“…Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen some wild shit in my time--”

“A fact I find entirely unsurprising,” Night Light said between casual sips of the hard cider mug in front of him.

“--but this takes the gold bucking medal.” Pommel swung his own mug in a wide arc across the bar from the stool next to his friend. “I’m telling you, Lighty, this mare is crazy in the sack, it was the most ricockulous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Night Light rolled his eyes, but saw little else he could do other than humor his friend. It had been two whole days since they’d seen each other, after all. Night Light’s weekend off had ended at last, unpleasantly soon after his wild day with Twilight Velvet; and Pommel, done with his punishment of covering for Night Light and free for a weekend of his own, had apparently opted to spend his days off with Private Steadfast. So when the two best friends finally did get a chance to see each other at the local officers’ hangout between the end of Night Light’s shift and the start of Pommel’s, the bat-stallion was naturally going to be eager to update his best bro on all the details of his weekend exploits.

Especially the nasty ones.

“So we get back to my place, right? And she’s totally into it and going like ‘Oh Pommel, take me, take me right here in your filthy bachelor pad--’”

“You could at least try to make this story sound plausible,” Night Light snorted.

“Shut up, I’m summarizing. So we’re getting going, right? And it’s pretty hot, ‘cause, y’know, it’s freaking heat-sex, that shit gets seriously X-rated--”

“Also, I really don’t know if I want to hear about you rutting one of my subordinates. And neither does the rest of the bar.”

“It’s not even about that, just--let me finish, damn, this isn’t even the important part. So it’s getting down to the wire, right, and I’m like, ready to just flood this chick--”

“She has a name, Pommel.”

“Stop bucking interrupting. So I’m on the edge, here, right? And then just before, like, one or two more good thrusts is gonna finish me, she’s like ‘Wait, stop, pull out!’”

Night Light finally paused mid-sip; that was unusual. “…What, did she forget protection or something?”

“No, I… what? Dude, come on, we were really thorough about that, gimme at least a little credit here. No, she just straight up doesn’t want me to come inside her all of a sudden, and before I even know what’s happening she’s got her mouth on my cock instead and I’m blowing my load there--”

“Pommel, holy horseapples, I don’t want to hear about your load.”

“--instead of in her pussy like any sane mare in heat craves like fucking oxygen.”

Night Light raised an eyebrow. “…Okay, yeah, that is a little… different. How does she expect to settle her estrus without--”

“Exactly. Dude. Your little fan-filly is totally into heat-edging.”

“She is not my fan-filly. And what the buck is heat-edging?”

“…Did you just, like, completely skip all the fun parts of college?”

“If by ‘fun parts’ you mean ‘sleeping my way through a quarter of the campus like a certain tail-chaser I could name,’ then yes, Pommel, I skipped it.”

“Hey, they came to me, it’s not my fault if they wanna get through spring term without heat season hanging over their heads. I just made myself available.”

“Made yourself available? Is that what you call hitting on every mare you laid eyes on freshman year with that atrocious pick-up line?”

“Hey, shut up, it was a stroke of genius!”

“‘I am the Heat-Seeker, and this is my missile?’ That’s your idea of genius?”

“It worked sometimes! Plus, chicks totally dug the whole ‘dark, mysterious bat-pony’ thing.”

“Pommel, there’s nothing mysterious about you except how you haven’t been court-marshalled yet.”

“Anyway, I basically just described heat-edging word for word. You have sex, and then you don’t finish inside her.”

“…what.”

“I know, right?! It sounds insane! But I mean, think about it, if you don’t give her the big finish and shut off her heat, what happens? She’s still in heat, dude! She’s still totally crazy-horny! And no matter how hard she got off before, she’s like, ready to just fucking go all over again!”

“…You’re telling me some mares actively try to stay in heat just to keep their sex drive going?”

“Exactly!”

“That sounds like torture.”

“More like awesome. It was the best sex I’ve ever had!”

“I meant torture for her.”

“Hey, I told you, she was into it, it was her idea!”

Night Light couldn’t help blushing as some very particular memories of his own first week as an active participant in mating season surged forward. “Yeah, but… how is that even… satisfying? You have all that sex, but there’s no… release.”

“I dunno, she was releasing pretty damn hard.”

“No, I mean--”

“In fact she released all over one of my dress uniforms. I gotta requisition a replacement.”

“Uuuugghh…!” Night Light groaned in disgust. “Why would you think I wanted to hear that?!”

“I’m just saying, she might not be stopping the heat, but she’s still having about a dozen bucking orgasms back to back to back with practically no downtime. Which is pretty much the whole point.”

“Can she even really enjoy them at that point, though? I mean Velvet sounded like she was almost in pain before--” Night Light abruptly froze and jammed a hoof in his own mouth. “I mean… n-never mind.”

“Oh hay no, I totally wanna hear this story.”

“It’s private, Pommel.”

“Dude, I totally just gave you the scoop on my thing.”

“I never asked you to tell me about your thing.”

“Come on, give the softcore version, at least.”

“No, Pommel. I told you, it was… private. And special.”

“I’m not gonna say anything to her, I swear! She’ll never know!”

“Know what?” Twilight Velvet asked.

“AHH!” Pommel nearly jumped out of his seat, spinning around to face the off-white mare that had just joined them at the bar, saddlebags slung over her back stuffed full with papers and scrolls that suggested she’d come straight from work. “Goddess-damnit, Velvet, scared the crap outta me.”

“Well you deserved it,” Velvet said with a smirk. “Pestering my Lighty for naughty stories about me? For shame.”

“Out of purely scientific interest, I assure you.”

“Scientific interest, huh? Interest in what?”

“Those bangin’ hot flanks of yours, what else?”

“Uh-huh.” Velvet smirked again. “Don’t you have a shift to get to?”

“You guys suck,” Pommel grunted, sliding off his bar stool. “Fine, I’ll go to work like a good responsible officer. Damn Mondays…”

“It’s Wednesday, Pommel,” Night Light observed.

“Well it’s Monday for me, smart-flank.”

“So we’re hot-flank and smart-flank now, are we?” Velvet joked.

“Yeah, you two are a perfect pair of assholes,” Pommel shot back with a smirk as he turned to leave. “Later, lovebirds.”

A moment later Pommel was gone, and Night Light smiled more easily at his marefriend. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Velvet said, sliding into the stool Pommel had just vacated, and leaned over to lay a soft kiss on his cheek. “What was he so interested in, anyway?”

Night Light fought an instinctual eye-roll. “Nothing I was gonna tell him. You know Pommel, he’s all about the dirty details.”

“Really? About me?”

“Well, he’d talk about any good-looking mare’s undercarriage given half a chance. By the way, I now know way more than I ever needed to about Steadfast’s personal life.”

Velvet giggled at that. “Aww, poor Night Light, having to listen to sexy stories about cute mares. It truly sucks to be you.”

“Yeah, well, I draw the line at him involving that kind of talk and you in the same sentence…”

“Does he do that a lot?”

Night Light groaned. “Goddess, if I had five bits for every time I had to tell him to stop talking about what he’d do to your backside…”

Velvet giggled again. “Gosh, I didn’t know he was so into me. He never really tried to ask me out or anything.”

“Pretty sure the only reason he didn’t was because he knew I liked you,” Night Light admitted with a blush. “…I’m glad to hear he didn’t actually try to hit on you, though.”

“Aww, is that retroactive jealousy I hear?” Velvet teased, nuzzling him comfortingly. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have said yes anyway.”

Night Light smiled and nuzzled her back. “Really?”

“Nah. Like I said, I had my eye on you pretty much as soon as we met.”

“Heh… yeah, I guess I kinda did, too…”

Velvet beamed contently at that and sat back in her stool properly, hailing the bartender for a drink. “So, you get back into the swing of things at work?”

“Oh, yeah, no big problems,” Night Light said, finishing off his own mug just as Velvet received hers. “A few hiccups here and there, but you know how it is with mating season, it tends to be a little disruptive no matter how far ahead of time you know about it.”

Velvet lifted a fresh mug of hard cider to her lips in the deep-violet aura of her magic, taking a long sip. “Mmm… I hear Princess Celestia’s considering a trial run of some new regulations for businesses and public services during estrus season.”

“Yeah, there’s talk of businesses closing early and schools shifting to half-days until estrus passes. Can’t really cut back on fire or hospital services or anything like that, obviously, but they’re talking about doing increased staffing for shorter shifts during those weeks instead.”

“That might be nice. It’d help everypony deal with it a little more smoothly.”

Night Light shrugged noncommittally. “Yeah, but the Princess is just talking about a trial run for now to test it out. There’re some critics that don’t really think it’s worth changing regulations over. Everypony’s pretty understanding if things are a little out of sorts this time of year anyway.”

“Puh, not in my department,” Velvet abruptly scowled. “I swear, that mare has a permanent bug up her butt…”

“Who, your boss?”

“Ugh, Ms. Feather Duster, yeah,” Velvet nearly spat. “She’s awful.”

“She’s not still punishing you for last week, is she?”

“No, I don’t think so, but she definitely has it out for me now. She’s been on my case for three solid days because she thinks I’m working too slow. ‘You’ve still got a lot of catching up to do, young lady, pick up the pace and stop limping around,’” Velvet quoted, in a snooty mockery of her superior’s voice.

Night Light, however, was more concerned than amused. “Why were you limping?”

“Oh… heh…” Velvet swiftly blushed. “It’s not a big deal. I’ve just been, you know… sore.”

“…Sore?” Night Light echoed.

“Yeah…” Velvet leaned close to him again, almost right up to his ear as she lowered her voice. “You know, from that epic rutting you gave me…?”

If Night Light still had cider in his mouth he would have choked on it right then. Thankfully his mug was long-empty, so instead he simply let out a strangled cough of surprise, turning to her with a bright blush on his cheeks. “I, uh… you… you were sore because of… of how I…?”

“Don’t you even think about apologizing,” Velvet ordered. “That was the best night of my life, and I wouldn’t take back even a moment of it.”

“Buh… but… but you…” Night Light stammered dumbly.

“It’s a good kind of sore,” she assured him with another nuzzle, and this one swiftly grew more and more affectionate despite their public setting. “Besides, I’m a lot better today… the soreness is almost all gone.”

“Oh… heh…” Night Light chuckled in reply, at once nervous and relieved. “W-well, that’s good, then…”

“In fact…” Velvet went on, pushing her muzzle even more firmly under his chin, “I was thinking we could go back to my place again tonight…”

Night Light’s blush steadily built on itself the longer she nuzzled him, until he could have no illusions whatsoever about what she was suggesting. “Y-you… want to…?”

“Mmhmm…” she cooed, pulling away just enough to bat her eyelashes at him with the best bedroom-eyes he’d ever seen.

“But… I thought you were out of…? I mean, didn’t we… take care of that already…?” Night Light wondered aloud.

Velvet giggled again, running a playful hoof along his thigh. “Night Light. Just because I’m not actively in heat doesn’t mean we can’t have sex anytime we want.”

Night Light immediately felt a growing excitement beneath his tail, and his throat abruptly went dry. “A-any… anytime we…?”

Velvet’s hoof curved inward, between his hind legs, smiling like she knew what she would find there. “Anytime we want.”

Night Light’s breath caught in his throat. Somehow, in the nostalgic aftermath of his first night with Velvet and the hectic game of catch-up he’d been playing upon returning to work, that little detail had never quite had the chance to settle in his brain and take root. But it was there now, spreading and seeding throughout his primal brain, alive with the possibilities born from those simple words.

He could have sex with Velvet anytime they wanted to.

Any. Time.

He didn’t want to objectify the mare, he really didn’t. But oh wow, was that ever an appealing thought.

“So is that a yes…?” Velvet whispered in his ear as if she could read every thought that just tore through his brain. Not that they were hard to guess; his loins were quickly gaining steam, helped in no small part by Velvet’s probing hoof, and Night Light had to clamp his hind legs together around it to keep himself from popping free for everypony in the bar to notice.

“Okay… okay, yeah, let’s go,” Night Light finally whispered to her in a hurry.

Velvet grinned victoriously and drew her hoof back long enough to down the rest of her drink and slap a few bits from her saddlebag on the bar for it, and then she and Night Light hopped off their stools, racing outside together. Velvet didn’t live far away, perhaps only two blocks from the bar, and it wouldn’t be long before they were safely and privately locked inside.

Unfortunately, they’d only made it one of the two blocks before Night Light’s evening took yet another detour.

“Hey, what’s that…?” Velvet abruptly wondered, pointing above and ahead of them. “It’s fast…!”

“H-huh…?” Night Light looked up distractedly after a moment, but was too late to see anything except a rolled-up piece of parchment hitting him in the face with a gentle whap and bouncing to the sidewalk. “What the…? Mail? Now?”

“That’s no mailmare,” Velvet murmured in awe. “Oh my gosh, that’s a phoenix…!”

Uh-oh.

Night Light felt a sudden tightness in his chest as he darted his eyes back to the sky, and saw that there was indeed a phoenix – a very familiar one, in fact – circling over their heads briefly before soaring away again toward the castle.

“I didn’t know there were any phoenixes in Canterlot except--”

Velvet abruptly stopped, frozen for a moment, before looking at the scroll on the sidewalk, and then to Night Light. “…Except… for Philomena…”

“Y-Yeah…” Night Light said, nodding, though his eyes never left the scroll lying at his hooves. “The Princess’ pet… that’s her.”

“Then… oh my gosh, is… is that what I think it is?”

Night Light didn’t respond out loud, instead reaching out with his magic and encasing the scroll in a pale blue glow. Slowly his magical aura lifted the scroll up to his eyes, and with a slightly-brighter flash of blue light he broke the seal and unfurled the scroll. As he’d expected, a brief note in elegant, looping quill-strokes met his gaze.

Night Light,
The Royal Garden has grown quite parched. It requires a thorough watering.
Please meet me at the castle after the sunset.

- Celestia

PS: Don’t forget the hose.

Night Light read the letter three times over, blushing deeper each time.

Well. That was certainly… subtle.

Twilight Velvet meanwhile was leaning in close to read the letter over his shoulder. “Oh my gosh, it is, a letter directly from Celestia…! And she wants you to… water her garden? Why does she need you to--…oh. Oh!” Velvet’s cheeks exploded with color. “Oh wow, is it time for… I mean, is she… active, again?”

Night Light swallowed hard, letting the letter slip free of the pale blue glow of his magic and fall into Velvet’s hooves. “I-I guess so…”

“Yeah… oh goddess, yeah, that’s definitely… wow, and… and the hose is your… wow, that’s… creative.”

Night Light felt like he was shrinking. “I, uh… guess she’s really happy to have a mating season partner again…”

“Yeah…”

Awkward silence fell between them for a long moment as Velvet continued to stare at the letter, or the ground, or pretty much anywhere but at Night Light all of a sudden, and Night Light very nearly did the same, unable to bring his eyes higher than her hooves.

He’d known it was coming, of course. It was a week ago tonight that Princess Celestia had first approached him. The next wave of her cycle was back, right on schedule. Maybe even a little early. But he definitely hadn’t expected it to arrive just as he and Twilight Velvet were aiming to catch up on some much-deserved loving. What was he supposed to do now? Ignore Celestia? Or leave Velvet hanging? Neither option sounded even remotely desirable, and for a long few moments he simply stood there agonizing over which mare he was suddenly going to be forced to disappoint.

Whether blessing or curse, however, the decision was soon made for him, as Velvet finally looked up at him, a more subdued smile than before on her face.

“Well, what’re you still standing around here for?” she said. “Go on, she needs you.”

Night Light’s gaze flew back up to meet hers in return. “W-what…?!”

“That’s what this is about, right?” Velvet reminded him, holding up the little scroll for a brief moment before absently sticking it out of her way somewhere in her packed saddlebag. “She’s in heat, you’re her mate, and she’s looking for you. It’s pretty straightforward.”

“Y-yeah, but…” Night Light stammered, “t-that was before… I mean, now that you and I are… I’m only supposed to be…”

“With me? Oh, Night Light, I don’t mind…” Velvet insisted. “You made that arrangement before we got together, it wouldn’t be fair to call it off now.”

Night Light’s eyes widened in honest bafflement. “You… you don’t care?”

“Psh, no way…!” Velvet scoffed, waving a hoof and puffing her chest out in a sudden attempt to channel Pommel. “Night Light, what kind of terrible friend would I be if I stopped you from getting laid by Princess freakin’ Celestia?”

“The… kind that’s my special somepony?” Night Light not-so-subtly reminded her.

Velvet hesitated at that, and for a second Night Light was certain he saw the cocksure grin on her face falter and crack, exposing it for the mask he suspected it was. But the moment was swiftly gone, and Velvet looked at him with a sympathetic smile.

“That’s sweet, Light, honey, but we’ve been dating for all of half-a-week, I don’t have some kind of all-encompassing claim on you. And besides, like I said, you made a commitment to see Celestia through this estrus season. You’re not backing out of that just for me.”

Night Light couldn’t argue with that; he had indeed made a commitment to Celestia, days before anything had happened with Velvet, and in almost any other situation he wouldn’t have hesitated to stay true to his word. Still…

“Velvet, I…”

“What? Am I wrong?”

“No, you’re not, but… we were… I mean, we had… you know… plans…”

Again he saw a crack in her composure for just a fraction of a second, a flicker of doubt in the back of her eye with a twinge of disappointment, but again it vanished as swiftly as it appeared. “It’s really not a big deal… so we don’t get to mess around for one night, so what? We can do that anytime, remember? But Celestia’s in heat now. I think that kind of supersedes me just being in the mood.”

Night Light wasn’t sure he agreed with the idea that anything, or anypony, even Princess Celestia herself, could supersede his marefriend, but nevertheless, she had a point once again. Celesta was in need right now. Velvet was apparently okay with it, and she would be here for him afterward, and anytime after that. She could wait. Attending to Celestia was the logical choice. It made sense.

So why didn’t he like it?

“Are you sure about this, Velvet?” he finally asked.

“Of course I’m sure,” she insisted a bit too quickly, dipping her head and giving him a firm nudge onto the road toward the castle. “Go on, get out of here, give that mare a good pounding! She’s waiting for you!”

Night Light still wasn’t completely convinced, but Velvet was insistent enough that he no longer questioned her. “Alright,” he hesitantly conceded, “but as soon as she’s taken care of--”

“You’ll be back. I know. Don’t worry, I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself for one night.” Velvet leaned in and pecked his cheek once before once more nudging him in the opposite direction. “Now go already. I’ll see you tomorrow, alright? Later, Night Light!”

Night Light nodded his agreement, turning to return the kiss no matter how small it was. But to his surprise and dismay, she was already trotting home, rounding the corner at the end of the block and vanishing from sight a second later before he could even say his own goodbyes, forcing an unpleasant deduction to spring to life.

Twilight Velvet was a lot of things, but ‘A Good Liar’ was not one of them.

Yeah, Night Light realized, this is definitely bothering her.

A deep sigh escaped his lips, but there was nothing he could do about it now. The decision had been made. He felt lousy about it, but that would have been inescapable. Had he insisted on sticking with Velvet (or had she insisted on it herself), he would be lamenting right now on the guilt of disappointing and ignoring his Princess instead of leaving Velvet to spend the night alone. There was simply nothing to be done about it except move on, take care of Celestia, make it up to Velvet tomorrow, and pray to the heavens that this conflict of desires didn’t come up again later in the season.

Heaving another heavy sigh, Night Light turned away from the route to Velvet’s house, and broke into a steady gallop toward the castle. He had an appointment to make.

Half an hour later Night Light was in the royal palace, at the highest room of the tallest tower, knocking on Celestia’s bedroom door. Once again the guards usually stationed there had been dismissed early, and once again when Celestia opened the door to greet him, she was just a little bit off in appearance: a hint of unevenness in her mane, the most miniscule beads of additional sweat on her coat, and a tiny splash of color in her cheeks, small enough details that Night Light only noticed them because he knew to look for them.

“Good evening, Night Light,” Celestia greeted him with a warm smile. “Do come in.”

Night Light nodded, stepping inside wordlessly and glancing around the bedroom. Celestia was a bit better prepared this time; a proper ponnequin on which to hang his armor stood in one corner, a washbasin with fresh water and cloths to clean themselves up with sat near the bed, and she had even stacked a set of clean bed-sheets nearby.

“I thought perhaps it might be nice not to have to sleep in our own filth,” Celestia commented as she watched where his gaze swept, chuckling slightly.

“Right…” Night Light murmured with a somewhat helpless blush, having figured that part out rather quickly and moved right on ahead to wondering how much dirtier Celestia was planning to get than things had already been.

“I trust my note reached you, then…?” the Princess gently probed.

Night Light’s blush swiftly grew. “Ah… y-yeah, I got it… it’s, uh… why I’m here, after all…”

Celestia giggled a bit louder. “I hope you didn’t find it too ‘scandalous.’ It’s been such a long while since I’ve had a steady mate, and it’s left me feeling a bit… extra playful.”

“O-oh… heh, I see… that explains it…” Night Light offered a weak chuckle of his own in return.

“So…?” she went on, leaning a bit closer to him and giving him a soft, and yet sultry and enticing smile. “Did you bring your hose…?”

Night Light flushed deeper still, but couldn’t quite bring himself to laugh with her, his eyes casting awkwardly toward the floor.

Celestia’s smile vanished as she swiftly caught on to his distant disposition, her own playful demeanor soon replaced with gentle concern. “Night Light? What’s wrong?”

Night Light started, his gaze jumping back up to meet Celestia’s. “H-huh? Wrong? Nothing! Nothing’s wrong!”

“Are you certain?” Celestia pressed. “You seem… distracted.”

Night Light opened his mouth at first to explain himself, but a flicker of thought went off in his head that gave him pause, and a moment later he closed his mouth again. Perhaps he was a bit distracted, yes, with the way things had been left with Velvet still on his mind… but Celestia didn’t need to hear about all that. She had enough on her mind with her estrus cycle being active at the moment. And besides, he felt guilty enough about the whole thing as it was; he had no desire to make Celestia feel guilty about it as well by telling her exactly what she’d pulled him away from. Or worse, if he were to compound his own guilt by way of making Celestia feel guilty enough to call the whole thing off and suffer her estrus in solitude. It would be the start of a vicious cycle, one that Night Light was not eager to set in motion.

No, he didn’t need to tell her… it would just complicate things, right?

“…Night Light?” the Princess urged him again.

“…Yes, I’m certain, your majesty,” Night Light finally answered. “My apologies… I, uh… I guess I’m still just… not entirely used to, um… seeing this side of you, that’s all… n-not that that’s unpleasant, of course… heh…”

“Oh…?” Celestia smiled after a moment, seeming to accept that. “Well, that’s alright, Night Light… I’m sure we can get you back into the swing of things quickly enough.”

Her horn shimmered over their heads, and a wave of her warm, golden magic swept over him, whipping his armor smoothly off his body and sending it over to the ponnequin across the room. A second surge of magic followed it, wrapping around him yet again and sinking much deeper this time, into his very fur and flesh, the magic saturating every inch of him with a dry, stifling heat for a few seconds. He recognized the sensations by now; she was using her growth spell on him, swelling his limbs – and a certain other appendage – to a size more appropriate for serving her needs. When Night Light next looked at the solar monarch, they were just about at eye level with one another.

“There we are… finished,” Celestia announced, briefly looking over her work. “Does everything seem in order…?”

“I think so…” Night Light nodded his head, looking over himself as well.

“Are you sure…?” Celestia pressed, her voice turning sultry once again. “Perhaps I should conduct a more… thorough inspection?”

Night Light briefly wondered what that was supposed to mean, but then he suddenly found himself seated forcibly back on his haunches, Celestia’s hooves were grasping his rapidly-hardening dick, the scent of her estrus-driven arousal was slamming into his nostrils… and for a while, all he knew was bliss.

---

It was still bothering him when he woke up the next morning.

He was up before even Celestia, to his surprise, and so the sky outside was still as dark as night when he came to. He was buried deep in Celestia’s bed, both it and her seeming to dwarf him so greatly as to nearly swallow him whole, as Celestia had removed her size-changing enchantment before they’d fallen asleep this time, in the course of washing up after their debauchery. All in all it made him feel rather embarrassingly tiny, though he’d been too exhausted to complain at the time. On the other hoof, however, now that he was up, it made it rather easy for him to wriggle out from within her hooves and slide over to the edge of the bed, touching down as lightly as he could on the floor of her bedroom so as not to wake her.

He felt supremely weird about sneaking out of Celestia’s room like this after the kind of night they’d had, and more than a few of Pommel’s wild stories ran through his head at the thought and made him feel just a bit disgusted with himself, but frankly he couldn’t bring himself to care very much. Leaving Velvet behind last night continued to eat at him, more strongly than ever after spending the evening mating with Celestia while Velvet had been stuck at home alone. There was no way he was going to spend his whole shift today dwelling on this; he needed to go see her as soon as possible. She would be at work right around sunrise; if he hurried, he was sure he could find her a nice bouquet of flowers and catch her at the Royal Archives before she got into the swing of her shift.

First and foremost though, he needed to get dressed. He charged his horn, dragging his armor as quietly as he could off the ponnequin in the near corner of the room, and floated the pieces over to him in an aura of--

…golden magic?

Night Light raised his eyebrow for a moment in mild surprise, glancing up at his horn in his peripheral vision. Sure enough, it, as well as his armor, were radiating not his usual pale-blue telekinetic aura, but a pale gold one instead.

Huh.

That was… odd.

Night Light had no interest in dwelling on it at the moment though. Velvet was still first and foremost in his mind, and his magic otherwise didn’t seem to be acting strangely at all, and so he resolved to worry about it later, instead securing his armor over his body and hurrying out of the room.

One realization that no shop in the city was open this early, a trip through the Royal Garden (the real one), and a bribe to the groundskeeper later, Night Light was at the doors of the Royal Archives just as the sun was finally rising, gulping oddly nervously with a small bouquet of flowers clutched in his magical grip. He knew he had to look a little ridiculous like this; he was the Captain of the Royal Guard, after all, and here he was all tense and flushed and holding a bunch of flowers like a teenage colt ringing his first fillyfriend’s doorbell. He was truly thankful that none of his troops were around to notice.

A second later he walked into the massive library hall, and to his fortune he spied Twilight Velvet right away at the front desk, yawning as she pulled scrolls and books from her packed saddlebags to lay them out on the counter. Hovering over her was an older mare with a graying mane done up in a tight bun and a pale tan coat, her cutie mark bearing an elegant replica of her namesake made with the finest Pegasus feathers. The mare was giving Velvet direction at the moment, droning in that special tone of voice that seemed designed to send school-age foals into a catatonic stupor.

“…Now when you’ve finished transcribing these spell-scrolls to books,” the older mare said, “I’m going to need a full two hundred copies… and don’t think I won’t be checking your work personally. These texts are going to be the backbone of Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, Miss Velvet, and I’ll not have any mistakes. If even so much as a single syllable is garbled, you’ll be starting the whole thing over again.”

Velvet stifled another yawn. “Yes, Ms. Feather Duster, understood…”

“I sincerely hope so.”

“Velvet!” Night Light chose that moment to chime in, jogging up to the front desk.

Velvet jerked her head up toward the voice, blushing in shock. “…Night Light?! What are you doing here…?!”

“Miss Velvet, what is the meaning of this?!” Feather Duster snapped. “Personal visits are not allowed while you’re in this library!”

“I didn’t invite him!” Velvet insisted, somewhat indignantly, though she nevertheless gave a rather apologetic look to her coltfriend. “Listen, Night Light, can we talk later? I have a lot of work to do…”

“This’ll just take a minute, I promise, it’s important…” Night Light said. “I just wanted to--”

“Oh my goddess, what happened to you?!” Velvet suddenly burst out, pointing a hoof wildly at him.

“H-huh?” Night Light stammered, his train of thought derailed for the moment as his gaze followed her hoof to the bouquet in his magical grip. “Oh, the flowers? Uh, s-sorry, I might have nibbled on them a little bit, I was kind of nervous coming over here--”

“Excuse me, Captain, you are distracting my apprentice--!”

“Not the flowers, your magic!” Velvet exclaimed, ignoring Feather Duster entirely now.

“My--? Oh! Oh, right, that…” Night Light realized, his attention returning to the gold glow the flowers were gripped in, rather than his usual blue. “Yeah, I noticed that earlier too, I’m not really sure what the deal is with that, but everything’s working fine--”

“Night Light, have you even looked at yourself?!”

That gave him pause. “…Er… no… should I?”

Velvet dug frantically into her saddlebag, the papers inside flying as she yanked her hoof back out and pushed a small mirror over the counter, her gaze locked onto him. “Your eyes, Night Light… look at your eyes…”

Slowly Night Light picked up the mirror, morbidly curious now, and as he lifted it to meet his own reflection, it quickly became obvious what had Velvet so freaked out suddenly.

His eyes were glowing gold.

That… was decidedly not normal.

Well, to be fair, his eyes had always been gold, of course. But this wasn’t quite the same thing. It was a brighter shade, much more noticeable than his usual duller gold color. Oh, and the glowing. That was a new one too. He was pretty sure eyes weren’t normally supposed to do that. But there it was. In fact, now that he was looking, the glow was about the same shade of gold his magical aura had become.

“What in Equestria did you do to yourself…?” Velvet demanded, her face a mask of shock and worry.

“I-I didn’t do anything!” Night Light insisted. “I just… woke up like this, after--”

He froze.

After being with Celestia.

After she used her magic on him again.

Golden magic.

His eyes bulged, the glow behind them seeming stronger for a second in his reflection.

The golden glow.

Just like hers.

“I… I need to go,” Night Light murmured, turning without another word and bolting out of the Royal Archives.

“Wh--hey! Night Light, wait!” Velvet shouted, leaping over the counter in a flurry of scattered papers and chasing after him.

“Miss Velvet, get back here this instant!” Feather Duster demanded, but it was too late. Both young ponies were long gone.

And so neither of them noticed a short little scroll with a broken royal seal, thrown free of Velvet’s saddlebag, flutter to the ground and land directly at Feather Duster’s hooves.