I wake up with Celestia on top of me and I remember the events of last night making me smile. I gently stroke her hair as she hums in content.

I check the clock on the wall and see it's only ten past five so I just lay there, enjoying Celestia's company. She slowly starts to stir and looks me in the eyes. "Good morning, beautiful," I say and lightly kiss her.

She smiles into the kiss and hums happily. "Thank you for last night, I've never felt better," she says and nuzzles me. I return the affection and sit up. She straddles me and we notice how sticky we are.

I chuckle and kiss her again. "I think we need a bath," I tell her.

"Agreed, and just like my sister, I would like you to scrub my back," she says with a sly smile.

I chuckle and lift her up making her giggle as I carry her into her bathroom and let her stand on her own. She stumbles and has trouble standing as she leans against the sink. "Oh my. I know I said to rut me until I couldn't walk, but I didn't think you'd literally do it," she says with her heavenly giggle.

I turn the taps on and start drawing the bath. Celestia sits down on her toilet and tries to calm her trembling legs, I can't help but feel proud of that.

"Oh! I almost forgot, Nightmare Night is in three days time, will you be joining Luna down in Ponyville?" she asks me.

"I almost forgot about that, but yeah, I'm going with Luna... do I need to dress up or something?" I reply and ask.

"You don't have to, but I think Luna would enjoy it if you did," she tells me.

"Do you know what she's going as?" I ask.

"I was surprised when she told me, she said she's going as Nightmare Moon..." she says and then glares at me. "You wouldn't have anything to do with that would you?" she asks.

I frown and think. I remember her telling me about her banishment and what I told her. "I told her the past is the past and to live for the now, not in the past. I guess she's accepting her mistakes and making the most of what she can," I reply.

Celestia's glare softens to a warm smile. "So you helped Lulu overcome her old fear," she says and shakily gets onto her legs and wobbles over to me where she then gives me a tight hug. "Thank you for that, she really began opening up more since then," she tells me.

"I'm happy it helped, and I meant it, I'd do anything to keep you two happy," I reply and turn the taps off. The water feels perfect and I help Celestia in, she sighs happily from the warm water against her body. I join her once she's in and she leans against me.

"This is perfect," she says and nuzzles me.

I remember that she tried asking me something during our fun last night. "Tia, you were trying to ask me something last night, but you kinda interrupted yourself. What did you want to ask me?" I ask her.

She frowns in thought then goes wide eyed and blushes heavily. "I... erm..." she stutters and looks at me as if to find something. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. "After the Hive is completed and everything settles down... would..." she hesitates for a few seconds. "Would you marry me and Luna?" she asks.

I just stare at her for a few seconds as my brain shuts down, did she just propose to me? I blink a few times and look into her eyes. I can see the hope and love in them, I couldn't help but smile and tear up. "I'd be honoured to, my love," I reply.

She squeals and kisses me, I return the kiss and hold her close and after a few seconds I let go.

He said yes! I need to tell Luna! 'Lulu? Where are you?' I ask her telepathically with excitement.

'OUCH. Ow, horseapples! Tia? What is the matter?' she asks.

I couldn't help but feel giddy. 'Lulu, he said yes!' I tell her.

I can feel her confusion 'Who said yes to what, sister?'

I take a deep breath 'I proposed to Adrian and he said yes!' I tell her.

"WHAT!" I hear Luna shout in the Royal Canterlot Voice. She doesn't reply but I hear her thundering down the hallway.

"Was that Luna?" Adrian asks, looking towards the door.

Before I could answer, Luna bursts in as she runs over to Adrian and looks him in the eye. "Is it true? Thou wishes to wed us?" she asks with excitement.

Adrian looks confused as to how she knew. "Err, yes?" he replies unsure.

Luna couldn't help but squeal as well and kisses him hard, she then loses her balance and falls into the bath with us. She pokes her head above the water after flailing for a few seconds and gasps. Adrian chuckles and I giggle as Luna grins sheepishly.

"You might as well join us now, sister," I tell her.

Her horn glows and her clothes are teleported away, she then moves to Adrian's right side and leans against him. "We have never been more happy than right now. We thank th... thank you, Adrian," she says surprising me as she nuzzles him. That's the first time since she's returned that she hasn't used old Equestrian.

Wow, she must be really happy if she dropped her archaic dialect. I couldn't help but smile as they cuddled up to me... wait... if we get married, will that make me a King!? "Erm, not to ruin the mood or anything, but would that make me a King and you both Queens?" I ask.

"Yes... why? Do you not wish to be King?" Celestia replies and asks with a worried tone.

Do I want to be a King? What responsibilities would I have? "I... don't know... what would I do as a King?" I ask.

"Thou will aid us in the ruling of the nation, help with laws and negotiations as well as the requests of the citizens and nobles," Luna tells me.

Shit... not my strong point... I'm a battle-mage. "Would it be possible to let you two sort out the national stuff while I continue with my battle-mage training and being your bodyguard?" I ask.

"Why?" Luna asks.

"I'm not very good with negotiations and such... just look at my interactions with the nobles," I reply.

"Hmmm, tis true thy skills in politics are... lacking. We see no problem of thou staying as our protector," Luna tells me.

"I can agree with that, but you will have to attend some court sessions with us and any important meetings with allied nations," Celestia says.

Hmmm. "I can do that," I reply with a smile.

I help wash both of them as we all laugh and have a little splashing fight. Celestia got her back washed like she asked me to and she just melted under my touch, Luna also wanted one as well. We get out and dry each other off, though Luna got a little too frisky with me. We get dressed and they raise the sun and lower the moon, I then equip my armour and we all head out to do our tasks for the day.

Luna is off to continue helping with the Hive's construction while Celestia is continuing to teach Shella about being royalty. I head off to the Training Grounds to continue practising with my shield.

I wake up with Luna shaking me vigorously. "Adrian! Wake up, we need thou to try on thine costume for tonight!" she tells me.

I yawn as I look from her to the clock to see it's nearly midday. "Why'd you let me sleep in?" I ask.

"So thou can stay up longer tonight!" she says excitedly.

"And what would I wear to match yours?" I ask her and get out of bed.

She smiles and her horn lights up, she now has black fur and her hair and tail look more mist like, she's also wearing light blue armour that looks sleek yet sinister and her eyes are cat like, similar to the thestrals. She has two incisors and is grinning wickedly with them, she's even grown a few inches.

Holy shit! This is what Nightmare Moon looks like? "So what do you think?" she asks as she starts twirling a finger across my chest. Her voice sounds deeper yet laced with mirthful venom.

"Errr. I'm not sure what to think... not gonna lie, you look rather attractive like this, but what would I wear to match?" I reply and ask.

She smiles warmly, but with her current appearance, she looks smug. "We have asked the armourer to craft thee a suit of armour to match ours," she says. Her horn glows again and I'm wearing a black suit of armour with highlights matching hers, her cutie-mark is also on each pauldron. The armour kinda looks like a dark corrupted version of my knight armour with a few spikes and blades attached.

Okay, this is kinda cool. "So I'm like your corrupted knight or something?" I ask while still looking over the armour. There's even a sword on my hip and a pony skull shaped shield on my back.

"Exactly! We shall swoop in by chariot and announce our presence with much drama and flair!" she says excitedly.

"So when do we leave?" I ask.

"At ten in the evening. Until then, we shall go out for lunch!" she says and pulls me towards the door as her appearance returns to normal and my armour also disappears a well.

She then drags me into the City where we have a nice lunch at the Golden Roast Café.

I'm standing in Luna's room fully decked out in the black armour Luna made for me while she's in her Nightmare Moon getup.

Luna's jumping around like a little girl on her birthday, it's actually kinda creepy when she looks like this. "Tis almost time! We cannot wait!"

Luna told me the purpose of Nightmare Night during our time in the City, it's where children gather sweets and offer some to a statue of Nightmare Moon so she wouldn't eat them instead. They dress up like monsters so that Nightmare Moon might ignore them.

Though Luna was not happy about this at first, but she's now decided to make the most of it.

We waited for forty minutes and planned on what to do. Once ready, we head through the halls that have been decorated a bit with bats, spiders, and pumpkins with weird faces carved into them.

The guards and maids actually look afraid of us, they quickly move out of our way while Luna sexily walks down the halls swaying her hips. Oh god, I'm going to have fantasies about this later, I just know it.

We make our way to the courtyard where a dark blue chariot is waiting for us with two thestrals attached to harnesses. Luna and I walk up and step onto the chariot. "Fly servants! Take us to Ponyville, we have a tribute to collect!" Luna says in character and the two thestrals take off.

We fly for a good ten minutes and I can just feel the smirk on Luna's face. I can see Ponyville coming up with lights and people all over the place.

Luna's horn glows and we're shrouded by black clouds as lightning starts discharging around us, but I don't feel anything. I guess it's all just an illusion.

The people of Ponyville look up at the cloud around us and start panicking. With one final large bolt of Lightning, we exit the cloud where Luna laughs maniacally. "Citizens of Ponyville! We have come for our tribute! Ye have one hour to bring it to us!" she shouts out to the cowering crowd. "Where we may just eat it, instead of thee! HAAAHAHAHAHA!" Wow she's really getting into the role.

As per my part, I draw my sword and shield and channel three arcane elements through the sword giving it a sinister red and black aura around it. The eyes on the shield start glowing red and give off and dark blue mist. I slowly exhale and thanks to an illusion placed on the helmet, an ice cold looking mist comes out of my mouth.

The people scream and scramble to gather as many sweets as they can, or just to get away.

"Luna... don't you think this is going a bit too far? They look beyond terrified..." I whisper to her.

She looks around and looks remorseful. "We think thou art right," she replies.

She returns to her normal form and my armour is replaced with my normal set. I see Twilight and her friends still in their costumes run up to us with angry expressions and wearing necklaces, except for Twilight who has a crown or tiara.

But once they see us back to normal, they just look confused. "Erm... what happened to Nightmare Moon? And that creepy flank Knight?" Rainbow asks.

Twilight walks up to Luna. "Princess? What's going on?" she asks. I snicker, almost losing it seeing her in a old fashioned looking mage’s robe, hat with bells, and a long fake white beard... wait a minute... she's dressed just like the image of the mage in my spellbook.

"Twilight? Just out of curiosity... are you dressed as Starswirl the Bearded?" I ask her.

She gasps and runs up to me. "Finally! Somepony gets it!" she says happily.

"Twilight? We should get back to what just happened don'tcha think?" Applejack says.

Twilight jumps and turns back to Luna. "Right. Princess... why did you look like Nightmare Moon?" she asks.

Luna sighs. "We thought it would be fitting due to the nature of the holiday... but as Adrian said, we may have taken it too far," she replies and hangs her head down in shame. I wrap my right arm around her waist and smile at her.

"Don't worry about it Luna, at least you can say you had the most realistic prank of the night," I try to cheer her up.

She looks back up to me with a small smile. Twilight looks stunned. "Prank? You scared the town half to death for a prank?"

"Don't be mad at her Twilight, she was just trying to fit in and try to accept her past mistakes. If you're going to be mad at anyone then be mad at me for letting her go through with it, I just didn't know what kind of a reaction we would get," I tell her.

Twilight and the others look at me and then sigh. "Fine, but next time... please let us know first," she says with a smile.

"We will Twilight, and we are sorry for the panic we caused," Luna replies.

A young white boy with brown patches on his fur with two toned brown hair dressed as a pirate walks up to Luna. "Princess Luna... could you change back into Nightmare Moon and scare us again? That was fun, scary, but fun!" he says.

Luna raises an eyebrow. "Thou found us scaring thee... fun?" Luna asks.

"Uh-huh!" he replies as other kids gather around as well. Luna looks at me and I just smirk at her.

"Very well," she says and her horn glows. Once again she's in her Nightmare Moon appearance and I'm back in my corrupted knight armour. Luna looks down and grins, showing her fangs at the boy. "So where be our tribute mortal? We art still waiting, or should we just gobble thee up instead?" she asks and starts to reach out for him.

He squeals and starts running off with the other kids to find her some candy. I stand beside Luna with my sword -which I just noticed is blunt and dull- and shield, trying to look as intimidating as I could. The adults, now that they realize it's all for show, have calmed down and started to play along, helping the children to gather their 'tributes' for Nightmare Moon.

I spot a woman I recognize from the Everfree talking to the children, it's Zecora. I almost didn't recognize her with her costume on.

The rest of the night passes by quickly as we play a few games like tossing fake spiders onto a webbed net, pumpkin launching, a haunted house in Applejack's barn and a few other smaller carnival style games.

The children brought a small amount of candy each to 'Nightmare Moon' and her corrupted knight. Though even if each portion was tiny, it all added up and we have two bags full of it and I placed them both on the chariot. The guards that came with us even joined in the festivities.

"Your Princess is pleased with thy tribute! So for another year, thy town shall be spared!" Luna says to the people.

The little boy who first approached Luna thanked her for a fun night and proclaimed her as best Princess, that got Luna smiling widely.

We headed back to Canterlot with our spoils where we stayed up with Celestia in bed telling her what happened while snacking on the candy.

Over the last week Shella has completed her transformation and has created her Hive Mind network. She's now as tall as me and looks like she's just over twenty, she even has the same body shape as Celestia. Her hair goes down to her waist and her tail goes down to her ankles. Her fangs have also disappeared, replaced to look like pony teeth. Her wings have also changed from dragonfly like wings to that of a moth, they're light blue with darker blue patterns on them. Celestia tells me she's never seen a changeling like this before. Maybe it's the energy of the life element that's affecting her?

The other changelings are also showing the same change once the Hive Mind was set up. Their wings also became moth like and their teeth flat, they're actually quite happy with the change, it's one less thing to remind them of their old Queen. Their eyes even became pony like.

Shella has also been flirting with me now and then, and I think Celestia has also noticed this, but when Shella flirts with me in front of Celestia, I think I saw her smiling... strange, has Celestia been encouraging her?

Shining has been training me in how to use the shield as more than just a spell foci. I've started to learn how to effectively block and deflect with it, I also continued to practice my aim with it as well. Shining also informs me that his marefriend will be coming back within a week from the cervine homeland.

Blueblood and Thraxx are doing their best to convince more noble families but aren't having any success these last few days.

Fleur Lily still talks and plays with Shella, but it just isn't the same for her anymore.

I went to check on the Hive with Luna on the eighteenth day. The main chamber has been completed along with an Inn just outside the entrance for future visitors or travelling merchants. The living area inside the Hive is about halfway completed with about ten homes already built. It's a mixture of the changelings homes from the Badlands and the houses from Ponyville. Instead of colourful houses, they have black and dark blue homes to match the new colour of their chitin.

I also met Twilight who was 'Studying' the changelings culture here. I saw one changeling woman almost talked to death by Twilight's constant questioning, I teasingly told Twilight to stop torturing the poor woman and she gave me a glare that Luna and I laughed at.

They've also started digging out an area for a market. Celestia, Luna, and I have given the changelings each a thousand bits to help start their economy. Some have even agreed to be farmers to grow crops in the large fields to the left of the entrance to sell to nearby towns since they don't need to eat actual food. Applejack has been by a few times and has been teaching them how to grow some crops like corn, carrots, potatoes, and wheat.

Twilight has even donated some copies of the books she has for their own Library, which they appreciated. She even offered to get them more if they wanted.

I'm heading back to Luna's room for the night. Along the way I spot Shella standing by her room's door looking nervous. "Shella? Are you alright?" I ask her.

"I'm... fine," she replies and looks me in the eyes. "Can I ask you something?" she asks. She sounds a lot more confident and mature like Celestia. Then again she is learning from her.

"Sure, what is it?"

"I've been ready to breed for the last few days, but I've yet to find a mate..." she says. Uh oh, I think I can see where this is going... "I was wondering if you would be my mate," she tells me.

I just stare at her wide eyed. "You want me to be your mate? Why me?" I ask. I'm not going to lie, she's absolutely beautiful now.

"I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for you, I'd still be the little starving hatchling back at the Badlands or dead... we all would be. It's your love, or energy that has fed us and made us better. Your compassion that gave us a second chance. You helped give us a home we can live in, not just survive in," she says and places both of her hands on my chest while looking in my eyes while hers tear up. "You're the only one I can think of that I would want as my mate," she tells me.

"B-But what about Celestia and Luna? I won't cheat on them," I tell her.

"You won't have to," I hear Celestia's voice say. I look down the hall and see Celestia and Luna walking towards us. "We've discussed it with Shella already, and have decided to welcome her as the third member of our herd," she tells me.

"Yes, and it'll also be good for pony and changeling relations," Luna says.

Celestia smiles at me. "I've noticed her little crush on you during our lessons and the looks she gives you," she tells me while Shella blushes.

"And you're sure you're fine with this?" I ask them just in case.

"Yes, and since Shella has technically just entered her first heat, or the changeling equivalent at least. We'd like you to mate with her tonight and help her Hive grow," Celestia says.

They want me to impregnate her? "Is that even possible?" I ask.

"There's a very high chance for it. changeling Queens are able to breed with any race," Celestia says.

Before anyone else could say a word, Shella pulls me into her room and pushes me onto her bed.

And again. Next chapter will entail more sexy times with his newest herd mate Shella!