Author's Note

I do apologize in advance for any problems in this chapter. I am on serious medication after having tapeworm removal surgery and have little energy to write. I'm running on fumes.

If there is any grammar problem, please point it out.

Chapter 12

Cold and devoid of a second body she should have in her wings, Celestia stirs from her most enjoyable slumber with a loud yawn and processes the emptiness. She slowly opens her eyes and smacks her lips as the chill inside the house sends a shiver down her spine. She was not the kind of pony to be bitten by winter, but she did not have her sun to empower her, and the fireplace was almost without fire. Thankfully, she had just enough magic to levitate a couple of logs inside and ignite them, but now she had to conserve; that was all the energy had recharged throughout the day.

Back to the matter at hoof, she blinked her eyes multiple times in disbelief that Marcus was not with her, but it was indeed true that she was alone. His spot, however, was still very warm, and the last movie he suggested was still running with another climatic moment of fright that would have scared her, if she was wide awake that is.

"I hope Luna doesn't try to be this Freddy character." Celestia yawned a second time, before standing up to search for her human. "She could traumatize some ponies on nightmare night."

She then looked to the couch to see her student and niece snuggling with Luna, their heads barely visible in the darkness. But that wasn't what had her a little concerned at the moment, or a little nerve-racked when she thought about it.

Marcus would never leave her or the others like this, and he had left his gun on the table for anyone to pick up and look at. He was always careful about leaving his loaded pistol, but there it rested inside it's holster with two extra magazines on the side.

Now she was worried, for in all her time of seeing that man, that pistol never left his side.

"Why would he leave?" She asked herself, staring at the firearm and then up to windows. They were all closed off by the metal door he said to have installed the first day he was granted ownership of the house. The locks were tight and the howls of wolves were heard in the whistling winds of the blizzard.

So why did she just hear a window slide open or close?

She walked away from her fellow princesses and quietly trotted on the hunch of where the sound originated. However, her ears flicked when running water was heard beyond the foyer to the upstairs bedroom. She peeked up said stairs and found the lights were on, but there was no human sounding in the distance.

"What is he up too?" She asked herself, moving slowly up the stairs as the girls were heard giggling. She stopped at the top of the stairs and ceased all worries when a door was open, the profound sight of nakedness shining bright in her eyes after the figure shut off the water and began drying his hair with a second towel. Unfortunately, the first that was protecting him between his waist and knees fell off as he turned to grab a pair of clothes in the next room, and standing before him with her cheeks burning, the princess stared down at the last mystery she had pondered during their separation.

"Tia. . . "

"I was not looking," Celestia announced, backing away until her hind legs slipped on the stairs, still staring at the man's girth as he rushed towards her in a split second. She hadn't realized his intention until it was too late, she was falling down the stairs and had no way to catch herself with the narrow hallway blocking her wings. Her ability to scream was stolen by the shock of her descent, but, of course, the back of her neck was caught in Marcus' arms, and she was pulled back to the floor with his entire form touching her.

That's when she realized Marcus had saved her, but he was under her, skin to skin and the beat of his heart thumping loudly in her ear as his hands moved tenderly to pet her mane.

"Talk about too damn close," he chuckled, ignoring that she was blushing from having her barrel poked. "That would have been a pain in the ass to explain to the girls."

"Right, sorry. Perhaps you could release me though?" Celestia conceded, reminding her human that he was naked and holding her against him. Marcus laughed nervously and stood up, the towel being essentially thrown around his waist by the alicorn before she would fall to another glance.

"Sorry about that," he said genuinely, turning away from the princess.

She shook her head of the perverted thoughts running in her mind and glared at the man as he proceeded to enter the other room for his clothes.

"Why did you leave me?" She complained from the other side of the wall, sitting on her haunches and pouting like a filly with impatience.

"I was needing a few minutes to myself. It's not easy keeping your emotions composed all day when the mare you fell for suddenly returns to see you." Marcus admitted, though with hurt in his tone as he pulled up his shorts. He took a deep breath and peaked around the doorway to see that Celestia was surprised, before adding to his confession:

"Even I have to cry in the shower every once in a while."

"I understand that, but you can speak with me about these things." Celestia decided to address the problem, standing up and nuzzling him expectantly.

"So you would understand that I had to cry over you coming back?" He asked, reciprocating the affection and pulling the alicorn into a kiss. Celestia closed her eyes and giggled gleefully, wrapping her wings around his lower back and rump. Once the kiss lasted a good minute or two and they separated to glance at each other, Celestia took a breath of her own to confess.

"You're not the only one who wants to cry," she told him, though a few tears did leave her while Marcus' hands ran up and down her neck. "Knowing how faithful you were to me, even when we were universes apart, I wanted nothing more than to scream with joy. It's been a dream to find someone that will not lose hope in me."

"You make it sound as if others have," he pointed out, teasing her with another kiss.

"Love is so difficult for me to grasp." Celestia took his hand and held it tightly in her wing, before looking away to sadly. "Perhaps it is weakness. Love has been out of my reach for so long."

Marcus nodded and cupped her chin, having to pull the sorrow into his eyes and Celestia wondering why such a man captured her heart, though she clearly knew why.

"I've been thinking. . . "

Oh no, that did not sound good. He had been thinking, but what was thinking about. Celestia stiffened as he released her, her mind cupping his expression as it exploded with a million questions. What she did not know, however, was that his words had already passed her, and the question coming from him was hanging in the air without an answer.

"Celestia, are you alright?" He asked, startling the mare out of her space-out moment involving every idea to keeping him before the matter worsened.

"Yes, I'm just a little tired," she affirmed, shaking her head as he smiled at her sarcastically. "What was it you were saying?"

"I said that—" Marcus was on the verge of exclaiming his idea, but a soft cry echoed in the vent and dragged his attention to it in a heartbeat. He moved closer to the stairs and listened for it again without noticing that his lovely marefriend was quietly panicking for not hearing his question the question time.

Though he had only shorts on and serious concern that Luna might ignore the fact that he is with Celestia, he went into action and proceeded to follow the cries down into the kitchen whilst leaving the nervous mare to her own thoughts. He made his way around the house until the voice came from his bedroom, and he quietly entered to find that Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis were fast asleep but Sombra was reared up with his forehooves on the edge of the crib and crying. Marcus said nothing as he approached the foal reaching out to him and felt the overwhelming surge of his fatherly instincts explode in his body.

That's when he realized how happy he was to be like that.

"Hey buddy," he cooed with affection and lifted Sombra into his arms, his first priority being the diaper, and thankfully it was that at all but loud stomach growling.

"Hungry, I see;" he chuckled, carrying the boy into the kitchen. "Well then, let's get you fixed up with a bottle."

It was at that point Celestia got her bearings and walked downstairs to find Marcus and discover what she blatantly missed out of sheer ignorance, but the proof of his doing in the act of parenthood was more than showing, it was literally beaming. Celestia even had to mentally commend the man for having a bottle already prepped and ready in the fridge and just needing to be heated whilst rocking rocking the teary-eyed Sombra gently. And in front of the others as well, she realized something:

How happy she was to have met him.

"Discord. . ." she thought out loud, chuckling to herself as her half-naked human took his time to make sure the bottle would heat properly, although it was confusing to the alicorn to see him drop the bottle into a pot of water. Why didn't he just ask her to heat it up with some magic?

Marcus paid no mind as she approached, completely used to her touch, and simply nuzzled the mare when she rested her chin on his shoulder. Chuckling internally to the memories of their first intimate touch, he reminisced how Celestia drew him close with that connection, smiled warmly, kissed her cheek, and scratch her neck with ease before grabbing the bottle to check it once more. Of course, Sombra was not improving with the rocking. He was hungry and going to tell everyone about it by screaming at the top of his lungs.

"I wonder if he was like this in your world," Marcus' smooth yet masculine voice sounded to Celestia. If it weren't for the given situation, she would have pounced the man and spent every minute with the letters to repeat their ideas into reality, but she had to remain steady while having her fellow princesses wide awake and currently watching from the couch.

"As a foal, maybe. As a stallion—let's just say he never had parents to teach him right and wrong." Celestia replied with little humor. Marcus sighed and took the bottle out of the pot one last time before nodding with approval of the temperature.

"Why don't you go sit down?" He asked, adjusting the lid before feeding the foal, who was more than happy to guzzle the nourishing milk. "I'll join you after I get him back into bed."

"How about you come with me while feeding Sombra?" Celestia mused, smiling sarcastically and pushing him to the couch before he had any say in the matter. Unfortunately, that meant tending to the most impressed lunar princess already making herself comfortable on the couch they shared.

Luna immediately hopped away from Twilight and Cadance and stole the left side while her sister quietly grit her teeth and sat on the other side of Marcus. It was no mystery to Twilight or Cadance that Celestia and Luna were at war with one another for Marcus' attention, both their eyes locked intensely as electricity clashed from their horns.

"My bits are on Celestia," Cadance whispered, and Twilight grumbled to herself for not getting the bet in first.

"You would be most alluring to mares, Marcus." Luna complimented, finally ignoring her infuriated sister. She lovingly nuzzled the man's arm as he checked the contents of the bottle, only to have it dragged from his hand by the very foal that he was feeding. "A stallion raising the foal, a most respectable and enticing aspect."

"He is most alluring without the approval of others, sister." Celestia said sternly, licking his cheek without warning. It was without a doubt that behind such affection there was now a very aggravated blue alicorn doing the same thing, except with her wings around him and his head in her chest. "He is most alluring to me."

"Well I find him impossible to resist." Luna stuck her tongue out, shocking her sister as the man defused the situation before it could start. He quickly separated himself from both mares and took refuge in his recliner. Celestia and Luna were hurt by this and tried to follow, but he pointed at both of them and glared.

"If you come over and disturb Sombra with your bickering, there will be hell to pay." He punctuated his threat with resuming the movie, his eyes focused on the movie as the colt in his arms began to fuss. Both princesses were now without the man of their desire—alone, denied and slightly cold, they tucked under the comforter together but kept up their conflict with childish whispers and nudging.

"Leech."

"Fat flank."

"Toothpick."

"You wish you were as thin as I am."

"And lose my curves, I don't think so."

It was going to be a very long night for Marcus. . .