It had been a couple days since the whole deal with the shadow ponies, but Mark couldn’t forget about it. Yes, it had been one epic and a hell of a screw-up from Luna’s part. But it only served to fuel the current relationship they had, even when Mark took literally a whole day to cool off.

Meanwhile, the arrival of the called “elements of harmony” was delayed by half a week due to some sort of landslide which had blocked the railway, and it would take a couple of days before it could be cleared, another day for the train to arrive to Ponyville, and another one to arrive back to Canterlot.

It certainly was something welcoming, he’d rather be calm and collected before Twilight and her friends arrived. He hadn’t known Twilight for a long while, but the only time he had seen her, she seemed like a rather nice woman… mare.

And besides, there were Twilight’s friends. He only had their descriptions, based on what Celestia had told him about them. Yet, it was enough to assume each and all of them were nice ponies, if not somewhat eccentric.

Mark smiled softly as he tried to imagine how they would be. Celestia gave quite the accurate description on their personalities, but not good enough about their physical appearance. Whatever they might look like, he would be rather glad to meet them.

Mark finally turned his eyes to the castle, giving a slight salute to the guards by the door, who only made an awkward response, not used to the prince giving them a military salute, commonly used only by the royal guards.

Once inside, he started to make his way towards the dining room, place where Celestia had asked him to go, declaring on the letter they had some matters to attend to. What were those? Heck if he knew, that was why he was there.

Suddenly, his mind turned once more to the two night princesses. Nightmare had opted to stay with him on his manor, and all the maids had gotten used to her presence, eventually. Mark still couldn’t help but wonder where they went when he seemed to have visitors. The manor was sparkling clean whenever somepony went by, but only a couple of maids were seen on such moments.

Mark moved his head slightly, shaking off such thoughts. Now, it was time to get ready for whatever Celestia had in mind for him. Not to mention the fact he needed to apologize to Luna. He had been rather harsh with her, but he would have been worse angered. He was sure she’d understand, though he wouldn’t be surprised if she was also upset with him. Not that he could blame her.

“Gotcha!!”

Mark’s eyes widened as a net suddenly fell on him. He could simply blink in surprise and shock at the action. Could that be considered assault to a royal?

He turned his head to a side, finally noticing Shining Armor, who was just as surprised as he was, still holding the net tightly around him.

“I suppose you have a very good reason for having a net in the castle, not to mention to throw it randomly at anypony?” Mark asked with a raised brow. Shining cleared his throat awkwardly as he composed himself.

“Ahem, yes, I do have my reasons, in case you were wondering.”

“That’s good to know, Armor. I’d hate it if you were simply trying to tie me down and then throw me into a river or something like that.”

“Although the thought has crossed my mind a couple times on the past, that was not the idea at this moment.”

“… Alright, then.”

Both males suddenly engaged into a stare contest, Shining seemingly too confused and ashamed to do anything, and Mark patiently waiting for him to take the net off. Finally, after a few moments, Mark sighed.

“Armor?”

“… Yes?”

“Could you take this net off of me, please?”

Shining nodded lightly with his head as he helped the prince out of the net. Once the prince was out, Shining’s ears suddenly perked.

“What? What are you listening?” Mark asked upon seeing his reaction, his ears turning around (rather unvoluntary), trying to pick up what Shining was hearing. However, there was no response. “In fact, now that I think about it, why are you even carrying a net?”

“Nothing of your concern, Blueblood, so don’t worry.”

Mark nodded silently, understanding he wouldn’t get anything else from the prince. Few moments later, Mark turned around and left the place, watching curiously as Shining’s ears perked again, causing him to hide behind a giant flowerpot, seemingly with the net ready.

Mark simply shrugged. He had been now around almost a month and a half in that world, and upon remembering Discord, he thought there would be stranger things than a pony hiding perfectly behind a pot.

Having that thought on his head, Mark turned around and walked, his ears suddenly catching the sound of light flaps. Pegasus existed, too. So some flapping wasn’t that strange, right?

Half an hour later, Mark finally arrived at the dining room with a huge help of a maid. Once he dismissed the maid, Mark knocked lightly on the door.

“Come in.”

Mark flinched upon hearing that voice. Yes, he was supposed to hear that voice sometime later at that day. LATER, he expected.

Opening the door, the cyan eyes of Princess Luna greeted him. Yet, Mark became even more concerned, seeing as those eyes were usually filled with different feelings, judging from the past experiences with the sisters.

Yet, those eyes staring at him had nothing on them. The princess held a neutral look on her which let nothing out about her feelings.

Mark turned his head around, looking around the room.

“Something I can help you with?” Mark turned his head at the princess, who still held the same look than before.

“Uhh… Yeah… I received a message from Princess Celestia, telling me to meet her here.” Mark said as he pulled out the parchment with the sun seal on it.

Luna brought the parchment towards her with her magic, looking at it intently. After a few moments, she nodded as she returned it to Mark.

“It seems so.” Luna said quietly as she got up from her seat.

Mark started to get nervous as Luna walked towards him. Her eyes still void of any feelings.

“…” Luna seemed to stare into his very soul (hopefully not at all), not saying a word. After a few tense moments, he finally brought the will to speak.

“Luna, I-”

“We art- I am sorry, Caeruleo.”

“… What?”

Luna suddenly hugged him, earning a surprised gasp from Mark.

“I am sorry!”

Mark turned his head slowly at her face, finally noticing her eyes, which were slightly red with small bags under them.

“You’ve been crying?” Mark almost slapped himself as he asked, seeing at Luna’s hurt expression.

“… Of course I’ve been crying!” Luna said as she suddenly started to shake him rather forcefully. “What kind of question is that!? OF COURSE WE’VE BEEN CRYING, YOU DUMB STALLION!!” Weakly, she pushed him away, tears already forming on her eyes.

Feeling a little dizzy, Mark weakly raised himself from the floor.

“Y-you ssshouldn’t had. You manashed to get us ouf.” Mark said, still dizzy as he tried to lean on the table.

“It was our fault you were there in the first place!” Luna shouted as she got up, turning once again to him. “It was our fault we almost lose you, it was our fault we almost lose Nightmare too, it was my fault everything that happened in-” Luna’s shouting was interrupted as a sharp pain crossed through her face.

Slowly, her hand made its way towards her face, where her cheek suddenly started to ache. Turning her head, she saw the prince with an extended hand.

“Luna, please, put yourself together.”

Luna blinked a few times, the pain, almost gone at that moment, had helped, somehow, to clear her mind.

“It wasn’t your fault. Alright? Yes, you left me there, but from what we talked after, no one could have guessed that was going to happen, right?”

Although not completely convinced, Luna nodded softly.

“You don’t have to blame yourself, Luna.” Mark said as he sat down next to her. Much to Luna’s surprise, he pulled her into a hug. “There will be things we’ll have under control, but others that will simply be out of reach, as much as we’d hate to admit.”

Luna wasn’t used to get hugged. Yes, she was rather physical with her approaches, but nopony dared to touch her. Still, it was nice to feel somepony comforting her.

After a few moments, Mark slowly let go of her.

“Better?”

Luna nodded as she got up.

“Very much so.” She said as she helped her nephew get up. “We thank thee, dearest nephew.”

“Hey, drop the royal language when it’s only us.” Mark said as he, much to Luna’s surprise, plopped in a chair. “It doesn’t feels like if we were family when you speak like that.”

Luna smiled as she followed her nephew’s example, returning to her own chair.

“Does thou- I mean, do you want some tea?” Luna asked as she levitated a cup, along with the teapot next to her.

Outside of the office, princess Cadence slowly stepped away from the door. She was rather alarmed when the hit sounded, but her senses were suddenly assaulted with feelings of comfort, relief, happiness, and most of all, love.

There was something strange, though. At first, that love felt like romantic love, although after some words from the prince, it became something in between the former and the familiar love. It was admiration.

Maybe the prince had changed truly?

After a while, Mark decided to leave to look for Celestia, seeing as she was the one who had summoned him. Luna was slightly disappointed that he had to leave, but made no complains. After all, even she knew better than to exasperate her sister.

Mark waved as he exited the office. Yet, once he shut the door closed, his ears once more perked at the sound of wings flapping. Turning around, he suddenly found himself staring at the biggest pair of sky blue eyes he had ever seen, which in turn stared at him intently.

“HOLY!!!” Mark shouted as he jumped slightly. With some distance, he could see clearly the rest of the pony in question. It was Shining’s baby, which was looking at him with a wide smile.

“Oh, hi.” Mark said as he looked at her, suddenly noticing something else: she was flying. “Wait a second…”

Before he could say something else, Flurry’s face scrunched cutely, being followed few moments later by a sneeze, which was accompanied by a burst of light form her horn.

“Bless you.” Mark said almost instantly, but whatever he was about to say died on his throat as he suddenly noticed something much more alarming: he was starting to float. “Now that’s something concerning.”

Distracted by his sudden floatability, he failed to notice Flurry Heart starting to look at him curiously. Such curiosity transformed into playful mischief as she flew towards him. Once within reach, Mark turned to her, only then noticing the playful look she was giving him.

Playful expression, loss of gravity, great wings on a baby.

“Oh, crap.” Mark said softly as Flurry finally got a firm grip on his jacket.

With a soft giggle, she flapped her wings, taking Mark with him at speeds he wouldn’t have expected.

“SHHHIIIIIII!!!!”

Moments later, the door of the office opened, revealing a concerned Luna.

“Caeruleo?” Turning her head around, the hallway was actually empty. Luna blinked in confusion, swearing to herself that she heard the prince shouting something rather inappropriate.

Moments later, she denied softly with her head. Maybe all the night of crying was finally getting to her. She actually needed some sleep.

Meanwhile, Shining Armor was becoming bored. He had been there for Celestia knows how long, and there wasn’t any signal of Flurry. He sometimes hated the fact he had to care for three ponies in one. If not for the fact he loved both, his wife and his daughter, he would’ve quit a long time ago (approx. a couple months ago).

Yet, a small smile formed on his face as he kept remembering his daughter, all the happy moments they shared…

It definitely was worth it, even with all the ups and downs.

Suddenly, his ears started to twitch, hearing a faint scream, which became louder at each passing moment. It sounded like-

“LOOK OUT!!”

Before he could react, something hit him hard, knocking him to the ground. Few moments later, a loud groan sounded as he got up, massaging the part of his head where he had been hit by… whatever hit him.

Looking up, his eyes widened as he saw something he had wanted to see before, but had never expected to see: the prince on a wall, causing a hole with his figure to be carved on it.

“… Ow…” The prince said as he slowly moved away from the wall. Shining watched as the prince, almost comically, peeled himself off of the wall. Yet, as funny as it was, there was the question as why that had happened.

His answer came in the form of a flapping of wings above him, along with a cute giggle.

Looking up, he found the pony, or rather foal, he had been waiting for. Before he could do anything, Flurry flew away, towards the prince. With a giggle, she almost effortlessly got the prince out of the wall.

Mark had never seen literal stars in front of his eyes before, even after harsh hits… yet another thing to tell about this world. Before anything else could happen, his eyes widened in fear as he latched to the nearest pillar he could, still feeling the effects of the spell and the unnaturally strong pull from the baby.

Flurry giggled as she tried to pull harder, trying to free her new partner of games. He seemed to like her games after all. She shouted gleefully when she liked something, and this pony had been shouting all the while. He really liked her games!

Mark turned around in panic trying to find something, anything at all to help him getting out of that problem. The thing was: how can you use swords, armors, flower pots and other stuff against a baby? Not to mention the seemingly confused parent staring at him… wait, what?

“Shining!?” Mark focused his sight, now free from the flying stars, to look at Shining, who was staring at him with a mix of shock and confusion.

“Hello.” Shining couldn’t find other words to say. After all, how many times you see someone you used to almost hate on such situation.

“Don’t you just stand there, do something, please!” Mark pleaded as he kept trying to hang onto the pillar.

Shining shook his head, finally realizing that, as much as he would like to see what would happen if he just did what the prince said, there were lives on danger, at least judging from the cracks forming on the pillar just where the prince was desperately hanging onto.

Cadence was walking down the hall, seemingly in deep thoughts. It seemed like the prince had truly changed, judging at least from the sensations Luna seemed to emit. Celestia, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen, yet she could feel her emotions right on the castle.

It was difficult, she really needed some advice. Discord was one thing, but the prince?

Her thoughts were cut off as she suddenly heard a cracking noise. Turning her sight to the ceiling, she noticed a small, yet noticeable crack extending through it.

“ARE YOU FREAKIN’ CRAZY!?”

Cadence turned her head around, just then noticing one of the most bizarre things on her life (and she had seen some things). The prince was hanging desperately to the remnants of what once had been a pillar, now reduced to something resembling an obelisk, her husband shouting to the prince something about letting go, and the cherry at the top of the cake, her daughter, pulling at the legs of the prince, still giggling.

“Just trust me! I’ll set up a shield as soon as you are free!”

“Which will be when?”

Cadence sighed and flew towards the strange, yet somewhat familiar scene. Since her birth, some of the staff at the castle started to quit, mentioning something about her daughter being trouble.

Flurry was getting kind of annoyed. At first, it was fun playing the tugs and pulls with this new pony. But that soon became boring. She needed to have fun, but what to do?

Her answer came when some dust from the crack on the ceiling fell on her nose, causing it to scrunch in a cute way before a sneeze came to her, shooting yet another spell.

It happened in a blink. First, Mark had been forced to become a latch for the pillar, but now, the pillar seemed to be a hundred times bigger than- wait a minute.

Mark turned down, seeing his fall to the certain death towards the floor, which now seemed to be miles away from him. If it weren’t for a pink hand softening his fall, he would have likely died.

Mark turned his head around, finally noticing the giant Cadence looking at him with curiosity, and the monster of a baby on the upper part of the room, looking at him with amazement, like when a child sees a toy they want.

“… Oh, no.” Mark finally realized. Gravity was restored upon him, but to the cost of his former height. If he had to guess, he would bet he was at least a hundredth part of his former size. “OH COME ON!!!”

Cadence giggled softly as she looked at the prince, who now was the size of a fly, or even a flea, as he started ramble about something.

“Oh, my. Seems like you have a different sight of the world now.”

“As if! I’d like it very much if you could return me to my former size, thank you very much!” Mark answered, annoyance evident on his voice. With Cadence’s ears, she was able to hear him clearly, but it wasn’t so easy.

“I’d like to… But I don’t know exactly what kind of spell my daughter did.”

“Of course you know! You all alicorn beings know about each other’s spells!”

Cadence giggled quietly, being followed closely by Flurry Heart, who was just hovering at her side. Once she returned her focus on the prince, she noticed the cautious pose he held.

“Princess Cadence, please could you hurry?” the prince asked with a slight hint of nervousness, if not fear.

Cadence became confused as she turned at her side, following the prince’s sight, finally noticing her daughter looking at the prince with a slight shine in her eyes, almost as if she were seeing a new-

“Oh.” Cadence said before her horn lit up, covering the prince with a yellow aura. Almost instantly, he started to grow, quite slowly, much to his own disappointment.

“It’s normal for the spell to take this long?”

“Normally not, but my daughter’s spell might have had just too much power, its taking longer to dispel it.”

“And how long do you think it will take? I don’t want to sound mean, but your daughter is looking at me like just a mere toy.” The prince said as he watched with fear as Flurry started to get closer and closer to him, the shine in her eyes becoming brighter at every passing moment. “… You know what? Screw this!”

Before Cadence could guess what was happening, the prince jumped off of her hand, now the size of a medium-sized cup, just in time, seemingly, to avoid the “little” hand of princess Flurry Heart.

Shining finally reacted, stretching his hand just in time to catch the prince, saving him from inches of a certain death. Now slightly bigger than a doll, Mark could finally notice himself growing again.

“Well now, that’s relieving.” Mark said with a sigh, seeing as Flurry was being entertained by her mother, and he was still growing up.

“What happened here?” The four turned towards the new voice, revealing it to be a rather disheveled Luna, looking even more tired than earlier, when Mark had seen her.

“Wow, Luna. You look tired.” Mark said in a slightly worried tone, his height now being slightly taller than that of a teapot.

“We were trying to sleep for the day, but there is some commotion happening around in the castle, guards saying something about screwing something about a foal.” Luna said as she stepped closer, trying in vain to get her mane down, and looking curiously towards the prince. “Whatever happened here?”

“Long story. Short: I was just getting out of your office when this menace of a foal somehow put an anti-gravity spell on me and dragged me around the castle as if I were a ragdoll.” Mark said in an annoyed tone, now the size of a foal on its middle foalhood.

“We did realize that. That would explain the guards suddenly having their armors swapped to ballet dresses, and the maids suddenly gaining different mane styles.” Luna said in an amused tone, gaining a surprised gasp from her fellow princess.

“Flurry has been doing this? But how? She tends to do this when she gets bored and-”

Cadence’s phrase suddenly was interrupted as her eyes widened, a sudden spark lighting on her head. Even when he was starting to recover his normal sight of the world, Mark could notice the sudden glare on Cadence’s face. Only Luna seemed to have that kind of face, and even though she was beautiful, she had a glare that could even cause the temperature on the whole room to drop.

It seemed to be something every alicorn had, at least judging from Cadence’s sudden death glare.

“… Shiny?”

Mark turned around, not knowing what to expect. He had been on the bad side of Luna’s glare, and therefore, knew what it felt when a woman was angry with him.

Shining was literally sweating bullets, his eyes widened in fear, his pupils almost the size of pins as his posture suddenly stiffened.

“… Did you leave our dear Daughter alone at all?”

Shining nodded meekly. For Mark, it was something both, funny and pathetic to look at the so called ex-captain like that.

Cadence huffed loudly, her beautiful face still having that trait, even when the glare on it was terrifying.

“… Shining?” Even when those words weren’t directed towards him, Mark felt a sudden chill run all the way down from the tip of his tail towards the tip of his horn. “… Why did you leave alone our daughter?”

Shining started to babble something incomprehensible, causing Mark to sigh.

“Does it really matter?” All the ponies in the room turned towards the prince, their faces showing surprise and shock. “I mean, yeah, he screwed up, but all ended well, right?”

“You call this ‘well’?” Cadence asked, the glare softening, but still having its frightening trait to itself. Mark gulped, admittedly nervous.

“Well, yeah. Could have been worse… really worse, right?”

Suddenly, Cadence was in front of him. Mark had reached once again his full height, standing just a couple inches above Cadence. But it didn’t matter when said mare still made him feel shivers down his spine. And the fact that she was not only a couple inches in front of him, but looking directly into his soul didn’t help either.

“They smell the fear, don’t show it!!”

After a few agonizing moments, Cadence sighed deeply as she stepped away from the prince.

“I guess you’re right, Blue. It actually could have been worse.” Suddenly, her glare vanished instantly, once again clearing a path for the cheerful princess. “And it certainly was something funny seeing you the size of a doll. Oh, it was so cute! And I bet little Flurry thinks so, too.”

Flurry flew into her mother’s arms, babbling something into foal language that only she could understand.

“You know, Blue? I should actually thank you, you kept my daughter entertained during all that time, and excluding the incident on this room, you pretty much managed to keep her from doing any more damage. You have my thanks.”

After all the tossing around, after all the nightmare he had suffered at the hands of the little she-devil foal, Mark considered a simple thanks as too small. But, worse is nothing.

“… Well… no trouble, I guess.”

Luna watched in amusement as the princess of love snuggled her daughter, said foal giggling as she flew away from her mother’s embrace, once again flying around the room, and the prince, who despite seeing himself in slight annoyance, accepted the thanking from the princess: Just another proof to herself and the rest of the world that he had changed.

“And Shiny?” Mark’s thoughts were interrupted as he and the other stallion turned their sights towards the princess, whose glare was back in full force. “… We’ll talk about this later.”

“… Yes, honey.”

Despite it being something a grown stallion would never do to another grown stallion, Mark simply pat Shining’s head in a sign of pity.

“But for now, let’s get Flurry to her room and-”

All the ponies in the room started to frantically turn around, looking towards the ceiling for any signs of the flying foal.

“Aw, come on!!” Mark shouted, voicing the opinion of all the ponies in the room. Flying foals were truly a nightmare.

After a couple hours, Flurry finally could be found sleeping soundly in her bed, the four adult ponies in the room in a distressed and disheveled state, after another run around the castle.

“Finally.” Mark said in a tired tone as he exited the room, being followed closely by the other ponies. Luna was the most tired of all, seeing as her cycle of sleep was interrupted by the former matters.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” All the ponies turned towards the prince. “Does somepony knows where can I find Celestia?”

“Princess Celestia?” Shining asked with curiosity on his tone. “Why are you asking that?”

“She summoned me this morning. Said something about tutoring and all that stuff. However, with the matter of the little menace sleeping back there, I completely forgot.”

Even when Luna was tired, she motioned the ponies to follow her. She didn’t need to ask for her sister, she already knew where she was.

“She must be in her personal study and bedroom. She’s always there at certain moments of the day.”

“She does?”

Luna was tired, and she wanted to go to sleep so badly. Therefore, to save time, she simply teleported them outside of Celestia’s room.

Mark was already on his way, when Luna suddenly stopped him.

“Even though, we must warn you. When she neglects her duties, she is… somewhat eccentric on her relaxing ways.”

“Oh, come on, Luna it can’t be that bad.” Mark said in an annoyed tone as he opened the door, revealing the interior of Celestia’s private office and bedroom, not to mention the most particular show the princess was putting on.

On the center of the room, Celestia was laying naked on top of many things that once had been cakes, all smashed under her figure, and even some of it covering part of her body. By her part, Celestia was eating the leftovers of an almost non-existent cake on a plate next to her, moaning at the flavor, while her other hand massaged herself with the remnants of another cake.

“Ohh! Cakes!” Celestia moaned as she devoured yet another oversized slice of cake.

“Shining!” Luna turned her head, a blush forming as she noticed Shining having an erection, while his wife started to form her glare once more.

Still with the blush, she turned towards the prince next to her, and much to her own shame, towards his lower half, almost expecting to see another erection. Somewhat ashamed of it she got surprised as she saw none (if somewhat disappointed, if she were honest with herself).

Mark noticed the commotion behind him, seeing Cadence smacking Shining, and yelling at him about something of their sexual life. Mark did not need to know that. Yet, as he turned to Luna, he noticed her looking at him with a blush.

“Nah, don’t worry about me. I actually find this more concerning and disturbing than arousing.” Mark said as he quietly closed the door.

“… You know what? I’m tired, so I’ll just go to my home. Bye.”

Luna watched him go, not turning around, and his pose slightly bending as the signs of tiredness started to show up. She wondered if he was too tired to get a reaction from her sister’s actions.

Ultimately, she decided to follow his example and go to sleep.

Author's Note

DONE!! DOOOOOOOONNEEEE!!!

... Yeah, done.

I apologize for the time it took for this chapter to be done. I think it has been at least six months since I posted something, but it was somewhat hard, under the recent events happening.

First of all, School. Damned school is finally over! These last four months were filled with work over work and more projects and all that stuff. But it's finally done. Now, the most annoying thing is in order: paperwork. (And all the secretaries in the school be like)

But that aside, I'm proud to announce myself as an engineer on industrial maintenance!! (and for that one guy who asked me to repair his bathroom, yeah, I can do it! Just provide me with your address and the price for the ticket all the way there and back)

As for other matters, well, you have this:

Yes, the earthquake last week was something that we felt all the way to where I live (and I live very far away from the earthquakes' epicenter). However, some members of my family live pretty near so... yeah. (no deaths on my family so far, but the scare is still there)

And then, we have there other guys:
Irma

Katia

And Joseph.

None of these has affected me directly, but so many other people around America.

Gosh, so many stuff around us lately

Fortunately, seems things (for me, at least) are getting more relaxed. So, for now, everything focuses mainly on getting a job. Don't know if it's good or bad luck. But, oh well...

Sorry for all of this, but it seems the whole pressure of many things are getting to me, which is demonstrated on the quality of the chapter.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Comment, rate and critics are appreciated, as always. Have a nice day!