Bad habits

Canterlot at midnight is one of those places that will be worth a train ticket for day to visit it. Even when Equestria is known for the splendid sky view at night, provided by the princess of the moon, Canterlot's high ground position gives a view that surpasses almost every other place in Equestria, with the only exception of the Crystal empire astonishing aureola boreal.

And this night was other to behold with a content sigh; or in the case of a happy purple alicorn who was watching the shining stars from the balcony of one of the many rooms in the royal castle, a delightful hum. For this mare, her world had turned upside down for the best in the lapse of three hours, and even when she knew there were important matters to be handled and discussed on this night, she couldn't control but feel shivers of excitement and joy.

'Spike has reciprocated my feelings...' she thought for the fifteen time, smiling proudly like it was the first time those thoughts echoed in her mind.

"And I thought the crystal mares were just overhyped about my Nephew's bravery" a regal voice said from behind of the zoned out mare.

Twilight turned back to see the princess of the night making her presence in the entrance of the balcony, her pose reminiscent of a king in the battlefield, wielding a look on her face filled with pride and victory.

"So... Celestia told you?" Twilight asked a little flustered.

Luna snickered quietly, trying to preserve the soothing silence of the night, "She couldn't contain herself.Oh, you should have seen her... all those centuries absent of the joy of being a mother swelled inside of her. If not by my magic, you would hear her shouts resonating through all of Canterlot".

Twilight covered her mouth to contain a giggle, "Well, at least I know why she is taking so long to come here" she composed herself before returning to her previous thoughts, "Looks like I'll don't have any kind of problem with my future mother-in-law" she added with a smile.

Luna looked at Twilight with a smugly smile 'time to see if that other thing is true too'

"You know, I was betting that some pretty crystal mare would take Spike's claws at first..."

Twilight laughed hard at that comment. the princess of the night took the chance to look directly at Twilight's shimmering eyes 'Just as Spike told us' she thought in concern.

"Yeah right, like any of those desperate mares would have a chance with my dragon" Twilight said between laughs.

"... and what about your friends? Fluttershy seemed to be pretty interested in him" Luna teased Twilight. Her sole purpose was to see how far the Greed has corrupted her friend.

Twilight laughed a little more before acknowledging the next question that was presented to her, "I... well yeah... Fluttershy always had that kind of touch with Spike, and she had outgrown out of her shyness so much throughout the years... maybe I should-"

"What if Spike wants her too? I'm a mare that follows old traditions, and there would be no complaints on my part if I see my nephew with a herd" Luna commented trying to sound as casual as possible.

Twilight took her time in analyzing the words of the princess, "you seem so sure about it... did spike told you to ask me that? I already told him, I would share him with my friends if it's necessary", she stated with determination, the shimmer in her eyes fading by the second.

'Would youLook at that...' Luna thought before easing her fellow princess, "It seems you can handle yourself against the greed Twilight, but I'm not quite sure of how far you can control it".

"Pfft! It's not a big deal" Twilight assured with a dismissing hoof.

"Seriously? you seemed a bit lost when I mentioned the crystal mares" Luna said with furrowed brows.

"What do you mean? I felt pretty normal. I just laughed because I found it funny, none of them deserve him because they are just obsessed with him being the hero of the land" she explained.

The princess of the moon got near to her friend, thinking for a moment the things she'll need to explain to Twilight, "Twilight, do you know how I felt while nightmare moon was taking control of my mind?" she asked.

"Eh? no, that question has never crossed my mind".

"I thought like I was doing the right thing, I felt in total control of my actions; the only concern for me was how good all that power felt"

"Do you think Spike's Greed is gonna do the same thing nightmare moon did to you?" Twilight intrigued.

"What am trying to say Twilight is that you need to be more careful about what you believe and what is really happening. Greed could be classified as dark magic, and that kind of magic usually drives the user to insanity"

Luna faced the crescent moon in the sky. After realizing a heavy sigh she continued, "Most of the times, the user doesn't realize about his mental condition until it's too late to do anything"

Twilight took her time before answering, she wanted to argue with the princess, she knew that the greed wasn't affecting her thoughts... but doubts found the way to her psyche easily.

what if she was becoming dangerously obsessed with her dragon?

What would she do if she turns into a menace for Equestria because of the Greed?

but the most terrifying of her doubts was...

"What if I don't really love him?" she asked herself between tears,"what if is all an illusion?".

"Then let me tell you this," said the princess of the night with a serious tone, "you said that you'll share Spike with your friends if is necessary"

"Yes, I said it, and I mean it" Twilight responded.

"And what would you do if he doesn't love you back at the end? what if he decides to be with one of your friends instead of you? what would you do then?"

"Then... then I..." Twilight stuttered, her next words were easier to handle in her mind, "I'll support his decision... the only thing I'll do is ask him to stay near the castle... "

Twilight looked up at the distance, the moon was just above the castle at this hour,"if he stays by mi side then I'll be fine..."

A dark figure loomed at the balcony on top of the castle, her mane was a dark nebula that, if not by its blue color, could be confused with the night sky. Twilight cleaned the tears on her eyes to clear her view but now the dark figure looked just like luna itself, something that was impossible from the purple alicorn perspective, after all, luna was...

"You know something about love? my dear sister-in-law" asked The Luna beside Twilight, her horn glistened and her magic surrounded her whole body, showing her true form in the process.

"Cadance?" Twilight said in disbelief. Her alicorn sister appeared in front of her, showing that she was the one talking all along while Luna was still on her night time work.

"True love has many forms and shapes, but if you want to know that one way of love is correct, you just need to see how far the couple will go for their partner happiness," Cadance told Twilight with a smile, "and you know another thing? dark magic doesn't work inside a magic shield powered by love" she added before making visible the blue bubble magic that surrounded them,"by the way, sorry for lying to you, pretend I was my aunt and all of that".

" how you could? wait,"Twilight paused, acknowledging something more important for her than Cadance lies, "Wait a minute, the things I said before... does that mean I... that those words... it is true?! there is really no Greed involved?"

"Seems like your scientific side was still considering the possibilities" Cadance commented before a little snicker escaped her mouth. She soon found the way to compose herself and being serious again, "But remember Twilight, this doesn't mean you actually have a control over the Greed, it just means that your feelings towards Spike are honest".

Twilight took a moment to think, while on it, the princess of love dismissed her shield, and with it any inhibition over Twilight's Greed. Twilight snapped with an idea

"What if I train with illusion spells? I had been working on one spell that can visually transform an area and create all kind of things or situations I want after I concentrate enough to-" Twilight Stopped mid-sentence. There was something unusual happening, she felt a beat that echoed and reflected with her magic; the problem was that she only can feel this kind of beat when her little assistant was nearby.

"Something's wrong Twi?" Cadance asked while looking how the lavender alicorn searched in every corner of the balcony. Just when Cadance was about to ask again she noticed how Twilight started to rub against something at the left of the entrance, "that's weird... Twilight are you alright?"

"Seems like I found someone spying on our conversation," Twilight said with apparent joy, until she snapped out of the Greed Effects, "wait, no, that's not how I wanted it to sound!".

"I'm Sorry Twi, I just wanted to hear what you will say without the effects of my magic..." A familiar voice said from thin air.

"Wait is that Spike's voice?" The pink alicorn asked in disbelief.

As an answer, both Spike and Celestia's eyes appeared floating in the air for a brief second before their full appearance was shown. A simple alteration spell was all that Celestia needed to do to make both of them invisible from the beginning.

"How long have you two being here?!" Cadance asked with a harsh tone. Blooming Love is a matter that must be discussed in private, and her brother and mother just broke that rule.

"We sneaked in the moment you came here disguised as my sister" Celestia explained.

Twilight got confused after a short analysis of the previous events, "wait you didn't know?" She asked, "at this point, I thought it was a set up made by you three, after all, you sounded like you have talked with Spike earli- wait a moment, Spike, didn't you told me that Cadance wasn't here?" she furrowed her brows.

Celestia signaled a dismissing hoof to twilight, "take it easy my dear student, I'll explain it all to you" The princess of the sun assured before explaining the events that happened one hour prior to Cadence talk with Twilight.

"The next thing I did after I left you in the room was teleport all the way to my son's bathroom, I really needed to know more about the matter. After all, When Cadance fell in love I felt the need to protect her and doubt every little thing about her relationship; but in Spike's case it was all the opposite, I wanted to encourage him and celebrate" The princess said with a smile, "but in this case the one with doubts was him. If I'm honest with you Twilight, immortality had blind my wiseness about love matters since a long time, and I'm just getting the hang of it again because I decided to adopt. Because of that, I sent a letter to Cadance, and with the help of Spike, we explained her everything before asking her to help"

"Which bring us to what you already know: my sis talked with you, I couldn't wait for Cadance to bring the news and asked mom to help me out with the spying part, and you found me with what I call 'hoard sense'".

"I guess you are still upset about our actions" Twilight nodded to her mentor, "and you have the right to be, but right now I want to ask you for forgiveness, at least for tonight. We need to talk about other important things that require your full attention" The white alicorn expressed.

Twilight sighed and tried to calm herself, but it was difficult for her to forgive their actions... "I don't know if I should. first, Cadance lied to me when she showed up as Luna".

"You and Luna share a more respectful and serious relationship than with Celestia or me. besides if I showed up as myself from the beginning you would have asked why I was here, and I would have to explain that I already knew everything and that I talked with Spike. At the end it would have been more difficult to talk about your feelings" Cadance explained.

Twilight hummed while scratching her chin with her left hoof, "well... that's true, but at least you were honest at the end. Celestia and Spike only showed themselves because I found them" she stated somewhat angry.

"Celestia, had nothing to do with this Twi, I was the one that forced her to help me." Spike corrected, "if you have to be angry with someone, let it be me" he pleaded to his friend.

Twilight whined and hugged her dragon, "that's unfair, you know it's hard for me to be mad at you" she paused, "but, aside from your actions, I need to know why you did it, Spike" she asked while focusing in his emerald eyes.

"I did it because I was scared Twi, my instincts are something hard to bear, and I just got the handle on them because of the many years I have been controlling them" the purple dragon explained in a depressed tone, his eyes diverged from hers "when I heard your maniacal laugh after that comment about the crystal ponies, I really got sad... I thought that you could become a monster because of me..."

Spike's eyes shined again and he looked up at her best friend, "but then, when you spoke without the effects of my magic... Twilight, you don't know how happy I was to hear those words... and the most important thing about your true feeling was that it showed me that there is still will in your heart; we only need to train you so my instincts can't do anything against you-"

Twilight puckered Spike's lips, he quickly released himself from his friend grip before the little kiss could pass to major events.

"Yeah, we need to take care especially about the physical effects first," he said in a rush before composing himself.

Twilight giggled at her own actions, "seems like I'm the one apologizing now" she laughed some more, feeling her previous anger fade away, "It's okay Spike, I forgive you. Besides, with all the times I invaded your dreams in the past, there are no rights for me to be mad at you about this kind of situation".

Twilight shifted her eyes to see upon the face of the princess of the sun, which started to whistle innocently, "Even still, there is a certain mentor of mine, that doesn't have an excuse for not using a sound barrier spell"

A sudden knock at the door of the room startled the group, the knock was followed by a sweet voice.

"Princess, That was the signal you mentioned?" said a charming voice from the other side of the room.

Celestia signaled the others to follow her inside the room. Just like most of the guest rooms of the Canterlot palace, the room floor was covered in a white carpet and was furnished with a king size bed, a dresser, two nightstands at each side of the bed, a pony-sized mirror and a bookshelf. Apart from that, the only main difference of this guest room was the sheer size, who was big enough for six to eight ponies to be in it comfortably.

Once the group of princesses, and the dragon, got comfortable on the carpet Celestia explained, "Sorry for not telling you this early, there is someone with a tight schedule that needs to talk to us" she coughed a little to temper her tone of voice, "You can enter now".

A white earth pony with blue eyes and a pristine black mane entered the room, she was using a classic maid dress and a white hairpin to hold her front hair to the side. The mare looked young but not enough to be called a filly. Once she entered, she greeted the ones inside before making herself comfortable in the room; After that, she situated herself in front of the duo and was about to talk to them, but she stopped herself for a moment to take a look at the purple drake eyes. the smile on her face soon faded and was replaced with an astonished look.

Spike felt the attention provided by the mare a little unsettling, her eyes felt like they were piercing through his soul, searching for something inside of him. The little drake couldn't contain the attention and asked, "why are you looking at me like that? sorry to tell you this, but you are not giving me a good first impression"

The mare flicked out off her trance on the drake, "sorry" she squeaked, "It's just that I wanted to be sure about something...".

Twilight and Spike stood in confusion at the white pony's action. Before any question could be made, Celestia interjected. She explained that the white mare is an agent that works undercover for the Arabian princess and that even if she wanted, she couldn't give her name or any kind of nickname for that matter, it was a counter measure that they adopted after an accident who happened years ago. Lastly, Celestia told the duo that the mare had come this night to give a resume of all her previous reports to the princess.

"Thanks, your highness!" greeted the mare, "now I can go directly to the point, or better say, points" she said before acknowledging that Celestia was making her way out of the room.

"I'm gonna bring some water while you are at it" Celestia commented before leaving the room.

"Thanks again your highness" she chirped before focusing on the duo, "now, like I was about to tell you: first of all, I have been working undercover for the princess of the west country since she looked her eyes on that purple dragon almost 10 years ago".

"Wait, wait, first of all, my name is -" Spike tried to tell his name but the white pony stopped him.

"Don't tell me your name!" the maid shouted, "I only know the name of princesses because the kingdom knows I have seen them both. believe me, little drake, those ponies have a lot of counter measures for anything or anyone that looks suspicious" she panted.

The mare stood with one of her hooves on Spike's lips, but her hoof wasn't muffling his words, she was just touching his lips.

"Ahm... after my first-year undercover, the princess gave me the chance to be in a special group that runs on her command" the mare started to pant in an odd way, "our group's job was to find young dragons or dragons that physically looked young. The purpose of it was,,,, mmh... haa... to find a rare specimen of your race..." she moaned the last words out.

Far to this point, Twilight was making an excellent job containing the urge to toss the mare out of Spike's scales. That was until she noticed how the earth pony was openly moaning at the touch of Spike' lips and cheeks. By muscle reflex, she conjured a shield around her and the dragon.

"That was disturbing..." said an astonished Spike.

"What in Tartarus was that all about?!" Twilight interrogated the mare, but found nothing excepts heavy breaths coming from her. Twilight made signals to her sister-in-law, but Cadance just shrugged at them.

"Sorry, she just speaks with Celestia or her sister, this is pretty much new to me too" the pink alicorn commented.

Celestia got back to the room, holding a jar of water and some glasses; just in time to see the current situation of the room.

"Looks like I missed the fun part" The princess of the sun joked before taking a look at the panting mare that was just starting to compose herself, "so... this mean that..."

"That drake is the closest thing to a kirin I have ever known!" the white mare said astonished. Twilight and Cadance got shocked at the realization of the disturbed mare. Spike by his part only got confused and cursed himself for not paying attention to the mythology classes.

Suddenly, from the other side of the balcony, a dark beam of magic crossed her way through the room and landed on the panting mare. The spell brought the earth pony to a peaceful state. Soon after it, the owner of the magic made her presence: it was the princess of the night, Luna.

"it's good to see that you came here, sister, I was just about to call for your assistance" Celestia greeted.

"Luckily for me, most of today's dreams were easy to handle" the dark blue alicorn commented while Celestia served a glass of water to the now calm guest, "I heard the last part of the conversation on my way here, after hearing the declaration of our young guest, I knew that she was in need of an alteration spell".

"Thanks, your highness," the white mare said before facing Twilight, "sorry, I couldn't control myself".

Twilight hugged spike, "what do you mean by that? I don't want this mare anyway near to my dragon" Twilight stated with glimmering eyes while augmenting the size of her magic shield.

"Twilight, your Greed, you are falling onto its effects again" Spike whispered into her friend's ear. The purple alicorn soon found herself back in control and dispelled the shield.

The white mare smiled, "jeje, I can't lie to you, purple alicorn, I'm attracted to your dragon, but don't blame me for it, the reasons of my odd behalf around him is because I'm currently on the effects of a powerful drug" the white mare explained.

The mare kept on her explanation before someone could ask the inevitable, "The drug inhibits our natural control over our primal instincts, making us as wild as an animal in the first two hours, after that, the after effects are permanent unless you receive medical treatment. Thanks to the drugs, the members of the group can know how close is a dragon to a kirin..."

"Wait. do you keep telling that but, what do you mean? what is a kirin?" asked Spike who was still unable to remember.

"The result of an offspring between a dragon and other race, there is little knowledge about the matter, but the most common race to be paired with a dragon for that kind of result is a pony" Twilight euphorically interrupted Spike's previous sentence, "that could make some kind of sense Sp-!"

Spike muffled Twilights words, "I know that you are about to go on your usual scientific speech, but remember, no names".

Twilight nodded, granting her the permission to speak again, "as I was saying: when I brought you to life with my magic, some of it got in your genes because of the overcharge, usually that explained your magic abilities like sending letters back to the princess and not only receiving them like the few magic dragons could, or the fact that you can store objects inside your flame and... maybe that's is the reason I have Greed" she said with an unsettling tone at her last words.

The white mare had been nodding in confirmation during all the speech, until Twilight mentioned that last sentence, "That's right Greed! one of the important factors known by the group was that the more close a dragon was to a kirin, the easier you would be to be attracted to him since Kirin were known to be desired creatures in the past" she pause for a moment while recalling more information about her previous reports" but that only happens if A: you are using the drug and are as susceptible as a wild animal; or B: The said dragon considers you as his or her owner in some form"

Spike lost himself in thought for a second while looking at Twilight, "maybe my role as your assistant made me think of you as something beyond a boss, well... the fact that I started to grow feeling towards you didn't help either" Spike said before a question crept into his brain, "wait, what do you mean by being attracted?"

"It means that you would feel a great desire for the drake, a carnal desire, to be more specific is like an aphrodisiac combined with estrus hormones" The mare explained before realizing they were misleading the conversation, "wait, hold on, I need to go in less than an hour and I still haven't told you the important part" she did a pause to take a breath, "The princess reason for all this cult kind of activities are because she wants to find a dragon who is close enough to a kirin, to have an offspring with him, a natural born kirin!" she exclaimed.

"WHAT?" Twilight and Cadance shouted in shock.

"Why would she want a kirin? and going so far as to make a cult that hunts dragons for it. What is that princess thinking?" asked the princess of love.

"The legends say that Kirin held great power, almost as equal as the ones that the ones carried by the embodiment of chaos, Discord "She said a little uneasy, "well it's what the princess was told by her grandmother when she was little" She looked at Celestia with concern, "I fear that she wants to use that kind of power to take over Equestria. With that amount of power and land their people would not have to be worried about anything in the future".

"Yeah sure," said the princess of the sun in a sarcastic tone "believe me, young pony, the last thing that spoiled mare cares about is her people", she added before taking a sip of water.

"That is horrible, I thought this was only because S... because he was your son" Twilight said still shocked, "now I understand why they are going so far as to get him through the implication of war"

"Not all of them..." Luna interrupted, "it's best if you hear what our guest have to said to the very end before making conclusions, princess".

"Can you give me some water mom?" asked Spike. Same as luna, he seemed to take the matter with a calm temper.

"I don't understand you, how can you handle this situation so easy? it doe-"

The white mare slightly coughed, watching at Twilight with innocent eyes, "sorry..." she composed her pose, "Like your highness said, is better to not jump to conclusions, after all, the princess also has her restraints. her parents tried as best as they could to keep the dragon compromise as something legal, but with all the rewards and claims that had been properly delivered to them, their only way to keep with the dispute for Spike's ho... claw is through the assumption of a war if he doesn't get presented to the princess. Nevertheless, if the country finds itself overpowered by Equestrian forces, the idea of combat against our kingdom will be dismissed, and the princess will have to resign and search for another dragon".

"Apart from how that rotten princess got really interested in my son after the equestrian games incident, this is everything we know to this point" Celestia added, "I called her because I wanted to be sure if my son was the kind of dragon that her cult was searching" she frowned, "unluckily for us, it seems like he is the perfect candidate"

"But there is less to worry about now"The dark blue alicorn assured,"in a few months the Yakyakistans will publish their union with our kingdom, the only thing we need now is another union like that to happen, that either could be with the zebras or with the dragons".

"If the king and queens sees that kind of challenge, they will cease their support, and the princess would have to resign herself to find another dragon" the white mare stated.

"Then this could be easier than what I expected" commented Spike, "The dragon lord wants to befriend the ponies already, the only thing I need to do is to have a talk with the dragon council about the matter, I'm sure they are gonna get crazy when they find out a mare wants to use a dragon with the sole purpose of making her country powerful enough to rule over all the other lands".

"That could take some time..." interjected Twilight,"even when the council is the most organized group of dragons ever known, all the members live too far away from the dragonlands. if the dragon lord calls a council meeting it would take some months for them to get there, in the worst case the meeting will begin a month before the summer sun celebration".

The white mare got up, "then we have enough time, the princess needs two more years before the dragon turns twenty-one, the legal age for conceiving in the country" she looked up at the clock on the wall which marked three with eighteen minutes, "there is not much time for me left, but before I go there is something I need to clarify".

The white mare got close to Spike, she looked at his emerald eyes again, but this time she seemed normal, which put Twilight at ease.

"I'm sorry for how I acted, but you must know that even when I looked like I was enjoying the act of touching your scales, I was actually scared" she said before drifting her eyes up and look at Twilight, "The drug inhibits the control over our actions, but on the inside we are conscious of everything, it's like a mental prison..."

Celestia approached the white maid pony and hugged her, "hang in there, my faithful subject" she asked the mare while lifting her chin, "you have done a great job so far, and believe me, once this is all over, you will not have to worry about working anymore, I would make sure to give you everything that you deserve" the princess assured, making the mare smile like before.

"Thanks your highness, I'll do my b-"

Spike jumped to hug the mare, "I don't know how to thank you properly for all the things you had to struggle so far. For the moment all I can do is this" he tightened his tender grip, "but when this is over you can ask me for anything, I promise I'll help you as soon as I can".

"hi... his touch~ is so warm... yes~" the white mare moaned, "my goddess this feels good..."

Luna casted another pacifying spell on the mare while Twilight teleported Spike out of her hoofs. Spike apologized again for his actions as soon as the mare got back from her previous lust driven state. Because of the overdoses, the mare couldn't hang herself properly, much less speak. Cadance offered her help after noticing the mare condition, and alongside luna, they carried the white pony outside the room to the train station.

After that only Twilight, Celestia, and a sleepy Spike remained in the room.

"Well then, I think this was everything I needed to know today right?" Twilight guessed.

"And the information you gave me about the dragons was everything I needed my fellow princess," Celestia added while taking the jar and glasses, "if you and Spike can convince the council to help us, then all our troubles will be solved"

"And then what's next?" Asked Twilight, "With all the commotion about the Saddles Arabians I feel like there is something bigger I'm forgetting".

Celestia looked at a quizzical matter to the purple alicorn, "Maybe the lack of sleep is affecting you Twilight. For my part, once this is all over I'm gonna make public the true age of my son alongside his noble status as a prince. Now, if you want to also make public your current relationship with my son, that's fine for me".

Twilight looked at Spike, he was holding as best as he could to not fall at sleep, "well, we are not exactly into a relationship" she commented.

Spike looked back at Twilight, a blush making its appearances on his cheeks, "I don't know Twi, after what you said to Cadance... you just keep making it hard for me to not love you back..." he said, his blush turning crimson red, just as Twilight cheeks currently were.

Celestia just laughed at the duo while taking her leave off the room, "Seriously, mortal shenanigans never cease to amaze me" She laughed some more while closing the door.

Now the duo was alone and without any pony near to interrupt them. Spike scratched his back, feeling uneasy about his next words.

"I now that I tell you that we will train your control over Greed tomor... well today, but... can we forget that for a couple of hours? After all that the things that happened... I think I need a fluffy partner to sleep with".

Twilight hugged Spike tenderly and used her magic to close the door that led to the balcony while at the same time levitating both of them to the bed. after letting the drake rest on his side, she kissed his forehead and got back to her previous snuggle.

"I don't think I need to answer that kind of question if it comes from you" Twilight said with a smile before turning off the lights of the room and tucking both of them into sleep.