Clare, restaurant, Los Pegasus:

I had brought Luna to some swanky five star restaurant, this place was the whole nine yards. Not only was the food good but they had stage performances and a nice mood setting along with a dance floor by the performers where ponies danced. Literally this place was great so I didn’t feel so terrible anymore for spending $1000 dollars on our table and food. We had dressed into our leather clothes again so that no-pony would know that she was the princess and hopefully no-pony would see my handgun.

“So tell me a little about yourself Clare. Even though we’re together you’re still a man of mystery” Luna said. “Not too much to tell really. I was an orphan until sixteen then spent the rest of my life serving in the military” I informed her, her face went to a saddened look and she rested her hoof on top of my hand. “I’m saddened to hear that, hopefully we can live a happy life together” she said, the butler came around and gave us our food.

Luna had gotten a nice salad and a vegetable sandwich, I had gotten a lasagna and ordered a fruit dish for us. We had both ordered wine and some sort of cake for desert and somehow the price for this had come to $1000, well I suppose that the actors and stuff cost them quite a bit.

“How about you princess?” I asked and she looked back to me, she had been watching the performers on stage. “Well… I spend most of my time in my room and during the night I enter ponies dreams to assist them with their fears and troubles” she told me, kind of creepy but I didn’t think it was all that bad I mean jeeze I kill for a living so how bad is it for her to help ponies out through their dreams.

The food was pretty good, considering the price that came with it. There was slow music playing and several other ponies danced by the stage performers. “Man this place is swanky” I muttered. “Swanky?” Luna asked and I shrugged, “You know… classy but sort of funky at the same time” I replied.

We sat there and conversed about little things while we ate our food, for some reason it just didn’t feel like a thousand dollars but I guess sometimes you just had to roll with the punches, besides I was dining out with the most beautiful mare I had ever seen and even though she was a different species than I was she was still more beautiful than any person I had ever seen. We finished our meal and I leaned back in the nice leather seat, ‘Okay maybe a thousand dollars’ I thought to myself.

“Clare would you care to dance with me?” Luna asked me. I gave her a curious look “Uhm is that a rhetorical question?” I chuckled, of course I’d dance with her. She blushed “Well I was just wondering, feel free to say no” she replied. “It’d be my honour to dance with the most beautiful mare in Equestria, and on Earth for that matter” I replied and her face brightened up with delight as she got out of her seat. You really are a charmer aren’t you?” she giggled.

I stood up from my seat and she wrapped her foreleg around my arm as we proceeded to the dance floor, arm in arm. The music was a slow melody so I guess we were going to slow dance. I lifted my shades and rested them on the top of my head as we stepped onto the dance floor with the others.

“Bare with me I’m a little rusty” I chuckled and she snickered. “I think I’m a little more inexperienced then you are, I haven’t had a dance partner for over a thousand years” she laughed. “Slow dance?” I suggested, she shrugged and hopped up to her hindlegs. She placed her right hoof in my left hand and wrapped her opposite foreleg around my back. I followed suit as I held her hoof and placed my right arm around her waist.

We stood there for a moment and I completely gapped, “Uhm… how do we dance?” I asked, she laughed then shrugged. “Follow my lead” she offered and I nodded as we began to slow dance, ‘What the hell was lead?’.

Cpt. Armor, Everfree forest:

The world around me seemed to explode into violence. Out of nowhere we had been ambushed and pinned down by heavy fire. We had a joint operation with Celestia’s royal guard and Luna’s shadow guard to secure a position in the Everfree for an HQ that was supposed to be used as an outpost for an upcoming attack.

I hid behind a fallen tree. “Lieutenant, get some supressing fire with the M60. Radio, get an artillery strike on the treeline double time. SUPRESSING FIRE” I ordered. Time seemed to slow as I watched every soldier now under my command do exactly as I ordered them. Their lives were depending on me to make the right choice.

“Sir, artillery can’t give us fire support. There are Huey helicopters in the area” the radio-pony informed me. I shuffled over to him, “Why the hell are there choppers still around… see if we can get air support” I ordered him and he nodded.

Lieutenant Daffodil ran over to me, “Sir we’re under heavy fire… what do we do?” he asked frantically, jeeze it was like he had never been in a combat leadership role before. “Haven’t you ever been in a combat situation before?” I yelled to him and he nodded, “Well do what you always did before” I ordered him and he did the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen a commanding lieutenant do.

“SERGEANT!” Daffodil yelled as he stood up “SERGEANT”. I grabbed him and pulled him behind the fallen tree as a volley of incoming lead flew overhead. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing” I hissed, he looked to me with a frightened look. “What the hell was that?” I asked and he stuttered a reply. “I… I was calling… calling my platoon sergeant sir” he replied. “Why?” I asked and he gulped. “Uhm because… because he usually makes the plans” he told me.

I let go off his combat jacket collar and sighed disappointedly, figures that Luna would have an inefficient lieutenant leading the platoon and an exceptional soldier as the platoon sergeant. I’d have to call it in and get that changed when we got back to Canterlot.

I lept up and began to fire my M16 rifle at the tree line, all I could see where the muzzle flashes of the enemy rifles. The M16s were great in combat, they had little recoil when compared to other assault rifles and despite the small caliber round it was quite devastating. “EVERY-PONY MOVE UP” I yelled but as I got to my hooves a stray bullet caught the base of my horn, I screamed out in pain as the bullet chopped off my horn. The pain was excruciating and blood trickled down my face.

I fell to the ground in agonizing pain, I had been shot before but unicorn horns were exceptionally sensitive and it was incredibly painful to get struck there let alone get shot. My body fell to the ground and my horn landed next to me, my wedding ring had fallen off the horn and lay next to me.

I heard some-pony scream “MEDIC!”. I held the painful stump on my head where my horn used to be and blood stained my fur as blood continued to flow from the stump. I howled in pain and blood trickled into my eyes and stung my vision.

A field medic rushed over with a medical first aid box ready. “Don’t worry captain, it isn’t that bad” the medic told me as he pulled out some disinfectant, shit this was going to hurt.

Clare, restaurant, Los Pegasus:

Most of the other ponies in the restaurant had gone home and it was quite late yet Luna and I continued to slow dance. I had gotten considerably better and she constantly commented on how well I was doing, all I could do was blush. She had begun to rest her head against my chest and we stopped dancing and just stood there, swaying with the music.

“Luna, I love you so much” I whispered. She never took her head away from my chest and just nodded. “I know… you’ve told me a dozen times” she laughed heartily.

A butler walked down onto the dance floor, “Sorry to interrupt sir, but the restaurant is closing in a few minutes” he informed me. I nodded but paid him no mind as I continued to dance with the beautiful mare that I somehow become romantically involved with. ‘Shit I must be the luckiest guy ever’ I thought to myself as I held her closely.