After that they had wrapped up the shower, finally, but not without them getting into an argument revolving around proper wing care and, confusingly enough, Succubi. Max had called Sephiroth her ‘little succubus’, which had irked her to no end. Trying to prevent further use of the nickname, she had brought up the demons from her universe and the one succubus she actually met, but that only ended in Max pointing out that this demon had tried to use its magic on her, failing, and resulting in her Cells absorbing it like Discord’s and Nightmare’s.

In other words, she was a fucking part succubus, magically speaking, and that seemingly led to her recovering rather fast after sex and be ready for potential further rounds. She didn’t even want to consider if this could entail even more. And just because she provoked the thought, an overwhelming sense of doubt fell on her like a whole mountain. What if that was the reason that Lance had accepted her so quickly?

Groaning, she rested her head on one of her palms, standing in the middle of a hallway. After getting dressed and eating breakfast, she had left to find the forge, but then these thoughts had clouded her mind. She absolutely had to find a way to prevent her Cells from just up and implementing every magic that came into contact with her. She already had that of an Alicorn, that of the God of Chaos and now she had to deal with a demon’s, and not just any demon, noooo. It just had to be a sex demon!

Swirling around she hit her head against the wall, leaving an indent and a few cracks behind. “Fuck!” Instantly she regretted swearing with this particular word. Considering her luck, she had just cursed somepony to think of nothing else but to get laid. But it didn’t work this way, now did it?

A deep sigh forced its way out of her throat. She needed to relax and the best way to do that would be to practice, or even better fight. The goldsmith could wait a little longer, so she used the scrying spell, Max had taught her and started in the direction of the training grounds a few seconds later.

After a while she was considering taking back when she cursed her luck, because she actually made it to her destination without further interruptions. And just when she entered the field, she witnessed something that stirred up her blood.

Sombra had just tapped a cadet’s flank, tipping him off of the raised platform and onto the hard ground only two feet below. “You overbalanced,” Sombra said calmly. “You should never fully commit to an attack. There is no way to be completely certain your opponent isn’t just playing with you.”

He glanced up, obviously a bit peeved that someone was trying to interrupt, but that changed to surprise when he saw that Seph was the one in the doorway. “Ah, Sephiroth, if I’m not mistaken.”

With an inclination of her head she hinted at a bow. “Greetings, and you must be Sombra. We met briefly in the infirmary the other day but we had no chance to be properly introduced. If I remember correctly then you have bested Nightmare in combat. I, myself, crossed weapons with her more times than I bother to count, every time in a friendly competition, mind you. So I’m a little curious how well I could hold my ground against Max’s chosen Captain.” A smirk crept onto her lips. “Be warned, though. I managed to beat Nightmare every single time and that was before I had magic empowering me.”

A confident smirk appeared on his face. “Heh, I’d be glad to fight a warrior such as yourself.” He walked to the opposite side of the raised circle of wood and waited for Seph to climb up.

She followed him and hopped up to the platform, beginning to loosen up her shoulders by rolling them around. “I’m a little handicapped as of now, but that should make the fight more interesting.”

“Suggesting that I’m frail in my old age?” He chuckled, drawing his scythe from his shadow. “That’s not very sporting of you.”

Chuckling, Sephiroth shook her head and drew her sword out of nowhere, encased in green flames that flickered out a moment later. “Not in the slightest. I’m fully expecting to lose this fight, but it will be thrilling.”

He chuckled darkly, his voice echoing. “Then come. You issued the challenge, you move first.”

Raising her sword to point at him, she stood sideways, with the hilt drawn behind her head and the blade on the same height as her eyes. A small smile played around the corners of her mouth and her eyes danced with glee. Without any warning she exploded into motion, dashing towards him and swinging her sword in a wide arc downwards.

Instead of trying to block Sombra shifted to his left, losing a few hairs from his coat to the humming blade. He retaliated, swinging his scythe up between Seph’s legs.

Using her own momentum, she let her weapon slice through the wooden floor, making a cut appear that ran through the entirety of the platform and even the ground below, and proceeded to jump over Sombra with a somersault to dodge his strike.

As soon as she landed, though, she felt his blade against her throat. “You should really not turn your back to your opponent.”

Sephiroth chuckled. “And you should not assume that I let myself be surprised like this.” She lifted her blade slightly which then tapped against Sombra’s stomach. “I could have sliced through you within my motion.”

“Then let us see who can react fast enough,” Sombra said, pulling his scythe towards him, only for it to stay stuck in place.

With one hand Sephiroth had gripped the shaft of his scythe, swirled around and sliced through where his throat should have been.

He gave another echoing chuckle and lunged forward over her shoulder, tearing his weapon from Seph’s grip as he twisted to land facing her on two hooves. “You know, I have been wondering if my skills would be diminished if I fought on two legs.” He twirled his scythe, ending in a low, wide stance with his weapon being gripped by his right hoof.

Her smile widened a little as she returned to her first stance. “You can turn into shadow? That’s great. I can see the various uses in offence and defence alike. But I learned something in my battles with Nightmare. Shadows may be intangible, but that does not mean that I can’t slice through them. This fight has just become way more interesting.”

“Indeed.” He jumped back, a runic circle made of shadows appearing just inside the raised platform’s edge. As his hooves touched it glowed with darkness, letting him stand on it for a moment before he shot forward.

Instead of moving towards him, Sephiroth just swung her sword, which gained an almost unnoticeable luster at its edge, in his direction, creating a brilliant blue blade of some unidentifiable energy, that freed itself from her weapon and dashed to intercept his path.

Another shadowy circle appeared in front of Sombra, shattering as the energy slammed into it. But Sombra was nowhere to be seen.

Staying on guard, she held her sword in a defencive stance and tried to find his current location. Maybe I should have taken the time to learn how to feel for magical signatures…

She caught flashes of him around the circle, but as soon as she turned to fully face him he vanished. A few minutes went by like that with her getting more frustrated until she noticed that she could feel two hooves on her back and another blade at her throat. “Seems like this is actually more like training than a duel.”

“Quite arrogant, are we?” Every trace of her former enthusiasm was gone from her voice. Her teeth clenched and her eyes narrowed as she felt her body flare with magic, answering to her rising agitation. With a bright flash she disappeared, reemerging at a decent distance above the ring. I’m not going to lose, again! Lifting one of her hands, so her palm faced Sombra, she gathered her power, not producing any kind of visible aura, but creating a palpable thrum of force. “You want to play with magic? Try mine!” With that a miniature nova appeared in front of her and shot in his direction, hot enough to transform the air around it into plasma.

It exploded as it hit his shield, scorching the entire arena and burning the wood under him to vapors. Once the flames sputtered out, Sombra lowered his shield and let his scythe sink back into his shadow.

All this caused was stoking the fire of her wrath. “What is it?! Are you going to make a smartass comment about how I’m not even worth your while, now?!”

“No, that was the killing blow. My next shield wouldn’t be able to block enough of another of those to let me live.” He calmly walked over to the edge of the hole he was in and pulled himself up back onto the ring. “And here I was wanting to keep my streak going until I could fight Nightmare again.”

Caught off guard by his statement she could just stare for a moment, before her head lowered in shame, drawing a sigh in the process. She teleported to the ground again and let her sword vanish. “Sorry about the yelling. I was beaten a few too many times as of late and not used to lose in the slightest. It wasn’t fair to take my frustration out on you. And I had to use one of my most powerful spells. One that I haven’t used in more than a millenia.”

“Come now, you having to use everything you have is a good sign. It means you were being pushed beyond what you were comfortable with.” He held out his hoof for her to shake. “Good match.”

With a small smile, she took the proffered hoof and shook it. “I prefer to use my sword and refrain from using my ‘spells’. I always have been more of the close quarters fighter, you know, up and personal.”

“Limiting yourself to only part of your power is not a good way to win.” Sombra turned towards the barracks, chuckling. “I know because I didn’t use my full power.”

Deciding not to mention the two slumbering orbs inside her that could both destroy the world in their own way, she instead called out for him. “Hey, Sombra?”

He stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. “Hmm?”

She frowned deeply and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “This might seem like completely out of the blue and indecent, but please answer me honestly. You’re not feeling any kind of sexual attraction towards me, or do you?”

“Well, I do find your body to be enticing, but I really doubt you’d consent to rolling in the hay with me. Unless that’s what you’re leading up to and in that case, I’d rather point you towards Max.”

Shaking her head, she sighed again. “No. I’m not in that mood. I just asked because Max told me earlier that I apparently have a little bit of succubus magic in me.” She lowered her head again, hiding her eyes behind her hair. “And I’m uncertain if I unknowingly influenced Lance to accept me into their relationship…”

“If you really had that power you’d affect everyone, not just Lance. My guess is the magic is where you got your figure.”

Forming a little blush, she rested her head on one of her palms. “Actually my body looked like this as long as I can remember.” She lifted her head and shrugged. “Nevermind. There is another thing I’d like to ask of you.”

“Train you?”

“That would be fun, but no.” Sephiroth reached into her coat and pulled the black diamond from Kat out of it. “When you turned into shadow, I had an idea. I’d like to visit the forge to make this into a pendant, because I promised to. And for the material of the chain I wanted to ask you if you are able to condense shadow like Nightmare, to make it mouldable?”

“I can, but... I haven’t been able to perfect it yet. I have to be concentrating on it the entire time, like with my scythe.”

“So it would dissolve the moment you stop?”

“It won’t immediately turn into smoke, but it will slowly dissolve in light unless you melt it in a forge and cast it into the shape you want.”

Smiling she motioned for him to follow her. “It’s good then that I was headed to the forge originally. If you have a few minutes, I would greatly appreciate it if you would assist me in fulfilling my promise.”

Sombra smiled and nodded. “I would be glad to help.” He motioned for her to follow him instead and walked over to a small door set right beside the barracks. “This is a shortcut to the castle’s forge.”

Sephiroth started to follow him, seeing as he knew his way around and she would have to scry the location first, anyways. “Would it be possible to embed a substance into the forged shadow? I kind of got the inspiration for the chain from the sight of the power that belongs to the one I made the promise to. It’s black with red swirls in it.”

“Ah, I’ll have to infuse the forge with my power temporarily to get the right mixture for that. I’ll need some blood as well,” Sombra said as he walked down the cramped hallway.

“That sounds like it will work to me. A little bit of blood will not phase me in the slightest.” She answered while following him. “I just have to make sure that there won’t be any of my Cells in it, as they would slowly chip away at the magic holding the chain together.”

“Magic doesn’t hold the metal together, it just strengthens it a bit.”

“Well, I still think that living Cells don’t belong in a forged material of any kind.” Sephiroth remarked shrugging. “Oh, and before I forget. I would like it to train with you someday. Preferably when my wounds are healed and Max won’t have my head for not going easy.”

Sombra suddenly stopped, glancing down the tunnels in the intersection they had came across nervously. “Um....”

Confused, the silver haired woman halted, too, looking down on him. “What’s the matter?”

“You won’t tell Max about our duel, will you?”

“Well… I won’t, seeing as she would chew me out, but… my last attack might have been a teensy little bit, you know, flashy. Somehow I don’t believe she hasn’t noticed.” Sighing she slumped a bit. “All I wanted was to have a little fun and now I’ll be scolded like an irresponsible girl.”

“At least you don’t work for her. I might be demoted to private for fighting you.” Sombra picked one of the tunnels and trotted down it. “Or worse, used as target practice.”

Following him again, Sephiroth waved it off dismissively. “Nah. I’ll make sure she knows that I did not inform you about my state first. And it’s not like you could have made a wound in the very essence of my life worse, or could you?”

His ears folded, but he kept walking. “No, I could’ve made you live your worst fears if I used my full power.”

She shivered a bit. “Already lived through them hundreds of times, courtesy of Chetyre and Celestia, or more precise a being that formerly possessed her.” Closing her eyes for a bit, surprisingly not bumping against anything, she breathed deeply. “I have thought about countermeasures, something to keep others out of my mind and seeing as I have Nightmare’s magic, it would be rather difficult to force anything in my mind anymore. But I admit that my defences are lacking, still. I’m practicing.”

Sombra shook his head. “No, that isn’t your greatest fear. If I were truly evil, I wouldn’t have held back from showing it to you.”

“Now I’m curious. What could be more terrifying than reliving being raped by the only one I trusted in that moment or to get my child ripped out of me?”

“Killing thousands of children with your own sword. Not being able to control your body as they ran, only to be cut down by your blade.”

Sephiroth froze and her eyes lost every flicker of life in them. It took a while, but when she recovered she looked towards Sombra with sympathy. “Did you guess, or are you really able to see the worst fears of everyone you come across?”

“I see everyone’s fears whenever I look at them because of the pact I made with Grogar. And even I can’t bear to look at your absolute worst fear. Don’t ask, by the way.”

Gulping, she shook her head hastily. “I won’t. But how can you live with that?”

“I do because I had asked for it,” Sombra sighed. “Besides, Grogar’s dead. I killed him with the power he gave me.”

The woman sighed and marched on. “Sorry for bringing that up. Sometimes I’m just too curious for my own good. Fun Fact: I actually gained the succubus magic because I wanted to understand them instead of just sealing them away.”

He snorted in amusement. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard someone do. It barely beats out my own failure.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and mockingly pouted. “Well excu~se me. I had a civil conversation with a sex demon and just learned today that it apparently tried to seduce me with its magic, only to fail. My Cells nullified and integrated it into myself.”

Sombra grinned wide. “Well, I’m not surprised that Max ended up with someone who is part sex demon.”

That got Sephiroth to burst into laughter almost making her stumble and fall to the ground. When she finally calmed down enough to speak again, she patted Sombra on his head. “I can totally see where this came from.” Wiping away an imaginary tear, she added. “But I’ll never share in her… very open mind about sexual relationships. I just don’t feel comfortable hopping into bed with anyone besides her and Lance.”

“I could help her change that, if you’d like.”

Out of shock she did fall this time, only to jump to her feet in an instant with a bright blush on her cheeks. “Nope! I mean I’m flattered and all, but so totally no!” She shook her head harshly. “Never, ever.”

He gave her a smile that had a hint of fun times to come. “Come now, I’ve been told I’m almost as good in bed as Max. Plus I can change my body to more suit yours, if you’d like.”

With a full body shiver her blush flared across her whole face. “Not interested.” Then her slightly widened eyes turned into a hard glare. “Wait… you’re just messing with me. You already stated earlier that you wouldn’t want to bed with me.”

He chuckled and shook his head, resuming their walk. “I wondered if you’d remember that. Besides, I didn’t say I was opposed to it, just that I’d point you to where Max was.”

Grumbling, she followed along. “I’m tempted to make you eat those words.”

“I’m tempted to see that myself.”

Sephiroth’s eyes widened again and she stuttered nonsense for a few seconds, before yelling. “I DIDN’T MEAN IT THAT WAY!” With an exaggerated roar she slapped both of her hands over her glowing face. “Fuck! Is everyone in this universe such a tease?!” Furious she lifted her fists to the ceiling and shouted to the metaphorical heavens. “I’m not going to fuck anyone besides Max and Lance! Got it already world?!”

“Come on, don’t give Murphy more ammo. Aren’t you trying to do something?”

Letting loose a growl dripping with murderous intent, she said, “If Murphy dares to mess with me in any way, I’ll rip his immortality out of him with my bare hands.” Stomping with every step, and almost breaking the floor, she went on.

“From what I can gather he’s already messing with you. If he wasn’t sweet on Max, I’d say he has a crush on you as well.”

“HE’S WHAT?!” Literally bursting into flames, Sephiroth stared at Sombra out of glowing, teal eyes.

“Max didn’t tell you that?” Sombra asked as he opened a door, a gust of hot air rushing into the passage. “Could’ve sworn she’d tell at least you that he likes her.”

She breathed deeply for a few seconds, extinguishing the fire in the process. “He likes Max. Big deal. But why does he mess with me? I’m not someone who takes lightly to that and I will make him regret it the next time I see him!” Noticing that she was getting loud again she shook her head and let the matter drop. She entered the room and called out. “Someone in here?”

“Great, another visitor. Here to ruin my hard work!” A voice called from the other side of a huge forge that dominated the middle of the room.

“I’m not here to ruin your work but to offer you a unique opportunity. How would you like to work with condensed shadow?” Sephiroth had crossed her arms in front of her chest again and was on a really short fuse already. The urge to hurt a particular stallion was almost overwhelming.

“Murphy messes with everyone, sometimes he does it on purpose, other times it’s just because it’s bad luck,” Sombra said before looking over at the forge. “Hey Calcifer, still bound to the forge?”

A pony appeared floating in the middle of the forge in a blast of flames. That wouldn’t have phased Sephiroth much, but then she noticed that the pony was made of fire and metal. “If I wasn’t, this place would be colder than a tomb.”

The woman blinked incredulously. “A fire demon? Seriously? Whose heart is powering your flames?”

The fiery pony crossed his hooves and gave Seph a glare. “I’m not a demon, thank you very much. I’m an elemental. I agreed to be bound here by Luna, but now that she’s gone...” The stallion looked away, sadness creeping into his expression.

Sephiroth sighed. “Sorry. It wasn’t my intention to bring up painful memories, but this whole universe seems set to annoy me at the moment. I have to seriously injure a certain stallion of bad luck later and then think of a way to bring an end to the constant attempts of almost everyone trying to make me uncomfortable or bed with me.” She stepped towards the Elemental. “Also, there are no ‘Elementals’ were I come from, so I jumped to conclusions. For that I apologize, too.”

Calcifer smiled and looked back at Seph. “Don’t give Murphy too much grief, he’s only doing his job.” He sighed and motioned for her to step over to the forge. “You didn’t bring up bad memories, just good ones that hurt a bit right now.”

“I would just settle for another form but I have a hunch that this won’t help in the slightest, as I only can transform into a pegasus or a gryphon right now. And in both of those forms I got even more flirting and lecherous looks.” Facepalming she muttered. “Now that I think about it, the succubus magic may have a greater influence on my body when I change it. My original body stayed the same, after all.” She then followed his gesturing and walked over to the forge, not bothered by the heat at all.

Sombra snorted and said, “Why don’t we see real quick?”

Raising an eyebrow at Sombra, she hesitated. “Okay. But only for a moment and just because I have to know what is going on.” She closed her eyes and her whole form seemed to crumble to black dust, only to gather into the shape of a sleek, black pegasus mare with one big wing at her side. She was on the tall side for a pony and the silver of her mane and tail flowed almost mockingly around her curves. When she opened her eyes, they were the very picture of Nightmare’s, only that they seemed to promise untold pleasures in their normal state, already. Her flanks practically sung ballads of fertility and her coat glimmered mysteriously in the flickering light of the flames from the forge. And to top it off, she emanated an aura of sexyness that may be able to turn the most convicted straight mare, and even the most convicted homosexual stallions.

“Huh. Well, you are even more attractive now. What do yo-” Somba said, turning to look at Calcifer only to cover his mouth in an attempt to stifle his laughter.

Following Sombra’s gaze, the mare turned to look at the fire pony, only to hurriedly avert her eyes again with the cutest little blush on her black cheeks.

A stream of red-hot metal came from Calcifer’s nose at that and his already erect dick gave a twitch.

“W-well, we kn-know how you affect others now,” Sombra said through his chuckles.

With a rush of black dust, the pegasus changed back to her human form, still blushing and keeping her eyes on Sombra instead of looking in Calcifer’s direction. “So, are you interested in working with condensed shadow?”

“Oh, I’d love to be your slave,” Calcifer said dreamily. “I want you to tell me how bad of a colt I am...”

Slapping a hand to her forehead, she groaned. “Okay. This time it’s my own fault.” She walked over to Sombra. “Could you bring him back to his senses? I’ll be waiting outside.” With that she turned towards the door and made a beeline for it.

“Don’t worry, we just have to flick some water on him,” Sombra said, holding a wet sponge in his magic. “You want to do the honors?”

“Oh Holy, no. Who knows how he’ll interpret me spraying him with anything.”

Sombra raised an eyebrow and tossed the sponge in Calcifer’s face. The floating unicorn yelped in pain and jolted accidentally knocking the sponge onto his erect penis. He screamed and batted the sponge away, holding his hurt pride and whimpering.

Sephiroth flinched empathically. She couldn’t help but be reminded how sensitive her artificial dick had been. Clearing her throat, she turned back towards the forge. “So… Calcifer. About the thing with forging shadow?”

“Y-yeah, just... Let me get back to my normal temperature,” He squeaked out. They waited for a few minutes while Calcifer slowly uncurled and resumed floating. “Okay, so. You’d like to make something out of shadows?”

“Yes. It’s nothing overly flashy, but I’d like to make this-” She took out Kat’s token once more. “Into a pendant. The chain should be made out of shadow with inlaid swirls of crimson. I’d like to use my own blood for them.”

“That’s more than doable.” His horn flashed and a stack of papers appeared in front of Seph wrapped in a fiery aura. “I’ll just need you to fill out form number forty-three dash X, sign form three-fifty, and keep the pink copies until the next time taxes are due.”

Blinking at the documents she examined them for all of two seconds before looking back at him. “Actually, Max told me if you say something about paperwork I should nicely inform you that she’ll shove it up your ass.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “I was going to eat them anyways. I do all this stuff with the paperwork because it’s funny seeing everyone try to appease the great Spirit of the Forge. Everyone trips over the Q&A section since I’m mostly asking about them and their preferences.”

The woman groaned and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “I won’t even-” Changing the topic back to the pendant, she said. “I want the chain to be at the length, so that the diamond will rest next to my heart. That’s a promise I made.”

“That’s all? I thought you would want a chestplate to hold it,” Sombra said, lighting his horn and pulling shadows from all around the room, shoving it all into the shape of an ingot. “This should be enough.”

He floated it over to a clay pot looking thing and set it in the coals.

“Now, you add the blood,” Calcifer said, moving a bit closer to the pot.

Removing the glove of her right hand revealed the ring, which made her pause for a second, just losing herself to the sight. She shook her head and drew her sword, walking over to the shadow-ingot. “Just say when it’s enough.” With that she dragged her wrist across the blade, which parted her skin with ease. Blood ran down the length of her sword and dripped from its tip right onto the ingot.

After a few seconds, Calcifer motioned for her to stop. “I will have to have half of my payment before I start work.”

Fuck. She had completely forgot to think of paying for his service. Before freaking out though, she decided to ask. “Which payment would you prefer?”

He gave her a hopeful look. “Can I lick the blood from your sword?”

Chuckling internally, she held her blade towards him. “Sure, go for it.”

He floated closer to the middle of the blade and tentatively licked some off. He froze as soon as the blood touched his tongue before wrapping his mouth around the blade and zipping down to the tip, leaving a spotless shine behind. “That-” Calcifer licked his lips, and continued, “Was so delicious! Even more so than Luna’s!”

Not really knowing how to react to being told that your blood is delicious, Sephiroth just blinked. “Thanks, I guess?” She shook her head to clear her mind. “How long will it take for you to finish? I’m assuming that you want your second half of the payment rather sooner than later.”

“As much as I wish I could, you can’t rush craftsmareship. I’ll have it ready in three hours.” With that he turned and melted into the coals of the forge as he started singing a strange song and using his tools to make a sort of melody.

Three hours is not rushed? She decided against voicing her thoughts and just nodded, letting her blade vanish and putting on her glove again, her wrist already healed. “Alright. I’ll be heading back to Max then. She wanted my help with something and I don’t want to disturb your work.” Turning to Sombra, she hinted at a bow by inclining her head. “I’ll keep your offer for training in mind. I strive to perfect the skill with my sword, but something is telling me that I should search another to hone my magic. The ‘spell’ I used against you could destroy the whole castle if powered up properly and it’s not my most powerful one.”

“You might want to seek out Barbaroi, the Dragon of the Hunt, then,” Sombra said, vaguely pointing south. “His scales can withstand even the coldness of outside the atmosphere and the heat of reentry.”

Thoughtfully, Sephiroth tapped a finger to her chin. “Wait… I think I’ve heard this name before.” After a few moments she nodded to herself. “Ah yes. Max mentioned a dragon named Barbaroi when we talked about the ones from my universe.” She nodded again, this time to Sombra. “Maybe I will pay him a visit, then. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll have to stay here and wait for Calcifer to tell me when to add in my magic.”

“‘kay. See ya then.” She left the forge and used a quick scrying spell to pinpoint Max’s location and disappeared in a flash.

“Rainbow! Now I have to rewrite the guest list,” Max said right after Sephiroth had teleported in.

The filly in question was hovering in front of the desk now, but it was apparent that she had been flying around the office and the wind of her passage had blown the guest list into the fireplace, burning it to ashes in seconds.

“Sorry mama,” The filly said dejectedly as she slowly got closer to the ground.

Sephiroth stayed out of Max’s reprimanding and just waited until she would be addressed, as she still thought she would be scolded, next.

Max pulled over another piece of paper and, without looking up said, “Lucky, may you please take that quill away from Light before she swallows it?”

Blinking in confusion, as she could not see the filly in question, the silver haired woman looked around, but wasn’t able to find the little alicorn. Until she heard something from behind her and glanced over her shoulder, finally spotting the kid on what looked to be a coffee table with Lucky holding his hoof out to her for the quill that was already in her mouth.

She pouted, but spat the quill out onto his hoof and went over to where Golden was messing with a few books on the floor.

Smiling slightly Sephiroth spoke up, “Need a little help with the small ones? Not that I want to insinuate anything.”

“What I need help with is deciding how this event will work out. I don’t know most of the musicians on this list, and I don’t think everyone will be happy if I give catering to the Apple family.” Max sighed and shook her head. “I’m in over my head and Twilight hasn’t had a lick of sleep since we got back from beyond the mirror, so I forced her to sleep. Sol and Mun are taking her to her rooms now, so I can’t ask them for suggestions...”

“Well…” Uneasiness entered Seph’s voice. “My knowledge about musicians is a little bit outdated and honestly, I don’t have a clue as to who this ‘Apple’ family is.” Sighing she shook her head. “Sorry, but I hadn’t the chance to catch up on anything since I was freed.”

“You know that orange mare that wore one of the Elements? That was Applejack, a member of the Apple family.” Max pulled over a scroll and held it out for Seph. “I know you haven’t gotten caught up on everything yet, that’s why I was going to have you look through the list for ones that caught your eye.”

“Yeah, I remember her. Hadn’t really stood out, though. I could pay her a visit and get to sample a few of her meals, if you give me a location to teleport to.” The taller woman suggested.

“You’ll be able to see the orchard next to Ponyville from the edge of Canterlot. By the way, what was that explosion earlier?”

Sephiroth was in mid-movement to turn towards the window when she froze. “One of my original ‘spells’, why?”

“Ah, I thought it was Murphy making something Sweetie Belle tried to cook explode. Hope your little sparring session with Sombra went well.” Max said, placing the list of invites near a folder marked ‘rich ponies Gala’.

Sighing, she turned back to Max. “I needed to vent a little, so yeah. Was a good fight. Except for the way I ended it. I kind of overreacted a little.”

Max sighed and looked up at Sephiroth. “Please tell me you didn’t accidentally kill him.”

“No. He was able to shield himself from the blast, but ended our fight right after that, stating he wouldn’t succeed in blocking another one.” She scratched at the back of her head in embarrassment. “I didn’t really power up the attack that much and no one was injured. Promise.”

“But there’s a crater in the training grounds.” Max smiled and shook her head. “As long as no one got hurt I guess I can’t get mad at you.”

“I’m sorry, nonetheless. Sombra is a very strong opponent and I shouldn’t have been so reckless. And I may have forgotten to mention that I’m injured at the moment.”

“As long as what you do doesn’t make your injuries worse, I can’t scold you for trying to stave off boredom.”

Sephiroth smiled at that. “You’re just too good to me. Thanks.” Then she made her way over to the window. “Oh, and just to make sure. You aren’t going to punish Sombra or something?”

“Why should I? If I’m not going to get mad at you, I can’t get mad at him,” Max said, pulling open a few scrolls. “Besides, he would stop before he actually struck a mortal blow.”

Nodding, she jumped out of the window.

It didn’t take her any more than ten minutes to reappear in Max’s office, with a sick look on her face and both hands protectively clutched over her stomach. “Urgh… so. Much. Food.” With a mighty heave, she collapsed onto her knees, bending over and resting her forehead on the ground. “Holy… please kill me now.”

Max giggled and looked over the edge of the desk. “I guess I should’ve warned you she likes stuffing her guests,” Max said, giving Sephiroth a smile.

She got a groan and a burp in response, the silver haired woman withering on the ground in pain.

“So how long until your Cells kick in?”

“You know-” Sephiroth was interrupted by another burp. “My Cells don’t see food as a threat, right?”

“You could try to tell them to help digest the food?”

“Thanks for your concern, but I think I’ll pass. It would just make me lose my respect of eating too much.” Deciding to stay on the ground for the moment, she just continued. “Also if that event you’re planning is something for the ‘high society’, then I would suggest against hiring the apple family. Their food is awesome, but their presence wouldn’t sit right with the rich and snobby.”

“I was saying for the public part of the event. I suppose I could also use their food for the ‘exclusive’ part as well.” Max sat back down in her chair and started writing something.

“If the snobs haven’t changed in the past thousand years, tell them to make ridiculously small portions and all of the rich ones will believe it’s from a high end restaurant. Their food is really-” The silver haired woman was interrupted, as a giggle forced itself out of her mouth. Something was tickling her and further investigation revealed that Golden and Light had seized the chance and climbed on top of her while she was lying on the ground. Their little hooves tickled her sides and when the former tried to sneak up on her face, she had to stifle another giggle.

“You have baby, too?” Rainbow asked, walking over to Sephiroth and poking her stomach.

The woman’s heart melted at that and she hugged the cyan filly close to her chest. “Sadly, no. I just gone and ate way too much. Now I have a tummyache.”

Rainbow giggled and hugged her back.

“I know Applejack can help with that. She went and spent some time with her aunt and uncle, trying to fit into ‘high society’ before she got her cutiemark,” Max said, pulling over another piece of paper.

Lifting one of her hands, so it would be visible over the table she gave a thumbs up. “I vote for the Apples, then. Is there more I can help you with?”

Max looked over at the clock and stood abruptly. “Schist, I have to start court in fifteen-”

“Max, Seph, if either one of you can hear me, I need your help. I found a Displaced who was hurt and torn apart by the events of the past and was a victim like Seph. If you can hear me, please. Help Shalltear.”

“And we were just about to start actually doing something...” Max said, disappointment evident in her voice.

“Am I interrupting anything important?” Lance mentally asked out of curiosity.

“Nah, not really. We were just sitting down to plan out a huge annual party. We’ll be there in a minute.”

“Wanna take a break and help a Vampire that reminds me of you and Seph calm herself down? She’s tempted to go on a massacre after almost becoming a rape victim after being asleep for over 1000 years.” He asked.

Floating Rainbow and Lucky over to her, Max opened her portal, but paused to look back at Sephiroth. “Could you please get Golden and Light to Sol and Mun? I know you want to help, too, but they need to be supervised.”

Sephiroth was already on her feet, with the two fillies that had climbed on top of her in her arms and nodded, a determined look on her face. “I’ll follow you as soon as I can.”

Max nodded and jumped through.

Scrying the positions of the two was a little unnerving to Sephiroth, because she forgot to fine tune her spell, so she was bombarded with the locations of all four of their bodies at once, which caused her to get a little dizzy. “Woah.” Shaking it away, she tried again, only this time she specified on the pony versions and teleported to them.

Mun whirled to face Sephiroth, dropping into a defensive posture before realizing who she was.

Sol, though, was carrying Twilight and merely turned her head. “Max needs us to watch them for a little?” She asked, spotting the two fillies in Seph’s arms.

The woman nodded and waited for one of them to take the children. “We got called by Lance and it seems like it’s urgent. Max already went ahead and asked me to take the two to you.”

Mun walked over to her and motioned for her to set the fillies on his back. “You might want to hurry then,” He said.

She did as instructed and stroked the little fillies’ manes after that. “Behave you two.” Then she whirled around and opened her own portal, but stopped before heading through, to look back at the guardians. “We hadn’t really the chance to get to know each other, yet. I would really like to change that when we come back. After all, you two are the guardians of Max’s family if I understood that right.”

Sol smiled and said, “I prefer to think that we’re Max’s siblings.”

“All the more reason, as that would make me your sister in law. But I really have to go now, so later.” With that she waved them goodbye and rushed into the void.

Author's Notes:

Crossover with ElementBrigade's The Blood Countess between this and the next Chapter.