Secret of Flying

by Hiver

First published 26th of January, 2017

Flying is a lot like life. Keep beating your wings and hope not to hit something at terminal velocity. Being an Alicorn don’t make it any easier.

Flying is a lot like life. Keep beating your wings and hope not to hit something at terminal velocity. Being an Alicorn doesn’t make it any easier.

Especially when you are trying your best to keep it hidden.

Since the defeat of Tirek, Blank Page has been trying his best to keep his sudden case of Alicorn hidden from the general public.

Because honestly, who would want that much responsibility?

Coverart by Sipioc

Chapter 1

Flap. Flap.

Glide. Correct for cross wind. Visualize target, adjust glide path. Flap. Flap.

Uh-oh. Too fast! Adjust! Adjust! Flapflapflap!

I hit the cloud at a bit of an angle, just enough to pull up some, but even for magical flying ponies, energy is energy. Altitude is sacrificed for speed and I slammed into the other pony, sending us sprawling in a tangle of limbs.

Coming to a halt I couldn't help but groan, “Ow. I think I'll stay here. I like this cloud. I live here now.”

Twilight sighed and let her head drop back down onto my chest, “...The depressing thing is that you are still doing better than I did at first.”

I blinked and raised my head to look at her, “I am? I'm doing horribly.”

“You are not leaving craters behind, are you?” She said with a grin we shifted to untangle from each other. She looked down at me, “Flying? It's just... kinda wrong. Pegasi just don't understand that.”

I snorted up at her, “I know exactly what you mean. The idea of flying is awesome, but when I'm doing it and I look down with nothing holding me up... every instinct I have keeps screaming at me that I'm about to die.”

Twilight nodded and settled down next to me on the cloud, stretching her wings before folding them again.

“You are okay, right?” I asked and rolled onto my stomach next to her. There was a small twinge of pain in my left front leg, but nothing serious.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” Twilight answered and glanced back at her wings before twisting to nibble along a couple of out of place feathers to get them back in line, “You learn how to catch high-speed pegasi quickly, living around Rainbow.”

Nodding, I followed her example to study my wings, stretching them out in search of out of place feathers before flapping them twice and folding them again. Wings were quite high maintenance. Not only to look good and allow you to fly properly, but also because they were really sensitive and out of alignment feathers were insanely ticklish.

I frowned back at my right wing and flexed it again. Something was out of order there and was pulling at the rest. Twisting to check, I nosed along the feathers as Twilight worked on her own. Annoyingly enough, this was actually the most practical way of doing this, magic just didn't have the sensitivity to do it right so in this case, alicorns didn't have an advantage over pegasi.

There you are you little fucker.

I gave the feather a lick and guided it right before letting go and flexing my wings again. There we go.

Sighing I relaxed against the cloud, pushing at the... material with my hoof. Clouds were fucking awesome. Soooo soft.

“So when is the next book coming out?” Twilight asked and settled down next to me again.

I shrugged, “Will be a while still. Lots of things keeping me busy. It's written, but I'm working on the editing. It's taking quite a while... I'm only on the first pass.”

“...I could read it through for you.” the purple Alicorn suggested with a smile, “help you with the editing.”

I raised an eyebrow at her and poked her side with my wing, “You just want to read it early.”

“Well... yeah.” she admitted with a grin, “At least tell me what you are writing!”

“Time traveling golem sent back in time to stop the resistance leader against their rule from being born.” I said with a shrug, “It's going to have a horror warning label on it or Luna wouldn't allow me to turn it in for print.”

Twilight flicked her ears, “Well, I look forward to reading it.”

“Hope you'll like it. How are things going with that chest? Any luck getting it open?”

The purple alicorn groaned and shifted, “...No. I'm almost starting to reconsider your suggestion of a really big hammer. I have tried everything!”

“You'll figure it out. You are one of, if not the, smartest pony I know, Twilight. You'll get it open.”

“...You are the one that thought of ducking out of the entire royalty thing.”

I blinked at her, “Not enjoying it?”

Twilight frowned and poked at the cloud, “I don't know. I mean... I still do what I always did, but now I have all this responsibility and ponies keep referring to me even when I have no idea what to do.”

“And some ponies wonder why I avoid that like the plague. I get enough of that just being with Luna.”

“Yeah...” Twilight sighed and shrugged her wings as she frowned at me, “As long as you can keep it hidden. You know it won't last, right?”

I sighed at that and then nodded, “Yeah. Even if I don't screw up, if nothing else, sooner or later somepony is going to notice I'm not aging.”

“Mmm.”

Well, it’ll last as long as it lasts. My life was hardly normal as it was, but I could enjoy it until then. Sighing again I closed my eyes and relaxed.

Clouds are awesomely comfortable and despite the slight wind, I wasn't cold. That was something really useful about this entire alicorn thing. I get now what Luna meant that she had not been cold since her ascension.

I could still feel the cold. But there is a difference between cold and feeling cold. Just like between alone and lonely.

I slowly let myself drift off into my realm.

Chapter 2

Entering the space between dreams, I looked around. It was different during the day.

Much emptier of the dreams of ponies. Not to say that there were no dreams here. Ponies that were sick, night workers... lazy teenagers.

But much emptier. Instead of portals stretching out into the distance of what seemed to be eternity, there were only a few thousands of them drifting through.

Stretching my wings, I made a motion with my hoof, focusing some magic to bring up what I had come to call the control matrix. It was of course not any more real than anything else in here, just a mental representation of what I was actually doing, but it did make things easier to work with.

I spent a minute or so filtering through the dreams, ordering the disturbed ones before me before I went to each portal and personally checked how they looked from the outside.

Nightmare or a feeding Night Terror.

Finally reaching the last one with a nightmare, I tapped it with my hoof, canceling the dream and bringing the upset mirror disk back to it's normal smooth image.

I then spread my wings and flashed across the non-existent landscape of the space between dreams to a dream realm I knew very well.

Smiling to myself, I checked my wings and mane before I trotted in through the silver disk and what seemed like reality faded into view around me, leaving me in what appeared to be the tower back home. I smiled wider at the sight that greeted me.

Luna was on the bed, sparks and lines of lights floating around her.

“What are you up to, love?” I asked as I moved to jump up and lay down beside to her.

Luna smiled and spared me a quick nuzzle at my ear before turning back to the floating lights, “I'm working on an shield design. If I manage it, it will be faster to cast without losing any strength.”

“Hmm. Interesting,” I said and shifted to lean against her side, nosing along her neck. She shivered and the lights collapsed.

She smiled and turned her head to my nose, “Am I ignoring you?”

“I want my Luna time. And I can't get it during normal times and I miss you.”

Her wing settled across mine and she gave me a quick kiss, “How are things going?”

“...Well enough,” I answered and leaned against her. “I can technically fly and move in more or less the direction I want to. Neither Sparky or I is willing to clear me for solo flight yet so I'll likely stay another week or two. At least until I manage to get back onto the ground without risking breaking something or someone.”

I just felt lucky that alicorns had the entire earth pony hardness or I would likely had broken something during my first... well, I wouldn't call them flights...

“Sparky?” she asked, sounding amused.

“She hate being called that. So I do everytime I get a chance.”

Luna snorted and nipped at my ear, “But you are flying?”

I nodded. “I can get into the air. Not sure I would call it flying yet,” I sighed and nuzzled. “But yeah. We are taking a nap on a cloud above the outskirts of the Everfree forest. No ponies that could see us out here and it's much easier when I look like myself.”

Nodding, Luna smirked. “So what you are telling me is that you are sleeping with Twilight?”

“I am,” I agreed with a grave nod before bobbing my eyebrows at her. “Wanna watch? I bet you can teleport to us are in a couple of jumps.”

“Maybe at some point in the future,” Luna teased and nuzzled between my ears before sticking her tongue out at me. “I'll let you know.”

And there is my blush. Damn it, I should know I shouldn't allow myself to get into those kinds of games with either of the heavenly sisters. Luna is not quite as savage as Celestia, but she is still damn good at it.

Shaking my head, I nuzzled at her neck. “So how are things in Canterlot?”

“Pretty much the same as always. Nobles with branches up their behinds, people bitching about irrelevant things. Tons of paperwork and ever changing fashions. I heard from my maids that saddles are making a comeback in fine fashion.”

I never could understand fashion. Then again, I was male so I guess that came with the territory. Mostly, I left that to women and just enjoyed the end result.

I nodded and stretched my wings. “Anyone questioning why I'm gone?”

She shook her head and rolled onto her side, relaxing as she eyed me. “Not really. They know you left Canterlot for a good while before and seemed to accept the story easily enough. There was an article in the papers and everything.”

“Goody.”

I was taking some time away from the stress of Canterlot to study and work on my magic, while finishing up the last parts of my new book. It was the complete truth.

We just didn't clarify that it was my Pegasus and Earth Pony magic I was trying to get a handle on and not my unicorn magic.

Of course, most of my Earth Pony magic was 'don't break in half by hitting something'. I'm almost glad I'm not as strong as Sparks. Apparently, she broke a couple of things before she got a handle on hers.

I leaned against her side. “How's Skitter doing?” I asked. Skitter was still in Canterlot taking her own lessons with Celestia.

“Very well, from what I know,” Luna answered. “We talk most evenings... but I can't help but wonder why you asked my sister to help teach her and not me.”

“Well... to be honest, Celestia has experience in teaching it with Cadence,” I admitted, looking up at her as I rolled and stretched out on my back before I smiled slightly, “... I may also have been a bit selfish in not wanting to cut down on you and me time.”

“There is that,” Luna agreed before she smiled and nuzzled. “But you should get back to your practice. Unless you wish to continue while right next to Twilight...”

I sighed and shook my head, “...Better not.”

“Good luck, My Page,” Lune said and gave me a hug with her wing. “See you again tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow. Sweet dreams, love,” I answered and nuzzled at her cheek before allowing myself to wake up.

I blinked at the bright sunlight and suppressed a yawn, before raising my head, stretching, and turning my head to find Twilight watching me.

“How long was I out?” I asked. “Hope I didn't keep you waiting.”

Twilight shook her head and looked away, out over the forest below. “Only fifteen minutes or so. We both needed a break anyway.”

Nodding I got up and stretched my wings before folding them again. “Want to continue?”

Smiling, Twilight turned back to me again and nodded. “Yes. But we should wrap up in an hour or so, I need to prepare for tonight.”

“Astronomy, right?”

“Right.”

Chapter 3

My wings were relaxed against my sides and my illusion was wrapped firmly around me again as we made our way through Ponyville.

Looking around as I trotted along next to Twilight, I couldn't help but like Ponyville. It was much more relaxed and friendly than Canterlot. It had a typical small town feel to it. Ponies smiled at you when you walked past.

Of course, the fact that I was right next to their princess might have something to do with it to. It certainly didn't hurt, I'm sure. If I didn't live with Luna, I might think about moving here, if I'm to be completely honest.

I liked this.

“You know, I could easily get rooms at the Inn.” I said to Twilight, “You don't need to put up with all three of us at your place.”

At least Silver Leaf offered to take care of Fern while I was away.

Twilight smiled, “Page, we talked about this. It's no trouble, really.”

I just sighed, “It just feel like we are taking advantage. But fine, I won't bring it up again... if you allow me to buy the food while we are there.”

Twilight sighed and poke me with her wing, “Page... ugh... fine.” she said and shook her head, “You are not giving it up, are you?”

“Nope!” I said cheerfully as the library came back into view. Well, Twilight's place. The bottom floor of the tree was the ponyville public library. The second floor and the basement were where Twilight lived.

On a bench outside, two familiar ponies were lounging in the sunshine, talking. One seemed at first glance to be a white unicorn with ice blue mane, but what put her apart from other unicorns were the translucent insect like wings on her back.

She was the changeling Skitter had picked out to be my bodyguard while she was in Canterlot learning how to Princess. She was called Amber and seemed okay; I missed Skitter but Amber seemed fine. I was very careful not to overfeed her though, last thing we needed was another changeling princess.

The other unicorn looked up when she saw us approach, “How did it go?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she leaned her side against the backrest on the bench.

“It went well.” I said and rubbed my left shoulder, “I'm sure a couple of trees survived this time.”

Sunset rolled her eyes, “How difficult can it be? You have already adapted to even stranger things in the past.”

“You try it.” I sighed, “Trust me, it's harder.”

For one thing, both humans and unicorns moved in two dimensions. Not three.

Twilight nodded in agreement, “I'm still getting used to it.”

Sunset bit her lower lip with a small frown, “I guess, Princess. It would be three-dimensional movement after all. I guess I could try it with that wing spell, but that's a really difficult and really niche spell.”

Twilight nodded, “It's just not that, it's an entire new set of limbs. They come with some knowledge on how to move them, but everything else is left up to you.”

Sunset nodded and stretched before jumping off the bench, “Ready to go, Princess?”

“Oh!” Twilight said and grimaced, “I'm so sorry, Sunset, but we won't be able to practice today. I have to prepare for tonight.”

I did a trade with Twilight. She was teaching me how to fly and I was teaching her to defend herself. I had asked if Sunset wanted to come along to kill two birds with one stone. It was good for both of them. Sunset got to practice with someone stronger than her, the fact that she 'still' hit harder than me was a bit embarrassing, but it was also good for Twilight as she had to be more careful with the amount of power she was throwing around.

Get her away from the mindset of MOAR POWER! That way laid collateral damage.

The unicorn sat down with an, “Oh.” she said, her ears flicking to the side for a split second, “What's tonight?”

Twilight smiled and stretched her wings, “The weather is going to be really clear tonight and it's going to be a new moon. It's been months since those two happened at once and I want to set my telescope up.”

Sunset frowned, “You are a Princess. Couldn't you just decree that each new moon to be a clear night in Ponyville?”

“Sunset! I could never abuse my position like that!” Twilight exclaimed before she sighed, “Even though it would be nice from time to time.”

I shook my head, “Twilight, I'm not sure one fixed night of clear skies a month count as abuse.”

“But they would need to redo their entire schedules!”

“Would you mind some company tonight?” Sunset asked with a smile, “I haven't studied astronomy for ages. Not since before...” she said before she sighed and continued, “...Before I left Equestria. I was never the best at it, but I miss it at times, it was kind of calming.”

Twilight smiled and happily flapped her wings, “Of course you can come! You all can!”

“I'll have to decline.” I said and shook my head, “I'm going to do some writing and then maybe take a late walk. But you two have fun.”

Amber nodded, “I would decline as well, Princess.”

Twilight sighed, “Fine.” before she smiled at Sunset, “Want to help set things up?”

Sunset nodded, “Sure. Where? We should get somewhere away from Ponyville to get away from the lights.”

“How about a cloud?” I suggested, “Get you high into the air and away from everything that can disturb the image.”

“Page, that's brilliant!” Twilight exclaimed with a smile, “I can cast a cloud walk spell on Sunset and on the equipment. Come on, Sunset!”

With that, the Princess and the unicorn rushed inside the library. I let out a sigh and jumped onto the bench to relax.

My wings were still burning, aching slightly from overuse.

I looked at my changeling guard, “...You wouldn't happen to know how to get wings to stop burning, would you?” I asked her quietly.

She tilted her head, “I have heard ponies say that Ponyville has a spa, Lord Page. Perhaps that could help?”

“Still keeping this a secret.” I said before I frowned, “But I think you have a point there... a hot bath would help. Thanks Amber.”

“You are welcome, sir.”

Chapter 4

I slowly blinked awake and yawned, lifting my head off the bed and stretching my wings. I soon discovered that it was a massive mistake.

Ow. Ow. Ow!

Fuck, even with a hot bath before bed yesterday, my wings were aching all over. A lot of what went on while flying was magic, but a lot of it was also physical movement and I had been flying a lot yesterday.

Forcing my wings to relax and fold up again, I jumped off the bed. Okay, ow.

The rest of me was a bit achy as well. Earth Pony hardiness or not, getting tossed around and hitting things, even clouds, all day takes its toll. Especially beneath my wings. Man, those muscles were sore.

A couple of moments after my hooves hit the floor, Amber crawled out from beneath my bed. “Good morning, sir,” she said and stretched, her wings fluttering before she retook her disguise of a white unicorn with an ice blue mane in a sparkle of green fire, before shaking her mane back, getting it in order.

“Morning, Amber.” I said with a smile, “Sleep well?”

“Yes, sir.”

Changelings. They did enjoy sleeping in cramped spaces. Across the room was a second bed, this one belonging to Sunset. It looked undisturbed, either she got up early or she didn't go to bed last night.

Not surprised to be honest. Twilight was Twilight, I knew she could get really wrapped up in something when she really got into it. Bet they are both asleep on a cloud somewhere.

Lighting up my horn I wrapped a quick illusion around my wings to keep them hidden as I headed for the door and downstairs to see what could be found in the way of food. The kitchen, like all valuable treasures, I found guarded by a dragon.

“Good morning, Spike.” I said as I entered, looking at the purple and green dragon where he was working by the stove.

He looked up at smiled, “Page, Amber. Good morning. Want some pancakes?”

“Oh... yes please, if it is not too much trouble.” I said with a smile before moving to heat up some tea, “I was just going to get some toast or something, but if you are already making some, sure.”

“No problem! Coming right up! Anything for you, Amber?”

“One, please. Thank you.”

“Welcome.”

Setting the kettle to heat, I moved to sit down by the table, “Did you see Twilight come back tonight?”

“No, she never did. They likely forgot the time.” Spike chuckled, “Happens all the time with Twilight.”

I just nodded, “My guess too.”

“So, what's up today? Going to do some writing?”

“Not today I think.” I told the small dragon, “Thinking of just taking a walk around town and enjoying the weather. Not too long until winter now.”

“A couple of months until it starts getting cold.” Spike agreed and flipped a thick pancake onto my plate before starting work on the next one.

“Thanks.” I said and floated a fork up to poke at it, “Any tips on what there is to do around here?”

“Lots of things! There's the theater, there's Sugarcube Corner...” Spike said and flipped the next pancake, “Could visit Rarity or one of the other girls.”

I think Spike may have a crush on the white and purple unicorn. Visiting a clothing store was not exactly high on my list of fun things to do, especially a high fashion one like the one Rarity owned and ran. If there was one thing that I enjoyed about being a pony other than the people I have gotten to know and magic... it was no longer needing to shop for clothes.

Then again... Rarity was Luna's primary clothing designer. She made all her dresses. That means that Rarity has Luna's measurements on file. I wonder what interesting things she might be able to put together out of that.

Maybe I should stop by anyway and get a gift for Luna. Of course, it would be as much for me as for her...

“The only one I know at all other than Rarity is Rainbow Dash and I have no idea where she lives. Thanks though, I'll consider it, Spike.”

At his nod, I let him get back to cooking as I ate my pancakes. Today will be a day off I think, to not do anything but my dream world responsibilities, and even those I shared with Luna. When back home, we took turns to duck into the realm of dreams from time to time to make sure everything was like it should be.

I guess I could just walk around town and see what I could find, Ponyville wasn't that big. Besides, the sun was shining and it wasn't fall quite yet, so it was nice and warm.

Yeah. That sounded like the right idea, just give my wings a day to rest and stop getting in Twilight's way for a day or so.

Finishing my breakfast and grabbing a cup of tea, I put the plate away before starting back towards the stairs, “Thanks for the pancakes.”

“No problem!”

Amber started to get up to follow me but I waved her back down.

“Stay, I'm just going up to the room to get my bag,” I said as I started up the stairs. I could get away with not bringing it most likely, but it contained all my bits and my writing implements. I didn't want to get an idea and forget to write it down. I hated when that happened and then I got back home and it was just gone. I knew I had had a brilliant idea, but I couldn't remember how it went.

Nope. Always bring writing implements along.

Chapter 5

“Of course, Darling!” Rarity said with a smile. “I'll have your order done as soon as possible.”

I couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. “No hurries, I won't need it until I go back to Canterlot at the earliest anyway,” before I scraped my hoof on the floor, “And... well...”

“Don't worry, I can keep a secret!” Rarity said with a grin before she winked. “You would be shocked over some of the things I created for whom. Not that I would ever tell.”

I eyed the glamorous white unicorn, “...Well, now 'I' am curious.”

“Too bad, Darling. It would be highly unprofessional of me,” she answered and flicked her mane with a smile.

“Well, that is a good thing. I really don't want the papers to get news of this. Wouldn't really bother me, but I don't want to make things more difficult for Luna,” I admitted.

“I'm sure Princess Luna will adore it. It should fit her perfectly and I know just the colors to use.”

“Thank you, Rarity,” I said as we moved towards the door and her magic reached out to open it for me.

“You are so welcome, Lord Page.”

I waved to her as I left. Of course, I wasn't overly worried about the papers finding out, it wasn't anything too outrageous. But it involved a lot of silk and wasn't anything Luna would wear in public so I would much rather keep it all quiet.

I really hoped that she would like it.

“Got everything, sir?” Amber asked as she fell in next to me from where she had been waiting outside.

“I think so,” I agreed and looked at my guard. “Any ideas on where to go now?”

Amber looked around and shook her head, “Not really, sir. Perhaps simply following the road and seeing where it goes?”

“As good an idea as any other.”

It lunchtime yet for a couple of hours anyway and a long walk sounded rather nice. I shifted my wings slightly under the illusion, wishing I could stretch them properly, but I simply was not good enough to hide them if I spread them. Still, a good walk would get the worst of the stiffness out of my muscles and I would bet we could duck into the Everfree Forest for a quick glide or something later.

Or simply put a illusion over myself again to look like a pegasus, I'd likely go with that one.

“So, what do you think of Ponyville, Amber?” I asked the changeling as we walked.

She tilted her head, fluttering her wings slightly, “It's nice, sir. But I'm not certain the inhabitants are comfortable around me. A lot of them stare, more than in Canterlot.”

“Not many changelings here, not as many as in Canterlot at least,” I said and frowned to myself. “Maybe that's something that needs to change. Get ponies used to seeing changelings, both in your semi-disguises and in your natural forms.”

If they were ever to be accepted as just another pony, ponies needed to get used to them. Ironically enough, our main problem was that there weren’t enough changelings to go around and most were gathered around the hive so they could have regular contact with other changelings and more importantly... their Queen or Princess. They needed that contact to feel good which meant they couldn't spread out much.

With some exceptions like my guard here, I would bet the majority of changelings away from Canterlot were the ones harvesting love in the Crystal Empire.

“Howdy!”

We paused and glanced back at the orange earth pony approaching from behind, pulling a wooden cart at an easy trot and a smile.

“Hello. Uhm...” Damn it, I knew her name! “Applejack, right?”

“Got it in one!” she agreed with a smile. “Lord Page,” she said with a nod and a tip of her hat. “I heard you and Sunset Shimmer were staying with Twilight.”

I nodded. “Twilight was kind enough to help me practice my magic,” I confirmed and then paused. “Oh, my apologies. This is my bodyguard and assistant, Amber. Princess Skitter assigned her to me because... well, she thinks I'll forget to eat or something. Amber, this is Applejack of the Apple-family.”

Amber bowed slightly and Applejack nodded. “Pleased to meet you,” she said, giving the changeling a bit of a wary look but not commenting otherwise. “So where are you off too?”

I shrugged. “Just taking a walk,” I said and walked along next to her. "Twilight and Sunset are still out from their astronomy expedition last night. They likely stayed up all night and then fell asleep, so I have a day off to just take in the sights.”

“Doubt that will take all day in Ponyville. Pretty much what you see is what you get.”

“I like Ponyville,” I admitted. “It somehow feels more real than Canterlot.”

Maybe that was because I grew up in the countryside, it just felt more like home, despite the very different architecture style than back on Earth. Ponyville looked like something from a fantasy story. Which was a kind of funny thing to think when you could do magic.

“Lived here all my life. There is no better place in all of Equestria.”

“Not going to argue with you.” I sighed and looked up at the tree we passed by starting to get close to the 'Sweet Apple Acres' sign. “If Luna didn't need to be in Canterlot, I think I would look to move to Ponyville.”

Some distance from those nobles would be really nice. I really understood why Twilight strongly resisted any suggestion from that direction that she should move to Canterlot. Yes, her friends were here, but I suspect the general court stuff had a non-zero effect on the decision.

Chapter 6

I almost groaned as I walked back into the library. Why did I think that spending the day at a farm after yesterday was a good idea?

I liked Applejack, she turned out to be fun to talk to. But I couldn't just walk along and talk to her as she worked, it would make me feel like a giant lazy jerk. I blame a good upbringing.

So, I did my best to help out.

Alicorn or not, big fucking mistake. I thought I was in decent shape. I was just plain fucking wrong. Trying to keep up with a well-trained earth pony was a horribly bad idea. Especially with how I felt since yesterday.

My everything ached. I didn't even want to 'think' about how I would feel tomorrow. I have no idea where Amber went either, she just disappeared about an hour in, but I wasn't worried. Skitter used to do the same. I think it was a changeling thing.

Sunset Shimmer looked up from where she was lying on the couch next to Twilight, a book floating in front of them as she blinked at me, “What happened to you?”

“Apples,” I answered and shook a leaf out of my mane before clarifying at her raised eyebrow. “I met Applejack and somehow I ended up learning applebucking.”

Twilight grinned at that, “How was it?”

“... A lot harder than she made it look,” I admitted and sat down, dropping the illusion around my wings so I could stretch them with a groan. Oh, that felt good. One drawback to the illusion... I couldn't stretch, it only worked when my wings were against my sides.

Even worse, there was an...

“So where did you two end up?” I asked and turned my head, nosing along my wing. Where were you... you have been bothering me almost all day!

“We... ah... well, fell asleep out by the telescope on the hill,” Twilight answered after a second as I found the errant feather. “It... got sort of late.”

“Ah yeah,” I said and gripped it with my teeth, giving a slight pull to check. It easily plucked loose without any real resistance and I let go, grabbing it in my magic as I stretched my wings once before folding them again. “There. So much better,” I said as I looked up at the feather before burning it to ash. “So what did you see...” I started to ask as I turned back to the girls only to find them looking at me, Twilight's wings held high.

I glanced up at the ash in my magic field. “Ah. Sorry, I'll throw it away outside. I just don't like having parts of me lying around.”

“...It's fine,” Twilight answered quickly and jumped off the couch. “I'm going to go take a shower, then how about we find some dinner? Spike is over at Rarity's so I was thinking we can find some hayburgers?”

“Sure,” Sunset agreed and took over holding the book as Twilight left up the stairs. As soon as the other alicorn was out of sight, she smirked at me before returning to the book.

I just raised my eyebrow at her, “What?”

She just grinned.

“What?!”

Sunset snorted, “Oh nothing. We were just admiring the way you preened your feathers.”

Uh-oh.

“...Sunset? Did I do something.... You know...”

She grinned and shook her head, “No, not really. Maybe not something to do in public, but among friends it's perfectly fine. But you do know that you really should read up on that some more, monkey boy. Sooner or later you will screw up if you don't.”

“I'll make a note of it,” I grumbled and shrugged my wings before I frowned at her. “So what was all that about?”

“Well, you do have a rather nice looking wingspan,” she teased with a grin. “I'm a unicorn and even I appreciate it.”

I facehooved, “Sunset...”

“What?”

Sighing I shook my head, walking over to jump onto the couch next to her, “So... fell asleep watching the stars, huh?”

“...Yes?”

I smirked at her, “Sounds almost romantic. Just you, Twilight, the stars... all night. A bit chilly, lying beneath her wing for warmth...”

The inside of her ears started to slowly turn red, “Nothing like that.”

“You wanted it to,” I teased. “You know... I think you may have a thing for alicorns.”

“I don't. Now shut it.”

I nodded. “Sure you don't. Of course, your pool is rather limited... There is basically Twilight and Celestia right now,” I said as I watched the glaring and steadily reddening Sunset with a smirk. “Luna is mine. Go find your own Princess.”

If looks could kill, the wall behind me would have a big hole in it. Sunset suddenly dropped her glare with a smirk, “Maybe I should tell her you said that.”

I just snorted, “You do that.”

Sunset shrugged one shoulder, her smirk deepening, “Of course, you should consider your own position.”

“What?” I asked with a frown.

“By my count, there are four alicorn females and one male. So, if they want a stallion that won't die on them... there are not that many choices around.”

I shook my head, “Not happening. I'm with Luna.”

“Now yes. But in a thousand years?” she asked and leaned closer with a grin. “I'll give it a hundred years, maybe two before you wake up with a different alicorn beneath your other wing. Maybe even Princess Celestia?” she whispered. “Or would Twilight be more your style?”

As if on cue, Twilight trotted down the stairs. “Much better. Ready to go?”

Damn it, Twilight! Now I can't even answer properly!

I stared at her for a moment before I shook my head, shooting Sunset a glare, “Need to shower too. I'm covered in dirt.”

“Well, hurry up. I'm hungry.”

I firmly ignored Sunset and her grin as I made my way up the stairs. Well, I'll get my revenge. Dueling training tomorrow. I'm thinking Sunset running laps would do wonders for morale.

My morale that is.

Chapter 7

“Well, you are in a bad mood.” Luna said as we met in the realm between dreams, “What happened?”

I settled down next to her with a sigh, leaning against her side as I watched the portal next to us for any sign of a Night Terror before I nuzzled at her neck, “Sunset Shimmer.”

“Oh?” Luna asked with a smile as she nosed at my ear, “What did she do this time?”

Sighing I shook my head, “Mainly... being Sunset Shimmer.”

“Ah.” Luna said with a grin and nipped at my ear tip, “I have known ponies like that in the past. In my experience, you end up either killing or bedding them.”

“Not you too...” I groaned, putting my head against her neck.

“Just teasing, My Page.” she said with a grin in her voice, giving my ear a nip, “What did she do?”

“...She leers at my wings.” I admitted. There was no way in hell I was bringing the rest of it up.

“Well, they are nice wings...”

I raised my head to look at her and Luna smiled, nuzzling, “Relax. You do realize it's something you should get used to, right?”

“You are in a mood today.”

“Mhmm.” She agreed with a nod, “Not sure why, I just am. Now, don't worry about it. You do not think I feature in quite a few dreams? Or my sister?”

I didn't exactly like that fact, but it was something you just have to live with when being together with a goddess.

“Or you?” She continued with a smile, “You don't think there are plenty of mares dream of Princess Luna's consort? Even without knowing you are an alicorn?”

Sighing I nodded, “True.”

“My Page... are you blushing?”

Yes.

“No.”

“Yes, you are.” she teased and nuzzled, “It's cute.”

“...The world known author, Blank Page, Lord of Equestria, consort of Princess Luna, speaker with the hive, bringer of peace with the changelings, and vanquisher of Tirek... Is cute.”

Luna grinned, “I'll go as far as handsome.”

“I'll take handsome.” I sighed and shifted to kiss her softly, “I just have to deal with it, don't I?”

“Yes. But if you are really uncomfortable about it, have you asked Sunset Shimmer to stop?”

“I... uhm... no?”

Luna shook her head, “So?”

“...I'll deal with it. Asking her to stop would be letting her win.” I answered after a long moment, putting my wing across her back, leaning against her side with a small smirk, “I'll let you know if I decide to kill her or otherwise.”

“Otherwise?” Luna snorted and shifted to look at me with a mock glare, “Otherwise!? I'll teach you otherwise!” she exclaimed with a grin before she pounced.

“Eep!”

Not sure how long time passed. Time doesn't pass the same way here as it does in the real world. It could have been minutes or could have been hours. Dreams are different like that and I have not really learned how to keep track yet.

“Time for me to wake up now.” Luna sighed and pulled me closer with her front legs, “It's almost time to raise the moon.”

I sighed, “I really dislike this entire different schedules thing. Or at least that they are this different. I can't wait until I get back to Canterlot.”

“You say so almost every time, My Page. But I miss having you next to me in the real world too.” Luna said, “But it's not long now.”

“A few weeks.” I agreed and nuzzled, “I can't wait.”

Smiling Luna kissed me, “Sweet dreams, My Page.” before she faded away in a sparkle of lights as she woke up.

I just sighed and stayed there for a moment, rolling onto my back, looking up at the not sky. I wanted to wake up and take the train back to Canterlot now. But I needed to get a full handle of this entire flying thing and I couldn't do that now. Right now, the best you could say about my flying is 'not likely to kill himself or others'. I needed to get better than that and not like I can really practice in Canterlot. Not unless I wanted to announce I'm an alicorn. My illusion of being another pony was good, but not so good that there was no risk I wouldn't slip up at close range.

Dream time may beat the hell out of letters or even phone, but it didn't beat actually being there.

Well, it was only a couple of weeks. I can handle a couple of weeks.

Rolling onto my hooves I got up and stretched, spreading my wings before glancing to my right at my wing before I folded it again. Damn right my wings looked amazing. Now let's get to work.

It's still a bit early if Luna are just raising the moon now, but some ponies should be asleep already so I might as well do a early sweep.

Bringing up the interface, I started to filter through dreams. Like I thought there were not that many dreamers around yet, only a couple of thousand. Eh, don't need to filter those heavily, I'll just do them manually. I'll just remove the least likely three quarters and see what we end up with. Happy and/or romantic dreams can be filtered out, I'll check the rest.

Flicking the confirm button with my hoof I watched the not-landscape shift around before me, depositing the silvery portals before me in a orderly row I could move along. Luna didn't like the way I did this, she thought it took the magic out of it. But I would rather be efficient than magical in this case. I can do magic when it came to actually entering dreams.

Normal nightmare, sleep tight.

Normal dream, leave alone.

What in the fuck?

I paused by the portal next to me with one front hoof lifted off the not-floor with a frown as I looked at the mirror, and with that I mean mirror. It was completely blank, not like the ripply portals around.

I had never seen anything like that. Even ponies that were not actively dreaming still... rippled with slight colors and waves. This one was like a mirror.

What?

A thought brought up the interface and I shifted things around, copying the dream portal's 'readings' and doing a search, giving me almost a hundred of them. What is this? It's like... they were clearly sleeping, but it was like there were no dreams.

Frowning I walked up and walked through the closest one. Let's see what we have here.

Chapter 8

I opened my eyes and scrambled out of bed, rolling onto my hooves, almost landing on a sleeping Amber, “What the ever-loving fuck was that!?”

Amber burst into action, slamming me down against the floor beneath her before she was properly awake, scanning the room.

“...Ow.”

Note to self, do not scare changelings when they are asleep. If it didn't involve getting a close look on the grain in the wooden floor, then I would have been a lot more impressed.

“Amber, get off me!” I grumbled and struggled out from beneath the changeling.

“But sir, there might be...”

“Yes, but it's not here.” I said and lit up my horn, lifting her off me as I got back onto my hooves. Damn it, that got my feathers in a mess again.

I flapped my wings a couple of times which got most of them into order just as the door slammed open to reveal Sunset, “Page?” she asked, her horn lit up by a spell, the energies of a second spell shimmering along it as she kept her magic ready to either attack or defend, “What's going on?”

Amber struggled in my magic and I slowly set her down, forcing myself to slow down and think. “Something... bad,” I finally said, “but not here so you can drop your magic,” I explained and looked at Amber. “That goes for you too.”

The Changeling didn't look overly happy about it, but she settled down, her wings against her back, “Sir? What is going on?”

I shook my head and then shrugged my wings, “Something... strange... in the dream realm. Ponies dreaming blank dreams. I may be freaking out over nothing, but I need to contact Luna at once,” I said and got up, moving past Sunset and heading for Twilight's room.

Kinda amazing she and Spike was asleep for it all.

Glancing back revealed that both Sunset and Amber followed along, looking worried. Well, Sunset did. Amber looked mostly alert, her eyes scanning the dark hallway.

“Twilight? Spike?” I asked as I knocked on the door, “Twilight, I need to borrow your PDA for a moment.”

There was a moment before a sleepy looking Twilight opened the door, “...My what?”

“Personal Dragon Assistant.” I clarified, “I need to get a message to Luna now. I can't wait until our next nap update.”

“He can't have sent to Princess Luna, only to Princess Celestia.”

“But Celestia can relay it.”

There have to be a easier way of doing this. There must be spells or something.

Twilight frowned at me, “What's going on?”

I just sighed, “I have no idea. I might be panicking about nothing, but when I find ponies dreaming about... nothing. Nothing at all... then I'm going to freak. I need to know if this is something I need to be panicking about.”

She nodded, “We'll meet you down in the kitchen, I need to wake Spike.”

...He is seriously not up yet? How the hell, not even I would sleep through this.

Nodding, I turned and headed past Sunset, “I'll get some tea put on.” I said and rubbed my eyes, stretching my wings again on the way down the stairs, “...What time is it anyway?”

“Around one or so.” Sunset supplied and ran her magic through her mane, spinning it into a braid so she didn't need to deal with it.

“...That explains why it feels like I have been asleep for two hours. I have.” I sighed and moved to light up the stove and put the kettle on. Time for some quadruple strength of what passed for the local earl grey.

I then looked back at my guard and student/pain in my flank/sparring partner, “You two don't need to be up, go back to sleep.”

“No offense, but if someone is going around turning ponies’ dreams into nothing, I'll stay awake.” Sunset answered as she settled down by the table.

By the time the water was done Twilight was walking down the stairs with a sleepy looking dragon laying on her back.

“Give me a second and I'll write a note.” I said and moved to get a quill and paper, “Sunset, you are on tea duty.”

Finding something to write with and on, I scribbled down a quick note to Celestia to give it to Luna asap as well as an explanation about what I found... and an apology for waking her if it turned out to be something normal.

I would feel very silly if it did turn out to be normal, but I had never seen it before and it didn't... it didn't feel right. Better safe than sorry.

I rolled it up and tied some string around it before returning and handing it over to Spike, “Here. Sorry for waking you.”

He just grumbled and blew green fire at it, causing it to literally go up in smoke. With that I settled down by the table, taking the steaming hot cup of tea that Sunset offered me, “Thanks.”

She just nodded and poured some for everyone at the table before getting a cup for herself as she settled down next to Twilight.

Everything settled down to silence as I floated my cup before me, simply taking in the scent of the tea for now. Everyone else looked some degree of drowsy. Spike had gone back to sleep against the table while Amber looked alert, constantly turning her head.

I'm going to feel like such a idiot if this turns out to be false alarm.

There were maybe fifteen minutes with very little conversation before Spike suddenly jerked awake and burped out a flame of green flame that made a rolled up scroll to form in midair. I snagged it from midair and quickly read it before I looked at the rest, “Stay awake whatever you do. Do not go asleep. I'm going to return to the dreaming, Luna needs to talk to me.”

This was bad.

Discord? Could it be Discord?

Chapter 9

Returning to the place between dreams, I felt for Luna and then flashed over to her position where she was standing before one of the mirrors. At least that's what they looked like to me, Luna saw them as doors. Everything in here was subjective.

“Well?” I asked as I stepped out with a flash right next to her.

Luna shook her head with a frown, “I do not know, My Page. I have not encountered something like this in the past.”

“Never?” I asked in surprise as I looked up at her. “Not Discord?”

“Never,” she confirmed. “If it is him, he has never done anything like this before. Have you entered it?”

I nodded. “There is nothing there. Just... it wasn't even blank or white or black or anything. Just... 404, dream not found. Even between dreams, ponies still exist here while asleep. When unconscious or awake or otherwise kept from dreaming they just didn't show up.”

For someone to dream... nothing. Literally nothing... something was really fucked up somewhere.

“Could something be... eating them?” I asked after a moment as I eyed the blank portal. “Some sort of super Night Terror?”

Luna hesitated and then shook her head. “I do not think so, My Page,” she finally answered. “If such a thing was possible, I should have run into it long before now. No, this is something new.”

I nodded and brought up my interface, doing a search for portals like the one before us, making the world shuffle around and bring them into a circle around us, “Close to a hundred. 87... same number as before. Doesn't seem to be spreading quickly at the very least.”

Luna sat down and looked down, her wings spreading as she frowned in thought before her horn lit up like a small star. Lines of light reached out and touched each of the blank portals for a long second before the lines flowed back into her horn and she lowered it. A beam hit the not-floor beneath us and a map of Equestria formed as Luna kept her eyes closed in concentration before the light faded away and she seemed to relax again.

“Wow. Need to learn that trick,” I said and moved to sit down next to her to look down on the map before us. A single spot in the map was shining, far to the south east but still in Equestria. “Seems they are all in the same spot. Maybe a small village that got attacked by something?”

Luna smiled and spared my ear a quick nuzzle. “Getting somepony's physical location from their dream presence is still beyond your abilities for now, My Page,” she said before turning to the map. “I believe you may be right. It all seems to be gathered very close together.”

I nodded, tapping my hoof against the floor in thought, “We need to investigate this. We need to find out what happened to these ponies, if they can be saved or if we have to keep it from spreading.”

Luna pressed her lips together, “I'll send Princess Twilight and the other Element bearers.”

“...Luna, they no longer carry the Elements. They are in the tree, remember?”

“Being an Element bearer has very little to do with some jewelry, My Page,” Luna said with a smile. “They will be fine.”

“Why not send a company of guards?”

Luna shook her head, “Because sometimes more subtlety is needed than what the guard is capable of. We do not yet know what is going on and having a hundred ponies with spears and other weapons charge in may just put more ponies in danger.”

Well, she was not wrong about that.

Hmm. Closest guard station according to this map would be... Las Pegasus. About an hour's hard flight.

Not too far away and the bearers did include two pegasi, one of which was Rainbow Dash. She might be able to make it there in half the time.

Say two hours from the shit hitting the fan until reinforcements arriving? Not good, but not as bad as it could be either.

Nodding, I got up, “I'll tell them and go with them.”

“What!? No, you are not! There is no need for you to...”

I sighed, “Luna, they are capable of handling themselves, they have proved this time and time again against dangerous threats. But none of them have any clue about dream magic, not even Twilight. There is no time to teach her either. You are needed in Canterlot, so it falls to me to go with them.”

“Page, I...” she started to say before her ears flicked to the sides and she sighed. “...I hate the idea of you getting in danger.”

Smiling at her I nuzzled her chin. “I feel the same about you. But I can handle myself, My Sky,” I said as I put my wing around her.

Smiling slightly, Luna rested her head against mine. “I know,” she answered softly before she sighed and nodded, pulling back to look down at me. “Be careful.”

“Always,” I said and winked. “Of course, I would appreciate it if you could put the garrison at Las Pegasus on high alert when we leave the dream realm. That should reduce response time if we need to send for some backup.”

Luna nodded. “I will,” she replied before she glanced at the map, looking back to me again, her eyes worried. “Go, My Page. Find what is hurting our ponies.”

I bowed for her, “At once, your Highness,” before I winked and woke up.

Blinking awake, I rolled off the couch and onto my hooves, seeing everyone watching me in various stages of drowsiness. Spike looked tired, but he got pokes from one of the mares from time to time to keep him awake.

“What did Princess Luna say?” Twilight asked with a worried frown as she got off her chair and approached. “What's happening?”

I shook my head, “I'll tell you later. For now, go to sleep. It should be safe, the effect seems to be limited to a small area in southeast Equestria. Tomorrow we gather the other Elements and go investigate.”

Twilight hesitated before she nodded, “...Okay.”

She likely would have protested more but she looked really tired.

Chapter 10

Thu-thunk, thu-thunk, thu-thunk.

The sound of the train filled the background as I scribbled down a note on my next book. Wasn't sure what to write just yet. Maybe I should just give out a collection of short stories, it wasn't like I didn't have a bunch of those lying around.

Amber was lazing around on the baggage shelf above my head. Changelings...

Luckily the train would pass only a couple of kilometres away from the village. We could walk from there.

Right now, the girls were spread out along the rest of the carriage, I had a couch for myself as they talked among themselves.

I tried to get Sunset to go back to Canterlot, no use to put more ponies in danger than absolutely needed.

That went about as well as expected.

“You should get some rest,” Sunset said as she jumped up on the couch across from mine. “Princess Twilight says we will arrive in about five hours.”

“Plan to,” I answered as I finished the last sentence. “Just wanted to finish this,” I explained before starting to put things away in my bag. “Nervous?”

“Nah,” the unicorn answered and lounged against the back of the couch. “We are just having a look, right?”

I nodded, “That's the plan. Just having a look to see what kind of Silent Hill, Freddy Krueger bullshit can make ponies dream empty dreams.”

Sunset shivered slightly.

“Oh? You did see those, did you?”

She grimaced and then nodded. “Yeah. I had some problems sleeping after I watched A Nightmare on Elm Street,” she admitted before she glared at me. “Thanks for reminding me of that, by the way. “

“...Sorry. If you get any nightmares, I'll deal with them.”

Sunset frowned at me, “You stay out of my dreams.”

“No worries, I can tell the general mood of a dream without entering it. There are things I really don't want to see either.”

She shook her head and relaxed against the couch again.

Finished with putting my things away, I turned to look out the dark window, not seeing anything but my Luna's moon in the sky.

So far away.

So close.

I missed her.

It'd been weeks since I saw Luna in person and... fuck, it was worse than the last time we were apart, even though it had not been as long.

I regarded the moon in the dark skies. It was strange really. The Equestrian moon was more familiar to me now than Earth's was. Maybe because I had spent so much time here focused on it.

Sometimes it was calming really. As long as the moon kept moving across the sky like it should, I knew my Luna was safe.

I may have missed her, but I had a job to do now. I might not like the entire royalty thing and I was going to dodge that particular oncoming train for as long as I bloody well could.

But, I was an alicorn now. The Alicorn of Dreams. I didn't know if I deserved to be, most likely not, but I was. So I was going to do as good a job as I possibly could.

Not only for Luna. But for the people of Equestria and myself... and if that meant going over there and finding out what happened to those poor ponies' dreams and cracking heads until it stopped, then so be it.

Or more likely, keep in the background and let Princess Twilight and the other Element bearers handle it. They handled Discord and... Nightmare Moon. They saved Luna and Celestia.

I may be an alicorn now, but I wasn't really any stronger in the real world. The only reason I managed to defeat Tirek was that he didn't think. He assumed I was doing what it seemed I was doing and that I wasn't a sneakier bastard than he was.

If that plan had failed, I would have been so horribly fucked. But he was threatening Luna and Celestia. What was I supposed to do?

“Page?”

I looked away from the night sky to find Sunset watching me.

“Yes?”

“...Is it safe to sleep? We are almost at the end of the track and then there is only half a day's trot left according to the map,” she asked quietly.

I frowned slightly and shifted my wings against my sides beneath the illusion in thought before I nodded. “It should be. From what we could detect, the effect was limited to a relatively small area,” I said before I hmmed. “But I have a better idea. We get all the girls and all go to sleep at the same time. I can gather up your dream realms close together and stand guard while you sleep. Just to be safe.”

Sunset nodded and jumped off her couch, “I'll go tell Princess Twilight. Thank you.”

“Don't worry, I'll keep the big bad bogeyman away,” I told her with a grin.

“...Screw you. Monkey boy,” she snorted.

“In your dreams.”

Sunset smirked and winked as she walked past, “Why do you think I want you to stay out of them? That would just be awkward.”

Yeah, I may have earned that one.

Chapter 11

I walked along, following behind Twilight and the rest of the girls through the desert, following Twilight's lead. Amber was currently hiding, doing her entire ‘ninja’ thing. I had no clue how she did it, the landscape was mostly flat. I had given her orders to stay out of sight.

Twilight peered down on the map and then shifted our path a bit to the right.

I was more than happy to let her take the lead on this one, she was the Princess after all. I was along as the dream expert.

“Well?” Sunset asked from next to me, her eyebrows raised.

“Huh? Did you say something?” I asked with a blink.

She rolled her eyes, “I was asking if you felt something.”

“...Not sure it works like that, Sunny,” I shook my head. “And no, I'm not.”

“Hmh,” she said and then nodded, trotting up to walk next to Twilight, keeping an eye out as she adjusted her saddle bags with her magic.

We kept on for another hour or so before we reached the top of a rocky hill. Seeing Twilight and Sunset duck close to the ground, I follow the mares' examples along with the rest of the Elements. I quickly crawled up next to Twilight, peering over the tip of the hill.

There was a small town there, some twenty houses maybe, all following a straight street through the middle of the village. There were ponies moving around down there.

I frowned slightly and tapped my hoof against the ground in thought. From here things looked normal.

“What do you think?” Twilight whispered. “Seems nice enough from here. Everyone is smiling.”

“I know smiles. Those are not smiles,” Pinkie Pie said and glared down at the village. I glanced at her and frowned, looking back to the village again.

They were smiling, but... I couldn't tell from here. Was she right?

“Forget the smiles, look at the cutie marks,” Twilight said, her voice filled with worry.

...What the fuck?

They were all the same. An equal sign on each and every one of them. Okay, something is seriously fucking screwed here. Now when I noticed that, I picked up on other details I didn't before. Like they were all wearing the same mane and tail styles.

“Okay, That's weird,” Rainbow said with a frown.

“An entire village with the same cutie mark? How can that be?” Twilight asked as she looked to Sunset who just shrugged.

“I bet there is some big monster behind it,” Rainbow said as she floated in the air. “Seems like a monster thing to do.”

Well, she was not wrong.

“I reckon we should head into town and talk to some locals,” Applejack said with a shrug. “See what's going on.”

Rainbow nodded, “Great idea. Let's go!” and then she was off down the hill.

“Might as well now.” I sighed and got up, trying not to be annoyed at her. That was the next step, even if I wouldn't exactly have recommended doing it like that.

Twilight nodded and got up as well and then we started down the hill as a group as I studied the village below. Sunset was whispering soundlessly to herself as she walked along next to Twilight. I didn't catch most of it, but I did get enough to understand that she was going over spells. Combat spells.

She was clearly nervous about this and who could blame her, I was too. As much as I disliked admitting it, defeating Tirek had been about thirty percent skill and seventy percent luck. If everything hadn't gone exactly as it did, I would have been mush on the floor right now.

Alicorn now or not, Sunset was stronger than me in pure magic. Not by much admittedly, but she was.

It didn't take long to get down to the town.

“Welcome!”

“Welcome!”

“Welcome!”

Those big smiles, those greetings. Yeah, this wasn't creepy as fuck at all. So, what do we have here? Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Fear Her, Stepford Wives or pod ponies?

“Welcome!” a grey stallion with darker grey hair said as he stopped in front of the group. “Pardon my forwardness, but are you an Alicorn?”

Great deduction skills there, Sherlock. What could possibly have given her away?

I renewed my illusion with a quick lighting up of my horn, just in case.

Applejack nodded. “That there is the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle,” she explained, while Twilight looked more embarrassed than anything else.

The grey Stallion smiled and nodded, “Well, you certainly have come to the right place for friendship.”

Oh good Luna, did he have to say it in that tone of voice and that smile?

A white coated stallion interrupted before he could get anymore creepy, “What brings you to town?”

“We're not entirely sure,” Twilight said with a shrug.

“Well, I see. Well, all are welcome here in our little village. I'm Double Diamond and this is Party Favor,” the white coated Double Diamond said and motioned to his companion.

...The grey one’s name was actually...

Good lord. That's an unfortunate name.

Applejack nodded and quickly made a round of introductions to us all.

Double Diamond smiled and looked closer, saying, “And you all have your own unique cutie marks...” before smiling wider.

Twilight frowned, “If you don't mind, has there been any sort of trouble here lately?”

“Trouble? Why, I don't think we have ever had trouble in our little village,” Double Diamond said with a big smile.

“It's true,” Party Favor added as he looked at Twilight, “You'll see.”

...I'd rather not if you didn't mind.

“Perhaps you care to speak to our founder, Starlight Glimmer?” Double Diamond said and motioned for us to follow him.

I shared a look with Sunset as we followed the rest. She raised an eyebrow and I nodded slightly in return. Something told me that whatever was going on here, this Starlight Glimmer was in the middle of it all.

Chapter 12

I followed the rest into the large house at the end of the road. Well, large compared to the rest in the little village.

From what I could see though, it seemed a rather simple house. Stone walls, wooden floor. A painting of an equal sign on the wall above a fireplace.

This was just fucking creepy.

Too normal. Too... plain. Very little of the normal knickknacks lying around. The entire thing looked artificial, not lived in.

The door at the other end of the room next to the stairs opened slowly.

“Get ready. Let's see what horrible monster we are facing,” Rainbow Dash said quietly and looked at the rest of us.

“Hello!” a light purple unicorn said with a bright smile as she walked out.

Double Diamond stepped up. “Starlight Glimmer! We have guests.”

“So I see. Welcome to our little town!” she said happily. “I'm Starlight Glimmer, who may you be?”

“These are...” Double Diamond started and then introduced us one by one before finishing with Twilight. “And this is Twilight Sparkle!”

Starlight Glimmer looked at us before she smiled, “Forgive my bluntness, but I'm assuming it's Princess Twilight Sparkle? We don't get many alicorns around here.”

...Yeah, no kidding. I doubt anywhere but Canterlot and possibly Ponyville could say they did.

“Twilight is fine,” said alicorn answered with a smile.

“So, how did you hear of our little village?”

“It's kind of a long story,” Twilight said with a small grin.

Starlight nodded and motioned with her hoof, “Well, however you found us, we are happy to have you...”

If you say 'for dinner', I’ll start casting.

“...We're happy to have any pony that wishes to experience true friendship for the first time.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her, “Say what?”

Took the words right out of my mouth there, apple girl. I glanced at Sunset who was frowning at Starlight before looking around the room again as I slowly moved towards the right.

This was too strange and much too creepy for me. That sounded like something a body snatcher would say.

“Oh indeed. That's what's so unique about our village you see, around here we don't flaunt our special talents. Because we don't have any special talents to flaunt.”

Sunset put her hoof up, “Uhm... yeah. No. A cutie mark is an essential part of what makes a pony a pony. It's when we find out what we are good at, what we love doing. What you are saying is impossible.”

“Is it?” Starlight said with a smile and turned so we could see her side and her equal sign. “Perhaps it would be easier to understand if we gave you a tour of the village?”

I didn't like this. I didn't like this at all. Even so, I followed along when Twilight accepted. There must be some kind of clue about what's happening here.

XXXXXXXX

I couldn't help but frown slightly as the tour finished. Everyone seemed to enjoy their place here, even if things were...

...Off. Way too much koolaid going around if you get what I mean.

As we were directed towards what seemed to be the town’s only little restaurant, Sunset nudged my side. “Page?” she said and motioned to the side with her head.

Nodding, I walked to the side and behind the building. “So what do you think?” I asked her quietly as I turned to her once we were out of sight.

“I don't know,” Sunset said and shook her head, rubbing behind her right ear with her hoof. “It's creepy.”

I snorted, “Anything more specific? What do you think, body snatchers? Or just fucking creepy cult?”

The mare shivered, “Don't know, but I sure hope it's not the first one.”

“Like the second one is much better.” I snorted and shook my head, “Whatever it is, it's fucking with these ponies' dreams. My guess? Having their cutie marks removed breaks them somehow. If it removes their special talents, that sure as hell could likely do it.”

Sunset nodded, “Yeah. So, what do we do about it?”

I hesitated at that and sat down, poking at the dust with my hoof in thought. What did we do about it? If this Starlight Glimmer was responsible, we still had no idea how. Was it some sort of dream magic? Did she rip the fucking hide from their flanks and then regrow it?

Was she even a pony?

If it was her that was doing it, to reverse or stop her we needed to know why and more importantly, how. If it was in the dream realm tonight, I suspect she would come to the wrong Luna-damned neighbourhood if she tried to go up against me there while I kept guard over my friends' dreams. I may not have Luna's skill yet, but in the dream realm I was the strongest of the alicorns.

Unless Starlight Glimmer was the dream version of Discord, I would crush her like a grape and even then it would be a close fight only because I wasn't that experienced yet.

But we needed to find out. If nothing else, when everyone was asleep I could check all dreams in the general area to see if they were all blank, even checking out her dreams if they were the same.

“Nothing yet,” I finally said and got up again. “We'll wait until tonight and we'll see what I can find. Before we can stop it, we need to know what's happening, which means that we need more information.”

Sunset nodded, “Let's rejoin the rest, let Princess Twilight know what we came up with.”

“Yeah.”

Not that we had the chance, when we returned, Twilight was talking with Starlight Glimmer.

Chapter 13

“What’s going on?” I asked as I joined them.

Twilight smiled, “Oh, I’m just asking Starlight Glimmer if she would show us the cave where they keep their old Cutie Marks.”

I looked between them and then nodded, “I see. Can we?”

Starlight Glimmer smiled and happily nodded, “Of course! Please, if you will all follow me?”

Said the giant spider to the pony. Hopefully not literally.

“Sure,” I agreed with a smile. “Excuse me for a second?”

Pulling back, I walked off and as soon as I was out of sight, I looked to the side. “Amber.”

There was a small pause before I heard a voice behind me, “Sir?”

“I need you to take a message to Canterlot and your Princess,” I said as I turned to my changeling guard, raising my hoof to stop her protests. “I know your orders, but this might actually put your hive at risk. Keeping Princess Skitter safe overrules everything, including her orders to keep me protected, right?”

Amber really didn’t look happy about this at all, but she finally nodded after a pause, “…Yes sir.”

“Good. Now, I want you to alert the Guard garrison in Las Pegasus and tell them to get here and secure the area. Then I need you to continue to Canterlot and tell Skitter and the other Princesses that they need to mobilize the rest of the Guard just to be safe. Something really fucking freaky is going on here involving the removal of ponies' cutie marks. I want Princess Celestia to come down on this place like a fucking solar flare before it can spread. Under no circumstances are any of the Royal Sisters to get within ten leagues of this place.”

Whatever happened here, it removed ponies' special talents. If that happened to Luna… or even worse for Equestria, Celestia…

It could end the world.

Amber nodded, “Yes sir. Anything else?”

I shook my head, “Go and go fast.”

The changeling hesitated for a second, “Be careful, sir.”

Smiling, I nodded and she took to the air, flying off towards the horizon before I turned and walked off, returning to the other side of the building to rejoin the group.

XXXXXXXX

“Just through here!” Starlight Glimmer exclaimed and paused by a cave entrance, waving her hoof before walking inside.

Letting Twilight take the lead, I shared a look with Sunset. Whatever it was that did this, it was in there most likely. If it was there all this time or if it was Starlight Glimmer that did it was yet to be seen.

I slowly moved into the dark cavern with the rest. Yeah, this wasn’t ominous at all.

“Behold! The Cutie Vault!” Starlight exclaimed and stopped, gesturing forward. At the end of the cave was a massive matrix of shelves behind glass. Each compartment seemed to have a floating hologram of a cutie mark in it, glowing and lighting up the cavern.

Before it a wooden staff was sitting on a low pedestal, balanced on its lower end.

Twilight gasped softly, “I have never seen anything like it.”

“And this, is the Staff of Sameness,” Starlight Glimmer said as she walked up to it, picking it up in her magic. “It was one of the great Metal Brook's nine enchanted items. We are incredibly fortunate to have it here. This is the tool that allows us to free ourselves from our marks!” she said before she smiled at us. “I’m curiouAHHH!”

She finished in a scream as splinters and pieces of wood rained down all over her. We all turned to look at Sunset who shrugged as light faded from her horn, “What? If you gonna cast, cast, don’t talk.”

I just laughed and nodded, “Good girl!” before I turned towards Starlight.

“How… you… how DARE you!?” she screamed. “Stop them! Stop them!”

And just like that, the villagers rushed in from all sides, through hidden pathways. We were surrounded.

Shit, shit, shit!

If they were the villagers and just under some sort of mind control…

Twilight flashed away in a burst of teleportation, reappearing in the air, her wings spread to get a clear line of fire. Starlight lit up her horn and shot a beam at the alicorn.

As I watched, unable to stop it, Twilight’s horn lit up in a spell glow, but it was too late and the beam hit her in the chest.

“Twilight!”

I wasn’t sure which of the girls it was that screamed as Twilight’s mark ripped from her flank and floated away through the air before the alicorn dropped to the ground.

“Luckily, I no longer need the staff,” Starlight said as the mark floated over to her. “Now, hold them! They will all learn the greatness of sameness!”

“Sunset, pincher! It wasn’t the McGuffin!” I commanded her and didn’t wait for a response. Instead I ran to the right, slamming the stallion in my way off his hooves with a blast of energy before ducking beneath a beam of energy from Starlight.

Unknown spell, dodge, don’t shield.

Throwing myself to the side, I managed to just about avoid another beam before I hit the ground hard as something slammed into me from the side before I could retaliate.

“Get off!” I yelled and bucked the earth pony in the face only to catch the greenish beam from Starlight in the side.

The last thing I saw before everything faded to black was Sunset sending the pink unicorn rolling across the cavern with a yellow spell.

Chapter 14

I groaned and slowly stirred awake. To my surprise, I found that I hurt less than I expected.

“Page? Are you okay?”

I forced my eyes open and found myself looking up at the worried face of Sunset Shimmer. “…You get her?” I asked and then groaned as I shifted my front legs and raised my head.

Sunset nodded, “As soon as I had her, the villagers just kind of panicked and gave up. Especially when I noticed that her cutie mark was still there, just painted over. It got smudged in the fight.”

Oh.

“Everyone okay?” I asked and flicked my ears, looking around. We were in a small room and I was lying on a bed. The place looked simple and lightly furnished with old furniture, but it was clean and the bed was relatively comfortable.

Sunset nodded and sat down on the floor. “Only you and Princess Twilight were hit. I smashed the ‘Cutie Vault’. It released all the Cutie Marks and they all returned to their owners. Starlight Glimmer is tied up in the basement. I put a binding spell on her horn. Applejack and Rainbow Dash is guarding her as we wait for you and Princess Twilight to wake back up.”

Nodding, I stretched my wings before I blinked and looked back at them. The illusion should still have been in effect.

“…There is also that,” Sunset grimaced and flicked her right ear. “Your spell broke when she ripped your Cutie Mark off you.”

In plain view of the Elements and half the village.

My ears folded to the side and I sighed, “Well, fuck.”

“Sorry Page. I know you wanted to keep it a secret,” Sunset said and frowned. “I know I tease you and all, but…”

Sighing again, I shrugged and moved up to sit, glancing back to check my Mark was actually there. It was right where I saw it last.

As strange as it felt at first, it was part of me now after these years here. I may still think the term ‘Cutie Mark’ was the least manly thing in existence, but it was mine, damn it.

“It’s fine, Sunset,” I finally said. “I knew it wouldn’t last forever. I had hoped it would last more than a couple of months, but you take what you get. Besides, ponies in an out of the way village might not spread the news very fast. Or be believed. I’m sure the girls can be convinced to keep it quiet.”

Sunset nodded, “On the bright side, you would be able to stretch your wings anytime you want.”

I raised my eyebrow at her and jumped off the bed, refolding my wings, “You just like looking at them.”

“No comment,” she answered with a grin before she frowned. “You sure you feel okay?”

I frowned and stretched before I nodded and recast the illusion around myself. “A bit sore, but that’s from the fight I think. I think I feel normal.”

Sunset nodded, “Come on, we’ll go check on Princess Twilight.”

Nodding, I moved along, cracking my neck. Well, that was disappointing after winning a fight with a god. I got smacked down by a mare I had never even heard of before.

To be fair, she had minions I really didn’t want to hurt, but still.

“Sunset?”

“Yeah?”

“Next time, you play the decoy.”

That got a snort from her before she blinked, “Okay, deal. Wait, next time?”

“Always a next time,” I commented and opened the door to reveal Twilight sitting up, rubbing her head as Rarity and Fluttershy fussed over her.

“Princess, are you okay?” I asked as I walked inside, giving the door a knock on the way past.

Twilight nodded, “I think so, thanks Page. And you? I heard she hit you too.”

“I’m fine. Slight headache and normal ‘getting into a fight’ aches,” I answered with a sigh. “that could have gone better.”

“Prince Page,” Rarity said and bowed down. “It’s good to hear you feel well.”

Oh for…

“Rarity, please…” I groaned. “None of that. I don’t want it, I keep it hidden for a reason.”

“But… but… why?” she asked, looking like I just spoke Greek to her. “Dear, you are an Alicorn!”

“That doesn’t mean I want to be a Prince, Rarity,” I said with a frown. “I don’t want the responsibility and quite frankly, I don’t like everything else that comes with it. I realize that it will come out sooner or later and it will make things difficult, but until then I want to live my life.”

Rarity looked like it was a complete Outside Context Problem for her but she finally nodded. “…Very well. If you really wish, I won’t say a word. I promise.”

Fluttershy managed a small nod, hiding beneath her hair.

Twilight just sighed and jumped off the bed. “I just kind of wish I thought of it first. Rarity said you managed to capture Starlight Glimmer?” she said, looking at Sunset shimmer.

Sunset nodded, “Rainbow Dash and Applejack are guarding her, Princess.”

Stretching her wings before folding them again, Twilight moved past us. “We should go talk to her and figure all of this out.”

“Yeah. The Guard should be on their way,” I told her. “I sent Amber to get them and then deliver a message about what was going on here to Canterlot.”

Meaning they should get here at any moment really.

Chapter 15

A pegasus in full armor came in for a landing, carrying a sword with his hoof before he saluted, “Sir.”

“Sergeant,” I answered with a nod as I returned the salute, thankful that I managed to get Swift Spear to teach me how to do it properly. “Report.”

“The troops are setting up a perimeter around the town as per previous orders, sir. What is the situation?”

I sighed and glanced back towards the house, “The threat is contained. Princess Twilight is talking to the prisoner now, but I want to arrange transport for the prisoner to the Canterlot dungeons as soon as possible. Did you bring a suppression ring?”

“Standard equipment, sir,” the pegasus agreed with a nod.

“Good. Right now, she is under a suppression spell, but when fitted with the ring, under no circumstances is it to be removed,” I told him. “Full hoof cuffs, the entire deal.”

The blue pegasus nodded, “Yes, sir!”

“Good. Secure the prisoner and get her ready for transport, sky chariot, all the way to Canterlot. Oh, and send your fastest flier ahead before the Princesses mobilize the entire guard down on this place. The changeling that brought the message to you had orders to warn Canterlot just in case things got out of hand here.”

“I’ll do it.”

I turned my head to see Rainbow Dash trot over.

“I can take the message to Canterlot. Nobody would get there faster than me,” she said with a grin. “I’ll tell them that they can relax, we handled it.”

“Thanks, Rainbow.” I sighed with a nod, “If you can beat Amber there, all the better. She has a head start of several hours.”

Rainbow smirked, “Easy. See you later.” And then she beat her wings and before she was three body lengths off the ground, she was already flying faster than I could at my best.

“You know, I actually believe her,” I commented as I watched her quickly disappear in the distance.

“Me too, sir.”

I looked back at the pegasus, “Your name?”

“Sergeant Cloud Walker, sir. Royal Guard Scout Ranger, Las Pegasus garrison.”

“Thank you. Get the prisoner secured and ready for transport. She is being held in the building behind me, in the basement.”

“Yes, sir!” he said with a nod before taking to the air, moving back towards the rest of the group of guards gathered just outside town.

Once we get back from here, I’m kidnapping a Princess to a tropical island for a month. Duties or not, there has to be some way to solve it.

Maybe we could get a temp. Wonder if Pinkie Pie is busy?

With that thought to amuse myself, I turned and trotted back inside, heading down the stairs to the basement where I was met with an interesting scene. Starlight Glimmer was on the floor, tied up. Sunset was standing over her, her horn lit up while Twilight worked some sort of spell around Starlight’s horn.

“Escape attempt?” I asked as I reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Yes, sir,” Sunset answered with a nod, a hoof on the chest of the unicorn on the floor. “She somehow shook my spell off.”

“Well, relax. The guard is here with a real suppression ring,” I said and moved up. “As for you, Miss Glimmer… why don’t you get some rest?” I asked and lowered my head, tapping my horn against hers.

The unicorn wiggled to try to get away and then just kind of collapsed, snoring.

“You two okay?” I asked and I raised my head again.

Twilight nodded. “We’re fine,” she answered and then grimaced. “I spotted it just in time and disrupted her teleportation spell.”

Thank you, Twilight! I wasn't sure I would have slept well if she managed to get away. Actually, I would, I could have tracked her down that way.

“She said anything?”

Twilight shook her head, “Nothing important. Mostly she tried to convince me to let her go and that cutie marks are evil.”

“She’s nuts then?” Sunset asked and moved off the sleeping unicorn. “How can you hate cutie marks?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight sighed. “That’s something for the doctors to figure out back in Canterlot. For now, we need to get her moved there.”

I nodded, “The guards are getting organized. They’ll be here any moment with a sky chariot. Are you going with her?”

Twilight nodded, “I think I will. You?”

Shaking my head, I looked down at the sleeping unicorn, “I’ll take the train with the rest. It’s going anyway and they need the chariots for more important things than flying me around. Getting you two there quickly is important. Me getting there quickly is not.”

As much as I wanted to get back to Luna, it wasn’t practical to have them fly me back.

Twilight surrounded Starlight in her magic field, lifting her off the floor, “I’ll take her out to the guards. Thanks Page.”

“Thank Sunset. She is the one that actually took her down.”

Twilight glanced at the yellow unicorn and smiled, “I intend to,” before she trotted up the stairs, floating the would-be villain behind her.

I turned my head and looked over at Sunset, “Sunset?”

“Yeah?” she asked, looking away from the stairs as she turned to me.

“Good job.”

Chapter 16

Smiling, I crossed the library and gave the alicorn a quick nuzzle as soon as she appeared. “Luna.”

“My Page,” she answered with a smile, nuzzling back before stealing a quick kiss. “We got quite a fright when your messenger appeared.”

I smiled up at her as I sat down, “Which one?”

“The changeling, Amber,” Luna clarified as she settled down next to me. “Rainbow Dash arrived only moments later to cancel the warning.”

“I thought it was best to send the warning, just in case. Something was able to remove ponies' cutie marks. Imagine if that happened to you or your sister?” I asked with a shiver. “Best be safe about it.”

Luna nodded and nuzzled at my ear, “You should have sent Rainbow Dash with it, not Amber. Her task was to keep you safe, not to run and warn. Rainbow Dash told us everything that happened.”

I folded my ears against my head before she could bite it, “They would have noticed if I sent Dash. They didn’t know about Amber.”

Luna just sighed but let the matter drop, “How did it all happen? From your point if view?”

Leaning softly against her side, I told her all about it. “... And now Starlight Glimmer should be on her way to Canterlot. She should arrive soon.”

Nodding, Luna nuzzled, “I can’t decide if you are lucky or not.”

“Well, I have you, so let’s go with lucky. But to be honest, I didn’t do much. It was all Sunset Shimmer. She deserves the credit for this one. All I did was go there and then get hit.”

Smiling, Luna stole a quick kiss before she frowned, “And your illusion?”

I shook my head, “Was broken in the view of the villagers. Though I think it’s salvageable. There was a lot of commotion at the time and they were getting their marks back. The Elements have promised to keep it quiet and I think all that might come from it may be unconfirmed rumours. Those we already have.”

Luna nodded and leaned against me, “You were lucky. It won’t last.”

“I’ll handle that as it happens.” I sighed before I smiled and rested my head against her neck as her wing rested across my back, “Speaking of which, as soon as I get back, I’m changing from hero to villain.”

Luna just looked at me, raising her eyebrow, “What?”

“I plan to kidnap a Princess and take her to a deserted tropical island to do unspeakable things to her. There may be screaming involved.”

That got a laugh from her and she nuzzled at my ear, “That sounds wonderful… but impossible. I’m sorry, my Page. But I can’t.”

“I’m sure they have a Moon there too, Luna.”

“It’s not that, Page.” She sighed, “A few days ago we got news that the king of the griffons has passed away.”

“Oh?”

She nodded, “Equestria is expected to send a royal representative to the funeral and then observe the trials for a new ruler.”

I pulled back to frown up at her, “Why you? Send Blueblood!”

Luna snorted, “Page, we would be at war before the week was over.”

“… I’m not sure about that. He is less useless than he pretends to be. If barely,” I said and then flicked my ears. “And why you? Someone else can go. There are more than two princesses now.”

Luna shook her head, “Who would go, Page? Princess Cadance? She is busy running the Crystal Empire and getting them integrated into the modern world. My sister? Something on this short notice would send most of the capital into chaos if she simply dropped everything. Then there is everything now involving Starlight Glimmer. Twilight will also be quite busy with that and her own duties as the Element of Magic.”

“…This sucks,” I finally sighed.

“It does,” she agreed and then smiled. “Now, if there was an alicorn I knew that got along well with other species I could send…”

I just gave her a flat look, drawing a giggle.

“Too late now anyway,” she sighed. “I’m already on the ship, we just left the port.”

I just groaned, “This sucks even more. I can’t come with you?”

Luna hesitated and laid down, pulling me down along her with her wing, “A sky chariot could might still catch us.”

I thought about that for a second before I collapsed against her side, “Would it even work?”

“Between your studies, duties, training of Sunset and whatever else comes up, my Page, along with my duties?” Luna asked and nuzzled at my ear. “Maybe.”

I rolled onto my back to look up at her, “How long will this entire thing take?”

She grimaced, “…A month or two.”

I just stared up at her, “TWO MONTHS!?”

“At most. The longest coronation trial I remember lasted just over a moon.”

Frowning in thought, I slowly nodded, “…You are just a day out. Sky chariots are fast.”

Luna smiled sadly. “By the time you reach Canterlot I will be over three days out and moving away still. They are not that fast. I’m sorry, my Page.”

“…This sucks,” I sighed and leaned against her side.

Fuck, I really deserved some Luna time after this bullshit. I wished it would just stop being one thing after another.

I then frowned in thought, “Luna… can I talk to you about Sunset for a moment?”

“Hmm?”

Chapter 17

I opened my eyes and looked across the table at where Sunset was sitting, a book floating ahead of her. “Sunset?”

“Hmh?” she asked and looked up from it, turning the page. “Welcome back.”

“Thanks. How do you feel about griffons?”

That earned me a strange look. “…Does being cryptic come with the entire alicorn thing or something?”

I rolled my eyes. “I just found out I rather dislike them, is all,” I sighed and then explained to her what Luna told me.

“Oh… Sorry to hear that. I guess you have to make do with little old me,” she commented and smiled, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

I tossed a cookie at her. “It’s a state visit, not a vacation, I’m mostly bummed I can’t come along. I miss her.”

Sunset flicked an ear in thought before she finally nodded. “I know. Not like you could commandeer another airship or something. We don’t have enough of them.”

I nodded. Equestria only had like four of that class.

“So, what’s the plan when we get back to Canterlot? Starlight Glimmer?”

Considering that, I then shook my head. “No… not unless Celestia asks me to talk to her anyway. I plan to leave that entire thing to Twilight if possible.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Well, I plan to take a long, deep soak at the spa. There is one rather close to the castle,” Sunset said with a smile. “Expensive, but well worth it when I can afford it.”

Grinning at that, I nodded. “Well, you deserve it. Thanks for coming with, Sunny. You did a good job. Actually, bill it to me. I’ll pay this time.”

“Welcome and thanks!”

I shook my head. “I’m serious, Sunset. You are good, better than you used to be. As good as me… almost.”

“Almost my perfect tail!”

I grinned at her. “I seem to remember winning… almost every time. But less often than before… Apprentice.”

Sitting up from where she had been laying, Sunset stared at me. “What?”

“Congratulations, Apprentice. You are a Warmage.”

Sunset Shimmer just gaped at me. “I’m a what?”

“If you want to be,” I explained. “You helped take down a major threat to Equestria with Tirek.”

“I barely did anything but run in fear!”

“…And then you now defeated Starlight Glimmer,” I continued, ignoring her interruption. “Your training is going well, you are fast, accurate and powerful.”

Sunset just stared at me. “So you want me to join this special order? With only you in it?”

“Well, technically Luna is in charge. But it makes sense,” I said. “Equestria is under constant threat. Even with the Guard and the Elements, something more is needed. Why not breathe some life into an old idea? I discussed it with Luna, she thought it was a great idea.”

“So, you are just going to… what, rebuild the Jedi Order? And yes, I did notice you copied a lot for those books. You better hope the portal between universes never becomes public knowledge or you will be sued so hard.”

I shrugged. “Eh, fair enough. I think they are more adaptations than anything. But no. Honestly, at this point I’m mostly thinking that you are doing the work and learning the stuff, you might as well have the cloak. You have earned it from my point of view, especially for how you handled Starlight Glimmer. Luna agreed.”

Sunset swallowed and then nodded. “I… I… I need to think about it.”

“Do that,” I said with a smile. “Just remember that I would outrank you. Which means I can order you to fuck off when you are being a pain.”

She just stuck her tongue out at me. “Like you don’t already. How is that going for you?”

I just snorted and tossed one of the apples on the table at her. She caught it in her magic field with a grin. “So… What now?”

I shrugged. “Now we get to Canterlot and take a week of doing nothing.”

Sunset nodded, “Sounds nice,” and took a bite from the apple before she grinned. “Honestly, I didn’t think the entire ‘Warmage’ thing was real. I mean, I know it used to be a thing far in the past, but I always assumed starting it again was some kind of roleplay thing between you and Princess Luna.”

That was a lot closer to reality than I'd like her to know about. The main reason Luna did this was because she liked the uniform. The fact that it renewed a tradition was just a side effect.

Sunset stared at me. “…Seriously?”

“No!”

She giggled. “Seriously!? That’s why!? It really did start as some sort of roleplay thing!”

“… She likes the uniform,” I grumbled. Damn it, Sunset was getting way too good at reading me.

Sunset grinned at me and then looked out the window. “No worries, I’m not judging.”

I just sighed and leaned against the backrest.

“…Though, wouldn’t the cloak and belts get in the way when…”

“Freddy fucking Krueger, Sunset!”

She just grinned. “Oh come off it, you know I’m just teasing. It ‘does’ look good on you.”

I shook my head and sighed again. “I know. Could you just… tone it down a bit, okay?” I asked. “Please?”

“…Okay.”

We sat in silence for a moment before Sunset frowned. “Page?”

“Yeah?”

“…Sorry. I didn’t mean to… you know?”

“I know. I don’t really mind, it just gets a bit much from time to time, you know?”

“Sorry.”

Chapter 18

Emerald eyes glared at me for a long moment before the insectoid owner finally spoke up, her voice somewhere just north of liquid helium. “Sir.”

“Evening, Skitter,” I said carefully, shifting my wings slightly. I had let the illusion over my wings drop as we were in Luna's and my rooms. Everyone with access already knew. “What did I do?”

“You sent Amber away,” she said with a frown. “Page, she was with you for a reason.”

I frowned right back at her as I put the box with my Chakram in a bigger trunk along with my other things I was going to bring.

“Skitter, I figured the safety of the world was worth slightly higher risk for me. I was with the Elements and Princess Twilight. I was fine.”

“You were not fine! You got hit!”

“…Okay, sure. But not seriously. Wasn’t even hurt, not really,” I admitted. “Honestly… And the message needed to be delivered. What if something had happened and it was worse than I originally thought? What if Princess Celestia had had her special talent stolen?”

Skitter stared at me for a long moment before she sighed. “…Fine.”

“Amber didn’t get into trouble, did she?”

“No, it was a legitimate order. The safety of the hive supersedes yours,” Skitter admitted, her wings buzzing for a second in annoyance. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“I didn’t like getting smacked down either so I guess we are even then,” I commented and walked up, wrapping my wing around the changeling, leaning against her larger side.

It’s funny really, they were softer than they looked. Their ‘shell’ had quite a lot of spring in it.

“And what is this I heard about the griffons?” she asked, as she turned her head. “You are leaving?”

I shook my head. “No. No way to catch up with the airship, not over open water.”

“Amber and Leaf will be waiting for you tomorrow then,” she said with a nod.

Pulling back, I frowned at the slightly taller changeling. “Two? Seriously?”

“You seem to need it! That way, one can be sent for a threat against the hive and the second can stay and keep you safe.”

“I… No, Skitter. One, okay. Two? You can’t have half your hive following me around!” I exclaimed, spreading my wings. “Chrysalis can’t order you around anymore, you don’t need to keep protecting me anymore.”

“No. But I want to.”

“Skitter… I can’t have two changelings following me around, we are in Canterlot, I don’t need one guard, yet alone two!”

She glared at me before she nodded. “…Very well. Amber and one of the ponies.”

“Skitter…”

“One of the warriors. The guards. Sunset Shimmer will be too busy protecting herself when she is around to be able to protect you if you get in danger,” she said and shook her head. “So it has to be an actual guard. One sworn to protect you.”

“Skitter, that’s really no….” I trailed off when I saw her expression. It was the one that told me I had already lost and there was really no use arguing anymore. Nothing I said could possibly change her mind.

I shook my head and sighed. “…Fine,” I finally said. “I’ll ask the Night Guard for a volunteer.”

“Thank you.”

“How have you been then?” I asked as I returned to my unpacking, scowling at the new formal suit Rarity made for me. I was thankful and all, but… suit. Not really my thing.

Skitter smiled and settled down, jumping onto one of the chairs, lying down with her front legs hooked over the armrest. Why they were called that here, I had no idea.

“Good. But very busy,” she admitted and her wings buzzed for a second. “Princess Celestia keeps me… very busy. Her lessons are thorough and very, very…”

“Boring?” I suggested with a smile.

She frowned. “Experienced.”

Oh, I had to remember that one next time I talked to Celestia. “Well… thousands of years of ruling.”

Skitter nodded. “I know. It’s just… so much I need to learn and I keep feeling like I will never be able to learn everything I need.”

“You will be able to handle it,” I said with a smile. “You are already good at handling your mini-hive. Just do what you think is right.”

“…But what if the right thing turns out to be the wrong thing?”

I shook my head. “You never know that. All you or anyone can do is their best, use their best judgement. But I do know you, Skitter. You will make the right call… and if you make a mistake, you will learn from it.”

Skitter frowned to herself. “… I hope so, sir.”

Walking over to her, I poked her with my wing, focusing on love to give her a burst of it. “I know you will. And you can always ask someone with experience. You are not alone in this.”

Skitter smiled slightly and leaned against my side.

Chapter 19

Trotting towards the closed door, I carefully pushed it open and slipped through into the throne room. Keeping to the back, I kept out of sight, sticking close to one of the pillars close to the main doors, behind most of the crowd and general hanger-ons.

Celestia was on her throne like normal when she held court, in this case she seemed to be handling an application for a loan from the crown.

I settled down to watch. Normally those were handled lower down and only reached one of the Princesses to sign or if they were large enough to demand personal attention.

I mostly ignored what was being said to observe Celestia. She had the same smile on as I had seen her use a thousand times before. The friendly half professional, half motherly smile she used in public. What she was really thinking behind it was impossible to determine.

Not without having seen her dreams in any case.

She was lonely.

I also happened to know that Thunder Cloud had a thing for her even if there was no way he would ever dare do anything about it.

Not that I could blame him really. I mean, look at her. If the size, snow white coat and northern lights mane didn’t make it clear enough, the fact that she controlled the sun kind of made it abundantly clear to anyone that learned of her...

She was as much of a Goddess as my Luna.

Of course, I didn’t have the kind of feelings for her as I had for Luna. If it wasn’t for Luna… then maybe in time. Celestia was one of my best friends after all.

Sunset was silly, but she wasn’t completely wrong. Just not in the way she thought she was.

I couldn’t spend the next couple of months with Luna. Fine. I just have to find some other way to occupy my time between my dream duties and writing.

I really should introduce Thunder Cloud to Celestia. He already has a thing for her, he just needs to get to know her as a person, not as a Goddess and I think she would enjoy his company.

Yes. That I could do.

The horn sounded and the Court was over. Ponies started to file out as Celestia stood up from the throne, her wings held high and to the side, showing their entire span.

I just waited until the last pack of noble hanger-ons moved past and the doors closed before I moved away from the pillars and onto the soft carpet along the middle of the room to approach the throne, “Celestia.”

“Page,” she said, her smile shifting slightly in a way only somepony that knew her well would be able to tell, turning more real, “Welcome back.”

“Thanks,” I said and smiled up at her, “How’s Canterlot?”

“As well as can be expected.”

I just nodded at that. I knew exactly how busy she must be, especially now with Luna out of the country.

“Twilight arrived with Starlight Glimmer,” Celestia said, “She explained everything in greater detail than Rainbow Dash did.”

I just snorted at that, “I should have written it down?”

“Remind me to teach you and Twilight how to send messages without dragon fire,” she said in amusement, “But we got the general idea on what went on. Well done, Lord Page.”

“Sunset was the one to knock her down.”

“So I heard. I intend to go see her tonight,” Celestia said and flicked her ear, “Want to get something to eat?”

I nodded and moved up next to her, “Please.”

I had rather missed the chefs of the castle while in Ponyville. Spike was good and all, but he wasn’t world class.

By the time we arrived at her private dining room, the food was already on the table and nice and warm.

Celestia smiled at the ponies attending, the chef standing by the door, “Thank you, Silver Bright. It look lovely.”

“My pleasure, Princess.” The unicorn with the grey, almost silvery coat answered with a bow.

“We will be dining alone tonight,” Celestia continued, “Please?”

“Of course, Princess. Just let us know if there is anything you require.”

Moments later, we were alone in the room and Celestia sank down on one of the thick pillows by the table before she visibly relaxed, her forehead thumping against the table.

I let my illusion go and stretched my wings. If she was so sure we were alone that she could do that, then nopony would see them.

“Are you okay?”

Raising her head again, Celestia nodded, “I am. It has just been… a long day.”

“Ah.” I agreed and sank down across from her, “Want to talk about it?”

Celestia shook her head and filled her goblet from one of the bottles of wine, “It’s nothing special. Just… small thing after small thing. I’m glad you all made it back safe.”

“We all have those days,” I agreed and then smiled, “Thanks. It really is good to be back.”

“Sorry you missed Luna.”

“Me too,” I said and then frowned up at the large Alicorn, “Lots of things to do?”

“Running Equestria had gotten so much easier with Luna back,” Celestia admitted with a small smile, “Always so much to do when she isn’t around.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

Chapter 20

Walking up to Luna's and mine rooms, I paused as I spotted three guards instead of the normal two. Giving them a nod I continued on, “Swift, been a while. Come on in.”

“Thank you, sir,” He said and trotted after me, closing the door behind us before taking off his helmet. His coat shifting from blackish grey to its more normal blue, “Welcome back.”

“Thanks,” I said and smiled at him, “How’s Minuette?”

That got a grin from him, “Good. Got promoted at the café. She handle the baked goods now.”

“Awesome. We can get freebies!”

That got a snort from him, “You can buy the entire café!”

“It’s the thought that counts. Drink?”

“…Can’t. Sorry, I’m on duty.”

I flicked my ear in thought at that, “Did you change shift?”

He nodded with a smile, “Promotion for me too. Volunteered to follow some stuffy noble around the place. Higher pay and more interesting than patrolling or standing by a door. What’s not to like?”

I just stared at him for a moment before shaking my head, “Dude. Didn’t you learn anything in boot? Never volunteer for anything. I’m civilian and even I know that one!”

That have got to apply for Equestria as much as for Earth, right?

“Come on, how bad can it be? Besides, think of the career boost!”

“Have you met me!?”

Honestly, I didn’t mind that he used his friendship with me to boost his career. Not in this way anyway. I would actually had suggested it if I thought he really was that stupid.

Swift rolled his eyes, “Page, other than the random extreme, you spend most of the time just having a normal life… well, as normal as it can be. Besides, you are an Alicorn. How bad can it be?”

“The weakest Alicorn. Out here, I am barely stronger than a Unicorn,” I sighed, “Well, not like I’m any smarter. I asked Celestia, ‘what can I do to help’. Guess we are both idiots.”

Swift frowned, “What did Princess Celestia say?”

“Guess who is attending the festival of the arts as her representative next week?”

“…That’s all? Isn’t that kind of your thing anyway?” he asked with raised eyebrow, “Alicorn of imagination and all that?”

“You would think so, wouldn’t you,” I grumbled and stretched my wings as I trotted over to the hot teapot, floating a pair of cups over, “But I can’t draw stuff to save my life. Well, could be worse I guess. Could have been some Gala or something.”

“Doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I sighed as I folded my wings, “Could be worse I suppose. You sure you want the job still? You have to get along with Amber.”

“Skitter wasn’t that bad.”

“Amber is similar to Skitter pre stick removal,” I said and then paused, “And she is behind me, isn’t she?”

“Yes sir.” A voice behind me answered.

“..Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” I said and turned to Amber with a cringe.

She nodded, “I know, sir,” the changeling answered with a smile, “It’s my job to be sticky. It mean I’m doing my job well. Princess Skitter said you need looking after and from what I see, I agree. I like it and you taste good. I know what you really feel.”

“Still, that was mean,” I said and directed appreciation and friendship towards her the best I could, “You deserve better.”

She just fluttered her wings with a smile, “Thank you, sir.”

“Well, you would be working with Swift in the foreseeable future I think,” I told her, “You okay with that?”

Amber nodded, “Yes, sir. The Princess already told me.”

“Oh, good.”

Skitter might be learning a bit ‘too’ much from Celestia. I should go visit her hive a bit later, maybe tomorrow.

But for now…

Stretching my wings one last time, I looked at Swift, “Ditch the armour.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Page?”

“I can’t have an armed guard following me around all the time, dude. All that’s going to do is attract attention I don’t want.”

Swift didn’t look overly happy about that so he looked over at Amber.

She sighed, “He is right, Sergeant. Magic has to be enough.”

Shaking his head, Swift started to remove his armour, “…I’m starting to see that I made a horrible mistake.”

“Welcome to the club,” I snorted, “If we actually go somewhere away from Canterlot, fine. Depending on the situation. But I doubt you will need it in the city.”

“Maybe. But I reserve the right to tell you ‘I told you so’.”

“Fine. Well, if you are going to come along, let’s get going. I need to go pick up Fern before he drives Silver crazy.”

Author's Notes:

Unbetaed due to time constraints. Sorry.
Will fix as soon as I can.

Chapter 21

The streets of Canterlot were as familiar as always, bustling at their best in the late summer. Ponies all over the place, selling goods in stands or just moving around their lives.

As we approached a certain café, I couldn’t help but smile as the first scent of something extremely tasty hit my nose. Cookies or some kind of cake.

“Man, what is that?” Swift asked. “That smells amazing.”

“That would be Silver Leaf,” I answered with a smile that turned a bit sad after a moment. “She is almost as good as her father was.”

His loss had been a sad one. Not that there were any that weren’t.

Trotting up to the open door, I moved past several packed tables outside to enter the small café. It was mostly like I remembered it.

A warm environment with maybe five tables inside, candles on the tables and a small counter with a great number of baked goods.

There was a line by the counter as ponies got their coffee and baked goods for the evening. Must have arrived in the middle of the after work rush.

Oops.

“Lord Page!”

Looking over, I spotted a silver coated pegasus round the counter with a big smile, moving past the unicorn manning the counter. “I thought that was you!”

I smiled at her. “Hey Silver. How are things?”

“Good!” she answered and gave me a quick hug before dropping back down to all fours. “Had to hire someone to handle the counter to keep up.”

I nodded. “And you?”

She smiled sadly and flicked her braid over her other shoulder. “…Well enough. Daddy wouldn’t have wanted me to stop. He loved this… I love this. He would want me to continue.”

Nodding again, I then blinked. “…Sorry, I’m being rude. Have you met Swift Spear?” I said and motioned to the other unicorn.

Silver smiled and nodded. “I have,” she answered and then winked at him. “Wouldn’t forget him I think.”

Swift cleared his throat. “Nice to see you again, Miss Leaf.”

“Please, Silver,” she said with a grin before looking over at me. “Here for Fern?”

“Among other things,” I agreed. “Some tea would be nice. How has he been doing?”

“Coming right up!” she said and then giggled. “He is adorable. Who would think a big bad Timberwolf could be so cute? Kept trying to get into my food, but he has been pretty well behaved.”

As she trotted off, I looked at Swift with an eyebrow raised. “Wouldn’t forget you? Really?” I asked with a smirk.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” I commented and moved over to one of the free corner tables. “Ever brought Minuette here?” That was funny!

That would be amusing. Would have been more fun with Thunder Cloud even.

Of course, it wasn’t my place to meddle really… even if I did need an excuse to introduce Thunder Cloud to Celestia in some sort of non-formal environment.

Hmm. Maybe enlist Luna’s help with it?

Oh, who am I kidding. I’m such an idiot. Cadence! Of course! Who else to ask for help but the Alicorn of fucking Love!

I’ll stop by her dreams tonight.

“…Maybe I should,” Swift admitted. “She does like her coffee…”

“Barbarians. Both of you!”

“…and they do have some pretty good muffins here,” he continued like I didn’t say anything. It was a common argument between us.

Coffee versus tea.

He was wrong of course.

“Wruf.”

The sound of wood against wood and the chlorofiend scrambled across the floor to pound at me. Grinning I caught Fern in my magic. “Hey there, you weed. Have fun with Silver?`”

Fern wiggled in my magic and then licked at my face with his leaf tongue and I nuzzled back before putting him down, rubbing between his twig and leaf ears with my hoof as Silver trotted up with a bag in her mouth and a tray resting on her wing with three cups on it. “Here you go. One spicy tea with honey and milk and one black coffee, strong. And two pieces of steaming hot apple pie. Oh, and here are Fern’s toys and food.”

“Thank you, Silver,” I answered with a nod. “You are amazing. Thank you so much for watching him.”

She smiled as she set the bag down and transferred the tray onto the table. “Anytime, Page. I mean it, I liked looking after him.”

“How much do I owe you for the tea?”

She rolled her eyes. “You know your bits are no good here, so stop trying. Give me a second and I’ll join you two, just need to check on the oven first.”

Chapter 22

The dream realm was shining like stars all around as I exited the last of the bad dreams. Tonight was a good night.

Just a couple of thousand bad dreams. Thirty or so that were bad enough to need my attention to check for actual Nightmares.

A total of one contained an actual Nightmare. A scrawny little thing that tried to turn into a clown to scare me. I’m not even afraid of clowns. It almost got away, I was so busy laughing at it.

Which might have actually been its plan. Fair enough, almost worked. Which made it smarter than most of its kind.

Even more important to smash it before it grew older and stronger.

I glanced up at the ‘sky’ above. It always reminded me of Luna.

Now… work over for now. What to do now? Get some actual sleep or…

I could go find Luna. I did plan to do that later in any case, but the question was if I wanted to do something else first.

Celestia maybe?

Ooh, I just remembered that idea I had earlier. Now, where is Cadence?

A small application of will and the silvery portals rearranged all around the area before the one before me was replaced to one that felt very much like Princess Cadence.

The silvery portal shimmered healthily. Someone was dreaming nice dreams. From the colour, they didn’t seem to be too private either.

I learned very quickly to stay far away from any dreams with a pink shine to them.

This one was nice and silvery with a slight clear blue hint to it. Nice and peaceful dream. Reaching out I touched the silvery surface before trotting through into her dream world.

Reality shimmered around me and congealed into a living room. In the middle was a little purple unicorn and a young, but still older alicorn, looking like she was in her young teens.

“Come on, Twily, you can do it!” she cheered on the little unicorn who had a deep look of concentration on her face, slowly lifting a couple of books, causing them to orbit around her.

D’aww!

They were adorable!

Still, not something I should really be intruding on. This was a happy memory for her.

I tapped my hoof against the floor, sending out a pulse of will and magic, solidifying the dream and making the dreamer aware of what was going on.

Cadence started slightly and blinked, looking around.

I gave her a small wave. “Hey Cadence.”

She blinked twice. “…Page? Is that you?” she asked before looking around again at the playing Twilight. “Am I dreaming?”

“You are,” I confirmed with a smile. “I was patrolling the dreamscape and thought I would stop by and say hi,” I said as I looked at Twilight. “She is adorable.”

Cadence smiled and looked at her. “Yeah. Yeah, she was,” she sighed before she looked back at me again. “What is it like? Dream walking?”

I shrugged my wings. “Like this. Honestly, I stay out as much as I can, I only check the really bad dreams for Nightmares. I try not to violate privacy when I can avoid it.”

“Nightmares?” Cadence asked with a frown.

“…You don’t want to know. How’s things in the Crystal Empire?”

Cadence smiled and then sighed. “Good, it’s a lot of work but things are going well. Even the... changelings.”

“No trouble then?”

She shook her head. “…No. I may not like them personally, but they haven’t caused any trouble,” Cadence admitted. “Model citizens while they gather their love.”

I nodded. I expected them to behave.

Changelings were very reliable like that. Not exactly prone to acting out.

“Actually, there is something I would like to ask you about…” I said and looked around before moving over to jump onto the couch to lay down, folding my wings again. “About Celestia.”

Cadence smiled and settled down in one of the armchairs. “Oh? Why me?”

“Well, it involves your Domain so I figured why not ask an expert?”

Smiling brighter, Cadence spread her wings. “Okay, this is what I know that she’d like. You should surprise her, none of these normal ‘surprise flowers or chocolates’ things, what you should try is to…”

“Not me!” I exclaimed, staring at her. “What? Cadence, are you okay? You do remember that I’m with Luna, right?”

Cadence's ears drooped a bit and she sighed, shaking her head. “So for whom then?”

I gave her a suspicious look. “… A friend of mine. Thunder Cloud, he is a member of the Royal Guard and I do know he finds her interesting and attractive. He is just… intimidated. He wouldn’t ever dare to approach her. I want Celestia to be happy.”

She looked thoughtful for a moment as she watched me. “Page, I’m not sure that will work.”

“Why?”

“Celestia needs someone that can keep up. Someone that can see her for her and not be intimidated by who she is,” Cadence said with a sad smile. “If he can’t do that on his own…”

“… I’m just looking to give him a chance to get to know her. Let her get a chance to know him. Anything else would be up to them.”

Cadence frowned. “I’m not sure it will work, Page. But if you just want to introduce them, why not hold a party and invite all your friends?”

I blinked at her in surprise. “…I’m such an idiot!”

“It come with being male I think, Shiny is the same at times,” she commented with a smile. “Just remember that anything more than introductions would be up to them.”

Chapter 23

“Lord Page? Lord Page?”

Pausing on the way back to the castle, I looked around until I spotted a white and pink unicorn. Uhm, I knew her from somewhere. What was her name again?

I remember her from somewhere...

A pink and white unicorn mare, just a filly really. Alone in her bedroom. Her mother and father out for some sort of high society gala.

Alone. Not mattering.

Fleur.

Fleur Dis Lee.

That’s her name. I canceled or redirected her dreams to happier places often enough that I would recognize her.

“Miss Dis Lee,” I answered as I stopped with a smile and a nod, while Swift stepped back with Fern to give us room. “It’s been a while.”

Two nights ago, in reality, but she didn’t know that. Last time in this realm was… some of the things Luna wouldn’t let me skip. Something like half a year?

Fleur smiled easily. “Far too long, Lord Page. How have you been?”

“Good, Good. You?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Busy, busy,” she replied before she smiled. “That’s part of what I need to speak to you about. “

I flicked my ear. “What can I do for you, Miss Dis Lee?”

“Please, call me Fleur,” she said with a smile. “I know you rarely attend social events, but I would like to extend an invitation to a charity auction I am holding for the Canterlot Hospital.”

I hesitated at that. “Page then,” I answered and hmmed. “When?”

Fleur cringed slightly,. “Next week. I apologize for the short notice, but you are a difficult stallion to get hold of.”

“Charity auction?” I asked. “Does the Crown not handle the Hospital's budget?”

She nodded. “It does, but the Hospital always needs more. Every little bit helps and it’s a good way for the upper class to give back to Equestria.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong, but that wasn't my first thought as I looked at her. What came to mind first was a little unicorn, alone and hoping to one day matter.

I scraped my hoof against the street for a second in thought before I nodded. “Well, it is for a good cause. I suppose I could make an appearance.”

“Excellent! I’m so glad to hear that!”

I smiled at her. “Just get the details sent to me and I’ll be there,” I told her before I frowned in thought. “In fact, I may be able to do one better.”

Her ears flicked in interest. “Oh?”

I nodded. “Are the items up for auction already selected?”

Fleur shook her head. “No, not until the day before. Would you like to make a donation?”

“Well, not sure if it’s of interest, but I do still have the first drafts of my Jedi series taking up space on my shelf, spelling errors and notes in the margin and all that. Before a bit of a rewrite. Would that be something you would be interested in?”

Fleur stared at me, her ears perking up and she nodded with a smile. “Yes! Yes it would! Thank you so much!”

I shrugged. “Least I could do for a good cause. I’ll have them shipped over to you tomorrow if that’s alright.”

“Yes, thank you! Thank you so much!”

“Just send me the invitation and I’ll be there.”

“Will do! Have a nice evening, Lord Page!”

“You too, Fleur,” I agreed with a nod as she left. Hopefully without any nightmares tonight. As I turned back to head towards the castle with Swift, I made a mental note to check on her later.

It didn’t take long until I saw Swift watching me. “…What?”

“Did you just get invited to a fancy event just walking down the street?”

“Welcome to my life.” I snorted. “Honestly, it doesn’t happen that often. Second time I remember and first I accepted without being pushed into it. Felt like a good cause to be honest.”

Swift slowly nodded. “Sounded like it. Well, always wondered what those fancy things were like.”

“Keep wondering, can’t wander in there with two guards and Amber blends in better,” I said with a smirk. “Besides, those things take all evening. I don’t want to draw the ire of Minuette by keeping you away from home too much. That mare scares me.”

She honestly did.

But it was more of a ‘really don’t want to make her sad as it would make me feel horrible’ way.

“...Point…” he answered and shrugged. “Thanks.”

I suddenly paused and facehoofed. “Oh for… I just realized I need a date for this entire thing. Bollocks.”

“Could always bring Amber along,” Swift offered. “Would solve two problems at once.”

Without visible guard and get a date at the same time. A thought struck me though… hmm…

“On the other hoof, I actually think I know someone who would be interested in this kind of thing. I bet it’s the kind of thing Twilight would like.”

Might as well bring someone who’d like it.

Chapter 24

“Well? What do you think?” I asked Luna as I lounged on a cloud high over the now long lost town that surrounded what used to be the Castle of the Two Sisters, in what was now the Everfree Forest.

She lifted her head from my chest with a smile. “I think it’s a great idea, Page. Twilight will love it.”

“Hope so,” I agreed and sighed. “I do owe her a lot for teaching me how to fly… and for letting us stay at her place. Besides, I think she’ll like it.”

Luna smiled and relaxed again. “Mmm.”

I put my forelegs around her and sighed, closing my eyes. I just wish we weren’t in a dream right now. Better than nothing, but I really missed her in the real world.

I didn’t even get a chance to give her that gift.

“How’s things with the griffons?” I finally asked, causing Luna to sigh. “That bad?” I then added and opened my eyes to look at her.

She flicked her ears and shrugged her wings. “No… In all honesty not. If nothing else, they remind me of a simpler time, long ago,” she mused before she smiled at me. “I suspect you would enjoy this quite a lot, my Page.”

“Oh?”

Luna nodded and shifted off me to tap her hoof against the cloud and I felt the dream shift as she poured her will and magic into it.

With more experience now, I could feel it. I could feel the effort she put into it and the magic flowing. She worked a lot harder to make changes than I needed to. Which made the fact that she could still overpower me anytime all the more impressive.

I glanced at her as I rolled onto my stomach with a smile. My Goddess.

The hole in the cloud spread to reveal a city below, centered around a grand pyramid with a number of terraces on it.

Honestly, it was all rather impressive.

“Nice,” I commented. “Is the scale wrong or is that larger than the Royal Palace?”

“It is,” Luna confirmed with a nod as she settled her wing over my back. “They worked for generations to build it. It’s the Palace, that’s where the new King will take residence.”

Nodding I frowned in thought. “Luna… I have not thought about it before, but why do I only see dreams of ponies? Not griffons or dragons?”

“Because ponies come naturally,” she answered and nipped at my ear tip with a smile. “The other races take work to reach. Once you are ready, I’ll teach you how.”

That made sense, I suppose.

“So how do they elect their ruler? You said it was some kind of Game?”

“The Great Game,” Luna agreed. “Made up of politics, economy, personal power, contacts, allies, alliances… tactics, strategy and even personal combat.”

I slowly nodded. “How does that work?”

Luna shifted her wings a bit. “Different challenges advance or make their piece fall back on the board, depending on their performance. It’s all rather complex. But the result is that in the end, there will only be one winner and he or she will rule.”

She was right, that sounded really complex. But if they got it to work, it might even be better than democracy in theory. In theory at least, it would let the best possible griffon become their new leader.

But only in theory. In theory a lot of systems sounded good, the real test was to have them work in practice. What do I know though, sounded like it works for them?

“Ah,” I said and looked down at the city before I eyed Luna. “So that’s the real reason.”

“What do you mean?” she asked with a frown.

I smirked. “Oh, the reason I was unable to come. The distance to the airship was just an excuse, wasn’t it?”

Luna tilted her head. “Page, what do you mean?”

“You were afraid I would join the game and become king of the griffons, weren’t you?” I asked with a grin. “King Page. I would then conquer Equestria! I would steal ALL the cakes and The Royal Sisters would be mine! MuhahahEEEP!”

“Silly Page,” Luna giggled and let go of my ear. “You would hate being King.”

“…Hmm, true. I suppose Equestira is safe,” I answered and flicked my ear with a smirk. “For now.”

“For now, hmm?” Luna asked with a smile as she eyed me. “You and what army? I would have you know I could defeat you on the field of battle.”

“I have a lot of fans. I’m sure rabid fanmares would be quite effective against the Royal Guard.”

Luna and I looked at each other for a long moment before breaking down laughing.

As we slowly calmed down, I grinned and leaned against her side with a grin, before I sighed and raised my head to nuzzle at her chin. “…Miss you.”

Luna smiled softly and sighed, nuzzling back before giving me a soft kiss. “I miss you too, my Page. I wish you were here.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

Holding me a bit tighter with her wing, I relaxed against her, looking down at the city below. “…Are you having fun at least?”

“Somewhat,” Luna admitted. “I have to admit that it’s nice to have a change from my normal duties for a while.”

I nodded. “Good. You deserve a break.”

Smiling, Luna kissed my cheek. “It’s nice. Getting to be morning though.”

“Yeah… I can feel it too,” I sighed and then got up to kiss her properly. “Good morning, my Sky.”

“Good morning, Page,” Luna murmured back before the world dissolved into nothing and I opened my eyes to see Celestia’s sun rise above the horizon.

Wonder if I can get Celestia to sleep in sometime? Bribes maybe?

Ugh. Too early.

Sighing, I rolled over and pulled the covers over my head. Stupid sun.

Chapter 25

“So, how is it going?” I asked as I settled down by the table across from Twilight in her room/observatory/library.

Honestly, I was not surprised this was where she lived when in Canterlot. It just fit her so well it was ridiculous.

Twilight shrugged her wings and sighed, “She still refuses to talk to me,” she said, then frowned and speared a cherry tomato from her salad on her fork, “I have tried everything.”

“You’ll figure it out,” I said and poked at my salad, “I got through to Sunset, but Sunny was never… well, insane. But you are the Princess of Friendship and everything, I mean, if anypony can get her to talk it's you…”

Twilight sighed and nodded, “Not sure she is insane, but… I don’t know. To blatantly change the subject, any word on Discord?”

“No sign of him so far,” I answered and shook my head, “Seriously, not a single sighting, sign or anything like it. It’s like he just evaporated or something… which honestly isn’t out of the realm of possibility if he took that magic blast to the face when Tirek went supercritical. I didn’t see him there, but…”

Twilight eyed a piece of carrot, “Maybe he is hiding.”

I eyed her piece of carrot. Evil vegetable. Wonder if I can get Luna to ban them?

I then turned back to my evil free salad, “Discord doesn’t strike me as a being that can keep hidden. But… he is powerful enough that for all I know, he just Noped all the way over to the other side of the world. Or even to another world.”

“I really thought he had changed his ways,” Twilight sighed, “He was a friend… is a friend. Why did he do it?”

“His nature, I guess. Chaos…”

An open mind is a fortress with its gates open and unbarred… no wait, wrong universe. Like any of the actual chaos gods would allow something like Discord in their forces. Well, maybe the Changer of Ways.

Pushing that silly thought out of my head I smiled, “Forget that for now. If he shows up, we can handle it. If he doesn’t… well, he is somebody else’s problem.”

Twilight nodded, still looking a bit sad about the entire thing, “…Yeah.”

“Well, I know something that’ll cheer you up at least,” I then said, “How do you feel about things?”

“Things?” Twilight asked, “What things?”

“No idea,” I answered and shrugged, “We would need to see when we get there.”

Twilight just looked confused so I grinned,

“There is a charity auction next week. I’m wondering if you want to go with me. I honestly don’t know what they have up for auction other than some of my old drafts, but I do know it’s for the sake of the Canterlot Hospital and then there is a dinner after.”

Twilight smiled and raised her wings, “I would! I have never been to one of those! I heard there is a lot of old historical items sold!”

I blinked at her, “You haven’t? Twilight, you basically grew up in the castle. You are the personal student of Celestia. Don’t you get invitations to these kinds of things all the time?”

She nodded and sipped her water, “I do, I've just never seen the point to going earlier. I mean, I wouldn’t be able to buy anything. When it comes to balls, dinners and things like that… I never was the most social pony before I moved to Ponyville. I prefer a good book.”

“Me too,” I said with a grin, “Luna is the same.”

Twilight grinned, “I figured. So yes, I would love to go with you.”

“Thank you, I was worried I would need to show up alone, I didn’t think of bringing a date when I accepted,” I said before I shrugged, “Honestly, not that big of a deal… but it would leave me needing to talk to other ponies. I’d much rather have somepony to talk to that I actually like.”

“That does sound nicer,” Twilight agreed with a smile, stretching her wings.

Something she said earlier hit me though and I frowned, “Wait… how could you not have the bits for this kind of thing? Princess, student of the Princess, living in the castle.”

She shrugged, “You have more bits than I do.”

“…How?”

Twilight looked amused, “Page, you are a famous author. I’m still a student, I just get a stipend from the Crown and the paycheck I get for handling the Ponyville Library. My parents were never really rich. We did okay and they could afford to send me and Shiny to good schools and such, but....”

I nodded, “…Same here. But without the good schools, just the normal ones in the area. Not that they were bad, they were just not those extra fancy ones. We had everything we needed though and never lacked anything,” I said before I shrugged my wings, “Honestly, I find that as long as you have what you need and want, money doesn’t matter at all. It’s just a pointless number.”

“Exactly!” Twilight agreed with a smile before she picked up a piece of carrot in her magic, “That’s the way I see it too.”

“Mmm.”

We settled into silence for a moment, focused on our salads before Twilight spoke up again, “How is your book coming along?”

“Terminator?” I asked and then sighed, “Well enough, I have it written down. Now I just need to edit and then rewrite and then edit and possibly rewrite before getting it proof read… I’m letting it sit for a week before I start. It really help to look at it with new eyes.”

“I do the same thing with my essays if I can,” Twilight agreed “If you want, I can help with the proofreading.”

“You have the time? Because that would be great,” I with a smile, “I think the checks you did on my last book were really nice.”

She grinned at that, “Are you kidding? For the chance to read it before everypony else? Of course I do!”

Chapter 26

“Page!”

I looked up from where I was relaxing on the park bench, a copy of Daring Do floating before me. The latest book had just been released… or rather, would be released sometime next week.

Despite what I talked to Twilight about a couple of days ago, having a lot of money and connections with printers did have a couple of advantages.

“Thunder Cloud,” I said with a grin as I jumped off the bench, “Been ages!”

The Pegasus dropped down from the air and folded his wings, his coat white and his light blue mane wind swept. He was out of armour of course or he would be fully white like most of the other pegasi in the guard.

He grinned, “Things have been crazy busy,” he said and shrugged his wings, “Between training, patrols, messenger duty and everything else… besides, you were out of town!”

“True,” I agreed and shouldered him with a grin, “how have you been?”

Thunder grinned, “Good enough. Like I said, hard work. The Princess is putting together a new unit and they needed a scout. Besides, came with a promotion!”

That was news to me. I think I’ll ask about it next time we have tea.

“Sergeant?” I asked with raised eyebrows, “Congratulations!”

“Thanks,” he said and smirked, “Not all of us can be lazy civilians and lounge around all day.”

I just snorted at that, “Dude, I practice as much as you do!”

“You would have to with all that fancy food,” he answered with a grin, “Have to keep in shape for the Princess," before he frowned, “Speaking of… how is it going with the… you know?” he asked and shrugged his wings.

Thunder was one of the few ponies that knew what I was now. One of my closest friends, how could I not tell him?

I glanced back at my sides beneath the illusion, “Okay? I can mostly go in the right direction and I have mostly stopped breaking things when I arrive?”

He grinned and tapped his hoof on my shoulder, “You need more practice.”

“How? Not like I could just take off,” I answered and rolled my eyes, “Would make it a bit difficult to hide then.”

“True. But you do have the entire magic thing, pretend to be a Pegasus.”

“…Thought about it,” I admitted, “Flying again would be nice. Even if it makes my wings ache after a while.”

Thunder rolled his eyes, “Dude, you have to practice! Don’t use your muscles and they get weak, like any others. Including wings!”

I knew he was right. Even earth pony sturdiness only went so far, if you didn’t train it didn’t help much.

“I’ll try.”

“Do or do not.”

I rolled my eyes at him, “Screw you. Fine, I’ll make sure to fly a couple of hours a week.”

Should be possible to pull off, especially at night. Sneak out, put an illusion over myself to make me look like a Pegasus and then get some flying in.

Yeah, I could do that.

“Well, come on then!”

I looked at him, “What, now!?”

“Now! Or you are going to continue putting it off!”

I just groaned, “Cloud, you are such a pain in the flank!” before I grinned, “Fine, sure. Let’s just stop by the castle first so I can drop off my book. We get something to eat and then we go flying. Sounds good?”

He nodded, “Yeah. Where is Swift anyway? Wasn’t his new job following you around?”

“His day off,” I answered and picked my book up in my magic, closing it around the bookmark, “I’m Amber's problem today.”

Cloud glanced around, “Not seeing her.”

“You won’t unless she wants you too,” I said and smirked, “Amber?”

“Yes, sir?”

Cloud twitched and looked to the other side to see the smiling changeling, “How do you do that!?”

She tilted her head, “Do what?”

“She is worse than Skitter!”

“Thank you!”

Thunder Cloud just sighed and rubbed his forehead, “…I’m getting a headache. Let’s go, Page.”

I winked at Amber and got a bright smile in response before I followed him, next time I looked behind us she was gone again.

“Page, I’ll be honest,” Cloud said with a sigh, “Changelings give me the creeps.”

I frowned at him, “Why?”

He stared at me, “Page, they eat Love. They have fangs! No offense.”

“None taken,” Amber said cheerfully.

“Eh, you get used to them.”

Cloud sighed, “Not sure I ever will, allies or not. Come on, let’s go.”

Chapter 27

The cool air filled the street as we walked along it, the stars sparkling high above. The cool was nice after the warmth of the function we just left a couple of minutes ago, a slight wind shifting my cloak on my back.

“That wasn’t anywhere near as tedious as I feared it could be,” I commented as Twilight and I re-entered the castle grounds, “Of course, the company helped a lot.”

Twilight nodded, “Having someone to bail you out when someone just… wont… stop… talking is rather nice,” she admitted with a smile, “Still, was fun.”

I nodded in agreement, “It was.”

Helped that I actually had a reason to be there instead of simply having to be there to be there.

“I still can’t believe you bought that thing!” Twilight then added, “Especially at that price!”

“It spoke to me,” I answered with a shrug, “Besides, it’s more of a ‘it’s for charity’ thing that it actually looking to be worth it. I have the money so why not.”

Twilight eyed me with a frown, “What you say ‘spoke to you…’”

I grinned, “Not literally! I just liked how it looked.”

It was an old dagger, sheath and all in a style several hundred years old from the Royal Guard. It was a very old style of officer’s dagger with a golden sun at the hilt.

I was thinking to either put it above the fireplace or if Luna nixed it for being too tacky, perhaps just in the bookshelf.

“…Of course, admittedly, if it did ‘actually’ talk I would have bought it anyway,” I admitted with a thoughtful frown, “Just to keep it out of the hooves of ponies that might get hurt by it and get it locked away somewhere safe or destroy. Never trust something that you can’t tell where it keeps it’s brain.”

Twilight paused with a thoughtful look on her face before she continued along, “…That’s actually pretty good advice.”

I nodded, “Wish I could take credit for it, but it’s a quote. Don’t remember from whom though.”

“Well, it is a good one,” Twilight agreed as we reached her tower and she stopped to smile at me, “Thanks for today. It was great.”

“Glad you liked it,” I said with a grin, “Everything you expected?”

“Hmmm,” Twilight said and smiled a bit, shifting her wings, stretching them wide and high, “I think so. Was nice. Not something to repeat overly often, but…”

She was right about that. While it was a lot better than most ‘official’ events, it was still Nobles and random Rich ponies that went mostly to show everything else how important they were.

“Oh yeah,” I agreed with a grin, “Better than normal, but not something I like to do again… this year.”

That got a giggle from her and a nod, “Yeah,” before she hmmed, “We could do something else though before I return to Ponyville. Something fun.”

“Any ideas?”

Twilight flicked her ear and touched the collar of her dress, “Not sure. But this is Canterlot, there have to be something fun to do here.”

I tilted my head, “You wouldn’t know? Aren’t you from here?”

Twilight blushed, “…Didn’t go out much before I moved to Ponyville. But come on, it’s Canterlot. There have to be something fun to find!”

“Well, there are some places I been with Luna. Unless we want to draw a crowd though, we should use disguises. How are your illusions?” I asked with a smile.

“Not something I really studied a lot, “ she said and then smiled back, “But I bet I can figure it out until then… but it’s getting late and I’m still scheduled to talk with Starlight again tomorrow.”

I nodded, “Yeah, it’s late,” and glanced up at the moon. Must be like midnight or something, “Sweet dreams, Sparky.”

“Sweet dreams,” she said with a smile of her own, giving me a wave before she trotted up the stairs to her door.

Smiling, I headed back towards Luna’s and mine tower, pulling the cloak a bit tighter around myself against the cool air. Not that it was cold, it was more habit than anything else.

I glanced up at the stars again.

It was getting late, I should head to bed and get some sleep. Not scheduled to meet with Luna until tomorrow evening.

“Page.”

I looked to the side to find a smiling Celestia smelling a rose brush and I smiled and changed course, “Evening, Celestia.”

“Good evening,” she answered and nibbled at a rose before raising her head with a smile, “How was the auction?”

Shrugging I joined her and nipped at one of the roses. Not my favorite, but they were kind of sweet.

“Pretty okay for a social event. Would have liked your sister there, but it was fun enough,” I said and smiled, “Think Twilight enjoyed herself.”

“Oh really?”

I glanced up at her smirk and rolled my eyes, “Really, Sunshine? Come on, you can do better than that.”

That brought a grin from the larger Alicorn, “Want me to?”

“…Rather not,” I sighed and rubbed my forehead as a thought struck me, “You are joking, but I bet there will be rumors tomorrow. Damn it.”

Celestia smiled and gave my ear a small nuzzle, “There are always rumors, Page.”

“…Yeah, I know,” I admitted and leaned against her for a second, “You know, I was enjoying the evening until you reminded me.”

She stuck her tongue out at me, her wing settling over my back, “This one you brought on yourself. Though I doubt my sister mind. She did think it was a good idea, didn’t she?”

I nodded, “She did,” I confirmed, “I’m just annoyed ‘I’ didn’t think what it would look like. It’s not just Luna though, rumors will affect Twilight too.”

Damn it.

Chapter 28

“Really? You actually took her out on a date?” Sunset asked as she slowly came to a stop, catching her breath with a grin. “Seriously?”

Stretching, I glared at her. “Not a date.”

“Sounded like one to me,” Swift commented from the side with a smile as he watched Sunset stretch. “I heard there was dancing and everything.”

“Quiet you.” I snorted and shook my head. “Seriously.”

Sunset just smirked at me and then shook her mane back. “If you say so.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed at her antics before I let my breath out. “Are you done?”

“Oh, I can keep going all night.”

“…Oh Luna, you can really tell that you were Celestia's student,” I groaned, lighting my horn up and floating my water bottle over as Swift was busy watching Sunset.

Seriously? Minuette would kill you, dude.

Not to mention that Sunset would break him in half.

…Thought I had to admit that she was way too damn good at being distracting when she stretched like that. I have a marefriend, I’m not dead.

I notice these things.

“Why? Can she do that too?” Sunset teased before she giggled. “We done for today? I have some stuff to do before it gets dark.”

I nodded and sat down in the shade by the wall, looking out at the otherwise empty training ground. Today we just did some spell casting at targets and running. “Yeah. Sounds good. See you tomorrow?”

She nodded, “Yep,” and then looked down at herself. “Celestia, I need a bath. See you guys later,” she then added before trotting to the exit.

Swift looked after her for a moment before sinking down next to me, “…Dude.”

“Minuette would kill you.”

He considered that for a moment before he sighed. “Yeah. Sunset isn’t her type.”

“I think Sunset is everyone’s type,” I commented idly while glancing in the direction she left in, before I frowned at him. “Wait, what?”

Swift floated his water bottle over and took a long drink before he frowned at me. “What, what?”

“…Sunset is not Minuette's type?”

He shook his head. “She is more into pegasi,” he said before he grinned. “I’m just too awesome to ignore.”

I looked at him for a long moment. “…One of us is confused and I’m having the horrible feeling that it’s me.”

Swift frowned at me and quickly glanced around. “Is this a human thing?”

“Well…” I started before I frowned in thought. “Multi-pony relationships are more common than I thought?”

Swift shrugged. “Temporary ones are pretty common for foals, a couple of years long or so. Permanent ones less so, but not exactly rare. My uncle live with three mares. Dad and mom had Ruby Rose living with us for a couple of years while she tried to get pregnant. She is the mother of my half sister.”

“Oh.”

“It’s not that way with humans?”

I shook my head. “Very rare. Illegal is most places actually when it comes to marriage.”

“…Weird,” Swift said with a shrug.

“Comes with having more or less balanced amounts of males and females.” I said and idly poked the grass by my right hoof.

Honestly, I had not really considered the implications of it since I read about it before. But I had seen couples before… well, not couples really. But you get the gist.

I mean, not like I didn’t know about it. I just didn’t think about it.

Mostly because I stayed the hell out of any dream with a pink hint to them after the first time I stumbled into one. That had been rather embarrassing. I just hope I never run into the mare in real life.

“…So…” Swift asked. “About that date with Princess Twi…”

“Not a date!” I groaned, dropped my head onto the ground. “Damn it, Swift!”

He just grinned. “Just saying. If Princess Luna was against the idea, she wouldn’t have encouraged you.”

“…Wasn’t a date. Wasn’t meant to be one. Luna knew that.”

“Did she?”

I paused at that and then just closed my eyes and relaxed. Screw you, Swift.

I would just need to talk to Luna about it just to be able to make him shut up if nothing else.

“So, what else planned for today?” Swift asked after a moment. “Writing?”

“Editing. But that’s for tonight,” I answered and opened my eyes again, looking around. “Not sure what to do now to be honest.”

“Raid the kitchens?”

My stomach agreed with that idea, but I had other things on my mind. “Actually… let’s head to the markets. I need to pick up some stuff first. I’ll make us some pizzas.”

Swift raised his eyebrows, “Pizzas? Why not just go to a restaurant?”

“Because they don’t have pizzas!”

Swift shook his head. “Page, I had pizza two days ago, trust me, there are pizzas.”

“Those are not pizzas!” I exclaimed and got up, glancing around and stretching my wings before folding them and reapplying the illusion. “Those are strange abominations with hay in the dough and the wrong cheese, the wrong way of using tomatoes and… wrong!”

He looked amused as he got up. “And I suppose you can do better?”

“Damn right I can!” I said and picked up my bag, sliding it around myself. “Get ready to be amazed!”

“Lead the way boss.”

Chapter 29

I entered the dream world and looked up at the not-stars, surrounded by the silvery shimmering portals of all the ponies' dreams.

Taking a slow breath, I shook my head and applied a bit of will and magic before tapping my hoof. The portals flew around before a single silvery one with a hint of blue of calm dreams came to a stop before me.

Luna’s.

I watched it for a moment before I took a deep breath and stepped through into a room I had only seen once before and in much worse condition than now.

It was her room in the tower at the Castle of the Two Sisters. It actually took a second before I recognized it, it looked so different. The wall was intact and covered with thick drapes, as was much of the walls not having a window or bookshelf on them.

The bed wasn’t rotten, instead it was covered in soft sheets occupied by a certain alicorn.

Luna smiled as she looked up from her book. “My Page,” she said and closed the book, putting it on the bed as she raised her wings.

“…My Sky,” I answered with a smile in return as I slowly moved closer as I watched her. She looked different. She was smaller, more Cadence's size than her normal one. Her mane was a pale blue and still instead of its normal flowing star field. “You look different. Was this how you looked when you lived here?”

She shook her head and scooted to the side, giving me room to jump up next to her. “No… by this time I had already been using my mane to release excess magic for a long time. I was just feeling a bit nostalgic.”

Nodding I settled down next to her, putting my wing over her back as I gave her a quick nuzzle before I eyed her. “Luna?”

“Hmm?” she asked with a smile.

“We should talk.”

“Of what?”

I shook my head and looked at her. “Luna, was I on a date with Twilight?”

“I don’t know, were you?” she asked with a smile.

“Luna!”

Luna gave my ear a small nuzzle, sliding her wing across my back and pulling me close. “Page, relax.”

Sighing, I leaned against her.

“And if it was, My Page?” she finally asked. “How do you feel about that?”

I looked at her. “…Not sure. How do you?”

That got a smile from her. “I like Twilight,” she answered before she sighed and rested her head against the top of mine. “…And she is an alicorn, which is good. I never want you to experience watching your love wither and die from the winds of time.”

Rolling over onto my back I frowned up at her. “What happened to ‘being selfish’?”

“These,” she answered and touched my wing. “These happened.”

“What do you mean?”

Luna smiled and settled down with her head against my chest. “I won’t lose you to time,” she murmured. “I had... I had barely sixty, maybe eighty years. I wanted every single one.”

“Oh.”

I put my forelegs around her, pulling her tighter.

“Now…” she continued and shifted to look down into my eyes. “It’s different. We have a long time,” she pointed out before she frowned and poked my chest. “Assuming you don’t do something idiotic like fighting Tirek ever again!”

I cringed at that and then nodded. “Will try to.”

She settled down again and sighed. “Good. Not sure if you have realized what it means yet, My Page.”

“Like what?” I asked, stroking her mane. It felt different than normal, less… thick gas like and more like silky soft hair.

Luna shifted slightly and raised her wings. “I’m not sure if you are like me or my sister. Celestia falls in love easily and quickly. I… what you and I have, I have had twice in my life before. I have had many lovers, but something like this… just twice in thousands of years. For me this is rare.”

I just nodded. She told me this when we first got together. “I know.”

“Do you?” she asked and raised her head to look down into my eyes. “Do you realize what it means?”

Pausing at that for a moment to think, I finally shook my head. “Not following.”

Luna rolled her eyes. “You are usually pretty bright, but sometimes you are such a stallion,” she snarked before she sighed. “Page, Love is rare. If you find it, I want you to take it and hang on to it as tightly as you can.”

I just frowned up at her.

She shook her head and bumped her nose against mine. “Page… we have thousands of years. I love you, but thousands upon thousands of years is a long, long time, even for us. You… we… we will both find other ponies to love in time.”

“Oh,” I said with a frown. I… I guess that made sense. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it, but it made a certain degree of sense intellectually. It felt very strange though.

The idea of someone else with My Luna was not one I liked. Like, at all.

“Eeep!” I suddenly blinked and flicked my ear as Luna let go of it.

“Stop that,” she commanded and then settled down again. “Page, it's not like any of this is rare or even uncommon among common ponies. I know you know this!”

“…I blame my human upbringing,” I sighed and pulled her close and away from biting distance of my ear. “It’s difficult to adapt to.”

Luna nodded and settled down with her head against my chest. “I know.”

I held her for a long moment before I sighed and nuzzled at her ear. “I know I’m being stupid, I can’t promise I will like it… but I do understand what you mean and I just have to adapt.”

Lifting her head, Luna bumped her nose against mine. “I love you. No matter anything else, I always will.”

I couldn’t help but smile and pull her tight again for a quick kiss before I whispered. “I love you too, My Sky.”

She cuddled close and we just relaxed like that for a long moment, each of us caught up in our own thoughts before I finally frowned as a thought struck me. “Luna?”

“Hmm?” she asked lazily without moving or opening her eyes.

“…I still have no idea if Twilight thinks it was a date.”

That caused her to break down into giggles.

Chapter 30

Exiting the dream, I looked around the space between dreams again. Luna had to go, some kind of nighttime event for the entire ‘Hail to the King, Baby’ thing.

I was annoyed enough with griffons for taking up Luna's time as it was, but now they were interrupting dream time too?

Stupid birdcats.

Laying down on the not-ground, I stretched my wings with a frown.

Luna’s answer to my question about Twilight was ‘Don’t worry about it’.

I… I worried about it.

Sighing, I finally shook my head. Fuck it. I wasn't going to bother trying to figure it out. For now, I had a job to do and then I’d get some actual sleep.

Wonder what Sparky was… actually, she was asleep. I looked to the side, her silvery portal floating up next to me with a faint pink tint to it.

Happy dream which was nice. A really rather happy dream too from the tint of pink on the silver.

Smiling, I sent her portal away to join the rest before I shifted my wings while sitting up with a thoughtful frown.

Dreams gave a window into the inner world of ponies. Starlight Glimmer was still not talking. Maybe if I could understand her better I could help Sparks get through to her.

Was this an intrusion of privacy? Only if I actually told anyone what I saw. Going through dreams was literally my job.

…Well, hobby I suppose. I didn’t get paid for it. My job was writing books. And looking pretty next to Luna.

Smiling briefly at that thought, I tapped my hoof against the not-floor and pushed some will onto the dream world around me, making another portal shift up before me. Silvery with slow dark ripples moving through it.

Starlight Glimmer was having a nightmare.

Reaching out to touch the dream portal with the tip of my horn, I walked through it and out into the bright sunlight.

I paused and looked around. It looked like a peaceful neighbourhood. Nothing really looked out of place either, no rampaging monsters, no…

Nothing out of the ordinary.

Closing my eyes for a second, I felt the dream around me before I opened my eyes again and turned to move to the right towards the source of this world. If you focused, you could feel where it was flowing from, the origin point that built this world around itself.

It brought me across the street and into the open door of a rather nice middle class home and into a living room with two foals in it.

One I recognized as Starlight Glimmer. For an evil cult-leading Overlady, she was rather cute as a little filly. The other one I didn’t recognize. A little colt with a yellow coat and brown-red mane. He was currently building a tower of books on the table with his magic while Starlight was watching, looking impressed.

Clapping her hooves as he finished, she got up with a smile, reaching to take one of the books with her magic. I could feel the darkness of the dream intensifying. We were getting closer to the worst part of it and I could already imagine what would happen.

She would pull the book out and the tower of books would fall on her friend, killing him. That would explain a lot and would certainly scar her for life.

Nobody grew up wanting to be a villain.

With a look of concentration, Starlight Glimmer pulled the book out and as predicted the massive tower of books wobbled and fell… but towards her.

She barely had time to scream in surprise and fear as the books fell, but the stack was stopped just before they crushed her by a golden glow of magic.

I looked to the side, the colt had an intense look of focus on his face as he struggled to keep the… maybe fifty or sixty kilos of books floating.

The books flew away from her and towards him, starting to orbit the colt as he lifted them and himself into the air above the table.

He started to shine a bright gold colour, the books flying back into the empty bookshelf and the colt slowly lowered back down onto the ground as the shine faded away.

A spark appeared on his flank and formed into an cutie mark of a sun and sparkles.

It was kind of amazing to watch really, I had never seen one form before. The dream got darker and darker behind the surface as the fear and anger grew in the dreamer.

Blinking I looked away from the amazed colt to the stunned face of Starlight Glimmer. Her friend getting a cutie mark was her nightmare?

This was why she developed magic to remove cutie marks? Are you fucking serious!?

The colt yelled happily as he spotted his new mark and rushed out the door to what I could only assume was his parents and they left with him, leaving Starlight behind.

Slamming shut, the door locked, leaving her in a slowly darkening room. All alone.

I looked at the door and then back to Starlight Glimmer. Her friend got his cutie mark and she didn’t. The door closed and locked… he left her or pushed her away afterwards? Found new friends?

That would explain the beginning of her hatred of cutie marks. Still, it was a rather stupid reason, but if the trauma was strong enough and she was young enough, it could cause significant mental scars.

Starlight Glimmer didn’t need prison. She needed a therapist.

The dream shifted around me, resetting back to two foals building a tower of books. I watched it play out again the same way as I jumped up and settled down on the couch to watch and think.

Was this a memory or just a bad dream?

Must be a memory. It was too specific and repeated too exactly to be a random dream. Could I help her out of this? She may… no. She was not actually Evil. She was just wrong and alone.

Alone. That was the root of the trouble. He got his cutie mark and he left her alone. She removed the cutie marks of her cult so they wouldn’t leave her.

That’s it. That had to be it.

Right now, she was locked away the castle dungeons. Alone with an anti-magic ring around her horn. I watched the amazed filly that looked onto the tower of books being built. That that would turn out to be her fate?

What if…

The colt started to get his cutie mark and I started to wave my magic and will into the dream, shaping it.

The colt yelled in excitement as he saw his mark form and went to rush towards the door before he stopped and paused as a teal glow surrounded him before he screamed.

Older Starlight Glimmer stepped out of the shadows, a crazed look on her face, her eyes glowing as lightning flashed outside.

The background of the dream felt like confusion and fear as I kept it playing instead of allowing the shock to wake her up.

The colt's cutie mark ripped from his flank to form the Equalmark instead and Older Starlight Glimmer laughed, holding it into the air. “Yes! Now you will never be who you were meant to be! NEVER! You will be NOTHING!”

Collapsing the colt curled up on the floor and cried, whimpering as I shaped the Older Starlight Glimmer to grow more and more demonic, standing over her former friend.

Younger Starlight, the viewpoint of the dreamer, started to scream and I let the dream go and collapse, waking her up.

Last thing I did was to make sure she would remember it after waking up.

Chapter 31

Princess Celestia sipped at her cup of tea before she blinked and looked down at it. “What is this?”

“Tea,” I answered and relaxed on the couch opposite to her, stretching my wings as I sipped my own tea. “Like?”

She frowned and took another sip. “…Not sure. Saddle-arabian?”

I shook my head. “Not even close,” I said and smirked. “Are you losing your touch?”

Celestia stuck her tongue out at me and then smiled, tasting the tea again. “Hmm… Cinnamon… something else… clove?”

Nodding, I sipped my tea with milk and honey. “Amongst other things. It’s a blend a café down in the city is making for me. Good, yes?”

“It is,” she agreed as she looked at me from the other end of the couch, Luna’s normal place. “Think you could give their name to the kitchens? I would not mind being able to get some in the mornings.”

“Do you now?” I asked with a grin.

“Mhmm.”

I just smiled at her, refusing to allow her to turn this around on me. “Well, I’ll give them the contact details then. I would recommend their other teas too, best in the city in my opinion.”

“I can believe it,” the large alicorn answered and closed her eyes, taking a slow sip, her wings lazily folded on her back.

I watched her for a second and did the same before I spoke up. “Are you okay?”

Celestia blinked and looked at me. “How do you mean?”

“You are tense.”

Her ears flicked and she smiled, looking down at her tea. “…A bit, I suppose. Most ponies wouldn’t have noticed.”

“You don’t relax with most ponies.”

“True.”

I then smiled. “Besides, most ponies are too in awe of your glorious self to see anything other than their Princess.”

“And what do you see?” she asked as she regarded me.

I looked at her for a second in thought before I shrugged my wings and sipped my tea. “Celestia.”

We stayed silent for a moment as she nibbled at a cookie before I spoke up again. “So what has you tense?”

“No sign of Discord yet and… It’s making me nervous,” she admitted. “Then there is the minotaur envoy that’s arriving tomorrow. They are always so aggressive in their negotiations, they get exhausting.”

Minotaurs, huh?

“Never seen one of those.”

“They usually keep to themselves,” she answered with a nod. “Not like the griffons, forced mostly by distance and an ocean, but by choice. They are isolationists…mostly."

“Mostly?”

Celestia nodded. “We do plenty of trade, primarily iron for wheat and other goods. They just dislike anyone else entering their territory.”

“Ah,” I said and finished my cup before I sighed. “Want company? Can’t promise I’ll be of any help, but…”

“I was thinking of turning it into a teaching moment for Twilight, so far she hasn't interacted much with officials from other nations directly,” Celestia said and then nodded. “I think it would be good for you as well.”

I frowned at her so she continued. “Page, even if you never pick up a crown of your own, you are my sister's Herald and I suspect you will at some point be her official Consort,” Celestia said with a smile, stretching her wings before relaxing again. “The sooner you start to get used to diplomatic negotiations that don’t involve punching somepony, the better and easier things will get for you.”

Sighing to myself, I had to admit that she was most likely right about that. Finally, I nodded in agreement. “When?”

“Tomorrow evening. They like to start negotiations late so their opponents have time to tire themselves out during the day,” she explained and shifted a bit to lean her side against the backrest, looking mildly annoyed about it.

There was suddenly a knock on the door and I wrapped an illusion around my wings in seconds before I relaxed again. “Enter.”

The door opened to allow Twilight inside. “Princess Celestia! Page!” she said with a smile as she trotted inside.

“Twilight,” I said and lifted the teapot. “Tea?”

She paused and then nodded. “Yes please,” she said before she moved over to jump up and sit down in one of the armchairs. “I'm just coming from Starlight Glimmer's cell.”

Celestia lowered her cup of tea onto the table. “She talked to you?”

Twilight shook her head. “No. But when I got there she was curled up in bed. She was crying…”

Oops.

Villain or not, I just made a girl… mare… cry. That’s never a nice feeling.

“When I got close, she latched on and wouldn’t let go until she fell asleep again,” Twilight continued. “She didn’t say anything, she just cried.”

Celestia picked her cup up, sipping it and glancing at me before she lowered it again. “Do you think she was sincere, Twilight?”

Twilight hesitated and sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe? I think so. I have to actually get her to talk to me.”

“Perhaps asking Sunset to talk to her later might help,” I suggested. “From former villain to villain, I mean. Maybe it’ll help?”

Twilight looked thoughtful and then nodded. “I think so. But not yet? Sunset did capture her after all.”

Good point.

Chapter 32

Sunset collapsed onto the grass next to me, panting to regain her breath.

I gave her an amused look as I glanced up from my editing. “Are you okay?”

She just grumbled something about stupid earth pony stamina as she dug into her bag to pull out her book. “I’m in good shape, why do you have me running laps!?”

“It’s good for morale,” I answered idly as I frowned at my papers and drew a line across ‘ran’ and added ‘rushed’ above it instead.

Sunset put her book down and frowned at me. “…It’s not helping. I don’t feel really uplifted.”

I smirked at her. “Never said it was your morale.”

“Oh? Just want to see my flank run around?” she teased with a smirk of her own. “My, all you needed to do was ask.”

I just snorted, “Yeah, I just bet,” and sidestepped the question. There was no way I would admit to anything of the sort.

She grinned, “Oh really?” and shook her mane back. “I don’t believe you. Given up on Princess Twilight already?”

That caused me to hesitate before I sighed. “…Don’t know. Maybe it was a date.”

Sunset blinked at me, her ears flicking. “It was?”

“…I think so,” I admitted and frowned. “I have talked with Luna. And I’m not against the idea, I just find it a bit odd. You know humans.”

“Yeah,” Sunset answered, her ears drooping. “Going to ask her out again?”

I put my pen down and thought about it for a long moment. I did like Twilight. Was I interested to see if there could be something more?

Hell, Luna actually encouraged me to!

“I think so, yeah,” I admitted. “Maybe just dinner or something.”

“Oh.”

I blinked and looked her at her dejected tone. “Sunny?”

She sighed. “It’s nothing, forget it.”

Frowning at her, I shifted to look at her. “Sunset, what is it?”

She shook her head. “Page, drop it, okay?”

“No.”

Sunset glared at me before she looked away. “…I didn’t think you were really interested in Princess Twilight.”

I looked at her for a moment. “Sunset, are you trying to…” I started to ask before I trailed off.

She shifted a bit uncomfortable. “Being serious? I have no chance in hell when compared to you. Hero, the first ever alicorn stallion and more importantly when it comes to Princess Twilight, a writer.”

Oooh. That explains a lot.

“You should have told me.”

“I didn’t think you were actually interested in her, I was just teasing,” she answered and scuffed her hoof against the grass.

Shaking my head, I smiled at her. “Sunny… If you want me to, I’ll back off.”

She blinked. “What?”

I shook my head. “Luna gave me some advice… if you find love, seek it out and hang on tight. Because it’s rare. If you really like Twilight, I’m not going to stand in your way, Sunny.”

“Really?”

“Really,” I confirmed before I smiled. “Besides… as you said, alicorns. If there is something that could develop between me and Twilight, it will in time anyway.”

Sunset Shimmer slowly nodded. “…When I’m dead and dust.”

I didn’t exactly like that idea, but I nodded. “Yeah,” I said as we fell into silence for a moment before she spoke up.

“Is it strange that I actually find that comforting?” she asked as she looked at me. “If I get together with Princess Twilight, there would be somepony to be there for her when I’m gone.”

“Not really,” I answered and smiled sadly at her. “I was worried about the same thing before with Luna. So, going to ask her out?”

Sunset nodded. “Just need to figure out how.”

“Stargazing?” I suggested. “That’s always nice.”

“Mmm,” she agreed. “That was nice… I’m just not sure how to get her to notice me.”

I snorted at that. “Sunny, if she has any interest in mares whatsoever, she has noticed you. I mean, have you seen you? You could bounce a Bit off your rear.”

Sunset smiled, “Thank you,” and then shifted, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. “You are my best friend.”

“Ouch,” I teased with a grin, poking her with my hoof.

She stuck her tongue out at me and then grinned and picked her book up again and I returned to my editing.

We stayed in a comfortable silence for a long moment before she spoke up again. “Bounce a Bit off my rear, huh? I knew you were paying attention!” she teased with a grin.

Damn it.

Chapter 33

I looked around the throne room. Since it was closed to the general public today for the meeting with the Minotaur envoy arriving, the normal crowds of nobles and general hanger-ons were missing.

The room was hardly empty with the guards and other castle personnel, but it was emptier than I was used to seeing it during ‘business hours’.

Wishing I could stretch my wings, I instead cracked my neck and moved over to the thrones. Celestia was sitting in the one in the left while Twilight was in the one to the right, taking up Luna’s normal spot.

“Nervous?” I asked Twilight as I got closer.

“Bit?” she said and took a deep breath before letting it out again. “You?”

I shook my head. “Not really. But then again, I’m just going to be here. You have actual work to do.”

“Not so,” Celestia said with a smile. “If you have anything to add, I expect you to speak up, Lord Page.”

I gave her a flat look at the title and she just kept smiling that serene ‘in public perfect princess’ smile at me.

Finally, I rolled my eyes and moved to sit down next to her throne, adjusting my cloak a bit with my magic. At some point, I was going to outsmart her and get her horn stuck somewhere. Literally if possible.

Of course, that was unlikely to be today.

Settling down, I pulled a book from a pocket inside my cloak and flipped it open. This one in particular was a book I got from Luna once on ice magic. Other than the basic spells, I never really got into it.

But a lot of this stuff sounded really neat. I mean, being able to cool fruit and beverages is really fucking useful, but how cool is gales of icy wind or spears of ice?

Pun very much intended! Turning the page, I considered using some ice based puns next time I pulled these out against someone.

There was a sound of horns and I glanced up to see the throne room doors open to allow a big minotaur inside. He was followed by a group, carrying boxes, instruments and other things. All of them minotaurs, if smaller than the leader with the big horns.

His coat was a whitish grey, his horns big, curved and black, greying towards the tips. He also wore what seemed to be his own weight in gold chains and jewellery.

Approaching the thrones, he bowed with a rumble. “Your Highnesses. I am Lorok, of the Sharphorn clan. I bring you greetings and gifts from the Emperor and the Minotaur people.”

Celestia spread her wings. “I greet and welcome you to our lands, Lorok of the Sharphorn clan. May your travels be short and your enemies few.”

“Enemies few,” he answered and stood up, motioning to one of the other minotaurs. “Some small trinkets from the Emperor's own collection. Nothing compared to your legendary beauty or power, Celestia Solarflare, but a small token of our friendship.”

Celestia simply nodded. “The Emperor has my personal thanks for his gifts and I wish him and his people a prosperous year.”

He turned to Twilight and bowed once more. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, Goddess of Magic, the Emperor wishes to gift you this tome,” he continued and motioned for a thick book to be brought forward. “We have heard you seek knowledge and it contains many things lost to the mists of time in this realm, guarded by the Minotaur people.”

The way Twilight's eyes lit up was quite adorable, even if she clearly fought down a blush at the Goddess comment as the Minotaur carrying the pillow it rested on held it out for her.

“Thank you,” Twilight said with a smile, picking it up in her magic. “I am honoured by your gift.”

Lorok bowed to her again, turning to Celestia. “It has been a long time, Princess. I am uncertain if you remember me.”

“It has,” she agreed. “And I do remember you. Last we met you were the apprentice scribe of the last Ambassador. Thirty years ago.”

“I am honoured.”

Yes, yes, everyone is honoured by everything and everyone. Could we get to the fucking point already? This was why I didn’t like diplomacy.

Say what you want and let’s get it over with.

Nobody seemed to be paying attention to me in any case, so I went back to my book, idly turning the page while studying the Minotaur entourage.

They all looked attentive and ready to serve their leader with whatever they were carrying. Each had different jewellery than the next, the ones with more stood closer to their leader.

Rank identifications? Or just status? The one with the fancy hat tended to be the leader… no hat, but the one with the most bling in this case.

As I kept watching the proceedings, I couldn’t help but almost miss dealing with Chrysalis. At least you always knew more or less where you had the sneaky fucking bug and she was never boring.

But since Skitter became a Princess, Chrysalis had more or less shut herself inside the hive and left Skitter to handle everything pony related.

Glancing up from my book, I caught one of the minotaurs watching me closely. He was one of the ones close to the back of the group. The same size as the rest, but with not quite as much bling. He wasn’t carrying anything but some scribing gear, his pen moving across the paper as he wrote down what was being said.

Hmm… why would that be? Why watch me when Celestia and Twilight was just next to me and actively talking to his leader? Something that was literally his job.

Because I was right next to the thrones, wearing a fancy cloak and seeming to not give any fucks about what was going on.

I stood out.

He noticed that I did. I think I found the smart one in the group.

I turned the page in my book.

Chapter 34

Things moved and I forced my eyes open to look up at a smiling Sunset Shimmer. Closing my eyes again, I stretched my wings and relaxed again.

“Sunny, why are you in my bed?”

“Because I have to tell somebody about this and as best friend you were volunteered!” she said cheerfully as she poked my wing. “I asked Princess Twilight out! She said yes!”

“Good for you. Go away,” I grumbled and pulled my blankets tighter around myself. I stayed up way too late last night finishing the first edit of my story draft… then I found a book I couldn’t put down. Not sure when I fell asleep, but it couldn’t have been long ago.

Omph!

I forced my eyes open and I looked at her. “You are not going away, are you?” I asked her as she smiled down at me, her hooves on my back.

“Nope! Too excited!”

“…You really should ask Luna if you want to get into our bed.”

She grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said and did a bounce. “Now get up!”

“You spent waaay to much time on Earth. You are acting like a teenage girl,” I grumbled but struggled up to sit, rubbing my eyes. “What time is it anyway?”

“Around ten,” she said and lay down on Luna’s normal side, flicking her mane back. “Come on, let’s go out for breakfast, I’m buying.”

That actually sounded rather nice.

Yawning I stretched before folding my wings again as I blinked at her. “…Wait, how did you even get in here? The tower is guarded.”

“Princess Skitter let me inside, she is waiting outside.”

I nodded and glanced at the bed sheet she was laying on, “…Fine, let’s go.”

Then I gave the sheet a powerful tug with my magic, sending the yellow unicorn rolling off the bed with a surprised yelp.

“Hey!”

I just smirked and jumped off the bed. “Nopony to blame but yourself, Shimmer.”

Getting back up, she stuck her tongue out at me before trotting out of the room. I just shook my head and rubbed my eyes again before moving to wash up.

Once I felt relatively conscious, I followed her out into the outer room to find Sunset lounging on the couch, a book floating before her while Skitter was in her normal chair, even if it almost looked a bit small for her now when she was a Princess instead of a drone.

“Good morning, sir," Skitter said and fluttered her wings. “Sleep well?”

“Thank you, Skitter, yes I did. You?”

What little there was of it had been nice after all.

“Very well, Sir,” she said with a smile and stretched before jumping off the chair, before she hesitated and moved up next to me. “…Miss you.”

I couldn’t help but smile as I bumped my side against hers. We did spend almost every single day for years in each other’s company.

“Miss you too,” I admitted and flicked my ear. “Amber is nice, but I miss having you around. Busy?”

“Princess Celestia gives me a lot of lessons and work to do,” Skitter admitted. “And then I need to manage my changelings and my small hive. I refuse to ask Mother for advice.”

I nodded. “I’ll help if I can,” I said, giving her side a poke with my wing. Like Luna, she was too tall when standing up for me to put it over her back.

“I know, sir,” she said and sighed. “Just not sure there is anything you can do.”

Smiling at her, I leaned against her side, letting her feel my friendship with her and my love for Luna. “If you just want to spend some time together, we can. Doesn’t need to be a reason for it.”

“…I know, sir. Just so busy.”

I slowly nodded and then looked at her. “Too busy?”

“…Mostly, sir. Princess Celestia…”

“Have you tried to tell her to piss off, you want a day for yourself?” I asked with a grin.

Skitter froze, staring down at me. “Sir?”

I sighed and shifted to sit down, facing her. “Skitter, you are the future leader of the changelings now. Don’t just do what others tell you to. If you need some time for yourself, take it. You decide how you use your time, it’s part of being the leader, isn’t it?”

She frowned down at me in thought before she finally spoke up. “…You think so, sir?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Celestia is waiting for you to realize it,” I said before I smiled at her. “Of course, if I’m wrong, you could always blame me.”

That got a smile from the changeling. “Wouldn’t do that, sir.”

“And you can stop calling me that, okay?” I asked with a smile. “I think you outrank me.”

“If you say so, sir,” Skitter said with a innocent smile.

Sighing at her, I shook my head and then looked over at Sunset. “Want to join us? We are heading out for breakfast.”

Skitter hesitated but Sunset smiled. “I don’t mind. Will be fun.”

Finally Skitter nodded and a line of green fire crawled across her, leaving her looking like a white unicorn with changeling horn, a pink heart marking her flanks. “Thank you.”

“Did you change that form?” I asked as I looked her over.

Skitter nodded. “Different mark and changed horn instead of wings. Stands out less… and fits me more I think.”

“Looking good.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Chapter 35

I couldn’t help but smile as Sunset trotted along next to me, a bounce in her step. She was so obviously happy.

It was fucking adorable to be honest.

Skitter walked along my other side and I’m sure Amber was… somewhere, keeping an eye on things. Just because you couldn’t see it, didn’t mean a changeling wasn’t about to save your life.

I really should ask how they do that sometime. Skitter did the same kind of ninja bullshit before.

…Speaking of which, I had never actually seen Amber and Skitter in the same room. I glanced at her suspiciously before I mentally shrugged.

Yeah, no. Skitter was way too busy to follow me around.

“So, breakfast?” I asked Sunset. “I was promised food.”

She giggled. “Come on, this way. I know a cafe that serves the most amazing sandwiches.”

As it turned out, she wasn’t lying. It was a small café in a primarily unicorn neighbourhood close to the second ring of walls. A small family place run by what seemed to be a pair of earth ponies.

I’ll never give up Silver Leaf’s tea and pastries, but this place may have to be one of my new favourites.

Picking up my lightly toasted cheese, tomato and daffodil sandwich I took a bite and then looked over at Sunset. “I almost forgive you for waking me.”

She just stuck her tongue out at me. “Told you it was amazing.”

Taking another bite, I couldn’t help but agree.

“So… Twilight?” I asked, raising my eyebrow at her. “Ideas?”

“Not sure,” Sunset said and poked at her sandwich. “I’m thinking going to the theatre, maybe?”

I nodded. “Sounds fun.”

Maybe I should ask Luna the same when she got back. I then smiled at another thought. I really should do something like that for Celestia too. She deserved to just get away for a couple of hours too and I bet she would love it.

Maybe she could do the same kind of transformation spell Luna used. That was one big problem with the entire ‘alicorn thing’.

Without illusions and such we kind of stood out.

“Your Highness, is everything to your satisfaction?”

Awesome, someone was actually addressing Skitter like she deserved.

“Sir?”

I paused and glanced up, seeing Skitter and Sunset both looking behind me, so I glanced back at the earth pony mare with a pale yellow coat and darker mane looking at me. The waitress.

I glanced down. Nope, illusion in place.

“Huh?”

She smiled at me. “Your food, your highness? Is it satisfactory?”

“I… uhm… yes? Very good. But why do you call me that?” I asked with a frown. “I’m not royalty, I’m not even officially Princess Luna’s Consort.”

Yet.

She looked at my back and bowed again. “If that’s your wish, Your Highness.”

…Shit, she knew something.

I frowned at her. “Come, sit. Why don’t you tell us what you think you know?”

She hesitated and then settled down by the table. “Like what, sir?”

“What is your name and why do you call me royalty?”

“…Paprika. My name is Paprika, sir,” she said and hesitated. “…And because you are an alicorn, sir.”

Son of a fucking bitch, who leaked?

“Where did you hear that, Paprika?” Sunset asked with a frown, leaning to the side to look at my back. “I don’t see any wings. Do you?”

Paprika shook her head. “Neither do I, Miss. But it’s not my place to question. I felt it wise to be polite rather than not. My brother told me, he works by the airship docks.”

“Where did he hear it?”

“I don’t know.”

Well, I did. Either somepony leaked or word was starting to get out from Starlight's little town. Or somepony saw me when I was flying with Twilight.

Or somepony saw me through a window at the tower, pegasi with binoculars or something.

It could be a hundred thousand things that did it. Honestly, other than asking people to keep it secret and using an illusion, I didn’t really do much to hide it.

It wouldn’t last forever, but I had hoped to last more than a couple of months to be honest.

“Thank you, Paprika,” I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “And yes, the food is delicious.”

“Thank you!” she said and perked up, getting up. “Enjoy your meal!”

Nodding, I waited until she left before I sighed again. Sunset frowned at me as Skitter shifted to let her side touch mine. “It’ll be fine, sir.”

Nodding, I turned my sandwich in my magic. “…Yeah. I know.”

“Who know, maybe you can get lessons on how to Princess.”

I glared at the amused looking changeling as Sunset hid a giggle behind her hoof.

Yeah, yeah, very funny.

Shaking my head, I took a bite out of my sandwich with a small sigh. “So… game is up, I guess?”

“Maybe,” Skitter said. “I think you need to discuss it with Princess Celestia.”

I nodded. “…Yeah, you are probably right.”

Well, this sucked.

Oh well. If anything good came from this, it would be the ability to stretch my wings whenever I wanted. I swear, I was developing a cramp in my right one from keeping them folded for hours on hours.

Chapter 36

Celestia looked thoughtful, looking out into the garden outside her chambers. “I don’t know, Page. It’s something I believe you need to decide for yourself.”

I poked the pillow beneath me with my hoof. “…I know,” I sighed. “I’m just wondering what you think will be best? Keep hiding it or reveal? For Equestria I mean.”

Celestia shook her head. “Have you talked to Luna about it?”

“…Not yet. I will tonight. Wondered what you thought about it?”

“Truth is important.”

I grimaced and sighed. “The truth is a dangerous and valuable thing, be careful what you do with it.”

She simply nodded and regarded me calmly, her mane shifting and flowing away from me.

Picking my tea up with my magic, I sipped at it in thought.

Was it over? Would I have to drop the illusion? What would change?

I wouldn’t be able to go out in public without disguise unless I wanted to be recognized… which I already was. What else was new?

Twilight seemed to live a more or less normal life. She was a librarian on the side for Luna’s sake. I didn’t like the attention, but honestly, I was under a lot of it already by being involved with Luna.

Sighing, I shook my head and frowned at the table. “This sucks.”

“Mmmm.”

Grimacing I then nodded. “Okay, so how do we do this? And just so you know, this doesn’t mean I'll pick up anything crownlike, Sunshine.”

Celestia smiled. “Well, one way would be to simply not use your illusion. Let ponies figure it out.”

“If you want riots.”

“You are no fun,” she teased before she nodded. “We will make an official announcement in a few days and then we handle whatever happens after. Or we wait until Luna returns.”

I hesitated and then forced a smile. “…No. No, we'll do it in a couple of days. If we are doing this, I may as well have it be a surprise for her. Meet her with my wings uncovered when she returns.”

“If you are sure. This will be difficult for you, Page.”

Swallowing, I nodded. “I know… but I've been through worse. I’ll deal.”

“We’ll be here for you,” Celestia said and smiled. “Anytime you want.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Really Celestia?”

She just smiled innocently at me. “Whatever do you mean, Page?”

I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head, giving her side a poke with my wing. “Thanks.”

We simply relaxed for a long moment as she left me alone with my thoughts. I didn’t like this, but what choice did I really have? Ponies were already figuring things out. Just rumours now, but…

Might as well come clear about it and get on with my life.

“So, what do we say?” I finally asked. “Just walk out on the balcony and spread my wings and say ‘Yo, I’m an alicorn, deal with it!’ and then walk out?”

That got a small laugh from her. “If you like.”

“What, seriously?”

She grinned and nodded. “Yes. It can indeed be that simple if you like.”

“…How would you do it?”

Celestia tilted her head in thought. “Explain to ponies that you have ascended to being an alicorn for extraordinary feats and abilities. You are now Equestria's fifth alicorn, even if you have decided not to take up a crown to cover other responsibilities for the security and welfare of Equestria.”

“I’m not very good with public speaking.”

“I’ll be there with you. So will Twilight,” Celestia said and smiled. “I can do most of the announcement if you like.”

“…Thank you.”

“What else could I do?” she asked sadly. “I can’t help but feel responsible. I did introduce you to my sister, I was the one that got you involved on this path.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “And there is nothing I could do to express how thankful I am to you for introducing us.”

“I could think of a few things.”

I just snorted. “Be nice, Sunshine. But I should get some writing done. I want the book done by the time Luna gets back. It helps me get my mind off things.”

Celestia nodded with a smile. “I look forward to reading it. I heard it was going to be a horror book?”

“In a ways,” I agreed and sighed. “Working on getting the tone just right. A single world could pivot a line from good to awful.”

“Believe me, I give enough speeches to know.” Celestia sighed before she smiled. “But if you want something else to occupy your mind, I have some ideas…”

I shot her a wary look. “…Like what?”

Suddenly I was very aware of how close she was.

Celestia just smirked for a second before she spoke up again. “Well…” she answered and leaned closer. “It would help if there were less applicants when I had Court,” she finally whispered into my ear.

I swallowed but refused to play her game. “What, want me to keep them out or something?”

“No. But if Night Court could reopen, it would help a lot. Not only me, but ponies wouldn’t need to wait as long,” she answered and shifted her wing across my back. “I would really appreciate it if you could run it until my sister returned.”

I cringed but then shifted my wings and nodded with a sigh. “…Fine.”

I wasn’t overly enthused about it, but I knew I likely needed that kind of experience. If nothing else, it would help me in writing political intrigue.

“Thank you.”

“Welcome,” I sighed and looked down at my tea. “Celestia?”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you for everything you have done for me. Helping me when I arrived, introducing me to Luna. Trusting me when you had no reason to do so. Thank you.”

Smiling, Celestia rested her wing across my back. “And thank you for proving me right. For making my sister so happy. For being such a good friend. Sometimes a little trust is worth a lot more than it seems.”

I couldn't help but nod in agreement.

AN// Big thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.

Chapter 37

Why in the world did I agree to this?

I just couldn’t figure it out. Oh yeah, Celestia asked. Stupid alicorns. In every single sense of the word.

Hesitating by the doors, I looked at the gold inlays, adjusted my cloak with my magic and then my medallion. Why the ever flying fuck did I agree to this!?

I thought only Luna could talk me into doing this fucking stuff. No, apparently, you just needed to be female! Damn it!

Renewing my illusion, I took a deep breath before letting it out and entered through the doors. The guards went to attention as I approached the thrones, ignoring the ponies gathered to the side of the throne_room to watch.

Nope. Not happening.

Celestia can have her fun and I don’t mind helping out… not too much. But that’s not happening. Ignoring the thrones, I sat stood between and in_front of them before sitting down.

“Lord Page?” Light Velvet said as the unicorn approached. She was pretty young for her position as one of Luna’s court assistants, wearing a simple dark blue dress with her white coat and pale grey mane, “Good evening.”

“Good evening, Miss Velvet.” I answered with a nod, “How are you tonight?”

“Doing very well, Lord Page,” She answered with a smile, shifting the papers floating in her magic before continuing, “…We have gotten quite a lot of last minute appointments. As soon as ponies found out that Night Court would reopen even though Princess Luna was not back yet, we got hundreds of applicants.”

Oh, joy.

Likely nobles and merchants thinking they could get things past me they couldn’t get past Celestia or Luna.

Please let me not fuck this up.

“What’s first on the agenda tonight then?” I sighed.

“One Lady Glittershine would like to discuss the purchase of mining rights for the hills outside the village of Stonebend. A vein of Opal had been located there of exceptional purity. The claim and mining rights are being contested by the Grapevine family whom has a vineyard on the other side of the hill. Here are all the documents and an map of the area,” she explained and floated some papers and a map over.

Hmm. The hill wasn’t that big to be honest. Where was the water table? Mining was to be done by mostly earth ponies as they had the best affinity for the work.

Explosives and picks mostly. Or even water and fire where things were too fragile for explosives, such as digging gems out.

Finally, I nodded, “Send them in,” I said without looking up from the papers floating before me.

It didn’t take long before a voice interrupted my reading, “Lord Page, I would like to thank you for seeing to this case even though Princess Luna is unavailable.”

“Mhmm.” I answered and switched paper, barely glancing up at the bright blue unicorn mare, covered in enough jewelry to start a chain.

I just kept reading until she cleared her throat, “…Lord Page?”

I looked up at her, “Yes?”

Lady Glittershine visibly hesitated, “If you would sign the papers, I’ll stop taking up your valuable time, Lord Page. As you see, the counter claim is completely baseless. The mine wouldn’t be on their side of the hill and wouldn’t extend beneath their land.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening. The mine would pollute the ground water; It’s below the water table and way too close to large farms, not only belonging to the Grapevine family, but half the valley,“ I answered and shuffled the papers together, “Not only no, but fuck no.”

“Lord Page! You can’t possibly mean-”

“I do. Sweet dreams now, Lady Glittershine.”

“The Princesses would never…”

I raised my eyebrow as I watched her slowly trail off and then make a frustrated sound before storming off,

“I’ll be logging an official protest with Princess Celestia!”

You do that.

I really should have expected something like that. Without one of the Princesses, with me being really, really inexperienced in this stuff, of course they would try to ram stuff like that through.

I’m so fucking glad I refuse to have this as my day… well, night job. Luna can bloody well keep it in my opinion.

The peanut gallery was full of whispers and talks along the sides of the room where the normal onlookers were gathered.

Also not unexpected. Honestly, if it wasn’t the middle of the night I would have expected even more ponies to show up to watch. Now it was only the ones without jobs in the morning and enough spare time to waste here. Meaning, the normal rich hanger-ons and lobbyists that hung around the throne room when Luna held court.

Well, whisper on.

I may have agreed to do this, but if I’m to do it, I’m doing it my way and I have zero patience with your normal bullshit.

Luna sits and listens to it all calmly and then make her ruling.

Celestia could do the same with a smile.

I’ll hear you and read the information available. But I won’t suffer your crap.

“The next one, Miss Velvet?” I asked, looking over to the unicorn standing by the side with a stack of papers.

Smiling, she nodded and stepped up with a single paper. “A dispute between the families Harnthrew and Pineapple regarding the payment owed over the water from a well.”

“…How many of those do we have?”

“Four more, Lord Page,” she said with a smile, “We also have an application for Crown sponsorship for a business and other requests of loans and favours from the crown.”

At least those sounded interesting.

I took the paper Velvet held out for me and read through it. Seemed clear enough, one claimed there was a vocal agreement for a monthly fee for the water used and the other said there was no such thing. Lower courts had failed to get them to agree.

“Very well, send them in please.”

Oh well, back into the bullshit mine we go.

Chapter 38

“Well? How did it go?” Luna asked with a smile as she walked along the crowded street next to me, the dream shifting slightly around us as griffons moved all around us.

“I hate ponies.”

That got a giggle from her. “No, you don’t.”

I sighed and shook my head in agreement. “No I don’t. But I do wish they would…ugh.”

“Be nice, My Page,” Luna said and poked my side with her wing. “Ponies rely on us for support, protection and rule.”

“…Not sure that’s fair,” I commented and looked at one of the stalls selling apples before floating one over to me to taste. Not as good as Apple Family crop, but not bad. “To them or you. Us.”

“How do you mean?”

“Why not allow them to make their own choices? Why rely on alicorns?”

“Because we know how things were before. We have experience, knowledge,” Luna explained and then looked thoughtful. “…Because they would no longer allow us not to.”

That was true, wasn’t it?

Even if all the alicorns walked away from the throne, would the ponies accept it? I didn’t know. Honestly, I didn’t think they would.

I didn’t want it in the first place and I refused to pick up the crown, but I knew they would still treat me like royalty. More than they did now anyway.

That’s why I wanted to hide it in the first place.

Finally, I sighed and changed the subject, looking around. “Now, how did you get us to a griffon dream?”

Luna smiled and looked around before leading me over to a small eatery. “All beings dream, but all species dream on different levels of the dream world. Griffons share their own dream realm, while ponies share theirs. Same with dragons, minotaurs, cows. All beings. To travel in one dream realm is not that difficult, but to travel between different ones means needing to bridge the gap.”

I applied a bit of will, getting a cup of hot tea to appear before us each when we sat down and I nodded in thought. “Ah. I see. Each dream realm is like a Vlan and to be able to move between them I need to set up routing.”

“I have no idea of what you speak of, but if you mean that you need to work your dream magic to move between then, then yes,” Luna agreed with a nod.

“How do you do that?”

“I’ll show you in a bit,” she said and looked around. “What do you see?”

Sipping my imaginary tea, I looked around. “A dream, clearly. Not one of the exciting ones, someone dreaming about moving through their day.”

“Whose dream is it?”

I looked over to the left. “That one. The female griffon with the stand selling carpets.”

Smiling, Luna nodded and shifted to lean against my side, scale shifting so we were the same size and she could fit beneath my wing as she cuddled close. “Her name?”

Her name? How would I find out her name from just a dream? They weren’t labelled.

Create a dream image to ask her?

A nuzzle at my ear kept distracting me as I tried to think. “Feel it, My Page. This is her dream, her realm. It’s everything she is.”

Leaning against Luna in time, I closed my eyes and focused on the currents beneath the surface, feeling and sifting through it. Mostly feelings, stray ideas.

Kara.

I opened my eyes again. “Her name is Kara. Kara Stonecutter.”

“Very good.”

Luna smiled and pulled away. “Can you tell how the dream will run?”

“… I think it will end soon.”

She nodded. “It will another few minutes in real time.”

“Should we leave?” I asked with a frown.

Luna nodded again. “In a minute,” she replied and nuzzled at my ear. “First, I have good news.”

“Oh?”

“The king has been selected and will be crowned tomorrow. I’ll be back home in a week,” Luna said with a smile, cuddling close.

Yes!!

Grinning happily, I pulled her into a deep kiss. Yes!!

“A week?” I asked with a grin as I let her go.

Luna nodded. “A week. Perhaps eight days depending on the winds.”

“I miss you,” I whispered and leaned against her, pulling her tight with my wing. “I really, really hate not having you next to me when I wake up. Actually, forget that. I hate spending the evenings without you. Just… Luna, even being in the same room as you as you work is better than anything else can compare with.”

Shifting close, Luna slid her horn against mine until her forehead rested against mine. “My Page.”

“My Sky,” I answered softly, looking into her eyes. “My nights are darker without you.”

“And your days?”

“Well, aren’t your sister keeping those lit… eep! No! No tickles!” I squeaked and wiggled as she pounced.

Quite a bit later, several wrecked tables and a collapsed dream later, I relaxed in the space between dreams, Luna resting against me, her head on my chest, her mane floating towards the side. “My Page?”

“Mmm?” I asked and pulled her tighter.

“I love you.”

“Love you too,” I murmured and nuzzled at her ear before I smiled as I started to get an idea.

Chapter 39

I took slow deep breaths, my eyes closed.

“How are you doing?” Sunset asked and I opened my eyes to look at her. “Nervous?”

I shook my head. “No. Terrified.”

She smiled and poked me with her hoof. “You’ll be fine.”

Twilight nodded in agreement, her wing settling across Sunset's back. “You will. My life didn’t change that much after I became an alicorn.”

Sunset nodded and then looked thoughtful, looking at Twilight. “…Admittedly, you aren’t a stallion.”

“True.”

I shook my head. “Not helping, Sunset,” I groaned and moved to look out the window.

“Sorry.”

“You should have waited until Princess Luna returned,” Skitter said from where she was sitting on one of the comfy chairs. “You would have felt better.”

Maybe this was a mistake.

Well, too late now. Twenty minutes until Celestia and I made the announcement. Fucking hell, I was…

I felt like I was about to fight Tirek again but without the determination. Just the fear and adrenaline without an outlet.

Skitter jumped off the chair and moved next to me. Next thing I knew she nipped at the side of my neck and every worry and fear I had just melted away like a candle next to a blowtorch of just pure need.

Gasping, I looked at her before I turned away, clenching my eyes tight as I clamped down on my mind with chains of will, forcing the sudden images away from my mind.

Taking a deep breath, I turned to glare at her. “What the fuck, Skitter?”

She cringed. “…Sorry. But you were so nervous. How do you feel?”

I blinked at her twice.

I felt good.

“Damn it, Skitter,” I grumbled, rubbing my neck. Whatever it was that she did should be bottled. You could make a lot of bits from that, though I’m not sure it should ever be used against a non-alicorn. It wasn’t a poison or drug or anything, it was something about that rather intimate nibble combined with their magic.

Luckily, it was limited to changeling royalty. Besides, I’m pretty sure it was possibly to get addicted to that.

“…Sorry, sir.”

“What was that?” Twilight asked curiously from next to Sunset before moving over to us. “Some kind of changeling magic?”

“You could say that,” I answered before I mentally smirked. “Ask her to show you if you like to know.” I stretched my wings and took another deep breath. Holy shit, that woke you up.

Okay, let’s fucking do this.

Turning around, I trotted out of the room as Twilight looked at Skitter curiously. I headed out into the main hall, closing the door behind me.

So, this was it, wasn’t it? The next turn of my life?

After today, everyone would know I’m an alicorn now. Even with Skitter's distraction, I was nervous. I didn’t like the attention. Honestly, I never did.

I just wanted to be left alone and write my books. Maybe something original after I finish Terminator. Maybe… explorer in a flying ship. Not Star Trek, an actual flying ship, maybe with pirates?

Shaking my head, I turned the corner and pushed that thought away for later. I was just trying to ignore reality now and right now, I can’t afford it.

I had to do this right. For Luna.

And to be honest, for myself. I had to get over this, I had to… I had to figure this out and this was the way forward. The only realistic one.

The only one that let me stay with Luna long term.

Heading for the balcony I stopped next to where Celestia was waiting, looking as calm as ever. As I got close, she smiled. “How do you feel, Page?”

“Bit nervous. Better now though,” I said and smiled slightly. “Let’s get this over with so I can go hide?”

Celestia nodded. “Not quite time yet. A few more minutes.”

Nodding, I sat down. “Yeah.”

“Page, we can still call this off,” Celestia offered. “I can make another announcement.”

I shook my head. “…No. It won’t be possible to hide it much longer. This is better. In the long run, I mean.”

“Maybe. Only you can decide that.”

“…Let’s do it.”

Celestia nodded and gave me a nuzzle at my ear. “Let’s. Come.”

“Wait,” I said and paused, “What do I do?”

She smiled. “Nothing, I’ll handle it. You just stand there, looking pretty.”

I shot her a small glare and she winked before leading me out towards the balcony above the main square. You would think I would be terrified and I was earlier, I really needed to thank Skitter for…

The square was packed with ponies. Thousands. Tens of thousands. All looking this way.

Oh. There was my panic.

Clenching my jaw, I forced myself to continue out next to the larger alicorn into full view.

Do.

Not.

Embarrass.

Luna.

Or.

Celestia.

Panic on your own time. Now, look relaxed and smile.

Chapter 40

When I returned inside, I wasn’t quite sure what had happened out there. Everything out on the balcony just kind of passed in a blur.

I was so focused on looking calm and relaxed and doing what Celestia told me to that I didn’t really pay attention to anything else.

“Easy. Breathe,” Celestia said from next to me, putting her wing across mine, slowly pushing them down. “Deep breaths.”

Swallowing, I nodded and closed my eyes, doing as she said. “Celestia?”

“Yes?”

“Never doing that again.”

“You never need to,” she promised and gave my ear a quick nuzzle. “Go rest. You’ll feel better tomorrow. I’ll talk to the press, you don’t need to be there for that.”

That sounded like a great idea. Actually, I had an even better idea, I was going to grab Swift and Cloud and then get completely fucking smashed.

Nodding, I looked up at her, giving her a small smile and a nuzzle. “Thank you.”

She gave me a quick hug with her wing before leaving. I sat down and closed my eyes. Calm. Relax. It’s over now.

Well, the worst part I think, at the very least. Stretching my wings, I gave them a flap before folding them again and opening my eyes. “Amber?”

“Yes, sir?” she answered just behind me and to the side.

I turned to smile at her. “How did I do?”

She smiled back. “I think you did fine, sir. You looked calm.”

“Thanks,” I said and then got up. “Mind going to ask Cloud if he wants to get fucking drunk? Swift is still outside the door, right?”

“Yes, sir.” She nodded and buzzed off out through the window.

Heading for the door, I pulled it open to spot Swift standing guard outside it. “Hey Swift.”

“Went well?”

I nodded and shrugged my wings. “I think so? Come on, let’s get drunk.”

He frowned. “Not sure I can, I’m on duty.”

“You have the next 24 hours off. If that won’t work, then you are hereby suspended for the next 24 hours,” I said. “Amber can cover for you.”

Swift flicked his ears and then nodded with a grin. “Hey, who am I to argue? As soon as she gets back, I’m off then. So, what are we drinking?”

“Expensive stuff.”

“Awesome.”

I nodded and started down the hallway. “Amber is off to find Cloud right now, see if he wants to join us. Come on, let’s see if we can find Sunset and Twilight too.”

Swift trotted up to move next to me. “Princess Twilight?”

“Yep. Maybe Skitter too if she is still with them.”

“I have the best job,” Swift said with a grin.

“No, your job sucks,” I countered with a grin. “You have the best friends. There is a difference.”

He seemed to consider that for a moment before he shook his head. “Nope. I’m pretty sure it’s my job.”

I just laughed and shook my head with a grin.

Man, I was already getting more relaxed. The question is where to go. Out into Canterlot was just out. The tower?

Yeah, the tower seemed like the best idea.

“..You do realize you are going to get it from Minuette for not telling her I was an alicorn, right?” I commented as we headed for the room where I knew they would be waiting.

“Oh yeah,” Swift answered with a small cringe. “Yeah, that’ll be a fun conversation.”

“Sorry.”

He shrugged. “Comes with the job. She knows I can’t tell her everything. Still, something like this… yeah, she’ll be pissed.”

I nodded and frowned. “To be honest, I should likely have told her myself. I’ll apologize to her later.”

Silver too. I really should have told her about it, she was one of the first ponies I got to know. Ah crap, now I felt bad.

Okay, I’d go talk to her tomorrow. Then stop by and apologize to Minuette on the way back.

Shaking my head, I pulled the door open with my magic. “Hey guys, you wa…”

I froze at the sight that greeted me before slowly and carefully closing the door again, as silently as I could. Not that anypony was likely to have noticed if I just slammed it shut.

Swift frowned at me. “What?”

Oh yeah, he had been on the other side of the door.

I shook my head. “Nopony there, they must have gone somewhere else. Knowing Twilight, all three went to the Library or something,” I said with a shrug. “Guess we have to make do without the eye candy.”

“Eh, happens,” he said with a shrug before he flicked his ear in thought. “…Do you have some cards? We should play cards.”

“Oh fuck no. One, you don’t have any money; two, I know better than to play with a pair of guard ponies! I have heard stories!”

“Oh, come on, we’d go easy on you! Besides, Cloud is awful at it! It’ll be fun!” he said with a grin as we headed towards the tower. “Did I ever tell you of the time that…”

I glanced back across my shoulder.

Wow.

That’s an image I wasn't going to forget anytime soon.

Author's Notes:

As people don't seem to be able to figure out what happened, this part has been adjusted.

Chapter 41

Silver stared at me.

I shifted a bit uncomfortably. “…Sorry.”

She slowly shook her head. “That makes so much sense.”

“Huh?” I asked with a frown as I sat down. “What do you mean?”

“All the things you've done, everything you've accomplished...”

“I wasn’t an alicorn for a lot of that…”

“Still.”

I shrugged my wings. “Not sure it works like that, Silver. Still, I should have told you earlier. You are my friend, you deserved to know. I just… I don’t like the attention.”

She gave me a look. “So you came to my café in the middle of the day!? I could have come to the castle!”

That would have saved me a ton of looks as I flew here.

“I can’t hide either,” I answered and smiled. “I just have to get used to it.”

Silver Leaf nodded and then paused and facehoofed. “I’m sorry, Lord Page, I’m being a horrible host. Can I get you a cup of tea?”

Smiling, I nodded. “That would be rather nice, Silver. Thank you.”

Smiling, she moved around the kitchen of the café with an ease I would never be able to copy. Getting some cups of tea ready, she also took care of some muffins ready to remove from the oven and got a second set glazed.

All without the use of a horn, just using her muzzle and hooves.

It was really impressive. Wings were really nice and flying was amazing, but there was no way I would have been able to handle not having magic to manipulate things… and here Silver went and just got everything ready while multitasking with some baking and she made it look easy.

Hell, she likely got everything done smoother than I could have, even if I could bake as good as she could.

“Thank you,” I said and took the cup offered. “You know, you are amazingly good at that.”

“Thank you, Lord Page,” she answered with a small smile. “It’s kind of my Special Talent.”

Shaking my head, I poked her with my hoof. “No ‘Lording’, I told you that before. Just Page.”

“…Page then.”

I sipped my tea and found that it was as great as always. The tea in the castle was good, don’t get me wrong, but there was something about how Silver did hers that made it great.

She tasted her own cup and then moved to put a chocolate cake into the oven. “…You look good, by the way,” she then added. “The wings, I mean. Not that… you know…”

I just shifted my right wing and looked down at it. “So I have been told. Thanks,” I said before I looked over at her. “Want some help with that?”

“Hmm?”

“The cake? I feel rather silly just sitting here.”

“Oh. There is no need, really.”

I jumped off the chair and trotted over to her. “I’m not completely useless in a kitchen. Besides, I want to.”

“…Thanks. Could you glace the one on the counter? The vanilla glace?”

“Sure thing,” I agreed and moved over to it. “How are things with you, Silver? Business is good?”

“It is!” she said with a grin as she started up a new batch of… something. “It’s almost too busy, even with an employee at times. I’m starting to run out of table space,” she admitted before she shrugged her wings. “At least during lunch hour and just after ponies get out of work. We get pretty swamped.”

I nodded and carefully spread the glace across the cake with the… I forget what it’s called. The flat spoon thing.

Okay, so while I can cook, I wasn't amazing in the kitchen. Careful. Careful. Not too much or it dripped.

Silver sighed and moved up next to me to check how things were going. “Looks good,” she said before she shrugged. “…I may need to look for a new location.”

“You are moving?”

She nodded. “Maybe. Not sure I can keep up here. There is a lot of memories here, my family owned this since long before I was born. But dad wouldn’t want me to stay here just for that,” she said before she smiled slightly. “He would be pretty mad at me for it actually.”

“…You could still stay,” I said. “Have you thought of maybe franchising it instead?”

Silver paused at that. “I… no. No I hadn’t. You really think that could work?”

I shrugged. “Maybe? Don’t ask me. I hire somebody else to handle my bits for me, I’m awful at that stuff, you should talk to an expert.”

She looked thoughtful as she moved to get some of those marzipan flowers. “That’s not a bad idea actually.”

“I hope it works out,” I said and pulled back to peer at the cake. That looked like it should, I think?

“I’ll talk to my accountant tonight, I think,” she said with a nod before she grinned. “Oh! While you are here, can you do me a big favour?”

“…What’s that?”

“How’s your horn writing? Writing on cakes can be such a pain.”

“Better than it used to be, worse than it should be for someone who writes as much as I do?” I admitted and shrugged my wings. “I can give it a try.”

Silver grinned and moved to get the things needed as I looked after her for a moment,

“Silver, mind doing me a major favour?”

“Sure. What do you have in mind?” the grey Pegasus asked as she returned, with the… squeeze tube thing. So sue me, I can cook, I don’t know what everything is called.

“Would you mind looking after Fern again for a couple of weeks? I’m going to be busy for a while and I don’t feel like it would be fair to him.”

Silver grinned. “Of course not! Fern is a total sweetheart!”

Chapter 42

“How are things going with the minotaurs?” I asked Celestia as I settled down next to her on the balcony overlooking one of the gardens.

She shrugged her wings. “Slow. Tedious. But well enough, I suppose,” she said before she smiled and poked me with her wing. “I wouldn’t mind if you joined us tomorrow. Perhaps a new point of view will help.”

I cringed at that before I shook my head. ”Can’t. Luna returns tomorrow.”

“It will be good to have her back.”

Nodding, I looked out at the trees below. A gardener was working on trimming the rosebushes.

Maybe I should take up gardening. I likely should know some of it in any case, if I were to own a timberwolf.

“Bit for your thoughts?” Celestia asked after a moment.

I shook my head. “You would be overpaying. Was thinking about Fern.”

“How is the timberwolf?”

I looked over at her at her tone. “You don’t like him?”

Celestia sighed. “It is not that, Page. It’s just that I don’t wish anypony to be hurt. In my life, I have never heard of a timberwolf being tamed.”

She had a point there. Normally they hunted ponies… not beg to taste their tea. But Fern had never hurt anypony.

“He's never hurt anypony.”

“I know,” Celestia answered and nodded. “Just… be careful. He is still little but he will grow.”

Nodding, I frowned down at my hooves. “I am.”

We settled down into silence again and just enjoyed the warmth of her sun for the moment. It was nice for me…

But I knew it was even nicer for her.

Both Luna and Celestia were under so much pressure. Constantly, even during just the normal day to day operations.

All of Equestria rested on them both.

Celestia carried it all alone for a thousand years along with… locking her sister away in the moon. There were no words for how much I admired that. I couldn’t do that.

I didn’t have that much responsibilities. To be honest, I didn’t have any really.

There was nothing that said I even had to deal with dreams. It wasn’t really my special… thing. It was involved, yes, but I think my actual thing was imagination. Or… maybe inspiration.

Not dreams.

I just did it because I could help Luna. To take some weight off her, if even just a little.

Finally, I looked up at Celestia. “Sunshine?”

“Hmh?” she asked and looked over at me in question.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“How do you mean, Page?”

“Not just… going to a cultural thing in your place, but… something I can do to help out day to day,” I explained and shifted my wings. “You always have so much to do, same as Luna. I don’t want a throne or a crown, but I want to help out if I can. I help Luna with dreams… not all of them, but enough that she can actually put it out of her mind if she wants to. So that she can focus on other things.”

Celestia smiled and leaned in, giving my ear a nuzzle. “Thank you, Page. But I don’t know what it would be.”

“Neither do I,” I admitted and flicked my ear. “Just… I want to help out if I can.”

She nodded and then eyed me. “Maybe I should just put you in charge of the Guard. You get along with guardsmen.”

I gave her a flat look. “If you do, I swear I’ll use the Guard to take over Equestria and put a democracy in place. As revenge.”

That got a giggle from her and a poke from her wing. “Better not then. Whatever would we do with ‘Darth Page’?”

“Cower in fear, of course,” I said with a grin and then slowly flicked my ears in thought. Hmm.

Now that was an idea.

Not exactly the conquer Equestria thing, but other parts… yes. Definitely workable.

I grinned and quickly jumped up. “Celestia, you are a genius! Thank you!”

That got me a head tilt. “…I’m afraid you lost me.”

Shaking my head, I stretched my wings. “No time to explain, I have too much to do before tomorrow.”

Celestia shot me a suspicious look. “What exactly are you up to now, Page?” she asked with a smile as she got up.

I gave her a quick hug. “You’ll see tomorrow. Have fun with the minotaurs.”

“Yes. Fun.” She snorted. “That’s one thing to call it.”

“Hey, see it like this… if you get tired of talking, headbutt them,” I suggested. “They have those horns for a reason.”

Celestia looked at me for a long moment before she started to laugh. “Maybe having you not join the negotiations is for the best. But I’ll keep it in mind,” she then added, sticking her tongue out at me.

Winking, I jumped off the balcony and took to the air. I had some things to do and not a lot of time to do it. First of all, I needed to track down Cloud and Swift, I would need their help with this. Sunset as well.

Chapter 43

“You sure you got it?” I asked Swift and Cloud, adjusting my new cloak with my magic.

Swift nodded with a grin. “Don’t worry. We got it. Everything will go great, I promise.”

Taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, I then nodded. “Okay, in positions. Won’t be long now.”

Cloud tapped my shoulder with his hoof. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

As they left to relieve the guards already standing there on each side of the airship dock, I just sat down and waited in the shade of a cargo box.

You would think I would be nervous, but not really.

I was just excited. Well, mostly excited. Also, a bit terrified.

But mostly excited.

“Page!”

Startled, I looked back to see Twilight approaching. “Oh… hi Sparks. What’s up?”

Twilight smiled and hesitated, one hoof slightly off the floor. “Hi… uhm… can we talk?”

I glanced back at the dock. “…I have a few moments.”

“Thanks.”

She seemed really nervous. I had a pretty good idea of why. I’m fairly sure none of them noticed when I opened the door, but…

Sparks flicked her ears nervously. “Page, I need to tell you something…”

I smiled at her. “Don’t worry about it. I already figured it out.”

She blinked at me. “You did?”

“Yeah,” I said and nodded. “I… kind of saw it,” I admitted with a small cringe. “Sorry. Didn’t mean too.”

Twilight looked nervous. “…And you are okay with it?”

“Of course! I’m happy for you!”

“You are?”

I nodded. “Of course! Why wouldn’t I be?”

Twilight smiled. “Page, that’s such a relief. She was so afraid to let anyone know.”

“She has nothing to be nervous about. As long as she is happy…”

Twilight frowned. “Well… I wouldn’t say happy. But he hasn’t caused any trouble.”

My mind did what could only be described as a double take.

“Wait, what?” I asked. “He? What exactly are we talking about?”

Twilight looked unsure. “…Discord hiding with Fluttershy. What did you think we were talking about?”

DISCORD IS WHAT!?

I stared at her. “…Discord is what?”

Twilight cringed. “…He came to her after Tirek was defeated. He was terrified after seeing him get killed. He begged her to hide him and she just couldn’t say no. I found out a few days ago, and talked them into letting me talk to you, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna about it. I… figured I would go to you first.”

I facehoofed. “…Twilight, you couldn’t have waited two hours? I really don’t need this shit right now. Okay, you say he has behaved?”

Twilight nodded. “Ponyville didn’t notice anything. Fluttershy says he even helped out around the house and kept it down to small pranks.”

I glanced back. That dot in the sky was an airship.

I turned back to Twilight. “Then he can wait. I’m not dealing with this right now, go tell Celestia or something. He can be her problem, I don’t want it.”

Twilight cringed. “I’m sorry, I should have told you when I found out.”

“…Don’t worry about it,” I sighed and glanced back at the quickly growing airship. “Just hurry out of here!”

She tilted her head. “I was thinking I would be saying hi to Luna.”

“Say hi to Luna later!” I said and guided her away. “Or at least stay behind the corner!”

“What’s going on?”

“You’ll see! Just stay quiet and hidden!” I said and pushed her behind the corner before rushing back into position.

I didn’t have time for some stupid chaos spirit right now! I had more important things to do.

The airship slowly slowed and pegasi jumped off to start dragging out lines to the dock to pull it close. I ignored them and focused on my magic. I needed to do this just perfectly. Luckily, I had had quite a bit of practice with illusions lately.

I glanced around the corner. The ramp was lowering.

It took a few moments before Luna exited, followed by a couple of ponies in her group, carrying items, mostly papers. The unicorn next to her was talking to her while floating a paper up for her to look at.

Now.

I rounded the corner and finished my illusion as I spread my wings, making dark smoke flow around me and down towards the ground as I laughed.

“Muhahaha!”

Everyone stopped and stared at me before Swift and Cloud sprung into action. “Protect the Princess!”

Lowering myself slightly, I lit my horn up with a red light and shot a red light at each of them. Swift threw himself back and rolled over, laying still.

Cloud reared up and clutched his chest. “Ah! I’m dying! Dying!” he exclaimed before he fell over, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, his right rear leg twitching.

Awesome job, Cloud. You missed your calling as an actor.

Fucking damn it.

The ponies around Luna cowered back and Luna raised her eyebrows. “…Page, what are you up to?”

“Ah ha!” I said, spreading my wings. “I am not Page! I am Lord Darth…” oh crap, didn’t think of something... “Darth Rune! The new EMPEROR OF EQUESTRIA!”

Nailed it!

Luna just smiled and shook her head. “My Page, you would hate being Emperor. But very well, I’ll play along. What are your plans, Darth Rune?”

I slowly approached. “My plan is quite simple, my dear Princess. I will cover the land in darkness, forcing the population to cower before me. I will kidnap their Princess to a faraway land, keeping her prisoner! In sweltering heat and bright sun…”

“That would be nice…” Luna admitted with a sigh, “but I can’t just…”

“…While forcing her to marry me,” I finished as I reached her so we were nose to nose.

Luna blinked. “Marry.”

I smiled and nodded, allowing the illusion of dark smoke flowing off me to stop as I looked up at her. “Marry me,” I said, folding my wings. “I… I didn’t know how to ask you. I wanted to make it memorable. I understand if you don’t wa…”

“Yes. Yes and yes!” Luna answered and captured my lips in a kiss as she pressed close.

When we broke the kiss, I smiled up at her, "Oh, good. Because I was a bit fuzzy on exactly how to take over Equestria."

Author's Notes:

And that's the last part for now. We will be returning to Blank Page again at a future time though. Thank you everyone for reading and hope you enjoyed it.