Upon exiting Luna’s chambers, her entourage quickly fell into formation. Her house guard took up his post one step to Luna’s left three steps back. Thomas mirrored the guard’s position to the right. He then looked over his shoulder and smiled at Moonlight Shield who took her post behind him. Midnight Chain, Lunar Stone, and Starry Skies moved in front of Luna and lead the way to the dining hall. Along the way they were joined by a brown unicorn mare with her blue mane tied back in a bun and wearing a vest, skirt, and glasses.

“Evening, Princess Luna,” the mare with a ‘no nonsense’ expression tipped her head in a light bow as she pulled out a clip board.

“Evening, Lady Attentive,” Luna greeted.

“Today’s schedule might be a little light, but that’s no reason not to give it your very best,” Attentive Eye informed before going into greater detail on all that would go into tonight’s appointments.

Out of habit, Thomas immediately tuned the secretary out. Schedule or no, his job was to follow Luna around, speak only when spoken to until they were in private, and look like he had a reason to be there other than as the Princess’ play thing. That was all he needed to know. So he did what he always did in the early evening to pass the time and addressed the guard. “How’s it going, Swift Scabbard?”

The black guard with a swinging sword for a cutie mark tilted his head in a greeting. He was a bat pony, a pegasus with bat-like wings instead of feather ones, along with long tuft ears, yellow slit eyes, and fangs. Apparently they were a fourth tribe of ponies who had come to Equestria after the first three had established themselves, but were less welcomed because of their omnivorous and nocturnal natures. Unsurprisingly, with the coming of the royal sisters, they went on to identify more with Luna than Celestia. As such, there were a lot of them in the night court. More seemed to arrive every night, eager for the opportunity to do anything to serve the Princess of the Night.

“7:30 and all’s well,” Swift Scabbard said as he always did at the beginning of their conversations. “Heard you had your first day off last night. Do anything special?”

“Went shopping in Canterlot with a couple friends,” Thomas shrugged. “Talon from Celestia’s harem, along with my own personal guard,” he gestured over to Moonlight Shield.

Keeping his pace with the Princess, Swift craned his head to look at Moonlight and gave a half smile, flashing his fangs just a little. “Enjoy your first assignment from the Princess, soldier?”

“I have no complaints,” Moonlight replied confidently. “Sir Thomas is a fine stallion and shall come to no harm under my watch.”

“I notice the Sir counted you among his friends,” Swift observed.

Moonlight became visibly nervous at this. “Sir Thomas is most friendly, but I can assure you that I did my duty and never left his side.”

“Don’t worry there, private. You’re not in trouble,” Swift assured. “It’s important for a guard to have a positive relationship with his or her VIP. Just try and remember the regs on fraternization and you’ll be fine.”

“Understood,” Moonlight acknowledged.

Thomas’ gaze lingered on Moonlight a while as he wondered what Swift Scabbard was suggesting. He’d have to talk to her about it later.

Once they arrived at the dining hall, Luna took her seat at the head of the table to the right of her sister. Cadence’s seat to Celestia’s left was noticeably vacant. As the Princesses sat side by side, it was hard not to compare the two. Celestia was a full foot taller than her younger sister, making her the tallest and most imposing creature Thomas had ever seen. She wore a white dress with gold trim that hugged flatteringly to her supple body. The Princess of the Sun had a much fuller figure. By no means was she overweight, but years of a fondness for cake had padded her breasts, rear, and thighs in all the right ways. Thomas quickly averted his gaze to the chandelier above to prevent himself from imagining what it’d be like to serve as cushion under the massive, as Talon said, Sunbutt, and whether or not he could even survive such an ordeal.

Luna’s entourage disbanded and took up new positions around the table. Swift Scabbard took his post behind Luna and next to Celestia’s house guard. Since the hall was so empty in the early hours of the evening, seating arrangements were much less formal, so the attendants sat a fair ways down the table where they could speak among themselves, but not so far that they’d be out of earshot if Luna summoned them. Since there were no important dignitaries or nobles fighting to sit near the Princesses, Thomas sat directly to Luna’s right, after an extra cushion had been placed down so that he didn’t look so small. Moonlight stood behind him. On Celestia’s side of the table sat a few mares and stallions who Thomas recognized from the Princess’ harem, including Talon, though he still struggled to remember the others’ names.

Before anything else could be done, Celestia gave a light cough which signaled Talon to stand and address Thomas directly.

“About yesterday, Thomas,” she began as her face contorted in a rather peculiar expression. “It was wrong of me to p-pressure you into saying such things. P-please forgive me,” Talon asked while breathing heavily. The other members of Celestia’s harem took great strides to stifle their snickering at her mysterious discomfort.

“Um,” Thomas hesitated as he looked to Luna, but her face remained blank. “You’re forgiven, I guess.”

Talon nodded and then looked to Celestia who nodded in approval. Then the griffon grunted as she took great care to sit back down in her chair, where she let out a sigh of relief. Thomas watched the whole ordeal with great fascination while his mind raced with theories on what just happened and why Talon was in such discomfort.

“Tali?” He asked.

“Don’t worry about it, chimp,” Talon waved her claw dismissively while sweat rolled down the feathers on her head. “There’s ngh… nothing to… ugh, worry about.”

Thomas looked to Sun Dancer, who sat to Celestia’s immediate left, for clarification. The peach unicorn with a purple mane gave a shrug and silently mouthed the words “pu-nish-men-t.” Figuring that this probably wasn’t appropriate talk for breakfast, Thomas instead decided to dig into the plate of bacon, sausage, and half an orange that had just been set in front of him by one of the butlers. All the other ponies and non-ponies at the table were eating fairly normal things like hay, oats with milk, fruits, vegies, and pancakes, all in proportions reasonable for their relative sizes. The Princesses, on the other hand, each had small mountains of food set before them, consisting of all the previously mentioned items and then some. Ruling a kingdom and magically moving the heavenly bodies took a lot of energy.

As comfortable as he was with Princess Luna, Thomas was still very shy around crowds. So until someone addressed him, he’d merely eat his meal in silence while listening to the conversations around him. The guards were, of course, perfectly silent, speaking only when spoken to. The attendants from both courts chatted across the table about various work related complaints. The Princesses discussed the affairs of the kingdom, the progress of Celestia’s number one student, and a few whispers and giggles regarding the absent Cadence and Shining Armor. Thomas had seen relatively little of the pair in question, but they were quite cordial on the few occasions they had to talk with him.

Celestia’s concubines were by far the loudest at the table, laughing and cheering over the tiniest thing. Most of their various conversations revolved around their families, which Thomas had never paid much attention to until now. As Talon said, most of them seemed to be married and had children. They talked about how their kids, or rather foals, were doing at school, things they did with their spouses, and plans for what to do with upcoming vacations. There were no mentions of workplace grievances, but that was most likely due to being in earshot of their bosses.

Speaking of bosses, Celestia chimed into their conversations on multiple occasions. No one stuttered or tried to compose themselves as usually happened when addressed by royalty. Celestia’s harem welcomed or dismissed her opinions at their leisure, as if she weren’t the diarch of a great kingdom and goddess of the sun. The members of the harem even encouraged the shy Luna to join in, treating her with the friendliness and light jabbing that one would expect between cousins or in-laws. Despite her own reservation around crowds, it did not take Luna long to get sucked into their welcoming environment and begin laughing with the rest of them as easily as if she’d reunited with old friends.

Listening to it all, Thomas couldn’t help but be a little envious. They all seemed like the best of friends and had each other’s backs, like some strange amalgamation of a family. Most likely, years of drunken orgies had the effect of breaking down all barriers. They knew everything about one another. Thomas had never had so many friends before in his life and was never even all that close with his extended family. On the other hand, or perhaps hoof, the idea of having sex with other males, even if they were only watching, made Thomas cringe. There was no way he’d be willing to actually join in on the things he’d heard these ponies get up to.

As if sensing Thomas’ feelings of neglect, Talon overcame whatever was continuing to cause her such discomfort and said “So, chimp. Do anything with the clothes I bought you yesterday?”

Thomas looked up, suddenly remembering his debt to the griffon. “No, and I’m sorry, Tali. I forgot to set out what I owe you. Do you think you could wait till morning when Luna and I get back from Canterlot?”

“Sure thing,” Talon shrugged casually. “It’s no trouble at all… but I’m gonna have to start charging ya interest.”

“Interest!?” Thomas said in surprise. “You never said anything about interest.”

“I never said anything about no interest either, did I?” Talon said tauntingly.

“Best pony up and pay her back,” advised Steel Hoof, resident minotaur in Celestia’s harem and probably the only being that didn’t need to adjust his height to meet Luna on eye level. “Blood sucker spotted me a bit to pay for a new couch. But when I couldn’t pay her back right away… let’s just say you’ll save yourself a lot of humiliation if you just suck it up get it over with.”

“Didn’t you use that line on me last night?” asked a tan earth mare beside the minotaur as she lightly elbowed his side. Thomas thought her name was Wild Burst, but he’d never been all that great at names.

“No,” corrected a pegasus stallion named Red Amber. “He told you to take a breath and then to get it over with.”

“Actually, that’s what you told me,” Steel Hoof told Red.

“Oh yeah,” Red laughed, which quickly spread around the table.

“Pay those weirdos no mind,” Talon called attention back to herself. “I can assure you my rates are very generous. You can pay me back whenever.”

Thomas glared at the griffon. “I think I’ll just bite the bullet and get it over with tonight.”

“That’s what she said,” called one of the other stallions to a renewed series of snickers.

**********

“He’s coming along nicely,” Luna whispered as she watched Thomas cautiously laugh with the members of her sister’s harem. Her voice was so soft that none but those with the exceptional hearing of an alicorn could hear.

“I should say so,” Celestia agreed in a similar whisper. “It is good to see him come out of his shell and start making connections with other ponies.”

“Verily,” Luna proclaimed quietly. “Tis the least he deserves after being there for us.”

Celestia hesitated before speaking with a forced smile. “It’s been so long since you’ve had a companion such as him. I’m grateful that you’ve found each other and that he’s helped you through this tough transition.”

Luna met her sister’s eyes and smiled warmly. “There is no need to concern thyself, sister. We understand why what thou did was necessary. Thou hath apologized and we have forgiven. Can we not simply leave the past behind us and move on to better days?”

If Celestia hadn’t spent centuries mastering the art of perfect control over all facial muscles, she’d have shed a tear just then. But having gone through similar training, Luna was able to catch the subtle twitches in her sister’s face. The younger sister reached out her hand, which the older took with a sigh of relief.

“Besides, was it not thou who suggested we take him to bed?” Luna asked with a smile.

Celestia nodded, grateful for the change of subject. “What can I say? The two of you were simply meant for each other, and you look so cute together,” Celestia shared a giggle with her sister at the private joke. “And you’re welcome, by the way. However, there is a matter I have been wondering about.”

“And that is?”

“While you two were meant to be together, do you not think you might have rushed him to bed?”

Luna deadpanned. “Sister. We have not had any measure of satisfaction in a millennium. Thou shalt forgive us for being somewhat eager with such an adorable stallion such as he.”

“Point taken,” Celestia nodded gently. “I was just making sure you were both happy.”

“We are, and we thank thee for thy concern, sister,” Luna nodded appreciatively. “On similar matter, we were wondering about the guard Moonlight Shield,” she gestured to the guard with her eyes. “According to Thomas, her father was a former concubine of yours and she referred to you as her aunt when she was younger, but seems to have dismissed the practice since. We are most curious what makes her different from the others.”

Celestia gave an exasperated sigh. “We can talk about it later, but suffice to say her father didn’t want her to end up like him.”

Luna frowned unsatisfactorily at her sister’s explanation, but agreed to put it off for another time.

Introduced a few new characters, established some interactions and atmosphere, and dropped a few hints of things to come. There have been worse filler chapters.

As usual, let me know what you think and don't feel shy about offering constructive criticism.