That was the longest hour of my life.

Standing around the Equestria Games Gala, mingling with others, chatting with athletes, catching up a bit more with Kevin and Crystal. The last part wasn’t bad, though. The two make for good company, and are a cute couple. Still, seeing Ms. Harshwhinny, standing with the board members, conversing with them, while looking positively stunning. I could barely take my eyes off her, and she knew it. Every few seconds she would glance my way, with the slightest of smirks on her face. She knew exactly how crazy she was driving me.

Now, we are walking down the hall in the hotel, heading toward our rooms. We walk side by side; our hands as far away from each other as possible. Security cameras on the hall see us, but we do nothing to indicate our true intentions for the night. Ms. Harshwhinny’s room comes first.

“Good night.” Ms. Harshwhinny says coldly, whipping out her keycard and going into her room in a flash. I didn’t get the chance to say good night, but whatever the cameras catch, it shows that she is no nonsense.

I go to my room right next door, and get inside quickly. No more cameras watching us. I turn the light on, looking around at the hotel room. It’s a nice place. Spacious, with a comfortable bed, still showing that indentation from this morning, when I jumped on it to test the softness. The quiet overtakes the room, and I hear nothing. With no noise, it feels rather…lonely.

Click.

Oh, that loneliness disappears in an instant, as I hear the side door connecting to Ms. Harshwhinny…wait…we’re no longer in public…connecting to Violet’s room, unlock. I wait a couple extra seconds to see if she opens the door as well. She doesn’t. Guess she wants me to come to her room. That won’t be a problem at all.

I go to the door and open it slowly. On the other side, Violet stands before me, shifting in her dress with a blushing smile on her face. I smile back and close the door after I step on inside. Violet’s eyes scan me up and down at a snail’s pace, much like she did the first night we spent together. I’m not going to wait till her eyes reach mine, so I walk up to her gradually. It’s only a few steps, but I’m milking those few steps as much as possible. I’m not less than an arm’s distance away from her, and I just now notice that because we’re the same height, her heels tonight made her look slightly taller than me. I don’t know why I didn’t notice until this moment.

I open my mouth to speak, but Violet interrupts me by placing her hands on my tie. She unclips it, and moves it away from my collar. She looks at the tie, chuckling to herself.

“Thanks for making it a clip on.” I say.

“I know you have trouble tying ties. Besides, it makes the undressing go by quicker.” she lightly tosses the tie on the floor, and moves her hands on my jacket, removing it, and allowing it to plop on the floor. Then, she unbuttons my shirt. Watching her remove my clothes is making my heart beat fast, and makes the anticipation of removing her clothes that much more unbearable. She opens my shirt, revealing the tank top underneath. “You sure wear a lot of layers.” she chortles.

“Sorry. I’ll get it.” I place my hands on my tank top, ready to remove it, when Violet stops me.

“No, that won’t be necessary. I’m not complaining.” she grins, “I like a bit of work.” She reaches underneath my tank top, and moves it over my head, and tossing it onto a nearby chair. Now that I’m shirtless, she moves her hands to my belt buckle. “Can you remove your shoes?”

“I thought you liked the work.”

“I think untying shoes isn’t very sexy.”

“I can’t argue with that.” I slide my feet out of my shoes; no untying necessary. I kick the shoes away, and they rest on the foot of a chair.

Violet finishes unbuckling my pants, and in a swift movement, kneels and pulls down both my pants and underwear at the same time. She stays down there for a bit, before coming back up with a satisfied smile.

“That was fun.” she says with a nod “I’m almost jealous that you don’t have much to work with.” She teasingly pulls at the left strap of her dress, indicating that she's not wearing much compared to me. That's okay. The sooner I can get to see her beautiful naked body, the better.

“Don’t worry…” I grab her shoulders, and press her body against my nakedness, causing her to gasp with both amusement and arousal. “I’ll make due.” I give her a small kiss on the lips, as my hands find the zipper on the back of her dress. Slowly, I bring it down, exposing her bare back. I run my hands through her soft coat, and feeling her firm back muscles. I kiss her neck, and she exhales as a result.

I place my hands on both straps of the dress, and bring them down, allowing the dress to fall to the floor. She’s right, I don’t have much to work with. Underneath the dress is her nearly naked body. I already knew she wasn’t wearing a bra, due to both the dress itself, and that I pulled a part of it down when we were making out back at the gala. All that’s left for me to remove are her high heels, and a lacy black thong.

Good enough for me.

I kneel down, and slowly remove her left shoe, exposing her hoof. I always half expect feet whenever I look down at her legs, I don’t know why. Maybe because so much of her looks human, that I expect her anthropomorphic body to be consistent with humans. Not that I’m complaining. I remove the right shoe, finally bringing her back to my height.

Lastly, I place my hands on her hips, grabbing the lace underwear, and gradually pulling it down. It didn’t take nearly as long to get her naked as it did me, but from the way she is trembling, I don’t think she’ll want to wait much longer. Perhaps she planned this. With her dress last year being more modest, perhaps she chose the skimpier dress because it would be faster to remove. I’d believe that.

I rise up, kissing parts of her as I make my way to face her. Her thighs, her stomach, her chest, her neck, her cheek, and finally her lips. Her hands rest on my shoulders, as our kiss lingers for a few more moments. It’s soft and gentle, unlike our bout back in that room at the gala, and her left hand travels to my cheek, caressing my skin with affection. When we separate, she lets out a chuckle.

“You’re growing a bit of a beard.” she says. “What’s that called on Earth? A six o’clock shadow?”

“Five.” I smile “You want me to shave it?”

“No. I want to see what you look like with a beard. Could be interesting.”

My right hand runs through her mane. I noticed a couple days ago that she’s allowed it to grow out a bit. Normally, after a month, she would have it cut, so that it maintained that normal short style. It looks great on her, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not interested in how she looks with a longer mane.

“You’re mane is getting longer.” I point out. Violet puts a hand on her mane, twirling the end of it with a finger.

“Well, I haven’t cut in a while. Usually before the end of the month, I get it cut to maintain my normal mane style." she reiterates what I was thinking "I suppose I forgot, this time.”

“It’s cute.” I say. “I’m interested to see you with a longer mane.”

“Really?” she asks with curiosity and a bit of excitement. “I-I mean…really?” she asks in a calmer manner. “I suppose if you’re so curious, perhaps I’ll grow it out. I’ve been wondering how I would look with a longer mane.”

“I think you’ll look beautiful.”

“Is there a switch on you that turns off the embarrassing flattery?”

“If there is, do you want me to flip it off?”

“Hmm…” she thinks for a moment, before kissing me on the cheek. “…nah. I like it.”

“I’ll tell you what. How about I grow out my beard, if you grow out your mane?”

“Fine, I suppose we can do that.” she says with a faux pout, knowingly teasing me with that stern tone. “Now then, we have gotten naked. It’s time for the second part of our plan.”

“Sex?”

“No, you goof.” she playfully smacks my chest. I’ve never heard her call me a goof before. It’s tremendously adorable. “I meant watching a movie.”

“Oh, right. That was part of the plan. What kind of movie do you want to watch?”

“A bad movie.”

“A bad movie?”

“Not just any bad movie. I want to watch a movie from your world. I want it to be a movie that’s bad, but fun. I don’t like bad-bad movies. Those aren’t fun at all. I want one that is terrible, but a good watch.”

“Hmmm….” I think about it for a second. “You know, I think I got this.”

“I did not hit her!” Johnny half heartedly bursts onto the rooftop in a poorly delivered tantrum “It’s bullshit, I did not hit her!” he then awkwardly throws his bottle of water onto the ground, kind of shouting “I did noootttt!” Then, he looks to the side, and without missing a beat, says “Oh, hi Mark.”

Violet laughs hard, squeezing me tight as she cuddles with me and resting her head on my shoulder. We’re watching a terrible movie from my world called The Room; a film about love and betrayal, through the eyes of what I can only guess is an alien posing as a man. I’m so happy that the hotel had this in their film library. It was the first thing that came to mind, so when I saw it in the directory, my eyes lit up like the Fourth of July.

“This is atrocious!” Violet exclaims mid chuckle “How was this even allowed on movie screens?”

“It’s a long and strange story. They even made a book about it.”

“If I ever find that book, I’m going to read the Tartarus out of it.” she continues to giggle uncontrollably. “Do you know of any other bad movies like this?”

“There’s this one movie called Birdemic, where birds attack people. But they look like animated gifs, and blow up for some reason.”

“They explode?!” she says in a manner that sounds both surprised and excited, “Can we watch that next?”

“Really?”

“Yes, really! Things blowing up for no reason in movies makes me laugh more than you can imagine!”

I am left speechless by her. The excited tone, the happy look on her face, now knowing that she loves random humor, I can hardly fathom what is happening right now. At every turn, I know more and more about her, and at every turn, I fall in love with her even harder. There is no way I’m going to let her get away. I would ask that cheesy question of where’s she’s been all my life, but I know where she’s been. In another world that I was unaware of for the longest time.

I say nothing to her, pulling her in for another kiss. She doesn’t resist, instead closing her eyes right before I plant my lips onto hers. I guess she was expecting it, or she wasn’t but had no qualms about it. I love kissing her. She does this thing where in between our longer and more tender lip locks, she would separate, and give me two smaller kisses before going back for more.

We separate, just as things in the movie become even more silly, such as Johnny laughing about abuse, but it’s hard to pay attention to such absurdity, when I’m staring into the eyes of a gorgeous woman.

“Will you marry me?” I sa…wait…I say that? Did I just say that?!

Violet is frozen in shock. Oh shit! Did say that! Those words just came out of my damn mouth without a care in the world! Was it on my mind? Well…yeah, but I didn’t think I was stupid enough to come out with it! Violet keeps on staring at me. Her lower lip shakes ever so slightly, while the rest of her lips struggle to find a reaction. Confusion, happiness, both are present, and both have an equal chance at dominating the other.

Instead of either of those, Violet’s face turns into a cold expression. She calmly gets off the bed, going to the window, looking out to the Crystal Empire. The moonlight bathes her naked body, and I get out of bed to approach her.

“I’m sorry.” I apologize, placing a hand on her shoulder. She doesn’t resist my touch.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. I…” she looks over at the television screen, where another silly scene is playing. “Do you mind pausing that?” I do so. Having that horrid dialogue and acting ruin this moment would be pretty embarrassing. “I’m sorry. That was distracting me.”

“That’s okay; I’m glad you said it before I did.”

“Anyway, there’s nothing for you to apologize for. I…” she looks away from me, stepping back to let my hand slide off her and fall to my side. She gazes out to the Empire ahead “…to be honest, I liked hearing you ask that.” her face briefly becomes happy, before turning back to melancholy. “Every part of me wants to say yes…except for…”

“I know. I said it without thinking. I’d be putting you into more danger.”

“Not me. You. If we got married, there would be public records. Everyone and everypony would find out eventually. I can’t do that to you. I…” she pauses abruptly, as if a thought has entered her mind. She scratches her chin thoughtfully, while I watch her every move with curiousness. What is going on inside that beautiful head of hers? “Hmm…wait a minute…”

“What?”

“May I propose an idea?”

“Do you really need my permission, Violet? You have more authority than I do.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being courteous.” she smirks. “I was thinking. What if…we DO tell every pony?

“Wait, excuse me?” my eyes widen at the thought. Tell everyone? After all this time keeping it a secret? I really shouldn’t be all that shocked, she did say earlier tonight that she didn’t care anymore if anyone found out about us. “Are you alright?”

“Of course. I’m fine.” she replies. I’m not sure if she got what I was asking. “I’m not going crazy, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Nevermind, she got what I was saying. “Allow me to elaborate on my proposal. With me being the head of the Equestria Games, I would be protected from such scrutiny, but you are not.”

“Yeah. I know this.”

“However, even though we are both breaking the rules set by the company, rules that I helped set into motion, having you being the only one punished would be considered unfair, no?”

“A little bit, yeah. But that’s because I’m just an assistant.”

“If we were married, you wouldn’t be just that. I was wrong; there might be some validity in getting married before we let anyone or anypony know of our true relationship. If we were married and then revealed what we truly are, the board wouldn’t dare touch us…especially you. There may be some form of finger wagging, but anything close to an outright expulsion would be out of the question.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier just to get the board to rescind the rule, when we prove that our work ethic wasn’t compromised by being in a relationship?”

Violet is about to answer, when she rapidly shakes her head in disbelief, and her eyes go slightly wider in surprise. She tilts her head to the side, and her ears flutter in an attempt to make sure she’s heard me correctly.

“You’ve read the rulebook?”

“Of course I read the rulebook. After you mentioned the rules, I couldn’t help but read it. It explained that the reason the rule was put in place was because employees in relationships would be at higher risk of having their work suffer. With us, all the board members would have to do is look at our work together for the past couple of months to see that we were still operating at exemplary levels, making them realize that the rule isn’t necessary.”

“Oh….” a blush covers her cheeks “…I suppose that would be easier. The board has said that this is the best games we’ve put on, yet. These last couple of months putting it together was done while you and I were being intimate. That kind of evidence for rescinding the rule would be irrefutable. They would have little choice but to accept us as a couple. Still…do you still want to marry me, regardless?”

“Violet, I asked you first. I think I’d be okay with marrying you.” I chuckle. “May I ask something now?”

“What is it?”

“How does naming work in Equestria?”

“Right, on Earth, the wife is the one to take the husband’s surname when they get married.”

“Not all the time, but that’s normally the case. I noticed that your parents didn’t do that, so is Harshwhinny part of your given name?”

“It is.” she nods “Therefore I can’t just put your last name at the end of mine, or mine at the end of yours. I can call myself Mrs. Harshwhinny, though.”

“I don’t know…Mr. Harshwhinny has a nice ring to it.”

“If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you.” she chuckles, walking up to me and placing a finger on my chest. “So, are we actually doing this?”

“I am if you want to.” I place my hand on her shoulder.

“Just making sure we’re not rushing into this. I mean, I don’t think so. After all, we’ve been at each other’s side for over a year, so…”

I interrupt her again with a kiss on the lips. Like other times I’ve stopped her with kisses, she muffles in surprise, but she gets into the motions quickly. I wrap my arms around her, and press her firm body against mine. Her warm coat and soft breasts get me all heated up in an instant, as I rub my hands all over her back, while she does the same to mine.

Gradually, I start moving us to the bed to finish what we just started, when…

“Wait…” Violet breaks the kiss, breathing heavily “As much as I would like to do this, I’m afraid that we have further business.”

“What is it?”

“Well…” she looks over at the television screen, where the movie is still paused, “…I would like to see how this horrid thing ends, and you still have to show me that exploding bird movie.” She looks down, then back at me with a smile. “I’m surprised. You show considerable control.”

“Oh…” I glance downwards to see that I don’t currently have an erection. It’s kind of funny that I had to check myself. “Well, it wasn’t getting TOO hot and heavy.”

“Good.” Violet suddenly pushes me onto the bed.

“Wah!” I yelp, landing on the soft mattress below. I move over to the pillows, as Violet gets into bed, and moves to my left hand side. She rests her head on my shoulder, and I wrap my arm around hers. “Ready to continue?” I ask.

“You bet.” she nods with a chuckle, “I’m looking forward to seeing how this trainwreck is going to conclude.”

“You and me both.”

I press play, and the terrible movie continues. I make glances over at Violet; her eyes glued to the screen with a permanent grin on her face. It’s so lovely and innocent, that I can’t believe it belongs to a mare who is normally seen with a look of seriousness and professionalism. I also can’t believe that I just out and asked her to marry me like that. I was so scared that she was going to laugh or get angry, or worse, say no. But she didn’t. In fact, she wants to get married.

“When do you want to get married?” I ask.

“When we get back from the games. Then, we’ll let it sit for a couple more weeks, and then I’ll tell the board, prompting their investigation into the matter.”

“I hope this works.”

“I am positive it will work. If they try anything with you, I will do everything in my power to keep you on as my assistant.”

“And if you can’t?”

“Then you’ll just have to settle with being my husband.”

“I can live with that.”

“If it comes to that, I’ll write the most flattering recommendation letter that anyone or anypony has ever seen.”

“Just promise me that you won’t fall for the next assistant.” I say in jest.

“Never.” she laughs, “There will never be anyone or anypony like you.”

“You mean that?”

“So much so, that if you’re let go, I won’t hire another assistant.”

“Seriously? Who will help you with putting the games together?”

“Are you kidding? You’re my husband. I’ll bring you on trips and you’ll help me anyway!”

“Wow.” I laugh, squeezing her tight with all the love and affection that I can give her. “What did I ever do to deserve such a wonderful woman like you?”

“It’s kind of like you said…” she turns her head to face mine, love sparkling in her eyes for all the world to see “…you nailed the job interview.”