Luna’s Story 4: Curse of the Black Stallion
Part 3: A Blushing Mare

Princess Luna was all smiles as the crowd of grey armored stallions pressed in around her like children, rearing and whinnying happily. She chuckled, handing out blessings when she could and embracing those brave enough to take her hugs. They’d all been out on duty for several months now, and to see all of them together again (minus Stalwart Hide and the three stallions guarding their “guest”) was a sight to behold. Aegis Shield was shaking hooves, exchanging banter and gossip while the festival pressed on.

Nightmare Night was a big deal in Ponyville, for their tiny village was always graced with the presence of royalty. Ever since the first Nightmare Night that Princess Luna had returned, she’d always insisted on spending the night there. Not in Canterlot, nor Los Pegasus, or anywhere else with their fancier parties and streams. No, Ponyville was where her heart lay.

Games, sweets, and prizes were being passed out by ponies with fat saddle bags, and the stage was almost ready for Luna’s yearly speech. She’d teased several ponies with the promise of special announcements and prizes for best costumes. “So then, we bucked him in the face!” One stallion had already had a few too many ciders, serenading Luna with the tale of a bar fight he and his fellows had broken up. The Princess chuckled good-naturedly. Truth be told there hadn’t been much ‘action’ comparable to the battle for Canterlot a decade ago, but they were all eager to tell her of their exploits. Small-time thieves, bar fights, escorting frightened mares home in the dead of night. A few of them had actually found love, much to the delight of their comrades. After all, they reasoned, there was no greater catch in all the world’s stallions than a Lunar Stallion. Luna agreed, poking fun at Aegis Shield, who blushed.

Excusing herself after a time, Luna made to mount the stage and head to the podium. Even after a decade she was not very good at speaking to attentive crowds, but she tried her best. At least her language lessons had brought her into the proper century, and she sounded more normal and approachable to everypony. The music from the band died down and everypony began to gather ‘round, happy to see the Princess in such good spirits on Nightmare Night. “CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!” she concussed the night with the Royal Canterlot Voice, much to their delight. There was laughter and applause, and she made a show of bashfully lowering her voice. “Welcome to the tenth annual royal Nightmare Night festival!” she smiled and blimped her wings open, sending phantom bats in all directions. More applause and hoof stomping. “I have surveyed the crowds and have made my decisions for best costumes.” She gestured, and a pair of Lunar Stallions came forward with a quartet of golden trophies with crescent moon symbols on them. The crowd ooooh’d appreciatively, chattering for a bit while they admired the shine and sparkle of the trophies. “There shall be one for each gender, one for children and one for adults!” she gestured to all four. The crowd went nuts. Last year they had only had trophies for the creative foals that had made their costumes themselves.

Aegis Shield smiled from his place in the crowd, making sure that the Lunar Stallions were grouped up and acting accordingly. They could party, sure, but they were still pillars of the community. They couldn’t get too wild. The Captain scolded himself a little when he finally remembered Stalwart Hide. How could he forget? Smiling guiltily he called to a reveler for a bag of assorted candy to take home to his comrade. She obliged and pecked his cheek, wishing him a happy Nightmare Night. Aegis stuffed the little bag into his breastplate, promising to give it to his friend when he returned to Canterlot. He looked up, having not been paying attention.

Princess Luna was presenting a little earth pony filly with a trophy. She had glued gobs and gobs of cotton to her legs, and made little paper wings. When asked what her costume was, she flopped down on her cushion and curled up like she was asleep. Pegasus asleep on a cloud, she told them. The crowd ‘awwwww-ed’ loudly, she really was precious. Luna blessed the foal with a tap of her horn, presenting her with her trophy. She skipped off the stage, laughing merrily. The colt trophy went to a little foal who’d decided to be a space pony. He’d shoved a fishbowl onto his head, had vacuum cleaner parts all over himself for his astronaut suite, and had ever perfected a slow-motion walk to make it look like he was in lesser gravity. The crowd adored this and clapped voraciously. One of the adult ponies that won a trophy was none other than Zecora the zebra, who had rolled herself in flour. When asked what she was, they found out she was pretending to be a white earth pony. The crowd laughed and applauded, making her bow and chuckle with them. The mare that won the male adult trophy had dressed up like death, weaving a complex spell around himself to make most of his body look like just a skeleton. Such magic!

When all the prizes had been handed out and the band was getting back into place to start the next dance, Princess Luna held up a solemn hoof. “I do have another announcement to make, and this seems to be the best place to make such an announcement.” The crowd quieted, cocking their heads at her. Aegis Shield looked up, lifting his drink to his muzzle and smiling at his comrades while she spoke. “Ponyville was the first place, even before Canterlot, that helped to reintegrate me into society after my absence.” The dark alicorn said, walking sideways and gesturing mildly at the moon. “Everypony helped me so much, and made me a part of their families on the first Nightmare Night that I came here.” There was scattered chuckling from the adults that remembered the very turbulent first encounters with her Majesty. Royal Canterlot Voice, shouting and the like was forever ingrained in their memories. “So, it seems only right that I come to my family with my most sacred of announcements.” Her cheeks colored a little and she locked eyes with Aegis Shield in the crowd. “I am-- pregnant.”

There was a hushhhh over the crowd. Could alicorns get pregnant? Who was the father? There was concerned murmuring throughout the gathering. No cheering or happy faces. Luna started to wilt a little. That had not been the reaction she was expecting. Aegis Shield dropped his cider mug, staring up at her, then at her belly, then at his fellow Lunar Stallions. They studied him carefully, watching for a reaction. Cocking his head, he peered about then made the snap decision. Shoving his way rudely through the crowd and tapping the eye on his breastplate, by the time he mounted the stage steps he was a brown Pegasus with a golden mane. Rushing across the stage he reared up and embraced Luna happily. Pregnant! The Lunar Stallions suddenly followed suite and amassed around her up on the stage. Slowly, the feeling of shock dissipated from the crowd and there were slowly growing smiles. Pregnant! The Princess of the Night was pregnant! There was going to be a royal filly or colt! The murmuring turned into chattering turned into shouting turned into cheering. Wild stomping and flailing about was had. The royal family was going to get bigger. “I love you, Luna.” Aegis Shield whispered, nuzzling her for all to see.

Luna smiled bashfully, turning and presenting him to the crowd. “This is Aegis Shield, my companion.” She told them all. “He is the father.” The massive gathering peered at him curiously. What sort of a name was ‘shield-shield’? How odd… why, he looked like a normal Pegasus! The Princess had found true love, and not in some uptight upper-circle pony? That was great! The crowd watched him turn a lovely shade of crimson as his Princess basically announced that yes, this was the stallion whose nightly efforts had helped to spawn a new alicorn. Wasn’t he handsome? Wasn’t he strong and impressive? Wasn’t he virile and fertile and all the things a Princess needed to make a demigod in her womb? Feeling overwhelmed, Aegis Shield went a little pale then flopped over. Fainted. There was instant silence, for a grown stallion hitting the floor made a loud sound. The Lunar Stallions crowded around him, swatting at his face and such. But no, he was long gone. The excitement and rush of adrenaline had just been too much for the poor guy. Luna chuckled embarrassedly, leaning down and kissing his face.

=-----=-----=-----=

Stalwart Hide jerked awake, snuffle-sneezing. He remembered bringing a happy Princess and a fainted Aegis Shield back from Nightmare Night, then he’d collapsed into bed, then… then…? He realized he’d probably been awake for thirty-six hours, and fallen asleep when his head hit the pillow. That didn’t explain the device attached to his head, though. It looked like a straining bowl, covered with wires and blinking lights. “Muhh…?” he managed, pawing at it.

“That’s delicate!” Archmage Sparkle said from his bedside, startling the poor stallion.

“Archmage! I’m naked!” he told her, pulling his blankets up. She stared at him blankly, her eyes flicking up and down him. Of course he was. Stalwart Hide meant he wasn’t wearing his armor, and was pretty uncomfortable with Twilight Sparkle getting a good look at his normal form. Why? Well, with her overwhelming personality and thirst for knowledge, she came across as pretty intimidating.

“I’m measuring your brain activity so I can compare it to your Lunar Stallion form.” Twilight gestured to the machine that was steadily spitting out a stream of paper with wiggly lines on it. She picked up part of it to show him, but he couldn’t make any sense of it.

“I think that’s enough of that.” He groaned and turned over sorely, clutching his medallion. Twilight stepped back instinctively when he flared his wings and raised his voice. “In the dark we tear and rend, to end all evils with spines to bend. Lust and power, hunger and might, by Luna’s will and dark of night!” his medallion burst with wild magic that blinded all of the Archmage’s internal radars. She recoiled with a yelp as his fur stained grey, his eyes flashed to gold, and his feathers imploded like fire crackers. Bat-like wings extended and his teeth sharpened while armor clacked into place all over his body. Lunar Stallion!

Twilight found herself splayed out on her back, her pointed hat pressed over her face. Bicycling her hooves for a moment, she righted her hat and looked up at him. “Wow! Password-oriented, permanent enchantment matrixes!” she was on her hooves again, squinting at the eye on his breast very slowly. “I’ve never seen such a tightly-woven spell!” she stared at it, looking at the medallion on several plains of existence. Material, ethereal, magical, mythical, elevated, and even outer. Every single shade of existence that the Archmage could see, the medallion showed up like a brightly glowing star. “Fascinating…” she mumbled, wide-eyed. Her vision flicked back up to his scowling face, then her eyes drifted up to his dorsal-finned helm. “My scanner!” she yelped, seeing the pieces all over the floor. “You wrecked my scanner!”

“You snuck into my room and put something weird on my head!” Stalwart Hide shouted back.

“I had permission!” she defended.

“Not MY permission!” he leaned into her face, snarling with all his pointed teeth.

“I needed the data to help the Princess!” the Archmage corrected her hat, bell jingling dangerously as a bell could… jingle. “If I put it on your head and told you to go to sleep you wouldn’t have been able to!” she shouted.

“I’m not your science project!” roared the Lunar Stallion.

“The Princess gave you to me to study to help that poor pony locked in the dungeon!” Their noses pressed heatedly together, until they were both red in the face from all the pressure. “I have to gather as much as I can about a normal Lunar Stallion before I can study that one.” They both sobered up a little at the mention of the prisoner.

“Then at least ask before you stick something weird onto my body.” he told her impatiently while they slowly came down from their shouting. “You even came into my bedroom without asking. How’d you like it if I snuck into your room and did something to you?” The implication of the sentence hit him as soon as he’d said it. Both of them flushed, looking to one side. They knew he hadn’t meant it that way.

“W-well, I wouldn’t. I’m sorry.” Archmage Sparkle said, hiding under the brim of her pointed hat for a few moments. “I’ll ask from now on.” She turned and clicked off her machine. Gathering up the bits and pieces of the shattered helmet-thing she’d put on his head, she stuffed them into her saddlebags and hauled the whirring machine away as well. He followed her out into the great room where her cloak was spread out over the couch. It was wrinkled in such a way that he knew she’d at least cat napped on the sofa the night before.

“You know, I don’t think Aegis Shield would mind if you took his bed. He doesn’t sleep in the barracks anymore, after all. It’s better than a couch.” Stalwart Hide offered. “I can’t speak for the other stallions, though.” He smiled a little awkwardly, but suddenly there was a great break in the silence. A whole gaggle of Lunar Stallions came down the stairs and into the great room, talking animatedly. Filtering out to their own activites, a few of them stopped to greet their Captain as the Archmage slipped out behind them.

=-----=-----=-----=

Princess Luna arrived at the Lunar Stallion Academy doors, followed by more servants than she cared to have around her. Telling everypony that she was pregnant seemed to have spawned the idea that she was an alicorn made of glass now. Waited on hoof and… hoof, she could hardly find a moment to think. “Leave us!” she suddenly belted at the crowd of over a dozen ponies. “I mean…” she amended when she saw their hurt expressions. “Go and spread the news!” she thrust a hoof towards Canterlot. Word of her pregnancy would spread like wildfire anyway, why not distract them with spreading the happy news on purpose? Their faces lit up and they stampeded away. All of Equestria would know within the day, no doubt. She rolled her eyes, having expected as much. She didn’t blame Aegis Shield for passing out, it was big news.

Turning, she went into the Lunar Academy and down into the dungeons. She found the three guards ponies there, playing cards around a small table. They jumped up when she cleared her throat, bowing low. “Falling Storm, report.” She asked the Pegasus on the right. Glancing over into the cage, she saw the black stallion hadn’t moved much, but there was a cold puddle of vomit in one of the cage’s corners.

“Your Majesty.” Falling Storm saluted before speaking. “The black stallion has--”

“Pipsqueak.” The Princess interrupted.

“Er, Pipsqueak woke only briefly in confusion.” Falling Storm said. “Like any other Lunar Stallion he didn’t remember what happened during his frenzy. We told him.” He winced when she narrowed her eyes at him angrily. “He cried, threw up, then passed out.” He said.

“You are lucky I’m in no mood to stomp on your wings, Falling Storm.” Luna said dangerously, walking roughly past him and to the bars of the cell. She peered in at the limp stallion, and lit her horn with magic. She turned his body over and laid it on the nest of straw. He stank of blood, tears, and vomit. His fur was matted from sweat and he looked like garbage.

Wake up, Pip.

The black stallion gave a start, bicycling his hooves. “Whuh?!” he said, flailing about and sitting up. Straw stuck to his fur and he looked around blearily. Then he saw the alicorn standing on the other side of the bars. He rushed to her, his breastplate CLANGING against the moonsteel as he clutched at the bars. “Princess Luna!” he said, pressing his muzzle as close to her as he could. “Thank the stars you’re here!”

“Pip.” Luna saw he was himself again, smiling and favoring him with a peck on the nose. He flushed a jittered, the feeling of relief flooding over his face. He didn’t sense the magic that flowed over his body, soothing him. Alicorn magic was sneaky like that. “Back to your senses, I see.”

“I don’t know what happened, Princess! One minute I was sitting in my parent’s living room, the next minute I was in here and they were telling me I murdered them both! And my fur is all black! And I’m wearing this heavy armor!” he shifted back and forth. Luna could see the foal she’d met over a decade ago in his face, still as enthusiastic and energetic as ever. She smiled gently, petting his mane with a comforting hoof.

“Shhh-shhh, you will be alright soon enough. We’re going to help you, and get that armor off of you for starters.” Igniting her horn, Luna motioned for him to step back. He did, and she magicked the cell door open. The three guards bristled nervously, but she calmed them with a look. Not even a frenzied Lunar Stallion could topple an alicorn, they knew. The black stallion slowly emerged from the cell, ears turned down and looking dirty and pitiful. Pip looked at his Princess at her eye-level, a feat in and of itself. He’d grown! She opened her mouth to comment on it, but no, this was not the time for foalish things. The Princess looked him over for a moment. The armor was the same, the symptoms of transformation the same, but black fur… odd. “We shall get you out of this armor, bathe you, feed you, and let you rest. You are not a prisoner here, Pip.” She told him gently. He gave her a small smile, looking comforted as he cast his eyes bashfully to the floor. It felt weird, being so close to the Princess again.

“Let’s see then.” Falling Storm came up and pawed at Pip’s breastplate a few times. “All you have to do is tap the eye, see?” he reached up to teach the new Lunar Stallion how it was done. Bzzzzz-CRACK! As soon as hoof met metal, Falling Storm was launched into the far wall by a bolt of lightning, black as night! He cried out on impact, spittle flying from his mouth as his pupils shrank into dots. He lost a lot of feathers, and fell with a moan.

HE-EEEEE’S MINE!

Pip looked around fearfully, still very much armored and black-furred. “That wasn’t me!” he said fearfully. “I didn’t do that!” he looked at Princess Luna desperately.

Both the alicorn and the other two guards stared wide-eyed. Then, one of the guards snapped back to reality and rushed to check on Falling Storm. “He’s breathing!” he said. Luna looked at her fallen stallion, then back at Pip. This had just become far more complicated. The armor didn’t want to come off, it seemed. She hadn’t heard the roaring voice, though.

=-----=-----=-----=

Twilight Sparkle coughed a little, straightened her hat, smoothed her cape and knocked on the door. “Enter.” It was Celestia’s neutral tone. The purple mare stuck her head in to find the white alicorn on her bed reading. “Ah! Twilight! What a wonderful surprise!” The white mare rose with a genuine smile, closing her book. Feeling nine again, the unicorn rushed up to her and happily extended her neck. Celestia nuzzled her like a mother. “My my! You still look so beautiful in your Archmage’s regalia!” she praised, making Twilight blush.

“Thank you Princess, it’s so good to see you!” Twilight crooned a little when Celestia nuzzled her. It was like being near a favorite aunt, a mother, or some other beautiful feminine figure that meant the world to any filly. She felt at ease, and soon bowed. “I’m here in Canterlot to study the Lunar Stallions for Princess Luna!”

“Oh really? Luna is usually so secretive about them.” Celestia said mysteriously, favoring her student with a bemused smile. Turning, out of habit, she took the Archmage’s hat and began to brush her mane. Twilight keened just a little at the intimate attention. “What have you found out so far?”

“The one Luna gave me to study is a jerk.” Twilight said with a scowl. Celestia’s lips rose a little higher. “He’s defensive and grouchy, and his room is strictly functional… it’s hard to get a reading on him!”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to be read?” Celestia said gently, tucking one of Twilight’s ears down so she could brush behind it. “Be patient, my student. Nopony will just give you their thoughts and secrets like the pages of a tome.” She said.

Twilight huffed a little, but nodded. “You’re right. I need to stop treating him so poorly. I just… wanted to get as much information as I could as quickly as I could.” She trailed off for a moment. “I think I’ve offended him.”

“Perhaps an apology to start?” Celestia said serenely, running the brush oh-so-gently through Twilight’s mane. “Perhaps if you became his friend it would be easier on both of you.”

“You’re right, Princess.” Twilight said, her face lighting up. The days of the friendship reports had ended years ago, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t apply what she’d learned to Stalwart Hide! “You always know just what to do!”

“It comes with being centuries old, my most faithful student.” Celestia chuckled softly, setting the brush aside as Twilight rose. “Things tend to move in patterns.”

“I should go find him right now and apologize!” Twilight Sparkle decided, levitating her pointed hat atop her head. Celestia eyed the jingling bell, flicking her gaze over a few different plains of existence. Interesting… “I’ll visit again real soon, Princess!” The purple mare turned and bowed to her Princess. “I’m going to be here for at least a few more days.” She promised.

“Good luck, Twilight.” Celestia nodded, smiling. As soon as the door closed and the purple mare was long gone, the white alicorn levitated the book back to her bookshelf. “Now, where were we?” she peeked under her own bed at the blushing Big Macintosh.

=-----=-----=-----=

“FOR HE’S A JOLLY GOOD STALLION! FOR HE’S A JOLLY GOOD STALLION! FOR HE’S A JOLLY GOOD STALL-AL-AL-YUNNNN! WHICH NOPONY CAN DENY!” The tavern called the Pig and Whistle was full of Lunar Stallions bellowing their song for their Captain. As a group they’d decided to wake him, then rather mercilessly throw him the male version of a baby shower. More of a… congratulations you big stud, sort of thing. They’d showered him with bits to buy things for the coming foal, some of them were giving foal advice being fathers themselves, and of course there was plenty of gossip to go around that was a little too seedy about her Majesty to mention.

Aegis Shield and Stalwart Hide sat side by side at the bar, and Stalwart offered him a smile. “Congratulations.” He said idly.

“Th-thanks.” Aegis said, scratching the back of his head a little. He had a thousand questions, and Luna had been too busy to have alone time with him just yet. How long until the foal arrived? Why hadn’t she told him in private first? Had he not been careful enough, and she didn’t want the foal? Did she? Should he be thinking about getting married now? What would that make him? Surely not a Prince, marrying into the Royal family. What would Celestia think?! Suddenly his ears turned back and a thought bubble appeared over his head.

“You have sullied my sister with your seed and now a foal grows within her!” said imaginary Celestia, decked out in angular golden armor and spitting fire. Meanwhile a very round-bellied Luna wept nearby, holding onto her sister’s back right leg. “For it I shall have you castrated yet again! Once was not enough apparently!” she shouted. “Guards! Bring me a rusty butter knife!”

Aegis shook himself out of the sick vision, lifting his cider mug again. “Uhh, what about you and the Archmage? How’s the study going? Can you help the black stallion we’ve got locked up?”

“She’s the worst.” Stalwart Hide moaned, facehoofing and leaning on the bar some. He stared into his drink. “She’s been poking and prodding and attaching weird machines to me since she got here. It never ends!” he drank deeply.

“That bad huh?” Aegis smirked.

“And not only that, she’s the Archmage! So she thinks she can just jerk me around all whinny-nilly!” Stalwart grumped, raising his hoof to call for a new cider from the bartender. When he received it he sighed, pushing the bits across the table. “What is it with us, Aegis?” he said a little wryly.

“What?” Aegis said, looking over at his best friend.

“Attracting mares that are far more powerful than us? Moodier and more dominant than us?” Stalwart was kidding and Aegis laughed genuinely, patting his friend’s back.

“’Eyyy, she may just need a good mounting to make her calm the buck down, righ’? Tension can do that to a mare!” said a drunken Lunar Stallion to his right. He'd been listening in on the whole conversation, and the liquid courage he'd been drinking made him more than a little friendly. Stalwart Hide glared.

“Well at least she’s only there for the study, right?” Aegis Shield joked. “I need to start thinking about weddings, and foal things.” He said a little heavily. It sounded mean to put it that way, but he was still getting used to the idea of being a father. He was still rather sore at Luna for not telling him first, but a whole crowd of ponies.

“In fact, when was the last time Captain Stalwart hide was seen with a mare?” the drunken stallion asked his fellows. There was some guffawing, but they all knew he meant well. “We’ve got one Captain hitched to a Princess! We should totally work on the other one now!” There was laughter and raising of many cider mugs.

Aegis Shield rolled his eyes, smiling sympathetically at Stalwart Hide. “She means well, at least.” He said. “Princess Luna asked her to study Lunar Stallions, and you got offered up as the prime example. Maybe you should be flattered?” he snickered just a little. “And, she’s keeping it professional if what you’ve said is true. I mean, at least the Archmage isn’t going to bust in here and shout--!”

“STALWART HIDE! I NEED YOU!” Archmage Sparkle bucked the door in and shouted over the crowd of partying stallions. Cider and food sprayed from over two dozen mouths, and uproarious laughter shook the entire establishment. Hooves pounded on tables, heads thrown back and tears streaming down faces. Never had such a perfect line been shouted over a group of half-drunken stallions plotting about how to get their other Captain laid. They laughed, and they laughed, and they laughed some more.

Stalwart Hide lost his entire mug, shattering it on the floor as he had his first heart attack. Panting and clutching his chest, he turned around slowly. “How did you find me here?!” he demanded, turning around and going to her when the laughter had died down.

“That’s not important!” The Archmage shook her head. “There’s been a development! I need you.”

“At least take me out to dinner first.” The stallion said acidly, glaring his fellows away.

The Archmage flinched, her face turning scarlet. “Th-th-that’s not what I meant!” she barked at him, stuttering. She looked around, suddenly very much aware that she was the center of attention in a tavern full of armored stallions. She gulped and stepped back a little. “C-can we talk outside?” she said a little warily. He nodded slowly, aware of her sudden mousey-ness. They stepped outside.

“What is it?” he asked. “I’m off duty. This is a foal shower… sort of.” He amended, glancing at the tavern.

“I wanted to apologize.” Twilight took off her hat meekly, staring at Stalwart Hide’s hooves. “I haven’t been treating you very well.” She turned her ears down. “I’m sorry.”

“S…. s’okay.” Stalwart Hide said. “You just got excited, I guess. Lunar Stallions are really different, and not a lot of ponies know a lot about us.” he scuffed his hoof on the sidewalk a little. “It’s a unique opportunity for Princess Celestia’s prized student. You might write a book or something.”

Twilight smiled embarrassedly. She’d been thinking of doing just that, when her report was done and the black stallion’s issues sorted out. “I… uhm…” she paused awkwardly, trying to think of something clever to say now that her apology was done with.

“We can start over tomorrow night.” Stalwart Hide put in for her.

“Oh, yes. I’d like that.” She smiled, a little rosey-cheeked.

“See you tomorrow, Archmage Sparkle.” He bowed a little.

“See you tomorrow, Stalwart Hide.” She bent at the front knees and touched the rim of her pointed hat. The bell jingled mysteriously. He liked the sound. Turning quickly before things turned even more awkward, she strode away into the night and left him alone.

Stalwart Hide turned, shaking his head, to return to the tavern. He jerked to a halt when he saw that all the windows were filled with muzzles pressed curiously up against the glass. Lots of golden eyes stared out at him, blink-blinking curiously. Was that Captain S’s marefriend? How had they never seen her before?! The poor stallion was bombarded with questions as soon as he came back in. “She’s a coworker!” he snapped with authority. “Princess Luna assigned us together so we can help the stallion from Ponyville. She’s studying Lunar Stallions to understand what’s wrong with him.” There was talk and chatter and laughter. Stalwart Hide knew he would have to be underhoof’d about this. “Besides, how interesting is that if your other Captain impregnated our Princess?” Aegis Shield choked on his mug of cider and hunched on the bar like he’d been struck with a rock. He turned to curse Stalwart Hide with his eyes as the group of rowdy armored stallions went back to celebrating their Captain’s studliness.

End of Part 3

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