Starlight stood quietly next to her master, Arax as the two watched Serenade storm about her small office in Canterlot in annoyance, knocking things over with her hooves and cursing wildly. Some of the words that escaped her mouth were not ones that Starlight had even heard before, and she was certain that some of them were in another language. Serenade had mentioned she had been to Dragon Scar, and a few griffins and dragons from the Germanic Isles visited there from time to time, so did this mare know German?

Regardless the two watched her rage silently, not daring to interrupt. Arax always knew better. The only solution with Serenade when she was having a fit was to let her have her tantrum and speak only when asked a question. He had been through this drill many times already. There was no reasoning with her when she was this upset.

“THAT FUCKING SHIT EATING COCKSUCKER!” She shouted at maximum volume, no doubt disturbing the guards outside and putting every pony within a mile radius on edge.

Arax stood still and waited.

“WHO THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT STAIN, ARAX!?” Serenade demanded to know, pointing a hoof at him.

Arax just shrugged. “Don’t know, not in my intel.”

“FUCK YOU, YOU WORTHLESS BUG! IT’S YOUR FUCKING JOB TO KNOW! MAYBE I SHOULD TAKE YOU OUT BACK AND DISEMBOWEL YOU?” Serenade threatened.

Starlight flinched at the threat, but Arax didn’t seem fazed. This was par the norm for their interactions every time something happened that neither of them could have predicted. Serenade hadn’t gotten used to the idea that the world didn’t revolve around her and that she was not the smartest creature to ever live. The concept that another could outsmart her was lost upon this girl.

“I can only know things that I am looking for, I can’t find out about things I never knew about. This Glitch must have been operating in secret, but no doubt that he works for Twilight...” Arax suggested.

Serenade shook her head. “No... I could tell by looking at them... That useless cunt seemed clueless... Twilight isn’t calling the shots, this guy is.”

“That seems unlikely, why would the last remaining princess relinquish authority to this pony?” Arax raised a brow.

Serenade’s temper seemed to have simmered just a bit. “Think about it, she has no real magic left, maybe a tiny fraction of her original power. This pony seems to have somehow slipped past my radar and is fully loaded. Twilight thinks she’s betting on one stronger than herself.”

Arax placed a hoof to his chin and thought it over. Twilight definitely seemed like she was the type to take chances, though that wasn’t what he had heard about her originally. He had known her to be the studious and careful type, but something changed when they finally encountered her. The draconequus being freed was starting to paint a picture to him.

“You may be right... I think I’ve figured it out... That Discord guy... I think he must have mentored Twilight, that’s where she was when we were looking for her originally, being trained by him. What they displayed before you wasn’t just the two of them joining forces...” Arax explained.

Serenade rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Captain Obvious. Any more astute observations to tell me about? Either way, she broke her old mentor out... Big deal. He’s useless now, I have all of his power, and she has no power left herself.”

“What about Glitch though?” Arax asked.

Serenade’s watchful eye squinted and landed on Starlight. She grinned and approached the mare who was decorated in a rather fetching dress with cute earrings to match. “You there, Arax’s plaything... You wouldn’t happen to know anything about Glitch, would you?”

Starlight gulped and shook her head slowly. “N-no... Twilight must have recruited him after I was taken...”

Serenade looked over at Arax for confirmation.

The changeling nodded. “Yeah, I already squeezed her for info. If she knew anything, she’d have told me by now...”

Serenade smirked. “Already worked your magic then? You dog.”

“It’s not like that...” Arax rubbed his neck and looked away.

“What you do in your bedroom is your business, but I still expect a full report on Glitch by the end of the day. I want to know everything you can find before I sit in my bath tonight. Where he’s been, what he’s done, if this pony has taken a shit, I want to know about it, got it?” Serenade commanded.

He rolled his eyes at his master. “Again, it’s not like that, but I’ll see what I can do about Glitch, but I can’t make any promises, the guy seems to have kept a fairly low profile as I’ve already begun the process of looking into him.”

Serenade nodded and turned around to leave. “Excellent... I want a search team looking for him at all times from here on. If you find him, bring him back alive though, I want to rip off that helmet and see his face before I kill him. No one tricks me and gets away with it...”

Arax watched as she left the room, leaving Starlight and him alone. After she was certain that the siren was out of earshot, Starlight spoke to her master. “She has quite a temper doesn’t she?”

His red eyes glanced over at his slave and nodded. “Yeah, but this is nothing. She’s only mildly angry right now. You haven’t seen her at her worst yet.”

“What does that look like?” Starlight gulped.

Arax smirked. “You best hope we find out more about this Glitch, or you may actually find out...”

Starlight didn’t like the sound of that. Serenade clearly was a volatile creature, she was prone to do anything if she didn’t get her way, and that was less than ideal for Starlight. Somehow though, Arax remained calm. He seemed unfazed by her anger, even when it was directed at him. She could tell that gears were turning in his head, but he wasn’t about to let her in on what he was thinking.

Still, so long as he was calm, she found it easier to be calm herself. Somehow she had faith that Arax had it under control.

Taking a deep breath, Starlight had never been more nervous in her entire life. What she was about to do was something that could drastically change the course of her relationship with Sunburst, and her entire life depending on how he reacted.

It had all been planned out at this point by Angel and her. Angel made an excuse to go see a movie and be out of the house for the majority of the night, giving Starlight the opportunity to invite Sunburst over and discuss the fact that Angel and Starlight both had strange magic powers that they were investigating, and then to drop the talk about her being pregnant after if he hadn’t run away by then. In retrospect, she wished she had planned it the other way around, but a part of her somehow believed that accepting the nonsense that she and her best friend had otherworldly powers was easier than accepting that Starlight was pregnant with Sunburst’s love child.

Starlight had opted to dress casual, nothing too crazy, just a blouse that was unbuttoned for the first two buttons giving just a gentle glimpse at her cleavage, and the blue bra that accompanied it, along with some torn up skinny jeans that accepted her behind quite well.

Her blouse was black, and sported the logo for Avenged Sevenfold on the back, a band that she was particularly fond of, and had been to a concert or two of theirs’.

She had made sure to have her hair nice and tidy for this evening, and her eyeliner had been applied, re-applied and re-applied again until it was nearly flawless, creating a gentle spike coming off of her eyes which had a cute dark line above them with just a touch of glitter.

When she checked it over in the mirror, she felt like she was more attractive than she had ever felt in her entire life. She smiled at her reflection, showing off her white teeth as she winked to herself. “Starlight... You are actually really hot... But tonight, you need to focus and not blow this. This could be it, this could be the guy you spend forever with, you just need to cross these two hurdles...”

She sighed and frowned as she shook her head. “It’s just that I stupidly planned having these two huge hurdles back to back...”

Composing herself, she rubbed her temples. “No, we can do this. This is all going to work out fine, stop talking like that, that’s just the hormones inside you making you crazy. We can get through this, it doesn’t need to be a bad thing...”

Growing a stern look, she pointed her freshly manicured finger at herself. “You can do this. Repeat after me... You. Can. Do. This.”

Her motivational speech in her bathroom mirror would be interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing. She nearly jumped at the sound before exclaiming to herself. “He’s here!”

Bolting out of the bathroom and toward the door, Starlight stopped inches before it and brushed herself off. She took in a breath and let it out, trying to calm herself. She kept repeating that it would be okay in her head over and over as she reached for the handle of the door, her hands already getting slightly sweaty, though she hoped he wouldn’t notice.

Opening the door, the red-headed man of her dreams was standing there with a bouquet of flowers, a mixture of reds, purples and pinks all wrapped up neatly for her. She could already feel her heart melting just seeing those flowers. Most of her ex-boyfriends just showed up with their hands in their pockets asking if she was game to take a ride on their motorcycle or if she wanted to go back to their place. Here was a man who actually brought her flowers, her, Starlight!

He smiled and she caught a glimpse of the tiny imperfection on his teeth where one of his front teeth had a tiny almost unnoticeable chip in them, but it was one of those imperfections that she felt completed his face.

She reached forward and placed her hands upon his face, rubbing his scruffy beard as she did and smiling while she looked into his blue eyes. She recalled when they were younger he always wore some dorky glasses, but as he matured and entered his twenties, he had switched to contacts and was much more of a stylish guy overall.

Starlight pecked his lips for a moment and he wrapped a hand around her, not daring to try and steal more from her, but leaving her in want by not doing so. She swore she would teach him how to handle her over time, but she didn’t want to get too ahead of herself just yet. There was tremendous temptation to just say “fuck it” to her current problems and put them off for another night so she could have her way with him again.

It wasn’t wise though, and she knew that, so she stepped back and placed her hands behind her back and swayed as she stood there looking him over. “Thanks for coming.”

He nodded and offered her the flowers which she reached forward slowly and took. “No one has ever given me flowers before...” Starlight admitted.

“Then you’ve been dating the wrong guys.” Sunburst winked.

“You have no idea how correct that statement is...” Starlight giggled.

The two stood there for a moment before she gestured for him to come inside. “Come on in, I got rid of Angel for the night.”

“Really? I was hoping to catch her before we got the place to ourselves...” He admitted as he slipped his shoes off and sat down on the couch next to his romantic partner.

“Oh? Why’s that?” Starlight blinked.

He shrugged at her as he leaned back on the couch, his red button up standing out against the white couch. He extended an arm around the back which eventually wrapped around Starlight with a hand upon her shoulder. She scooted closer to him as a response to signal that she wanted more.

“Just wanted to meet your best friend. You told me about her when we went on our first date, but you didn’t really say too much, what is she like?” He asked.

Starlight had to take a moment and ponder how she would describe her friend and roommate. Angel wasn’t an easy person to describe to the uninitiated.

“Well... Angel’s kind of shy, I guess. Not completely so though. She’s innocent as all hell though, the girl’s a straight up virgin even...” Starlight snickered just thinking about how many times she had picked on Angel for her lack of sexual prowess.

“Sounds like the polar opposite of you.” Sunburst nudged her.

“She is. But Angel is about as loyal as they come, she’d jump on grenades for me. She keeps me out of trouble, and I love her for it. These past few years living on my own wouldn’t have been nearly as great without her. I owe that girl more than she’ll ever know...” Starlight could actually feel tears welling up in her eyes, but she forced them to stop, not wanting to ruin her makeup.

Sunburst had a genuine smile on his face after hearing her talk about her friend, and that smile made Starlight want to kiss him again, but she held back.

“Sounds like she’s a great friend, you’re very lucky and I guess I’m very lucky that you’ve had someone so great to look out for you after I moved away,” Sunburst said.

She frowned slightly, and when he detected that frown, he did as well. “I’m sorry that I moved away... I was trying to follow my dreams...”

“I know, Sunburst. I didn’t expect you to stay stuck here just for me. I mean... I wasn’t your girlfriend or anything, you had no reason...” Starlight smiled sheepishly at him.

He shook his head. “You are now though.”

Hopefully I still will be after tonight. Starlight thought, anxiety already building up in her.

“Yes... I am... And I am glad that I am, and I know it’s awkward since we just started dating, but... I love you, Sunburst...”

He interrupted her and smiled back, reaching over and touching her cheek. “I love you too, Starlight. It’s not awkward, we’ve known each other since we were kids, it’d be weird if we didn’t love each other, wouldn’t it?”

She nodded, and a sigh of relief escaped her. That would definitely soften the blow for the rest of what was to come. “Yes... You’re right, I guess it’s because I love you that the rest of this is going to be challenging.”

“Rest of what?” He blinked.

Starlight sighed and composed herself. “There’s a lot that you have to know. I wish I could put this stuff off until after we’ve been dating for a while, but it’s not feasible, this all has to come out now.”

“What’re you talking about...?” Sunburst tilted his head.

Shuffling in her seat, Starlight opened her hand. “Sunburst... Angel and I have... Powers...”

“What kind of powers?” He looked down at her hand.

“Angel’s are complicated, she can like create light from nothing, fire from her hands, all that kind of stuff,” Starlight explained, hoping she wasn’t sounding crazy.

“Uh huh...” He sat still as he listened.

“And I... I can manipulate time, sort of anyway. It’s limited to a range around me, and usually only for a couple of seconds at a time, but... I just realized I probably sound absolutely insane describing this, don’t I?” Starlight frowned.

He shook his head. “Show me.”

Starlight nodded and looked around the room, she picked up a pair of keys from the table and lifted them in the air. Taking Sunburst’s hand she smiled. “You have to be holding me for it to work on you, okay?”

“Sure.” He blushed as he squeezed her hand.

Releasing the keys, Starlight focused and froze time with the keys in mid-air. Sunburst gazed in awe, reaching out to touch the floating keys. He blinked a few times before Starlight released her hold on time, and the keys fell to the floor like normal. Looking over at him she smiled sheepishly. “Believe me now?”

He nodded. “Definitely. That’s crazy cool...”

“You don’t think I’m some kind of freak show?” Starlight asked.

He shook his head. “No way! Now I know my girlfriend is extra special.”

She was relieved to hear that, it was something she desperately needed to hear from him. “I was worried you’d break up with me if I told you...”

“No way, Starlight. You should have just shown me sooner. That’s awesome! How did you find out you could do this?” He asked curiously.

“A while back, Angel and I were investigating why she had powers, and we ended up at this old house. I saw some kind of apparition that unlocked something inside of me, I guess. I don’t fully understand it, myself if I’m completely honest...” Starlight leaned forward and placed her hands on her knees.

“Angel had hers first?” Sunburst tilted his head.

“Yeah, she’s had them for years. She kept them a secret even from me for a long time.” Starlight frowned.

Leaning back in his seat, Sunburst nodded. “I see... How close have you gotten to figuring it all out?”

She shrugged. “We have a few leads, but nothing major. We have a feeling that these people in Maryland might know, but we doubt asking them up front will tell us anything. I tried calling Twilight Sparkle, one of them, and she wouldn’t tell me much. I asked about strange powers and she just feigned ignorance.”

“Sounds frustrating...” Sunburst replied.

“It is, and you probably should know that if you get more involved with me, that this is what you’ll be dealing with, it’s sort of like a second life for Angel and I, hunting down the source of our powers.” She stated.

Sunburst smirked. “I guess it’s a good thing that I’m a systems administrator who is making enough money to help support this cause, then huh?”

She was a bit surprised by how well he was taking everything, but the next part was the big one, the doozy, the true test.

“Well... Uh... There may be another reason why that is a good thing...” Starlight rubbed her neck.

“What do you mean?” Sunburst asked, sitting up with his eyes opening, clearly detecting something bigger was coming.

“Sunburst... I love you very much, and I want us to be together, but I can understand if this next part really puts a strain on that...” She held back tears, promising herself she wouldn’t cry, she needed him to be able to make a choice without her tears making him feel guilty.

“I...” She closed her eyes, trying to compose herself.

“You?” He leaned in with interest.

“I’m... I’m pregnant...”

There was a long silence that felt like it lasted an eternity. Sunburst looked down to the girl’s stomach and then back up to her face. His expression was neutral, difficult to read, which only made the dread inside of Starlight worse.

“I understand if you’re not ready, hell I’m not, so I won’t blame you if-“

He reached forward and grabbed her hands, smiling at her as he held them tightly. “That’s the most amazing part of all of this so far!”

Starlight then broke her promise and tears began to stream down her cheeks. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that...”

He reached forward and wiped away the tears from her face before resting his palm on her cheek to caress it. “Not as happy as I am to hear it...”

The group had made it back to their headquarters with Discord in tow thanks to the assistance of Glitch. Twilight thanked them but questioned their motives. It seemed as though Glitch was in control the entire time. What was worse is that Serenade now knew of their existence.

They spent a good hour or so treating Twilight’s wounds and after some magic provided by Glitch and a visit by one of the doctors they had picked up from Appleloosa, she was told she’d make a full recovery in a couple of days and had Glitch’s quick thinking to thank for it.

Twilight hadn’t even had the chance to sit down with Discord since they had been taken back, but she knew it was likely going to be an awkward endeavor thanks to that kiss she had given him. She didn’t even fully understand why she did it, but at the time it felt natural. Discord wasn’t a particularly great kisser, but she did catch him by surprise.

Sighing, she came to a stand as she made her way to his chambers knowing the two would have a lot to talk about at this point. She braced herself as she opened the door to see him sitting at a desk, his claws sorting through a series of papers. He looked up at her and smiled. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, my protege in chaos!”

Twilight rubbed her neck as she stood in the doorframe, unsure of how to respond.

Sensing her awkwardness, the creature chuckled. “Or is it more fitting if I do it as Celestia does?”

In his best mock voice, he imitating the regal mare. “Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student!”

That just made her roll her eyes, but Twilight maintained her composure. “Yeah... Well... I guess we’re not going to talk about the fact that I...”

He blinked and tilted his head. “You what?”

“Well... You know...” Twilight looked away blushing.

“Oh, you mean that moment of transgression where you as the kids say ‘planted a big one on me’, yes?” Discord asked.

Twilight’s blush grew deeper and she could feel her cheeks heat up. She wished he had a little bit more tact about him, but she knew it was foolish to expect such a thing from Discord. He would joke around and be cheeky about virtually anything, no matter how awkward it made it for others around him, that was just the kind of creature he was.

She rubbed her neck and tried to think of words that would express how she felt, but none came to mind.

“I can’t say that I blame you, I am absolutely dashing, after all, why you should see me in a tuxedo, I’m simply divine, you’d eat me up!” Discord grinned, wishing he had his powers still so that he could snap his fingers and produce the aforementioned tuxedo to show her. Sadly, he did not, so Twilight would have to use her imagination.

There was a small silence followed by Discord changing the subject. “I see you’re still wearing the armor that I had made for you.”

“I felt it necessary to honor my mentor...” Twilight responded quietly.

“You are a fantastic student, Twilight... Though... I suppose the nature of our relationship has transcended that of a student and her mentor hasn’t it?” Discord frowned, finally acknowledging what they both were thinking.

Twilight just nodded.

“I suppose we can’t really chalk what happened up to the heat of the moment, can we? As much as that would make things far less complicated and avoid these disgusting talks about feelings and emotions...” Discord stuck his tongue out and pointed to his mouth as he made a fake gag.

Twilight wished it was that simple, but the reality was that it wasn’t that easy to simply go back. She kissed him and that changed things for the two of them.

“I’m sorry, Discord... I probably shouldn’t have done that...” Twilight admitted.

He waved his claw dismissively. “Nonsense, I taught you to be chaotic, to do what came to mind. I can’t blame you for following my teachings so well. I mean who would have ever saw you kissing me, right?”

Twilight chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. Following my gut hasn’t always come naturally to me before you trained me. I was always the cautious one, the careful one, it feels good to sometimes just do what comes to mind and not consider the other outcomes. Panicking and worrying all the time does get a little old...”

“You were always a nervous wreck.” Discord laughed.

The two giggled together for a few calm seconds before the laughter subsided and they were forced to face the tough questions that awaited them.

“Discord... I... I shouldn’t have kissed you.” Twilight nodded.

He leaned back and thought her words over before responded. “Why?”

“Why what?” Twilight tilted her head.

“Why shouldn’t you have?”

She blinked. “Probably because it made things awkward...”

“But did you want to do it? Was it something that you wished to do?” He asked.

That was a difficult question. She thought about it for a few seconds, wondering how she felt about Discord. It was true that he could be annoying, but over the past few months, she had come to find him somewhat charming. His habits were starting to make sense to her, and she had come to enjoy them as his “quirks”.

“I... Well... Yeah... I guess I did...” Twilight diverted her eyes away from him.

“Then you shouldn’t regret it,” Discord reminded.

“You’re my mentor though, I shouldn’t have these kinds of feelings... They will cloud my judgment...” Twilight closed her eyes in frustration.

Discord shook his head and crawled over to her, reaching forward and taking her cheek in his claw. Gently he pet her cheek and smiled deviously. “I think at this point, I have become more than just a mentor to you, wouldn’t you say?”

Twilight blushed as he forced her to make eye contact with him, hating how his stare was so powerful at that moment. “Maybe you have... I don’t know...”

He grinned and rubbed under her chin, making her look up at him. “It’s alright, Twilight, you mean more to me than that of a student as well.”

Moondancer rubbed her eyes as she checked over her screen once more before thinking about heading to bed for the night. With a long yawn, she saw it was about 8 PM, and resigned herself to the fact that she needed to go to bed early tonight.

Just as she was about to finish up, however, her phone began to ring, which caused her to pick it up instinctually and answer. “Hello?”

“Moondancer, sweetie? It’s me.” The voice of her mother came through the phone.

She perked up and answered back. “Mom? It’s getting late, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but I sort of have some news that I think I shouldn’t wait to tell you about...” Her mother said.

Moondancer could feel a cold sweat run down her neck, worried about whatever was about to be dropped upon her. “What is it, mom, are you sick?”

She laughed on the other end and gave a calming reply. “Nothing bad like that, Moondancer, I’m perfectly healthy, I assure you.”

A sigh of relief came out of Moondancer. “What is it then?”

“Well... You remember how I got that boyfriend a few weeks back?” She asked.

Moondancer vaguely recalled. She had mentioned they weren’t that serious and they had been taking things casually. She believed his name was Orion, but she couldn’t remember.

“What about him?” Moondancer asked.

“Well... We’re not together anymore as you know, but something has come up that will require him to be sort of in the picture regardless...” Her mother said.

“What do you mean?” Moondancer blinked.

“You’re going to be a big sister... I’m pregnant.”

Moondancer paused and spoke carefully. “You’re serious?”

“I am, I know it’s not common for my age, but I’m actually excited,” Her mother replied.

“What about Orion?” Moondancer asked.

“He and I are going to split responsibilities, he’s being very reasonable about this.”

Moondancer smiled, glad that the situation was at least under control. “That’s great mom, I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks sweetie, hopefully you get to meet your new sibling soon.” Her mother laughed.

“The moment I get out of here, promise,” Moondancer said.

“I look forward to it, I should probably let you get back to work though...” Her mother spoke.

“Yeah, I’m about to head off, love you, mom.” Moondancer smiled.

“Love you too, sweetie.”

After those words, she hung up the phone and rubbed her eyes. She had only been at the facility for a few months now, but it had occurred to her just now that she was going to miss out on events in her life. Her sibling would likely be born and they would not meet until some time after.

It was a sacrifice she had chosen to make, but never really considered the gravity of it. She had to remind herself that she had a mission to do.

Serenade was not happy, far from it, and when Serenade wasn’t happy, it usually spelled misery for everyone else around her, Arax included. If anything, he usually received the brunt of her anger more than others; he was, after all, her second-in-command, though with Serenade that meant little as she always seemed ready to bark orders, leaving little for Arax to give.

Truthfully, he didn’t strike Starlight as much of a sociable pony, but leadership definitely seemed to be a big part of her personality. Arax thought outside of the box, he was a forward thinker, and it only made Starlight curious as to why he’d bother taking orders from a creature like Serenade when he was clearly capable of far better handiwork than she was. Serenade lacked subtlety, tact, and grace; her idea of resolving an issue was splitting a pony in half and letting their family watch as their guts spewed out.

Watching her master scribble in a notebook with his hoof around a quill made Starlight curious, but for a solid eight hours, she sat in silence just reading a book as she did her most important duty: sitting around and looking pretty.

Arax looked fairly stressed out, but with the same face, that suggested he was attempting to hide how extreme it was. He was a tough one, but there were cracks in even his resolve.

Starlight looked over from the couch she was sitting on and spoke up to him. “Master, why not come take a small break? You’ve been at it for hours.”

“Can’t, need to get this done...” Arax replied, waving his hoof at her without even looking up from his note-taking.

“And you clearly need a break, master. You’ll think better if you take a moment to clear your head,” Starlight decided to word it as beneficial to him would help.

Blinking, he looked up and met her eyes, noting the smile on her face. He closed his notebook and nodded before standing up and making his way around his desk and down the steps to the small living room area of his quarters.

Starlight scooted over on the couch and turned so that her lap was open, patting it gently.

Sighing, the changeling crawled onto the couch and laid on his back, looking up at her as his head rested upon her lap. She smiled at him and pet his forehead while she stared. “Isn’t this nice?”

“Since when do you care about what’s nice?” He raised a brow.

“Is it not a slave’s job to make pleasurable experiences for their master?” She asked mischievously.

He shrugged. “Don’t know, I didn’t exactly read the manual on slave ownership, but I thought the whole fact that I own you is supposed to upset you or something?”

Starlight shrugged back. “I like to think of it like that sometimes in life you’re placed in places where you’re needed. Right now, this is where I need to be. I don’t know why yet, but what matters is that I’m here and I’m not going to change that by complaining, so might as well enjoy the here and now.”

“What an odd girl you are...” He rolled his eyes.

“So, have you learned anything about Glitch yet?” Starlight changed the subject, preferring to not get into the subject of how peculiar she was.

He shook his head and looked away in shame. “Nothing. This Glitch character is a phantom. No records of any pony like that in existence and no one seems to know where the asshole got that suit of armor or those weapons. Definitely can at least confirm it was custom made...”

Starlight wasn’t terribly knowledgeable on smithing, but she did know that a suit that advanced was not an easy thing to build. She had only heard bits and pieces about how this Glitch character had some kind of armor suit that could produce blades and didn’t stunt his mobility at all. She really would have loved to see it in action.

“I don’t know anypony like that who Twilight knew either. She must have pulled him from somewhere where I don’t even know...” Starlight frowned.

Admittedly, she had suspicions that Glitch’s appearance coming after the raid on Twilight’s castle were not unconnected. Somehow Twilight had managed to bring forward a new warrior, but how was a mystery.

“I suspected as much, I guess old Twilight wanted to keep as many in the dark as she could. No doubt in my mind that not even her other subordinates know anything about this Glitch. The guy probably plays his cards close to his chest, so there’s no hope of squeezing anyone for information... Which means I get to watch Serenade throw a temper tantrum again...” Arax rolled his eyes.

Starlight frowned, but she was still somewhat concerned over Serenade’s threats from earlier. If Arax was killed by Serenade, what would happen to her? Would she become Serenade’s slave then? The very idea sounded dreadful, but then again, Serenade didn’t seem to like her too much so it was more likely that she’d just kill her.

“Aren’t you worried?” Starlight blinked.

Arax shrugged. “Serenade threatens to kill me all the time, so I’m used to it. So long as there’s still a use for me, I’ll be fine. Serenade will say anything when she’s pissed off, just remember that. Still, I wouldn’t test her.”

Petting his cheek, Starlight sighed. “I just don’t understand how somepony so smart is wasting his time helping a crazed psychopath.”

Arax laughed and nodded. “Well, you’re correct that Serenade is indeed a psychopath, actually that may even be underselling it. She’s deranged beyond words as you’ve seen, but I have a commitment that I have to honor, I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

“Still, I’m glad you’re taking a break...” Starlight smiled.

He smiled back at her. “Yeah, probably for the best...”

“Would it be out of order for me to kiss you again... Master?” Starlight blushed.

“I guess not...” He shrugged as he sat up, coming off of her lap and positioned himself better for the aforementioned kiss.

Starlight leaned in, feeling the heat in her cheeks grow. This power he had over her, she knew it was from the pheromones that she had been injected with, but it was too much to resist. She wanted him, no she needed him.

Coming closer for the kiss, Arax wrapped a hoof around the girl and tilted her head back as he led, planting his lips against hers. She cooed in delight as she reached forward and gripped his sides while they locked lips. The feeling of caving into her desires brought on by the pheromones was delightful, she felt at peace while she engorged herself with Arax’s kiss.

Breaking the kiss, he tapped her chin and smirked. “Someone’s thirsty...”

“Please...” She panted gently.

“Hm?” Arax raised a curious brow.

“P-please... Feed on me...” Starlight turned her head and brushed her mane back to expose her neck.

The desire to be fed upon was overwhelming, it was more than sex she imagined. She wanted him to have his way with her, to feed, and use her how he saw fit. A part of her brain knew that wasn’t logical, but she didn’t care. The pheromones won out over reason.

He grazed her neck with his fangs but pulled back and shook his head. “No.”

“Please, master!” She begged.

“I said no. I’m not going to drain you, and that’s final, slave.” He hissed.

She blushed and nodded. “Y-yes, master... I apologize...”

He nodded back and pet her head. “That’s a good slave, just don’t forget your place...”

She sighed and closed her eyes. “What do you plan on even doing with the immortality that Serenade is offering you, master?”

He blinked and looked over at her. “Maybe I’ll start a new hive, with you as my queen.”

“I can’t have changeling eggs...” Starlight reminded.

“Maybe my hive will focus on bringing in more than changelings?” He raised a brow.

Starlight paused at that comment. It was clear that there was far more to Arax than first glance. What his angle was, was still a mystery, but it was clear that he wasn’t as cut and dry as she originally imagined.

“That sounds lovely... I hope you get a chance to do that...” Starlight replied.

“I hope you get to see me do it.” He nodded.

Glitch stood in front of her small team, knowing that the others were ready to go even without their leadership. The plan was all set into motion, Glitch, Aria, and Sonata would sneak aboard the airship via navigating the sewers, and then they would slip past the manhole that the other group was in. If they were successful, they could have the ship with a full crew in one sweep, and enough to overpower the remaining crew members who would assist in leading them away, none the wiser.

She had appointed whatever ponies she had who had experience flying airships or ships of any kind on the job of boarding the ship from the other sewer. She didn’t have many, only perhaps two dozen total, but it was enough to fly a ship and that’s all that mattered. The rest was a matter of improvising and filling the gaps.

Outside of the crew, she had appointed a good eighty ponies to board with them who would serve as assistants to the crew, doing whatever they needed to be done and of course acting as protection should things go wrong.

Glitch wasn’t taking chances, they had fail-safes upon their fail-safes, as they needed this to go smoothly. They let out a deep breath before looking back at Aria and Sonata who were following close behind in the sewers.

Looking up a ladder, Glitch nodded to the two and spoke in a hushed tone. “We’re about to head up, we need to stay low and keep cloaking devices on, got it? Don’t draw any unneeded attention to us. You two need to secure the entry point for our crew, and I’ll take care of the captain, alright?”

Sonata raised a hoof in a salute. “You can count on us, Glitch! We won’t let you down!”

Glitch nodded, confident in Aria and Sonata’s abilities. “Right, well, let’s just play this strategically and we should come out on top. If all goes well, we’ll have an airship by nightfall.”

“Just stay alert and don’t get overconfident,” Glitch reminded.

“You got it, now let’s go steal us an airship.” Aria smirked.

Sighing, Glitch realized that the two were far too excited for the entire ordeal, but perhaps they could use that excitement as fuel to get the job done. Glitch only worried that it would make them too overzealous and more likely to make mistakes. It didn’t matter though, so long as they got the airship and got out in one piece, she could handle a sloppy victory.

There was no doubt in Glitch’s mind that Serenade would be watching them more closely from then on. She didn’t seem the type to enjoy being tricked and Glitch’s little stunt back at Horseshoe Keep no doubt got under her skin. That was why it was important that they moved silently and gave no hint to Serenade that their next plot was there in Trottingham. If they were lucky, they would be able to avoid the siren entirely as she’d be nearly a hundred miles away by the time she found out that her airship had been stolen.

With a deep breath, Glitch began to scale the ladder, looking back for only a second at their subordinates. Coming close to the top, Glitch activated her cloaking device with a gentle tap and crawled out of the manhole quietly.

They turned to assist Aria and Sonata who had activated their cloaks as well. Since it was going to be impossible to see each other, they needed to play things carefully and stay close together so they didn’t lose each other.

Spotting each other with cloaking devices active could still be done, but it was exceptionally difficult, requiring a keen eye. It was better to simply stick close together.

With a crack of her neck, Aria gazed over at the direction the ship, noting that the crew was still loading cargo into it. She paid close attention to the gentle ripples in the air that signified the other two cloaked ponies were close by. Glitch was taking the lead, pushing the group toward the cargo loading crew.

Aria, Sonata and Glitch all kept low as they stepped silently approaching the cargo loading crew. When their backs were turned, the group stepped atop of the cargo loading platform and remained still. After a solid eight minutes of silence, the platform began to be raised.

The group all clutched onto nearby boxes, ready to hop off at a moment’s notice when they reached the cargo hold. The plan was simple, navigate around the crew members unloading the boxes with their cloaks, and they would be able to slip through the ship undetected.

Glitch watched patiently as the platform came to a stop and was moved by a pulley system into an open grate down into the cargo hold.

The moment the movement stopped, the entire group hopped off the platform and used the advantage of the lower lighting of the lower deck to move away from the team that was waiting down below to unload the supplies that had been delivered.

The team moved along the wall, keeping a close eye on the crew as they made their way for the stairs.

Once they had reached the stairwell, they all raced up and split up, Aria and Sonata heading toward where they would drop the ladder to bring the rest of their crew on board, and Glitch making her way up toward the captain’s chamber.

The ship itself was massive, far larger than anything Glitch had ever seen before in Equestria. It was certainly a vessel fit for her army; large enough to hold them and intimidating to boot. With a ship like this on their side, Glitch knew their odds at victory were far greater.

With her mind on the goal, she slipped up the stairs that lead to the captain’s chamber and past a few crew members who had just met with the captain.

Carefully, Glitch opened the door to the captain’s chamber when they reached the top of the stairs and gazed upon the room. It was lavishly decorated, gaudy even as it was covered in expensive tapestry and mahogany furniture, but a large window gave the perfect view of the deck below for the captain to observe everything going on with his ship as he steered it.

To the left of the steering wheel was a communication orb, one that Glitch had noticed a few more of across the ship on their way up. They surmised it must have been for communicating with all of the crew without having to leave these quarters. An intelligent design, but Glitch expected no less.

The captain yawned and sighed as he poured himself a glass of wine.

Glitch kept low and approached carefully. Each step was cautious, purposeful, and dangerous as she came closer and closer to the stallion with his back turned to the armored pony. Glitch disabled their cloak as they came only a few inches away from the stallion.

The pony sipped from a glass of wine with an audible sound of pleasure as he stopped sipping. Glitch readied their blade and within a second grabbed the pony and sliced their throat open.

Glitch held him in place as he choked and bled, gently setting him down after they were certain he was dead. Glitch let out a sigh and composed themselves before taking the steering wheel. The first step was behind Glitch, now they only needed to make sure the rest of their plan went just as smoothly.

Princess Twilight waited patiently in front of a group of at least eighty ponies in the sewers. The last part of their plan was to be executed in only a few minutes when she could see the ship crossing paths with the manhole that was directly above them. She would need to be hasty to move an entire crew of eighty up a rope ladder that quickly.

Aria and Sonata should have already been in position to take out any ponies near a comm-orb so they couldn’t call for back up, even when the ship was being overtaken. If they timed it all flawlessly, they could slip out before anypony noticed that the ship had been hijacked.

It was a pretty clever plan, even for Glitch, Twilight admitted.

Looking up, sweat dripping down her neck, Twilight gulped. She could see the hull of the ship just above and gestured for the group to start heading up. “Alright, quickly everypony. We take them out hastily and make a clean getaway!”

With speed, the group began to make their way up the ladder and eventually up the rope ladder to the ship, Twilight ushering them to go quicker every step of the way. She could already feel her heart beating faster. Twilight Sparkle wasn’t a killer, she wasn’t some hardened warrior, and while she had been trained to fight, actually killing ponies still made her uneasy, but she knew she’d have to suck up her emotions for everypony’s sake. She couldn’t get the jitters now.

“Come on! Get up there!” Twilight commanded as she pushed the last eight up the ladder.

Once they were all well on their way up, Twilight began her own ascent, following behind a burly pony which she had an unpleasant view of his butt. Looking away as she climbed, Twilight eventually reached the top and made her way up the rope ladder dangling from the ship which was moving at a snail’s pace.

With ease, Twilight made it to the top to witness something she had expected to see but wasn’t any easier on her eyes: a slaughter. Her team had eviscerated the entire crew of the ship, and as Twilight was arriving on deck, the last few were just being slain. She wanted to throw up, but she held it in.

Twilight composed herself and made her way toward the captain’s chambers where she knew Glitch would be waiting for her.

Ascending the steps, she passed a few of her allies who gave her a salute as they were taking control of the ship’s facilities. Twilight nodded back at them and adjusted herself as she made it to the top of the steps.

She opened the door to the captain’s chambers to see Sonata, Aria and Glitch all standing there waiting for her. The three nodded at Twilight, before Glitch gestured for Twilight to come closer.

Twilight obeyed and stood tall at their side. “Looks like the plan was a great success...”

Glitch nodded. “We’re not out of the woods yet, but it is safe to say that this airship is ours now. We just need to get it out of the city limits and we should be too far for them to follow fast enough. We reach the border then kick it into high gear and we’ll be out of here faster than you can blink.”

“Serenade is gonna be pisssssed.” Aria smirked with glee.

“Let’s hope. An angry foe is a sloppy one, after all.” Glitch grinned. Part of Glitch’s battle plan for Serenade thus far was to constantly pester her and make her slip up. Serenade clearly proved she had a temper problem, and regularly slighting her would make her fight using anger, a strategy that Glitch knew all too well. A long time ago when the pony under that mask had given into darkness briefly, they had come to understand how fighting with anger worked, namely that it didn’t.

That Sunset Shimmer was long gone, and the one that stood there now disguised as Glitch was a new person. She had come so far, too far to let it all fall apart now. She needed to end Serenade’s reign so she could get back home, back to the things that were important to her like her wife and her daughter.

“This all wasn’t some clever plan just to piss Serenade off, was it?” Twilight blinked.

“Nah, that’s just a bonus.” Glitch shook their head. “I wouldn’t be so foolish as to mastermind such an elaborate theft just to piss off that siren.”

“So what now?” Twilight asked curiously. It had occurred to her that she never really bothered finding out what they would do with the airship after they acquired it. Then again, she wasn’t in a position to be questioning anything that Glitch did.

“Now, we make our way to the safe point, and-“ Glitch was interrupted as a frantic Braeburn entered the room, bursting through the door.

“I apologize, Glitch but...” He was panting.

“Out with it.” Glitch gestured with her hoof for him to speak up.

“Enemy airship approaching!” He pointed out the window.

Glitch turned along with the trio accompanying her and swore under their breath. Sure enough, a fully equipped airship was heading in their direction, no doubt with plans to intercept their theft attempt.

“Sweet Luna...” Twilight uttered.

Glitch stomped to the helm and tapped the comm-orb to communicate with the rest of the crew down below. They barked their orders firmly so that all knew how serious this situation was. “Everypony, prepare for battle, enemy airship on the horizon!”

Glitch stepped away from the orb and shook their head. Aria squinted at her with a look of confusion. “What now?”

“Now... We defend our prize.” Glitch nodded.

Arax is a fun character to write, especially because his dynamic with Serenade and Starlight is very unique. He has sort of a listless feel to him, doesn’t he? You never really know what’s going on in his head, but you do know that he’s thinking all the time.

His situation with Starlight is by far one of the most complex relationships because it’s a literal master-slave thing, and Starlight’s emotions and thoughts are partially manipulated by the pheromones that were injected in her. It’s hard to say what is genuine and what is more or less drug induced. You be the judge!