuff, so that was nice.

Training was boring and it sucked since Twilight went home. Onyx had me practice some blade strokes that I’d been taught previously, but I didn’t really need it since I was probably the most lethal person present and had been made into such by way of a much more brutal training regimen. With little else for me to do, I just did the usual guard exercises until I couldn’t move anymore and when I couldn’t move, I meditated and sparred with some of Mini Noir’s constructs. We didn’t talk much while I was in the mindscape, but she did have me go up against a Dragon that was rather quick, the Gryphon I’d fought in one of our war simulation (the fellow with the metal claws), and a cat that was even faster than the Gryphon, but used twin daggers, much like myself. The reach advantage I had with my Kopis had worked wonders and the extra power I had behind my swings knocked the blades from it’s hands one at a time, so I fought an unarmed opponent for a little while. It tried to tire me out, but my stamina has grown considerably and running around me wore it out more than me, so that was nice.

Once I left the mindscape, I stood up from my sitting position and found that training had only progressed an hour while I’d been away for at least four of them, fighting random things. Starshine was having one Hell of a time since Onyx was making her suffer as much as possible, doing his best to get in her head and piss her off. However, Starshine was an Operative for a reason and maintained a blank look on her face throughout Onyx’s diatribes. When they moved onto combat training, Onyx asked Crimson to help teach and I paid attention to every little movement, though there weren’t many flaws that I could find. His style just wasn’t suited to me, so I just went back to the mindscape to practice more hand-to-hand combat against multiple opponents, using both lethal and nonlethal methods to dispatch my foes. Mini Noir still didn’t say much to me and I figured that she was waiting until I got to Canterlot to speak, so I let myself out of the mindscape after I was sure that I was still as sharp as a tack with my mad skills and watched my people train some more.

Starshine was actually pretty capable as a skill based fighter, she just needed to speed up a bit and to add a little strength to her blows. Swift was a fantastic all-rounder with power, speed, and technique in spades, he just needed to learn how to do more than the stuff he’d been taught in the Guard. Iron had the basics down rather well, but she was the lowest person on the totem pole at the moment. I thought that once she got some experience under her belt, she would be a force to be reckoned with. Crimson’s speed, power, and technique were all finely tuned like mine. There’s nothing else to add to that. I would still win in a fight since I was faster, a bit stronger, and my style was variable and diverse, but Crimson would give me quite the run for my money if I wasn’t mistaken. However, if we were both completely serious about winning or taking each other’s lives, I didn’t doubt that I would beat him within a minute since I’d mastered Noir’s physically boosting technique pretty well and done a lot toward learning Luna’s.

Training was finished up with around one, so I told my team to hit the showers and went took one for myself. Once everyone was done and down in the living room, I invited them to explore town for a little bit since it was going to be our base of operations for the time being. Crimson said that he would show anyone that wanted to go around town and point out some places of interest, so I put him in charge of keeping things going while I ran to Canterlot for a few hours. There were a few questions about what I was going to be doing, but when I said that I was going to be talking to Noir and The Princesses, it was clear that I probably wasn’t going to share what we were going to be talking about until it was time to do so, otherwise I would’ve just spat it out. Swift, Crimson, and Iron prepared to get out of the house and Starshine headed upstairs to use my lab to make some medicine instead of poison which shocked the shit out of Crimson and I. She blushed at our staggered faces and protested, saying that she was a chemist, not just a toxicologist. I let it go at that, but Crimson said that he’d never known her to make anything other than poison and she flipped him off, calling him a ‘buckhead’.

I just rolled my eyes and pulled myself into Twilight’s house before exiting and knocking politely, despite having her express permission to teleport into her home whenever I wanted to. Spike answered the door and gave me a bro-fist before letting me in and telling me that Twilight was in the basement doing something or other with an experiment. I thanked him for the unnecessary information (I‘d heard her heartbeat while I was inside) and headed downstairs to go check up on her. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, Twilight was handling a strange yellow glowing liquid that seemed more like sludge than anything. She set it down when I started walking towards her and gave me a wide smile.

“I knew I felt you walk in. How was training?” She asked.

“It was training. It’s going to be boring, but at least I know I’ll have capable fighters by my side when the time comes. How goes the experimenting?”

“It went pretty well. I managed to make a paint that glows in the dark. I think it’ll do wonders for watches, clocks, and the corners of tables for when you have to go somewhere in the middle of the night.”

I chuckled. “The bad thing is that I know you’re completely serious. Can you leave it alone, or does it have to be neutralized?”

“It’s a stable formula without any components that react too poorly together. It might be a little radioactive, but-”

“Stop making it.” I said critically.

Twilight blinked and watched as I walked over and grabbed the vial with my left hand, dropping the dangerous thing into space. “Radioactivity bad. Very bad.”

“Oh… Humans know more about it than Ponies do.” Twilight said quietly.

“A lot more. Too much can give you a few terrible diseases that I don’t want you to have to live with, even if Magic can fix it.”

“It’s nice to know that you’re so protective, but I don’t think I was exposed to too much.”

“You say that, but wait until you grow a sixth finger.”

Twilight looked at her hands. “But I have ten, Max.” She said in a silly voice.

I rolled my eyes and gave her a hug. “You can use them to count the inches of my dick. Are you ready to get this trip to Canterlot over with?”

She gave me an encouraging smile. “We both know you don’t have to ask anymore.”

I shrugged. “I still like talking to you. Makes me feel all wet and slimey inside in all the right ways.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “You’ve got sex on the mind and practically nothing else today.”

“Well, what do you expect? I woke up next to the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met and the Ol’ Chap was ready for action the moment her eyes opened. The fooling around in the shower didn’t help at all.”

“You’ll live without it for a little bit.” Her eyes flickered towards the stairs. “Well, it could wait a few seconds, but I don’t know what Spike has planned for today, so you’ll have to wait for tonight. That is, if you’re still in the mood by the time this is all over.”

I took a deep breath. “It will go well. Like you said; if they’re bonds worth having, then they’re bonds worth fixing.”

She gave me a bright smile. “That’s the spirit, Amour! And if you want, I’ll even hold your hand during all of it like a good Mommy.”

I groaned. “Dear God, are you going to be this patronizing all the time now?”

Twilight giggled. “Only if the time is right. Come on, my handsome little Human. Let Mommy have your hand and she’ll walk you across the street.” She offered me her hand.

I took it and gave her a look. “If you keep calling yourself ‘Mommy’, then I’ll start calling you Mommy during sex.”

“... That’s fucking disturbing, Max.”

I smiled. “You just said ‘fuck’ instead of ‘buck’! I’m so proud of you!”

She rolled her eyes once more. “If you want to try roleplaying like Lily Pad did in A Thousand Moments, then I want you to call me Miss Twilight Rose so I can be your sexy teacher.”

“Kinky. Be sure to wear that little pencil skirt and those heels I like and we’ll do it.”

“Only if you’re a good boy for Mommy.” Twilight said condescendingly.

“Finger. Arse. The two shall meet.”

She blanched. “Alright, Twilight Rose is asking you to hold her hand so she can take you to a private classroom for special tutoring.”

I grinned. “Now we’re fuckin’ talking! Lead the way, Miss Twilight Rose.”

Twilight giggled and teleported us into her old room in the Canterlot Castle since we didn’t have much of a reason to go anywhere else. However, we didn’t expect there to be an occupant in the room pacing back and forth furiously, and when I realized who that occupant was, I felt my heart sink a bit since I really hadn’t wanted to start with Noir. She paused her walking when she saw us come in and approached with a reluctant gait. When she stood in front of us, she gave me a heartbroken look.

“Twilight, could you give Max and I a moment alone? I know he will tell you all of what transpires, but it is a moment that deserves a sham of privacy at the very least.” Noir requested.

My fiance held my hand firmly and I looked at her, drawing a lungful of air. “It’s more up to Max that either of us, Noir. If he wants me here, then I’m not going anywhere.” Twilight replied evenly.

I squeezed her hand and let the breath out. Twilight surrendered my hand and I gave her a quick kiss before she headed out of the room. Noir shook her head and said, “I will never understand the truest form of love, though I suppose it is not unlike the bond we share.”

“That’s what I thought too. It was a lot less scary to know that Twilight was seeing me spiritually naked than to learn that you were looking at my soul’s wang without my knowledge.”

Noir nodded. “Having a stranger in one’s body is a terrifying experience, but you handled it well.”

“I suppose I did…” I trailed off.

Noir and I stood in silence for a long minute that seemed to stretch on for eternity. I knew she knew, but I didn’t whose side of the field the ball was on. “Maximus.” Noir said softly.

“... I should’ve told you.” I responded.

“I do not blame you for holding your tongue. There is only one other person who will know you as well as I now.”

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry, Noir-”

She gently laid a hand on my shoulder. “No, it is I who should be apologizing. I apologize, Maximus, for pushing you past your limits, for expecting you to be as tough as I am. I always knew that you were hiding something deep within your heart, but I felt that I owed you at least a shred of privacy. Now that I know…” Noir blinked quickly. “I cannot apologize to you enough. I broke my own vow to never torture another living being, and to think that I broke that vow with someone I grew to love.”

I’d never seen Noir cry before. She’d broken down when she’d told me about her being violated in multiple different ways, but she’d never truly shed a tear. Unfortunately I saw her tears fall, but I couldn’t help the way I felt in that moment. I was… I was happy. I was happy that Noir shed her tears because it meant that she was a living being who could feel remorse deeply enough to cry, to weep for her own sins. Still, I couldn’t let her cry without offering her support as she’d done for me so many times, so I levitated myself into the air a ways until I was eye level with her and brought her in for a hug. Noir buried her face into my shoulder and I held her for as long as she needed, time be damned. All I wanted was for Noir to know that I couldn’t hold it against her any longer, so I squeezed her as tight as I could.

“You’re forgiven, Noir. Completely and totally.” I whispered.

“I do not deserve your forgiveness, Maximus.” She murmured.

“Too fucking bad. You can accept it in your heart through my words or you can take it up the arse with my foot.”

Noir hugged me a little tighter after that, but she didn’t say anything else. I wasn’t expecting her to suddenly accept my forgiveness or to forgive herself right away, though I rather wished that things would just work out like that sometimes. They don’t. Not with people who actually think about their actions. In any case, our moment was extended for as long as it needed to be and the healing process was begun. A little added bonus was that Noir was wearing a sports bra and her mammaries were very soft, but I wasn’t thinking about it in such a tender moment… Okay, I was, but in my defense, the fuckers are huge! Every time I hug Noir, I can’t help but feel my heart smile a little wider.

We eventually let each other go and I put myself back on floor. I had to reach up awfully high to wipe Noir’s tears away, but I still did it and she gave me a mild smile. “I promise to you, Maximus, that I shall continue training you, but as you need to be trained, rather than as I forced you to. Never again will I put you through such atrocities.”

“But you’ll let me go to war and create my own?” I scoffed jokingly.

“It is our nature as protectors and warriors to bear the sins that the innocent cannot. I believe you might say ‘Suck it up and quit being a little bitch.’.”

I huffed at her and gave her a crooked grin. “I’ll suck it up when you start shooting it out. Thank you for understanding, Noir.”

She nodded. “I will always be there for you, no matter what. I hope the fear in your heart has eased.”

I sighed. “With you, it has. Now I just need to confront Lunatic and Celestia.”

“I would offer to be by your side, but I believe Twilight already fills that role for you. However, I do ask that you keep in mind that I will be talking to Celestia and Luna, discussing way that we might make you less… Uncomfortable with us. Perhaps we will try some good old fashioned bonding?” Noir said.

“That would be lovely, but I doubt you three will have much time in the coming days-”

“I will make time for you, even if it is only in your mindscape. From there, we will see what happens. Perhaps we will have pizza and take a stroll around Ponyville?”

“Sounds perfect to me. Whenever we get a chance, we’ll have to pair up some time.” I gave her a smile.

Noir returned it. “And so we shall. On with you: there is more for you to do this day.”

I nodded and gave her another quick hug before walking out of the room. Twilight met me with a wide smile and gave me a hug of her own, and when we started walking, I started talking about the exact way things had gone with Noir. There weren’t all that many details she couldn’t glean from feelings, but what few there were, I shared. We continued on towards Day Court since I was a little wary of talking to Luna, but Twilight steered us toward her since she felt like I should get her out of the way before Celestia, so I sighed and resigned myself to my fate. Teleportation shouldn’t have been out of the question, but Twilight said that we weren’t in a hurry or anything, so we took a little longer in getting to Luna’s tower than we had to. When we got to her room, the guards that were stationed there allowed me entry and Twilight waited in the hall, offering me moral support from a distance while I walked in.

L una’s room was as dark as usual, so after my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I tried and failed to reach her bed more quietly as to not surprise her or anything. However, there was a string that I walked into that made Luna bolt upright in her bed and send a magical laser in my direction. Luckily, I’d hit the deck when I felt the string since I thought there was going to be a pendulum or something that would come down and take my bloody head off or something, so I avoided it handily.

The Lunar Diarch let the beam subside and I got to my feet. “Fucking Christ, Luna! Who are you expecting, the fucking Inquisition or something!?”

“Maximus?” She asked sharply. “Surely you have more sense that to try and sneak into my room for a prank while there is a war brewing!”

“I was coming to wake you up for a quick talk, not get my head blasted off!”

She sniffed. “You should have had someone announce your presence then.” The lights flickered on, dim and cold. “Come now. If it is important enough for you to risk my fury, then I suppose I could give you a quick talk.”

I sighed and walked over to her bed, but when I was halfway there, she told me to stop and take a long step for reasons unknown, so I did and voided another trap. Once I was sitting next to her, she maintained the look she’d been giving me. “So what is it you want to talk about? I believe the training equipment is being delivered in a timely manner.”

“Yeah, no, that’s not it. Thanks for that, but there’s something else on my mind.”

She waited for me to say it. “And that would be…?”

I took a deep breath. “I’m afraid of you.”

“Naturally. One does not complete the training I have put you through and come out unafraid of their Mistress.” Luna said simply.

“... I really don’t want to be afraid of you.” I” said slowly.

“Then don’t be. I’m not going to kill you or anything of the like.” She replied, as if it were that easy.

“Look, Luna, this isn’t something that I would bother you with if I thought I could fix it on my own-”

“Then what do you want me to do about it?” She asked curtly.

“... I don’t really know, though if you would stop threatening to kill me , that would be great.”

Luna sighed. “I will try, but I just want to skin that adorable little face of yours.”

I gave her a look. “That’s the kinda shit I’m talking about.”

She waved my worries aside. “As you say. I assume you will be speaking to Noir about the same subject?”

“Already taken care of. She apologized and I forgave her.”

“What did she even apologize for?”

“Effectively torturing me. Stop being daft, woman. You know your training wasn’t as bad, but it was still brutal.”

“I refuse to apologize for making you stronger.” Luna huffed.

I took a deep breath. “If you don’t want to, then asking you to apologize would be pointless.”

She looked at me intensely. “What would that accomplish in the first place? All you would have is words-”

“That wasn’t the important part. It’s not important.” I shook my head. “If there’s nothing you want to talk about, then I’m out of things to say.”

“Surely you aren’t going to leave this conversation as it is? Maximus, if you felt the need to wake me, then I assume that this is a matter that’s been weighing on you for some time.” Luna said, surprising me with the tenderness in her voice.

“... Well, yeah, kinda. I don’t know how I was expecting this to go. Noir just made the first go ‘round really easy on me.”

Luna sighed. “I don’t know what to tell you other than that I will not purposefully cause harm to you for any other reason than to make you stronger.”

I shrugged. “Then that’s all I’m really looking for. It’s not like I need you to swear it or anything, just knowing that you’ll try and curtail it means a lot to me.”

She nodded and placed a hand on my arm. “Of course. Know that you are safe, Maximus. As my ally and my friend, if I may say that…?” She half-asked. I nodded. “As my friend, I wish to keep you happy, even if the tides of war are slowly coming to shore.”

I gave her a lopsided smile. “Thanks, Luna. I’ll keep being annoying, but I won’t blow your bed to the ceiling again.”

“So you finally admit it!” She cried. “No pressure, no threats; you finally own up to your deed!”

I chuckled. “I didn’t realize it meant that much to you.”

She huffed. “Not knowing if you were being truthful or if you were being pinned against the wall made it harder to tell, but now I have my answer. That was a terrible prank.”

“It was fantastic, it just went a little higher than I expected is all. I really wasn’t trying to get you hurt or anything.”

“I was not injured, simply surprised and a bit squished. However, if you do something similar to Celestia…” Luna gave me a devious smile.

“I can’t. I don’t have Dark Magic anymore.” I shrugged.

“Could you not borrow some of my own? Or Noir’s, since I believe she would be willing to assist you.”

“Eh, reusing a prank so soon-”

“It’s been two years.”

“... Fair enough. Don’t tell me you two are still pulling pranks on each other right now.”

Luna shrugged. “Fewer than we usually would, but we still have our moments. Between keeping the citizens out of a state of emergency and trying to keep our castle affairs within excellent order, we’ve had less time for them.”

I shook my head and rose from Luna’s bed. “Speaking of keeping things in order, I’ve gotta go see Celestia and talk to her. Thanks for being cooperative though, Luna.”

Luna’s face fell ever so slightly, but she slipped a metaphorical mask on within the blink of an eye. “Of course, I wish you well with your talk.”

I sat back down and waited for her to say something else, looking at her expectantly. “...Is there anything else you want to say? I’m sure Twilight can wait a little while longer.”

Luna tilted her head, her mask intact. “I do not know what you mean. We have said our peace, have we not?”

“You’re forgetting that I’m more perceptive than most. Is something on your mind?” I asked.

“Nothing of importance. Why do you ask?”

“Your face when I said that I was going to go talk to Celestia. Your brows furrowed, you frowned slightly, your nose twitched, and I could practically watch as you tried to mitigate all of those.”

She cut me a glare. “You are imagining things, holding yourself from having a more uncomfortable talk. Go and get it over with, Maximus. Tarrying here will only make things last that much longer.”

I tilted my head at her. “Celestia can wait a while longer. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. Again, you are simply prolonging your time with me to avoid talking to Celestia, and now you’re cutting into my sleep.”

“You say that like we actually need to sleep. Luna, you let me voice my worries, let me do the same for you.” I said kindly.

She rolled her eyes. “There are no worries to voice here, Max, unless you have more of your own.”

“Is it something you don’t want Celestia to know about?” I asked.

Luna colored. “I was suggesting, now I’m telling.”

I offered my hand to her and she looked at it. “You’re supposed to hold it, you know.” I snarked.

She glared at me and put her hand in mine. “If you propose to me, I am telling Twilight.”

“She would know anyway. No, what I’m trying to say is that you can trust me with any secret, and I hope that I can eventually prove that to you in full.”

Luna squeezed my hand. “In time, perhaps. For now, stop talking and let me get some sleep, you accursed Human.”

I let go of her hand and rose from her bed once more. “Fine. I can see Lulu doesn’t want me around-”

“You’re finally getting the picture.” She interrupted drily.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m going to fuck with you the minute you get back to sleep for that.”

“Do it and I’ll hit you with a used toy.”

“Can I lick it first?”

“I never said where that toy was going to be used.”

I raised a brow. “So what? I’m a risk taker!”

“Even if the toy turned out to be one of Shining Armours?” She asked, deadpan.

“... Evil. That’s just evil.” I shivered.

Luna laughed and I showed her my two favourite fingers. “Now will you go?” She asked.

“God, yes, I’m so done with you right now.” I chuckled.

As I turned to walk away, she said, “What? Do I not warrant a hug?”

I came back, gave her a hug, and was on my way mere moments later. Twilight was taking to the guards and they were all speaking softly for some odd reason, and when I popped out, Twilight politely excused herself from the conversation. We traversed through the castle with one of Luna’s chamber-guards following close behind us since guards do that sort of thing from time to time. He ‘escorted’ us to the Court Hall because reasons, though it wasn’t like Twilight and I didn’t already know the way, and when we got there, I asked him to return to his original station and he actually saluted me, unlike basically any other Day Guard that’s ever been a Day Guard.

Twilight and I entered through the public entry, but when we got there, plenty of people were waiting in line to see Celestia as it was. Seriously, the line was fucking ridiculous, and as the line moved, we just went to go sit at the back of it for a little bit, but those who recognized us, or rather, those who recognized Twilight, let us go ahead of them time after time until we were second in line. Seriously, that had gone on for a good ten minutes and people weren’t exactly shy about letting each other know that the newest power couple were behind the next person in line. Still, there were so many people in line, it really did take a good while, but when we finally got to a certain point, we were allowed in to see Celestia.

When Celestia saw up, the general matronly look of kindness on her face melted into one of mild relief, but when she gave it a second thought, it turned into a look of worry. “Twilight? Max? What brings you two to the castle?”

I waved. “Hullo to you too, Hun.”

“Hi Celestia.” Twilight waved.

She waved back, a confused look on your face. “... Hello, I suppose. Is there a reason you’re cutting in front of the dozens of ponies in line before you?”

I scratched my head. “Well, that’s kind of a funny story, actually.”

Twilight held my hand. “Max tried to wait in the back of the line, but everyone just kept letting us go ahead of them.”

Celestia’s brows furrowed for a moment, but she let it go. “In that case, I suppose you tried to play fair. Is there something you need-” Luna teleported in during the middle of her sentence.

“Hello sister.” Luna said, yawning a little.

Celestia looked at her. “Hello, Luna. Is everything alright?”

“Perfectly fine. I will take over court if you would like to take a small break.” Luna offered.

The Solar Diarch’s eyes slid over to myself and Twilight before coming back to Luna. “... Alright, what is this? Are you three trying to tell me something?” An opportunity!

“We’re taking over, Celestia. With the tides changing, the three of us have decided that you’re obsolete.” Celestia gave me a look. “Don’t worry, Hun, you’ll be well looked after.” I said softly.

Twilight smiled brilliantly. “We’ve already started getting you a grand home in Ponyville started! You can keep living in the Castle if you want, but we think it would be for the best if you stepped down for a little while. You know, rest your hooves, kick back and let the new generation take care of things. With Noir and Luna watching over us, I’m sure we’ll be able to take your place very well.”

Celestia’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious, Twilight! You know I would never simply ‘step down’ and let two novice rulers take over my position! How could I just wash my hands with Equestria when there is so much at stake!?”

Luna laid a hand on her shoulder and said, “That’s why Noir and I shall be looking over their shoulders at every little thing they do. You truly have stretched yourself thin over the goings on of Equestria, sister, and I for one refuse to see yourself go insane over the coming days. I do wish that you would relax a little more often-”

Celestia set her jaw. “I am not stepping down from the throne.”

I rolled up my left sleeve, activating my True Theft, looking at Twilight. “I told you she was going to make us do this the hard way.”

Twilight’s horn lit up and her hands were encased in a magenta aura. “Don’t rub it in, Max. It really does make you seem like less of a man.”

“Tch, you just hate me for being right.” I scoffed.

We looked toward Celestia at the same time and the white woman had already risen from her throne, The Sunlight Blade in her hand. Luna stood of to the side, her hand covering her mouth for some odd reason. Celestia prepared to draw the Sunlight blade, but I stuck my hand through the dimensions and grabbed one of the sensitive nodes and squeezed pretty hard. Celestia started and I held on, keeping hold of the tender protrusion while she started wriggling about. Twilight’s magenta shaded hands crossed the span of the room and grabbed Celestia other wing while Celestia tried to move toward us. Her steps were uneven, so I switched tact and grabbed her tail, having Twilight take over with molesting Celestia while she was immobilized.

“What are you two doing!?” Celestia cried, her face a perfect picture of ‘What the fuck!?’.

“I’m holding your tail.” I said pleasantly.

“And I’m just holding your wings.” Twilight added airily.

Luna chuckled. “I believe they have you in a vice, sister. It would be wise to surrender.”

Celestia colored, but as she went to speak, Twilight suddenly balled her hands into fists and Celestia stifled a moan. “St~op!” She said, her voice sweetened with pleasure.

I looked at Twilight. “What do you think, Cherry? Do you think she’ll give up the throne if we just give up when she tells us to?”

My fiance rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t even stop if she told me to. Why don’t we go a little while longer, have ourselves a good time with her afterwards, and then we’ll stop.”

We stepped a bit closer and gave each other a peck while Celestia’s wings slowly extended to their full length. “Please stop! I don’t know what game you’re playing, but this is far enough!”

Luna looked at us and shook her head, so Twilight and I kept messing with her. “I don’t know, Hun. Maybe you should tell us why we should stop and we’ll take it into consideration.”

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m having fun watching, to be honest with you. To think, we could hold Celestia back by exploiting her greatest weakness.”

“It’s absolutely daft to be honest with you.” I chuckled.

“It’s hilarious! Just think of how we can take over Equestria, one person at a time using this method!” Twilight cackled evilly.

I joined her shortly after and then the guards in the room got involved. Twilight just teleported them away to another part of the castle when they got too close, but Celestia didn’t know that since she didn’t share a telepathic link with my woman. It was honestly hilarious to see her grow more worried and confused by the moment, but then she stopped being worried and started being furious.

“Maximus, Twilight Sparkle, this is your last chance. If this is a prank, I will let it go, but if you are serious…” She drew The Sunlight Blade.

Twilight let go of her wings and I let go of her tail. “Really now, Sunbutt. Why would we want to take over Equestria? Neither of us have aspirations that high.”

My fiance nodded beside me. “Max is right, though I do think you should take a break some time.”

Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. “You had me going there for a moment.” She glared at Luna. “You not helping them was the biggest tip off, however. To think you would say that you were assisting in my dethronement!”

Luna shrugged. “It was funny. Now get down so I can sit in your spot while Max talks to you.”

Celestia blinked at her before looking at me. “You mean there was something else you had to do other than torment me?”

I booped her from across the room with my Magic. “Yup. We’ve gotta talk about a thing.”

She touched her face before glaring at me. “What if I don’t want to talk to you?”

“Then I teleport you to Max until you feel like talking to him.” Twilight said.

Celestia stared at her. “Since when are you so bold, Twilight? Or rather, since when do you sound so much like Max? Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’ve been saying things like ‘everyone’ instead of ‘everypony’ and ‘person’ instead of ‘pony’.”

Twilight and I shrugged at the same time, whipped out hands above our heads and twirled in a circle before bowing shallowly toward Celestia. Luna and her sister were both staring at us like we’d lost our damn minds which made us giggle like primary school children. Twilight and I shared one more kiss before performing a secret handshake that we came up with on the fly while we were still giggling our fucking arses off, and once we were finished, we looked at the Princesses.

“Alright, so Twilight and I found the truest form of love.” I said jovially.

My fiance held my hand. “It’s really been a fun time so far. We just keep doing things in sync and people give us the strangest looks, but it’s funnier than anything.”

Celestia blinked a few times. “... In all my time on Equus, I’ve rarely heard of two people having it as bad as you do.”

“It is the same here.” Luna added.

I shrugged. “That’s nice and all, but we’re burning daylight here, Hun. Let’s go talk real quick and you can get back to ruling.”

Twilight gave me a peck on the cheek. “I’ll be here, keeping Luna company.”

I raised a brow. “Try and keep your tongue in check, okay? I know it’s probably going to get real tempting to snipe at people, but we’ve gotta be real royalty within the walls… Most of the time.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I’m only as free with my words as I have been because I’ve been around you. I’ll be a good little girl, okay Daddy?”

I gagged and she cackled. “That’s fucking weird! What’s with you and the parent thing!?”

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe it’s something I got from you.” She walked up the stairs of the dais with Luna as Celestia walked down.

She and Luna waved at Celestia and I before we teleported to the Royal Family room. Celestia and I had a seat on the couch near one of the walls and sat in silence for a little bit. I was honestly dreading Celestia the most since I didn’t know how to approach her, but it wasn’t like I was expecting her to be mad. I was just confused as to how I was supposed to bring up the fact that I felt so… Conflicted about her. I can’t say that I truly feared her per se, but there was a lack of trust from my side, and I knew that it was unfair of me to ask Celestia to trust me when I didn’t trust her all that much myself. These thoughts ran through my head and I leaned back in my seat, looking up at the ceiling while thinking.

“So what’s on your mind, Max? I don’t think you would ask for a word if it was something unimportant.” Celestia said softly.

“Do you trust me, Celestia?” I asked.

“Of course I do. We’ve been through this-”

“And we’re not going to go through it again.” I sighed. “What I’m trying to get at is that I don’t trust you, and I can’t say that it’s undeserved. I’m… I’m stuck, at the moment. I can think of reasons why I should trust you, like the fact that you’d be willing to do just about anything for me, or that you would never try to hurt me unless it was for my own good like with the lessons we had, but I still feel my knuckles ache from time to time when I think of you, or I feel my heart throb when I think about what you’ve done. Things like what we’ve been through aren’t easy to get over, but…”

Celestia wasted no time in levitating me so she could maneuver me into her arms for a kiss. Actions truly do speak louder than words, and as I felt the radiant warmth and the tingle in spread through my digits and toes, I knew that Celestia still held love in her heart for me, that she still regretted her actions, but I felt that she was as broken as I was in different way, maybe even more so. There were a lot of unspoken things that were understood in that kiss, like that Celestia wouldn’t hurt me until I truly did rise up against her, or if I started becoming a threat to Equestria. She wouldn’t betray the trust I was willing to give her, if anything than because she was afraid of losing me herself, just as I was afraid of losing her. The cracks in our facade lined up, some cracks more than others, but they followed the same paths and I saw that I really was similar to Celestia. It was a sobering thought as well as an enlightening one, so when she broke her kiss and gazed at me, I had a feeling I knew what she was going to say.

“Kaid, as one of the few ponies that know of your true name, I swear to you that I will earn your trust again. I don’t care how long it takes, whether it be the decade we have left before we can be together again or if it’s the years beyond we’ll have to spend in each other’s company. I swear upon my mother’s grave that I will never, never betray you like I have again, Maximus. I-”

I stroked her cheek and looked at her. “I believe you.”

Celestia cupped my face with her hand and kissed me again. I shouldn’t have let it happen, but I did, and it was surprisingly pleasant. I missed kissing Celestia, but I knew that Twilight would know within moments of it happening, if nothing than for the simple fact that I would have told her anyway. Celestia and I let ourselves get lost in the moment for a few more seconds, but I pulled away and she looked at me sadly.

“I miss you, Max.” She said quietly.

“I miss you too, but this is for the best.” I replied in the same tone.

Celestia lowered me to my feet and rose from the couch. “I’m sure you’ll tell Twilight about what happened. If you don’t, then I’ll be sure to do it.” She sighed heavily. “It’s hard to be patient, but I know that the day will come that we’ll finally have our time together.”

I gave her a hug. “It’ll feel like a few days when we look back at it.”

She returned it. “But it feels like decades as it is now. It’s about time I got you back to Twilight, isn’t it?”

“Right. We can walk and talk some more if you like.”

Celestia let me go and smiled. “I’d like that. I’d like that a lot”

And so we walked and did a bit of talking. Celestia and I talked about The War and how I would play into it since she’d had a meeting with Noir and Luna about what to do with my team and the rest of things, which gave her a rather satisfactory result. Basically, I’d be acting as a true Strike Force, used for infiltration and what not. As for the war itself, I’d be acting as the heavy hitting small team that assaults camps and other infantry squads to make sure shit dies real good, but what I was mostly hoping for was to be put in the thick of things while my team helped out with the Operative type stuff. I wasn’t upset or disappointed with the decision, but I knew that my team and its members would become high value targets within a few missions.

After our little briefing session, Celestia told me that I already had a mission lined up that would take me into Bridleland to see what was going on there. Though I would be there as an actual ambassador, I was also supposed to be keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity. I asked Celestia to make sure that we had good ties with Gryphonia while I was at it and she said that it would be my mission after Bridleland. I wept on the inside since it meant that I would be gone for some time, but then I remembered that Twilight could probably come with me if I really wanted her to, but Celestia shot those hopes down and told me that Twilight would be handling Chrysalis and would be heading to Maretonia shortly after, meaning that we would be apart for a good amount of time.

Sadly, things only got worse from there, seeing as how Discord had sent Celestia a personal little note saying that the war would be fought wherever the fuck he felt like having it, so nothing looked good. Our spirits and mood fell with that news being passed along and that explained why Celestia had been ready to go for the kill when Twilight and I had started messing with her. When it comes to a control freak like she was, nothing good comes of trying to take power out of her hands. The only saving grace I had was that I had two days to spend with Twilight before we had to go, so I was looking forward to that and that alone.

Celestia and I arrived at the Court Hall while someone was voicing a grievance to Luna and Twilight about someone copying their idea for a painting. He’d brought photos and everything, but when Celestia and I came to inspect them, the differences in the two photos were glaring, obvious, and quite frankly, they would take a complete idiot to misunderstand the difference between the pieces. One was a painting of a woman in a black and blue dress and the other was of a man in a white and gold one. Besides the different sexes of the models, the dresses were different colors of the same style, so Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and I all ruled that the fucker didn’t even have a case since there were obvious differences of the pieces. He tried arguing that it was the spirit of the piece that mattered, but Luna cut him off and said the spirit or rather, the beauty of a piece was in the eye of the beholder and the four ruling beholders said that he didn’t have a case. The guy left in a huff and said that we just couldn’t appreciate true art and I had to fight the urge to flip him off for being a little bitch.

With that said and done, Twilight and I gave hugs to Celestia and I gave one to Luna, though Twilight was a little hesitant until I suggested that she at least start with a handshake. She and Luna exchanged the most awkward of goodbyes while Celestia and I agreed on the sidelines that we would get them to hug one of these days, but then Celestia and I started talking about how I’m the only one out of the Royal Family that Luna hugs besides her, so we decided that we would get Luna to hug Twilight eventually. Of course the two of them were listening to them, but Celestia and I were staring them in the eye as we were speaking anyway, so that made them roll their eyes and give a hug a try. Luna looked slightly uncomfortable, but when Twilight gave her a kind smile, Luna seemed to ease up a bit and mentioned that Twilight might expect a hug next time, which was heart-warming to say the least. When Luna saw that she had three sets of eyes on her and three smiles directed towards her, she blushed. Before anyone could say anything, she said that she was going back to bed and teleported out.

Celestia said that Twilight and I should follow suit so she could get through some of the line that was present, but Twilight ran up to the dais and handed her a clipboard with a schedule on it that would get every person in the Waiting Hall in before it was time for her to close Day Court. Celestia gave it a quick look and asked if Twilight wanted to explain it to her real quick and Twilight gave her a rundown, but she ended her quick assessment by saying that she and I had nothing else to do for the day. Thankfully, Sunbutt corrected her and told Twilight to go home with me so we could spend more time with each other before we had to leave for our respective missions. Twilight looked to me for an explanation and I told her that I would clarify when we got home. Celestia said she would send dossiers with what she wanted us to find out while we were away and my fiance just got that much more curious.

Twilight teleported us to her home after a few more goodbyes and we alighted to her couch. I wrote Crimson a note and told him that I would be staying at Twilight’s for the night and we did some cuddling shortly after we got that written out. Spike popped his head in when he heard us talking and asked if we were really going to go on a mission together, but I explained that we were going on separate diplomatic missions. Spike was saddened to hear that he was going to be on his own for a couple of weeks, but then he got really excited until I told him that I would break both of his dicks if he dared to have sex on Twilight’s bed. He paled considerably and barely managed to say that the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind, but I gave him a level glare because I fucking knew better. Twilight actually gagged when I brought that up, so I rubbed her back and told Spike to throw a party at my house if he wanted to, but I warned him to clean up afterward and to not have sex on my bed either, otherwise I’d chop them off.

He got the point.

With Spike out of the way, Twilight and I spent a little more time doing a whole lot of nothing until Celestia sent over the dossiers. She actually switched them around a bit, having me visit Mexicolt and Twilight visit Bridleland, but I wasn’t that disappointed. It meant that Twilight wasn’t going to have to go to that Hellhole, but then again, I didn’t want to fucking go either, so that was a bit shit. Either way, we needed to get that shit done, so I sent Crimson and Starshine both a note saying that they were going to be on escort detail and gave them a choice of who they’d rather go with. Crimson said that he would rather go with me (no surprise there) and Starshine said that she would happily go with Twilight since it would give them more time to talk about science and bullshit. When I got that sorted, we started writing in our journals and that was nice.

To recap: It’s nice that I got things settled with Shining for the time being. I really hope the streak we’re on persists for awhile longer, and hopefully Night Light will come around and start being less of a prick in general once he sees that his son finally gave up the bullshit. I can’t say that I’m happy about Twilight shoehorning us into being friends, but then again, it’s better than being enemies for something I couldn’t fucking control in the first place. I really do hope it lasts, but you just never know with relationships and whatnot.

As far as Iron and Swift trying things out, I think things might work out for them, but then again, I don’t exactly play matchmaker very often… Actually, the last two matches I made were fucking fantastic apparently. When I got Ma- Will and Beatrix together way back in the day, I told him for months that she was the one for him and they ended up working pretty well together, but that’s all the thinking I want to do about them. Trixie and Orchid are getting fucking married the day before Twilight and I get going on our diplomatic missions, so that’s nice too. Maybe I’m just good with love? Maybe Cadance and I were attracted to each other because of those very reasons? Shit, in this magical land of bullshit, it wouldn’t surprise me too much.

Growing closer with Twilight was nice. I like it. I mean, I don’t think it’s heart-stoppingly amazing or anything, it’s just… Good, I guess. I consider it a benefit of course, and I don’t mind that Twilight knows literally everything about me, so I can’t really say there’s anything about it that I dislike. I’m probably sounding like I don’t give a damn, but I just don’t feel all that strongly about it. I mean, I already knew that I would do anything for Twilight, and I didn’t really need The Covenant to make sure that I did. Again, it’s nice, but I just don’t feel like it was necessary.

Getting my dirty laundry aired was… Well, easier than I expected. I was expecting to keep those secrets for a few hundred more years, but having Twilight push me to get my worries voiced has lifted a bit more of that weight on my heart, and I know it’s for the better. I don’t really have much to say about it.

I suppose that’s all for now. I might have missed something, but this entry ran a little long anyway, so fuck it. Maybe I’ll read through some of my older ones before heading to bed with Twilight. One positive thing about being an Alicorn-Abomination is that I feel sufficiently rested whenever I get any amount of sleep, so that’s pretty cool.

Tomorrow, however, I’ve definitely got to get more liquor. I hope the bring your own booze thing has went over well back at my house, but even if it hasn’t, it’s not like your average Pony drinks that much anyway. Eh, it’s whatever. For the time being, I’m done writing.

Author's Notes:

And so another chapter is complete.

Now Max and Twilight practically know each other's thoughts. How creepy.

As Always, Stay Cool, Kids