Author's note
Some NSFW stuff, but nothing explicitly sexual going on. More so medical, I guess?

Both of these chapters will take place before the events of Chapter Ten: ...and the Embrace of the Moon and Celestia's "talk" with Edgar.(You know the one)

“Caring too much could be dangerous; I saw that now. But the alternative was no better.”
-Ann Aguirre.

***Trixie's POV***
**Twilight's castle**
*Before sunset, a short time after Edgar fainted in the hallway...before Luna's treatment*

I galloped frantically through the castle's corridors with as my hoofbeats were echoing off the walls. Princess Luna flew off with Edgar shortly after he collapsed and took him somewhere in the castle. I skipped a few floors since since they were below us by a few windows, but no matter which door I tried to enter or peak through I could not find any sign of either Princess Luna or Edgar. It's like they both vanished into thin air after I lost sight of them, but the urgency to find them drove me forward. To not give up on them.

"Trixie!"

I had to find him.

"Trixie, wait up!"

I need to know that he is safe.

Just then, I felt myself suddenly get slower and more sluggish, like I was dragging my wagon through quicksand.

"TRIXIE!" I heard Twilight yell at me. Not a second later, I saw a purple glow come out from my peripheral vision and surround me, freezing me solid mid-gallop. I was starting to charge my magic to try and break out before I was rotated to face an out-of-breath Twilight. "I know that he is your friend but you're acting hysterical." She huffed. "You will never find him if you keep running around like a maniac like you've been doing for the past thirty minutes. So take a deeeeeep breath and calm....down." Twilight took a deep breath herself before exhaling, trying to catch her own from chasing me throughout her castle. Twilight looked at the approaching hoofbeats and the clanking of armor behind me and flicked her hoof across her neck a few times. Realizing that she was telling what I assume were guards that now was not a good time, they backed off. "We'll find him, but you need to calm down and think for a second."

I glared at Twilight with contempt, I was ready to argue back before realizing that I didn't really have any other ideas to find where Princess Luna had taken him. I already sprinted to the infirmary in her castle that I was apparently banned from entering, but was told that he wasn't there. That was my best guess, and its gone now...

Damn it. She's right, but she doesn't have to be so annoying about it.

She slowly released her magical hold on me and set me on the ground, and I begrudgingly sat my rump on the cold, hard floor. I took a deep breath but I wasn't calming down. In fact, I felt myself becoming even more anxious than before. I paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and let it out. I repeated this process several times until I was able to clear my head.

"Alright. I'm calm." I lied.

"No, you're not! Just watch, and do what I do." Twilight took a deep breath and held holding a hoof to her chest. I reciprocated and waited for Twilight to exhale. After a few moments, Twilight blew out and pushed her hoof outward towards me, and I did the exact same thing...not feeling any better. "Feel better? My old foal sitter taught me that a little while ago to help me when I'm feeling stressed about something. It always helps me. Usually." Twilight seemed to be mumbling the last part to herself, but I heard it all. She sighed and I thought that she was going to try and keep me here, but she walked up to me and dropped a hoof on my shoulder. "I know this must be scary for you. Trust me, I've been in this position more than once. But once you catch your breat-"

"OH, JUST SHUT UP! TRIXIE KNOWS!" I yelled, cutting Twilight off mid-sentence and batting her hoof away from me. She recoiled away from my voice while staring at me wide-eyed, recoiling with a wince as she leaned away from me. "TRIXIE IS...She's...I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Twilight. I didn't mean to take it out on you. I just-I'm just worried about him."

"I know...I understand." Twilight replied, giving me a small smile. She paused for a second before walking up and hugging me softly with both her hooves...and her wings? It was a bit weird, but not a bad kind of weird. It felt like I was hugging a pegasus, but I still felt her horn poking the rim of my hat as well. Is it bigger than mine? Still, she was hugging me pretty tightly. It felt nice...

...Hey, there's that Princess hug I was wanting earlier...

I didn't let it go to waste, and I leaned into it and hugged her back as she kept talking. "I'm sorry too, Trixie. You're not the only one that's worried. I'm nervous too, but I'm sure Princess Luna knows what she's doing when she flew off with Edgar..." Twilight seemed to hesitate on the wording she was using, but I was still appreciative that she was trying to help me calm down. "If it's one thing that I've learned, it's that there's no point in getting worked up when we can't do anything about the situation. We're not going to be able to find them if we keep running around. We need to calm down, think, and take this one step at a time. I promise we'll find him."

"...You're being really nice, Twilight." I told her. I am far from calm, but I have to try and put my faith in her. She's been good to me so far, even back then. I really am grateful even if I'm not the best at showing it. "I'm sorry that I didn't want your hug earlier. It's nice..."

Twilight broke the hug a bit earlier than I would like and sat me down. "Now, the doctor from earlier said that he couldn't let Edgar get treated in the same area as the other ponies due to contamination risks from both parties, right?"

I nodded, forgetting that part since I was more focused on that insensitive prick and how he could have been more tactful and kept his mouth shut instead of cal-

Twilight's questions interrupted my train of thought. "And Pony doctors wouldn't really know the best way to treat him since we do not have any documentation on his species anyway, riiiiight?" Again, I nodded. Where was she going with this? It's like she was trying to spell it out to me in the most roundabout way possible. "So who do you think Princess Luna would take him to if he needed help?"

It couldn't be another hospital or anything like that. He would run into the same issue we ran into yesterday with that infirmary. We were lucky when that one yellow pegas-

...Suddenly, it hit me. "BUTTERFLY!" I exclaimed in eureka.

Of course Princess Luna would take him to that Pegasus. While she is only a veterinarian, she and Twilight have already spent hours yesterday questioning Edgar about his diet, allergies, and etcetera. Additionally, she was also the only pony to offer help when Dr. Asshole decided to decline it. At least now when I sprint to him, I have a decent sense of direction. I started to run off as Twilight began musing yet again.

"It wouldn't make sense to try carrying Edgar all the way to her cottage, so she would drop Edgar off in his room and bring Fluttershy to Edgar. At least most of the stuff she might need is still in that room. Oh, and her name is Flutters-OH COME ON!" Twilight yelled at me. I started to hear her wingbeats catch up to me before she landed and galloped next to me. "Trixie, he's going to be okay, but you have to promise you are going to settle down when we find him."

"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE DEMANDS LESS TALKING AND MORE GALLOPING!" I yelled back at her.

It didn't take long to reach Edgar's guest room in the castle. A few twists and turns and Twilight Sparkle waving off any guard that tried to stop me and I was finally standing at his door. My heart was still racing and it wasn't just from my run to him. I was nervous, but I had know that he was going to be okay. I started by trying to open the door and I was met with a creak as I pulled the handle, but it was locked. There were Lunar guards posted on either side of it armed with spears. They gave a salute to Twilight Sparkle, but one spoke up as they saw us attempt to use the wooden double door once more.

"Your Majesty, Princess Luna is inside at the moment. It may not be our station, but she seems very irritated. It may be best to leave her be." The stallion guard told Princess Twilight Sparkle.

I didn't care like I normally would that he was ignoring me. I had bigger concerns, so I rapped my hoof against the door.

*knock knock knock*

No response...

*Knock Knock Knock*

Still nothing, though this time, I can almost hear something heavy sliding somewhere on the other side of the door.

...

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK SLAP SLAP...SLAP...Slap...slap?*

In the blink of an eye, the door swung open inward, with the sudden change in pressure almost pulling me inward. The wood that I was previously banging on felt much softer and furrier, yet didn't budge all the same. I slowly trailed my gaze up and saw that I was pounding on a very irate-looking Princess Luna's chest. Her coat was ruffled by my hooves and her mane looked disheveled. There was also a noticeable redness around the whites of her eyes. Twilight also seemed a little worried as she looked at me and then shifted her eyes between Luna and I a few times. After she got a good look at me, her anger shifted into great annoyance and I could have sworn I saw her left-eye twitch. "What?" She growled out.

...Huh, Deja vu.

"Oooooh...if it isn't the gracious and forgiving Princess Luna." I broke the silence as I joked nervously, trying to play off my blunder. The magic from her horn illuminating her face showed that she was not amused, so I coughed and tried to get things back on track. "The Great and Powerful Trixie has a Great and Powerful need to see Edgar Jorgensen...He's in there, r-right?" I asked, trying to hold back the shudder in my voice. He's going to be fine. He has to be, so I don't know what I am getting myself so worked up for. This will all just be a silly thing that we will laugh about later.

Luna looked at me with an expression that was hard to read. "...He is...stable." Luna hesitated for a second, but was cut off by another voice.

"Princess Luna, is everything alright?" Asked a quiet, sweet voice. Fluttershy, the timid, yellow Pegasus appeared from behind the double doors. I could barely see her, but I could definitely make out the outline of her head peaking over Princess Luna's shoulder as she gingerly hovered above her, perking up as she saw us. "Oh Twilight! Did you and Trixie come to check on Edgar?"

"Wow Fluttershy, you got here quick. Can we come in?" Twilight asked. "We really want to make sure he is doing okay."

Princess Luna's gaze shifted back at me after hearing Twilight. The longer she looked at me the more her face began to soften before she let out a drawn-out sigh and turned back to Twilight Sparkle.

"You have no need to ask. This is your castle, after all. Please, come in..." Princess Luna stepped aside and started to make her way over to the balcony. As we made our way in, we passed by a thin layer and a thick layer of glass, with the thinner one being etched with Magic dampening containment runes. It looked like an extremely heavy, double-layered sliding glass door that was built into the walls of the crystal castle. It wasn't there when I left Edgar to join the sleep over of Sparkle's friends. They had to have used some sort of sound dampening spell to install it without waking him up. "We're sorry if we seem irritable. We are busy trying to get rid of a pest, but can't think of an easy way how."

Suddenly, a small cloudy thought bubble appeared above Luna's head, with the image of a full moon appearing. Suddenly, a massive chomp appeared in it, turning the full moon into a waxing crescent. Sliding down and hanging his legs off the side, was Discord, the Lord of Chaos.

"You pestered us first, Looney! I'm just trying to understand why you don't bring him to my dear Fluttershy's Cottage? If the Human's going to simply lie there and do nothing the entire night, he may as well do nothing with us. It's Nothing Night, after all." The draconequus suddenly pulled a fishing rod out from behind his ear and sent the line out the window. Soon after he reeled in a bottle of tea that he gave offered to the yellow Pegasus, who squee-d in appreciation.

"We would prefer he is kept here for now, so that we can keep careful watch over him. What we would also prefer is that you leave. The last thing we need is any more distractions." Princess Luna shot back with a glare much to the draconequus' amusement.

"The human's practically a vegetable right now, so it may be better to play it safe and keep him away from the mares, lest they sink their teeth into them with fava beans and a nice marelot, no?"

I heard a poof from above, and when I looked up, I saw a big cloud above us. Staring down from within the cloudy thought bubble was and image of a mostly naked Edgar, and we heard a slow saxophone playing from somewhere in the cloud. He was leaning forward provocatively, and appeared to have a foggy mist covering everything below his waist. "♥Eau my...I'm completely vulnerable right now in a castle filled to the brim with stressed out mares~♥" The copy said flamboyantly in as deep a voice as I could imagine Edgar having. "Edgar" turned and locked eyes with me staring with half-lidded eyes. He put his finger near the corner of his mouth while he waggled his eyebrows at me. "♥I sure hope nopony takes advantage of my Weiner and/or Butt! Think of the scandal...♥". He then winked at me, and I felt my cheeks start to get hot. I cleared my throat and shook my head away from it, but the image was burned into my mind as a tingle ran up my spine. It wasn't Edgar, but hearing Edgar's voice say such bothering things made my imagination run wild. A sudden gust of wind appeared as Fluttershy flew up and flapped her wings at it, dispersing the cloud that Edgar was in and causing it to break up. "Wait, Noooooooooo!"

"Stop being gross, Discord." Fluttershy scolded, shaking off her own blush she started to get before coughing into her hooves. "Now listen Discord. Princess Luna said that Edgar has to stay. All the animals are fed and brushed and the bears are open with figuring out custody of Boo-Bear tomorrow. I'll be back home later tonight. I promise!"

"B-but Fluttershy, what about Nothing Night? I was looking forward to doing nothing with you!" Discord whined, throwing his makeshift fishing pole out the window in a huff. A loud boom could be heard off into the distance, with a bright prink mushroom cloud shadowed the far off mountains behind the Everfree.

"I'm sorry Discord, but I'm afraid I must-" Fluttershy gulped before turning away from Discord in shame."...Do something tonight!"

"NO! You mustn't!" Discord yelled in horror.

"I must!"

"Mustn't!

"I Must!"

"Don't!"

"Must!

"Don't Don't!"

"MUST MUST!"

Discord appeared ready to continue this further until Fluttershy ended him rightly by just...staring at him? He seemed to find it adorable at first, but it was clear that she wasn't going to budge. Discord looks upon Edgar with a quiet fury. "I will never forgive this human for making her do something on Nothing Night!"

"Pox upon our Patience, wouldst thou leave already?!?"

"Alright party-pooper, I'm done with my bit. I'll see you back at the cottage, Fluttershy. Don't take too long~" Discord snapped his fingers, and suddenly he was wearing a shiny jacket with metal studs and sunglasses. He sat down on an imaginary bike before before starting to make engine sounds like "Pyuch" and "Brllloom" with his mouth, revving something up. "I may get bored and go exploring. Hasta la vista, dear!"

And with that, Discord rode an invisible bike off into the direction of the Everfree forest, presumably where Fluttershy might live close to.

Fluttershy flew to the balcony ledge of the room. "Stay OUT of my shed, Discord!" She yelled at the departing delinquent-esque draconequus. After waiting a few moments, she shook her head and turned with a small smile peaking out of the corner of her mouth. "Silly old stallion". She flew over to the IV stand off to the side of Edgar and grabbed the tube. "I wanted to make sure with you Twilight. There shouldn't be anything wrong with using an IV, right?" She held the IV drip's needle next to Edgar's arm until Twilight nearly blew out my eardrums.

"STOP!" She cried out, causing the timid Pegasus to freeze with the needled tube in hoof. "We don't know how different his body is to anything on Equestria. Even if the vitamins they need are correct, a fluid drip for Equestrian beings could either cause hyponatremia or hypernatremia if the saline ratio's are wrong."

Wide-eyed, Fluttershy pulled the needle away from Edgar's arm and put it on the night stand. "Okay. I'll pretend that I never touched this then."

"You're a regular Dea ex Machina, aren't you?" I joked, letting out a relieved sigh. Whatever those were, it might have been bad.

"Thanks. It's a blessing and a curse." Twilight mused as she also seemed relieved. "Sorry Fluttershy, and thank you for making sure. If you want to hydrate him, you will have to do it slowly and manually with regular water."

"So how is she going to do that without drowning him, Sparkle? He's still unconscious." I asked.

"It's not my first time helping a sick creature." On cue Fluttershy wet a damp cloth using a pitcher of water and flew over Edgar. As she pressed it against Edgar's lips, the human made an audible gulp as the muscles in his neck undulated. When seeing this, the yellow Pegasus sighed in relief. "He has a swallowing reflex. This will work for now."

"Indeed. Tis better than nothing." Luna mentioned as she looked over the sleeping human. "Kind Fluttershy, are thine hooves steady enough to take a sample of blood from him? Regardless of whether or not we can use all of your veterinary supplies, we would like to take basic steps to examine him."

"Yes, but why would you need that?" Fluttershy asked, tilting her head in confusion. "All he did was faint from his potassium deficiency. He should just need more bananas and a good night's rest."

"Are yo- Do you seriously not know!?!" I was about to facehoof until I felt a small pinch on my shoulder.

"Please hush for a moment and remain patient, Miss Lulamoon. "Luna reprimanded me. "There is no reason to worry Kind Fluttershy if it was a mistake from our centurion. For all we know, it could just be him fainting from his lack of bananas and nothing else." Princess Luna sounded diplomatic before turning back to Fluttershy. "All the same, we would like to be sure that it was simply him fainting."

That didn't make sense. Was she lying to Fluttershy? Princess Luna saw and heard what everypony else did.

"Sorry. It's been a rough few hours since you left for your cottage this morning and it's a very long story." Twilight apologized, twiddling her hair.

After uncapping a syringe, Fluttershy angled it toward a blue line on the sleeping human's forearm. "Sorry." Fluttershy mumbled at Edgar as she poked the syringe into it, slowly drawing out the crimson ichor. Once it was sufficiently full, Fluttershy withdrew it and replaced the needle with a heart-shaped band-aid on the mark she left. Once she was satisfied, Fluttershy was about to cap the needle before Luna stopped her with a raised hoof.

"Leave it for a moment." Using her magic, Princess Luna took glass cup as her magic washed over it, she placed it onto the table off to the side of the room. "Let some of it out into the glass. This is an older method, but it is still viable to our knowledge. Half should be plenty."

"I thought this was going to a doctor. You need his blood now? Why wo-.... he wasn't missing bananas, was he?" Fluttershy asked with worry starting to coat her voice, but didn't put up an argument with Princess Luna as she did what she asked. When finished, Princess Luna picked up the glass with her hoof and swirled the red liquid, inspecting it as if trying to read fine print before setting it back down on the table. She turned back toward Twilight Sparkle.

"What do you think, Twilight?" Princess Luna asked with stoicism, her face betraying none of the worry everypony else was feeling. Yet, I could sense a deep-seated worry behind her regal demeanor. She had to have at least some concern considering how worried she was for Edgar earlier. How she stood up to Princess Celestia for him...How she was there for him when I wasn't...

"That looks like changeling venom, but it doesn't look murky. I have never seen it so clear before." Twilight said with curiosity. As I looked over Twilight's shoulder to get a better view, I saw a paper-thin layer of a translucent oily substance just barely coating the top. Depending on the angle that I looked at it, the thin sheen changed colors on the surface of the blood almost like a prism or a Rainbow. The light hitting it gave it a morbid beauty. Suddenly, Twilight's eyes shot open wide-open with a gasp. "This isn't normal venom. It has to be a Queen's venom. That means Telsona had to have been the one to bite him."

Luna looked off to the side for a few moments as if she was weighing the situation. Upon looking back at Edgar and the bite marks, she let out a groan before walking over to the baby blue couch and letting her hooves go out from under her. She laid face down across the furniture and resting her head on the forearm rest. Her eyes were shut as she massaged her temples with her hooves. "He never mentioned being bit..."

"H-He was bitten by a changeling?" Fluttershy's ears folded back. She flapped back over to Edgar to look him over before her eyes suddenly seemed to find the marks left on his shoulder. "B-but he didn't look sick or drowsy. He just sat in bed as I wrapped his bandages...barely doing anything." The yellow pegasus's voice started to get quieter and quieter as a sudden realization dawned on her. "Oh my goodness, he was barely moving the entire time. He was so sluggish. How did I miss that...?" She gulped as her voice started to break. "Is he going to be okay? Please tell me he's going to be okay. I don't want him to get worse because of me..."

"Fluttershy, calm thyself." Luna directed, not bothering to lift her head up from the couch. Her tone give off a vibe of her expecting this reaction from Fluttershy.

"We'll make sure he is. Besides, he got his bruises from that dragon and those changelings. Anypony would have thought it was just him being tuckered out." Twilight answered with a comforting hoof stroke on the back of Fluttershy's shoulders. Even then, Twilight's face still had concern painted on it. "There's not a lot of research on Queen venom, there is only one other pony that we know of who was bitten and was able to tell us about it. We only ever assumed that it's like normal venom but more potent. If I had to guess, he probably got it while he was fighting Telsona to protect Apple Bloom."

"...No." Luna countered. "We concede that he was bitten by a Changeling Queen. During his battle? The wound itself seems too clean. In stark contrast to the cuts, scrapes, and bruises that are healing, the bite looks as if it was done with care and nigh any struggle. It resembles a nip or a love bite more than an attempt to tear at him. If she was trying to kill him, she should not have had ample opportunity to be this delicate, especially if Kind Fluttershy missed this bitemark." Luna sighed. "This is giving us too much to think about..."

"What are you trying to say? That he let her bite him?" I asked, suddenly becoming defensive of the sleeping human. I couldn't help the incredulousness from my tone as I spoke, and I started to fiddle with the tip of my hat in annoyance. "Why would he ever let a changeling bite him when we were all on the edge of panic about those damn bugs?" I was not about to let him get a bad reputation or worse because of these changelings.

"Thou must calm thyself as wel-"

I started pacing back and forth in the room. "In fact, that doesn't make sense. Edgar isn't some Himbo herd-hopper that lets any mare he meets get all bite-y and touchy with him." I couldn't help the sparks in my tone when I thought of that smug Telsona. "Especially not a mare with a clown-cart-vagina who hurt a lot of ponies and him! Even if she tried to get a drop on him, Edgar isn't an idiot...even if he is sometimes! He's really strong too! He lifted me up and put me in his car when I got light-headed from casting spells to shrink my w-!"

"Trixie Lulamoon, we were not accusing Noble Edgar of anything. Thou needeth to temper thyself as well." Luna commanded from her makeshift throne. "This revelation is simply raising more questions that remain yet answered. Nothing more."

Twilight interjected. "It'd probably be better if we take care of the immediate issue. Even now, his libedo looks like it's just now starting to increase."

"...Libedo?" I asked out loud, wondering if I heard them correctly.

"Oh..." Twilight coughed in surprise and I could see a blush appearing on her face. "I'm sorry if you left school before they taught Sex Ed, but when a mare and a stallion really really like each other, they write to Princess Mi Am-"

"I know what it means!" I interrupted, feeling a bit warm under my cape. "What does his...libedo have to do with anything?"

"Well he was bit." Twilight explained, as if I knew what any of that meant! "His metabolism also seems slower than ours, especially if it took an entire day for this to start to take effect on him."

"Perhaps...Or he may have been feeling the effects this entire time, though to a lesser degree. This panic attack of his was obviously the last straw that broke the wagon's wheel." Luna's brow seemed to furrowed in anger before letting loose a sigh. Sensing no time for a break, the Night Princess hopped up from her spot on the couch. "He may not be getting good blood circulation with those garments. Kind Fluttershy, do you believe you can get his trousers off?"

Fluttershy started pulling at the pants he was wearing before suddenly seeing something that made her blush. "Umm, the belt buckle is really small. I can't get my hooves in them."

"Can you use thine teeth then?" Princess Luna asked. Fluttershy's eyes darted to bump that was just barely forming below his waist before darting away just as fast. Her blush deepened. "...We understand. We will have to sheer them off then."

"Princess Luna, you can't!" Twilight objected. "Humans love their clothes! It's supposed to be important to their culture!"

"More than modesty, he requires blood flow and careful observation. We shall commission a tailor if he feels so sorely of this. Fluttershy, are you calm enough to handle the shears for his trousers?" Fluttershy nodded and grabbed a pair of thick scissors from her satchel before she began cutting through. "Please make sure you are cutting on the side of his legs. We don't want to snip at anything we can't see. "

As the scissors separated the fabric on one side, she moved over to the other side. She lifted the remaining fabric off Edgar like opening a folded tortilla to reveal...another smaller pair of pants underneath in an almost comical anti-climax. Now that I think of it, I never saw Edgar naked when I had to purify his pants after the...incident when we met. He chose to hide behind my wagon until I finished. Who would have thought he had this underneath as well?

Honestly, it's no wonder he wanted to hide it. This material was a nauseating plaid, with a red base and red and white lines intersecting. It was starting to give me a headache looking at it. Maybe the goal was to turn raunchy mares off, but if that were the case, why would the material be almost see-though and small? It was like the world's ugliest male lingerie, and it needs to come off now! For Edgar, of course.

"Ummm, should I cut that one off too? It looks really tight." Fluttershy asked as she felt where the waistband was, prodding at the edges. "Wait, it's stretchy. I think we can just pull this one off." Fluttershy put her hooves inside the waistband and pulled back, watching as his...His member sprung out like a coiled door stop."EEEEEEKKKK!!!"

It was...it's...oh wow. I am not sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that.

For starters, where the hay was his sheath? It couldn't have been comfortable to be wearing those garments with the risk of chafing, even with the secondary piece of clothing. The tip wasn't flat and was more pointed...or rounded with a sort of cap or a hat? The penis had a clear bead of liquid forming near the tip, along with a small trail running down the length. It was a bit smaller than I imagined from his height, but it was still big enough to have fun with. Alien as it appeared, it was actually quite adorable. It's like a pole with a helmet standing at attention.

It looked like everypony else froze upon seeing it for the first time. Even Princess Luna seemed to be taken aback by the strange sight, before shortly regaining her composure and using her magic to cover him with one of the folded towels from the bathroom.

And its smell...

The towel barely did anything to hide his musk. It confused my nose and made too many things come to mind. It was both familiar and unfamiliar. Like a distant memory that was just out of reach, or a good dream I had forgotten about. A mixture of the sweetness of a baked apple pie, a campfire on a cold night, the smell of ozone in the air after a thunderstorm, and the scent of a freshly cut meadow during a hot and humid day...or a mix, I think. He smelled natural to me.

Masculine. Robust. Raw. Umami. I could smell him for hours if that were all it was, but no there was more...Salt. A noticeable hint of this in his sweat just delicately touched his aroma, like the air of a stormy beach soaking into the earthy musk that clings to him. Earth...Water...even Fire, as this warm, intoxicating scent burns ever so sweetly within my nostrils in all the right ways. No matter how it smelled, I knew it was coming from him. In the back of my mouth, I can almost taste how he's been feeling...where he had been....MMmmmm, I want to taste him~..

"Oooooh-kay, we're definitely going to need to get him a bath sometime later...Trixie, are you okay?" I felt a nudge at my side, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned toward Twilight, who was leaning away from me with a scrunched up nose and odd eyes as she pointed at me with her wing. "You have a bit of drool near your mouth."

I wiped the side of my cheek, confirming that Twilight was right. "Trixie is fine. She was simply shocked."

"You were staring at it like you were going into heat." Twilight deadpanned with a judge-y deadpan. She shook her head at the great and powerful me. "Bonk, Trixie...Bonk."

"Don't "Bonk" the Great and Powerful Trixie! I'm being serious! I was simply thrown off-guard by its strangeness! Trixie can't be the only pony stunned by it? You're shocked too, right Fluttershy?" I tried ducking out of this conversation by throwing the yellow mare under the wagon, but Fluttershy didn't respond. Her face was frozen in mortification as she floated in the air with beating wings. Suddenly, she zoomed her way over to the bathroom and slammed the door. I heard the faucet turn on, along with the sound of vigorous scrubbing going on in there. "Was it something Trixie said?"

"It may be best to leave Fluttershy to clean herself up. Be tactful around her, but we believe we saw a sprinkle of Edgar's fluids discharge out toward Fluttershy. We suspect some droplets may have landed on her." Luna revealed a bit too nonchalantly.

"Yikes...I owe her an apology after all of this." Twilight seemed to accept this answer with hesitation, and soon I saw a parchment float past me out of the and toward the Purple Princess. Twilight started jotting things down, transfixed on the spire as well. "No sheath...No fur. Clothing doesn't appear to be just important for their culture, but for their species survival...likely to keep sperm cells warm and alive, but why wouldn't their bodies have anything to protect the testes and penis to begin with? To increase surface area and help with cooling? Note, "Ask Edgar when he wakes up"."

Seriously?

"Would you put that down Sparkle? This is hardly the time."

"Trixie, it might be important later. It also means I can purchase new clothes for him and have it be a justified expense for health reasons. While we help him, we want to pay close attention to any variance in his reaction to the changeling venom as well. We don't have much experience with a Queen's venom, and we've never seen how a Human would react to it."

My ears dropped and flattened against my head after hearing that. "So we don't know how to treat him or if he's going to get better?"

Twilight shook her head. "I didn't say that. We have a decent amount of experience with changeling bites to form theories as to its purposes, so we should have a good idea of what to expect."

"Which is?" I asked impatiently. Everypony else seemed so worried back there, but all I'm seeing is that he has a stiffy now. What's the big deal?

"Well, we think changelings evolved to take advantage of reproductive instincts and emotions. We've seen a variety of symptoms from different changeling bites, with each serving an apparent purpose." Twilight started listing of things left and right, seemingly happy to be able to share her knowledge despite the circumstances. "Lethargy to weaken ponies, Arousal to make prey easier to track and feed on, increased heart rate to circulate it, increased sensitivity to touch and temperatures. Headaches..."

"He was complaining about headaches earlier...We thought he was dehydrated." Princess Luna remarked, staring out into the balcony as she was starting to take most of this in. Fluttershy continued to wet the cloth and hold it against his lips as if cued by this comment.

"Anything that could increase his heartrate would circulate the venom faster and cause a worse headache, which to make it harder for a dizzy pony to fight back. There had been speculation that a Changeling Queen's venom would be a more concentrated version of normal changeling venom. However, there isn't much known about it since the only other reported bite was from my brother. It was already outside of his system by the time the whole incident was over with, so we can only go with what he told us he felt when he was with Queen Chrysalis, or when he was with who he thought was my foal sitter.

"Again, you're going to have to tell me more about this one day." I stated before a thought just popped up in my head. "...Twilight, if your brother was bitten by a changeling disguised as his fiancé, then..." I shut up, thinking that I was right about my assumption. Thankfully, Sparkle seemed to notice where I was going with that line of thought.

"I know what your thinking, and no. He was adamant about waiting for marriage. He did say that he kissed and cuddled with my fake foal-sitter, but he had his own Chasity enchantment to help him with his urges. They were never broken or tampered with."

A few muffled knocks at the door broke us out of our conversation, and a deep mare's voice came along with them. "Your Majesty, First Centurion Scarlett Blush has arrived and is reporting as you have requested."

"Ah good. An expert opinion...Enter." Princess Luna gave permission, and in walked a female thestral guard. Her voice was familiar...I think she was the one that caught me in the car with Edgar and mistook his wet finger for...leeeeewd conduct. She was also the same one that shoved me away from Edgar when he first collapsed. The one that ordered all the other guards to keep me away from him when I was just trying to help...I don't like this mare, and I'll need to be careful around her. "How fare's the Castle's perimeter? We understand that it may have interrupted your investigation of Laughter's bakery."

"It's roughly what you would expect. There are no reports or signs of changeling presence since you helped us set up the wards, and Ponyville has been mostly quiet. It should be back in its former glory in another day or two. A final report about timeline of events leading up to this invasion is being drafted and finalized, and I will be approving it once everything looks to be in order." Scarlett spoke with an almost military-grade professionalism, almost like a commanding officer. However, it was seasoned with a deep falsetto and cut with a feminine edge. She honestly sounded like how an escort would talk if they were trying to play guard. I know it may sound wrong, but I didn't have any other way to describe it. "As for Sugarcube Corner, this investigation was concluded a short time before Princess Twilight called us to try and apprehend our treasured guest before he collapsed. It ended up raising more questions, but I think it is safe to say that no further scrutiny is needed there."

"You were investigating Sugarcube Corner? For what?" Twilight Sparkle inquired.

"Our apologies, Princess Twilight. I was not informed that you had yet to be filled in." Scarlett said as she bowed to Twilight. "Upon Luna's orders, I received permission from the owners after it was discovered that this was where Private Spoon was captured. There were some weird things going on there, and my findings will be included in our report." The red-eyed thestral turned toward dark navy Alicorn and bowed once more. "Your majesty, may I request permission to remove my helmet. It has been a very long day."

Princess Luna nodded, and the thestral took off her helmet. "Thank you, your majesty...Can never really stretch as much as I want to with it on and the added weight from the crest can wear on you after a time." Craning her neck, I could hear a few pops before she readjusted and hung her helmet on a latch at her side. As it came off so too did the concealing enchantment that these guard helmets have as they faded from her body in a shimmer. She flipped her hair away from her face and I finally got a better look at this "Scarlett Blush".

She had an dark grey coat, and true to her namesake her face's fur seemed to show a red tint near her cheeks and around her eyes. Dark azure hair with crimson highlights just barely accenting her mane hung around chin height. She seemed tough, but it appeared to come from her attitude more than any physical scars or abrasions of which there were none to speak of. There weren't even any marks near her lips despite them being common for thestrals to have from teething. In fact, she looked borderline immaculate apart from the fact that she had a bitch-resting face right now.

Actually, there is one flaw that I'm seeing right now. Now that I got a better look at her eyes and the hair being moved away from her face, I can juuust barely see wrinkles starting to form under her eyes. If I had to give a guess, she is probably in her mid thirties. That, or late twenties and is just aging poorly. All in all she didn't look too scary, though she just look just about "done" with today.

She seemed to notice me staring, and she raised an eyebrow at me. "Is there a problem?"

"No." I said, matching her eyebrows.

"...Good. It is starting to get a bit late into my shift, so I would like to get this investigation on the way. I have a theory or two, but I would like to make sure they aren't what I think they are." The Centurion walked over to Edgar's side, right next to me as she started to slowly look over him. "Huh, that's interesting." This soon evolved into touching and prodding him. Brushing his hair away from his forehead, looking around his body. As her eyes started to scan downward, she reached a hoof toward the towel covering his privates and took it off.

Okay, now there's a problem.

"What the actual buck are you doing? That's where his penis is!" I hissed.

"You're very perceptive. That is where is his penis is. I saw the tent a day before and I've been called to look him over. He was bitten by a Changeling sometime between his arrival and his episode in the hallway." Scarlett's voice was matter-of-fact, clinical, and downright patronizing. She didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that Edgar was aroused or that she was so close to the hard-on.

"Okay, well you already established that after you already had your lips all over him. What's your point, mare within fireball distance?" I asked politely and with no ill intent.

She still wasn't looking at me, but she did tear her gaze off of Edgar to look forward with pursed lips."Is there a way I can ask everypony except the Princesses and the bearer of Kindness to leave Edgar's room?" Scarlett said before turning my direction.

I felt my nostrils flare. That would leave me and only me leaving the room..."Are you being serious with me right now?"

"Are you actually his marefriend?" The piercing sharp eyes of the thestral asked, or more like interrogated. "Are you in a herd with him?"

"...It's complicated." I tried brushing off.

"Oh?" Scarlett asked as she stared at me with a frown. "Well I don't think there's anything complicated about a "yes or no" answer. If you can't say yes to any of those questions, I think you should probably leave."

"Who do you think you are?" I asked, getting into her face. Scarlett clearly didn't mind, as she reciprocated and got within inches of mine.

"Centurion First Class Scarlett Blush, and I'm somepony who really doesn't like-" As tension crackles like static electricity in the air, threatening to ignite into a full-blown confrontation, a sudden interruption pierces through the charged atmosphere.

I was seconds away from getting into hooves with this mare until Twilight Sparkle spoke up and interrupted us. I felt myself sliding away from her on the tile floor as Twilight leaned in between the two of us. she held out her hoof toward the Lunar guard. Her presence like a gentle breeze amidst a thunderstorm brewing between the two of us. "Excuse me? Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle. It's good to meet you Miss Scarlett. May I please call you that or do you prefer First Centurion?"

Whatever bitchiness Scarlett had seemed to evaporate completely in Twilight's presence. Seeing Twilight's hoof hanging out, Scarlett bumped her hoof into it and let Twilight lead the hoofshake."...Whichever you prefer, your majesty. It's an honor."

"The honor is mine! I'm pretty sure that Princess Luna has been saying good things about you." Twilight glanced over at me. "This is my friend, Trixie, or "The Great and Powerful" for some. She actually came here with Edgar and she has known Edgar longer than all of us... while it might not be a long time, I don't think it is fair to ask her to leave her friend like this. Especially with how worried she was the entire time today...She's actually the closest thing to a herd mate or family he has right now, even if they might not be dating or anything like that."

"Yea, who does this mare think she i-OW?" I felt a pinch pulling at my cheek as if to chastise me. A voice echoing in my head caused me to jump.

("I get it Trixie, but that's not helping.")

When did Twilight Sparkle learn how to do that!?

Twilight Sparkle continued and gave off the best puppy-dog eyes she could, but it was clear that she could use a bit more practice. It looked like her eyes were going to pop out of her head. "Is there any way you can be patient with her for just a little while longer? Pretty pleeeeease?"

"...Among other things, I'm checking for other bites and not just the one on his shoulder. I'd prefer to not get my train of thought interrupted by an ignorant Unicorn who is trying to get in my way."

"We shall make an exception for Miss Lulamoon's case. She can stay provided she allows you to perform your inspection." Princess Luna turned back to me. Though she initially sounded stern, there was a hint of sympathy as she continued to speak. "We ask for thine patience, Miss Lulamoon. She is simply following protocol. We personally attest to Scarlett's skill as she is one of my most trusted Centurions. She displays exceptional leadership and receives high praise amongst the guard under her command, and the only reason I have not suggested her for due promotion yet is simply due to there not being any retirements as of late. She also has extraordinary intuition and investigative skills. She has been known to snuff out changelings and other intruders from a simple glance before-"

"I think he was almost raped..." Scarlett spoke up suddenly with a far off look in her eyes.

Everypony in the room froze at this revelation. You could hear a pin drop in the room as a shadow came across everypony's features. There wasn't a sound in the room that I could register aside from everypony's breathing. Despite that, I could still hear Edgar's voice echoing in my head.

"Back home, I watched the show and watched your episodes in particular. Heck, I still remember what you said when the dragon was trying to eat us. You know what it feels like, right? To want feel great? To want feel important?" He asked me, almost as if to beg for my approval for the lie he was telling these ponies.

"No...no, not Edgar. No, he would have told us if he was ra-...if he was ra-ha-..." I couldn't get it out. I didn't want to think about it or believe it.

No, he wouldn't have told me, would he? He was already doing his best to lie his way through Equestria, but his reasoning was because he wanted to "feel good about himself". He lied about his accolades and make himself seem important, but was it just to be boastful like me? Was he trying to hide what happened to him? I know that he was being quiet about what actually happened when he was trying to survive his encounter with the changelings, but...

The bathroom door creaked open, a small amount of steam misted out of the opening. Emerging from the frame was Fluttershy, who walked over from her spot at the bathroom door and stopped right next to the left side of Edgar's makeshift hospital bed. "That's HORRIBLE!" Fluttershy frowned at the bite on Edgar's neck, her lips trembling as she tried blinking back her own tears.

"Trixie...do you need a minute?" I heard Twilight's voice ask gently. I shook my head with pursed lips. I have to be strong for him. "Are you going to be okay?" I nodded at Twilight as I did my best to hold in my tears but...oh Faust why couldn't you just be honest with us and tell us what happened? I would have listened...

Everypony else stayed quiet until Luna broke the silence. "Thou art certain of this, Centurion? In the middle of the battle, that he was violated?"

"No...almost. There is a big difference between the two, and you can really tell once you've seen them side by side. Those ponies are haunting to look at. Like they had a piece of them stolen. It's how they feed, by the way." Scarlett's face darkened as if she was speaking from experience of things she had seen. "For starters, he wasn't jumping at shadows while we were pulling his carriage to Ponyville. There aren't any bites near his inner thigh either, so he didn't take off his pants willingly or anything like that. Besides, his belt and pants were still in one piece when we brought him to the castle. Since you had to cut them off of him just now, so I would bet my favorite fang that Telsona was not able to have a chance to do what she wanted...But she is a changeling. She had to be thinking about it, and I bet she's the type that would keep talking and talking. Letting him know exactly what she wanted to do to him." Her eyes looked up toward Edgar as they narrowed, before she put the towel back over his privates. "Poor guy..."

I thought back to my trip in the car with him...

...

"Well, Luna said you fought with the Queen. How are you still alive after that?" I asked him, not understanding how he got out of that situation mostly unscathed. He went up against something that even scared Twilight!

"Dumb luck. She ended up talking a lot more then actually doing anything else." Edgar paused for a moment before shaking his head. "I was able to keep her distracted long enough to stab her eye."

...

"Why didn't he say anything?!?" Twilight shouted in frustration as she trotted over to the opposite side of the bed where I was standing. "When we asked, all he did was make jokes and compare her to Merry Pop-Ins and Syth Lore'd. We were having fun! We were even teasing each other the entire time!"

Scarlett mused with a small chuckle as she shook her head. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but you still have a lot to learn about stallions, your majesty. They aren't "Obvious" like us mares. We give them so many hints and make it so clear what we are thinking and feeling that it is a wonder why they still have such a hard time figuring out what we want. Stallions are simpler, but a whole different beast altogether. They want the same things we want, like sex, security, and fulfillment. The only difference is that they'll just either tell us flat out or bottle it up. There is no in-between and they do a much better job at bottling it up than us. Lot of 'em like telling jokes or just saying they're "fine". They'll do that to avoid talking about anything remotely uncomfortable or challenging to their self-image, since it's their pride as a stallion at stake. He must have felt ashamed about that powerlessness." Scarlett cleared her throat after a moment. "He had an Earth Pony filly with him. A family member of one of the elements. Did she say anything about this?"

Twilight paused and looked away. "We didn't get much of a chance to ask Apple Bloom about her time or how she was feeling about all of this, and we didn't want to bother her family to interview her so soon after what she went through. We have to make sure Apple Bloom is fine as well. If she saw anything bad, she'll need somepony to talk to if she has any hard questions to answer."

"Sir Edgar himself was extremely brief when our sister and I were pressing him on his encounter, and did not wish to go into details." Princess Luna melancholily mused with the tragedy of the situation not being lost on her.

"That tracks. When was the last time you ever saw a stallion cry in front of you without you letting them know its alright? Stallions like to see themselves as thee protectors of their herds and families, but we can't expect them to be invincible all the time, even if they think they need to be. That's why we have to give them something to lean on. To ease up the burden and give'em what they are missing. Help them pour out some of that stress they've been bottling up, you know?" Scarlett turned back to Edgar, her eyes seemed to be looking through him as if she was looking at something else. "I don't think he has a mare he can trust yet. Otherwise he would have told her." I felt a pit in my stomach upon hearing that. "How long has he been out? Since that panic attack in the hallway?"

"Princess Luna said it was roughly an hour ago. " Fluttershy said, not breaking her eye contact with the mark on Edgar's shoulder. "Probably a more than that now."

"I haven't heard of venom outright knocking ponies out, but we ain't never seen a pony walking around for that long without getting treated for a bite, have we? I am sure that all activity earlier would have raised his heartrate to an insane level. More than likely the venom's effects on his state of fear caused the panic attack, and the panic attack circulated the venom through his bloodstream... Vicious cycle. He had to be really scared of something for that to happen, wouldn't he?" Scarlett turned back to me with her gaze lingering on me longer than I would have liked before turning back to the group. "Alright. I don't know what his species is like, but we may have to play it safe and assume he's gonna need to be tamed."

"Excuse you?" I was doing my best to stare down the audacity of this bitch. "Tamed? He needs help, not a bucking collar and leash!"

Twilight held up her hoof to stop interrupt me. "Trixie, no. Not like a manticore tamer or a human tamer." Twilight butted in once more to try and put out the fuse that this insufferable old bat keeps lighting. "It's for Stallions. Sometimes ones who are in a rut, or if one is bitten by a changelings, or if a stallion has been injured and can't really do it themselves. You know how mares sometimes hire a cooler to help with their heats." I nodded begrudgingly. "Its like a cooler for us mares, but for stallions that can't take care of it themselves. They're just not really needed since most stallions are in herds that can help take care of that kind of thing." Twilight turned back to the sleeping human with a worried face. "...Which Edgar isn't."

"Soooo..." I see where this is going, but I still hoped I was wrong.

"Yeah. Somepony is gonna have to help him with that."

"After he was almost rrrrrrr-" I quickly changed where the sentence was going with a huff. "Are you joking?"

Scarlett's stance suddenly became rigid as she flared her dark leathery wings momentarily stretch them, before folding them back tightly against her sides. Her ears flattened against her head in visible irritation. "Grow up and say it already. He was almost raped, but the bigger issue is that bite and the venom that is messin' with him. Trauma or no, somepony has help him with it. Otherwise, he'll just run into the exact same situation that led him to fainting in the first place. Besides, if his erection lasts longer than three hours we may not have a choice." Scarlett said, a hint of annoyance in her voice as she pointed her hoof at the tent Edgar made. "There is a reason that stallions aren't supposed to have constant boners and stay in the bedroom with us all the time. If it stays like that for four hours or longer, his blood could clot and we would need to drain it...from there." Everypony save for Scarlett Blush and Princess Luna winced at hearing that. "If done improperly and without magic to heal him, or if not done at all, he could end up losing the ability to ever have an erection or foals, let alone keep it. It might be better to ask for forgiveness first, rather than wait for permission later if he doesn't wake up in time." She turned back to Princess Luna. "Your majesty, I can handle it if you wish."

...

"...The buck is that supposed to mean?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as level as possible. "No, if he needs my help with this, then Trixie will help him with this. It is the least Trixie can do after saved her and Ponyville. He doesn't need some strange mare he doesn't know to molest him in his sleep."

"Sure, and a "friend" molesting him in his sleep is so much better? Yeah, how about no? I will volunteer myself. Besides, any of the other night mares that volunteer could use some training on how to handle these cases. It could be a good learning opportunity, so long as we have our majesty's permission." Scarlett's voice was cold and matter-of-fact. She didn't seem to care about my opinion in the slightest. Did she even care about Edgar, or is she looking for an excuse to get her rocks off? "Look, Miss Lulamoon. This is strictly to treat him, so you are better off leaving it to mares more qualified than you. From what I saw so far, you might just make things worse. I gave him CPR to save his life while you just shouted and hollered like a banshee and made things worse for him. If you really care for him, it's probably better you leave him be."

"That's not fair. I was calling for help!"

"And here I am. Help has arrived, now back off."

I was starting to get desperate to keep her away from him, so I pulled out the bat-pony card."...You'll give him co-RONA-virus!"

"Co- Okay, I'm starting to lose my patience with you! Are you his marefriend? Yes or no?" Scarlett barked.

"Trixie said it was complicated..."

"Well uncomplicate it then. "Scarlett's red eyes were cold and cutting as she stared me down. "Either you're dating him and regularly hooking up, or you aren't and his business is none of yours. If you aren't, get out."

"Trixie is working on it, and she will be staying right here. Trixie won't ever try leaving him alone again." I held my ground.

"Nope. You're done." She outright declared, pointing to the door. "You shouldn't even be near him either, now that I got better idea of the type of mare you are. You know what I think?"

"I don't care."

"...I think he was running away from you earlier, judging from that look he gave you." Her eyebrows scrunched up as she started mad-dogging me, looking me up and down with her eyes lingering a bit longer at the floor before looking back up to my eyes. "Who do you think he was asking us to keep away from him? He never did finish his sentence, but he was facing your direction when he was freaking out, wasn't he? Who was he begging not to hurt him?"

I narrowed my eyes and barred my teeth at her. "Don't you dare insinuate that. Trixie had nothing to do with any of that and would never hurt Edgar. It was because Trixie wasn't there to help him that this all happened. This was all Princess C-"

Scarlett scoffed and growled, interrupting me. "Trixie this, Trixie that. Trixie wasn't there for him? Seems to be a running theme, doesn't it?" I started to feel a vein popping out from my forehead. This bitch is crossing a line.

"Can we please all just calm down and count to ten...ummm, please???" Fluttershy's desperate request barely registered with me.

"Do you have something to say to the Great and Powerful Trixie, Bitch?" I lit my horn up.

("Trixieeeee...enough.")

"Don't care! Gonna cast "Hoof" any second now to this thirsty cougar's teeth." I purposefully thought out loud in a vague hope she could hear me. I felt myself get more and more furious. The sound of blood rushing through my ears started to drown out the voices of reason screaming at me not to do this.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Your hoof...now." Scarlett demanded more than asked, holding her hoof out.

"Careful what you ask for..." I growled out, tensing up my body and hyping myself up. I reared it back, but before I could even react she suddenly swept my foreleg up and twisted painfully as she practically dragged me over to Edgar's side. "OW-OW-OW! Unhoof Trixie, you brute! I KNOW MY RIGHTS!" I grunted in pain while subject to this restraint hold, and the more I tried to fight with it, the more it ended up hurting. I even tried teleporting out of it, but the second my horn lit up it was nipped in the bud with a painful twist to break my concentration. She was surprisingly strong for her stature.

What's everypony else doing, you may ask? Nothing! They're just standing there and watching while this whorse was trying to rip my foreleg off. They just stood there and watched as she mare-handled and pulled me over to Edgar. They just stood there and watched as Scarlett Blush grabbed and held my hoof right next to the hoof-shaped...bruise on Edgar's face.

The hoofmark I left on him the morning after I met him...My hoofmark...

"What, nothing cute to say? You thought I'd just skim by this? I don't think something as big as a Changeling Queen could leave a hoofmark this small, do you? Was this hoofmark from a normal Changeling? Nope. This one look a bit older than the other bruises he had. Where was he getting the older bruises from, Miss Lulamoon?" One of Scarlett's leathery wings extended and the bony prong near the tip started pointing to the older bruises. "What about this one, or this one?"

All of a sudden, all the rage I was feeling was washed away by an icy cold dread that seeped deep into my bones. My mouth went dry, and I couldn't even think of any response I could give.

"I-it was..." I could barely mutter. I felt a lump in my throat and I was starting to choke on my words. "T-those ones came from when he saved Trixie from dragon." A weak excuse came from my mouth. Those other ones weren't my fault. It was when he crashed his car into the dragon...but if he didn't need to save me from it, then he never would have had those bruises to begin with...right?

My eyes were starting to get misty as I looked at the bruises starting to get more pronounced than before. They looked so much more worse and obvious now, but nothing was as blinding as the shiner that I left on his cheek...

He tried protecting ponies like it was second nature to him, but who's protecting him?!? I should have been a stronger mare. I should have been there to protect him, but instead of that I'm hurting him.

"Centurion, that is enough..."

Scarlett didn't let up her interrogation as she kept pushing. I was making fun of her for sounding like a wannabe escort before, but her falsetto may has well been a stiletto as she twisted the knife further and further into my heart. "Really, the hoofprint too? And what was with the rocking carriage yesterday? Of course, he had a wet claw and I thought you two were actually an item for a bit, but a few witnesses saw you yelling at him right before the windows on his carriage appeared. Even when I checked on you two after we finished dragging his carriage, you had a small smile you were trying to hide. Him? He looked really uncomfortable caught in the same place as you."

She narrowed her eyes at me as if I was a murderer. "So what happened? Did he say "no" one too many times? I bet you had a lot of pent-up frustrations to work out with him being a unwanted hermit in the Everfree for all that time. He's big and strong, but too much of a gentlecolt to want to hurt a poor, misunderstood, lonely mare like you. Really just has awful luck with girls, don't he? Going from you to Telsona to right back to you. And now that he doesn't have a choice , you think you got a golden opportunity to sit on his lap and take care of bo-""

"WE SAID THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Princess Luna's glowing eyes and booming voice finally put an end to the argument and shattered the will of both the myself and the thestral as we felt ourselves get telekinetically pried away from each other. A dull rumbling started to make itself known and I felt a great weight from above pressing down on me, forcing me onto my knees. A bow was the only position I could muster to stop myself from getting flattened under the immense gravity I was feeling. "This day has been eventful enough without the two of you fighting with each other like petulant foals. About who gets to lay with an unconscious stallion, no less! Sir Edgar had what we assume is the worst day of his life, which considering what we know happened so far, is amounting to be QUITE THE FEAT!" She continued to dress us down, the torrent of air would have blown my hat straight off my head had it not also been pressed down on my crown by the gravitational force she was applying to us. I could just barely look and see that Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy were already holding a pillow on either side of the sleeping Edgar's ears, and this was the only relief I felt.

Princess Luna's voice echoed through the room, the walls seeming to vibrate with her words. "We shall not condone shallow mares who don't have the tact to read the tragedy of this situation argue like school-fillies in a rivalry. Not in Princess Twilight's Castle! Not during our Night! If-When he wakes up, you can ask him politely if you can help him with this. We. Do. Not. Care. But not a moment before!" I felt the literal weight lift from my shoulders and I felt my muscles start to relax. I turned toward the thestral, who seemed to be stuck in the forced bow. Princess Luna refocused her ire to the Scarlett Blush, who was gritting her teeth under what I imagined was the same weight I was put under. Luna's eyes appeared to leak some form of dark miasma from their corners and a low growl could be heard from Princess Luna's throat."Centurion Scarlett Blush, what sickness has befallen thee?!? You shame us and the Lunar guard in front of Princess Twilight, and you shamed Miss Trixie Lulamoon with your slanderous provocations!"

"Your majesty, she is a not a good pony." Scarlett grunted under the immense gravity she found herself under. "She enslaved this town. She left him outside to die with nearly half-a-hundred changelings. I don't think all those bruises were from the changelings or the dragon! She doesn't give a shit about him!"

"He himself admitted to fighting with a dragon not long before he defended Ponyville." Luna countered. "Trixie herself sounded quite enamored with this feat. And while dragons do not have hooves, changelings do. That bruise could have been caused by any of them. Can you prove it was Miss Lulamoon's doing?"

"Your majesty, I still can not stand idly by knowing that she is in the same room as him, or even sleeping in the same castle. Not with the evidence there already is. If you want "proof", look at what she tried to do. You saw how she almost flew off the handle to attack me. She tried attacking Princess Celestia! What do you think she'd do to somepony like him? Why is she still here?!?"

"Indeed, she did attack thee. We saw that thou instigated her with what we believe is called "Dueling words". Quite unbecoming of my guard. Regardless, this is not thine decision, is it?" Princess Luna declared, as her voice and stare bore into the thestral. "When we questioned Edgar, he was staunch and steadfast in defending Miss Lulamoon's honor as a pony more so than he even tried defending his own honor!"

Scarlett Blush, under great strain, appeared to slowly rise against the great weight affecting her. The veins in her muscles and face appeared to protrude as she looked up at the Princess of the night. I couldn't believe it. She was resisting her magical restraint and looking Princess Luna dead in the eye to...to protect him from me.

"Defending...an abuser....is TOO common! You didn't see how petrified he was of her! She's a fucking monster!!!" The humming grew louder and the centurion's legs buckled back into a bow as Luna's voice turned more authoritative.

"Watch thine tone, Centurion. It is just as common if not more so to defend the honor of somepony that one fancies. Were I to claim that any of Shining Armor's scars were due to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's mistreatment, not a moment would pass before our niece would strike at us for daring to do so. Were he not the gentlecolt he is, we would wager Shining Armor would strike us before Cadance could even react. Trixie Lulamoon is innocent until proven otherwise." With that declaration, the wooden doors swung open contingent of night guards entered the room, with a pair of shackles to place on the mare. The humming ceased and Scarlett's muscles physically relaxed as she fell to the floor. "First Centurion Scarlett Blush... For now, you are to remain in the dungeon for the night and reflect on what thou had done. You did not make good choices tonight, but we shall look the other way once. It would be a shame for thee to have thine stainless career shattered with one bad night. Do not waste this second chance. You are dismissed."

"...At once, your majesty." A barely restrained growl of frustration came from Scarlett as she turned to march out of the room, the cat-like pupils of her eyes shot toward me for one last time before re-adjusting and refocusing forward. The clops of her hooves paused at the heavy glass slide that Princess Luna's magic pulled open with little strain. "He needs a tamer."

Princess Luna nodded with a stern glare at the black-haired bat pony. "Duly noted...Leave." As the Lunar guards exited the room with the shackled centurion, Princess Luna let out a deep sigh as she slid the glass door closed once more. With that the dark miasma surrounding her dissipated. "We are sorry thou had witnessed that. A madness appears to have overtaken thine castle, for her to act as brashly as she has in front of us. There must be a pattern or cause that we are not seeing." Princess Luna turned to look back and forth between the other ponies in the room. To a wide-eyed and shocked Twilight. To a near-trembling Fluttershy. Her gaze finally rested on Edgar and lingered longer than the other ponies...I wonder if she was staring at the hoofmark too...

Princess Luna finally tore her gaze away to look at me. "You were far from innocent in your exchange...but we understand that you have deep concerns for your friend. We offer our humblest apologies for the behavior of our centurion. Those accusations were abhorrent."

"I've never seen anypony speak with you like that, let alone one of your own guards..." Twilight said in frightened wonder.

"Indeed. It is not uncommon for her to speak open and casually around us. We much welcome her honesty normally. Even if she can be vexing at times, we know she has good intentions behind her actions. She is very protective of her own regimen and the stallions within it especially. This, however...This was much too far. She had never crossed a line such as this. For her future in our guard, we hope that she reflects heavily on what she said and done tonight..." Luna turned paused and turned back to me. "You may rise, Miss Lulamoon. We stopped restraining thee for quite some time."

I didn't bother getting up. I just laid there in silence, tears starting to roll down my face as I replayed the scene that led to that hoofprint over and over in my mind. Each frame etched with painful clarity caused the weight of my actions hangs heavy upon my shoulders, and I was feeling suffocated by the guilt of my own selfish recklessness. I was such a stupid pony...

"...Miss Lulamoon. We asked thee to stand." Her tone was kind and gentle, something I'm not. I didn't deserve to be treated like this, especially after what I did to him.

His bewildered expression, the pain etched into his features as my hoof made contact with his cheek, the sharp sound of a slap echoing in the wooden wagon. Each moment serves as a stark reminder of the havoc my pride wreaked upon us both. I even started to feel a dull thudding against my right hoof, the same one I hit him with. Scarlett was right about me. How could I do that to him?

...Why did I have to hit him? Why....

"She's right..." I admitted, starting to feel as if my cape and hat were turning to lead. I caught the ear of both princesses. "I'm still a monster...I did hit him..."

Twilight, inquisitive since every time I met with her, asked the first question. "What do you mean? Like you hit him on accident? Did he surprise you or something?" She had too much faith in me.

"I hit him in his sleep! I couldn't be a big mare and just tell him the truth, could I? Not big enough to admit that when we got drunk, I practically forced myself on him the night we met... I made him think he had soiled himself on my bed and his pants." I finally looked up, I got the exact looks that I was expecting. Shock and apprehension, a fraction of what I deserved...

"What are trying to say right now, Trixie?" Twilight asked with a scolding tone flavored with disbelief.

"What do you mean you "forced yourself" on him?" Even the yellow veterinarian was looking at me with such disappointment in that stare of hers. I deserved it...

"We were drunk and I rubbed myself on him...He drank a whole bottle's worth of wine and didn't try hard to stop me. Trixie thought he was enjoying it..." I kept admitting to things. I'll admit to everything in the hopes that somepony would slap me back. Kick me. Do something on Edgar's behalf. That thestral didn't get enough of a chance to do it. Everything she said hurt, and I deserved every syllable that was ringing in my ears right now. "When I woke up I was so scared of how he'd react that I tricked him into thinking he wet himself. I didn't want him to remember what I did."

"...That's really bad, Trixie." Fluttershy said after a few moments of silence. "Really, really bad..."

"He believed me because he had a nightmare of the dragon he fought with...A Nightmare! How could I do that to him...?" I buried my head into my hooves. "It wasn't the only time I hit him. I did it again our way to the castle. I didn't do it hard because of all the bruises he had...but I still hit him. I hit him even after I saw all the bruises...I was just so mad at him! I made him promise not to get hurt and put himself in danger, and he immediately broke it for that filly and ran into Telsona." Tears were starting to build up in my eyes and my body started to shake in frustration. I was mad. Mad at him. Mad for him. Mad at myself. Mad at everything...

"Did he even know her name??? What made her so special for him to get hurt?!? Why did it have to be him? Now I find out that he was almost ra-" I sniffled as I wiped my nose and eyes. My voice was starting to get gravelly as my throat started to hurt. "Ra-...He was...Oh FAUST I should have stayed with him outside! I never should have left him. I shouldn't have abandoned him last night to go to that stupid sleepover! Every time I leave him alone, something bad happens to him! I left him again and now he's not waking up...And now he- he- he-" My stuttering sobs kept interrupting me as I stared up into the ceiling, sobbing as my tears ran down my face. "I'm sorry Edgar! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry...I'm so soooo sooorry..." Everypony in the room was silent and just listening to my wails, and that was the worst part for me... Are they so disgusted with me that they're speechless???

Through a blur of tears, it looked like Twilight and Luna were looking at each other, as if they were having a silent conversation with each other. They looked to each other before slowly turning back to me.

"...Thank you for your candor, Miss Lulamoon." Princess Luna's soft voice broke the deafening silence, shocking me. Why doesn't she sound furious with me? She looked ready to bite Princess Celestia's head off earlier today, and that's her own flesh and blood! She doesn't even know me!

"Trixie, you're still sobbing. Just please take a few deep breaths." Twilight Sparkle walked up and placed her hoof on my back, stroking the fur beneath my cape. It didn't help in the slightest...I wiped my stinging eyes with my cape and saw that Twilight was giving me a sad smile. Like she was doing her best to persuade me to stop. "If you don't stop crying, you're gonna make me wanna cry."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just want him to be okaaaaay..." I sucked in air through my teeth as I tried to get my voice under control.

Princess Luna's tone did not change. "He will be, but we do not believe it is best for thee to be here right now. Perhaps thou should leave and rest."

"L-leave?!? No, NO! I just got him back! Please don't take him away from me!" I begged Princess Luna. "If I leave, then something bad will happen!!!"

"Like what, Trixie?" Twilight asked.

"I don't know...but it'll happen. It happens Every! Single! Time!!!" I beat a hoof against the floor with every word. My tears were starting to build up again and I couldn't stop them. "I just want to help him...Please don't make me leave him..."

Twilight shook her head. "He'll be there when you come back, but he doesn't need you to hover over him the entire night. There's not much you can do to help right now Trixie, so why don't you get some rest."

"Trixie knows he doesn't need her, but Trixie wants to be there for him!" I pleaded with the Princesses, looking for some form of sympathy. Anything! "So what if he's dumb sometimes? It makes him who he is! He does the dumbest things only to make everything better at the end an-and he says the nicest things only to ruin it by saying something dumb, but I don't care! He's special! He is the bravest, stupidest, kindest, most infuriating stallion Trixie ever met, and Trixie loves him!" I shouted out to anypony in the world who might have been listening.

I know exactly what I just said, but finally saying it just felt right..."I love Edgar!!!" I can't give up on him now. Not when he needs me. There has to be something I can do...there is something I can still do for him... "H-he still needs a tamer right? Let Trixie do it. It's the least she can do. It will be different this time. This time, it will be just like Sleeping Handsome! He'll wake up and he'll b-"

"No." Luna curtly cut me off.

"Bu-but I'm not doing it for me! I'm doing it for him. Just let me do this one thing for him!" I begged, starting to trot over to Edgar's bed. My whole world flashed brightly and I found myself back where I was previously laying. The tile was warm, and a few spots were damp with the dark spots my tears left.

"Miss Lulamoon, we do not believe that would be wise. Not for us. Not for you. Not for Sir Edgar." Princess Luna walked over to me as I was still trying to get to my hooves. "How do you believe he thinks of thee?"

"What?" I paused as I turned to look at her.

"Wouldst he requite thy love? Would he have reciprocated were he awake right now?"

I opened my mouth, but closed it after a few moments. "...I don't know..." I admit, feeling myself sink back into the warm tile. "He said he liked my epi-...no, he never said he liked ponies or me that way..."

"We are sure you just want to help, but thou art not thinking clearly. Thou art acting manic. You, my sister, and my centurion, this whole town and it all seems to stem from the human, Edgar." Princess Luna said, her voice still placating in contrast to her eyes were narrowing in on me...judging me. "We do not believe that it is in either his best interest or thine to be anywhere near each other right now. Not until we receive an opinion of one who knows a bit more about love than either of us. Princess Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire should be here tomorrow morning, according to their correspondence."

"Oh...Cadence and Shiny are coming. That's really good to hear." I looked back to Twilight and saw a small smile of relief starting to appear on Twilight's face. The first one since this whole debacle.

"Indeed. They were coming to support you, Twilight, as well as our nephew," Luna nodded, but she still didn't seem as happy about it. "And once they arrive, Cadance can help Trixie work out if her apparent love is real."

"IT IS!"

"...and if it is real and not just thou trying to make up for thine guilt, you may court him as before."

"But-"

"No."Luna interrupted with a command. "For now, thou must leave. We vow he shall awaken in the morrow, and you may speak with him then." From her tone, I knew there was no more arguing with Princess Luna. I had to leave him...again.

It's not fair... I'm just trying to help...

As I was wiping the tears and snot from my face, I felt another hoof on my back. I looked to my left I saw that Fluttershy was greeting me with a sad smile. She somehow snuck up on me and stroked my back to try conforming me. "Why are you trying to be nice to me...I don't get it."

Fluttershy just gave me a sympathetic look. "...Because you're crying."

"...so?"

"You've been crying since you got here...You've been worried about him ever since this morning..." Fluttershy said.

"You heard everything I did and said. I hurt him, and now I can't help him...Why are you being so nice to me? I'm a monster. A bitch. I don't deserve it... I don't deserve any of this." I could feel myself shaking.

"We think you're going through a lot right now." She said, her voice was soft but still comforting. "I think that you're scared and want to help him. That's why you were so upset about him. If it makes you feel better, I don't think you're a bad pony, Trixie."

"But...I'm not a good one either. How do you make something right when you keep making everything so wrong." I whimpered. Both Twilight and Fluttershy stroked their hooves across my mane and back as they did their best to comfort me.

"Well," Twilight paused for a bit and looked up to her own imaginary thought bubble. "You can start by trying? If I ask the maids to bring a bottle or two of Berry's Best Brandy to my room, would you be willing to stay the night with me for one more sleepover? I can try to call in a favor from Rarity and have Spike spend the night with her and Sweetie Bell. I can make it up for her since I may have a high-volume customer for her soon." Twilight nudged me as she tilted her head in Edgar's general direction. "We won't let anything bad happen to him now, right Luna?"

Princess Luna gave a curt nod before turning back to the balcony. She flared her wings and lit her horn and suddenly the world outside started to grow dark with stars lighting up the night. "He'll be fine, one way or another..."

"Yeah, and when I come back to my room, you can gush at me all night about what makes him so great. If you really feel that bad about it, you can start thinking of how to make things right. We can workshop it. I'll bring out a whiteboard and everything." Twilight started to nudge my side as she tried guiding me out the room.

"Myeah...okay." I relented and started to walk I began my walk of shame out of the room.

"Do you still remember where my room is?"

"Myeah..."

"I-I'll go with you and take you there. I'm not sure what else I can do for him right now, but if you need somepony to talk to..." Fluttershy's voice trailed off as she awkwardly rubbed her forelegs, but her wing did drape over me like a blanket. "I'm sorry, Trixie...I know you want to stay, but..."

"Trixie knows..." I didn't give any protest, and I felt low enough that even this meek pegasus could push me around if she wanted to. The two of us trotted down the hallway to Twilight's room. It was night time at this point and the only other ponies still awake were guards and the night custodians. "I should have stayed with you..." I weakly muttered, a small part of me hoping he heard me and knew how much I wanted to be with him right now...

***Twilight Sparkle's POV***

I waited a few moments after Trixie left the room and walked up to Luna.

"Something is definitely wrong with her." I said to Luna, who turned her head back to me with her ears perked up. "I wasn't positive until now, but i-it's like she downed an entire bottle of love poison and just stared at Edgar all night. It can't be love poison though, because we spent too much time away from him for it to be that. I'll have to leave sometime soon to make sure she is okay."

"We concur. She seems confused and her infatuation borders upon obsession. Try not to broach the subject too deeply until the arrival of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. We would like to discuss this matter with her as soon as she arrives." Luna turned her head back to the balcony and I followed her gaze. The moon was full and bright in the sky, and the stars were shining with a radiance that almost rivaled the moon. She was very passionate about making this particular night. I wonder if she was thinking about the same thing I was.

"Princess Luna, I can talk to you about things, right?" I asked the dark-blue alicorn. "I know you don't know me all that well, but I'm a bit worried about somepony."

"Do we know of this pony?" She asked as she turned back to me, her voice laced with curiosity.

"Mhmm, She's a good pony, but I think she's hiding some deep-seated pain. It's the only way I can rationalize what is going through her head." I looked at my own hooves, unable to look Luna in the eyes.

"Twilight, we have had enough mysteries and riddles for one day." Princess Luna stated. "Please speak plainly. If thou have concerns of Miss Lulamoon, make them known."

"No, it's not Trixie, though I am still worried about her." I shook my head before taking a moment steel my resolve for this.

"...Why did Princess Celestia threaten Edgar like that?" It took a bit of effort to get that sentence out. I never thought I would have to ask it, but I thought back to when we caught Celestia threatening him. She seemed so cruel, like she was possessed by the same thing that turned Luna into Nightmare Moon herself. It scared me seeing her like that, and I can't even imagine how Edgar felt.

Princess Luna lost her neutral expression and seemed almost sad, but before she could answer I saw her eyes narrow as her head quickly turned to the doorway as her horn started to glow.

"I'm not sorry for what I did, but I'm sorry you had to see that side of me, Twilight." I turned back to where the voice came from and I saw my Princess Celestia standing at the doorway. She looked tired and was gazing at us with puffy and solemn eyes. "You both deserve a better explanation from me..."

Author's Note

"...And then the goth vampire guard and the unicorn magician with the funny hat are going to fight over who gets to do sexy things to Edgar...Oh, and Celestia is there because I need a cliff hanger. Cliff hangers are cool."-Mrponyguy probably

I am thinking one or two more smaller chapters before Elden Ring's Shadow of the ErdTree DLC. Then, a small Hiatus until I finish it, then I start right back up(or at least work on it during my Elden ring breaks.) Sorry-not sorry.

As always, if you see something too obvious or stupid that I missed(Spelling mistakes, inconsistencies) , feel free to let me know.