The Time

Adam, the human, opened the bedroom window to reveal a bright and sunny summer day. He leaned out of the opening and breathed in the fresh warm air. It was another beautiful day in Equestria. With a smile he rushed back inside, showered, changed into new clothes and ate his light breakfast of bread with jam before happily leaving his home to make his way into Ponyville.

"Little town, it's a quiet village, everyday like the one before, little town, full of little ponies, waking up to say..." he hummed to himself as he happily reached town.

"Good morning!" "Hello!" "Hi!" all the ponies would say to the human as they walked past him, going about their morning routines. With a smile Adam walked down the main street of the village.

He walked up to the bakery and gleefully walked in. "Good morning Miss Belle." Adam greeted. "I can smell your new batch of sweetbread already." he said while he looked around.

"Good morning Mr. Gray." greeted the mare as she walked in with a tray of freshly baked bread. "Hot off the oven." she explained.

"Great, I'll take a loaf." Adam threw her a bit for the bread.

He soon walked out of the bakery carrying the bread that is wrapped in cloth, as he left he silently greeted Big Mac who entered the shop as Adam left. Mac silently greeted in return.

Today, Adam had a much more pronounced spring in his step than usual, since today was the day he was finally going to ask his true love the most important question of her life, "will you take my hand in marriage?" he rehearsed to himself.

He soon arrived at the local farmer's market and bought the best produce he could find since tonight he's cooking his fiance to be dinner. "Howdy Adam!" yelled a friendly voice.

Adam turned and smiled to see Apple Bloom with her big sister Applejack at their apple stand. "Good morning Apple clan." he greeted. "How's business?"

"Goin' good as usual." said Applejack. "Interested in buyin' an apple on the house?" she asked.

"Don't mind if I do." the human grinned as he took one and ate. "Wish me luck tonight." he said before walking off to complete his errands for that day.

"Ah'm sure she'll say yes Adam!" yelled Applejack with a chuckle. As the human walked away, Applejack saw Rainbow Dash walk up to the stand. "Mornin' Dash." she greeted.

"Uh...have you seen Big Mac anywhere?" Dash asked nervously and with slight shame. She was at least glad that Applejack had yet to figure out that it her older brother now has a foal he did not know of.

"Why do ya want to know?" asked Applejack with suspicion. She never really trusted Dash to keep her animal-like urges in check around her older brother, she never understood why mares acted strange around him sometimes.

"Just that he's usually here helping you selling your apple and apple accessories at around this time and all..." she trailed off.

"He's picking up his date Sugar Belle at the bakery to go on a walk and-"

"DATE?! WHO?!" Dash exclaimed in total shock.

"The new baker in town from Starlight's village that we met a year ago, why do you-" before Applejack could complete her inquiry, Dash bolted away as fast as she could to the bakery.

She reached the bakery and barged inside, completely ignoring the 'closed' sign on the door. "MAC! WE NEED TO TALK-" she was swiftly interrupted by the sounds of moans and bodies slapping together. Dash quietly peered into the back room of the building to see a sight that completely shattered her heart. "Mac..." she whispered with pain. "...no..." she quickly turned away and ran out of the building, the two ponies inside never noticed her presence.

"Rise and shine Twilight!" chimed Spike as he pulled open the window shades. The bright sun illuminated the entire room, which caused Twilight to give a hiss and reflexively hide under her bed sheets. Spike rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Twilight, you've been spending more and more time in here lately, when are you actually going to... you know... leave this room?"

"Maybe I deserve to be a shut-in, die all alone with nothing but my books to keep me company until they one day fall on top of me and crush me to death and no one will notice I'm gone until-"

"TWILIGHT!" Spike yelled, disappointed by her latest attitude. "Stop it!"

The mare peeked from under her covers. She gave a sigh of shame. "Sorry for being so dark back there, I just... wonder what's the point of it all..." she sighed as she slowly got off of her bed. "The only two destinies I've ever known are pointless now... Celestia's gone... Adam chose someone else... there's nothing for me left."

Spike went up to the mare with concern. "You should be proud of him-"

"THEN WHY CAN'T I?!" Twilight snapped. "Every time I see him with HER I feel a piece of me die!" she complained. "I lived and died COUNTLESS times for him and with him! Every single life I lived involved him in some way, the universe wanted US to be together, NOT him and Fluttershy!"

"But that was HIS choice to make, he could've chosen you, but he chose Fluttershy, it was his choice, and there's nothing that could change that." Spike explained. "It's not like you can force him to like you." he explained. Just as he finished the sentence, he suddenly belched out green flames along with a newly materialized letter. "Ugh..."

The mare quickly took the letter with her magic and opened it to see it was a message from Princess Luna. What she read completely stunned her. "Oh no..."

Adam arrived back at his home just after lunch, plenty of time to prep the kitchen and house for his romantic dinner that night. He walked inside while he carried his bags full of groceries and proceeded into the living room only to see a surprising sight; the Bloodstone scepter on the living room coffee table. "How did you get here?" he looked at it with confusion. "Maybe Ember left it here, but how did she get in? I always make sure to leave everything locked and closed when I'm out?" he carefully picked up, memories of the last time he used it came to him.

Ember offered him the scepter to wield for beating her in a fight, but he turned it down, he felt that he did not deserve to wield such power, but the thoughts of 'what if' flooded his mind as he playfully began to twirl it around in his hand. "Adam Gray, Lord of the Dragons, kind of has a nice ring to it." he mused to himself. "Having all the dragons in the land under your beck and call, I can see why so many seek such a power." he took the scepter and placed it in his coat closet next to the front door. "I'll have to write Ember a letter and tell her I have it, she must be looking for it." as soon as he closed the closet door, the red gemstone began glow.

Twilight and Spike were lead by Princess Luna down into the dungeons of the currently under-construction new Canterlot castle. It structure was still far from completion but it was at least livable considering that the Princess moved in just over a month ago and even held a gala, despite the ballroom's lack of roof.

"Adam is defiantly not going to like this..." mumbled Twilight.

"But I have no choice young Twilight, Fluttershy's revival completely expunged her murder charge, and her last remaining charge was only enough to hold for ten years with the possibility of parole, and yesterday, the parole board recommended her release to be sent to rehabilitation." explained Luna.

"But-"

"Look, I don't like it either, but those are the rules me and my sister placed, and there's nothing I can do to change it, least risk starting a political crisis in such uncertain times." she explained as they reached the last cell in the corridor. Luna inserted her horn into the lock next to the cell to retract the bars. The princess then went into the cell. "Starlight Glimmer..." she began as she witnessed an eager pink unicorn mare. "...you are free to go." those words made the mare smile even more.

"Under terms of your parole and rehabilitation," began Luna as Starlight was being processed. "you are banned from utilizing advanced spells until Twilight and myself deem you trustworthy to do so, you are not allowed to be no more than one mile away from Ponyville, or, if outside Ponyville, no more than one mile away from Twilight." she continued as guards strapped a black collar around her neck. "And I'll personally be visiting you once every two weeks to check on your progress, any questions?"

Starlight looked at the collar. "Is this really necessary?" she asked.

"You want to be free or not?" Luna responded.

The mare just gave an annoyed sigh.

"Good." she said. "And don't bother trying to remove it, only my magic can do so, and should you ever attempt to tamper with it, leave the set boundaries or use an advanced spell, it will choke you." she warned. "And it won't stop choking until you either stop doing whatever it is you were doing, or you die." Starlight just nervously nodded. Luna turned to Twilight and Spike. "She's all yours now." before she left to take care of other business.

Twilight angrily leered at Starlight. "You know," the pink mare began. "I wasn't expecting to be stuck with you when I was going to be released."

"Neither did I..." Twilight said. Now she was wondering how Fluttershy and Adam would take this unfortunate news.

Rainbow Dash walked into Carousel Boutique completely dejected. A purple baby foal with hair that is different shades of yellow, happily flying around, having fun and did not care that he was causing damage with his flying. A haggard Rarity ran around in panic behind him, trying to capture him. "HOLD STILL!" she yelled.

At the moment, Dash did not care that her three month old foal was already flying around. Might as well let him enjoy it while it lasted since he'll probably temporarily loose the ability once he experience his first molting in a few months. She sat down on a nearby couch, completely exhausted and depressed.

Eventually, Rarity was able to catch the little foal and swaddled him in a blanket tightly. "There, now you won't be able to get away." Rarity said relieved. She went over to Dash and gave her the foal. "So Dash, did you manage to tell Mac about little Zap?" she asked as Dash began to gently rock her foal to get him to sleep.

"Why should I? He's off with some other random mare now." she admitted with disgust. "Telling him is a waste of time."

"But he has to know, it's his son!" Rarity urged. "Zap needs a father!"

"It's bad enough I already disappointed the Wonderbolts and my parents, I don't need any more pressure right now!" she snapped back. "My life is completely ruined okay? So get off my back!"

Rarity was stunned. "Don't you dare yell at me for your mistakes!" she snarled. "You and I both know that you can't raise this foal by yourself! So what's it going to be?" she asked.

Dash looked down at her sleeping son in her forelegs and sighed with shame.

That night at Adam's house, candles lit the entire dinning room in a romantic glow and the table was filled with dirty and used plates, freshly eaten off of. From the living room, emanated several chuckles and moans as the couple made-out with each other on the couch. Fluttershy on the human's lap, her forelegs wrapped around her lover's neck as they kissed each other passionately. Both slightly buzzed from the wine they drank a few minutes ago.

The human playfully reached down and squuezed the mare's rump hard. The pegasus gave a cute squeel in response. "Oh my," she blushed. "is my human frisky I'm guessing?" she playfully responded.

Adam smirked. "You know I get frisky whenever we're alone." he said, grabbing her other rump. "But can I ask you question first before we get to the fun part?" he asked.

The mare was a bit confused, but went along with it. "Sure ask away."

The human brushed away her long pink mane from her right eye so he can stare into those turquoise eyes as he asked. "Fluttershy..." he began, brushing her mane with his hand. "...will you be willing to spend the rest of my life with me..." he smiled. "...as husband and wife?"

The mare's eyes brightened with pure joy, she always dreamed of setting down and being a good wife. "Why of course my love, I will gladly be your wife!" she exclaimed with happiness and glee.

Adam was also glad. "Great, but unfortunately, the ring is back in the dinning room, and I don't want to get up and ruin this illicit fun we're doing." he blushed with embarrassment.

Fluttershy placed her hoof on his lips. "I understand, me neither." she gave a sultry smile. "Now, mind if you can so kindly..." she licked her lips. "...fuck...your fiance," she then teasingly placed her hoof between her legs. "it's been so long since you did..." she cooed.

"Uh...it's only been three days." he chuckled. He found it endearing that the mare he loved was showing a hidden side to her that only he was allowed to see, a hidden, frisky side.

"Like I said...so long since you did." she repeated matter-of-factually.

"As you wish m'lady." he smiled as he lied her down on her back on the couch and got on top. He then spread open her hind legs to reveal her glistening and occasionally winking opening. He reached down and kissed her on her lips, then slowly descended down her body from there, making a trail of kisses down her neck, chest, stomach, hips, slowly inching ever closer to the ultimate destination. The mare cooing and moaning with each kiss.

He was just about to reach the send, so close that he could smell her sweet scent of arousal, but was swiftly interrupted by a knock on the front door. "Damn it!" he cursed under his breath with frustration. "Hold on for a minute my love, probably a salespony or something." he got up and left the room, leaving Fluttershy on the couch.

He opened the front door to reveal Twilight. "Twi?" he said with surprise.

"I kind of have something of great importance to tell you Adam, may I come in?" she asked with slight impatience.

Adam looked over to the living room only to see Fluttershy impatiently rubbing herself. He blushed and turned his attention back to the mare at his front door. "Mind making this quick? I kind of have company right now." he whispered so Fluttershy would not overhear the conversation and worry.

The unicorn knew what he meant by "company", he was with HER, the mare Adam chose over Twilight. She suddenly felt like she was intruding on something important. "You know what, I'll just tell you tomorrow when you're less busy, it can wait." she lied, trying to put up a face of contentment. "It's late enough as is." she sheepishly said as she turned to leave, hiding her frustration and jealousy.

"Are you sure?" Adam asked suspiciously.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure, it's okay." she reassured, her face began to falter.

The human would normally probe further, but he had a clearly needy pegasus mare to attend to. "Okay then, night Twi, see you tomorrow" he smiled at her before he closed the door.

"Good night...Adam." she said. "I love you..." she added under her breath before she sighed. She went over to the living room to see what was going on, and with what little she could see through the drawn curtains, she saw her pegasus friend enjoy on of the most great and rare pleasures she has ever encountered; Adam's fingers and tongue working their magic in harmony. She then looked away with anger, her jealously building. A tear fell down her cheek but she quickly brushed it away. "That should've been me..." she said to herself. Twilight walked back to the library in complete heartbreak.

In the library basement, Starlight paced around the room near her cot, angrily talking to herself. "That human is going to pay for humiliating me! I'll make sure of it!" she snarled to herself. "But how can I without risking death?" she asked herself. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of Twilight walking into the library upstairs. She could hear Twilight slowly shuffled her way up the stairs, presumably up to her bedroom. She then heard sounds of sobbing. "Huh?" Starlight was intrigued, she looked up to see that she could hear everything clearly in Twilight's room thanks to a ventilation shaft. She quickly leaned up the wall and perked her eyes up.

"Twilight? What's wrong?" asked a concerned Spike to the mare. He climbed up on the bed and rubbed the mare's back to comfort her.

"Nothing Spike, just the cold knife in my heart being plunged further down." she said through her tears with venom. "I'm used to it."

"Twi, you need to move on already, please, he's not coming back to you, he made his choice, why can't you accept that?" the dragon urged her.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I WENT THROUGH!" Twilight suddenly yelled in anger, shoving Spike off the bed. "And you'll never know!" referencing what she experienced long ago. "You'll never know what it's like to live thousands upon thousands of different lives and falling in love with the same man thousands upon thousands of times!" she continued. Spike was stunned into silence. "If I could FORCE him to fall in love with me, I would, and the only reason I don't is because it'll turn me into another Starlight Glimmer..." she explained.

Starlight, in the basement, heard it all clearly. A devious plan was hatched in her mind. "Oh Twilight, my naive little bitch, I have deep suspicion that you secretly fantasize doing what I did to your monkey sex toy." she gloated evilly. "I have I feeling that once I earn your trust, you will be begging me to show you my ways." The pink coated unicorn thought back to the countless times she successfully forced herself on him. "And it's perfect because she'll be so focused on the human, that she won't be able to stop my goal in bringing true equality to Equestria." she smirked.

The next morning, Adam was in the shower happily humming to himself after another amazing night with Fluttershy who left a few minutes ago to tend to an badly injured squirrel she found yesterday. He found her love for animals quite endearing actually. He turned off the water and dried himself off. But once he wiped the fog off the bathroom mirror he noticed some age lines start to develop on his forehead. He was not too surprised since he's 36 years old now, middle age around the corner.

He just shrugged it off, maybe he just never noticed until now, besides, he had stuff to do today. He put on his clothes and ate a quick breakfast. But before he left, he remembered that he left something in his coat closet yesterday; the Bloodstone scepter. He opened the door to see that it was still there were he left it. He picked it up to analyze it. "Ember must be looking for you." he mused. He then thought back to the Dragon Lord, how tough she was, how cunning she was, how extremely alluring she was with those nice curves and swaying hips. "Probably very worried..." he said as his eyes turned red. "...and willing to submit to me in order to get it back..." he said in a suddenly husky voice. He twirled the scepter around as it began to glow. "...make her my prized collection in my great horde..." he continued.

He suddenly began to move the scepter in ways he never knew he could do, as if he was a trained warrior with a staff. "...a shall make females like her part of my horde...a horde fit for a great Dragon Lord like myself." he smirked evilly. Suddenly, the grandfather clock by the front door rang loudly to announce that it was 10 o'clock. This caused Adam to snap out of his momentary trance, and the staff to drop to the floor. "Oh crud, I have to get going, Twilight wants to see me." he quickly placed the scepter back into the coat closet and ran out of the house, he never once realized that he broke free from a trance.

In the dragon lands, a giant dragon relaxed in his cave, gorging on his extremely immense hoard of gemstones. He greatly enjoyed his new found freedom of responsibility as he reclined back and continued to devour his meal.

“Father?” said a female voice. The large dragon looked down to a much smaller blue female dragon walk into his domain; his daughter.

“Ember?” he was pleasantly surprised to see her. “What brings all the way down here? And where’s the scepter you said you would carry with you outside of your cave?” he said with concern.

“Well...dad...about that...” she was not sure how to explain what just happened to her father, the former Dragon Lord. “...it ran away...” she nervously chuckled.

“WHAT?!” he boomed with shock. “What do you mean it ‘ran away’?” he asked, before a realization dawned on him, normally the scepter was just pole that healed the Bloodstone; a gem that can control dragons should its user so wish, but it has been said that it is not the dragon who chooses the scepter, but the scepter chooses the dragon. “Oh...no...”

“What is it father?” Ember asked, even more worried and stunned by the fact the he knew more than he told her.

“Ember...did you ever, during your time wielding the scepter...submit yourself?” he asked, although the thought of anyone making her daughter submit made him shiver.

Ember blushed. “Y-Yes father, but we didn’t do anything, he rejected my offer, nothing happened.” she assured. “I offered myself because I felt like he truly outsmarted me in our pre-mating combat.” the female dragon explained. “But he turned down his prize of me and the scepter, I swear.” she wanted to assure her father that his precious daughter was not taken advantaged of.

“The scepter doesn’t give a crap about being turned down!” he exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” she was surprised that her own father kept her in the dark about the true workings of the scepter.

“Once a Dragon Lord submits him or herself to another dragon, that scepter will be his to wield whether he wants to or not!” he explained in panic. “And that’s especially true since it is mating season!”

“Mating season?” suddenly Ember realized something. “The mating season ritual combat tournament!” she exclaimed with horror at what just happened.

“Ember, for all that is decent, tell me the name of this dragon that made you submit! For the sake of all dragon kind tell me!” he urged his daughter in desperation. He heard tales of former Dragon Lords misusing their power to hoard all the female dragons to himself and to control them as their own personal sex slaves. “What was this dragon’s name!”

Ember blushed even more and looked down on the floor with shame. “Hey, uh, dad...” she began even more embarrassed about what she was about to admit. “...what if I told you that it wasn’t a dragon that defeated me?”

“What are you talking about Ember? The only non-dragon creature the scepter would ever work on is the same non-dragon creature that discovered the stone, humans, and they’re extinct-” he then remembered that last year, Ember told him that there was a human living in Pony territory, and that she helped him enter the forbidden zone. “...it was HIM wasn’t it?”

Ember’s whole face was beet red from embarrassment and shame, she nodded. “He...put up a really good fight...and I was desperate because no other dragon was good enough and...”

“Now the scepter is back in the hands of the species that created it Ember!” he yelled with disappointment at his daughter. He got up and leaned his face up to her. “That scepter was never meant for a dragon to rule over the others, it was meant for human’s to better enslave us!” he explained. He felt like he should have told her the truth before she accepted the responsibility, but he did not want her to know about dragon kinds most legendary and feared foe; humans.

“But I thought humans were just fairy tales meant to scare off the young?”

“And I thought they went extinct over 10,000 years ago, that’s 50 dragon generations before you, but I guess I was wrong on that account.” he sighed. “I need you to find that human and retrieve the scepter before it corrupts him, understood?” he ordered.

Ember nodded. “Yes father, I will do that.” she immediately turned around and marched out of her father’s den.

“And hurry!” he urged.

Starlight sat down at her school desk, board, as Twilight went on a long spiel about the importance of friendship. She had no other choice in that regard, it was either be lectured to, or risk being choked to death by the collar she wore, but now she’s greatly entertaining the latter choice.

“And that is why friendship is magic and why it is extremely important to make friends.” Twilight wrapped up her lecture, “Any questions?” she asked Starlight.

The pink mare looked at Twilight with annoyance. “Yes, are you always this naive?” she asked. “Friendship? Really? How can friendship possibly help me?” she asked extremely skeptical. “All I want is to be free and left alone.”

“And risk you starting another cult of equality? I don’t think so.” Twilight said bluntly. “Besides, how many friends did you have in your life?” she asked.

“Look Twilight...” she began. “...I grew up in the real-world, and in the real-world, all friendship does is leave you vulnerable to being taken advantage of.” she related. “and the only way to survivor the real-world is to use somepony before than can use you, it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there Twilight, but I guess you don’t see that because you spent your whole life in privilege.” she got up to leave to her room so she could be left alone. “Where I come from, you would do ANYTHING to get what you want, you wouldn’t give a flying buck about who you hurt, you want it, you get it no matter what.”

“Why that’s horrible and selfish!” exclaimed a stunned Twilight. “Forcing ponies to give you what you want!? I believe in compromise where we give-and-take a little to mutually benefit each other and-”

“Is that why you allowed Adam to be tempted away by that shrieking violet of a pegasus?” she bluntly interrupted. Twilight was even more stunned. “I was right about you... you are just pathetic.”

The two were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening to reveal Adam who walked in. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the mare he dreaded encountering the most. “You...” he said at a loss of words as he stared at Starlight, the mare who repeatedly took advantage of him and manipulated him to go along with her plans. He turned to Twilight. “What’s going on?” he asked.

Before Twilight could answer, Starlight spoke up. “Princess Luna wanted her to rehabilitate me as part of my parole.” she explained. “And don’t worry about me, if I do anything that Twilight doesn’t approve, this collar will choke me.” she pointed out.

“Uh Adam, come with me to the kitchen please.” Twilight told the human.

“Damn it Twilight, didn’t you think about the consequences?!” yelled an angry Adam, never expecting the mare who did despicable things to him a year ago to show up in his life again. “Do you have any idea of all the things she’s done to me when I was with her?!” he continued. “And what about Fluttershy? How would she handle the fact that her killer is now back in the streets living with Twilight Sparkle!?” he continued his diatribe.

“I know it’s bad, but I can assure that she’s ready to change and be rehabilitated, we need to give her a second chance and help rebuild her life.” she pleaded. “That way she will never hurt another pony ever again.”

“SHE DOES NOT DESERVE ANY MORE CHANCES!” he yelled completely enraged, he pounded his fist on the kitchen counter. Twilight has never seen him this angry before. Adam then hid his face away in shame once he realized how worked up he got. "I'm sorry..." he apologized. "...I'll show myself out." he walked out through the backdoor so he wouldn't face Starlight in the main room.

Twilight was too stunned to bother stopping him, she was at a loss for words. She sadly walked back into the main room and looked at Starlight and Spike who had looks of concern. "Lesson is done for the day, now just go and leave me alone." she said without care as she walked upstairs to her room.

Spike tried to go after her, but Starlight stopped him. "Let me go instead Spike, I think she needs some mare-on-mare talk for this one." she explained. Spike silently agreed, and let the mare go up. "Time to sow the seeds" she mused in her mind.

Inside Adam's coat closet, the Bloodstone scepter glowed brightly and ominously, Adam's reflection showed up inside the stone, yearning for the human.

To be continued...