To the moon and back

Shadow began to think about what she was asking, he did like the fact he could reunite with his old wife and resume his old happy family life but the more he considered it, he could shake the feeling it was much too late for that. He frowned and looked at Aurora, "I'm sorry but...I am. We have tried before and it fell apart, with or without Luna's intervention. I do want to stay friends with you Aurora but I do want to try to be with Luna and NMM...I'm sorry..."

Aurora's eyes widened and she looked down, "I-I see...I guess your mind is made up then. I'm...I'm tired, I'm gonna turn in. I'll see you this weekend Shadow. Goodnight." She turned away and began to head upstairs and Shadow started to leave her house, she began to cry once he left. She reached her room and fell on her bed. "Damn you Luna! Damn you! I almost regained my family and you take them away again! ...No...no...I won't let you win...I won't." She looked at her wall, there were many pictures of Shadow and Autta along with cut up pictures of Luna. She began to giggle, "If I can't lure him away from you, I'll just have to get more creative. You made me do this Luna, I hope you are ready." She got up and looked out her window, she saw Shadow beginning to head home, "Time for a little recon..." She opened her window and climbed down onto her roof and waited till Shadow was out of sight to climb down and began to follow him. "You are going to be mine again my sweet Shady, I promise."

Shadow walked down the lonely streets of Canterlot as he made his way home, he felt bad for what he said to Aurora and what he was about to do. He did start liking her again but not as much as Luna and now NMM, he tried to shake off the feeling as he opened his door, the sight he saw as he opened the door made his jaw drop.

NMM was in his living room with Autta, she had a simple dark blue dress on and an pink apron, a tray of cookies in hand that Autta was desperately trying to take from her. "Shadow! I...I thought you'd be at the bar with your coworkers or something. I know this looks odd but I thought I'd get to know you by meeting your daughter, she's really sweet and adorable. We were just talking about you and got around to making some cookies a Mrs.Lollipop told her about. Sorry for intruding."

Autta snatched a cookie from the tray and put it in her mouth as she ran to her dad, "Daddy! The princess came! And she made cookies!! I like her!" She flew up and Shadow caught her in a hug, he looked at her with disbelief and then smiled.

"You are full of surprised NMM...I like it." She blushed and put the tray down.

"Well, I considered that being with you would mean I would have to adapt to a...lower class of marefriend...well, classly speaking of course, so I studied up a bit and found that research showed getting the little ones on your side and being useful in the kitchen makes a single stallion father happy." She came up to them and kissed Autta's forehead as she giggled.

Shadow looked at NMM then at Autta, he smiled and blushed, "Looks like you'd make a fine mother NMM."

She blushed more and had a puzzled look on her face till she realized how they all looked together. She smiled and kissed his cheek and hugged him, "All in due time Shadow...you can't win me over so easily but...you do get a few points for that."

They all laughed and sat down on the couch, Autta ran to her room and brought down a tape and played her favorite movie on the TV. They all watched as they ate the cookies NMM made, just outside of Shadow's house, hidden in the bushes was an angry mare who was hell bent on ruining the scene before her.

"So you think you can just muscle your way into my family bitch?! Hehe...I am not gonna let that happen..." Aurora said to herself as she observed them. The sight of NMM cuddling up to her precious Shadow And her daughter made Aurora's skin crawl. She looked on for a few more minutes before turning away. She felt like she already was too late to stop him from choosing NMM till a twisted idea came into her head, "Maybe severing some ties will assure my dominion."

Autta fell asleep once the movie ended and Shadow carried her to her room, he laid her down and kissed her nose before leaving. He headed downstairs and saw Luna standing in front of a portrait he had of him, Autta, and Aurora.

"I...I don't know if I could ever be just as good as her real mother. I mean, how she was in the beginning, caring and loving. I'm just an outsider to her..."

Shadow hugged her and nuzzled her neck, "You aren't gonna be like her, you are you and she is she. Autta loves you Luna and she now loves NMM, you don't have to worry about making her happy for..." he paused and smiled, "...For what she really wants is to see me happy. After losing Aurora, I was so depressed and what made me happy besides her was you. You are what makes me happy and feel...well...complete. She thinks you are amazing as do I, I just need to show you and NMM that."

Luna looked at him, tears of joy in her eyes, "You don't need to show me Shadow, I already know what you think of me and I feel the same. NMM will soon see that as well and we can all be happy." She leaned in and kissed him, he blushed and kissed her back happily. Luna broke the kiss and nuzzled him, "I should be getting back to the castle. I hope you enjoy your night off my love, I'll see you at sunset tomorrow."

She walked out of the house before teleporting away to her bedroom in the castle, Aurora popped from behind the building and started to leave as she put a blade away, "There is no way I can attack Luna, she's too strong, magically and physically, and is too well protected...damn it, I need to think of something else. Everypony has a weak point..."

Time passed as Shadow once more took his post as personal guard of Princess Luna, Nec was thankful for that since he didn't know how much more of Princess Luna's complaining of him being quiet and respectful he could take. Silent Step waited around for Shadow to get off work to have some idle chat before disappearing on Shadow, Shadow never found out how Silent Step looked without his uniform on. NMM and Shadow talked on most nights, she grew to like Shadow a lot but was too shy to ever admit it. As for Shadow, he fell in love with NMM and her querks. She had a habit for not being able to take compliments or flattery well, she would always looked puzzled and in those moments he'd steal a kiss from her only to make the princess' cheeks burn bright red.

Unfortunately for them, somepony else was observing all this, Aurora spent much of her off time keeping tabs on the two. She looked for patterns and habits, she knew taking on Luna would be rather hard since she is a princess and an alicorn but she was a soldier and has seen battle so she knew even the powerful had their weak spots. It was only after months of research that Aurora got her weak spot, "Shadow...it had to be you Shadow...I'm sorry but I want her to pay and you are partly to blame for this as well..." She took out a blade as she approached Shadow's home as the sun started to head down the horizon, the streets were empty since ponies left to the castle for the Nightmare night celebration and Shadow was resting for the long night head and it would be a long night indeed.

She got to his door and heard no noise inside, "Phew, Autta isn't home." She took the spare key Shadow gave her for her visits and unlocked the door, she slowly opened it and slipped inside quietly. She closed the door and double locked it, she looked around and saw pictures of Luna and NMM with Shadow and Autta. As much as Aurora wanted to tear them down, she knew she couldn't risk waking up Shadow so she grit her teeth and began to head to Shadow's room. The door was open and she saw Shadow sleeping peacefully on his bed with a bucket on the side of it, she got closer and saw the bucket had a note

Here you go daddy, we can go get some candy together once you are done with the princess' ceremony! -Love, Autta

P.s. Give me half the bucket please

Aurora frowned and looked at Shadow, "This is for letting some whore take away my family!" She plunged the blade into his chest and Shadow awoke, groaning in pain.