Lucretia’s breathing is back to normal, but she still lays completely still in her bed. Emeris sits to her right, firmly clasping her hand in his. I’m across the bed in a wooden chair, unable to shake what I’ve just done.

Emeris’ eyes search my face. “I take it the mission didn’t go off so well?”

I lean back and play with my fingers, occasionally tracing the scars on my stomach. “I...there’s no getting around it, I went out of my way to murder several guards. There...that place...it just does something to me. Their patrols were so thin, I could have slipped past, it would have been so easy.”

Lucretia swallows but keeps her eyes closed. “Who cares, they’re the fourth battalion.” She lets out a small groan and moves her head to the right. Emeris’ eyes bulge and he sits up suddenly. “Lucy! How are you feeling?!”

She coughs a few times and a gentle smile crosses her face. “Like death, so the usual I guess. Did General stab-happy do what I think he did?” She opens her eyes and looks at Emeris who nods rapidly.

Lucretia’s smile fades a bit. “How...there’s no way you just stumbled across it, right?” Emeris looks over at me but remains silent. I pat her shoulder a few times.

“Versa gave it to me. I think Termin tipped her off that I was coming or talked to her beforehand. Versa had one request though...when the fourth comes to Canterlot, we’re to show them mercy.”

Lucretia’s eyes open to their normal amount and her head snaps to me. “I mean I get Versa helping me, but she actually wants mercy for the fourth? That’s a tall order. I mean our soldiers already struggle to fit in, but the fourth are just plain jerks. They don’t even get to use trauma as an excuse. They’re going to cause problems, but it’s not like we can just contain them forever.”

I cross my arms and stare at the ground as my right foot hammers up and down. Emeris watches me with a nervous gleam in his eye.

“Raiden, why don’t you go walk around for a bit? It’ll do you some good.”

I give Emeris a quick nod, Lucretia a pat on the arm and exit through the door. One of our soldiers has her armor off and converses with a colt who wears a white lab coat. He shows her a variety of medicines and they go over what each one is for.

The halls are decently deserted for now, but there was only one mare I wanted to go see. A warm breeze swims through the halls while a new shirt was being made for me. This time, walking around bare-chested felt decent, regardless of how open everything was.

After passing through a few towers and walkways, I’m back to the main building of Canterlot. Every intersection has one of my guards stationed there, with numerous pony guards wandering back and forth. Upon entering a major section of the palace, you had to pass through a simple barricade. They were mostly whittled together out of tables but made it impossible to go running through the halls if you were perhaps fleeing our guards. Each soldier has a clipboard of who they see and roughly what time.

Hooves rapidly travel up to me as I enter one of the hallways that lead to the throne room. Cadence pokes her head around me as she walks by my side with a beaming smile.

“General! How are you?!”

I have to stop and stare at her suspiciously. Last I had checked, her and Shining hated my guts. After a few minutes of my silent, cold stare, she speaks up again.

“Um...alright look I know what you’re thinking and yes while Shining and I have had our...concerns about you, we ended up finding out that there were a boat-load of lies traveling around the castle. Mostly likely spread by you-know-who. We spoke with Celestia and she put a lot of our concerns to rest. Let me tell you though, they were some whoppers!” A second pair of hooves snags my attention on my right. Shining walks up with an uncomfortable attempt at smiling. After struggling for words, he gives me a quick, but sincere salute.

“Sir I um...I guess I forgot how much you incorporated us when you first took command. We were told that you wanted to start having Taraskan banners in front of our own as a sign of your protection. Obviously, that didn’t go over well with us, but we felt like we couldn’t object due to how much you’re doing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not even remotely okay with what you did to Lancercore, but I’m trying to write that off as a symptom of war.”

Cadence nods at him several times then looks up at me with those bright, purple eyes of hers. “We were also told that several of your soldiers were hurting themselves just to get healed. The thought of your people becoming magic addicts, well you can guess how we started feeling about all of you. We’ve been slowly talking with all your soldiers and our own guards, just...wow there were a lot of lies going around! I think it’s best we forget about them all for now, but we’d love to ask you a few questions just to clear up some stuff if that’s alright!”

I motion to one of the side rooms with my head. They eagerly trot inside, and I close the door behind us after motioning to one of my guards to stand outside it. As I turn to face the pair, they look at each other uncomfortably. Shining takes in a deep breath and I can hear him struggle to control his tone. “When you first got back and your units attacked Lancercore, we were told a few of them died from their injuries. After checking through the recruitment list, we discovered none of them had died, but many did sustain life threatening injuries.”

I bite my bottom lip and my hand shoots to the back of my head. “Look...this isn’t easy for me to do, so please be patient with me. I’m...I’m sorry for what we did. That was extremely unprofessional and unfair. I expected too much of a battalion of greenhorns who had to witness one of the worst battles of this entire war. Also, it just...it wasn’t appropriate regardless. I have no excuse.” Both their mouths hang open. Cadence blinks a few times and recoils slightly.

“I...don’t think I’ve ever heard you apologize before.” Shining looks at her and nods in agreement. Now that I think about it, I had apologized to Luna numerous times, but was she the only one? Did I actually never tell literally anyone else what I was feeling?

Shining’s mouth trembles. “We had always felt you were rather extremely abrasive to put it nicely, but Emeris explained that your bluntness isn’t out of cruelty. He told us that you do it out of efficiency and to get straight to the point. I can respect that and I’ve tried not to let it affect how I see you. You’ve been a fine general, and I’m glad we’re in your capable hands.” Now it’s my turn for my mouth to hang open in silence.

Cadence nods approvingly. “I mean, do I feel like there are things you can improve on? I certainly do, but Luna went into a lot of detail about the things you’ve had to endure. Things that I don’t think even I could heal.” The moment my mouth starts trembling, I cover it with a hand and excuse myself.

The walls of my room are a blur as I pace back and forth with my armor on my bed, ready to be tossed on at a moment's notice. My gut tells me the attack will be soon, but the waiting is agonizing. I go over the information again and again. They’re planning something, but there’s no way to get some kind of time frame. My anguish is interrupted by a knock on the door. I rush to it, thinking it’s a scout. Princess Cadence stands at the door. It’s the first time she’s ever sought me out on her own. I raise an eyebrow and wonder why she’s so giddy and nervous. I know exactly what’s going on in a heartbeat.
“Skip to the part where you awkwardly tell me to go somewhere so I can coincidentally bump into Luna.”

Her mouth hangs open for a second, completely taken by surprise. She stammers before bursting into a fit of giggling. “Um...nice night for a walk to the garden right?”
I narrow my eyes at her amusedly. “Should I...wait for a minute before heading down?”
She blushes and nods her head. I sigh playfully and Cadence runs down the hallway cackling.
Behind me, my armor lies there taunting me, begging me to give in to the lust of battle and paranoia. Dare I walk these halls without it? Stormchaser could arrive at any moment with my black scroll, containing news of a final attack. I walk over to the bed and boot my set of metal so hard, it flies off and slams into the wall. For one night, I was done being a warrior: I was a man who longed for love the way all creatures do.

I arrive at the lower level of the castle and stop at a set of double doors to the long stone catwalk. Ahead of me is a path that can either go straight into another wing of the castle, or I can take the stairway at the end to the left that leads down to the castle grounds where the garden is. Along the walkway are occasional benches for conversations and get togethers. Sitting on one of the benches is Luna. She stares over the rail lining the balcony, watching the clouds.

As I look through the glass of the double doors, Luna snags every ounce of attention I have. The walkway is stone, with a two-foot-high banister. In the middle, is a circular area ten feet wide, laced with benches. It was clearly a meeting area and had a few potted plants with bright, glowing flowers. Luna stands there, looking out at the land as the moon makes her hair glow. It flows behind her, as carefree as I was when we were together.

The doors click gently as I open them and step out into the walkway. I see her ears twitch: she knows I’m here but pretends not to notice me. The moment I’m behind her, I let my fingers feel the bit of hair that tosses in the breeze. Her tail swims around my ankle, like a puppy trying to give me a hug.

“General.” She says quietly. I take a few steps forward until I’m directly to her side. She looks up at me, but there’s a touch of nervousness in her eyes. Was it even her this time? My smile slowly fades from my face, as does hers.
I look down at the floor and play with my gauntlets. “I...you looked really nice at the wedding.”

She gives me a gentle smile and a nod. “As did you...assuming that was you...or if you’re you right now.” Her eyes twitch and she looks down at the ground in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, that was mean. I...I thought this crap was over with. Guess we know what Zaran’s been up to right?” She lets out a nervous laugh.
I cross my arms and look out across the balcony. “I’ll talk to Celestia and see if we can’t rig up some kind of anti-transformation field to-”

Luna groans angrily and I see her eyes narrow. “I don’t want to do that anymore! I’m tired of security protocols! Why can’t we just be...us?! Why do we always have to look over our shoulders?! Yeah, I know that makes me sound super suspicious, but I don’t care anymore! I don’t want to have Cadence meet up with us just to check everyone’s identity! How are we supposed to have little chance meetings full of magic, when they’re loaded with precautions?!” She kicks the stone railing with her hoof and sighs.
My ears twitch as I hear some rustling on a balcony above us. It was back about twenty feet but another two floors up and connected to the hallways inside Canterlot. It could easily conceal a sniper or - Luna punches my leg with her hoof.
“Raiden! Just...let it go, okay?!” She yells.

I shake my head and look at her. “Sorry, force of habit.”
Her lips fold in on themselves. “And I can’t even ask you to do that because you have every right to be suspicious! See what I’m talking about?! It never ends!”
I look down at the stone floor and grind my heel into it. “I don’t know what to do…”
Luna looks up at me then turns around. “Raiden I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound like it’s your fault.” She sits on her haunches and stares up at the sky. “All I want is to know how much of this is real. I’ll put up with the deception, the lies, the ploys. Just…the idea of this not being real, I couldn’t take it.”

Those teal eyes of hers slowly turn towards me. That strange silence swims through the air. Words are left behind and like so many times, I’m drawn into her world. I turn around and pick one of the glowing purple flowers. As I turn around, her eyes widen as she gazes at my little present. Even as she sits on her haunches, her front hooves can barely stay settled and tap the ground repeatedly. I take a knee in front of her, and gently tuck the flower behind her left ear. She bites her bottom lip and her tail starts wiggling behind her.

Her smile is so wide, her cheeks start to twitch under the strain. The that cold feeling sets in, the one screaming at me to leave. Ice crawls under my skin and I’m left with the feeling of “What if…”. Her eyes suddenly snap to concern and her mouth struggles to find words she knows are ultimately pointless.

Movement on the balcony snags my attention. Luna and I both crane our necks to look up at Cadence, who pokes her head just barely above the railing. She stares at us for a few seconds.

“Kiss her!” She whispers loud enough for us to hear. I see a pair of white forelegs reach up and pull her down, followed by obnoxious giggling. We continue to stare, and Celestia peaks over the balcony, then disappears again when she sees us still looking. I can’t help but chuckle to myself. Luna looks over at me and grins, before gazing back to the balcony.

“Alright sister, you two need to leave now.” she says with a mix of amusement and seriousness. We hear lighthearted, disappointed groans as Celestia and Cadence get up and exit. Two other figures rise behind them, and there’s no mistaking the sight of Lucretia and Emeris exiting as well. I hold up my hands and give a dumbfounded shrug.

“Seriously?! You two?!” Cadence looks over her shoulder as she walks away.

“Kiss her!” She calls out one last time. Celestia laughs and gives her a playful shove forward.

Luna smiles at me weakly before pawing the ground. “I’m sorry, I know stuff like that makes you uncomfortable. I don’t like to be put on the spot myself honestly.”

Could I do it? There was no denying there was something between us, but kiss an actual pony? Cuddling on the roof was one thing, but this? It was seriously pushing my boundaries. While their mouths were almost identical to ours, except going back just a bit further by a mere inch on either side, I had never kissed anything with...fur. At this point, she might as well be a human in another body though. I had grown accustomed to it and allowed my feelings to run wild without bounds, but this was taking a whole new level. I had issues reading the body language of my own species when it came to romance and knowing when to push forward. Now I have to do this under completely different circumstances?

Luna shoots Cadence a sharp glare before she disappears, then returns to looking forward.
“I apologize, my niece can be rather...rude.” The whole age thing was also messing with me. They all had the same youthful appearance, despite being numerous years apart. Just how old was she exactly? Was it rude to ask? Do I even want to know? Did we even have the same measurements of time? For all I knew, a year to them, was a month to us. If they lived just as long as other animals of their type, she could easily be younger than me. Perhaps their magic expands their lives or they can increase it at will, who knows.

She taps her hooves nervously, as I’ve spent the entire time in my head. What if just once, I spoke out loud? I sit down and cross my legs, trying to be as relaxed as possible.

“There have been many times were my only comfort, was the thought of you. The time we spent together, even the awkwardness where I never knew what to say, I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Getting back to you, was all the hope I ever needed to keep going.” As I reach for her face, she borderline slams her snout into my face and kisses me. Her legs trot up and down so fast though, our lips can’t even stay locked. What was supposed to be our very first moment, feels more like a face wash. I pull away from her and laugh hysterically. Her cheeks light up like a sunrise. “I’m so sorry! I just...get all giddy with mushy stuff! Can we try again?! Please?!”

My mouth hangs open as she bobs up and down. “You have to stop moving or I…”
She sticks out her nose and tries to push her lips against mine, but the strain makes her start leaning to the sides as well. I can’t keep my lips together as more fits of laughter force their way out. She gives me the most awkward smile as I collapse back against the banister while holding my sides. She takes a few steps forward and crawls into my lap. Maybe we didn’t even need a first kiss. We had graduated beyond that a long time ago honestly. A loud banging from the castle draws our gazes up to the next floor window. Cadence leans against it, pounding happily with her hooves and letting out obnoxious cheers. I gently take Luna’s ear in my hand and massage it.

“You’re the only one I’ve ever let my guard down around.” I massage the back of her neck and inhale deeply. “I love you. If I ever say anything differently, vaporize me on the spot.” She raises herself up by her forelegs and rests her head on my shoulder after nuzzling me twice. Her hooves touch my chest as she presses herself against me. Right as my arms fold around her back, I hear the flapping of wings. Stormchaser lands, her eyes are wide and while she looks at me, it’s as if I’m not even here. Spitfire and three other Wonderbolts land beside her on the stone railing. Luna lifts her head and looks at them with concern. Stormchaser walks forward so I can take the scroll. As I unravel it and read its contents, the color from my face drains.
“Fifteen thousand Og Nag?!” I scream out loud.

Spitfire slowly shakes her head. “Sir…we…we just can’t. There’s no way. We have to evacuate the palace.”