Pinkie's party had turned out wonderfully. Though the partygoers weren't allowed inside, the party was still fun for all involved. In fact, it may have been even more successful due to the fact the party was outside. Broken Bulb had been introduced to the majority of Ponyvillians and was following Pinkie Pie about like a love-sick puppy. It was kind of cute, actually, though incredibly inconvenient. As it turns out, Bulb is the less productive of the 2, though that was easy enough to figure that out without actually seeing it firsthand.

Apparently, during the week he was gone, some wonderful things happened. During an excursion into the Everfree Forest, Twilight was somehow convinced of Pinkie Pie's abilities, to the amazement of The Forgemaster. He didn't believe it at first until Twilight herself confirmed it. Another thing that happened during the week was that Twilight got herself a new pet; Owlowiscious. Apparently, that caused some extreme jealousy in Spike before he cooled down after a day or 2. That's a damn shame too, now only he, Rainbow, and Spike don't have pets of their own.

(A/N – This means I'm not doing the episode where Twilight believes in Pinkie's Pinkieness nor am I doing the Owlowiscious episode, mostly because The Forgemaster wouldn't have a presence in the Owlowiscious episode and I don't want to do the other one.)

The Forgemaster, for his part, had spent the majority of the time after the party and before falling asleep consoling a distraught Rainbow Dash. As it turns out, she wasn't just upset about him leaving for a week, though she was still pretty mad about that, no, she had bigger issues to deal with. After getting home after the party, Rainbow Dash used the next few hours yelling at him, though the words become incomprehensible to any of the male species after not more than a few minutes. Eventually, she calmed down enough to have a civil conversation with him.

The Forgemaster was laid out on the couch, with Rainbow Dash draped over him. She had her head on his chest while looking out across the room. The Forgemaster had a hand going through her mane and she just let it happen, she was laying there thinking, perhaps about ways to torture him more. After a few quiet minutes of cuddling, Rainbow started to speak with him.

She said, "I'm mad at you."

While internally thinking, 'No shit?' he said out loud, "Why ever for?"

She sniffed, "It's not just 'cause you left, it's what happened when you were gone…"

She actually sounded kind of… sad when she said that.

'Damnit, now I have to talk to her…' he thought.

"What happened, Dashie, c'mon, you can tell me."

She sniffed again, "Ever since you became some big hot-shot in Canterlot, ponies have been talking about me. Normally that'd be great, but it's not! Newspapers, magazines, news ponies, they pick over every single thing in my life, they bring up all my mistakes, my flaws, and they don't shut up about it! And it's all because of you!" by this time she was definitely crying now, she flung her forelegs around his barrel-chest, sobbing into his shoulder.

He kept ruffling her mane in a comforting manner, or so he hoped, "Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, Dashie, it's alright." She calmed down after a few minutes and continued telling.

"They called me skinny, and over muscled, and garish, and, and-"she was cut off by another well of tears threatening to break through.

He took the opportunity to put in his own words, "Dashie, you shouldn't listen to what others think about you. Those words they use; they are as negative as can be. You aren't skinny, dear, you're just slender, a product of healthy living. You aren't over muscled, dear; you're just trim, fit! You earned those muscles through hard work and exercise and you should be proud of them. If anyone here is over muscled, it's me; I mean check out my arms. These things have been toughened and strengthened through hours and hours of whacking metal with a hammer as hard as I can. And you aren't garish, dear, you're just colorful. Besides, I'm sure they're all just jealous of your wonderful mane. And if you're garish, then every other pony is, too. I mean honestly, it's like everypony is in a race to be as colorful as possible, and if that's the case: you're winning."

She chuckled with tears still in her eyes, and then hit him with a hoof, but her heart wasn't in it, she sniffled a few more times before saying, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." He whispered.

And that's how they spent that night, a smile on both of their faces… well, as close to an actual smile as The Forgemaster could get. Globe wasn't lying when he said that it looks like The Forgemaster makes the movements without feeling the emotion.

wWwWwWw

Celestia was bored. Not in the way, 'I have no idea what to do' bored, but in the 'I'm doing something that I can't get out of and I really, really want it to stop' bored.

She was in her throne room, sitting on her throne. All was as it should be, except for 1 teeny, tiny detail.

Her advisors were telling her all about the current state of the realm.

Not the important things like tax revenues and projected population growth, but literally every single detail that could ever come up ever. Like Celestia needs to know about the current population of rabbits in Hoofshire or the average height of trees in Canterlot, it was all just useless babble that her advisors thought she needed to know about.

I mean, really: Celestia has been on the throne for thousands of years and she will be on the throne for the next thousands of years: does she really need advisors, at all? It seems to me that any being with more than half of a brain cell would eventually learn how to do their job over a few hundred centuries, and Celestia had many, many more than just 1 brain cell. While she couldn't say that she was all-knowing, and neither could she say that she remembered everything in perfect clarity like The Forgemaster, she was still an incredibly intelligent pony with thousands of year's worth of experience.

And they still thought she needed advisors. Sometimes she doubted the common sense of the average pony.

'How long is it 'till it's Lulu's turn? Oh look, 4 hours… crud.' She thought.

And it wasn't just the advisors; oh no, all the nobles thought that daily court with Celestia was the high point of their day. Spread out on the left and right sides of the throne room were most of the nobles of the city, all of them chattering away with the others near them. Like daily court was some sort of country club for old crotchety noble idiots.

She took a lady-like sip of her tea, 'Thank goodness I added whiskey to my tea…' She thought, the mere thought of the nobles in her city driving her to drink.

And then there were the guards… absolutely useless in this endeavor. Though she supposed that with a word she could clear the hall and have some peace and quiet, that just wasn't what good leaders did… at least, that's not what she did. Come to think of it, she wasn't paying any attention at all; kicking them all out would serve the same purpose and save her a whole lot of time. But, that wasn't really an option, just the desperate plans of an incredibly bored mare.

'Somepony, anypony, help me!'

And yet, none of the ponies were aware of her distress, so carefully hidden it was behind a calm and serene mask.

wWwWwWw

The Forgemaster and Shattered Globe were on their way to Canterlot, the day after the party being the day they had to leave. Rainbow Dash had given The Forgemaster a hearty farewell in the form of an incredibly sudden and violent thunderstorm. Shattered Globe was only spared this because he wasn't in control at the moment. It took The Forgemaster a solid 15 minutes of describing the most blatant of sexual acts to get Bulb to go comatose this time. Apparently, being utterly devoted to Pinkie Pie while at the same time having zero sexual thoughts about her gave him a resistance to his treatments. The problem was that Bulb didn't want to leave, but they had to leave, and Globe couldn't overpower Bulb this time. Something about Pinkie just gave him the determination to stay with her; it was actually kind of cute.

For now, Bulb was paralyzed, or comatose, depending on your view of his unique situation, and Shattered Globe was in control. They were going to Canterlot to deliver their report, a series of good news all around, I might add. Perhaps the news of a delayed war would allay any punishment they would get for staying in Ponyville for the night. Globe was adamant that they would be imprisoned for daring to dally, (A/N – Ha!), but The Forgemaster knew that Celestia wouldn't mind. It didn't help Globe at all, to be honest.

The trip to Canterlot would take a few hours, and judging by the time they left it would be about sun down when they arrived. It's not like they left at the crack of dawn, some preparation was in order, in addition to finding Bulb. That had been an hour-long adventure all to its own.

But, there was 1 question on The Forgemaster's mind; Globe had said that Bulb was afraid of any contact with a mare, at all, and yet he was totally fine in Ponyville.

When asked, Globe said, "Yeah, I exaggerated a bit, my bad. What I meant to say was that Bulb is afraid of contact with any mare that he, you know, thinks about sex with. He's like an adolescent colt, though, so saying that it would happen if he meets any mare was about the truth. If you're wondering why he didn't pass out while talking with your friends, well, Applejack intimidated him, he probably saw Rainbow Dash as taken and didn't want to be killed by you, he actually did pass out when we talked to Rarity, she was just so gorgeous, I managed to gain control and talk with her for a while before Pinkie came back over, he probably saw Fluttershy as a little sister, that seems to happen to her a lot, I gather, something about her innate cuteness just drives everypony near her to love and protect her like a sibling, and I think he was too distracted by Twilight's constant questioning to even get a thought through about her. So yeah, that's that."

It was as good an explanation as any, and it actually made quite a bit of sense. However, Bulb was basically an insane man-child with hyper-violent tendencies. If Globe wasn't there to help distract him, they would probably both end up in an institution for the mentally ill, or maybe criminally insane. Depends on Bulb's last acts outside, I guess.

Things would've been fine for Globe, getting a commendation for having a good explanation was nothing to be modest about, but he had to say the next sentence, "By the way, nice catch with Rainbow Dash. She is the sexiest mare this side of Manehatten, Rarity's got classic good looks, but Rainbow is *whistles* hot!"

The Forgemaster walked in silence for a few more feet before turning his head and saying, "I hereby swear disproportionate retribution on you!"

The entity collectively known as Silent Knife would have a bump on its collective head for a week, and would have trouble chewing solid food for a month.

He had to be carried back to Canterlot, and was summarily dumped in a guard barracks bunk once there.

The Forgemaster was going to have some fun.

wWwWwWw

Celestia was anxious, happy as can be that her own personal hell would soon be over. In just a few moments, Luna would walk through that door, a stupid ritual would commence, and then she could go away!

The nobles yammered, the advisors drolled, but above it all Celestia heard, "Tick, tock, tick, tock…"

And finally… the door opened! It was Luna!

Celestia had to forcibly restrain herself from lifting a hoof to the heavens and releasing a single tear of joy while shouting out her happiness for all to hear.

The advisors, finally, stopped talking once Luna was in the room. In fact, everypony did. They all stopped their incessant speaking to let the next poor, tortured soul walked through the gates of hell to sit on their throne of boredom and then listen to them complain, complain, complain.

Princess Luna, much like Celestia, was dressed in her royal regalia. Although instead of golden shoes and crown, Luna had on black shoes and crown. With her came a detachment of Lunar guards, exact replicas of the Solar guards only in darker colors and designs. As she walked down the cleared red carpet, to her left and right Lunar guards replaced their Solar counterparts in perfect harmony to the speed she was walking. By the time she arrived at the throne, the guards immediately next to the throne would be Lunar as well.

However, that wasn't the case. Princess Luna was no more than 5 paces away from the throne, with Celestia standing to meet her half-way, when a loud scream was heard.

It wasn't a scream of someone in pain; in fact if one listened closely they could make out words and hear that it was getting louder, and therefore, closer.

In fact, the words being screamed were barely recognizable but were heard as, "AUNTIE TIA!"

Seemingly out of nowhere, a small dark red blur shot out and impacted Celestia on the side, sending her sprawling. The guards readied themselves for battle while the cloud of dust slowly settled down.

What they saw surprised them. There, lying on her back with the foal Crimson Hammer standing on her was Princess Celestia. And she was smiling as large as can be. In fact, young Crimson looked incredibly happy as well. Celestia, though no one knew, was silently thinking about how perfectly timed this interruption was.

The nobles and citizenry were appalled, the guards were quietly struggling not to chuckle as they recognized their commander, and Luna was just staring. She had heard of The Forgemaster's playful side but she had never seen it herself.

Crimson was bouncing up and down on Princess Celestia's downed form, somehow sparing her from any discomfort at the same time and basically using her as a trampoline, and yelling at the same time, "Auntie Tia, Auntie Tia! I'm back, I'm back, I'm back, I'm back!"

Suddenly he froze, in midair, looked down at Celestia, twisted his head to the side as though he were figuring out some great mystery, and, with all seriousness a child can have, asked, "Auntie Tia, why are you on the floor?" and then dropped back down on her chest.

The guards were silently and stoically almost dying from restrained laughter, they had moved back to their posts so as to get a better view of both the main event, and the reaction of the stupid nobles, when the 'threat' was recognized.

Celestia was also quietly laughing to herself, never before had she been this happy to have a friend who could shape shift… it was like he knew exactly how to cheer her up after a long, boring day at work.

Celestia, still underneath Crimson, asked, "So how was your trip?" completely ignoring his question, recognizing it as rhetorical.

Crimson jumped off of her and into the air, gliding around on his tiny wings before coming to a landing right in front of Celestia, "Ooh! I had a great time, it was so much fun! I caused a 'splosion! No ponies were hurt, though. But, Auntie! I had a question!"

Celestia had stood up and Crimson was now standing in front of her, looking up at her with wide eyes, Celestia said, "And what would that be, Crimson?"

"How come I only see 1 of your eyes at a time?" he asked, as innocent as possible, "Are you a Cyclops! Did you get it poked out in a paperwork accident! Did-"

Celestia cut him off, smiling fondly at him as one would a child in a similar situation, "No, none of that,, it is merely a product of my mane style."

Crimson froze for a moment, narrowing his eyes as though thinking on the meanings of the words used, suddenly, he brightened and looked up at her mane, eyes wide with wonder.

"Auntie," he asked in awed voice, "How does your mane…" he held a foreleg out and tried to simulate the wavy motion.

"You mean the wavy thing?" she asked.

He nodded solemnly.

"I like the wavy thing." She said, as though that was all the explanation needed.

He was silent for a few moments, just staring up at her mane; eventually he reached a hoof up and put it into the flowing mane. The hairs acted as though in a flowing river, bending and flowing around the hoof. Celestia didn't mind and just watched him, with a giggly smile on her face as she watched the fake child-like glee on his face.

"Can I-"

"I'll teach you when you're older."

He nodded again, seemingly too entranced to listen.

By this time, all of the guards were red-faced and trying not to pee themselves, Luna was laughing out loud and trying not to pee herself, and the nobles were either turning their nose up in disgust or had a small smile on their faces from watching a 'family moment' that involved their ruler.

Eventually, Crimson took his hoof out of the flowing mane and sat back down. He was clam for a few moments, before he suddenly sprung back up again.

"Oo, oo, Auntie Tia, Auntie Tia!" he yelled trying to get her attention though she was only 3 feet in front of him.

"Yes, Crimson?" she asked.

"If blood is thicker than water, and maple syrup is thicker than blood, are pancakes more important than family?" he asked, once more using the most innocent of voices possible.

"I don't think so…" she said.

He let out a groan of frustration, mumbling under his breath, "I'll find somepony who shares my views one day."

After having a nice quiet sulk for about 2 seconds, he did a complete 180 and asked, "Do you wanna play with me?" with his voice and eyes full of hope.

Celestia said, "Sure-"

Crimson jumped up onto her back and pulled a helmet fashioned out of a craved pineapple out of nowhere before placing it on his head, "I am the Pineapple King! I will call you Sir Biscuits-and-Cheese and you will be my best pal! Now, we ride to the kitchen, away!"

Celestia and Crimson rode away laughing, Celestia stopped long enough at the door to say back to the room, "Coming Lulu?"

Luna was after them in an instant, taking off the ceremonial armor and shoes while saying, "Goodness yes!"

By the time Princess Luna had ran out in chase of her sister and 'nephew', the guards were already on the floor, holding their sides from the laughter-pain.

(A/N – basically filler, but fun!)