I slowly open my eyes as I feel the rays of the sun enter the room. I feel something soft under my fingers. I open my eyes fully and see I am lying next to my wife. I smile as I run a hand over her arm. I then retract my arm and get off the bed. I stretch as I go over to the window and open it. I sigh slightly as I am adjusting to being back.

I run a hand through my hair “This will take some getting used to I know that.” I stand looking over Canterlot as the sun is coming up. I then feel someone behind me and a pair of black furred arms wrap around my waist.

“That may be true, but I will be here to help you through it.” Nightmare Moon says as she rests her head on my shoulder. I smile as I hold her arms there.

“I know you will, and this time I won't be going to sleep for a long time again like last time.” I then feel her tighten her grip on my waist slightly and I grab her hand.

“Don’t joke about something like that, please.” I hear her say in a sad tone.

“I’m sorry, but I am being honest about this one. Now before we stay here like this for about an hour I think we should head down to eat something.” I finish with a cheeky grin as I feel her retract her arms around me and flicks me on the back of the head.

“Yeah well out of the two of us, you don’t really need to eat.”

I turn around and shrug at her. She then closes the distance between us and kisses me on the lips and then motions for us to go out the door.

I roll my eyes and smile as I walk out the door with her behind me. She is wearing a simple t-shirt and pants as we walk towards the dining room.

“So what all happened after I had my slumber?”

I then notice out of the corner of my eye that Nightmare slowly got behind me and stopped. I turn around and notice she is rubbing her left arm and looks to be almost in tears. I quickly go over to her as she lets out a deep breath.

“Are you alright?”

She then looks me in the eye and smiles sadly “Just remembering some bad stuff that had happened in the past.”

“What exactly happened?” I have a sneaking suspicion as to why she is reacting this way.

She sighs before beginning “I am sorry ahead of time if I stutter.” And from there she tells me all of what happened. I could only stand there in disbelief as she tells me that she wanted to actually kill Celestia. She had those thoughts in her head for a whole year after I was sealed. She continued saying how she used Luna’s moment of weakness to better prepare for her taking on Celestia. I can see tears welling up in her eyes as she explains this all. When she tells me about what happened during her fight with Celestia, I could only step back a little and run a hand through my hair as I listen to this all, and when she finishes I hear her softly crying.

“I’m sorry.” I hear her tell me without looking up. I see the tears fall and I am still in shock of what I hear. I then shake my head and walk over to Nightmare with a neutral expression on my face. I stop in front of her as she visibly tenses up and starts shaking. I sigh as I bring her forward into an embrace and hold her there.

“It’s alright, it is hard to hear that you did this. But I will never hate you for this, I will never leave your side, not after how much you helped me. You should remember what I was like before you came into my life, don’t you?” I tell her as she stops shaking and embraces me back and I don’t hear her crying anymore.

“Yeah I remember.” she says. “Broken and shattered, with no hope left at all. Just waiting for an embrace of death.” She then looks at me in the eye, I can see her eyes are a little red from her crying.

“There is a line from a song that I think fits how I am, ‘I’m only just a crack in this Castle of Glass.’” I see Nightmare smile sadly as she rests her head on my shoulder. I run my hand through her mane as she sighs in content. After about a minute she lets go of me and she has a smile on her face once again.

“Oh there is something I would like to ask of you.” She asks me as she gets a serious look on her face, I nod my head with slight confusion. “Did you set this up for me to meet you yesterday? Because I should’ve at least seen some guards, maids, or servants walking around when heading to my bedroom.” She says as she narrows her eyes at me, but holds a smile the entire time.

I sigh. “Shadowman helped me with this.”

I see her shake her head and keep the smile on her face. “I should’ve known he would’ve helped you sneak into the castle.”

I shrug at her and we continue our way to breakfast. “By the way what else happened after the moon incident.”

“Well now this gets interesting. First before I begin this I would like to point out that while myself and Luna were on the moon Celestia did not continue training.” I facepalm at this and Nightmare giggles a little. “I expected that reaction, but she said it is because it brought back bad memories without all of us there.”

I drag my hand down my face and let out a sigh. “I can’t blame her too much considering what happened.” I then begin thinking of a new way to train her.

“Um, whats with that grin?” I hear Nightmare chuckle nervously as she looks at me.

I realize I was smiling in a disturbing way. I then sheepishly laugh “Uh, no particular reason.”

She gives me a deadpan stare simply telling me she is not buying it.

“Just a new form of training, that's all I’m saying for now.”

Nightmare just sighs “Whatever. Well after I came back from the moon I no longer wanted to kill Celestia, but I had become well crazy I guess you could say. I wanted to bring about eternal night and I sealed Celestia in the sun.” I raise an eyebrow at her but say nothing. “Well then Twilight and her friends went and became the new bearers of the elements.”

“That must have been interesting meeting all of them.”

Nightmare smiles “Oh you have no idea.”

Twilight groaned as she sat up. She sees around her that her friends are lying on the ground. Shortly afterwards they all sit up and notice they are all wearing some sort of necklace while Twilight has a tiara. After about a minute of complementing each other on their necklaces the sun is seen coming through the windows of the worn down castle and Celestia teleports in and all of them soon bow before her.

Celestia softly smiles at this. “Rise my little ponies. I must thank you for stopping Nightmare Moon where I could not. I am happy to see none of you are seriously injured.” Before Twilight could say anything a groan is heard behind all of them. They turn around and Twilight and her friends stare in shock at who they are staring at. They see a young blue furred alicorn who is wearing a simple dress.

“My head hurts.” She says as she sits up. As she opens her eyes she sees six unknown ponies before her and one she recognizes. Celestia then walks over to her. She stops in front of her and crouches down to eye level with her.

“It is good to see you again Luna.” Celestia says as her eyes get a little misty.

Luna smiles as well and reaches forward to hug Celestia “It is good to see you as well sister.” Celestia then nuzzles Luna and stands up and Luna does the same.

Twilight and her friends are at a loss for words at this. First they learn that Nightmare Moon is real and now Celestia has a sister. Celestia then stands up and looks around.

Twilight, confused, says “Um, Princess what are you looking for?”

Celestia ignores Twilight as she looks around. She has a worried look on her face as looks towards a place in the back of the room.

[background music]

A little afterwards Celestia spots whatever she is looking at everyone hears a small eep escape from the darkness. Celestia walks towards the back of the room with Luna slowly following behind her. Only Celestia can hear shuffling as she walks forwards. She stops as she has a sad smile on her face.

“It is alright, you are safe now.” Celestia says. After a few seconds a figure is seen and out from the shadows comes a younger looking Nightmare Moon. She is wearing a black dress that fits a little loosely on her. Unlike Luna who has a light blue mane and tail that ends in a curl, she has a long dark purple mane that ends at just above her waist. Her tail is also dark purple in color. At first Twilight and her friends prepare to rush forward and protect Celestia. Nightmare Moon sees this and looks scared as she starts to retreat back into the shadows as her eyes are watering.

Celestia looks behind her and frowns at all of them and they stop where they are, shocked that Princess Celestia would do something like this. Celestia then looks towards Nightmare Moon again and her frown changes into a sad look upon her face.

“Nightmare it is alright, I won’t let them hurt you.” Unbeknownst to Luna and Celestia, Twilight looks at Celestia in disbelief.

“Are you sure?” Nightmare says in a soft voice that only Celestia and Luna can hear. Celestia nods her head and soon enough Nightmare walks out of the shadows again. She looks behind Celestia and sees Twilight and her friends give her a glare, well Fluttershy hides behind her mane, but don’t move from where they stand. Nightmare then looks at Celestia and tears are starting to come from her eyes. She then rushes forward and hugs Celestia as she begins crying.

“I’m sorry.” she says over and over again, though only Celestia can hear it as it is muffled by the form fitting dress Celestia is wearing. Celestia then has tears come from her eyes as well as she returns the hug.

“It is alright, I forgive you sister.” Luna then joins in the hug and soon all three sisters are reunited.

Twilight and her friends have now reached a whole new level of shock as they those words spoken from Celestia. Rainbow Dash slowly lands down on the floor and says the one thing that is on all their minds right now.

“Ok, can somepony tell just what the hay is going here?!”

“Really?” I ask as Nightmare chuckles a little.

“Yes really. Luna looked at Rainbow Dash and gave her a deadpan stare the entire time for saying that and ruining our family moment. A little afterwards Celestia explains a little about how me and Luna were her sisters. They then all apologized for almost attacking me again. I then said it is no problem, mind you I was trying my hardest not to hide behind Celestia while saying so.”

I chuckle a little when she says that and she joins in as well.

“So what else happened then?”

Nightmare then sighs “The gala.” I cringe slightly at that, I then motion for her to go on. “Celestia invited Twilight and her friends and asked if Luna and I would like to come as well. Luna said no because she was readjusting to the fifteen hundred years that had past. I was surprised how much time had past, but unlike Luna I had adjusted quickly thanks to you.” She smiles at me and I rub the back of my head and chuckle. “Anyway, though I had adjusted to the times, the nobility had gotten worse. The worst one is Blueblood, or as I and some others like to call him Blueballs.” I snort at first then it slowly turns into laughter when I hear that. Nightmare joins in the laughter and after a couple of seconds we calm down and she continues. “Well after Celestia asked me if I would like to go I simply looked her in the eye and said no.”

“Well at least you didn’t say anything else about it.”

“Oh trust me I wanted to, but I refrained from doing so.”

“Well what happened in then and the gala.”

“Well…” She then tells me all that happened in the rest of season one that I kinda guessed what had happened. “And then came the gala. Celestia came by before night had fallen to make sure I didn’t want to go and since it was only me and Celestia around I, well said a few certain words that came to mind about how I felt about some of the current nobility. Celestia kept a straight face and blinked a few times before she left. She didn’t say a word and I’m certain I broke her for a few minutes.” I couldn’t help but chuckle and smile at that image in my head.

“So what happened at the gala?”

“At first it started out normally, boring as all hell then it got.... interesting to say the least.” she says a little hesitantly.

I raise an eyebrow a little “Go on…”

“Well…”

Nightmare Moon was sitting in her room sitting in a chair reading a book waiting for the gala to end so she doesn’t have to worry about how rich the nobles are. As she starts to flip a page she gets a chill. She looks up and looks around then shrugs and goes back to reading her book. As she reads a couple pages she then hears something coming from outside. She gets up and places her book on a stand next to the chair and walks over to her window. She opens it and sees nothing at first but then notices something wrong in the garden.

“Eh probably just the animals acting nervous again.” She says to herself and closes the window and sits back in the chair. Then a few minutes later something happens.

“You’re going to LOVE ME!!!!!” Nightmare Moon gets startled and drops the book she is reading. She then quickly teleports to where she heard that sound originated from. When she gets there she has a blank look upon her face. The ballroom is in absolute chaos as animals are running around and everypony is is panicking at what is happening. Celestia and Twilight are trying and failing at calming down everypony. Fluttershy looks pissed off at something. Applejack is trying to help Rainbow Dash out and Rarity has cake all over her and throws cake at Blueblood and he starts to complain about it and runs off.

Nightmare Moon says only one thing “Nope” she then readies her teleport spell and is back in her room. “Not dealing with that shit.” She then sits back in her chair and starts reading her book again, completely ignoring all that is happening in the ballroom.

“Really?” I ask her as she has a sheepish grin on her face. She nods her head a little and I facepalm and then drag my hand down my face. “To be fair, I would’ve done the same thing.

“I know you would.” She says and then looks ahead “Ah well the rest of what happened will have to wait, we are here.”

I look ahead as well and notice we are at the dining room. We enter the room and it is empty save for a few servants. I go around and pull out a chair for Nightmare to sit in.

She raises an eyebrow “So chivalrous of you. What brought this about?” She says with a light chuckle as she sits down.

“Eh I can do something like this sometimes.” I say with a smile. She shakes her head and I sit next to her. I sense something is off around us but I think nothing of it. Soon a servant comes over.

“What can I get for you princess?” He ignores me right in front of Nightmare. I notice she has a neutral face right now.

“I would like some waffles and some orange juice.” He nods his head and walks away. I then see her neutral face turn into a frown. “Excuse me, but there is someone else sitting with me.”

I see the servant stop and I hear him groan out slightly and turns around to face us and walks back. “And what can I get you sir?” I hear him say in a strained voice.

“Just some juice would be fine.” I say as I put my arms behind my head and lean back into the chair. I then look at him and he is scowling at me, I then see out of the corner of my eye that Nightmare has a smile on her face and is shaking her head.

“I would appreciate if you did not act like this in front of the princess sir.” When the servant says this I can feel the temperature in the room drop a little. I don’t react but the servant turns around and looks at Nightmare Moon in fear. She gets up from her chair and has her eyes closed and is smiling at him. Now I see that the servant is around five foot five, so Nightmare is clearly taller than him.

“I would appreciate if you did not talk to him like that.” She says to the servant as he is sweating bullets right now. She then opens her eyes and the glare is very obvious. “I mean it is not nice to talk to my husband like that in front of me, now is it?” I the see the servant shaking like a leaf and then outright faints on the spot. I then look around and there is no else in the room with us. I sigh as Nightmare calms down and has the servant wake up. As soon as he wakes he runs out of the room towards the kitchen.

I sigh as Nightmare sits back down. “Did you really have to do that?”

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t like that he was talking to you like that in front of me.”

I then look at her “But is the knowledge that you are married out amongst the public?”

She then looks at me “No, I told Celestia to not let it become public until you came back.”

“Did you really think it was a good idea to do so?”

She then deadpans at me “Even if it was common knowledge, without you here they would think I was most likely a widow even if we said you had a long slumber.”

I then think about it for a second then give it up “Well whatever, all that matters now is that I’m back.” I then see Nightmare smile as some servants come and brings us our breakfast and then leave, most likely out of fear of Nightmare after what happened moments earlier. For a few minutes it was quiet as we had our breakfast.

When we finished I then had a thought on my mind. “You know, why aren’t Luna and Celestia here already?”

Nightmare brings a hand to her chin “That is a good question, but it is most likely they were caught up with something, or they already had their breakfast.”

One of the servants then came over, shaking slightly. “W-Well Princess Celestia and Luna have not eaten breakfast yet. They were caught up on a certain matter.”

Nightmare nods in thanks and the servant walks away. A little after we get told that I hear some voices coming from behind the door. I recognize them immediately as the doors open I hear Celestia sigh.

“Luna, I told you I do not eat cake for breakfast.” I see Luna roll her eyes but her smile hides her amusement. I smirk at this.

“Really, from what I saw back at the wedding you gained some weight Celestia.” I say and I see Celestia give an angry huff. She then turn towards me and is about to give a retort until she saw me. My smirk then turns into a smile as I sit up in the chair and wave at her. Both her and Luna are standing stock still and are looking at me. I sigh and stand up and as soon as I do I see a blur of dark blue and stumble back a little. I look down and see Luna hugging me and I hug her back.

Luna then looks up at me “Welcome back Gregar.”

I smile “Yeah, it’s good to be back.”

She then lets go of me and Celestia walks and hugs me as well. After a little while she lets go and has a smile on her face as well.

“It is good to see you again, but when did you get here?” She crosses her arms as she says this.

“Last night before the sun had fully set.”

“I didn’t even see you enter the castle ho-”

Nightmare interrupts Celestia “Shadowman.” she says and Celestia can only shake her head.

“Of course.” Celestia mutters to herself.

“Where did you stay then?” Luna asks.

I simply point a thumb at Nightmare to which she nods in case they were skeptical. Celestia sees this then she looks at me with a half-lidded gaze with a hint of lust behind them.

“So did the two of you have fun underneath the sheets?” Celestia asks.

Nightmare deadpans at her “Really?” Nightmare then brings a hand and rubs her forehead “Celestia no we did not have ‘fun’ as you so delicately said. Though yes we did sleep together, we did not have sex.”

Celestia then giggles a little until I cough into my fist and give a straight glare at Celestia. “I wouldn’t be laughing Celestia. There is still the fact that you lack your training.” Celestia stiffens up and starts to sweat a little. “And don’t try to come up with an excuse I heard it all from Nightmare. Though I am slightly irritated that you didn’t train for all these years, I understand why you didn’t.” Celestia visibly relaxes and sits down at the table. I then excuse myself from the table and go to exit with Nightmare behind me. I then stop at the doorway and look behind me.

“Oh and don’t get comfortable Celestia. I better see you at the training grounds after Lunch.”

“But what about day court?” Celestia weakly replies as she looks upon me, trying to get out of training.

Nightmare gives an innocent smile “Oh don’t worry, I will take over for you.” She says with no room for argument, cementing the fact that Celestia is not getting out of it.

We both turn around and before the door shuts I hear something smack the table and I hear Luna's laughter a second later. Both me and Nightmare chuckle at that.

After a bit I bring Nightmare in for a hug “I’ll see you later today, gotta get ready for Celestia’s training.”

She returns the hug “Alright, but don’t make it too difficult at the beginning.”

I smirk “No promises.”

She sighs and then lets go and walks off. I watch her go and when she rounds the corner I turn around and head towards the training grounds. As I head there I beast out and mentally prepare myself for what will happen.

After testing out the training grounds, well they met up to what I wanted to do. Now I am just lying in the shade of a tree waiting for Celestia. A couple seconds later I hear hoofsteps coming towards me and I crack open an eye and see Celestia.

She sighs “So what new form of ‘torture’ have you come up with this time?” She says as she puts her hand on her hips. I see she is wearing a form of workout gear, like one would see at a gym. She is wearing a gray T-shirt and black pants. To stallions, their jaws would be on the ground and Pegasi would have wing boners right now with how she looks.

“Well you will know in a moment. Now first things first I need you to close your eyes.” I say as I walk towards her and stop right in front of her.

“Why?” She asks a little hesitantly.

I roll my eyes at her “Just do it.”

She nods and closes her eyes and I see her stiffen up, most likely expecting me to punch her or something.

I then bring a hand forward and touch her forehead with two fingers. I feel her tense up at this.

“Relax, this is part of the training. The hard part comes after this.” She nods her head and slows her breathing to relax. I then see a purple light surround me and Celestia and I close my eyes.

‘Soul unison activated. Calculating best partner for Princess Celestia.’ I hear in my head in a monotone voice.

‘Partner found. Soul unison at 94%’ I wonder what it meant by that and then suddenly I open my eyes and I see the purple light is no longer surrounding me and is now only surrounding Celestia. I try to bring my hand away from her forehead but for some reason I can’t remove my hand. Then Celestia opens her eyes and I can then let go and a flash of light goes off and I drop down to one knee and I drop out of Beast Out. The purple light surrounding Celestia soon becomes smaller and it turns out to be a PET from the megaman network series.

I see the design is white and red and where the emblem is for the navi is half a sun and the other half is yellow fire with an orange background. Then Celestia then stumbles a little and drops to the ground. I rush over to her and help her up.

“Thanks.” she says to me as she stands up. She then see the PET on the ground with half of her cutie mark on it. She picks it up and look at it.

“What is this?” She says as she holds it in front of her.

I smile at her “Well that is a PET. It is a personal computer of sorts and also it houses your partner.”

She looks confused “My partner?”

I nod my head “Yeah, and from the other half of it I know who your partner is. Just say battle routine set.”

She hesitates a little then does so. She holds the PET in front of her and says “Battle routine set.” soon a flash of fire appears next to her and out of it steps Fireman.

Fireman stands next to Celestia and I can clearly see the height difference. Fireman then stares at me.

“So this is who my partner will be then.” I nod and he crosses his arms. “How much experience does she have with navis?”

I was about to answer, until Celestia answers for me. “Besides fighting alongside them, none.” She then crosses her arms under her chest and glares at Fireman. Fireman stares back and raises an eyebrow.

“Heh, feisty aren’t you.” He then turns back to me. “Anyway, so how well do you think she will do?”

I smirk under my mask “We’ll see.”

Fireman nods and then turns back to Celestia. “Alright Celestia listen up, I am going to blunt about this that it will not be easy. While this training will at first be difficult, once you get used to what will happen, well it will be fun.”

Celestia then asks “So what exactly is my training going to be then?”

I speak up about this “Double soul. It allows you to be able to connect and fuse with a navi, hence Fireman is here. It gives you the abilities of a navi so you can use battlechips as well.” I could see her eyes starting to sparkle in interest. “Also it means you could have an easier time getting a hit on me.” I can then see her smirk at that. “But my question is are you up for it?”

I see Celestia about to say something until Fireman puts one of his arms on her shoulder. “Think about it Celestia, don’t jump to a conclusion.” Celestia then gets a look of irritation. Celestia then looks into Fireman's eyes and thinks it's over. She then sighs and then looks over at me and nods her ready and has a determined look in her eyes.

“Alright, prepare yourself then Celestia. Now I need you to close your eyes and then you need to connect with Firemans soul and it should begin.” Celestia then looks confused then Fireman nudges her and she closes her eyes. Soon enough I see her PET start glowing and then both Celestia and Fireman shout.

“Soul Unison activate: Firesoul!” A purple glow surrounds the two of them and and the light fuses into one.

When the glow is gone I see Celestia in the Firesoul. The first thing I see is that she is wearing the same suit as Megaman does in Firesoul. The suit looks to be a tight fitting one. The design of it is red as the main portion of the suit with some gray on as well. On her arms are the fire gauntlets for using any fire attacks she would use. I see the headpiece is there as well with fire coming out of it, I look behind her a little and see her mane is shortened a little and not wavy any more. Lastly I see where the navi mark is and notice the fire symbol is still there, but the background is of the sun and not the normal plain red background. Her eyes are closed still but I see she is clenching her fists. She soon lets out a breath and then opens her eyes and smiles at me. However before she even says anything she looks behind her and notices she has no wings and then brings a hand up to her head and feels for her horn. Her eyes widen in shock when she doesn’t feel it at all. She then looks towards me and I see her scowl at me. A face guard then covers her mouth and she rushes over to me and grabs ahold of me, all without her knowing fire is blazing out of her gauntlets. I am thankful that I remembered to go back into Beast Out, otherwise I think she would’ve burned me.

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY WINGS AND HORN?!?!” She shouts right in my face. I don’t even flinch at her tone, keeping a neutral face.

“Calm down Celestia.” I tell her as I put my hands on her own. I see then her eyes glow white and the fire on her gauntlets burn brighter, and it is starting to hurt.

“Calm down? CALM DOWN?! YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN AFTER I LOST MY WINGS BEC-” Her rant is cut off as she then looks at her arms and notice the flames are starting to burn my arms. She then lets go of me and steps back a little. While is doing so I use a recov chip to heal myself.

“What is going on?” I hear her mumble to herself.

“I can only assume this Celestia, while being in Double soul you cannot use your wings for flight or your horn for magic. However when you become more accustomed to Firesoul you might be able to use them while in Firesoul.” I see her look towards me and very hesitantly nods her head. “Well now your training can truly begin, Fireman will take over from here.”

After Gregar says this Celestia then hears Fireman in her head. ‘Alright Celestia I see that you are using the gauntlets for your fire already. Also I am able to talk to only you when we are like this.’

‘I see, but how exactly am I using the, gauntlets right?’

‘Yes.’

‘How?’

‘Well the gauntlets are used for fire attacks and can turn into your buster.’

‘My buster?’

She then hears Fireman sigh and grumble to himself for a couple of seconds. ‘Look, do you remember Gregar using his buster at all?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good, now think about how his buster is and it should work for you.’

‘Alright’ Celestia says hesitantly and she thinks about how Gregar’s buster is and she feels a little weird in her right hand and looks down to see it shoot back into her arm and is left with nothing for a hand.

“WHAT THE-?!” Celestia is shocked at what transpires and quickly looks at Gregar expecting him to be silently chuckling, but instead he is silent.

Gregar lifts an eyebrow “What, you expected me to laugh at you for that?” Celestia nods her head. Gregar sighs “No I wouldn’t because I did somewhat of the same thing, only I had to defend myself or I would’ve died in that situation.” Celestia then looks down in shame until Gregar comes over and puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, don’t be like that now, we still have training to do.” Celestia then looks up and nods her head.

‘Alright Fireman, now what?’

Fireman is silent for a bit then speaks. ‘Tell Gregar to set up some targets for you.’

‘Alright.’ Celestia then looks at Gregar. “Can you set up some targets for me?”

Gregar nods his head and sets up some targets used for archery. “Here you go.”

‘Alright now, time to aim.’ Fireman tells Celestia, to which she nods and raises her right arm and looks down her arm towards the target. She closes her right eye and then realises something.

‘Um Fireman… how do I fire the buster?’ Celestia sheepishly asks Fireman. Then Celestia hears metallic clanging coming from Fireman, and some very concerning words from him.

After about a minute he finally talks to her. ‘Alright, do you know how to use a bow?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good, that makes it slightly easier.’ he then mumbles something about fire arms to her and then continues ‘Think of how the arrow travels when firing the buster.’

‘Isn’t there an easier way of explaining this than using an arrow as an analogy.’ She tells Fireman in a deadpan tone.

‘Alright, here a better one. Think of how you build magic in your horn but instead imagine it in your hand.’

‘That makes a lot more sense then the arrow you know.’

‘... Shut up.’ Fireman grumbles to Celestia while she stifles a laugh.

“You gonna fire any time soon or are you going to keep talking to your boyfriend?” Gregar says to Celestia.

Celestia then shoots Gregar a glare. “Quiet.”

“Hey I was just wondering what was taking so long.”

“I didn’t know how to fire the buster.”

“Ah, well now do you know how?”

“Yes, after he tried saying something about an arrow.”

Gregar looked confused then just shook his head “Whatever, just fire already.”

Celestia then looks towards the target and slowly breathes out. Then she feels a familiar pressure build up, but instead of coming from her head, it is coming from her hand, or more specifically, her buster. Her buster is glowing her familiar golden glow and is steadily getting brighter until it steadies out and is ready to be fired. She then thinks about firing it at the target, and soon it fires. The shot goes way off course and impacts the wall beyond it and destroys it. Celestia on the other hand is clutching her right arm because of how injured it is and how numb it feels. Her face is also contorted in pain. Gregar then soon rushes over to her.

“Hey are you going to be alright?” Gregar asks Celestia. She looks at him and shakes her head.

“Well for starters I think my arm is broken. I don’t know specifically because it is also numb.”

“I see, hold on I have just the trick. Candle!” After Gregar says that, a candle appears and gives off a warm soothing glow. Gregar looks at Celestia and sees her go from in pain, to looking relaxed.

Celestia then looks at the candle “What is that?”

“One of many battlechips. It is called Candle, which is a given because of how it looks. There are three variations of it. What Candle does is give out a soothing aura that heals any who enter its radius. You can barely see it but it is there.” Gregar points towards a spot a few feet away from them. Celestia looks and sees a faint red circle surrounding them. “It will continually heal until it breaks. A downside to it is, you can’t pick it up once it is placed. Also the three variations have different colors and can heal at different speeds. The one here is Candle1 and it heals at a slow pace and is distinguished by its red glow. The next is Candle2 and it has an orange glow and heals at a moderately faster rate. The final one is Candle3 and heals the fastest. It also has a purple glow around it.”

Celestia chuckles a little “Just from this alone, that is a bit of information.”

Gregar nods his head. “Yep, and that is only the literal tip of the iceberg for battlechips. Now, do you want me to tell you why you got injured?”

Celestia sighs as she sits down. “Go ahead.”

Gregar sits next to her and starts explaining. “First of is your posture. You see your buster can and will have a nasty kick to it. Which you no doubt experienced.” Celestia then rubs her right arm. Gregar then lets his right hand turn into his buster. “Your buster can be charged, however you didn’t use the firesoul charge shot. My buster though can’t charge and can rabid fire.” Gregar then points towards the candle and fires a few shots and it is destroyed. Celestia lets out a sad sigh as the soothing aura is gone. “Yeah I know it sucks, but at least you aren’t getting attacked when that happens. Anyway the stance you took was wrong and could only end badly. You stuck your arm out and let your other hang loosely by your side. Also your right side was towards your target and from that stance you had no solid footing as well. You are just lucky the recoil from your shot didn’t smack you in the face.”

Celestia rolls her eyes “Well I’m sorry, this is my first time using something like this.” As she waves her right hand about as it changes to a buster. She flinches a little as it does so. “I’m never going to get used to that.”

“You may not, but eventually it will become natural and you won’t notice it happening in double soul.”

“If you say so.” Celestia says with a little disbelief.

“Now, onto the something else, the firesoul charge shot. Now when you charged your shot before what color was it?”

“It was the same color as my magic, gold.”

“Alright now when you use the charge shot from firesoul, there are two versions of it. One is a flamethrower, the other is firearm.”

“Firearm?”

“Hold on, I’ll get to that. Now when you charge for the flamethrower, it will charge pink. Also your buster will change into something a bit bulkier and it will shoot flames out for about fifteen feet or so. Now the Firearm can only be charged when you use a fire battlechip and it will glow green and shoot up to twenty five feet.”

“How do I use battlechips?”

“I will let Fireman tell you that.” Gregar then stands up. “You ok now, or do you need a few more minutes?”

Celestia stands up shortly afterwards “I’m good.” Gregar nods.

‘Fireman?’

‘Yes?’

‘Can you tell me exactly how to use battlechips?’

‘Alright, now tell me is there some sort of bar at the top of your vision.’

Celestia goes silent and sees a bar that is slowly filling up. ‘Yeah I see it.’

‘That is your custom bar, it basically is what helps you use battlechips. Now when it is filled up let me know.’

After a couple of seconds it does fill up. ‘Alright it is done.’

‘Good, now there should be something called a folder access that.’

Celestia then sees something called folder and accesses it. ‘Fireman, how exactly am I able to do this?’

‘Well you are able to do this because of me, all Navis have a custom bar that lets them use battlechips. However they opt to not use it in favor of their own abilities. Now go through the folder until you find something called HeatShot.’

Celestia then went through the folder and found the chip. It looked like some sort of lupine creature shooting fire from its mouth. ‘Found it.’

‘Alright now a little bit of info on the custom bar before beginning. When the custom bar is filled you can go through your folder and use up to five battlechips for any number of combinations, including program advances. However once used you will have to wait before using any more battlechips. Now select the heatshot chip.’

Celestia then selects it and it goes into the bottom left corner of her vision. ‘Now what?’

‘Alright now talk to Gregar so he can show the stance you should take when firing your buster.’

“Alright Gregar, time to show me how to use the buster.”

“Ok, now line up next to me and change to your buster.” Celestia then goes and stands next to him. “Alright I want you to take the same stance as I do.” Gregar then changes to his buster and places it forward, while his left hand rests upon it to help take aim. He then takes a stable stance with his right foot forward and his left foot a little behind him. Celestia hesitantly takes the same stance. “Alright now do the same thing as earlier and when you charge it, fire.”

Celestia nods her head and then like before steadies her breathing, and sees the familiar golden charge. When it steadies out she then aims towards the target and fires. She stumbles back a little and inspects where she hit, also noting to herself that her arm is only a little sore and that's it. When she sees the target it has a hole in it just to the right of the bullseye, and the hole looks to be a few inches in diameter.

“Well, for the second shot, it was a good one.” Gregar says to Celestia. Celestia then turns to Gregar and gives him a smile. “Now, try and do the other charge shots.”

‘Alright here goes, Fireman you ready?’

‘Are you?’

Celestia lets out a slow breath ‘Not really.’

“You ready Celestia?”

“About as ready as I’ll ever be.” She then takes the same stance and begins charging her buster. it soon turns from gold to pink and her buster doesn’t change. She then fires it and her buster changes to look more bulkier and launches out a stream of fire and scorches the target. Her eyes widen in shock at what just happened.

Gregar chuckles a little. “So how does it feel to be a bit of a fire starter now?”

Celestia chuckles as well “It feels, well, good.”

“Good to hear, now let me set some music for you to continue training. Sound good?”

Celestia shrugs. “Sound good to me.”

Gregar nods and selects the music.

When the music starts she is standing still with her eyes closed and her buster at her side charging, which turns from gold to green. She then hears it steady out and opens her eyes and snaps her arm to the target and fires. The stream of fire is longer than the previous one and her buster stayed the same this time. She smiles happily before Gregar coughs a little into his fist.

“Now that you know how to use the buster, time to begin physical training.” Celestia turns around and sees Gregar in a fighting stance with his arms raised up and his hands balled into fists. Celestia lets her arm fall limply at her sides and lets out a heavy sigh. “Hey, you may know how to use the buster, but now it is time to see how you can fight like this.”

Celestia rolls her eyes and her face covers her mouth again “Might as well get this over with then.” She then gets into the same stance as Gregar.

We have been training for the last six hours and I can safely say that Celestia is getting used to Firesoul. A few times she surprised me when she used a battlechip, but sadly it was short lived as she always missed when she fired HeatShot. So she just stuck with using her buster attacks and punches and kicks. Now as we are fighting I can tell she is getting tired. Her movements are getting sluggish and I can see sweat falling from her and I can also hear her breathing heavily. I stop my movements but she keeps coming at me. I dodge each one of her attacks but she keeps attacking. I then grab both of her fists as she attacks.

“Ok Celestia I think you have had enough punishment for today.”

“I… can… keep… going.” She says with very obvious exhaustion.

I deadpan at her “No, you can’t. For one you’re exhausted and also your movements are sluggish. I want you to train, not train yourself till you drop from exhaustion.”

I see her look at me in irritation then relief. “Fine.” I see her then drop out of Firesoul and nearly collapses on the ground. I go over to her and sit her up.

I see sweat matting her fur and she looks like she is about to fall over any second. “I’m going to be blunt here Celestia. You look like shit and also can you walk?”

She hesitantly looks at me and shakes her head “I can’t feel my legs all that well,” She then chuckles a little “I think I overdid it didn’t I?”

I nod my head “Yeah you did.” I then pick her up bridal style. “Alright I am going to say this now, don’t get any ideas or I am dropping you.” She looks at me with a slight blush in her cheeks and nods in understanding. “Good, now let's get you to your room.”

“Okay.” Is all she says as we make the silent trek to her room. A few times she snuggles up to me to get comfortable, but I don’t let it bother me too much. However on the way there, I got some interesting stares from maids as we passed by. Most of them looked shocked and a few looked at us with a blush on their faces. When we passed guards I saw quite a few of them openly stare in disbelief and shake their heads as if they were seeing things. I was suppressing the urge to laugh, while Celestia was silently giggling. If my mouth wasn’t covered and if she looked up she would see me smiling.

[background music]

We finally get to her room and she opens the door with her magic. “Put me on my bed please.”

“Alright.” I go over and gently put her on her bed. I then turn around and begin to leave until she calls me back.

“Gregar wait.” I turn around and face her.

“Yeah?”

“Look I have been meaning to ask this on the way here, but what do you think of being in a herd?”

I narrow my eyes a little “What are you getting at?”

I see her look the other way, out towards the window. “Just what would you do if that was presented to you. If there were two people or ponies whom you liked and couldn’t decide whom to choose from the other.”

I begin to think that she is asking me to be in a relationship with her. “What is this all of a sudden.”

I then hear her sigh and then looks towards me. “Well remember when me and Luna asked to be in a herd with you and Nightmare all those years ago?” I nod my head. “Well I asked Luna what she thought of it when she returned and she said she doesn’t hold those feelings for you. She just sees you as an older brother. Me on the other hand…” She then looks down and I thought I saw a tear fall. “I don’t know what to think, I mean I was hurt when you denied me, but I didn’t let it get to me. But when you, Luna, and Nightmare were gone I was well,-”

“Depressed.”

“Yeah. I then began thinking back to the days when you and Nightmare were dating still, before you married her. And I thought maybe in a few decades I might find that happiness like you and Nightmare had. But when time went on, I couldn’t. My subjects only saw me as their princess, not a mare.”

“You tried to find love, but in ended in disaster didn’t it.”

I hear her a take a deep breath before answering. “Yes, there were a few times when I disguised myself and went on a few dates and asked what they would think if they were dating Princess Celestia. I got mostly the same answer, they would say it was impossible because they would all say that I was too good for anyone.” I then see her wipe her eyes. “Let me get to the point then instead of beating around the bush.” She looks at me and I see her eyes are starting to get bloodshot. “Do you think that I could be in a herd with you and Nightmare?”

I just stand there looking at her. I look into her eyes and see she is serious about this. I close my eyes and think about it for a few minutes. I then sigh and answer her “I don’t know.” I see her hopeful stare turn into despair, I am trying my hardest not to go over and hug her right then and there because it is a heart wrenching sight to me. “Hold on let me continue, I don’t know but if I talk to Nightmare about this and she then talks to you about it, would that be fine?”

She then nods her head but still looks sad.

“Will you accept any answer she gives, even if she says no?”

“Yes.”

“Is that all?”

“It is, I’m sorry if I took up your time Gregar it is just I was thinking about this when you were carrying me back here. I started to get ideas popping in my head and I had to tell you.”

“Alright, I will still talk to Nightmare about this.”

She nods her head and slowly gets up from her bed, placing her PET on her nightstand, and makes her way to her bathroom. I then head out the door. When it shuts I walk towards the kitchen and also begin thinking about what Celestia has told me.

‘Man, first day coming back and this gets dropped on me. I mean yeah Celestia is beautiful and all, but all this time and not even a lover for her.’ I then rub the top of my head and sigh ‘Ah fuck it, I can think about this when I talk to about it to Nightmare.’

As I walk towards the dining room I see Nightmare. “Hey Nightmare, how was your day?”

Nightmare looks at me and smiles. “Alright, all things considered. How was training Celestia?”

I hesitate before answering, and Nightmare walks up to me with a bit of worry on her face. “Well it was fine, she learned something new from me. But she said something to me that caught me off guard.”

“What about?” She says.

I then tell her all of what Celestia had told me. “And, well if I didn’t see the look on her face I would’ve gotten mad at her.” I then look at Nightmare and see her eyes are conflicted, as if she doesn’t know to either be mad or sorry for Celestia. “Look, for now just don’t put too much thought into this yet, ok. I don’t want you to worry about this yet, there will be time to think about this at a time when Celestia is feeling better.” I then put a hand on her shoulder “But, don’t be too hard on her alright.”

Nightmare closes her eyes and lets out a deep breath. “I know, it’s just what happened back in the Crystal Empire those many years ago is still on my mind. I’ll talk to her when I am ready alright?”

“Sounds fine to me. Now I don’t know about you but I’m hungry.” I then get out of Beast Out and rub my stomach with a cheeky grin. Nightmare rolls her eyes at me and hugs me. I hug her back and after a couple of seconds we let go and head to get something to eat.

“Hmm, the Double soul has been activated and the first one is none other than Princess Celestia herself.” The figure then has a small smile on its face “Well Gregar what do you plan on doing from here. And also what would Duo think of all this right now. Well sadly it is none of my business, so I shall leave this be. For now.” The figure then chuckles to itself as it walks off towards an unknown location.

Author's Notes:

And here is chapter 6, and well I have some news for all of you. BlueMoon sadly is no longer my editor because of family and creating stories on his own. I wish him the best on his own stories.

And so Trithtale has accepted to being my main editor from now on, which is nice.

Also expect new chapters every month or so.

also this