---

---

Adrian passes out in my arms and I start panicking. 'Please don't be dead,' I think to myself and I place my ear next to his nose, I sigh in relief as I can hear and feel him breathing.

'Is he alright, Luna?' my sister asks me telepathically.

'He is still breathing, we think he passed out from exhaustion,' I reply.

"Is he okay?" Twilight asks.

"He is fine, just tired," I tell her.

Twilight and Rarity both sigh as I look down at Adrian, he looks so peaceful.

'Take him to Twilight's Library, I'll manage out here,' Tia tells me as a crowd begins to gather.

I smile at her and lift Adrian up, he's heavier than he looks, even with the armour. Twilight picks up his stave and sword and follows behind me.

We arrive at Twilight's home where I place Adrian on the guest bed and I remove his armour leaving him in his shirt and trousers. I lean forward and lightly kiss his forehead. "Sweet dreams," I whisper to him and I see a small smile on his face.

I leave the room and wait for my sister downstairs.

---

---

I open my eyes and yawn as I look around and see that I'm back in Twilight's Library. I rub my eyes, sit up on the side of the bed, and stretch my arms and legs.

I notice my armour and weapons placed neatly next to the bed, I decide to leave them there for now and head towards the door.

Walking down the stairs I see Celestia, Luna, and Twilight talking with each other and drinking tea. Luna spots me and instantly smiles.

"Tis good to see thee up and about," Luna says.

"Yeah, I think I may have over done it," I reply with a chuckle. "How are the injured guards doing?" I ask them.

"They'll live, thou stopped them from bleeding out at least, but they'll have to be discharged from the guard as they can no longer fight at full capacity anymore," Luna replies.

"But there was nothing to be done for Stalwart, he shall be given a full military funeral with a medal of valour," Celestia says. Twilight looks like she's been crying, I guess he was a friend of hers.

"So, how did a manticore get into town?" I ask.

"Witnesses say that it just appeared in a flash of red light and started to attack everypony in sight," Celestia says. I walk over and sit on the couch next to Twilight.

How can it just appear?.. Wait... I remember seeing someone in the Forest... "Celestia, before I passed out, I remember seeing someone in the forest just behind the trees, they were looking at me and when I blinked, they vanished," I tell her.

"Do you remember what they looked like?" she asks me.

"Erm... I think they were wearing all black, and had a hood covering half of their face, but other that, It was too dark to tell," I reply.

"Do you think it was this Silent Shadow Blueblood has been speaking to?" Luna asks her sister.

Twilight looks confused. "What does Blueblood have to do with this?" she asks.

Luna and Celestia share a look between themselves. "We believe Blueblood may be trying to... get rid of Adrian after a disagreement they had," Celestia puts it lightly. "but we have no evidence other than a night guard's report," she says.

I lean back into the couch and frown. If it's true that this was another attempt at killing me, then Blueblood went too far and got other people killed, crippled, and injured. He will pay for this if he's responsible.

"I say we confront him and you read his memories, if he has nothing to hide, he'll let you, if not, then we'll know he's behind it," I offer.

"But then we'll have a political scandal should he be innocent, the Nobles will demand recompense," Celestia says.

Well damn. "Has Night Blade found any evidence yet?" I ask Luna.

"Nay, but she is still keeping an eye on him," she replies. My stomach once again decides to let everyone know that it wants feeding and rumbles out loudly. Luna giggles behind her left hand. "Sounds like somepony's hungry," she teases.

I smirk and frown at her. "Let's see you cast spell after spell and see if you're not hungry afterwards," I reply mockingly.

"We'll discuss this at another time, shall we go and get some lunch?" Celestia asks.

We all agree and leave the Library and head off into town. I asked Twilight where Rarity went off to, she tells me Rarity has some orders to complete and that Spike was helping her. We meet some of Twilight's friends along the way, Rainbow Dash said hi to us while the butter yellow woman, named Fluttershy, I saved from the manticore thanked me for saving her. We arrive at a large building that looks like it's made of sweets, cake, and pastries.

The others enter first and I follow in last. "Why is it so dark in here?" I ask.

Suddenly the lights come on and lots of people yell out. "SURPRISE!"

"FUCK!" I yell out and self cast a shield element, coating myself with a barrier, I then channel two lightning elements into my right hand and look around; everyone now looks a bit worried, I chuckle sheepishly and cancel the elements and shield.

"Sorry about that, I'm still a bit jumpy," I apologise, a few of the people laugh at that.

Pinkie Pie then appears in front of me. "Hiya, Adrian! Were you surprised? Were ya were ya?" she asks.

I just stare at her for a few seconds. "Very," I simply state.

She giggles and drags me over to a table with an assortment of food and drinks. "This party is for you! A thank you for saving the town and Welcome to Ponyville party!" she tells me.

I pick up a small cake and take a bite out of it, it tastes like strawberries. "This is really good," I say and try the other food.

"Thanks! Baked them myself. Here, try this!" she says and stuffs something in my mouth. I chew on it, tastes like vanilla.

I try a few more of the food and some of the drinks. Pinkie then drags me over to a picture of a woman facing left and bent over slightly, but she's missing her tail. "Lets see how well you can play pin the tail on the pony!" she says and blind folds me.

She places something fluffy in my right hand and then spins me around, I start to get dizzy and she stops me spinning. "Okay! Try and pin the tail in the right spot!" she tells me.

I wobble forward getting a few chuckles and giggles from behind me, I reach out my left hand and feel the wall ahead of me. I then push the pin into where I think is the right spot, followed by a chorus of oooohs sounding out. I pull off the blindfold and see that I pinned it an inch away to the right of the woman's backside.

"Very close!" Pinkie says and goes off to talk to other party goers.

The rest of the party goes by quickly and all the food and drink is gone. I had a go at bobbing for apples, unfortunately, the apple I got was attached to a spring and it pulled me back into the tub, I gave a mock glare at Pinkie but ended up laughing.

There was a dancing game where everyone had to pick a partner and copy Pinkie Pie's dance moves. Luna decided to drag me into it and we managed to get third place, I'm surprised how flexible Pinkie can be... my back is a little sore trying to do what she did.

The party ends and everyone heads out, I stay behind with Celestia, Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Luna.

The Princesses excuse themselves for a minute as they lower the sun and raise the moon.

"Hey, Adrian!" Rainbow says as she walks over to me. "I saw you kick that manticore's flank! That was bucking awesome!" she says.

"Hmm, I did it to protect the town... and I owed it payback for poisoning me when I arrived here," I reply.

"Wait... that was the manticore that attacked you?" she asks.

"Yup, I cut off its tail after it stabbed my leg with it and then smashed its face in with a rock... I thought I killed it the first time," I tell her.

"Well, it ain't gonna get back up this time!" she says.

"Adrian... could thou walk with us for a while. We... we have something we wish to tell thee," Luna says as she walks up to me.

"Oh, erm, Sure," I reply and follow her out of the building I learned is called Sugarcube Corner.

We walk in silence to a park with a pond in the centre, I can see the moon's reflection off its surface.

Luna stops and faces me with slightly red cheeks. "So what do you want to tel..." I start to ask but I'm cut off as she kisses me, my eyes go wide and she pulls back.

"Would thou give us the honour of being our coltfriend?" she asks shyly and looks down.

I space out and touch my lips with my right fingers. "I... Bu..." I mumble.

She looks up at me with a worried expression. "We have come to like thee, Adrian, and we wish to court thee," she says holding my left hand with both of hers. "Over the last month, thou hast treated us like a normal mare, thou do not fear us or shy away when we approach," she tells me.

"Y-You wish to go out with me?" I ask dumbly. She nodded and smiles, a Princess wishes to court me? "I..." She looks at me in the eyes, her smile slowly fading, replaced by a sad expression. Why am I hesitating? She's been the nicest person to me and my best friend since I've been here. "Yes," I reply.

She squeals and immediately hugs and kisses me again. "We thank thee," she says.

I smile and hug her back.

We walk back hand in hand and talk about what we're going to do at the up coming Grand Galloping Gala. She says she's going to have a dress and suit made for us that'll match each other, I don't think I've ever seen her this happy.

We enter Sugarcube Corner, still holding hands. Twilight looks over at us and her eyes go wide. "Adrian? Why are you holding Princess Luna's hand?" she asks. Everyone else looks over at us and Celestia has a big smile on her face.

"We've asked Adrian to be our coltfriend," Luna says and wraps her arms around my left arm while smiling making me blush a little.

"Y-You, and the P-Princess..." Twilight says to me. I smile and nodded.

"I am happy for the both of you," Celestia says as she walks over. "I trust you'll treat my sister well?" she asks me.

I look at her right in the eyes. "As if her life was my own," I reply.

Celestia nodded. "Very good, it is time we head back to the Castle," she says and turns to Twilight. "Today has been very interesting, to say the least. I shall contact you when we can visit again," she tells Twilight.

Twilight's still looking at me and Luna just nodded with a blank expression.

Rainbow walks over to me and elbows my right arm. "You sly dog, bagged yourself a Princess! You better treat her right or you'll answer to me, got it? And your fancy magic won't be able to save you either!" she tells me.

I laugh and ruffle up her hair. "No problems there," I tell her. We say our goodbyes and I follow Celestia out with Luna still holding my hand. Two guards fly down to us and escort us back to the carriage, I collect my gear from the Library first and then enter the carriage where we fly back to the Castle, Luna sat next to me and leaned against me on the way.

When we arrive, we head into the Castle where we have dinner and there's still no sign of Blueblood, though Celestia gave Luna some teasing about being my marefriend. Once finished, Celestia bids us good night and I walk Luna to her room, we're standing outside her door and she looks at me. "Would thou... would thou stay with us tonight?" she asks.

I look her in the eyes and smile. "If that's what you really want," I reply.

She nodded and opens the doors, she pulls me in and walks over to a walk in closet. I remove my armour and shirt and place them at the foot of her large round bed. Her room looks beautiful, it's like a piece of the night itself was used to decorate it.

She returns after a few minutes and her hair and tail are no longer flowing, her hair is now a soft blue colour that goes down just past her shoulders with slight curls at the ends, her tail is shorter as well and also curled at the end, she's also wearing a black nightgown that goes past her knees.

She looks at the floor shyly and walks over to me. "What happened to your hair?" I ask her.

"When we stop channelling magic through it, it returns to its natural state," she tells me.

I reach up and comb my hand through her hair, it's very soft and she hums in content. She then grabs my hand and pulls me towards the bed.

We slip under the covers and she cuddles up to me. "We thank thee for giving us a chance," she tells me.

"Of course, you're a kind and beautiful woman, and if other people can't see that, then they don't deserve to know the real you," I reply.

She quietly sobs happily into my chest until we both fall asleep.

Next Chapter: Chapter 13: The Knight of Equestria Estimated time remaining: 19 Hours, 31 Minutes