Responsibilities

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 8
Chapter 29

Chapter 1

Ugh! Eeep! Uhmp!

I felt something crash into my side, knock me over onto my back, and sudden extra weight pressing me down into the mattress. Damn it, I was enjoying that..

I slowly forced my eyes open to look up at a very happy looking Sunset Shimmer.

“…Sunny?”

“Yeah?”

“Get off me.”

“Do I have to? You are comfy,” she teased, before jumping off the bed. “Come on, it’s morning. We have a meeting in an hour.”

I slowly blinked awake, rubbing my eyes before I glared at the way too cheerful looking unicorn before rolling over. “They can fuck off,” I grumbled, and pulled my blanket over myself.

Now normally waking up with a cute mare on top of you would be fun, but I preferred if it was Luna, and also not this horribly early in the morning.

Suddenly the world spun around, and I found myself weightless before the ground reached up to smack me.

Ow.

I forced my eyes back open. “Damnit, Sunset," I grumbled with a sigh.

Where are the royal guard when you need them? Dungeons! To the dungeons with her! This had to count as assault. Possibly attempted murder.

“You told me to not let you sleep in,” she reminded me with a smile, enjoying this way too much for her own good. “Come on, we’ll be late!”

Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes and folded my wings. “What time is it anyway?”

“Eleven. We have a lunch meeting in an hour,” Sunset said and moved up next to me, shouldering me onto my hooves. “Come on!”

“Why did I agree to an early meeting again?” I asked as I got up and stretched.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Noon is not exactly early.”

“It is when you go to bed at five,” I grumbled and walked out of the guestroom. I knew it would be an early morning today so I slept here instead of risking waking Luna.

Sunset smiled and flicked her ear. “That’s your own fault.”

“My marefriend is nocturnal.”

“Well, there is that,” she admitted and frowned. “Not sure I could handle that. It’s easier with Twilight.”

“Easier schedule, more difficult getting the time?” I asked and yawned again, rubbing my eyes as I walked over to pour a cup of extra strong tea, before jumping onto the couch. No need for a bagel, it’s a lunch meeting after all.

“…True,” Sunset admitted and jumped up to settle down next to me. “She’s always so busy… and lives in Ponyville. Especially with new new student.”

Sipping my tea, I nodded. “Not easily being with a Princess.”

“No,” she agreed and flicked her ear with a frown. “It’s not.”

“Tea?”

“Meeting, remember?”

Brilliant, not even time to wake up properly.

“Why did I agree to this again?”

“Because a very awesome and beautiful mare asked you to, and you folded like a wet napkin?” Sunset commented with a grin.

I gave her a flat look. “Laps. You will be running them.”

It's way too early for Sunset. Why did I ask her to wake me again?

“Aww, you know you love me.”

I rubbed my forehead beneath my horn, and groaned, before saying, "Way too fucking early for your antics. Why do I need to hold a speech at a school?”

"Because you are long overdue, and can't avoid it any more, and you know it,” Sunset said and bumped her shoulder against mine. “And it’s not a speech, it’s a meeting about it.”

“I’m awful at public speaking!”

“It’s just fillies and colts, it’ll be fine,” she countered with a smile, “but we really should get going.”

“And you are coming why?”

She grinned. “To make sure you don’t try to escape. Twilight asked me to.”

“Laps. I promise,” I grumbled and jumped off the couch. “Then I’m kicking your tail up and down the field and then more laps.”

“You just like watching me run,” she teased. "Don't try to deny it, I've seen you looking!"

Oh, for crying out loud.

I sighed at her. “Somebody is in a horribly good mood. Why?”

“Twilight is coming to the city today and will be staying for a couple of days. A meeting about something or the other.”

Sunset shrugged.

I raised an eyebrow at her, and said, “I see,” before I frowned at her. “So why are you flirting with me?”

“I’m in a good mood, and your reactions are fun.”

“Tell me why we are friends again?”

“You like watching me run in circles?”

I bounced a bagel off her horn.

Chapter 2

I finished the sentence and then stretched my wings, putting the quill down as I looked around the peaceful park.

It was one of the smaller parks in the castle itself, being some ten meters across with a couple of trees and brushes. Some flowers too.

I found this one a couple of weeks ago and it was quite nice to be honest. Private.

Yawning a bit I blinked and rubbed my eyes before putting my draft aside to dry and picking up the next one.

I really hoped that this story would work out. One of the first wholly original ones I written for print. At least for wide publication, the ones I wrote just for Luna didn’t count.

Because everyone like air pirates and floating islands are just cool.

Hmm.

Should the ships have balloons or some magical way to keep afloat?

The sound of wings drew my attention from that very important question and I looked up to see a changeling slowly coming in for landing.

“Your Highness,” I said and got up to bow.

Skitter dropped down onto the grass, glaring at me, “Sir.”

I smirked at her, “I’ll keep calling you that until you stop calling me sir.”

The Changeling Princess sighed and settled down on the grass, wings buzzing a bit, “We’ll see about that. Sir.”

I frowned at her in slight annoyance before I rolled my eyes and smiled, “So what’s up?”

“I have no idea what to do,” she admitted, “I have never done this before.”

“Done what?” I asked and got up, moving to lay down next to her, “I thought your lessons were going well? Is it Chrysalis?”

Skitter shook her head, “No,” and shifted slightly to lean against me, “I haven’t heard a word from mother for months. It’s worse.”

“Skitter, what’s wrong?”

“…Princess Celestia gave me a weeks vacation.”

I blinked at her, “What.”

Skitter frowned at the grass, “I’m not allowed to study or do any of the normal duties. My little Hive handle itself most of the time anyway so now I have nothing to do!”

I stared at her before I sighed and let my head slowly drop onto my front hooves, “…Your massive problem is being forced to take a vacation?”

“Yes.”

Don’t laugh, don’t laugh…

Skitter pouted, “Why do you taste like you think it’s funny?”

“That’s because it is, Skitter,” I said with a grin, poking her with my wing, “Just relax, read a book or something. Enjoy the sunshine.”

“I have never done nothing before! I always had my duty, I always had my missions!”

I shook my head, “Skitter, you are a big bug and you have to learn to… not do things. You are royalty now, you will be the Queen of the Changelings one day. I think that may be what Celestia want you to learn here.”

“How do you mean?” Skitter asked with a frown, her wings buzzing a bit before I put my wings over them to stop it.

“What I mean is that someday, the responsibility for the Changelings will be all on you, and that’s a lot of pressure. You need to take time for yourself, relax, recharge.”

Skitter frowned and shifted a bit, “…Not sure how to do that, sir.”

“This is a pretty good start. Soft grass, spending time with friends, warm sunlight.”

“…And what then?”

I grinned, “Go grab some tea or read a book. Visit a museum and then watch a play. Sleep in late. Just do whatever you want Skitter.”

Skitter frowned at the grass, seeming slightly confused about the entire concept.

Rolling my eyes, I floated my bottle of cider in front of her, “Start with this. Just enjoy the sunlight and have a drink,” I said and cast a spell to carefully chill it down to just above freezing.

Skitter picked it up with her magic and peered at it before carefully taking a sip, “…This isn’t bad.”

“Told you.” I said with a smile as I sorted through my papers, getting them in order before putting them to the side, “I need to go soon though, I have a meeting with my printer. Something about a supply problem.”

Skitter nodded, “Can I come?”

I smiled at her, “I thought you were meant to relax this week and not sit in on meetings.”

“I don’t normally have meetings and I could bring the cider?”

“Fair enough I guess.”

Chapter 3

“Sir?”

I blinked and looked away from my book, “Oh, hi Cloud. How’s things?”

My Pegasus friend smiled and shifted his wings in his golden armour, “I’m good. Kind of excited for my sister, she’ll graduate tomorrow.”

Closing my book, I grinned, “That’s awesome! Sapphire Rain, right? I don’t think I ever met her.”

Cloud nodded , and after a moment of hesitation “…I have a favor to ask.”

“Name it.”

He scraped his hoof on the stone floor of the library, “Rain wants to be a screenwriter, and it would mean a lot to her if you would talk to her, and maybe look at her current play; maybe even write her a recommendation for theater school? I know you normally don’t do this kind of thing and I would hate…”

“Of course, I will;” I interrupted him, “Stop being silly.”

“Thank you, Page. This will mean a lot to her.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said and jumped off the couch, “Getting off your shift?”

He nodded, “Yep. Been patrolling the airspace above the city all day.”

“That has got to suck.”

He shrugged his wings, “Not too bad, as long it’s not raining.”

I turned and looked out the closest window, where it was pouring down, before I looked at him again in amusement, “So…”

“Completely sucked today,” He agreed, “At least it’s not cold yet.”

I shivered at that idea, even though… in all honesty, since I grew the wings I haven’t been cold. I could still feel the cold, but being cold? Not since the wings.

“Wait, I thought pegasi were resistant to cold?” I asked with a frown as we left the library.

“There is resistance to cold and then there is flying around in freezing cold rain all day.”

“…Good point,” I agreed, “Come on, let’s find something to eat,” I continued, the book I had been reading into my satchel.

“I kind of just want to lay down and sleep for twenty hours. Something warm would be nice, but the mess won’t be serving anything for another couple of hours.”

“Who said anything about the mess?” I asked, “Come on, let’s see what the chefs have ready.”

That perked him up, “Oh, now that’s an idea… normally that sort of thing would get me reported!”

“See?” I asked with a grin, “Now you are just escorting me around, off duty, which should be commended.”

“Exactly!” he agreed with a grin.

Chuckling, we trotted down the stairs and turned towards the kitchens, “How’re things, anyway?”

“Eh, not too bad,” He said and shrugged his wings, “When it’s not raining on you, the patrols aren’t bad, and I don’t need to fly all across Equestria with messages anymore.”

“Doesn’t it get boring flying circles around the City all shift?”

He shook his head, “While some action would be nice, a boring patrol is a good patrol; it means everything is going right.”

“True that,” I agreed with a nod.

“Besides, it could be worse,” he continued, “Could be standing around outside a door all day. You know, like Swift.”

“That’s hardly all he does,” I said, “Besides, doesn’t he make a third again more than you because he gained a couple of ranks?”

Cloud grimaced and flicked his ears, “…With the paperwork he’s doing, I’ll prefer flying around in rainstorms any day; that’s not what I joined the Guard for.”

“It also means that you’ll never get above Sergeant, Cloud.”

He sighed and shifted his wings, “…There is that.”

Grinning, I slapped the back of his head with my wing, “Come on, I’ll bet you’ll at least make Lieutenant.”

“Lieutenant my tail! Captain at the very least!”

“I thought you had to be able to read for that?” I teased him, before ducking out of the way of his hoof and trotting into the kitchens.

Oh, that smells amazing. What is that?

“My Lord! What are…” exclaimed the white-coated earth pony, her blue mane tucket under a chef’s hat, as she looked up from her stew, before sighing “What can I get you?”

“Buttercup, how are things?” I asked with a smile at, “Why do you always assume I want something?”

“Because you only visit when you are hungry?” She asked with a smile, “I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of things ready right now.”

“Not even that amazing soup of yours? The one with paprika?”

“…I didn’t say I had nothing ready. What do you take me for, a common cook?”

Chapter 4

Gzk.

A soft nuzzle slowly drew me awake, “My Page, you need to wake up.”

“…ot asleep,” I grumbled and cuddled closer to the couch, “Mmm… how’s the paperwork going?”

Luna sighed and settled her wing across my back, “Page, this isn’t going to work.”

Groaning, I rolled over to look up at her as I slowly blinked awake, “How do you mean?”

Luna shifted position to lay down fully, resting her head on my chest, “You can’t keep this up, you can’t spend all nights with me and then have meetings and such during the day.”

“Luna, we’re getting married, there is no way I’ll leave you alone during the nights so that’s just plain out,” I said and stroked her flowing mane.

She frowned at me, “I don’t expect you too, silly pony. But you can’t keep this up. Go back to how things were before, when you stayed until three or four and slept until noon.”

“…But that means I can’t go to bed with you or wake up with you.”

Luna frowned and then nodded, “That is one drawback, yes,” she agreed, “But you have responsibilities during the day. More than I do.”

Sighing, I nodded and nuzzled, “…Maybe you are right. I’m always so tired.”

“Of course, I’m right,” Luna said with a smile, “Better get used to it.”

I stuck my tongue out at her and stole a kiss, “…Fine.”

She smiled and nuzzled, “So, go to bed. I’ll ask one of the maids to wake you at noon.”

“Well, I can’t now! I’m fully awake!”

Luna smiled and shifted to look into my eyes, “Mmm… There is that spell that lets you fall asleep anytime you like. But maybe I can tire you out a bit instead?”

That’ll work!

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Something shook me slightly and I forced my eyes open to see a maid with white mane carefully shaking my shoulder.

…Wonder if I can get a copy of that uniform for Luna?

“Sir?” she said quietly, “Time to wake up.”

Nodding, I stretched and rubbed my eyes, “Thank you, Gentle Silver,” I said quietly and carefully stretched and slipped out from beneath Luna’s Wing.

Or tried to anyway, Luna pulled me tight for a moment and smiled lazily, her eyes barely opening as she gave me a small kiss and whispered, “Good morning,” she mumbled.

“Morning,” I mumbled back and gave her a kiss in turn, “Go bad to sleep, My Sky.”

Nodding, Luna nuzzled closer to the pillow, eyes closing again.

Carefully slipping out of bed, I stretched again before leaving the bedroom with a slightly blushing Gentle Silver.

“Thanks for waking me,” I said and rubbed my eyes, “I’d never wake up in time otherwise.”

She smiled, “Very welcome, Sir,” she said and lit up her horn, pouring me a cup of steaming hot tea, “Would you like me to wake you tomorrow as well, sir?”

“…That’s probably wise, yeah. Thank you.”

“Very welcome, sir. Your guard Amber is waiting outside for when you wish to leave, sir. There is also a message from Lady Shimmer.”

“Hmm?” I asked and nibbled at a daisy sandwich.

“She’s wondering if you would be able to move your practice session to an earlier hour, she has dinner with Princess Twilight at the normal time.”

I nodded and blew on the tea, “Of course, let her know that it’s fine. Around three should work.”

“Will do, sir. If that’s all?”

“It is, thank you, Silver.”

Smiling, she bowed and retreated out of the chamber, leaving me to my breakfast and trying to wake up.

Blinking at my cup of tea, I rubbed my eyes and suppressed a yawn. Slipping back into bed and beneath Lunas warm wing again sounded really, really like a very good idea right now.

Sipping my tea, I stretched my wings and then finished my sandwich as I looked out through the window. Raining again.

Damn it, what were they doing over at the weather service, it’s been raining hard for three days now.

That didn’t really motivate me to stay out of bed right now, especially as I didn’t really have anything much planned today for another four hours now.

Glancing down at my tea, I quickly finished it before putting it down and jumping off my couch and trotting over to the door, “Morning Amber?” I said as I entered and then nodded at the guards, “Morning guys.”

“Morning, sir,” Amber answered, “Sleep well?” the changeling asked as she got up from where she had been waiting.

“As little as I got from it,” I agreed and stretched my wings, “Let’s go for a run, that’ll wake me up.”

I’d need it or Sunset was going to wipe the floor with me later.

AN// Many thanks to Seonor for betaing this section.

Chapter 5

“Are you kidding? Now it stops raining?” Sunset groaned and looked up at the sky, “Come on!”

“A couple of hours ago would have been nice,” I agreed and shook some water off my wings, “We need to find somewhere inside to do this.”

Sunset nodded and shook her mane back, twisting the excess water from it with her magic, “No kidding. Nice for winter too.”

“Then again, being able to do this in any weather is good practice,” I said and spread my wings, casting a spell to dry myself off fully.

Sunset scowled at me before she did the same, running her magic across herself, “…True.”

“Well, look at it like this,” I said with a grin, “Now you don’t need a bath before your date.”

That got me a dry look, “The hell I don’t,” she said, “No way I’m going on a date with Twilight without a real bath. I’m sticky and covered in dust.”

“Looks fine to me.”

She rolled her eyes, “You are as messy as I am, Page. You really want to wake Princess Luna up like that?”

“…I suppose not,” I submitted with a nod, folding my wings again with a sigh, “Royal baths it is.”

While I might not wake up next to her like this, I could still be there when she woke up.

“So, bath?” she suggested and picked up her bag with her magic, slipping it across her back.

“Sounds good,” I agreed and yawned before trotting along with her, “So, what have you and Twilight got planned?”

Sunset smiled, “Thinking to take her to the theater, she doesn’t go very often. Might be a nice surprise, I think.”

“Oh? What play?”

“The one by that new playwright, Rosespear,” She said, “It’s said to be a rather funny and romantic play.”

“I heard of it,” I said and held the door open for her, “Let me know if it’s good? I have been looking for something to take Luna to.”

“Will do,” Sunset agreed and dropped her bag on the floor before slowly wading into the water, “Oh, that’s nice.”

I watched her for a moment, dropping my own bag before I smirked and got an idea.

“No! No No No!” Sunset quickly said as she noticed my look, “Not today!”

“…You’re no fun,” I grumbled and aborted my run towards the pool to move slowly into the water, instead of doing a cannonball into it, “How did you know, anyway?”

Sunset stuck her tongue out at me, “I know you.”

I most definitely didn't pout as I moved into the water with her, slowly moving my wings through the water to get the worst of the dust from them, “Whatever.”

That got a giggle from her and she poked my shoulder.

I poked back.

She splashed me, and I splashed back before I tackled her.

Five minutes later, I relaxed at the shallow end, letting my wings float on the water beside me.

“I still say you cheated,” Sunset complained and sent a small wave in my direction, “No fair using earth pony strength.”

“Shouldn’t have started something then,” I countered with a smirk.

“Oh, please,” she said and poked my wing before floating a book over from her bag, "Have you read this, by the way?”

“Hmm?” I asked and folded my wings, moving next to her.

“A book on fire magic,” She said, “Twilight loaned it for me a couple of weeks ago. It has some really interesting spells in it, like a swarm of fireflies.”

“Huh, really? Never heard of that one,” I said and then frowned, “…I’m not that good at fire magic, that’s more your thing. I can do a spray of fire, but anything more advanced takes more than I can do so far.”

She nodded, “Well, still good to read about. I read your ice magic book. Not that good at it, but it was interesting.”

“True,” I agreed and moved closer to read over her shoulder as she opened the book as she turned it to the spell of fireflies.

Sunset glanced at me, “See? I never seen a spell like this anywhere else.”

I frowned, “Neither have I…” I agreed, “Where did she find this book?”

“No idea,” Sunset said with a shrug and turned the page, “The language is old though, I bet she got it as a gift at some point.”

Nodding, I hmmed, “Mind if I borrow it for a couple of days? Maybe it’ll let me figure out this entire fire thing a bit.”

I actually found ice magic easier. While generating thermal energy was easier than compressing it, I found controlling it more difficult. It just tended to spiral out of control and just… devolve into a general ball of flame.

She shook her head, “No, that’s fine. Just be careful with it.”

“You mean like not bringing it into the bath?” I teased and bumped my side against hers.

“…Exactly like that.”

AN// Many thanks to TransientLunatic for betaing this part.

Chapter 6

Luna looked at the paper and then at another before holding them up next to each other with a frown.

Finally, she got down from the chair and moved across the chamber to where I was laying on the couch, reading a book, Fern curled on the floor next to me. The timberwolf now almost twice the size as when I got him, growing quickly.

It would be interesting to see how large he would get, the Timberwolves I've seen in the wild were well over twice the size of a pony.

Heh! In Diarchy Equestria, pony rides you!

“Page, can you have a look at this?” she asked and held the papers out for me before she hesitated with a small frown and sighed, “Page? Seriously?”

“What did I miss?” I complained, letting the illusion fade away while revealing that I was really in the comfortable chair to the side, “I had it perfect this time!”

Luna shook her head, “Almost. But there was no scent,” she said before she moved over, “Colts, you get a new toy and it’s all you can think of.”

Grinning, I stole a nuzzle, “But it’s such a cool trick and I almost have it down perfectly! Now, what was it you wanted me to look at?”

“Does this make sense to you?” She asked and handed over the papers

I held them up and read through them real quickly.

A proposal for the construction of a new library for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns with some cost estimates.

“Not really,” I told her after a moment, “This should be on your sisters desk.”

“That’s what I thought too,” she agreed, “But not what I meant. The prices posted seemed high.”

I shook my head and looked again before I shrugged my wings, “To be honest, I’m the wrong pony to ask. It’s a high number of bits, sure, but maybe they are building it out? of marble or something to match the rest of the school. I think I would drop this on Sunshine’s desk and let her handle it.”

Luna hesitated and then shook her head as she eyed the paper, “No, I will get to the bottom of this. It may have ended up on my table by mistake, but it’s now my mystery to solve.”

I frowned at her, “Suspecting some kind of embezzlement or something?”

She frowned, “Don’t know. But I intend to figure out,” she continued and returned to her desk, digging through the piles.

“Love, just hand it over to the treasury to figure out,” I sighed, “It’s literally their job.”

Luna stuck her tongue out at me, “Not this time! This one is mine!”

I chuckled and returned to the book on firemagic, “Have fun, love.”

“Mhmm,” she agreed got back to work, flicking through a book.

“For somepony that dislikes math as much as I do, you seem highly motivated about this one.”

Luna hummed and turned the page, “I like mysteries.”

“Not a fan myself,” I admitted, “They are usually really easy to figure out and as such boring or horribly constructed with no logical sense and then they are stupid instead.”

“I’m talking about real life, not stories, My Page,” Luna answered and switched papers.

I raised my eyebrows at her, “There is a difference? It’s still just a story, it just that it has to make somewhat logical sense. You just tend to have a lot less information available to you. Once you figure out where to start, it should all just fall into place.”

Luna frowned at that, “You may have a point there,” she admitted, “But you need to find the right point to start."

“Money, it’s the money,” I said and turned the page to read about a more explody type of fireball, “It’s always the money. Money, power or the mare.”

“Or stallion,” Luna agreed and picked up another paper, “or pride.”

“Bundled under power,” I said and frowned at the book, “Does this make sense? The power inversion causes a rapid recompilation of power and a semi self-sustaining exothermic reaction until the stability keeps it at equilibrium until the thermobaric pressure reaches critical level.”

“Always check the spell equation, not the magic-babble. They tend to ramble, especially in the older books. For more specific advice on fire magic, you have to ask my sister, I can’t do it,” Luna answered distractedly while frowning at the papers, “…You’re right, I need a better place to start. I’m going to the treasury.”

Nodding in agreement, I then turned to look over at her, “Want some company?”

“No, it’s fine,” she answered, trotting over and kisses my cheek, “It’s bedtime for you soon anyway and I don’t want to keep you up. Besides, you know you would just be bored.”

“With you around? How could I possibly be bored?”

That got a smile from her and another kiss before she brushed her wing along my back on the way out, “Sweet dreams, My Page.”

“Sweet dreams, My Sky.”

Looking after her for a couple of moments, I sighed and turned back to my book. This split schedule wasn’t exactly great, but at the very least I wasn’t tired all the time.

Hmm. I should try out some of these spells tomorrow, I have to check if Sunset is free tomorrow, she was good at these kind of things. Don’t want to accidentally set my mane on fire.

Again.

“Amber?”

“Yes, sir?” my changeling guard answered and looked out at me from around the backrest of the chair.

“Is it tomorrow or the day after Twilight leaves for Ponyville?” I asked, looking up at her. I think I may be pretty much immune to jump scares after Skitter and then Amber following me around.

Amber tilted her head in thought, “Tomorrow morning I believe, sir.”

“Thank you, Amber. Not sure what I would do without you.”

“You’re welcome, sir,” she answered with a smile and the next time I checked, she were gone.

Smiling, I returned to my book.

Changelings. Got to love them.

Chapter 7

The dream realm shimmered around me as I flicked through the bad dreams, the portals moving before me.

Not a single Nightmare yet today.

While it was boring, boring was a good thing. Boring meant no ponies being terrorized, which was a very good thing.

Didn’t change the fact that things were boring though.

Even worse, since I learned how to do this, normal dreaming didn’t work. No random entertaining dreams.

It just didn’t work, I tried.

It was either fully… well, awake was the wrong word… but it was this or completely asleep with no dreams.

Getting up, I stretched and spread my wings before looking around. Sleep until morning or stop by a friend?

Sorting out their portals, I looked around them. A couple were just deep calm sleep, Swift Spear and Silver Leaf were deep asleep.

Thunder Cloud was having a pink dream which meant not touching it with a large pole.

Sunset and Twilight were missing which was amusing but also not surprising considering Twilight was leaving early tomorrow morning.

Luna was still awake.

Applejack was also having a pink dream so that’s out, we weren’t that close anyway. Rarity was having a mild nightmare.

Not uncommon, she was always so stressed, that often leads to nightmares. Except on Thursdays I noticed. Then her dreams were always calm and sometimes even pink.

Reaching out, I tapped my horn against the dream. The mirror of her dark silvery portal calmed down to a smooth silver shine of calm sleep.

There, she’ll sleep better now.

Well, don’t want to bother her now. I sent her dream away with a smile and a flick of my hoof before I looked at Cadence’s dream.

It shimmered a bright pink. I think I've only seen her have a nightmare a couple of times and blue maybe a dozen times.

Pink was normal for her as expected of the alicorn of love. No way in hell I stepped a single hoof in there, no matter how curious, if just for the fact that I’m pretty sure she would be able to tell. Out of all the Alicorns, her Realm was the closest to mine, even closer than Luna.

She couldn’t Dreamwalk, but that’s likely because she never learned to. Even before I learned, I could feel when Luna entered mine. At least as soon as I realized what that feeling was.

I visited her a couple of times in the past, I bet she would be able to tell by now.

So, while I may be a bit curious about exactly what the Alicorn of Love might dream of so strongly so often, there was no way in hell I’d check. Also, the 'not being able to look her in the eye afterwards' also factored in heavily.

Shining Armor was missing. Working late wasn’t uncommon but him pulling longer hours than me was rare. Must be preparing for something big, wasn’t there some kind of holiday coming up that I knew of? Maybe something special for just the Crystal Empire?

Turning to the next portal, Celestia was sleeping a calm blue dream.

I think I’ll drop by and see how she’s doing today.

Touching my horn to the dream, I passed through the portal to find myself on a mountain cliff overlooking the ocean. The sun was shining far above and the grass was waving in the soft wind. By the edge of the cliff was a smaller Celestia, looking out over the ocean far below. She had a pink white coat and long pink mane.

She looked…

She looked like she was younger than I was.

Quite frankly, she was adorable! I couldn’t wait to tease her about this!

Tapping my hoof against the grass, I solidified the dream to make her fully aware of what was going on instead of the normal dream state.

Celestia flicked her right ear and blinked, looking around before she smiled, “Page. Welcome.”

“Hi Sunshine,” I said and trotted over to sink down next to her, “This is a nice dream.”

Celestia nodded and shifted a bit, looking up at me, “It’s close to where Luna and I grew up.”

“It’s beautiful,” I said and looked down at the sea, “Where is it?”

“Was,” Celestia sighed softly, “It fell into the sea thousands of years ago.”

“Oh.”

Celestia nodded, “Time always moves on. Even landscapes are not forever, Page,” she said and then smiled a bit, “It may not exist anywhere but here, but in here it’s still real.”

“This can be as real as anything out there,” I said and smiled back, “If only for a little while.”

She nodded and shifted to stretch her wings, “That’s very true,” she agreed, “I wouldn’t mind dreaming about this place a bit more often,” she admitted after a moment.

“I’ll see what I can do, Sunshine.”

“Thank you,” she said before looking up at one of the clouds, “…That one looks like a bunny.”

“…Maybe if you squint?”

Chapter 9

I hesitated by the door to the throne room.

I really, really didn’t want to go out there, court was in full swing. I could hear Celestia from here giving some sort of ruling.

Going out there would mean that everypony would stare at me again. Normally I could avoid it, just being out in public got some looks but as soon as I got out among the nobles and in official settings I always got too much attention.

I didn’t care for it.

Glancing back at my wings I lifted one of them, I frowned. Maybe I could wear my cloak more?

Pros… Ponies can’t ogle my wings, Luna likes the look, it helps a surprising amount against the wind when it get cold. Not that I actually get cold as such anymore.

Cons… It’s a bit old fashioned.

That’s a really good idea actually. I should wear my cloak more, especially in official settings. It was part of my uniform! Well, technically.

It may stand out, but it stood out less than wings.

The door opened and Celestia entered, talking with one of her aides, a blue coated unicorn carrying a stack of papers.

“Hey,” I said and folded my wings, “Good… okay, courting is the wrong word…”

That got a smile from the larger Alicorn, “Page! And yes, courting wouldn’t be quite accurate,” she agreed and moved over to me, “How are you doing?”

“Well enough now when I’m not exploding.”

That earned me a couple of raised eyebrows as I moved to trot along next to her, “Exploding?”

“I spent a lot of yesterday exploding,” I sighed, “I was wondering if you could give me some hints about that?”

That got a smile from her, “Don’t do that?”

“Very funny. At least you didn’t do the entire ‘premature explosions’ gag,” I sighed and rolled my eyes.
“Would have been too easy. Join me for lunch?”

I shrugged my wings, “Sure.”

The dining room was the small one close to the throne room, usually used for lunches between court sessions.

Two plates were set by the table.

I’m done being surprised by the staff of this castle. I literally joined up with Celestia two minutes ago. How in the…

Yep, I’m done. Fuck it.

I’m going to stop worrying about it and just go with the flow on these things. We have the best staff in the world and that’s all there is to it. They all dual class as ninjas.

Settling down across from Celestia, it only took a minute before we each had a meal of salad and a glass of wine and then we were alone again. Tasting the salad, she then glanced at me, “Now, what is this about explosions?”

“Tried some more advanced fire magic than a gout of flame. Every single spell I tried explodes on me. Is this an Alicorn thing?” I asked and picked up a split grape in my magic, “Just… kaboom. Fire everywhere and Sunset pissed at me for almost setting her on fire.”

Celestia grinned, “Premature explosions?”

Rolling my eyes, I ate my grape, “Didn’t you say that one was too easy?”

“Apparently not,” she commented and stuck her tongue out at me as she speared a piece of cucumber on her fork, “Did you complete the spell equation correctly?”

“I did. Sunset and Swift Spear both double checked it,” I sighed and picked at my salad with my fork, “No luck.”

Celestia hmmed, “It may be an ‘Alicorn thing’ as you put it. I can’t do ice magic, just as my sister can’t do fire magic. It’s simply too far from our Realms of Power.”

“Oh,” I sighed and speared a piece of tomato before I frowned, “…Wait, isn’t my Realm technically creativity or something like it. What about spell casting isn’t creative?”

She looked thoughtful and hmmed, “Well, you could simply just be horrible at fire spells.”

“…Not sure if that’s meant to be comforting or not.”

Celestia smiled and sipped her wine, “Nobody can be good at all kinds of spells, Page. Everypony have schools of magic they are better or worse at, not just Alicorns.”

“Even Twilight?”

“She’s a bit of an exception,” she admitted and then stuck her tongue out at me, “But between you and me, don’t ask her to cast transformation spells.”

“Huh?”

She grinned, “I heard rumours about orange frogs.”

“…We aren’t talking about the colour, are we?” I asked carefully.

“Not even remotely.”

“That’s mildly horrifying,” I commented and sipped my wine, “No transformation spells, noted. So… think I’ll be able to figure out the entire fire spell thing?”

Celestia nodded, “Assuming it’s not in conflict with your Realm, which as you said it shouldn’t be, possibly. But perhaps hold off on it for a couple of years if you really have trouble with it and then try again.”

“Fair enough.”

Nodding again Celestia then looked at me, “Would you mind doing me a favour? The new Griffon Ambassador arrives next week, I would like you to attend the reception if possible. Griffons have a tendency to like you.”

I blinked at her, “New Griffin Ambassador? What happened to Ambassador Ironbeak?”

“The new Griffon King recalled him to be replaced by somepony who more aligned with his politics,” Celestia explained, “It’s pretty standard when it comes to Griffons.”

Oh. Too bad, I liked the old Griffon. He always served me fish when we were invited for dinner.

“Sure, I’ll be there.”

Chapter 10

Panting softly, I sunk down next to Luna on the soft grass, looking up at the stars above through the flickering light of the torches lighting up the courtyard.

“Out of breath?” Luna teased and nuzzled at my ear.

I shot her a small glare, “How can you always be a step ahead of every single trick I try to pull? And how can you possibly keep going at that pace?”

That got a smile from her, “Practice, My Page,” and her wing settled across my back, “Practice and experience. I am a bit older than you.”
“Yeah, and the ocean is a bit moist,” I teased and leaned against her slightly, “…am I even getting better?”

“You are, I promise,” Luna said with a smile at me, “I’m just that much better.”

“I got a couple of hits in this time!”

“You did,” she agreed with a nod before she nuzzled, “You’re getting sneaky with those illusions of yours.”

“Thank you,” I agreed and nuzzles, “I’ll get you soon enough, My Sky.”

She smirked at that, “We’ll see about that.”

I eyed her for a second, “I know where you are ticklish.”

That got a laugh from her and she bumped her nose against mine, “As do I… and I’m stronger.”

…Fair point.

Relaxing against the grass, I poked at it with a frown, “You are however missing something, My Sky.”

“Hmm?”

I pounced at her from the other side as my illusion self turned into sparkles, pinning her beneath me as I nuzzled at her neck, “That wasn’t me.”

Luna eeped and fluffed her wings in slight surprise before she looked at me, “…I admit, you are getting a lot better with those illusions. That one felt real.”

I grinned and cuddled close, nosing along her neck, “Gotcha.”

Sticking her tongue out at me, she flicked her ears and then nuzzled, “Always,” she admitted, “Always, My Page.”

Kissing her, I moved to lay next to her where my illusion used to be, getting comfortable beneath her wing again.

Relaxing next to her, I settled down on the grass and Luna shifted to rest her head against the back of my neck, “My Page?”

“Hmm-eeep!”

Flicking my ear, I glared a bit at her and she smiled at me in turn,
“Just making sure.”

Rolling my eyes, I settled down again. Okay, maybe I earned that one.

“I have been thinking of something however,” Luna said after a couple of moments.”

“Hmm?” I asked and rolled onto my back, hugging her close with my frontlegs.

Luna shifted to look down at me, “You need your own guard.”

I raised my eyebrows at her, “Luna, I have a guard, two infact. Amber is constantly following me around. Swift is also following me around almost anytime I leave the castle grounds. Guards? Those I have.”

That got a smile from her, “Not how I meant, My Page. What I mean is that you need a Guard. Such as my Nightguard and my sisters Dayguard.”

“Why? I’m not royalty.”

“You will be, however, once we get married. But that’s not why, Page. You are an Alicorn and royalty or not, you are special. Princess Cadence has her Crystalguard.”

“Twilight don’t have a guard!”

Luna smiled, “Oh, she does, I’m just not quite certain she realizes it. The other elements count.”

“If that count, then my changelings does too!”

She shook her head, “Their first priority is their Queen and Hive, My Page. While Princess Skitter does like you, if they have to choose, they will chose their Princess. That’s why you need your own guard.”

“The Nightguard…”

“Is my Guard,” Luna finished for me and sighed, “While I can order them to protect you as a priority, in an reallity they will protect me first. At best their priorities would be split.”

“I don’t need my own military, Luna,” I groaned with a sigh, “I’m not royalty and let’s face it, I’m barely an alicorn.”

She looked at me with those big bluegreen eyes, “Please?”

“That’s so very much not fair.”

“It would make me feel better that in a crisis, your protection is focused on you and not me.”

Sighing, I held her close, “I’m not winning this, am I?”

“You are most certainly not.”

“...Fine."

Chapter 11

“Thank you for coming to this thing with me,” I sighed and sipped the admittedly rather good wine.

Sunset shrugged, “Hey, how often do you get invited to a royal reception?” she commented and adjusted her dress a bit with her magic, “...Do you ever get used to these things?”

“Dress or receptions? You could have worn the uniform you know, you are entitled to it.”

“What, and look a couple of hundred years out of place? You just like that the cloak hides your wings, I for one like the opportunity to wear a nice dress from time to time” she commented and then shook her head, “The reception.”
Somepony is in a mood today.

“It’s not too bad,” I said and looked around. It was held during the middle of the day and Luna was fast asleep.

Lucky, lucky mare.

That however left me without anyone to talk to. Sure, Celestia would be here but she would be busy with pleasantries the entire time. Serves her right really.

That left me bored though so I invited Sunset to join me.

“...Not, I suppose it’s not,” she said and looked around, “At least I haven’t been hit on yet by somepony twice my age.”

“I must be scaring them away, sorry. I’ll move so you can get the full experience.”

Her look could have melted lead, “You stay where you are. You got me into this, you get me out of it.”

“What, the dress? Scandalous.”

“Like that, would you?”

“Don’t know, I see that all the time. This looks good on you.”

“Thank you,” she said with a smile, “I admit, for being so old fashioned that uniform suit you too. Even if it was originally for your roleplaying.”

“Be nice, Sunny,” I snorted and sipped my wine again before I sighed and looked around, “Remind me again, how long do you have to stay before it’s polite to leave?”

Normally I wouldn’t care, but this was Celestia's thing and she invited me especially.

Sunset shrugged again, “About two hours or so at the very least.”

“I could be writing,” I sighed, “Like I don’t have enough things stealing time away from that already.”

She nodded and stole one of the cucumber things from my plate, “You do tend to keep busy. Anything new?”

I nodded and protected the rest of my food, “Luna wants me to get my own Guard.”

“You have guards.”

“That’s what I said! But no, she means an actual guard force. Like the Nightguard,” I complained quietly, “Forget the fact that there is no need for it, but when exactly am I going to have time for that?!”

Sunset frowned and slowly nodded before she smiled, “I could do it,” she offered.

“What? Join?”

“Oh, buck no,” she snorted in amusement, “I’ll set it up for you. I’ll take Swift Spear for help and I’ll likely need some sort of paperwork signed for Captain Cold Skies for that, but I’ll fix it for you if you like.”

I blinked at her, “You would do that?”

“Sure,” she said and then she shrugged, “In all honestly, it would be interesting.”

“Thank you, Sunset, that would be amazing. I’d owe you a big favor for this.”

“Damn right you would,” she agreed and stole another cucumber thing with a smile.

Nodding, I then handed her the plate, “I should likely go say hello to the guest of honor. But seriously, this is a reception for a griffon. Where are all the fish? Maybe meats?”

Sunset stuck her tongue out, “Carnivore.”

“What, you were on Earth. Don’t tell me you were a...vegan!”

“Vegetarian, thank you very much,” She said with a grin, “You do know that cows here talk, right?”

“That had to have been a surprise for you the first time someone ate steak.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

Grinning, I shook my head and made my way across the floor towards the new ambassador. He was younger than the Ironbeak, wearing something that approached a military uniform and flanked by a pair of guards in armour.

“Ambassador Razorwing,” I said with a nod, “A pleasure meeting you.”

He looked down his beak at me, “If I wanted to be addressed by a pony playing at wearing a uniform, I would have gone to the theatre. It’s not even a real uniform.”

“Actually it is, it belongs to..”

“Leave.”

I raised my eyebrows at him, “Well, somepony woke up on the wrong side of the perch this morning.”

“How dare you!?”

“Well, I tried to be polite, this was your party after all. Go fuck yourself birdy, I’m leaving.”

The next thing I knew, the right side of my face was aching and I stumbled a couple of steps to the side.

Fucking, ow. The fucker suckerpunched me!

Chapter 12

The crowd grew silent, and soft hoofsteps drew my attention before I could think of retaliating, or anything else for that matter.

She smiled her normal soft smile as she looked at me before she moved past to stand before Razorwing, “Ambassador, Perhaps it would be time to retire for the evening?” she suggested, “After all, you'll have a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”

“Princess?”

She smiled and shifted her wings a bit, “After all, you have a long journey back to Griffonstone, just to inform your King that you need to be replaced.”

“You can’t just...”

Celestias expression never changed, “Or perhaps His Royal Highness would rather be reminded why the Minotaurs named me Solarflare.”

Razorwing seemed a bit loss for words for a moment, “…Yes, Your Majesty. I apologize for my actions, I intended no insult.”

Celestia smiled at him, “No insult taken, Ambassador. But I was also not the one you struck. Perhaps you should think twice before striking my Ponies. Especially when it’s Lord Page, Ambassador.”

He blinked, “Lord Page?”

“Indeed,” Celestia agreed with a smile at him, “Vanquisher of Lord Tirek and betrothed of my sister. Of course, Ambassador… if you would prefer to stay in Canterlot, I’m sure something could be arranged.”

Ambassador Razorwing looked over at me, eyes widening slightly.

“As I said, Hi,” I said and shifted my cloak and wings a bit.

He quickly bowed down, “…My greatest apologies, Lord Page.”

“I’m sure. But perhaps you should follow Princess Celestias suggestion? Or would you rather take this outside?”

Bowing again, he quickly retreated with his guards, the door closing behind him and the room erupted into whispers.

Oh for crying out…

Celestia looked around and then smiled softly at me, “Are you unhurt, Page?”

“I’m fine, thanks. You didn’t need to do that though,” I sighed and rubbed my cheek, “He hit like a mare anyway.”

“Watch it, I resemble that remark” Sunset said and walked up next to me, “You okay?”

“Fine.”

Celestia nodded and moved to head out of the room.

Sunset nibbled at another cucumber thing, “At least we’re out of the party.”

“Well, there is tha…t,” I said and frowned, moving a bit forward and reaching out with my magic and scooping up a couple of small bits of gold from the floor.

Beads of gold.

Gathering them all up with my magic, I glanced back at Sunset, “See you later, okay?”

“What did you find?”

“Later,” I said and moved to exit through the door Celestia left through. Something was going on and I really wanted to figure out what it was.

Looking around the empty hallway, I turned to the closest guard, “Which way?”

“Sir?”

“The Princess? Which way?”

He looked to the right.

“Thanks,” I said and moved to trot in that direction. It didn’t take long to track her down to be honest, just follow the guards.

No more flecks of golds though.

I knocked on the door but didn’t waist for an answer, slipping inside, neither guard by the sides of the door moving a muscle to stop me.

Celestia were laying on one of those large pillows she favoured, looking out the window towards the view across the city.

“Hey,” I said, moving to settle down next to her, “You okay?”

She blinked and turned to look at me, “Of course, why do you ask?”

I held the specks of gold up for her, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think these are yours.”

“Oh.”

“Mhmm,” I agreed and put the gold down on the low table, “Are these droplets from your regalia?”

“…I haven’t melted something like that for centuries,” she admitted, looking down at her necklace, “When I get angry… things burst into flames at times unless I keep in control. One of the dangers of being as deeply connected to the Sun and having fire such an interconnected part of my Realm.”

Nodding, I looked at the drops of gold on the table, “Don’t remember Chrysalis bursting into flames.”

That got a small smile from her, “Didn’t have time for any spells strong enough and I didn’t want to set the entire room on fire. I… almost lost control tonight. I didn’t expect to see one of my ponies get hurt.”

“Sunshine, it was barely a punch. Luna has literally hit me harder by accident with her wing during… well, should likely not tell you that.”

“Oh, I could stand to hear a little more,” Celestia teased and poked me with her wing.

I stuck her tongue out at her, “Be nice. If you want details, ask Luna. I just don’t want to know about it. Now for the real question.”

Celestia raised her eyebrows, “Which is?”

“You welded that necklace of yours to your coat, didn’t you?”

Her cheeks turned a bit red and she looked away, “…No.”

Smiling, I shook my head and then sighed and leaned against her, “Sunshine, if you are so tense you are melting your jewelry, you need a vacation.”

That got a laugh from her, “Page, I can’t just take a vacation.”

“Why? Plenty of Alicorns around now. You managed everything on your own for a thousand years, I’m sure we could handle it for a couple of weeks,” I said looked at her, “Just relax on a beach somewhere, away from all the general bullshit.”

Celestia frowned, “…I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t put all that on Luna.”

“Sure, you can,” I said and smiled at her, “Come on, please? I’m trying to convince Luna to go on a vacation with me and she won’t. She says you have the right to take one first.”

She hesitated, “Page, I don’t know,” and her wings shifted, “…I wouldn’t know what to do. I never done anything like that. What would I do?”

“Relax on a beach somewhere with a larg… sorry… tall, earth pony stallion massaging your wings. If you think it’s something Skitter need to do, then you can take one too.”

That got a small sigh from her, “That does sound nice, but I…”

“No buts. We can handle two weeks, Sunshine. Trust us to take care of things for you.”

Celestia hesitated and then looked down at me for a couple of moments, “…I’ll consider it on one condition,” she finally said with a small smile.

“Name it.”

“That you…” she said and then hesitated for a split second, “…handle my duties while I’m away.”

“If that’s what it takes.”

…Wait, what did I just agree to do?

Chapter 13

“Stop laughing at me,” I grumbled, “This is serious.”

Luna started to calm down, “You actually volunteered!?”

“...Yes.”

That set her off again and she almost rolled off the bed, hooves kicking at the air.

“It’s not that funny.”

“It really is. You have nopony to blame but yourself, silly Page,” Luna chuckled and looked at me with a grin, “Good luck, your highness.”

I glowered at her.

Smiling, she shifted to nuzzle before frowning slightly, “She actually dripped gold?”

“Yeah. I've never, ever, seen Celestia not have perfect control. She needs some time to just relax and play with her pet star.”

“The sun is nothing like my stars!”

I stuck my tongue out at her, “Let me have what little remain of my view of how the universe works.”

Shaking her head, Lunas mane shifted to flow the other way, “I’ll meet my sister for evening tea, we should likely talk this over.”

“Tell her Twilight volunteered for me!”

That got a smile from the dark alicorn, “Oh no, this one is all on you. I’ll help when I can, but I sleep during the day.”

“That’s right! It will cut down on our time together!”

“We can handle two weeks,” she countered and rolled back onto her stomach, stroking her wing along my back, “Now stop trying to get out of this and take it like a stallion.”

Sighing, I nodded and poked at the bed, “...Fine.”

And I just managed to get out of the entire setting up a personal guard business by Sunset volunteering to handle it for me. Seriously, that mare is getting the biggest heartswarming gift.

A year’s worth of free visits to that spa she likes or something.

I just managed to get out of that and now I ended up with this heaped on me and I couldn’t even blame Celestia for talking me into it, it was my bloody idea in the first place. I just…

I didn’t like seeing her like that. If anypony deserved to be allowed to take a break from time to time, then she certainly did. If I had to cut down on my writing from time to time to help her do that, then so be it.

Not like I couldn’t handle the dream stuff in my sleep anyway. Literally.

“Let’s go then,” I sighed and got up, stretching my wings, “It’s almost time to meet her for breakfast.”

Well, Lunas breakfast, my evening meal and Celestias evening tea.

Luna shook her head, “Would you mind if I do this one alone with my sister?”

“Hm? Sure.”

“We just have some sister things to discuss,” she said with a smile and nuzzled at my ear, “I’m sure you’ll be able to find something else to eat.”

“No, I’ll starve to death,” I answered with a smile and nuzzled back, “Oh woe is me. Whatever shall I do.”

That got a giggle from her, “Just make sure you stay out of the Pathfinder, I don’t need you drunk on the couch again singing with Shining Armor while I try to figure out tax equations.”

“...I don’t remember that happening.”

“You wouldn’t!”

Shrugging my wings, I nodded, “That was one time. I basically only go there when Shining is in town anyway.”

A cider now and then with Swift and Thunder didn’t count. Not like we got sloshed every week.

Stretching like a cat, Luna jumped off the bed and fluffed her wings before folding them and reaching for her regalia with her magic, “I should be back around midnight.”

“See you then, My Sky,”

Luna winked back at me over her shoulder as she left the room. I watched her go for a moment. That is a rather nice sight after all and deserved appreciation.

I glanced out the window. That did present a problem though: I was getting hungry and my normal dinner plans were not going to work today.

Hum. Hmm.

Pizza sounded nice, but I still haven’t been able to convince the chefs that my version was better.

“Amber?”

“Yes, sir?” the changeling asked from beneath the bed, sticking her head out.

“Is Swift on duty tonight?”

She shook her head, “No, sir. His day off. He said he was going to take his mate out tonight.”

“Well then,” I said and frowned slightly, “…That do beg the question, what am I going to do for dinner? You know what, let’s check what the kitchen has ready.”

Chapter 14

I poked at my muffin with my spoon. Now I normally would be the first in line for a cinnamon anything. But I’m really not convinced it mixes well with strawberry.

It could in all honestly be completely delicious. It smelled good. But I was a bit afraid to try it.

“Let me get this straight,” Sunset asked, her cup of coffee floating before her, “You somehow managed to end up promising to do Princess Celestias job for two weeks?”

“In short, yeah.”

She stared at me for a long moment and then shook her head and sipped her coffee, “I’m not even going to ask.”

“Thank you,” I sighed and picked up my muffin, giving it a bite.

Yep, that’s brilliant.

Silver’s a genius.

“Say. Would…”

“Nope,” She said and sipped her coffee, “Not a chance.”

“Damn,” I sighed and then shrugged my wings, “Fine. Did you manage to get Swift onboard?”

That got a smile from her, “Are you kidding, he jumped at the chance.”

“Well, as long as you’re having fun,” I grumbled and then nibbled at my muffin. Okay, it’s impossible to be annoyed when eating this. Witch. Silver Leaf is a witch!

Wonder if it would be possible to bribe her to deliver?

“I am!” Sunset said with a smile and put her cup down, “And I can just imagine you sitting on that throne, wearing a tiara.”

“You are really lucky this thing is so tasty, or you would be wearing it.”

She winked at me and turned back to her coffee again, “Are you sure you want to be seen throwing food in public, your highness, think of the press!”

I glared at her before I sighed and put my muffin down. I really, really disliked the fact that she was making sense right now. I might not overly care, but I didn’t want to embarrass Luna and soon my actions would reflect on Celestia too.

There was enough pressure on them as there was and the last thing I wanted to was to somehow heap more on either of them.

“Will you be wearing the crown?”

“Sunny I'm getting closer to not caring about journalists.”

She giggled and sipped her coffee, “Well, maybe not hers. But I think something like it would look good on you. Especially with that cloak and medallion.”

“Well, you’re in for a wait then,” I said and shook my head, “Cause that’s not happening.”

“Not even for Princess Luna? Are you telling me you never worn her crown at some point?”

Uhm.

Clearing my throat, I sipped at my spicy tea.

Sunset shot me an ‘I win’ smile and sipped her coffee without further comment.

“Shut up,” I grumbled and split my muffin in half, handing her the other half.

“Thank you,” she said and carefully tried it before she blinked at it, “…This is a strangely good mix.”

“Yep,” I agreed, “ I’m going to have to stop questioning Silvers experimentations. For every chocolate and daffodil she tries, there’s like twelve of these.”

“I like both chocolate and daffodils.”

I raised my eyebrows at her, “Together?”

Sunset hesitated, “Maybe not the best mix.”

“Told you. But this one is great,” I said with a grin, finishing my half.

She nodded in agreement, licking her lips before she looked around, “This place is always full. Not that I’m surprised. Best café in town if I’m to be honest.”

“Mixed blessing,” I said and sipped my tea, “While I’m happy things are going great for Silver, you have to be lucky to get a table. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that she always kept a seat free for me, I’m not sure I’d be able to squeeze in here.”

“Coming here just after work doesn't help,” Sunset agreed, “Not sure this was the best time of day.”

“…Fair point.”

Silver Leaf smiled as she moved up next to us, “Page, how was the muffin?”

I grinned at the Pegasus, “Brilliant. Never tried that combo before but it works.”

Sunset nodded in agreement, “It was really good.”

Silver lit up, “I’ll get you another couple!” and bustled off.

“Maybe I’m lucky she doesn’t deliver,” I said as she left, “I’d be rolling around soon enough.”

“Speaking of which, can we move training forward a bit today? I have a meeting with Captain Cold Skies around sunset,” Sunset said and sipped her coffee.

“Sure thing. Not like my timetable is completely full or anything.”

Sunset blinked, “Oh yeah. Think you’ll be able to keep it up while you cover for the Princess?”

“I should be able to squeeze it in to watch you run around.”

She smirked, “Me running should be a spectator sport.”

“I could sell tickets.”

Chapter 15

“So, set a date yet?” Thunder Cloud asked as he set down on the cloud a second after me.

“The wedding?”

He shook his head, “When you stand in for Princess Celestia?”

I sighed and then nodded, “Yep. It’ll be announced in a couple of days and she’ll leave in two weeks and then going to be gone for two weeks.”

“Better you than me.”

Like I haven’t heard that one before.

Rolling my eyes, I shifted my wings before stomping down hard on the cloud. We fell beneath the forest canopy below and I twisted in the air.

Flying?

Once I got over the ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH’ it was pretty damn amazing. So was falling. Falling without needing to fear a sudden stop at the end was amazing.

Half extending a wing, I turned the fall into a spin before spreading both wings and stopping it. The wind tugged and pulled, straining on my wings hard as I pulled up a couple of hundred meters up as I turned speed into elevation, zooming upwards again.

Doing a roll, I followed it up by a loop, ending it by folding my wings as I once again went ballistic, slowly bleeding of speed as I rose upwards.

At the top, I spread my wings again, beating them slowly to maintain elevation as I banked around.

“Told you flying was awesome!” Cloud yelled across the wind as he dropped down to fly next to my left wing.

“You were right!”

We had been flying for several hours a week, almost since I learned how to from Twilight. As my wings got stronger and I got more used to it, I got better and it also got a lot more fun as I could do stuff like that.

“Race you back?” He yelled and then beat his wings harder.

“Oh you are on!”

I had yet to actually win a race with him, at least at a distance. He might be better at long distance duration flying and low speed manoeuvrability than pure speed, but he had also been flying a lot longer than me.

That said, it didn’t take more than a minute and I was struggling to keep up as he slowly pulled away, getting further and further ahead as we approached the city.

Damn it, not again!

I beat my wings harder and faster, going into a slight dive to pick up speed as we got closer.

Come on!

Cloud glanced back at me and then matched my dive and started to pull away again.

Not over yet, it wasn’t over until we got to the castle! I flew as hard as I could towards those white walls.

Not that it helped.

Cloud’s hooves hit the ground just outside the ports a couple of seconds before me.

I hit the ground and panted, folding my wings again, “Damn it.”

“Not bad,” he answered, barely even sounding out of breath, the bastard. Well, his job used to be literally flying back and forth across Equestria.

But still, he could at least pretend to be tired!

Stretching my wings, I then folded them again, “But you are faster.”

“I have been flying a lot longer than you,” he said with a grin, “Also, I’m just that awesome.”

“Humble as always, Cloud?”

“Can’t more humble than the truth,” he countered with a grin.

Shaking my head, I shifted my wings, “Want to find some food?”

“Can’t, need to report back to duty,” he said and shrugged, “Raincheck?”

“Fair enough. Take care.”

Giving me a wave, he took back to the air.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I stretched my wings. Damn it, I’ll be feeling this tomorrow, they were already feeling strained.

“Sir,” Amber said and settled down next to me, her wings buzzing a bit, “N-not so fast.”

“...Sorry. But you know you don’t need to come along when we go flying, I have a guard and I’m high in the air.“

“H-have to,” she answered, starting to get her breath back.

Changeling wings may give them great manoeuvrability, kind of like giant houseflies, but they were not as good for long range speed like pegasus wings.

Of course, the wings were largely irrelevant, they were just kind of a channel for the flight magic.

“I’ll talk it over with Skitter, you shouldn’t need to try to kill yourself to keep up on these things. I’m fine… if it make you feel better, I’ll have my own guard force soon, you won’t need to follow me around anymore.”

Amber blinked at me, “...Do you really think that Princess Skitter would buy that, sir?” she asked with a small smile, “Truly?”

I hesitated and then nodded, “Good point. Stubborn bug…”

Amber smiled at that, “The Princess tasked me with your protection. I will perform that duty, even if I have to fly all across Equestria without a break.”

“Correction: Stubborn bugs.”

That got a happy smile from my changeling guard.

Chapter 16

“Well, this will be exhausting,” I said as I walked out of the throne room with Celestia.

“It’s not that bad, Page,” she said with a smile down at me, “I think they took it well.”

I nodded. “A royal meeting with a foreign nation does seem like it would be easier for them to swallow than vacation,” I said. “Bunch of whiny little...”

She poked me with her wing. “Page.”

“...Fine,” I sighed. “But I still think it’s better than the truth.”

Celestia nodded. “I think it helps that you have experience of being a stand-in for my sister in the past. You have experience,” she said as we headed into one of her private rooms, finding Luna already there, reading a scroll on one of the large pillows.

“Hey love,” I said and crossed the floor to nuzzle her. “You are up early.”

Putting the scroll down, she nuzzled back. “Didn’t want to miss it. How did it go? I can’t hear any rioting in the streets,” she teased.

“The Guard is exceptionally skilled at putting down riots by now. They have practice,” I said and settled down next to her.

“It went well,” Celestia said and walked across the room to get a small box before returning to lie down on her own massive pillow. “I have been gone from the capital for longer than two weeks in the past and nothing burst into flames. The only difference is that this time the court won’t close and somepony will be able to keep up with the other engagements.”

I smiled at her. “I should put out an ad in the papers. Royal Temp looking for work, plenty of experience. Think I should get business cards printed and sent to the griffons and minotaurs?”

Luna nipped at my ear. “Silly Page.”

Flicking my ear I nodded, “Very,” and then looked at Celestia. “What’s in the box?”

“Something you will need,” she said and opened it.

Luna looked over. “How does it fare? It’s been in the vaults since long before my absence.”

“I feared it would have been damaged, but the enchantments held,” Celestia said with a smile and picked a medallion from the box. “It is unharmed.”

I looked between them. “What is that?”

“The Medallion of the Royal Sisters,” Luna explained with a smile and reached to touch my medallion. She had replaced it after the fight with Tirek, my original one had been lost there. “I have mine and my sister has hers for her trusted herald. But we also have a joint one that represents both of us. It has not been worn in a long time.”

“A very long time,” Celestia agreed and floated it over for Luna to take.

“...And what does it mean exactly? What does that do that yours doesn’t?”

That got a playful grin from Luna. “Wary of traps, My Page?”

“With you two? Always, My Sky.”

Celestia stuck her tongue out at me. “Nothing you don’t already have, Page,” she explained. “It’s like if you would have been wearing my Medallion as well as my sister's. But you can wear both instead of one if you like.”

I picked the new medallion from Luna's magic to look at it. The middle of the small obsidian plate was Luna's moon and Celestia's sun in silver and gold joined into one. The left was a silver moon and the right a golden sun. It was kinda nice looking, to be honest.

“Well, if it cuts down on the bling I have to wear,” I commented. “But isn’t it enough that you just pointed me out as taking up the slack while you are gone?”

Celestia nodded. “It should be. But I believe it is better to make it legal to make it easier for you. You know how the nobles can be at times.”

“...Good point. Very well, I’ll wear it.”

Luna took it from my magic and lifted my old medallion from around my neck before replacing it with the new one. “Looks good to me.”

“Me too,” Celestia agreed. “Nice to see it on you, husband.”

I goggled at her and she broke into laughter, almost rolling off the pillow.

Luna giggled next to me and pulled me close with her wing, nuzzling at my ear. “Silly Page.”

Rolling my eyes, I leaned against her side. “Not so silly. I think Sunshine over there is the silly one. Speaking of which, how exactly are you planning on doing the entire vacation thing?” I asked as Celestia started to calm down. “You do kind of stand out.”

She winked with a smile and then her horn lit up and her magic whirled around her, hiding her from view. When it was clear again, she was replaced by an average sized white-coated pegasus with a long pink mane and a sun coming out from behind a cloud cutie mark. “Transformation magic may not be my strong suit, but a couple of thousand of years' worth of sneaking out of the castle from time to time does give one some ability in it,” she commented with a smile.

Woah.

Pretty.

“Wait, no horn. How do you turn back?” I asked after a moment of looking at her.

She winked at me. “Not really a pegasus. Even if this should be fairly close to how I would have looked if I stayed one.”

“Makes me a bit nostalgic to see you like that,” Luna admitted. “That was a simpler time.”

“It was,” Celestia agreed and looked out the window with a small sigh. “But not better.”

Luna shook her head sadly and then rested her head against mine. “No. Not better,” she answered softly.

Chapter 17

I stared up at the dark ceiling, wide awake.

Tomorrow was the first day. Celestia was leaving early tomorrow morning and then the majority of her duties would land on me. I had spent the last couple of days going over the schedule and Celestia promised to give me a set of notes but mostly she just wanted me to just figure things out.

While it was nice that she thought I could do this, this was the same mare that thought that releasing Discord was a good idea. Don’t get me wrong, I love Celestia, but at times she wasn’t the brightest alicorn.

Sun powers aside.

If I stay awake and stare up at the ceiling and am bored enough, the night will last forever.

The door creeped open and Luna moved inside carefully, peering in my direction, “Still awake?” she asked and crossed the room to climb into the bed next to me.

“What was I thinking? Luna, I’m an idiot,” I groaned and covered my eyes, “I can’t do this.”

“You’ll do fine, My Page,” Luna said and settled down next to me to look down at me, “I’ll help you any way I can and I’m sure Twilight will do the same.”

Pulling her close, I hid my face in her mane.

“…no, seriously. I can’t do this. Luna, if I do this we’ll be at war in fifteen hours. You know how I feel about politics. This won’t end well. I’ll snap and set some sort of ambassador on fire.”

Luna shook her head, “No you won’t. You can’t really use fire spells, remember?”

I glared at her, “Be serious!”

“I will, when you are,” Luna countered with a smile, lifting her head to look at me, “Page, you will do fine.”

Swallowing, I took a deep breath, “…I’ll try.”

Luna hmmed and scooted up to bump her nose against mine, teal eyes almost glowing in the dark, “And how about at the end of every day you finish without starting a major incident, you get a surprise…” she purred.

I blinked at her.

Luna really should be a motivational speaker. Morale completely restored.

XXXXXXXXX

“And here is today’s schedule, Lord Page,” Grey Velvet said and set the calendar before me on the desk, “Today is relatively light and easy.”

Picking it up, I read through it.

The morning was pretty much paperwork followed by lunch and then open court followed by a meeting with some sort of group and then paperwork until dinner.

“Not as bad as I expected,” I admitted and shifted my wings before sipping my tea, “What is the meeting about?”

“The funding of Canterlot Hospital for the next year,” the unicorn said with a smile, flicking through her clipboard, “But it is just a preliminary meeting before the real one next week.”

I slowly nodded, “Oh. So, I’ll just be deciding how much money will be spent on ponies in case of life and death. No pressure.”

That got a smile from the unicorn, “I hardly think Princess Celestia would leave you to do this if she didn’t think you could do it, Lord Page.”

I looked at her and then sighed and sipped my tea, “That doesn’t mean I have to agree with her. Tomorrow's schedule?”

“Right here,” she said and turned the page.

Picking the calendar up, I flipped through it. Meeting, court, meeting. Paperwork, budget meeting. Inspecting the royal guard.

Ambassadorial dinner, ambassadorial dinner, meeting about trade agreements.

New griffon ambassador arrives next week.

Hmming, I turned the next page. Yep, there is the reception to greet him. More meetings.

She was right, today was easy. Some of the other days were basically packed from sunrise to sunset.

“Question, Miss Velvet… how many of these do I ‘have’ to take?”

“As many as you want to, My Lord. It’s up to you.”

I slowly nodded and turned back to the first page again, “Let’s keep it like it is right now. As for the griffon ambassador’s arrival, make a note that we should serve griffon food. I noticed that last time all we served was pony food.”

Velvet raised an eyebrow, looking uncertain, “…Like what, My Lord?”

“Fish for example. I’m sure we will be able to find somepony that can handle it?” I asked, closing the calendar.

She cringed a bit and then nodded, “Of course, Lord Page. I will attempt to find somepony…”

“Perhaps a griffon? They would know it the best.”

“Of course.”

Chapter 18

Where’s my tea?

I shifted my papers around before finding my cup beneath a report on avocados. Cold. Of course it’s cold. It’s been hours.

A knock on the door drew my attention, “Yes?”

Sunset pushed the door open and trotted in with a bunch of papers on a clipboard, “Having fun?” she asked with a smile.

“Yes, fun. That’s one thing to call it,” I said and rubbed my eyes as she closed the door, “I have no idea how Celestia handle this day after day.”

Sunset smiled and trotted over to the desk, “What are you doing anyway?”

“..Paperwork. You wouldn’t believe how much is generated in Equestria. And this is just the things that need Celestia's eyes on it, filtered up through the lower levels.”

She nodded and picked a paper up, “Import limits on avocados?”

“That one just need a signature,” I said and took it, scribbling my name on it, “There. One thing done, half a million more to go.”

Sunset frowned at the stacks of paper, “Doesn’t Princess Luna handle half of it?”

“Yes and I have no idea how Celestia did it when she wasn’t here! The days are 90% packed as is!”

That got a giggle from her and she moved around the desk, “I have some more for you too. Sign these,” she said and held up the clipboard.

I nodded and scribbled my name on the dotted line of the first one before flipping to sign the next one, “What am I signing?”

“Not going to read them?”

I shrugged and continued signing “Please. If I had my own way you would be wearing one of these,” I said and flicked the medallion around my neck.

“Thank you,” she said and then pointed, “Missed one.”

“Sorry,” I sighed and signed there too, “What are these anyway?”

“Just paperwork for my purchase of the castle for two bits.”

I nodded, “That’s nice. Upkeep is your problem now, I have the approval forms here somewhere.”

Sunset laughed, “No thanks. They are actually the forms needed to approve the formation of your Guard and the requisition of training areas, living areas and equipment purchase orders.”

Blinking at her I nodded, “Oh. I thought there would be more papers involved in that.”

“There is. Tons of tons. But these are the ones that needed your signature. Princess Luna had to sign off on ten or so pages as well.”

“Thank you so much for handling this for me Sunny. I have no idea how I would be able to manage that and this at the same time.”

She grinned, “I just find it hilarious. You managed to get me to bail you out on organizing your guards and then you promptly stumbled into this instead!”

I glowered at her, “Sure it’s funny from that side of the desk.”

“It is!”

Rolling my eyes I poked her with my hoof, “If you have time to be ‘funny’ you have time to help me fix up this mess.”

Sunny stuck her tongue out at me, “Oh please, like I’m not busy as it is. Have you any idea how much goes into forming this guard of yours?”

“No. Thank you for doing this.”

“Honestly it’s kinda fun,” she admitted and then grinned, “I get to yell at ponies!”

“Enjoy yourself.”

She smiled and nodded, “I will,” she agreed, “You too.”

“You think you are so funny at times, Sunny.”

“I’m hilarious,” she said with a smile and picked up her clipboard, “Now I better get these delivered to the right places so we can get actually started.”

I nodded, “I should likely get back to work too,” I sighed and picked up my tea, taking a sip before sticking my tongue out, “Ew. Cold. New agenda. Tea first.”

“Want some company? I could use a break too to be honest.”

“Yes please,” I said and shuffled up the papers, trying to get some sort of order so I’d be able to pick up where I left off when I get back.

“Come on and let’s find some coffee,” she said and stretched before double checking the signatures on her papers.

“Ew,” I said and got up before I cringed, my wings feeling like they had ants crawling across them.

Okay then. First order of business as soon as I get back, new chair.

“Wing ache?” Sunset asked with a frown, “Twi get them from time to time when sitting and reading too long.”

“I need a new chair here,” I said and glanced back at it, “How does she do it? It’s rock hard! Now I understand the massive pillows! That’s it, I’m remodelling this room!”

Sunset giggled and moved to bump her side against mine, “Come on, let’s get you some tea first. You get strange when decaffeinated.”

Chapter 19

I looked at the thing before me. The Throne. Its owner made me promise. I couldn’t believe I agreed to do it. Was I drunk or something?

But if I didn’t, she would find out when she got back.

I did promise.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

Sighing, I moved to sit down on the throne and shifted my wings, looking out over the throneroom.

…Nope.

Jumping off the throne, I trotted past Grey Velvet. “Nope. Not today. Cancel it.”

“Lord Page, ponies are already lining up,” she said and quickly caught up with me, trotting next to me. “There are fifteen applicants today. The doors are scheduled to open in ten minutes.”

I sat down as soon as I was out of the throneroom. “Can’t do it. I know I filled in for Luna before, but that was only a couple of ponies and no real crowds and…”

The royal aide moved before me to look at me from across her clipboard. “Lord Page…” she started and then hesitated before she frowned at me. “… That’s how Princess Celestia does things.”

“I know, but I hate public speaking, I don’t like crowds and I’m a horrible replacement of Celestia and what was I thinking!”

She smiled a bit. “Lord Page, that’s how Princess Celestia does things. You may have agreed to take up her duties while she is away on her ‘royal meeting’,” you could hear the quotation marks around that one, “but nothing says you have to do it the same way she does.”

I blinked at her. “…I could? I could.”

Grey nodded. “That’s right, sir. Now, what adjustments would you like done?” she asked, lifting her clipboard and quill.

“More than ten minutes to think?”

“Push court back one hour,” she said with a nod, writing it down. “I’ll move the meeting with the hospital until this evening to make room.”

I nodded and sighed, rubbing my forehead beneath my horn. “…I’m sorry for messing things up for you, Miss Velvet.”

She smiled. “It’s perfectly alright sir. Now, what else do you need to have changed?”

“No crowds would be nice. Less… just less everything.”

Grey nodded and made some notes. “Closed court, applicants only. Is the location alright, Lord Page? The throneroom is quite large for that few ponies.”

I blinked at her again. “…I can move things?”

“Of course, you can, sir.”

“…Miss Velvet, whatever we pay you, it’s not enough. Make sure I raise it during these two weeks.”

“Noted, sir.”

XXXXXXXXXXX

“So, you want to start a business?” I asked the earth pony colt across from me. The wind ruffled the leaves above.

“Y-yes sir,” he agreed with a nod. “Been my dream since I was little,” he said and looked down at his cup of tea. “I have been trying to get a loan to buy a boat, but it’s almost impossible as I don’t have any security.”

“It is,” I agreed. “I tried a couple of times when I wanted to get my first book published. Almost impossible and that’s a lot smaller than a boat.”

Flowing Wave grimaced and sighed as he started to get up. “It is,” he said and then shook his head. “…Sorry for taking up your time, Lord Page.”

“Sit back down and drink your tea.”

He sunk back down and sipped his tea.

“Now, why do you want to move back and forth along the coast carrying boxes?” I asked him.

“I love to sail,” he admitted. “I was an apprentice on a ship moving across the ocean for a year and then worked for two years. I know every part of the business. But I want to choose where I sail.”

I nodded. “I can see why,” I agreed. “What kind of ship were you thinking of?”

He shook his head. “Not a ship, a boat. A ship is a vessel that can carry a boat. A boat is much smaller, I even know the one I want to buy.”

“Found one already?”

Wave nodded. “It’s a pre-owned vessel and the old owner is retiring. It’s a one mast boat and despite being old, it’s in very good shape and able to move over a hundred tons of cargo. She isn’t the fastest, but reliable.”

“Sounds like a good vessel.”

“She is.”

I nodded. “How much would one of those cost anyway?” I asked and sipped my tea.

“…Ten thousand bits. Well, seven thousand for the ship and the rest would be to set up the business, hire a small crew and get word out about it,” he admitted. “It’s a lot of money.”

“It is a lot of money,” I agreed. “And while the crown does give loans to promising businesses, without any kind of solid proof that it has a chance to be successful other than your enthusiasm, I’m afraid I can’t grant it. It would be irresponsible of me.”

He sighed. “…I figured. Sorry, sir. I’ll stop wasting your time. I need to go apply for a job now.”

I smiled at him. “Giving up already?”

“What?”

“I said it would be irresponsible of me to loan you from the crown's money. My own money I can do whatever I want with. Ten thousand bits you said? Done. Not a loan, an investment. I’ll have somepony draw up some papers.”

Wave blinked at me in surprise. “Y-you would do that?”

“Dreams are important, Flowing Wave. But even more so, I believe that you know what you are talking about,” I said with a smile. “You have experience with sailing, you thought to budget for more than the actual boat and to actually make sure you had the budget to pay your crew until you start to make a profit. I think that says something.”

“Thank you so much!”

I smiled at him. “Don’t thank me, make me money. I intend to make a profit on this.”

“You will! I promise!”

Chapter 20

The door closed behind me and I sunk down onto the floor, my head hitting it as I let out a slow breath.

Oh Celestia. What in the world was I thinking?

She does this every single day? And this was an easy day! Easy!?

The entire day was filled with decisions. Deceptions that affect real ponies lives and how in the world did they do this every single day!?

If something ever convinced me that I wasn’t cut for ruling anything it would have been today, and I had two weeks of this left!

I won’t survive this.

I’ll make a mistake and ruin someponies life. An emergency was good, I could do an emergency.

Then I had a clear goal, and could focus on getting that done and not have time to think of the consequences.

What was I thinking. I’m an idiot. Much, much, stupid.

One day down. Thirteen left.

I just stayed like that, kind of enjoying the cold stone for a long moment and thought empty panic thoughts for an undetermined time.

Finally, I sighed and struggled up, rubbing my forehead and refolding my wings.

I needed to go to sleep and find a really, really boring dream of an accountant or something and just hang out. The more bored I get, the longer the night will be and the more time I’ll have until I have to wake up for tomorrow and… oh Luna, tomorrow will be even worse.

Fine.

Fine, fucking fine. I survived today, I’ll survive tomorrow too. Whatever I fuck up, I’m sure Celestia can fix when she get back. I may have volunteered for this and it may have technically been my suggestion but I’m sure it’s her fault somehow anyway.

She’ll deal with the fallout and I’m so glad Equestria don’t have nukes or there might be literal fallout at the end.

Struggling up, I stretched my wings and headed for the bedroom. Bit strange really, Luna should be up and about already. Sun is down and Moon is up so she would have needed to have woken up at least.

Pushing the door open I froze.

Luna smiled, “How was your day, My Page?”

She was stretched out on the bed in white stockings and a matching collar around her neck.

Oh my.

“…Stressful but suddenly a lot better. Wow,” I said and crossed the room to jump onto the bed, “What is this?”

“I promised a surprise if you didn’t start a war, didn’t I?” she teased and stole a kiss, “I don’t hear the guard mobilizing.”

I nodded, “Made it through it, but it was close a couple of times,” before I flicked my ear, “I don’t know how you do it. I know even less how Celestia does it.”

“That bad?” she asked with a small frown.

“…In theory, no. But I’m terrified of ruining something,” I admitted and put my wing across her back, “I’m not cut out for this, My Sky.”

Luna smiled and nuzzled at my ear, “It’s your own fault.”

“It is,” I groaned, “Next time I try to do something this stupid, stop me.”

“Page, I’m sure you are doing quite fine. Nothing is on fire yet and there aren’t ponies rioting in the streets,” Luna said with a smile, stretching her wings, “Which is a lot better than when my sister and I took over.”

“…Not a peaceful take over?”

Luna pursed her lips, “Some parts were. Some not so much, you know that.”

I nodded and then eyed her, “True. But I bet that if you wore this at the same time, ponies would have followed you anywhere.”

That got a small blush from her, “I got it from Rarity,” she admitted, “I asked for something… popular, provoking and slightly scandalous.”

“As I understand it, she certainly succeeded. You look amazing.”

Smiling, she stole a small kiss, “Thank you.”

“You know, I’m not one for rumors but I can’t help but wonder exactly what secrets that mare knows,” I asked and leaned against her side.

That got a giggle from Luna, “Quite a lot I would wager, My Page. Perhaps we should try to recruit her to Equestrian Intelligence.”

“Not sure when she would have time for that,” I said and shook my head, “I think that she may be the only pony in Equestria that’s busier than we are right now.”

Luna nodded, “Did you hear that she’s opening a store in Canterlot?” she asked and shifted out from beneath my wing, putting her own across mine instead as she held me closer.

“Need to remember to stop by at some point… once Equestria has descended into burning anarchy and riots. So sometime early next week,” and then I smiled and kisses her, “But right now, I think I'd rather focus on you.”

Maybe these two weeks won’t be that bad?

Chapter 21

Letting my chakram drop back onto its holder, I watched Lady Golden Thread leave the training grounds.

This entire court thing went from annoying to slightly less annoying once I stopped trying to copy Celestia's way of running things.

They wanted to ask a favour from the crown? Ask for advice or help? Perfectly fine with me and I would be happy to listen or help, but I’d be damned if I were to sit on a pedestal being displayed to the masses while I did it.

They wanted my ear, then they were free to do so. If they went to where I was at the time.

I needed to remember this one in particular though, somehow she seemed a lot easier to handle and less annoying after seeing me fling my chakram around.

Besides, I needed to keep practising.

“Sir?”

Looking behind me, I saw Skitter and a pair of her changelings approaching.

“Your royal highness,” I countered with a smile and a bow. “What brings you out here?”

She glared slightly at me and then proceeded to ignore the bow, “I’m here for today’s lesson, sir.”

I blinked at her in surprise. “Lesson?”

“My lesson with Princess Celestia,” she confirmed with a smile. “My first one back.”

“...You know that Celestia is away right now, right?”

Skitter nodded with a smile. “She told me before she left. She said you would take over her duties while she was away, sir.”

“She did, did she?” I asked and rubbed my forehead. “I’m sorry Skitter, but I’m not exactly the right pony to show you how to Princess. I’m barely keeping everything from falling apart.”

“From what I hear, you are doing quite well, sir,” Skitter said and moved up to me. “Even if some of the nobility has been making noises during the last week.”

Sitting down, I nodded. “Let them complain, it’s only for another week and a half. Strange that they keep coming, there is always a bunch every time it’s ‘court’ time.”

“Not all of those are complaints,” Skitter said and fluttered her wings. “Some of them think it’s a ‘breath of fresh air’ the way you handle things.”

“Oh Luna, I have a fan club.”

Skitter tilted her head in question. “I thought you already did?”

“...It’s a saying, Skitter,” I said and shook my head. “Okay, fine. Lesson. What shall we do about that?”

“I don’t know.”

Talk about the blind leading the blind.

“You know what?” I asked and looked around. “Let’s get out of here and just take a walk or something. I have an hour until the next thing and that’s paperwork. Grey Velvet will be annoyed at me, but getting out a bit sounds nice to me.”

Skitter hesitated and then nodded. “That does sound nice, sir.”

XXXXXXX

There were paths leading between most of the parks in the castle. Some of them were rather obscure, but I found quite a few of them during the years I lived here.

Honestly, I think the majority of them were only really used by the gardeners which made them quite empty.

It was nice to just take a walk and get away from ponies for a while. Even nicer to see Skitter again.

“So what did you do on your vacation?” I asked as I looked at the large changeling next to me.

She hmmed. “A number of things, sir. I read several books, I travelled a bit and saw Manehattan. I have to admit, I didn’t care for it.”

“It’s quite different from here.”

“Ponies there didn’t taste very good, there was always an undertaste of stress. I don’t understand how some can enjoy that, captured ponies always taste like that. I didn’t like that taste back when Mother was doing that and I didn’t like it any better now.”

I nodded. “Better not feed on me then. I can’t taste very good right now.”

“You almost always taste good, sir,” Skitter admitted. “Even when stressed, you keep it well under control.”

“Really? Because I’m feeling like I have the literal castle on my shoulders right now,” I admitted. “Talk about jumping into the deep end.”

Skitter smiled at me. “Anything I can do to help, sir?”

“Change into me and take over?”

“Anything ‘else’ I can do to help?”

“Yeah, didn’t think so,” I sighed and then shook my head, “No, it’s my mess, I should be the one to clean it up. You have enough things to worry about and Celestia knows that dealing with Chrysalis is a full-time job in of itself.”

Skitter giggled. “We can trade if you wish, sir.”

“Oh hell no.”

The clearing of a throat made me look over to see an annoyed looking Grey Velvet standing there with a clipboard floating in her magic.

“Seems like I should get back to work,” I said to Skitter. “Paperwork doesn’t wait for anypony it seems.”

“Want some help, sir? I can help you keep them organized at least.”

“...Thank you, I would like that.”

Chapter 22

The usual flash of light revealed the dream for me. From the outside, it had been a calm dark colour. Not exactly a nightmare or a Nightmare, but at the very least a bad dream.

Why wasn’t immediately apparent as I was standing in the middle of a tent camp, rows of tents in several directions, ponies in armour moving back and forth with goods, weapons or doing other jobs.

Before me was a larger tent than the rest, almost a small pavilion, two guards standing outside, one in black and the other in golden armour.

Looking around, I then moved past them into the tent. At the centre was a large map on a table and around it was a bunch of older ponies in armour, ponies, unicorns and a couple of earth ponies. The ones that stood out, however, were Luna, Celestia, Twilight, Cadence and myself.

Luna and Celestia looked younger than before. Luna seemed to be Cadence's age and size and Celestia looked like Luna did now. They were wearing what almost seemed like more ornamental and more expensive versions of the armour of their guards and while their manes were flowing like normal, they were pink and blue rather than their current colours.

Twilight wasn’t wearing armour, instead, she had a simple cloak and tiara on, a book floating open next to her.

Cadence was in silver armour, standing next to Twilight, one hoof on the map as they talked quietly.

Dream me was standing next to Celestia, studying the map. Wearing my Warmage cloak, I had several chakrams hanging from the weapon belts and a sword by my side.

I was also about the same size as Celestia was currently.

Looking over the setting I then moved forward, slipping into dream me before I tapped my hoof on the floor with an application of will.

The dream solidified around me and Celestia shook her head a couple of times as if to clear it, looking around before I smiled at her. “Hello, Sunshine.”

She blinked at me. “Page, Hello.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude,” I said and shrugged my wings a bit. “It looked like… not a nightmare exactly, but a bad dream. Wanted to see how you were.”

She sighed softly. “I hardly mind, Page. You are always welcome here.”

“How’s your vacation?” I asked as I looked at the map. I didn’t recognize the location, it was some sort of valley.

That got a smile from her. “It’s wonderful. I’m in Cloudsdale and nopony knows who I am. I have to admit, it’s difficult to adjust to not having to… do things.”

“I can see why,” I told her and poked her with my wing. “I have no idea how you handle all this day in and day out. At the end of these weeks, I’m the one that’ll need a vacation.”

She smiled and nodded. “It’s a hard job, but well worth doing. How are things going?”

“Well enough,” I admitted. “Nothing is on fire yet and I suspect I’m driving the local noble population up the walls.”

Celestia giggled at that. “Good, they need some shaking up from time to time,” she said, flicking her flowing pink mane across her other shoulder.

“So what is this?” I asked, looking around the tent.

Her smile dropped and she looked sad as she moved to settle down on one of the large pillows. “The battle for Stardew Valley. During the unification of Equestria.”

“I don’t remember being here,” I said and settled down next to her.

“Dreams do as they wish.”

“Very true,” I agreed. “This was a bad memory?”

Celestia hesitated. “...I don’t believe you wish to see this, Page.”

The dream felt like it wanted to shift and I let it. Suddenly the tent was gone as we were laying on the soft grass, overlooking a valley at dawn.

“I know parts of Equestria's past is hidden from most ponies,” I said and looked at her. “I don’t like it, but that’s how things are. Humans have a saying, those that don’t study history are doomed to repeat it.”

“A wise saying,” Celestia sighed and then nodded. “I suppose you deserve to know.”

I put my wing across her back and pulled her close. “Sunshine, whatever you say, I bet my former species has you beat by several levels of magnitude.”

That got a slight smile from her. “Was that meant to be comforting? All that does is make me curious.”

“...I’ll tell you sometime, but I suspect you would rather not know. I know I was happier before I did.”

That got me a small nuzzle before she looked out over the valley. “Three thousand strong Equestrian force of unicorns, earth ponies and pegasi against fifteen thousand imperial earth ponies.”

“Even with unicorn magic and pegasi support, that doesn’t sound like a winning combination.”

She shook her head and leaned against my side as we overlooked the valley. The armies were lining up. The Equestrian forces looked small compared to the forces against them.

“This was early on,” she continued quietly. “Very early and we stood against the strongest earth pony empire ever seen. If we had lost, the dream of one Equestria would have been over, perhaps for good.”

I nodded. “What happened?”

She smiled sadly. “The world had never seen an Alicorn use her full power in battle before. There were two of us here. We chose this location carefully because of the thick grass and strong winds.”

Oh.

“I cast the spell while my sister and the unicorn mages harnessed the wind to our purpose,” she continued as the valley ignited and turned into a firestorm that ripped through it, igniting everything in its way. The enemy forces turned and tried to flee, but the flames were moving too fast. They were quickly overtaken and hidden from view by the wall of fire.

As the first group were hit, Celestia cringed next to me, shivering. I pulled her closer. “It’s only a memory.”

“I’ll never forget the… the sound. Or the smell.”

Enough of this.

An application of will replaced the valley with her chambers at the castle, the doors open to allow spring wind and sunshine inside.

“You did what you had to do,” I told her quietly, hugging her close with my wing. “You protected your ponies, like always.”

Sighing softly, she leaned against me and closed her eyes. “I know. But I can still hate that I did it.”

“How about a happier subject?” I asked quietly.

“Please,” she said softly. “How’s your new book coming along?”

“I thought we said a happier subject,” I sighed, drawing a laugh from her.

Chapter 23

“Gee, I wonder why you decided to tag along on this?” I asked Sunset with a raised eyebrow as she trotted along next to me.

“What, inspecting the Solar Guard? Why in Equestria would I miss it?” she answered with a grin, “All those colts standing around at attention...”

I rolled my eyes, “So, how long was it since you saw Twilight?”

“...Couple of weeks,” Sunset sighed, “This long distance thing is getting a bit old to be honest. I really like her, but...”

I frowned slightly at her, “You know, you don’t need to stay in Canterlot. You could move to Ponyville.”

Sunset shook her head, “I have my entire life here now, and I’m not exactly a country pony,” she admitted before she shrugged, “And not like Twi would be less busy with me there. I might be able to see her every day for an hour or two, but… she is always doing her entire friendship thing.”

“I bet she would make time for you, Sunny. She's too smart to be stupid enough not to. It’s just that it takes almost a day on train to get to Canterlot.”

She nodded, “It’s a bit far.”

If I could only see Luna every couple of weeks… wow, that would suck.

I nodded and then hmmed before I smiled at her, “You know… I have an idea.”

Sunset blinked, “What?”

“Well… I’m pretty sure I can move ponies between dreams,” I said thoughtfully, “Me traveling between them is easy and pulling somepony along shouldn’t be too difficult. I should run it by Luna real quick before I do it, but in theory, I could let you and your ‘Twi’ meet up tonight.”

She gasped, “You can do that!?”

I nodded, “In theory? Yes. But I would have to stick around to keep you safe, I really don’t want to see what would happen to a non-dreamwalker if the dream collapses while you are in it.”

“Page, if you pull this off, I’ll kiss you!”

“Promises, promises,” I teased her.

She winked and then grinned, “Oh, and speaking of guards, the first round of recruiting for yours is finishing up. Plan is to end up at twenty or so after basic training.

“Well, at least you aren’t trying to recruit me an army.”

Sunset laughed, “There were a lot of applicants, you know.”

“Really?”

“Yep. We could pick and choose the best ones.”

“I didn’t expect that many,” I admitted, “I would have figured that most that wanted to join would have joined Celestia's or at least Luna's guard.”

Sunset shrugged a bit.

“Lord Page,” Captain Flamestrike said with a nod as I approached the parade grounds, “The Guard stands ready for your inspection.”

“Thank you, Captain,” I told him, “But to be completely honest, I’m not sure how this works,” I then admitted.

That got a grin from the unicorn, “There isn’t much of it to be honest, sir, mainly just walking along the lines and looking calm.”

I slowly nodded, “That I should be able to pull off.”

“I have full confidence in you, sir.”

Grinning I looked at Sunset, “See? That’s how you snark at a superior. Not whatever you are doing, you are way too obvious.”

“I’ll think about it whenever I find somepony superior,” Sunset said with a smile, “Like Princess Luna or Princess Celestia.”

“What, not Twilight?”

She grinned, “Oh, she is. But I don’t snark at her.”

“…Fair point,” I chuckled and rolled my eyes, “Come on, Sunny. Let’s go look at the shiny armor.”

“Make sure to tell me how the armor is,” Sunset teased, “I won’t be looking at it much.”

Somepony is in a mood today.

I facehoofed and looked at a patient looking Flamestrike, “See what I have to deal with?” I asked him, “Let’s get going before she gets started with the rest of her stand up comedy act. Trust me, it gets worse from here.”

“Yes sir,” he answered, sounding amused.

Nodding, I adjusted my cloak and Sunset quickly copied me, adjusting her own before we followed him outside.

Walking out into the bright sunlight I could see row after row of guardsmen lined up, armor shining in the light. Separated between earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi in blocks of five by five ponies.

With so many ponies, they weren’t identical. Close, but heights and builds were slightly different.

Taking a slight breath, I walked up along Captain Flamestrike, Sunset moving up next to me, her face serious and taking an air of looking slightly bored as she trotted along.

Let’s do this then.

Chapter 24

Sunset's dream flashed into existence around me as I stepped through the silvery portal.

Blinking I looked around. I was in a school with humans teenagers hanging about.

I know this place. This is the school where I recovered Sunset. It didn’t take long to spot Sunset herself. She was standing by one of the lockers and amusingly was a pony in the black leather jacket.

Grinning I trotted over to her before I tapped my hoof against the floor, solidifying the dream.

Sunset blinked as she became fully aware instead of following the script of the dream.

“Looking good there Sunny,” I said with a grin, “Is that cow you're wearing?”

“Faux leather,” Sunset admitted and then looked at her jacket, “How does this even fit?”

“Dreams,” I answered and shrugged my wings, “Don’t think about it too hard.”

She frowned and then looked at me, “So are we going?”

“Depends. Are you going like that?”

“Can’t wait to get me naked can you?” she teased and pulled the jacket off, “Been a while since I was here,”

I nodded, “Yeah. Miss it?”

“…At times,” she nodded with a small sigh, “Just small things from time to time. TV was great and the internet was amazing. Twi would have gone nuts over it if she had time to look at it when she was there.”

I cringed “Let’s not tell her about it or she’ll try to make a permanent portal and that wouldn’t be good for anypony.”

“Likely not,” Sunset agreed and then looked at me, “You know more of this stuff than me, can you download the internet? You could pop over and get a computer and then return.”

“Nope,” I said, “Maybe Wikipedia but not the internet. Come on, ready to go?”

Sunset nodded and then hesitated, “So how do we do this?”

“Like this,” I said and brought up a silvery portal before us, “Just stick close okay? Getting lost would be bad.”

“What if I wake up?”

“You’d just wake up,” I reassured her, “At least as long as I know where you are. Like I said, getting lost would be bad.”

“Noted,” she agreed and moved a bit closer, “Just walk through?”

“Just walk through,” I confirmed and put my wing across her back, “And don’t look too closely. Luna said that this next part can be disorienting to non-dreamwalkers, especially non-alicorns.”

Sunset nodded, “Should I just keep my eyes closed?”

“No, you should be fine. Just don’t try to follow the lights,” I said and lead her through the portal.

The space between dreams appeared and Sunset gasped and tensed beneath my wing, “So many lights!”

“Don’t look too closely Sunny,” I reminded her and quickly brought up Twilight's dream portal.

Calm blue and silvery. A calm little dream which was good. At least it wasn’t pink and a Nightmare would have been even worse.

“This way,” I said and pulled a slightly distracted Sunset through it.

Canterlot Royal Library. I’m so surprised. This is my surprised face. Twilight you are anything if not predictable.

Sunset blinked and started to drift off as she got caught up into the script of the dream. Well, that won’t do at all, they’ll end up reading a book with ever changing words all night.

Trotting around behind her, it only took a couple of moments to find Twilight, she was curled up with the worlds biggest book in front of a fireplace I really don’t remember being there .

And there we go, both ponies here.

I tapped my hoof against the marble floor and stabilized the dream around us, pulling them both into the realm of the thinking.

Sunset blinked in surprise “Library.”

Twilight looked around before she smiled, “Page… wait, Sunset!?”

Sunny grinned and trotted over, “Surprise Twi,” she said and captured the alicorn in a kiss before she nuzzled, “Page volunteered to bring me over to your dream tonight. We don’t see each other that often.”

Twilight stood up, her wings flapping happily as she grinned, “That’s amazing!” before she rushed over to hug me, “Thank you!”

I gave her a quick hug back, “You’re welcome but it has some drawbacks. I have to stick around in case something wake you because unless I'm here Sunset could become lost and that would be bad.”

Twilight pulled back and looked between me and Sunset, “Is this dangerous? Page, if this is dangerous get Sunset back to her own dream!”

“It’s not,” Sunset quickly said and moved up to her, “Right, Page?”

“It’s not,” I agreed, “I just need to stay here until Sunny want to go back.”

Sunset nodded, “See?”

“…Very well,” Twilight agreed and then smiled as she nuzzled at Sunset, “I missed you.”

“Missed you too.”

And that’s my cue to butt out as much as I can.

Chapter 25

Opening my eyes, I suppressed a yawn and cuddled closer to the sleeping Luna, her mane shifting softly across my ears.

Didn’t wanna move.

Just wanted to stay here all day. Here was nice and warm and smelled like my Luna. Outside was cold and unpleasant and filled with idiots.

I stayed like that for several minutes before the realization hit that if I didn’t go out there, I was pretty sure that Grey Velvet would most likely literally drag me out there by my ears.

Why in the world did I have to fight Tirek? Velvet would have been five minutes from kicking him out herself for interrupting her schedule.

Forcing my eyes open to look at Luna's starfield mane, I then slowly extracted myself from her hooves and wing before rolling off the bed, rubbing my eyes.

At least I made Sunny and Twilight happy tonight. Not as happy as they might have liked, but for safety, I had to stick around.

Had to do that again from time to time, it sure helped with their long distance.

Stretching my wings, I made my way out of the bedroom and made a beeline straight for the steaming hot tea and cucumber and tomato sandwiches.

I love you ninja maids. You are the best.

Still, with the threat of Velvet hanging over my ears, I couldn’t enjoy it for too long. Just enough time to get two sandwiches and a cup of strong tea down.

What was on the schedule today again? Uhm…

Something about the new griffon ambassador's arrival. Signing off on the preparations I think? That would be in the office I think.

Jumping off the couch I stretched with a yawn and spread my wings before making my way out the door.

I only got a couple of steps out before I was tackled to the ground by a ballistic pony missile.

“Thank you! Last night was amazing!” Sunset said with a grin and kissed my cheek before she ran off, leaving me blinking at the ceiling, wondering what the hell just happened.

Okay, my mistake. Should have expected that.

Climbing back onto my hooves I shot the guards outside the door a look. “Fat lot of use you guys are.”

They looked at each other before Silent Breeze spoke up. “Would you have gotten in her way, sir?”

“...Fair enough,” I grumbled and rubbed my shoulder where it had hit the marble. “Carry on.”

Nice to see that somepony appreciates my work though. Then again, if I did most of my work during the night right, nopony noticed it at all.

It’s almost like I was back on earth working IT again. If everything went as planned, nobody knew I existed.

I suppose that applied to spies as well, now that I thought about it.

XXXXXXXXX

“Did we find somepony to handle the fish?” I asked and flipped through the papers Velvet handed me.

She nodded. “We did, a griffon chef named Tartar. He said something about… salmon.”

“Sounds like it could work,” I agreed and signed off on the order. “This was for the day after tomorrow, correct.”

“Indeed, Lord Page.”

I nodded and handed them back to her. “Sounds good,” I said before I frowned at the papers. “...I’m going to need to actually show up, aren't I?”

“That would be the most polite, sir.”

“I suppose,” I agreed with a nod. “How many are invited?”

“Not many, sir. Just over six hundred guests.”

Not many, she said. Brilliant. Oh well, not much to do about it I suppose. It’s just one evening so I guess I had to just put up with it.

“It’s a bit late, but is Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer on that list?” I asked and turned to pick up the next set of papers. The sooner I got through all this, the sooner I’d be done and I’d be damned if I fell behind and showed Sunshine I couldn’t do this.

Grey Velvet flipped through the papers on her clipboard. “Lady Shimmer is already on the list, sir. Princess Twilight is usually not invited to these events due to previous engagements.”

“Send her a message and ask if she would like to attend,” I said and signed the next document. “It’s a bit of a short notice, I know, but I think she would like to come if circumstances allow it.”

“Of course, Lord Page,” Velvet agreed and took down a quick note. “I’ll go get her invitation sent out as soon as possible.”

“I’ll finish this up, I should be done around lunch. Oh, and put yourself on that guest list, Miss Velvet.”

She blinked at me. “Me, sir? That wouldn’t be proper!”

“My event, I decide what’s proper,” I countered before I smiled at her. “Also, imagine what could happen without you there to keep me in check.”

She hesitated for a moment before she took down another note. “...One Grey Velvet invited, noted, sir.”

“Oh, and if you need something to wear, visit Rarity’s new store,” I said and scribbled down a quick note. “Give her this and pick whatever you like, my treat for being so wonderful during this. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“T-Thank you!”

Chapter 26

“Is tomorrow the day the new griffon ambassador arrives?” Celestia asked as she nibbled at her ice cream.

I nodded. “Well, today really. Just an hour or so until you need to wake up and raise the sun,” I answered and relaxed on my cloud, floating just next to her table. “Any tips?”

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”

I smirked a bit. “You mean like last time?”

That got a grin from her. “You know to duck this time.”

“There is that. So, enjoying your vacation, Sunshine? Almost over now.”

She nodded a bit and tasted her pony-sized, all-flavour ice cream again. “I am. Might make it a yearly thing.”

“I’m not sure I would survive that,” I sighed. “Find another temp.”

“Oh, is it hard for you? I’m sure my sister could help you with that.”

Yep, Sunshine was in a good mood today.

“So, what have you been doing? Still lazing around Cloudsdale getting massages?”

“Yes and no,” she said and then smiled slightly. “...I may have found somepony.”

I blinked at her in surprise. “You have? That’s great!”

Celestia nodded. “Maybe. Her name is Clear Skies. I met her a couple of days ago.”

“Doing what?”

“A cloud sculpting contest, if you would believe it,” Celestia said and shifted her wings, peering at a cherry the size of her head as if wondering how to eat it. “We were both in the audience and got talking. She asked me out to dinner.”

“Does she know?”

She shook her head. “I’m going to tell her tonight. I… learned the hard way that the earlier the better.”

“I hope everything goes well, Celestia.”

Celestia sighed and nodded. “So do I. I don’t know what will happen or if it will develop all the way, but I like her. She is… lively and fun and so very beautiful.”

I nodded with a smile. “Good luck, Sunshine.”

“Thank you.”

“Time for sleep though, I think, I should do one last sweep among the dreams before ponies start to wake up. Sweet dreams.”

“Sweet dreams, Page. And good luck with the griffons.”

An application of will and a tiny bit of magic I let her go back to her dream of a giant ice cream as I watched her for a short moment.

It was great that she found somepony she was interested in, wasn’t it? I wasn’t sure what to think about it, I didn’t want her to get hurt, that’s all.

“Good luck, Celestia,” I whispered. “I hope things work out. You deserve it.”

With that I left the dream.

XXXXXXXXX

“You know what, I have suddenly fallen quite ill. Sunset, would you mind co...”

“Not on your life!” Sunset said with a grin. “Get out there, wingboy. The guests should start to arrive at any moment.”

“I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

Grumbling, I adjusted my uniform and cloak before I looked at her. “...Looking good.”

She was wearing a white dress, rather classy actually.

“Thank you. Twi bought it for me from Rarity,” she said with a smile. “I rather like it. And you’re not too bad yourself, I can see why Princess Luna wanted you to roleplay.”

Oh for crying out loud.

I just facehooved and sighed. “Damn it, Sunset.”

“Oh, you know you love me,” she teased and then poked my side. “Well? Going to go out there? Your first guest is arriving.”

“Huh, where?”

“Me!”

“Oh, my greatest apologies for my tardiness, Lady Shimmer!” I said and bowed with a smirk. “Please, welcome to this humble little shindig.”

She rolled her eyes. “You might as well have handed this over to Pinkie Pie.”

“You know, not a bad idea if I ever have to do this again. Would make things livelier at the very least,” I commented and then lead the way into the main room where the buffet table was getting the finishing touches. A mix of pony and griffon foods were available and almost all of it looked good.

One of the guards at the door signalled to me and I nodded to him. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go be bored to death. The first guests are arriving.”

“Have fun!”

“Screw you, Sunny.”

“Promises, promises.”

Chapter 27

Ambassador Asbolus was an older griffon with dark, slightly grey towards the edges shifting feathers and dark fur.

“I must say,” he said and peered at a salmon puff before popping it into his beak as he regarded the buffet table, “I didn't expect there to be griffon dishes on the menu.”

I shrugged a bit and also picked up a salmon puff, giving it a try before I blinked at it, “Hmh.”

“Not to your taste, Lord Page?”

“Not really, no,” I admitted, “Way too little salt. It’s a bit bland,” I then added and put some cold smoked salmon on my plate, “This however you should taste. Chef did an amazing job with it.”

He gave me a wide eyed blink in surprise and I smirked a bit, popping some of the smoked fish into my mouth.

Mmmm. Damn that’s good, it almost melts on your tongue.

Asbolus chuckled and copied me, “It seems Ironbeak was right. A most unusual pony.”

“Or perhaps I’m just strange. I did hit my head hard enough to lose all memory at one point,” I said before I grinned, “Maybe I used to be a griffon.”

He blinked at me before he laughed, “Well said, Lord Page!”

Putting some more pony friendly food on my plate to balance things out or I’d really regret things tomorrow, I spotted Twilight and Sunset towards the other end of the room, “If you excuse me, Ambassador, I just saw some ponies I need to talk to.”

“Of course, Lord Page. It was a pleasure getting to know you.”

“Same.”

This birdcat was much nicer than the last birdcat.

“Hey you two. Having fun?” I asked as I managed to reach the alicorn and unicorn. Twilight was wearing a dark blue dress that kind of shifted colour as it moved. Rarity’s work of course, who else could it be.

“Page! Thank you for inviting me,” Sparks said with a smile, “It’s been ages since I was to something like this.”

Sunset looked at her, “I didn’t know you liked these things.”

“...I don’t, not really. Or I didn’t at least,” Twilight admitted and smiled a bit, “But it is a change of pace from my normal things.”

“Honestly, I would rather be curled up by the fireplace with a book,” I said, “But this isn’t as bad as it could have been. Salmon?” I then added, offering them my plate.

Sparks wrinkled her nose, “...No thank you.”

Sunset just rolled her eyes, “Carnivore. You kiss Princess Luna with that mouth?”

“I gobble her all up,” I said with a wink and ate one of the cucumber things, “Honestly, I think you would like it if you tried it.”

She shook her head, “I rather not if it’s all the same.”

“Oh well. More for me.”

Twilight stuck her tongue out a bit at that thought and then shook her head, looking over at Sunset before she turned back to me again, “Have you heard anything from Princess Celestia?”

I nodded, “I visited her dreams a couple of times. She says she’s having a nice time and should be back at the start of next week.”

“Where is she?”

I shook my head, “Not telling. You can ask her when she gets back… I’m not even sure she told me the truth when she told me where she was.”

Sighing softly, Twilight nodded, “...Dreamwalking would be so practical.”

“I’m actually a bit surprised you don’t know how,” I admitted, “Not like it was that difficult to pick up, even as a unicorn.”

Twilight sipped her drink, “I only looked at it briefly. It’s barely even magic like we use normally, but it’s so involved that I didn’t even know where to really start.”

“Maybe Luna could give you a hint if you asked her? I really, really wouldn’t recommend trying without help though,” I told her, “That would be really bad.”

Sparks nodded, “Usually the case with magic you don’t know. Reading about it is one thing, trying to cast unknown spells, especially from schools you don’t know it a good way to get hurt.”

Sunset nodded, “...Yeah. Like trying to turn into a demon with the help of mythical artefacts. I did some more study on it since then. It wouldn’t have turned out well, I would have gone insane most likely.”

“That would have sucked,” I said as I blinked at her, “Glad we got you back.”

Twilight quickly nodded in agreement and Sunset smiled slightly,

“Thanks for doing that,” she sighed before she eyed me, “Even if it was by threatening to stab me.”

“Hey, they said dead or alive… I think. Don’t remember exactly, but my goal was to get you and the crown back to Equestria before things went pear shaped,” I said with a grin, “If it’s all the same, I prefer how this ended, Sunny.”

Twilight quickly nodded, “Me too. I hate the idea of not having you with us,” and shifted to slip her wing across Sunset's back, “With me.”

Blushing softly, Sunset nodded, “I'd rather not be a crazy demon as well.”

That’s adorable.

Sighing softly, Sunset looked over at the dance floor before she turned to me, “Want to dance?”

“Why ask me? You have Twilight right there.”

Twilight quickly shook her head, “Please no, it’s better for everypony if I don’t,” she said and then smiled, “You two have fun.”

Nodding, I turned to Sunny, “Just so you know, I’m not great at this.”

“It’ll be fun!”

Chapter 28

Walking back into my and Luna's quarters, I yawned and stretched my wings, removing my cloak to toss it onto the couch with my magic.

I was exhausted.

The reception had gone better than I expected, but considering I thought there would be things on fire at the end, that didn’t say much.

Things had actually gone perfectly.

Everypony seemed to have enjoyed it, at least within my hearing range, which was all I really cared about at the moment. Any scandals will be Celestia's problem in a couple of days.

It wasn’t anywhere near sunset yet; the entire thing had been held during the middle of the day. Which was too bad as it meant Luna had not really been able to show… of course, technically she could have, but not like I would have asked her to get up during the day like that unless it was actually important.

Technically I should have been doing paperwork right now, but all kinds of nope to that.

Grabbing a quick drink, I undressed and stretched before making my way into the bedroom and scooting in next to Luna.

She shifted slightly, her wing shifting to rest across my back and I leaned against her and sighed, closing my eyes.

Mmm.

Much better.

Luna lazily pulled me closer and nuzzled at my ears. “…Ow did it go?” she mumbled.

“Well enough,” I answered quietly, “Go back to sleep.”

She made a small sleepy sound and cuddled me closer, closing her eyes again.

Closing my eyes, I relaxed and just enjoyed the moment.

I fell asleep at some point but didn’t bother entering the dream realm, I simply slept.

Seeming to have slept for only a couple of seconds, I woke up to nuzzles at my ears and I groaned and cuddled closer to the bed. “Humgz.”

“You are so good with your words,” Luna teased. “How did things go?”

“Well enough,” I mumbled and rolled over to nuzzle against her neck. “New Ambassador doesn’t seem too objectionable, none of the nobles caught fire and I think I got Sparks and Sunny some date time. So I’ll count it as a win.”

“Sounds like it went well then,” Luna agreed with a smile and relaxed again. “Just want to stay here.”

“Me too.”

“…But sunset waits for nopony,” she sighed.

“Well, other than Twilight,” I teased, drawing a giggle from her,

“Don’t start that, that can get silly fast,” she said and shook her head. “Sun is going down. I should get ready to raise my moon.”

“Come back after you handled your pet rock?” I asked and rolled onto my back to look up at her. “Let’s just relax tonight.”

“Or not relax,” she teased and stretched. “That sounds wonderful, but I have too much to do.”

“Aww.”

She smiled sadly and then stole a small kiss. “I’m sorry, My Page. But I have a lot of work to finish before Night Court opens.”

Groaning softly, I nodded.

Figured.

Luna jumped off the bed and moved to put her regalia on before she glanced back at me. “As soon as my sister returns, we’ll have more time. I promise.”

“…I thought I was doing her work. Are you getting some?”

She shrugged her wings. “Just some paperwork. You are doing the great majority, but some of it needs an actual Princess’s eyes on it, not a herald's.”

“Oh. That makes sense. Sorry.”

That drew a smile from her. “My sister handled all of it for a long time. I can handle a couple of extra signatures a night. Join me for breakfast after?”

“Love to,” I said and watched her as she moved towards the balcony.

So beautiful.

Settling down as she went out of view, I stretched my wings and then relaxed again. Damn it, falling asleep had not been a good idea. Now I would need to magic myself asleep in a couple of hours if I’m to be able to twist my sleeping schedule back on track.

Light in the room shifted as the sun set outside and the moon started to rise.

“Mmm…Luna?” I asked as she returned inside. “Did you ever figure out that entire thing with the school library?”

She nodded. “Nothing to it, it turned out,” she answered. “It seemed like it was simply expensive.”

“Ah.”

“Breakfast then, My Page?”

I reached out to her with my magic to pull her gently towards the bed. “Later.”

She didn’t exactly object.

Chapter 30

“Not now, Fern,” I said and pushed the timberwolf to the side. He whined and then settled down on the floor next to me.

I looked across the table to my guests. Sunset Shimmer was the one I knew best. The rest were guard ponies.

Sergeant Bronze Shield was an older earth pony with light bronze color coat and of the Solar Guard as it officially was called.

Sergeant Night Wind was younger and a pegasus of the Lunar Guard. He had a dark, almost black coat and even darker mane.

Lieutenant Flarefire was the last one, a unicorn of the Solar Guard. Being of the same colour of Sunset, his mane was a bright red.

All these three ponies had one thing I common. Their main job in the guard was training ponies not to get themselves killed and to work together.

“Okay, so here it is,” I said and looked between them, “I need a plan for training my guard and the normal one for day or night won’t work.”

“May I ask why, Lord Page?” Flarefire asked.

I nodded, “For one thing, they will be doing very little guarding. I plan to have them be a bit more proactive in their defence of Equestria. Forget about threats like Tirek and Sombra, very few ponies can do something about that, but there are smaller threats. Like Starlight Glimmer.”

Sunset frowned at me, “You are going to turn them into a replacement of the Warmages?”

“Not at all,” I said and shook my head, “Just a different kind of defence. The day and night guards are focused on keeping ponies safe. I want my guard to focus on making the threat go away. Not sure it’ll work as I don’t plan for the group to get that big, but still.”

Night Wind frowned in thought, “Offense to our defence?”

“Just as so,” I agreed, “So as you see, the normal guard doctrine wouldn’t work.”

Flarefire didn’t look overly enthusiastic, “I’m still not convinced about the idea of mare guards, but we should be able to work something out.”

“My first idea is to continue on the normal guards tendency to work in pairs with unicorns,” I said, “One defending and one attacking. My idea is to split everypony into teams of three, each with a unicorn, earth pony and pegasi.”

Sunset slowly nodded, “To cover each other’s weaknesses.”

“More or less,” I agreed, “Thoughts?”

“Could work,” Bronze Shield said and looked thoughtful, “Training would need to be quite different though. I would recommend doing the teaming up of the groups early to build friendships and bonds among the group.”

“Sunset?” I asked her, “How does the ratio of the ponies left stand?”

She checked her list, “The ones that finished training is actually pretty even split. There is enough for eight teams and one extra pegasus.”

Flarefire nodded, “We’ll figure it out.”

Sunset nodded with a smile, “I have some ideas. We’ll go through the current books on guard training and see what we can find and give you a summary report, Lord Page.”

It was really, really weird hearing Sunset calling me that. But she did for really official business.

“Sounds good to me,” I agreed, “How soon do you think it can be done?”

“Week or so?” Sunset said with a frown, “I have already read most of them, we just need to agree on what parts work with the new direction and what need to be scrapped.”

I nodded, “Anything else for today?”

Flarefire spoke up, “I think we have everything we need for now, Lord Page. We’ll get back to you as soon as we have the material ready.”

“Very well, dismissed,” I said with a smile, “And thank you.”

All three filed up, giving their goodbyes while Sunset stayed behind. The door closed behind them and I sighed and smiled at her, “So… how many of these have you had?”

“At least one a day,” she admitted, “Could have been worse, most of them are short like this.”

“Thanks again for handling this for me.”

“You owe me big, wingboy,” she said and got up to stretch, rubbing her neck, “Speaking of which, I could use a spa visit.”

I just chuckled, “Have fun and have them send me the bill.”

That caused her to light up in a happy smile, “Awesome. Thanks,” then looked at me, “Wanna come?”

“Never been to a spa before,” I admitted, “But some other time I think, I have a lot of stuff to do. Ask again next week.”

“Will do. Have fun.”

“Yes. Fun.”

Sunset winked and gathered up her papers and left, leaving me and Fern alone in the meeting room. Sighing, I looked down at the chlorofiend, “Now then, let’s get you that walk you wanted,” I told him, “We can go to the garden and you can soak some sunlight while I read the papers I’m sure Velvet have waiting for me outside that door. Sound good?”

The pet/houseplant surged to his paws with a mruf.

Walk. Yes, that’s a word he knew. A dog is a dog, no matter what it was made of.

Chapter 31

Last day! Last day!

I couldn’t help but feel cheerful even as I read through a rather depressing report on the state of Stalliongrad's city coffers.

Last day! Celestia is back tomorrow and soon as she returns, I’m taking a week and doing nothing! Maybe even visit that spa Sunny keeps raving about.

Still, that didn’t mean I had been any less busy today than yesterday. But only a couple of hours left!

Three hours and then no more of this and if Celestia thought this would make me more willing to pick up a crown, she was delusional!

No way!

Taking a sip of my tea, I smiled and scribbled down some notes on the situation to leave for her when she returned.

Not going to slack off though, I promised I would do this and do this I would.

Picking up the next report, I reached for my tea only to glance down at it and see a big yellow eye floating around in it.

The next second the cup and tea in it smashed into the wall opposite to me as I scrambled out of my chair, trying to get my heart back under control.

“Discord!”

“You are fast on the uptake,” he answered and stepped out from behind one of the books and snaked up to full size, “Maybe not as stupid as you look, my dear ape.”

Taking a deep breath, I glared at him, “I’m surprised to see you, traitor. Would have thought you would have been hiding in Fluttershy’s mane still. You know, after I killed your partner.”

Discord cringed and disappeared to reappear, sitting in one of the chairs, waving a white flag, “Oh relax, I have no intention of causing trouble. Dear Fluttershy wanted me to… apologize.”

He didn’t sound overly happy about that.

I gave him a flat look, “Apologize?”

“For what I did,” he grumbled, “Like I would need to, I’m a creature of chaos, I just did what I do!”

“Well, you better not do it again,” I told him and rounded the desk, “This is your third and last shot, spawn of chaos. I’m not Celestia and I’m not Luna. I’m not Twilight or Cadence. You fuck up even once more and you are stone and I’m finding a sledgehammer.”

That got a reaction from him and he slid across the room, ending up almost nose to nose with me, “You wouldn’t do that to poor Discord!”

“Maybe, maybe not. But I’ll tell you this,” I said as I looked up at him, “Out here you may be as omnipotent as it’s possible to get, but I’m pretty sure you still need to sleep from time to time. If you betray Equestria again and you ever enter my realm, I’ll make sure you never stop screaming.”

He blinked at me and pulled back, looking offended, “I’m a creature of chaos! I can’t follow your rules! It goes against what I am!”

“Play your pranks all you want as long as nopony gets hurt,” I told him and shifted my wings, “None of my business. But betray Equestria and you and I will have problems.”

Discord blinked at me before he smiled, “My, my. That’s almost princessly of you. I see why dear Celestia chose you to take over for her while she is getting her… wings… massaged. And you have caused such delicious chaos while doing it!”

I stared at him for a second, “…Just get out.”

He smiled a bit wider, “So princessly actually, that I think it would fit you!” and raised his hand.

“Snap your fingers and I’ll feed them to you, ‘Q’,” I snarled at him, “And then I’ll hand you over to Luna. I’m pretty sure she would have words for you if you turned me into a mare.”

Discord shrunk down and sighed, “You are no fun at all.”

“Tough. Fuck off.”

Discord looked very torn for a very long moment before he blurred into motion and suddenly one of my papers covered my sight and he disappeared in a bright flash I could see even through the paper.

Reaching up in annoyance I tore the paper off my horn and read it. It was nicely decorated and printed with gold and silk with the text, “Special 24h princess pass,” written on it.

I frowned at it for a second before a horrible thought struck me and I looked at my hoof and leg. More slender than normal.

Closing my eyes, I sighed. The sigh was a much less deep tone than normal and my now much longer mane hung down over my eyes.

Kill him. Dead. He’s dead.

You know what, fuck it. I’m done. Celestia can handle her own damn paperwork.

“Amber?” I asked and almost cringed at the sound of my voice.

“Yes miss?” She asked as she appeared behind me.

Facehoof.

“…I’m calling it a day,” I grumbled, “Find me a path to the tower where I won’t be spotted by anypony, will you? Maybe Luna has a way to fix this before the time is up.”

“Of course, Miss Page.”

Luna damn it, Amber. And Sunset is never to find out about this. Never, ever.

“Page, I have something you need to sign he…” Sunset said as she walked inside before she just kind of trailed off and blinked at me in surprise.

…Kill me now.

Chapter 32

“You don’t need to stay, I’ll be fine,” I said as the door closed behind us. The trip to the tower had been easier than expected with Amber scouting, an illusion around me and Sunset glaring at anyone that got too close.

“Like hell am I leaving you alone like this,” she answered with a frown. “What was he thinking!?”

“Not sure anything Discord does count as thinking,” I sighed and dropped the illusion, wincing when my voice changed pitch. “But as long as he keeps himself to the occasional temporary prank, it’s a lot better than the alternative.”

Sunset stared at me. “Prank! Page, he turned you into...”

“A mare,” I sighed. “Trust me, this is very strange, but on my list of strange things to be transformed into, it’s still a distant second. As I’m sure it would be for you if you were turned into a colt.”

“...True,” she admitted. “But still.”

“So yeah,” I said and flicked my right ear. “Really, really annoying and strange, but as long as it’s temporary I won’t try to kill him for it. Instead, I’ll do something a lot worse.”

Sunset looked unsurely at me. “Like what?”

“I’m going to tell Fluttershy what he did.”

That got a smile from the unicorn. “Good.”

Looking over at the room to the bedroom, I then sighed and jumped onto the couch and lay down. “...No real use waking Luna, is it? Even if she has a spell that can reverse it, it’s likely hideously complex...”

“They exist,” Sunset confirmed. “And you are not even close to guessing how complex.”

“...and would take time to read up on for her,” I continued and nodded at her at her interruption. “All it would do is make her get less sleep.”

Sunset looked unsure. “I would have liked you to wake me if I was her,” she said and jumped up to lay down next to me. “But there is an alternative, isn’t there? She’s asleep.”

“...Good idea,” I said and frowned. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“You do have some other things on your mind. Go ahead, I’ll wait here.”

Giving her a quick smile I put my head down and closed my eyes, diving into the realm of dreams.

As the dream realm formed around me, I looked at myself again. Damn it, it stayed with me in here too!

Finding Luna didn’t take long. Not only were very few ponies actually asleep during this time, but I got her dream portal to swoop up to me with a thought.

Good, she was actually in her own dream. She liked to dream walk and did patrol the dreams of ponies, just like I did during the night. But I knew that she preferred to help little colts and fillies with bad dreams, not just Nightmares and I had no trouble focusing on hunting the things.

But this time she was actually ‘home’ so I didn’t need to hunt her down.

Crossing into her dream, it revealed a forest clearing with sparkling stars far above. Luna was lying by a small fire, reading a book.

“Luna,” I said as I spotted her.

She looked over at me in surprise before she frowned. “…Page?” she asked before quickly getting up. “What happened?”

“Run in with Discord,” I said and then quickly stomped my hoof against the dream to keep her from waking up when she instantly tried to. “Stop.”

“I’ll…”

“Do nothing yet,” I said and moved up to nuzzle softly. “Here’s what happened,” I added before telling her the full story.

By the time I finished, she was lying down as I was right next to her, beneath her wing again.

“He said a day?”

“The note said a day,” I sighed. “Unless you know a way to turn me back earlier.”

Luna looked concerned. “…I’m sorry, My Page. Such magic is difficult, I would need to study it.”

“Which would take longer than a day,” I said. “I guessed as much when Sunny mentioned it. I’ll get by with illusions until then, I guess.”

“Discord cannot be allowed to act in this way!” Luna said softly and nuzzled at my ear, “I will speak with my sister, we have to…”

“Not do anything right now,” I interrupted her. “We don’t have the Elements and without them, even everypony working together, Discord could get a lot of ponies hurt before being defeated. It might happen eventually, but I don’t want it to happen over this,” I said and then frowned. ”…If it turns out to be permanent, then maybe, yeah. But not over something temporary.”

Luna shook her head. “I will still discuss the matter with my sister.”

“Just don’t go planning any campaigns. If nothing else, because my uniform won’t fit like this,” I grumbled. “Even walking feels strange.”

Luna smiled softly and looked at me. “Would it help if I said that you were beautiful?”

“…Maybe a little,” I admitted and cuddled closer. “But I’d rather be back to being handsome if that’s alright with you,” I said and then nuzzled her. “But thank you. I should likely wake back up and tell Sunny I’m fine, she might be worried by now. You stay asleep, please don’t follow me out, you need to get your sleep.”

“Very well, My Page. I’ll see you when it’s time to raise my moon,” Luna said and then kissed me softly.

Kissing back softly, I leaned against her side before opening my eyes and waking up to the worried face of Sunset.

I smiled a bit at her. “Long story short?” I said and suppressed a small yawn, stretching my wings. “Even if this turn out not to be 24 hours, Luna is confident she will be able to turn me back as soon as she’s been able to review the spellwork. I’ll be fine.”

A small white lie was well worth the look of relief spreading across Sunset's face when I said that.

“Now,” I then continued and smirked. “Want to help me write a letter?”

“Oh yes.”

Chapter 33

“Page, why are you covered in an illusion?” Celestia asked moments after entering the room.

I rolled my eyes. “Discord prank, should be over this afternoon,” I explained before I smiled at her. “But let’s forget about that right now, welcome back!”

“Thank you. It is good to be back,” she answered with a smile of her own as a second pony entered the room. The newcomer had a grape-coloured coat with a darker mane, purple mane and a sun and clouds cutiemark. “Let me introduce Clear Skies.”

Celestia had been right. She was beautiful.

She looked more than a bit nervous and embarrassed as she smiled. “Hello. A pleasure to meet you, Lord Page.”

“Pleasure is mine, Miss Skies,” I said and moved around the table, giving her a small bow. “If you managed to tame the creature know as Celestus Solarflarus.”

Clear Skies blinked at me in slight confusion before she giggled behind her hoof.

Celestia shook her head and moved up next to her. “There were no taming involved.”

“Oh, no reins? That’s not like you, Sunshine,” I teased her before I smiled at the now blushing Clear Skies. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you, Miss Skies.”

Still blushing, she gave me a defiant look. “Oh, I think I can handle anything you can deal out, Lord Page. No big.”

I grinned at that. “Oh, I like her,” I told Celestia and then walked up to hug her. “Welcome back.”

Celestia hugged back for a moment before she frowned down at me. “...Page, you are...”

“Don’t. Seriously,” I sighed. “Discord. It’ll pass this afternoon.”

“There are spells that could help.”

I nodded. “So I've been told a number of times. But unless you can cast it now, digging them out of the archives and learning them would take longer than waiting unless he lied about the time.”

“Very well,” she said and then shifted to rest her wing across Clear Skies's back as she led both of us over to one of the large pillows. “Now, I need you to tell me everything about what’s gone on while I was gone.”

“Nope.”

She blinked at me in surprise. “Excuse me?”

“Nope. You have more important things to do,” I told her. “Like giving Miss Skies a thorough tour of the castle and then finding something to eat. I already have a full written account of everything on your desk. Paperwork can wait a bit and if something bursts into fire, I’ll handle it. Go get settled in again.”

Celestia smiled at that and I got a nuzzle between my ears. “Thank you, Page. Would you and Luna be willing to join us for dinner tonight?”

“Love to,” I said and smiled, getting up and giving Clear Skies a nod. “Enjoy yourselves.”

“We will,” Celestia confirmed with a smile of her own.

“Oh, I bet you will.”

“Out!”

Laughing, I trotted out of the room and letting the door close behind me before I frowned at it. “Amber?”

“Yes, Miss?”

Facehoof. Celestia damn it, Amber.

“Could you be so kind and go see if Skitter have a couple of changelings willing to go on a small mission?”

“Of course, miss. May I ask what for?”

I nodded. “I want them to go to Cloudsdale and quietly find out everything there is to know about a blue pegasus with the name of Clear Skies, sun cutiemark.”

Amber frowned and looked at the door. “Suspecting trouble, miss?”

“No, not really,” I finally answered and shook my head. “But something feels strange about this and I want Celestia to be happy. Just… make sure they are quiet about it, nopony is to know about it. Maybe I’m paranoid about this, but something about seeing her next to Celestia felt wrong.”

Amber rolled her eyes and nodded. “Very well, miss. I’ll pass the message along.”

“Thank you. Now, back to the tower, I think so I can drop this illusion, find a good book and a bottle of cider,” I said with a sigh. “Finally, no more bullshit.”

“Lord Page! I demand to know where my Aunt is right now!” Prince Blueblood demanded as he rounded the corner and spotted me and Amber.

“...Asleep in her bed I would suspect,” I told him. “It’s the middle of the day.”

Son of a fucking bitch, the last pony I wanted to handle right now was Blueblood.

“Aunt Celestia, not Aunt Luna!”

“She hasn’t arrived yet,” I said and shifted my wings. “Perhaps I can help you with your problem?”

“The Canterlot Royal Theatre is refusing to host my mother's birthday party this year! Every year since before I was born, but this year they refused!”

Blueblood might not be quite as useless as he pretended to be, but it was a pretty close thing in all honesty.

This was really, really not something I wanted to be bothered with, but until I did, he just wouldn’t go away.

“What reason did they give?”

“Some outrageous excuse about being booked already! Have you ever heard such a thing!?”

“Oh grow up,” I sighed and walked past him. “Find her some other place, the entire city is full of places suitable for such an event. Hold it in the castle or one of the gardens. You have a problem, fine. Now work that sodding problem and solve it instead of coming whining to somepony else to do it for you.”

Blueblood likely would have looked less surprised if I slapped him with a live fish.

Chapter 34

Letting out a sigh, I dropped the illusion and looked myself over. All back to normal.

Fucking Discord.

Jumping off the couch, I stretched and trotted in a circle. Yep, back to normal. Goodie.

“All better?” Skitter asked from her spot on one of the comfy chairs.

“Yep,” I agreed, “Back to normal. That was the third strangest transformation I have ever had.”

Skitter just kind of tilted her head, “I see.”

“So?” I then asked and moved up to her, gathering my notes back up.

“I have two changelings I can spare, my two best infiltrators. They should be able to find out anything you need to know,” She answered, her wings doing a small buzz, “Not sure it’s necessary, but…”

I raised my eyebrows at her, “Last time a Princess was doing this, her partner turned out to be Chrysalis.”

“And another time it was ‘you’,” Skitter countered and shifted her position slightly, “That turned out well.”

“And I’m not what I look like, and you know it,” I sighed, “Only one that ended up with a normal pony even originally is Twilight Sparkle and that’s because she’s with Sunset!”

That’s two out of three that got in trouble because they got involved with the wrong pony or tricked. I didn’t want it to end up three out of four.

Skitter frowned a bit before she nodded, “I’ll send out the infiltrators like you asked.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile.

Fern moved over to look at me, almost half my size. I scratched the Timberwolf at the neck and settled down, “I just want to make sure she is who she is.”

Skitter nodded and watched the timerwolf, “He’s getting bigger, sir.”

I grinned and nodded, “He is, isn’t he? Plenty of soil, sunlight and some meat from time to time. Just like taking care of any houseplant.”

Woof.

I scratched at his neck with a smile. Good chlorofiend.

Fern's leaf tongue lolled out and he looked up at Skitter who eyed him with a bit of suspicion.

“Timberwolves are predators. They have eaten changelings before.”

“Fern is harmless.”

“He was harmless. He is starting to get big enough to harm a changeling. Or a pony.”

I frowned at her and then looked at Fern, “Going to do that, planty? Going to gobble somepony all up?” I asked and poked his side.

Wruf!

He pounced me, licking at my face with that leaf like tongue.

“Yes, horribly ferocious,” I laughed and pushed the forest spirit away, “Deadly.”

Fern jumped off me and scrambled to get one of his toys, a squeaky ball.

Skitter shook her head and sighed, “Don’t want you to get hurt after all this. Even less if it happens because of something you trusted.”

“Same thing as I think with Celestia,” I said and tossed Fern's ball, causing him to scramble to catch it, “But this? Humans do this all the time, all through our history and Fern is a good houseplant.”

She just shook her head and jumped off the chair, “Well, if you are sure, sir.”

“I am,” I told her with a smile, “Fern won’t hurt anypony.”

I tossed the ball again and the wood spirit scrambled after it. It was amazing really how dog like he could be.

Skitter nodded and then smiled slightly, “So what will you do now?”

“As little as possible,” I told her with a grin, “No more doing Celestia's job, so I might actually get time to go back to writing again. I’m waaay behind where I thought I would be by now. But for the next week, nothing.”

“Nothing?”

I nodded, “Yep! Starting with, taking Fern to the park and throwing this ball around while getting him some sunshine.”

Skitter nodded and rippled, green fire crawling across her black chitin leaving a white unicorn with a changeling shaped horn on her head, “Want some company, sir?”

“Love to,” I said and bounced the ball over to her.

She caught it in her magic and then quickly threw it away before Fern could get close to her. I grinned, “Skitter, he’s safe! You've known him since I got him. Why does he bother you now?”

“Because he is getting large enough to eat a pony now.”

I rolled her eyes, “You can taste his feelings, right? He’s a big fluffy and happy ball of leaves and wood.”

“Now, yes.”

I rolled my eyes, “Come on, let’s get going,” I said and bounced the ball of the wall, Fern scrambling after it.

AN// Many thanks to FPSCanarussia for betaing this section.

Chapter 35

I suppressed a small yawn and turned a page in my book. Two weeks of getting up at sunrise had completely ruined my sleep schedule. It was barely midnight and I was starting to get really drowsy.

Closing my book, I put it down and shifted to lean against Luna’s side, as she went through tonight's correspondence.

That earned me a nuzzle at my ear. “You could go to bed, you know,” she said softly.

“Mmm. But then I don’t get Luna time. Besides, I need to try to twist this right.” I sighed. “A couple of hours, then I’ll head to bed.”

Now that Celestia was back I could twist my sleeping schedule back to something more normal. Well, normal for me.

“How about some tea?” She asked, and shifted her wing on my back. “That should help.”

“That does sound rather nice,” I admitted, and nosed at her neck. “But I can think of something else that could help too...”

That got a giggle from the larger Alicorn. “Later, My Page. I need to finish this first,” Luna said and pulled me tighter with her wing. “Get some tea.”

Grinning, I stretched and slipped out from beneath her wing. Then left the fireplace to go summon a maid.

As I reached for the bell with my magic, Luna let out a gasp behind me and there was the sound of wind as her wings flared. “Page come here!”

I glanced back at her. “What did you find?” I asked as I returned to her.

She almost shoved the scroll into my mouth in her hurry to hand it over. I quickly took it to read through.

“Cadence… Shining Armor… healthy… baby... Crystalling?” I read as I quickly eyed through the letter before I grinned. “Wow. I didn’t even know Cadence was pregnant. What’s a Crystalling anyway?”

“Neither did We,” Luna said and frowned, taking the letter to read through it again carefully. “...Neither did We. As for a crystalling, it’s a ceremony.”

I frowned and settled down next to her again. “What’s wrong?”

It was rare that she slipped back into the Royal We, but it happened when she got distracted at times.

“...Nothing is wrong, exactly,” Luna said slowly as her wings settled across her back. “We didn’t think it was possible.”

“Possible?”

“For an Alicorn to have a child,” she explained. “It has never happened before. Not to me or my sister.”

Oh. I… didn’t actually know that. I mean, sure, if Luna had had kids before I know she would have told me about them but…

“...Wait, what of Blueblood's line?”

Luna shook her head. “By marriage. They actually get their titles from Princess Platinum,” she explained and then frowned at the letter. “But I suppose if one of us could, it would be Princess Cadence.”

I slowly nodded as I watched the scroll. “Princess of Fo… Love.” I really spend too much time around changelings. “That’s really rather close to fertility, isn’t it?”

Also, very close to other things too. I said it before and I’ll say it again, Shining Armor is one lucky colt.

"Indeed,” Luna said softly as she rolled up the scroll, tying the pink band back around it.

I looked up at her, she seemed… a bit sad beneath the happiness for Cadence. Luna loved children, she handled most of their dreams while I did most of the adults.

“Luna, do you want children?”

“It’s not possible, My Page,” she said and gave me a gentle smile. “If it was, it would surely have happened by accident during ages past. If not for me, then surely for my sister.”

I slowly nodded. “But you didn’t have a male alicorn then.”

She blinked at me. “...I had not considered that,” she admitted and bumped her nose against mine. “Do you want children?”

I flicked one ear before I smiled at her. “Eventually. Not sure I’m quite ready for that yet.”

That got a smile from her. “You just like practicing it,” she teased and nuzzled.

Grinning I stole a kiss. “That I do,” I admitted before I leaned against her side. “If nothing else, once we are ready I’m sure Cadence could help.”

“Want Cadence to help huh?” She teased and nosed at my ear. “My, how forward, My Page. But we could ask her when we visit them...”

Damn it.

Fighting not to blush, I looked up at her. “You know, there are times I’m strongly reminded that you and Sunshine are actually sisters. Sometimes you act so damn similar.”

That got a laugh from her and she grinned. “Oh? How so? Will Cadence help you with my sister as well?” She teased.

Gzk!

I pounced at her, working my wing across her side and blowing at her ear, causing the princess of the night to dissolve into very undignified giggles as she squirmed and tried to get away.

I might lose word games with her more often than not, but I know where she’s ticklish and if you’re not cheating, you are not trying hard enough!

Chapter 36

“I got the letter from Twilight inviting me to come along this morning,” Sunset said with a smile as we looked over the training yard. “Pretty amazing, right?”

“Very,” I agreed with a nod, “Luna said it’s the first one.”

Sunset blinked at me. “First one?”

“First child from an alicorn,” I clarified. “Neither her nor her sister has had one before.”

“…But Prince Blueblood's family…”

“By marriage,” I said and shrugged my wings. “Their titles are from elsewhere and they have refused to let them go.”

“Huh.”

I nodded and looked out over where my guards were training in groups of three. They were practising against each other with wooden weapons and low powered spells.

For having done this for less than a month, they weren’t half bad. Things were difficult for them, the trainers had taken about half of the normal guard handbook and then thrown out the rest. Right now they were throwing shit at the wall and saw what stuck.

Seems like they went with my suggestion of teams of three though, and so far, it seemed to be working out, but practice wasn’t real life.

I knew how to defend myself, but I wasn’t military. I could fight, but this was a whole different kettle of fish.

I mostly kept out of it and let the professionals handle it.

Then I cringed as a pegasus below got rapped across the wing with a wooden sword as she flew past too close to an earth pony and went rolling across the dirt.

Ouch, that got to smart. Wings are sensitive and contained all kinds of nerves, they had to be to read the air currents.

Sunset nodded and then stretched. “We should get our own training in too.”

“…True, I have been slacking off since Celestia went away.”

“To be fair, we were both extremely busy,” Sunny said with a smile. “Come on.”

“Just something short today, maybe target practice,” I said and walked back inside with her. “Don’t have time for a bath later, there is some kind of dinner thing tonight.”

Sunset nodded. “Sounds good,” she said and led the way down the stairs. “Well, can’t say I envy you then.”

“It’s nothing special, just one of those goodwill things for the nobles,” I explained. “Both Luna and Celestia need to be there and I’m not about to make Luna go there on her own. Least I can do is to be bored with her.”

“And Clear Skies?”

I shook my head. “Celestia wants to keep that quiet if at all possible and, quite frankly, I don’t blame her.”

I didn’t like the attention and dating a princess got you a whole lot of attention. Of course, not quite as much as wings and being engaged to one.

…But Celestia also got more public attention than Luna in the first place. Might not be fair, but it’s the truth.

To be honest, if I could have avoided it, I would have.

We made our way to the training area we and the guard usually used as a spell range. It was one of the smaller training areas and there was a pair of unicorns there already, sending spell bolts towards the stone targets at the other end.

“Did you ever figure out that fire spell thing?” Sunny asked and picked out a target of her own.

I shook my head. “No, I’ll follow Celestia's advice and stay away from them for now. I’ll stick to ice and force for a while. Not that I get why I can do semi-advanced ice spells but fireballs, nope.”

“Wasn’t it a realm thing?” Sunny asked and sent a ball of flame flying down the range to splash against the rock.

I frowned. “Maybe? I mean, it’s possible but Celestia didn’t think so. It might just be that I suck at fire spells. Why would ice be easier than fire if it was a realm thing? It’s still just thermal energy!”

“Now that I still don’t quite get and I went to school for a while where they taught that stuff,” Sunset said with a frown. “Never made sense to me.”

“Fast atoms hot, cold atoms slow.”

She rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Lord Obvious. I know that’s the same thing but it’s not quite in magic.”

Nodding, I sent a bolt of force down the range, hitting close to the centre of her target. “I guess that might be where I do things wrong.”

Casting a Spear of Ice spell, one of the more moderately difficult ones, I sent it flying down the range to shatter into a thousand pieces against the enchanted rock target.

It may not have pierced a normal rock, but it should have at the very least chipped it.

“This is always too easy,” Sunny commented and bumped her shoulder against mine. “Come on, let’s head to the swinging targets instead.”

“Fair enough.”

She had a point there, a stationary target was kind of easy and mostly for learning to aim new spells rather than improving your aim in general.

“So, when do you leave for the Crystal Empire? Twilight said the Crystalling was in a couple of weeks.”

I shrugged my wings and walked along. “In a week or so, takes time to get two princesses moving unless it’s an emergency. Tons of stuff that need planning.”

“No kidding,” Sunset agreed. “Sounds like we are all taking the same train.”

I frowned slightly. “How do you feel about going back to the Crystal Empire?”

Sunset sighed and looked over at the magically swinging stone sphere on a chain. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I feel bad about what happened there, but… I didn’t actually hurt anyone. Will be mostly strange to be back there.”

“I guess it would be,” I agreed and frowned. “…For me too. Not that good memories last time I was there either,” I said before I grinned at her. “But hey, maybe we are lucky and we get another big world ending monster. Maybe you can get your own wings!”

“Why would I want my own wings when I can always admire yours?” Sunset teased with a grin, “Come on, let’s finish this so you can get going, you have a dinner, remember?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. Be nice or I’ll bring you along.”

Chapter 37

We were alone on the train to the Crystal Empire. As it turned out, we would be arriving a couple of days before Sunny and the rest of the gang.

Considering how early in the morning it turned out to be and how drowsy Luna and I were, that was likely a good thing.

I rested my head against the side of her neck, her warm wing settled softly against my back.

“Careful, my sister. I believe Page may be falling asleep,” Celestia commented, sounding way too cheerful for this horrible hour for her own good.

“...amawake...” I mumbled against Luna's neck. “benice.”

Celestia stage-whispered to Luna, “Think he’ll fall asleep?”

That drew a small chuckle from Luna even if she must be as sleepy as I was.

...I had to admit, alicorn wings are the best blankets.

Luna nuzzled at my closest ear. “Paaage...”

“I know, I know,” I grumbled and pulled away from her stretching as I forced my eyes open. “...I need tea.”

“Bring something back for me?” Luna asked with a smile as she folded her wings again.

I nodded and looked at the white alicorn. “Anything for you?”

“I’ll have a cup as well, please.”

Rubbing my eyes, I nodded and then made my way out of the royal cart to the next one in the small train which was the kitchen cart. Following that one was the ones for the staff, guards and everything else that was needed when the Princesses went travelling.

What time was it anyway? Way too fucking early, that’s what.

Bet it wasn’t even noon yet.

“Sir,” Swift said cheerfully as he moved up next to me without breaking step. “Such a fine morning for travelling!”

“Fuck off,” I grumbled at him.

It should be illegal to be that cheerful.

He grinned at that and looked behind him. “Pay no attention to the grumpy subject. Remember, you are here to keep him safe, no matter his mood. Part of our job is to not get in his way. But don’t be afraid to put your hoof down if he’s acting like an idiot and get himself in unnecessary danger.”

I glowered at him. “What happened to not getting in the way?”

“Oh, that’s as a guard. I’m your friend, so that doesn’t count,” he countered with a smile before looking at the three mares following him around. “Do as I say, not as I do.”

They were the best trio in my guard and had been sent along to see how things were out in reality.
Strawberry Aurora, Fluffy Breeze and Diamond Blossom.

Aurora was a unicorn with a pink coat and a bit darker pink mane with a flame cutie mark, pretty decent with fire magic.

Fluffy Breeze was a white pegasus from a guard family out of Canterlot. They never had a colt so her father trained her instead. She was a fast and accurate flier and good with a spear.

Diamond Blossom was a light grey earth pony. While earth ponies were usually larger than their other subspecies counterparts, she was the smallest of the group, even smaller than the pegasus. She was also a frickin' ninja and just as good at hiding as any changeling I have met. The fact that her family had been maids and servants at the castle for the last seven hundred years explained everything in my mind.

I just rubbed my eyes. “Swift, stop teaching them stupid things,” I grumbled and pushed the door open to cross over into the food cart only for him to stop me before I could enter the next cart.

“Sir, you need to allow us to clear the room first. Recruits, search the room, I’m staying with the client.”
Aurora nodded. “Yes, sir! You heard him, get to it!”

They moved into the food cart, scanning the room, the unicorn doing dispels and changeling scans on everypony inside.

The door closed again, and I sighed and let my head thump against the wall. “…Damn it, Swift. I just want some tea.”

“And I don’t want my tail kicked by Sunset for not doing this right. You may not have noticed, but that girl is scary.”

“Not as scary as me if you don’t stop being in the way of my caffeine.”

The door opened again to reveal the unicorn. “Clear, sir!”

“Well done, recruit! Sir, you are clear to enter.”

“…Thank you,” I sighed and made my way over to the hot water, waving the server away as I started to float tea and cups around. While they normally made everything perfectly all right, I wanted my tea strong enough to stand a cup in this right now.

Setting the tea to steep in a teapot, I picked up some milk, a bit of sugar and three big cups and spoons on a tray before I left to head back to our cart.

Getting back beneath Luna’s warm wing sounded really nice right about now.

“Clear the next cart, recruits!”

“Yes, sir!”

Celestia damn it, Swift! Now you were doing it on purpose!

Chapter 38

The crystal empire was just how I remembered it. Quite honestly, it was beautiful and if it wasn’t for the fact that it was in the middle of a frozen wasteland, I might have even liked to move here.

Sure, climate was nice now when the magical mcguffin kept it snow free and warmish, but what kind of idiots settled here in the first place?

I followed along, walking a few steps behind Luna and Celestia as we made our way towards the castle, ponies stopping and bowing as we walked past. I’d never get used to that, even if it was aimed at the sisters I still found the entire thing a bit embarrassing.

Or at least, I hoped it was all aimed at the sisters.

What felt even stranger was that there weren't any changelings anywhere. The agreement Cadence had with the Hive was still in effect. Amber had not been allowed to go as she wasn’t part of the love gathering party.

Amber had been less than pleased with me being allowed out of her sight for an extended amount of time.

“Am I the only one that thinks ‘evil mastermind’ every time I see that tower?” I asked as we got closer to the castle towering above the rest of the town.

Luna smiled and nodded. “I think so, My Page. It was constructed long before King Sombra came to power.”

“Must just be me then,” I said, looking up at the massive crystal structure. If it wasn’t for the fact that Canterlot was built on the side of a mountain, I would say that this place had more bling than Canterlot Castle. Shinier anyway, if smaller.

Seriously, add some spikes and maybe some fires and… paint it black? It wouldn’t look out of place with a giant flaming eye at the top.

We were met by Shining Armor as we got closer.

Not to be mean, but he looked like three levels of hell. Like he hadn’t slept in weeks. Which made a lot of sense with an infant around. Lack of sleep kind of came with the territory.

“Shining, you look like you haven’t slept in days,” I said with a grin.

“…I haven’t,” he admitted and then gave the sisters a slight bow, “Princesses.”

“None of that now, Prince Armor,” Celestia said with a smile. “It is good to see you again.”

…and I just realized that when I marry Luna, I’ll get that accursed title too. Sodding damn it! I thought I could avoid it!

I glanced at Luna and then sighed.

Worth it. It’s not the same thing either, it’s Prince Consort, not actual Prince so it could have been a lot worse to be honest.

…She would have been worth that too.

“Come on,” Shining Armor said with a tired smile, “I’ll take you to Cadence and the baby.”

I missed something there while wool-gathering. Still, it likely wasn’t too important. Moving up alongside Luna, I walked along as Celestia talked with the tired looking unicorn.

Both Luna and I seemed more than willing to let Celestia take the lead on this. Not sure about My Sky, but I was still more than a bit groggy from the change in my sleeping schedule.

Let’s just say that I knew how Shining felt… not that he hadn't had it worse for a bit. Poor man. Oh well, comes with the territory.

Shining paused outside a door. “…Before you come in, you should know that she’s a bit… unusual.”

“Unusual how?” Luna asked with a small frown.

“…You’ll see,” he said and lead the way inside.

I frowned at that and followed along to see Cadence standing by a crib. She smiled tiredly as we came in before moving over to hug Celestia.

“I’m glad you could come.”

“Wouldn’t dream to miss it,” the larger alicorn answered with a smile as Cadence moved on to hug Luna and I.

Cadence gave the second best hugs, following closely behind Luna. Makes sense really, what with her being the Alicorn of Love and all that.

Cadence smiled tiredly and lead over to the crib. “We haven’t picked a name yet,” she admitted as she pulled the blanker down a little, revealing the head of a pink little unicorn.

D’aww. She’s adorable!

The little foal stirred slightly as she started to wake up and her wings spread slightly in the crib.

I stared for a moment before I looked at Luna and Celestia. They were staring at the alicorn in the crib.

Good, so I wasn't the only one seeing that.

I turned back to the little alicorn as I sat down and shifted my wings with a frown, looking between her and her mother.

Well, that kind of make sense. Mother alicorn, kid alicorn.

Still…

“There is no way that’s even remotely fair,” I finally said with a frown.

Born as an Alicorn. Some ponies have all the luck.

Chapter 39

Leaning against Lunas side, I shifted my wings beneath hers as I turned the page in my book, “That wasn’t expected, was it?” I said after a moment.

Luna shook her head, “Not even close.”

“That’s what I thought,” I said with a frown, looking out the window, “I… really supposed we should have. I mean, alicorn mother, makes sense the foal would be alicorn. More often than not, the foal is the same subspecies as the mother even with mixed couples.”

“It was simply unexpected,” Luna admitted, “It was so surprising that an alicorn had a foal that it didn’t even occur to me. But when you put it like that, My Page, it does make sense.”

I nodded, “Still, very, very unexpected. I thought the alicorn thing came with… well? You know what I mean?”

She nodded, “Indeed. We just have to wait and see I believe.”

I hummed and agreed, turning to the next page in the book. The latest daring doo didn’t quite live up to the previous one I have to admit. Almost felt like she was rushing through it.

That little filly is going to have some trouble growing up. All that expectations…

Good thing she has good parents. Cadence did become an alicorn at a young age, younger than Twilight or myself.

She knew what came with the territory.

“…Damn it, still not sleepy,” I sighed and closed the book, “I think I’ll use the spell or it’ll be a pain to wake up tomorrow.”

“I’ll stay up for a couple of more minutes, I need to finish this,” Luna said and nuzzled at my ear, “Sweet dreams, My Page. See you in a bit.”

“Sweet dreams,” I answered and nuzzled before I floated the book over to the nightside table and relaxing against the bed, my horn lighting up before I found myself in the dream realm.

Stretching my wings, I moved to filter through the active dreamers. No Nightmares, just bad dreams.

Good, I really wasn’t in the mood to hunt today. The portal before me belonged to Clear Skies.

She was having a bad dream. Again. I checked a couple of her dreams after getting Skitter to check up on her. No news from the changelings about her, but her dreams looked normal.

Last bad dream she had was about completely messing up a state dinner.

Can’t really blame her for being stressed out about dating Celestia, even if it was in secret so far.

That have got to be a lot of pressure on her shoulders.

A quick application of will and magic caused the dream portal before me to shift and still, going from dark and stormy silver to a smooth soft silvery blue.

Luna taught me how to do that, affect dreams without being inside them. It was trickier and give you a bit less control, but for things like ending bad dreams it was perfect.

Much more elegant than simply cancelling the dream and sending them off to dreamless sleep.

Nodding to myself, I stretched my wings and took to the not-air, flying above the seemingly endless portals. If she made Sunshine happy, she deserved to sleep as well as I could let her.

Hmm… find Sunny about the last alicorn and tell her the news or see her expression when she finally see the little filly?

Hah! What stupid question is that! No way I’ll ruin that surprise!

Maybe Skitter?

…Better not, Changeling dreams are really, really confusing and strange. I tried to visit her once and bad, bad idea.

Griffons were fine. Changelings? Rather not repeat that anytime soon.

I suspected it was something with that semi hivemind carrier thing. Very confusing.

Celestia should be asleep, let’s stop by her.

Swooping down, I came to a stop by her shimmering dream. Silvery blue with a hint of pink to it.

A rather nice dream then, but should be safe enough to enter.

Then again, it’s on it’s way to a more romantic dream. Interrupting now would feel mean, it would stop it from happening and Celestia deserved as much happiness as possible.

So that plan was out.

I guess I’ll just want for Luna then or simply get some sleep. Hmm…

Weaving a dreamworld of my own, I walked through my own silver dream portal into a blank white canvas of a world.

Luna should be here soon, even with time moving differently here, I better hurry up with whatever I was going to do.

Sitting down, I looked around with a frown. Something nice…

Humming to myself I then slowly nodded and tapped my hoof against the not-floor and a circle of light radiated out from me. The white floor was replacing with smooth marble stone.

The dream changed around me, replacing the empty white space with the throneroom like I remembered it from the Castle of the Two Sisters, but different. This place was intact, a mix of what I remembered and from what Celestia had shown me in her dreams.

Not as pretty as the throneroom at Canterlot, but it was also a lot older, originally constructed some three thousand years ago. Canterlot was barely older than a thousand.

Getting up, I looked around. An application of will caused sconces along the walls to burst into flame and the tapestries changed from the ones holding Celestias and Lunas marks.

The old colors kind of flowed off them to be replaced with dark red background and a silver circle in the middle.

A twitch of my head and some application of will caused the air to shimmer around me, reforming into a dark silver set of armour with a cloak.

Jumping onto the throne, I settled down to wait.

I didn’t need to wait long until the door to the throneroom opened and Luna stepped inside, looking around.

She blinked at the surroundings, “Page? What is this?”

“Welcome, Princess of the Stars,” I said, “Have you come and negotiate your surrender to the Lord of Dreams? Just give up, you will never unite the lands without me.”

Luna looked at me in surprise and then she smirked and moved closer, her horn flashing and she shook her head, armour starting to cover her in an old style I once saw in Celestias dream, “And what would the terms be, Lord of Dreams?”

“Negotiable.”

Chapter 40

“Ah… bua… wah?” Sunset said as she gaped at the little alicorn as Twilight talked to Celestia over the crib.

“Eloquent as always there, Sunny,” I said with a grin as I moved up next to her, poking her with my wing.

Closing her mouth, she looked at me with a blink, “...Alicorn.”

“Yes, alicorn.”

“How does that even happen?”

I smirked, “Well, when mommy alicorn and daddy uni…”

Sunset rolled her eyes and poked my shoulder with her hoof, “You know what I mean!”

Grinning, I nodded and then shrugged, “Honestly, none of us have any real idea. Alicorns haven’t been born before. Want my personal take on it?”

“…Sure.”

“It’s part of Cadence's realm and therefore she doesn’t play by the normal rules,” I answered and stretched my wings, “In short, she cheated.”

Sunny sat down and frowned, “Oh. Well, that makes sense. Explains why there hasn’t been an alicorn baby before.”

“Of course, that was before there was a male alicorn,” I admitted, “Now I think all bets might be off for the future.”

She nodded, “Good to know if Twi and I get far enough to consider foals.”

“Wait, wh…”

I didn’t even have time to finish the thought before there was a massive boom and we were showered with stone and dust.

“Son of a fucking-!” I cursed and stumbled back, throwing up a shield against future attacks, but nothing else happened.

Luna and Celestia weren’t covered with dust, they had gotten their shields up in time, but everypony else was covered in what looked to be powdered crystal.

That can’t be good for our lungs, “You okay?” I asked Sunset as everypony started to get out of cover.

“…I’m fine,” she groaned and cast a spell, managing to get the worst of the debris off of her, “What was that?”

“I have no i...dea…” I finished and looked up at the ceiling. From the crib up there was a massive hole up through ceiling after ceiling.

The little baby of doom giggled and pawed at the air.

I looked at her and then the hole before I turned to Cadence, “…Where did you really get her? Find her in a corn field by any chance?”

That earned me a strange look from the pink alicorn before she ignored it and sighed, casting a spell to pull the blanket up over her daughter, “Foals tend to have very powerful magic for the first couple of weeks, stronger than as adults even before it fades. It can cause a bit of trouble.”

I just kind of gaped at her.

Bit of trouble! She’s not a unicorn, she’s a bloody Alicorn! Even if she turned out like me and didn’t really have a ‘physical’ realm, I was still significantly stronger than the average unicorn.

That’s a Baby of Mass Destruction! BMD!

I slowly retreated up next to Luna, “…What set her off?”

Luna sighed, “A sneeze. We should have seen this coming, it happens to all foals. Especially Unicorn babies are…difficult to handle in the beginning. Pegasus ones are simply difficult to catch.”

“And earth ponies?”

“Tend to break things, they are fairly strong.”

I nodded, “So in this case…”

“Very strong, very fast, very chaotic spellcaster,” Luna said with a slight frown.

“That’s what I suspected. I assume those magic suppression rings are out of the question?”

The look Luna shot me at that confirmed that and I quickly raised a hoof, “Sorry, sorry.”

Bloody hell.

I had to admit that the BMD was pretty damn cute, but that blast could have killed somepony.

Cadence carefully picked her up in her magic, “Come on, somepony needs changing,” she cooed, “Let’s get away from all this dust.”

I looked around. Was I the only one that felt like ducking and covering?

From the expressions on the girls, no, no I wasn’t. Sunset seemed to have done the smart thing and made sure she had an alicorn between her and the baby at all times.

I just wished it was somepony other than me! You’re Twilight's marefriend, go to her!

“I can just tell, there will be trouble because of this,” I sighed and ran my magic across myself to try to get the worst of the dust out of my coat.

Yeah, that won’t work. I need a bath.

“Little fillies usually are,” Luna teased and gave my ear a quick nuzzle before sneezing, “…You need a bath, My Page.”

“No kidding.”

Chapter 41

“Shining, you look stressed. You need sleep,” I said as he stressed about trying to get the last things finished for the ceremony.

He paused for a second before he sighed, “…That would be nice. But I need to get this finished.”

I facehoofed, “I don’t mean now! Later!”

Shining Armor sighed, “Yeah. That won’t happen for a while.”

“I figure that come with a foal,” I said with a nod. Didn’t exactly talk me into wanting one to be honest.

Eventually maybe, but not yet.

But Luna loved foals.

Shaking that thought from my head, I walked up next to Shining Armor as Rarity held out a selection of identical crystals for him to pick from.

“I…I don’t know…” He said and looked between them, “Which one do I pick!?”

I thought for a second about telling him to simply pick one, they were identical, but then thought better of it and just left them to it, moving over to Sunset where she was looking at the spinning crystal heart.

She glanced at me before looking at the ancient artifact again, “Amazing, isn’t it?”

I looked at it as I sat down next to her, “It is. You can almost feel the power coming of it and I’m not even a changeling.”

Sunset nodded and hummed in agreement, “Yeah. I can’t even begin to guess how difficult it was to create.”

“Pretty amazing.”

There was literally an epic fuckton of power in that thing, it kept an entire city-state with farms included free of snow and nice and warm in a frozen landscape. I couldn’t even calculate how much energy that was.

Sunset turned to me, “You ever think you will do something like this?”

“Like what?”

“Like this,” she said and motioned at the castle, “Your own castle, your own land, ponies that rely on you…”

I shifted my wings and shook my head, “I hope not,” I said before I sighed, “At least I don’t want to. Not sure I CAN avoid it forever with what I am. I want to though if at all possible.”

Sunny nodded and bumped her side against mine, “I can see where you are coming from, for sure. That’s a lot of responsibility.”

“Yeah, I would be constantly terrified of messing up,” I agreed and then smiled at her, poking her side with my wing, “Luckily, if it ever come to that, I have ponies I can rely on.”

That got me a smile in turn and she was about to say something else but was interrupted as Princess Cadence, Luna and Celestia exited the castle.

Shining quickly looked over from where Rarity was fuzzing over his mane. Extracting himself from beneath her brush, he trotted over to Cadence, “Okay, I chose the honor guard, picked the purity crystal, and I know exactly who I want to be our crystaller. So, all we need is…”

He paused and frowned in though.

Cadence rolled her eyes, “The baby?”

Shining got a slightly panicked look in his eyes and I shook my head with a grinned and made my way over to them,

“Give him a break, Cadence. He hasn’t slept for days,” I said with a grin.

Cadence shot me a look at that instead but before she was able to say something, Twilights voice filled the area,

“We’re here!”

Looking over, I could see the Baby of Doom flying about in a giant pink bubble of Twilights magic, Pinkie Pie hanging from the babies legs, her wings easily keeping the earth pony in the air.

The little alicorn didn’t even look strained, laughing and giggling as she fluttered about in the bubble.

Am I the only one that feel like ducking and covering?

Nope, apparently not, Sunset put Celestia between her and the baby. Smart filly.

“She’s a reaaaaly strong flier!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she dangled in the air, moving back and forth as the little filly moved along in the bubble.

The BMD cooed and giggled.

I cringed and readied a shield spell just in case. If she was as strong as she seemed, I wasn’t even sure a shield would be enough, but it would be better than eating a beam face first.

Cadence lit up her horn and extracted her baby from the bubble and Pinkie Pies grasp, pulling her over towards her.

The baby didn’t like that.

She screamed. She screamed so the ground shook and the castle seemed to almost wobble.

Holy shit!

Scrambling to cover my ears, I quickly looked around for falling debris.

The sound suddenly stopped, and I sighed in relief. Nothing had fallen on us.

Bloody hell, that little menace will be the death of…

Crackle. Crackle.

What in the world is… I had just enough time to turn my head to see the Crystal Heart shatter into a billion little shards.

There was a gasp from everyone at the sight as the core of the Crystal Empire rained down on the ground.

Well…

Shit.

Chapter 42

So, there we were, scrambling through the library for anything to repair that stupid trinket while Luna and Celestia did their best to hold of the quickly encroaching winter.

Now, they are both hot, one of them more literal than the other, but there was simply no way they would be able to hold of the snowstorm for long, especially as the snowstorm seemed to be have its non-existent mind on making up for lost time.

“Fucking damn it! I’m an author! The Alicorn of fucking Stories! How can I not find a book in a library!?” I exclaimed and threw a book on farming to the side, “To the dungeon with the librarian! What sort of fucked up organizing system is this!?”

Sunset ducked out of the way of the flying book, “Stop that!”

“…Sorry,” I sighed before ducking out of the way as the Baby of Doom flied past, chased by Pinkie Pie, “At least bring her out of here before she burns the place down!”

“I’m trying!” Pinkie yelled in response before scrambling out of view, taking the corner.

“Aaah!”

Crash!

Pop!

The Baby of Doom teleported in and I turned towards her,

“Okay, that’s it you little terror. Naptime.”

Before she could fly away, I tapped my horn against hers and caught her in my magic as she fell asleep, dropping towards the floor.

Letting out a sigh, I pulled her closer, “It’s a wonder how something this cute can be that dangerous,” I commented and rubbed my eyes, “Keep looking, Sunny. I’ll see if I can’t find Cadance and we can put her to bed or something.”

Sunset nodded, “We’ll find a way to fix this.”

“Yeah, hopefully. Or we have to evacuate the Crystal Empire before the tracks freeze over,” I said and looked over at her, “Let’s not have it come to that.”

She nodded in turn, looking determined, “It won’t.”

The Baby of Doom wouldn’t be waking up for quite a while, but I still put a bubble of silence around her as I made my way towards the reading area in search for her mother. Last thing we needed would be for somepony to wake her up right now and wreck the place.

I glanced down at her and sighed, shaking my head, “If you are this bad as a baby, I wouldn’t want to be your parents when you get to being a teenager,” I told her quietly before rounding the corner.

Spotting Cadence and Twilight by the table, flipping through books I walked up to them, “I think you lost this?” I told Cadence and floated her baby over to her, “She’s asleep in a sound barrier. Just… put her to bed or something?”

Cadence looked up from her book before she smiled and took her in her magic, “You caught her.”

“Yep.”

Getting up, Cadence cooed at the little terror, “I’ll go put her to bed as we get everything ready.”

As she left, I looked over at Twilight, “Any luck?”

“No,” she sighed and turned the next page before she gasped, “Yes!... wait, no. No, nothing yet. What if there isn’t anything here!”

I shook my head and pulled the closest book closer and opened it, “No idea. I sure hope not. But if we don’t find it soon, we have to start the evacuation or it’ll be too late.”

Twilights ears flattened against her head before she nodded and kept looking, moving around the table to move back among the shelves.

Okay. Okay.

We can figure this out. Or rather, Twilight should be able to figure this thing out. Alicorn of magic and all that.

“Twilight?” I asked as she returned with another section of books, “Can’t you just… kind of magic it together?”

“Huh?” she asked as she put the books down, “We are looking for a spell for it.”

I shook my head, “No, I mean… alicorn of magic. Shouldn’t you be able to just… tell magic what you want it to do?”

She shook her head and sat back down, “Don’t work like that, I could explain it but it would take more time than we have. In short, that’s what spells do and while I in theory could make one for it, just like any other unicorn, it would likely be months or more likely years of work for something this complex.”

“…Makes sense, thanks,” I sighed and returned to my book. It was about magical artifacts and archeology so at least there was a chance there would be something in this one.

But even so, things just felt very… hopeless.

Turning the page, I froze as a horrible idea hit me. The Crystal Heart had not only been keeping the Crystal Empire safe, it had also been feeding the changelings. Without it, they would have a deficit of love again.

Shit, shit, shit! That’s all kinds of bad! If they had to choose between going back to feeding on ponies large scale or starving to death, I know which I would have picked if I were they!

This was all kinds of fucking bad!

Who knew what other horrible consequences that could come from this too that I just couldn’t see right now. That’s it, we had to fix this thing, there simply wasn’t another option.

“I got it! This is it!” Twilight exclaimed and jumped from her seat, holding a rather ornate looking book, “This might work!”

Yes!

The purple alicorn looked surprised and almost dropped the book when I hugged her tight.

Chapter 43

“And then you simply empower the spell matrix! For such a powerful spell, it’s not that complex.”

I blinked at the book and then at the excited purple unicorn, “Not that complex? Sparkle, this is the most complicated spell I ever tried. I have no idea if I can even do this. We should wait until Cadence get back at least.”

Twilight shook her head, “We have to try it. The longer we wait, the worse things will get outside.”

Giving the pile of crystal shards a dubious look and floated the book over to look at the spell equation. It was complex but… Twilight was right, it wasn’t complicated. More like building a ikea bookshelf than writing a program.

I finally nodded, “Okay, give me a couple of minutes,” I sighed and scraped my hoof against the floor before I focused on the spell.

Luna was right. Taking it slow and step by step, you can cast almost any spell in existence. Focusing my magic, I slowly worked through step by step before I nodded, “Ready.”

Twilight flew through my careful preparations in about two seconds and then we both fired out beams at the pile of crystals.

The shards slowly started to raise off the floor, floating and shifting as they moved together, slowly pressing together to reform a heart shape.

Letting out the breath I didn’t realize I had held, I stumbled back and stared at the floating heart, “We did it!”

Yes!

The crystal heart shuddered and fell into a pile again.

No!

“Damn it! Did I fuck it up?” I asked, turning to Twilight.

She shook her head, “You did everything right, it just didn’t work. Why didn’t it work? I don’t know what else to do.”

“And old student of mine believe he does,” Celestia said as she walked inside at the head of a small group. Luna and the Elements along with Shining Armor… and Starlight Glimmer along with another pony.

Starlight Glimmer. First time I seen her since she left for Ponyville with Sparky. Can’t say I was overjoyed with meeting her again. But I suppose if I can not punch Discord every time I see it, I can stand being in the same room as mind control cult pony.

The orange and yellow unicorn in the glasses and cape trotted over to look at the shattered crystal, “…A baby did this?”

“Baby of doom,” I commented and rubbed my eyes with a hoof, “If you can fix this, you are more than welcome.”

Twilight nodded and showed him the book, “I tried putting it back together with..”

He snatched the book with his magic, “The spell of reliquary constitution? That won’t do it,” he said and tossed it over his shoulder.

Twilight kind of twitched at seeing somebody treat a book like that. If it hadn’t been so serious, it would have been funny.

“The crystal heart has been around for millennia,” He continued and dug a book out from his satchel, seemingly unaware of is impending doom, “Restoring a relic like this is way beyond a simple spell. You need to combine it with something else, something unique to the relic itself. Something that strengthen it and provides it with power…”

Twilight blinked at him and then grinned, “The crystalling!”

“Combining that spell with all the light and love of everypony gathered for the ceremony, togather with… somambulas weather ambulation to clear away the snow and fletchlings forbearance for the parents… uhm, where is the Princess?”

“Right here,” Cadence said as she walked down the stairs, carrying the little bundle of doom.

He nodded, “That should curb the little ones power fluctuations.”

Oh thank Luna!

Speaking of Luna… tuning the magic geek and everyone else out, I moved over to nuzzle, “You okay? You look a bit… frosty.”

She smiled and nuzzled back, “I’m fine, My Page. But it’s getting difficult to fly outside, our feathers freeze… or mine does, my sister is fine.”

“No wonder with how hot she can be,” I commented before I facehoofed as Lunas smirk, “I know what I said. Give me a break, I’m tired.”

That got a giggle from her, “Let’s cast this spell,” she said and floated the book over to read through it.

Nodding I walked up along with Cadence, Luna, Celestia and Twilight. Closing my eyes I started to go through the spell once more.

Second time through, it was a bit easier an I joined the others in channeling our magic into the shattered shards.

They started to slowly lift again as I strained against the spell.

Damn it, whatever your name is. Whatever you are doing to do, do it!

We didn’t need to hold it for long before the pony in the cloak came galloping inside again and quickly pushed a crystal shard into the heart.

It pulsed once and solidified. Letting the spell go, I slowly relaxed and took a step back as the heart started to spin hard and fast, shining.

“Uhm… is it meant to…”

FLASH!

A wave of light radiated out from it and I blinked in surprise, looking down at my hoof. I was sparkly and half see-through.

“Sparky?” I asked as I turned to a rather shiny looking Twilight, she kind of sparkled in the light, “This isn’t permanent, is it?”

That got a grin from her, “It means that it worked! Don’t worry, it’ll fade by sunset.”

“Yeah, okay. Where did she go?”

“Where did…” Twilight started to ask before she facehoofed with a groan, “…Ugh.”

Grinning at her, I turned towards Luna and oh wow. She looked… wow. I quickly trotted over to her to nuzzle before I whispered into her ear as I got an idea.

Despite the crystalline look, her cheeks turned a bit red and she quickly nodded, “We should just congratulate Cadence and her husband first.”

This day may have started rather badly, but it sure was looking up!

Chapter 44

Twilight shifted a bit nervously, “Are you sure Page?”

“What, don’t think you can handle me?” I asked with a smile and shifted my position slightly, stretching my wings.

She frowned, “Not that, don’t want to hurt you.”

“Sparky, I usually do this with Luna,” I said and moved up next to her, “Relax, I know what I’m doing.”

Twilight still looked unsure before she nodded, “Okay, we’ll be careful.”

“Luna is watching, she’s good with healing spells,” I said and moved across the training ground before turning to face her again, “Come on Sparky, it’ll be fun.”

Twilight looked over at Sunset where the unicorn were sitting next to Luna, Celestia, Cadence and Shining Armor.

The smile she got from Sunny seemed to have encouraged her, so she nodded and turned back to me, “Okay, let’s do this then.”

“Kick his tail Twilight!”

That would be Rainbow Dash from where the elements were watching from across the area from where the Princesses were.

Channeling my magic, I readied my spells.

Twilight moved first, sending a purple bolt of magic in my direction. The magic snarled across the space between us and I readied everything I had knowing how strong she was.

I layered shields, angled them to redirect the force and dug my horn hooves into the dirt, leaning into it.

I was completely ready for it and it was pretty much the only reason I wasn’t throw across the training ground with broken ribs.

Shining Armor hit hard. Sunset Shimmer hits harder.

Luna hit like a truck when she wanted to.

Twilight made Luna look like a playful swat from Fern and that was without even trying to hurt me. Had she really put some power behind that spell, I would have been a greasy stain on the ground.

Gritting my teeth, I let my shield drop, the remains of her spell sparkling around me.

Note to self, don’t block her.

Conjuring a spear of ice, I sent it in her general direction as I flapped my wings, throwing myself out of the way of a second spell, this one just as strong as the first one.

Alicorn of Friendship. Alicorn of Magic.

Alicorn of Magic mean a lot more when she’s throwing spells your way.

Oh Shit!

A second flap of my wings sent me back the way I came, narrowly missing a spear of ice. Not only was she strong, she was also insanely frustrating!

If she saw a spell, she could pretty much cast it.

In short, Twilight was complete bullshit.

Casting another spell, this one a beam of force at the ground next to her, forcing her to throw up a shield as the spell blasted up a cloud of dust around her.

Another spell and there were four of me and I cast another spell quickly behind it, teleporting onto the balcony above before settling down next to Sunset, stealing her drink.

She frowned a bit at me as Twilight ducked and shielded spells from my illusions below as she tried to figure out which one was real.

“Don’t you think this is cheating?” Sunset asked with a raised eyebrow.

“If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying to win,” I said with a grin, “But it does take some of the fun out if it I have to admit.”

A bright light from below ripped the entire illusions below into sparkled. Seems Sparky has gotten tired of ducking fake spells.

Channeling my magic, I teleported back down.

Shaking of the normal disorientation that make teleporting a pain to use, I sent a spell in Twilight's general direction once more, I let the mist fade away along with the copies of me.

Twilight looked significantly dustier than when we started and I smiled at her, stretching my wings, “Come on, Sparks. That wasn’t even close.”

She was looking somewhat annoyed by now.

A spear of force ripped through the illusion of me right next to me and I stepped into the place it was in, dropping the invisibility spell.

Her horn flashed bright and the illusion broke again around me.

Twilight blinked at me in surprise and then her horn flashed again, “…How are you doing that?”

“Doing what?” I asked with a smile, charging up a spell, sending a kinetic spell towards her. She didn’t do a thing to shield against it and it hit her low in the shoulder, sending her rolling onto the ground.

Gasping in surprise, she struggled back onto her hooves, “W-what!?”

“Hmm?” I asked and cast another quick illusion, wrapping myself in invisibility as I moved out of the illusion of myself, running forward.

Twilight looked around and then her horn flashed, the illusion shattering and my invisibility fading away before squeaking in surprise to find me right in her face as I pounced on her.

Tackling her over, I tapped my horn against her head, “Slee… what?”

That’s not rig… a kinetic spell from behind slapped into me, sending me rolling across the dusty ground.

Ow.

“I can do illusions too,” Twilight said with a smile, her image fading away where it had been on the ground.

I just looked at her for a moment before I let my chin drop back onto the ground as I sighed, “…Sparkle OP, plz nerf.”

Chapter 45

Sunset looked way too smug for her own good.

I raised my eyebrows at her, “It just mean I have to get better. Guess who I will be practicing with.”

Sunny blinked at me and suddenly didn’t look so smug anymore. Mission accomplished.

Luna grinned and nuzzled at my ear, “You did well. You can’t blame anypony else. You did get in a magic contest with Twilight Sparkle.”

“Might not have been the smartest thing in the world,” I sighed and shot a small glare across Sunset at said alicorn.

Twilight stuck her tongue out at me.

“I’ll get you next time, Sparkle! Next time!”

That sent Sunset into a fit of giggles, “Realy Page? Dr Claw?”

“Quiet you,” I said and poked her with my wing before I sighed and leaned against Luna’s side “Luna?”

She hummed and looked down at me, “Yes?”

“Luna, I want a vacation. You, me, somewhere far away from Canterlot,” I said, “Before you protest, yes you can spare a couple of weeks. If your sister could, so can you.”

Luna looked thoughtful before she nodded, “We could,” she admitted and sighed softly before nuzzling at my ear, “That does sound wonderful. We’ll make it happen.”

Awesome!

Somewhere nice. Under illusion and transformation after all. A tropical island sounded nice but I wanted civilization and that meant doing what Celestia had done.

Sunset sighed softly, “Vacation away from everything sounds wonderful. Twi?”

Twilight nodded, “It does,” she agreed “But with everything I have to do, it’s going to be a while until I can get away. I have to get back to Ponyville tomorrow and then go to Stalliongrad.”

“Not exactly a vacation spot,” I commented and leaned against Luna's side.

Twilight nodded, “Mmm. But I need to go anyway, there is trouble among the nobles there and… well, Princess of Friendship,” she said and shrugged her wings before she brightened up, “Oh! Sunset can go with you!”

Wat.

“Oh, that’s a brilliant idea!” Luna exclaimed, “It would be nice to get to know you better, Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset and I shared a ‘what the fuck’ look.

She turned to Twilight, “…Twi why would I be coming with Page and Princess Luna on a romantic vacation?”

Twilight looked at her in surprise, “So you get to spend more time with Page and get a nice vacation. You don’t want to go?”

I, on the other hoof, blinked at her, “Twilight have you been drinking? I’m with Luna, not Sunset.”

“You are not involved with Sunset?” Luna looked slightly surprised.

... What?!

"Someponies are confused here," I rubbed my eyes "And I think it’s all of us,”

Luna frowned, “Oh dear. I was mistaken it seems. I thought for sure you were with Sunset”

I frowned at her in turn, “ That Sunset and I were romantically together?”

She nodded, “I hardly minded My Page. If anything I encouraged it. She’s an unicorn after all and if you are in love I would want you to spend as much time with her as possible.”

Sunset and I shared a look before I turned back to Luna, “Without me telling you?”

“We have discussed similar matters before," Luna reminded gently "and I thought you simply wanted to keep things discrete because of your cultural inclination. I’m sorry for that.”

I gaped at her. I wouldn't have done anything like that.

“Oh,” Twilight said softly and Sunset and I both turned to look at her. She cringed slightly and flicked her ears to the side, “Now I feel even worse.”

Sunset blinked, “Why?”

Twilight frowned and sighed, “I felt bad that I couldn’t spend as much time with you as you deserved. So knowing you were with Page and not feeling lonely in our castle made me feel better.”

“Without telling you!? Even if you think that Page for some reason wouldn’t talk about it why wouldn’t I….” Sunset exclaimed and then facehoofed, “…you know what, I’m going for a walk. When you stopped being crazy, I’ll be back.”

Cadence walked in at that exact moment with Flurry Heart and then paused as she looked at us for a second.

I turned to her, “Cadence! You are the expert here! Tell them Sunset and I aren’t in love!”

She looked at us for a moment and then looked back at Flurry Heart, “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you in bed somewhere away from the stupid ponies,” she said and turned to walk back out, Sunset following her.

“See! She agrees with me!” I said and motioned towards the closing door before I sighed, “Luna, even if I was involved with Sunset, there is no way I would have done ANYTHING without telling you first. I thought you knew me better than that! You know what, I think Sunset had the right idea. I’m going to take a flight, we’ll continue this later.”

AGH!

Chapter 46

I rested on my wings, floating above the crystal city. Even with the falling darkness, you could see clearly where the magic stopped working.

It was as if somebody had taken a circle of a nice warm area with farms and the city and plopped it in a frozen landscape of snow and tundra.

All this supported by the crystal heart.

Sighing, I shifted course, slowly banking into a turn. I can’t believe she would think that. It was like… ugh.

Fine!

Say that there was interest in Sunset, as stupid as it sounded. Why wouldn’t I have talked it through with Luna beforehand!?

That’s was the most frustrating part about this all!

Looking up at the appearing stars, I sighed and beat my wings, slowly rising higher. I thought she knew me better than that.

Slowly starting to circle the castle, I rested on my wings as I floated lower again.

A spot of colour drew my attention and I shifted my course. Circling the castle once more, I then came in for landing on top of a balcony on one of the taller towers. “Hey.”

Sunset looked up from the book she was reading in the light of her horn. “Hey.”

“What are you reading?” I asked as I walked over.

She showed me the cover of the second Daring Do book. “Nothing serious.”

“That’s a good one,” I said and settled down next to her as we both avoided the subject. “I think I might like the third one better.”

“Mmm, that one’s good,” she agreed and then sighed, closing her book and letting the light from her horn fade away. “This is stupid.”

“Yep. Like I would be attracted to you.”

“Hey!” Sunset exclaimed and looked at me. “What do you mean by that!?”

I cringed and then shook my head. “Didn’t mean it like that!”

“So, what did you mean?” she asked as she turned to me.

Finding myself a bit lost for words, I sighed and shook my head. “…I just meant that… damn it, Sunset, you are messing with me!”

She grinned and nodded. “Yep!”

I thwacked the back of her head with my wing. Or rather tried to, she ducked before I could.

She smiled and then shook her head, shifting to look at me, “Not interested in you in that way either,” she continued, “we both know that if I was, you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Oh really?”

Sunset winked at me. “Oh please.”

Chuckling, I shook my head. “Please. You are the one that wouldn’t stand a chance,” I said and stretched my wings. “Alicorn, remember. Only male one. With your fascination with alicorns, you would fold in moments.”

“Somepony is full of himself.”

I winked at her before we laughed, and I shook my head. “So stupid. Just because we are friends…”

“Best friends.”

“Best friends,” I corrected. “We are romantically involved? Okay, I can see Twilight thinking that, but Luna?”

Sunset frowned at me. “Why would Twi think that and not Princess Luna?”

“Experience mostly?” I said and shrugged my wings.

“…Fair enough,” Sunset admitted and then shivered as the wind picked up. “Us being involved? That’s silly.”

I nodded before I frowned. “Cold?”

“I’m fine, not sure the heart is fully powered up yet,” she said and shifted a bit. “Twi said it might take a couple of days.”

Nodding I moved a bit closer, putting my wing across her back. “Better?”

Sunset sighed and then nodded, scooting close and leaned against my side a bit, “Thanks. On top of all the other stuff, the fact that alicorns don’t get cold is just unfair.”

“It is,” I agreed. “No complaints from me though, I hate being cold. Very nice fringe benefit.”

She grumbled something I didn’t hear before she lit her horn up again and opened the book again, going back to her reading.

I looked over her shoulder. “Oh, that’s a good chapter. I like when she…”

“Hush! You can read with me, but no talking.”

“Fine, fine,” I sighed and settled down.

“Page?” she said after a couple of chapters.

“Hmm?”

She turned the page and then glanced at me with a small smile. “They were being silly, right?”

“Ridiculous,” I agreed with a smile and shook my head as I sighed. “…I should likely apologize for yelling before though. They both meant well.”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. I should talk to Twilight too. You know, it’s actually kind of sweet.”

“…It was,” I said and couldn’t help but smile. “Though I guess it’s interesting to know that Luna has no objections to me having a hot unicorn marefriend. We talked about it in the past, it just never struck me that she was actually serious before now.”

“Hot unicorn huh?” Sunset teases and rubbed against my side, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

I smirked at her and pulled her closer with my wing, brushing the primary feathers across her cutiemark. “It’s no wonder ponies think we are involved.”

“I know, right?” Sunset agreed with a small hitch in her breath, her nose touching mine as she turned to me and our eyes slowly met.

We managed to hold it for about five seconds before we broke down laughing.

Chapter 47

“Luna?” I asked as I trotted into our rooms.

Movement on the bed drew my attention and she looked up, “Page?”

Moving over, I jumped onto the bed in the dark room, settling down next to her, “Hey.”

She shifted and rolled onto her stomach and I leaned against her side, slipping in beneath her wing, “I’m sorry, My Page. You are right, I should have known that you…”

“It’s fine,” I interrupted her softly and nuzzled at her neck, “I’m a little hurt that you thought I wouldn’t have told you, but I can see why you thought that.”

Luna rested her head on top of mine, “Still.”

“I shouldn’t have yelled either,” I said and nuzzled, “You and Sparky both meant well. Even if it did mean trying to get me in bed with Sunset.”

Blushing slightly, Luna sighed and nosed at my ear, “…You have to admit, you two are a good match.”

“Cadence didn’t seem to think so,” I said with a smile, “Stupid ponies, remember?”

Luna pulled back to look at me with a smile, “She didn’t mean me and Twilight Sparkle.”

I blinked at her.

“… Oh. Well, she can’t be right every single time.”

She shook her head, “No, Cadence isn’t right every time, not even when it comes to love.”

“See?” I told her with a smile, “Sunny may be my best friend other than a certain alicorn in this room, but we aren’t romantically involved.”

Luna nodded and pulled me closer with her wing, “I see,” before she smiled, “…of course, she was right about you and me.”

“Huh? She was?”

She nodded and smiled, “She… how do I put it?” she asked and sighed before she admitted, “She helped me a bit with what to do. Gave me tips. I was a bit… out of date.”

Cadence helped?

I suppose that makes sense. If Cadence didn’t already have quite happy dreams almost every night, I would be sending her a whole bunch of them for that.

“I should thank her for that then,” I said with a smile, “That’s a time she was right.”

Luna stole a small kiss and pulled me tighter with her wing, “She was indeed.”

Nodding, I rested my head against the side of her neck.

“Page?” Luna said quietly, “I’m sorry. You are right, you would have told me.”

“It’s fine,” I answered and nuzzled, “But Sunset and I really aren’t romantically involved.”

Luna nuzzled at your ear, “It was easy to think you were.”

I gave her a suspicious look, “You know, I always think you want me to get together with Sunset.”

Sighing softly against my mane, she nuzzled, “I just…” she pulled back to look down into my eyes, “I don’t want you to discover in fifty years that you should have acted earlier.”

That I could really understand. That would... hurt. It would hurt horribly bad.

Smiling softly up at her, I gave her a small kiss, “How about I promise that if I find somepony, I’ll act on it?”

Kissing back, Luna then nodded, “That will suffice. But I still wish to get to know Sunset Shimmer better as she is your best friend.”

I gave her a slightly suspicious look but then nodded and relaxed against her side, “I’m sure she’d like that too.”

“Just perhaps not on our vacation,” Luna agreed and rested her head on top of mine, “So where would you like to go?”

“Good question,” I asked and frowned slightly in thought, “Somewhere nice and civilized. Not some beach somewhere… even if that could be relaxing for a while. I want to be able to go out with you to nice places.”

Smiling Luna nodded and cuddled close, “Sounds nice… Are you going as unicorn?”

“Not sure I could manage without magic to hold things,” I admitted, “Never got comfortable with my hooves and mouth. Besides, not sure I could manage an actual transformation like you and Sunshine, I have to go with an illusion. Easier to hide wings than a horn.”

“Pegasus for me,” Luna said with a sigh and rested her head against my mane, “I think I’ll do like my sister and try to copy what I might have looked like.”

I blinked at her before I grinned, “Looking forward to that, if the result is as good as hers was, you’ll look amazing.”

Luna smirked a bit and scooted back, her magic whirling around her. When it cleared, it revealed the most beautiful Pegasus I had ever seen. Her coat was the same dark, dark blue like before and her cutie mark was the same. But instead of the size and legginess of an alicorn, she had the athletic slenderness of a Pegasus. Her mane were a lighter blue and her eyes the same beautiful teal as before.

“Oh my,” I said softly as I watched her scoot closer and move in beneath my wing, nuzzling at my chin.

“Should I summon my sister, so you may compare, My Lord?” she cooed before she laughed at the look on my face and gave me a small kiss, “Somepony liked that idea,” she teased.

Growling, I pinned her down and nipped at her ear, “Wench!”

All I got in response was a giggle.

Author's Note

This is the last part for now with Page, but he will return again in the future. Next time, we continue with a sequel of That First Step named Living With Dragons. The first story in the series can be found here: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/that-first-step-si.303750/

Hope everyone enjoyed this and if you did, I have a https://www.patreon.com/Hiver.

Chapter 8

“New rule,” Sunset said as she felt her mane, “No more fire magic for you.”

“I’m sure I’ll get it if I try again!”

She turned to glare at me, “You almost set me on fire! Again!”

“It’s meant to explode. It was just a bit early,” I protested, “I just need to…”

“No!” she exclaimed and stomped her hoof, “We been at this all day. You aren’t getting any better and I’m tired of being scorched!”

She did look a bit worse for wear. Nothing seemed to have actually burst into flame on her but she was a bit… sooty.

I sighed and sat down, “…Sorry.”

Sunset sighed and then turned to Swift, “Back me up here?”

He grinned, “When the lady is right, she’s right.”

I glowered at him, “Traitor.”

Swift shrugged, “Page, face it. It’s not working out and sooner or sooner you’ll set yourself on fire if you continue. There’s a reason I’m here with a bucket of water.”

“You are just looking for a reason to splash me with it!”

He just grinned.

Sighing I nodded, “Fine. No more fire spells then,” and reached up to rub my horn. It was starting to hurt anyway.

“Thank you!” Sunset said and turned to Swift, “Tell me the truth, do I smell like burnt mane?”

“Maybe a little?”

She groaned and shook her head before shooting me a glare, “I’ll have that book back now.”

“…It’s in my bag,” I grumbled.

I almost had it that last time.

“Well I’m done,” Sunset said and brushed her mane back, “I’m going to take a bath and get some nice wine and try not to smell like burned mane.”

I cringed, “Sorry and thanks”

She rolled her eyes and gave my nose a flick with her tail tip on the way past, “You owe me.”

“I do,” I admitted, “See you tomorrow?”

“Yep,” she said and dropped her bag across her back before glancing back at me, “No setting yourself on fire again.”

“…Yes, ma’am.”

Good advice in general.

“Dude you are really bad at fire spells,” Swift chuckled and trotted up next to me, “Not even sure how you mess up some of them. Anyone can cast a fireball.”

“Apparently not me. What am I doing wrong?”

Gout of flame? That I could do since it was basically just a stream of fire twisted energy. Anything else just didn’t work. Or rather it didn’t work correctly depending on how you looked at it.

He shrugged, “I don’t know. Looked right to me. Well, other than the setting yourself on fire thing.”

I sighed again and looked over the pristine/whole/untouched target. I hadn’t had this much trouble with a spell since I first learned to cast magic.

“Let me try again.”

“Okay, just let me get waaay away from you and behind something solid. Also, could you write a note to the Princess? I really don’t want to be the one to explain why you exploded.”

I rubbed my forehead and nodded, “Okay no more firespells. My horn hurt anyway.”

Swift frowned, “…Maybe it’s an alicorn thing?”

“I’ll have to ask somepony that,” I groaned and rubbed my forehead, “Damn it. Starting to really smart now.”

“Well, you did take a couple of explosions to the face…” He commented with a grin, “Come on, let’s give it up. You can blow up on somepony else’s watch.”

“Fair enough. I really should ask Celestia or Twilight about this anyway before I blow myself up,” I sighed and shifted my wings, “am I missing some feathers?”

“Edge of your mane is a bit scorched and you are smoking in places .”

“…Luna is going to kill me.”

Swift looked way too amused for his own good, “Could have been worse, I could have needed to use the bucket.”

“There is that,” I grumbled and then stretched my wings, “Think Sunset will be pissed for long?”

Swift looked in the direction the mare disappeared to, “Don’t think so? But maybe bring a gift of some sort tomorrow.”

“Not a bad idea,” I agreed , “And I need a bath. Luna will be annoyed if I show up smelling like burnt fur.”

“ Same with Minuette now that I think about it.”

Chapter 29

“Ready?” Sunset asked with a smile as she walked along next to me.

“Sure,” I agreed and sighed, “I still feel that this is a bit silly. I mean, why would I possibly need my own guard for? None of the… actually, I suppose it might have helped with the changelings, but… still.”

Sunset shrugged, “Well, it couldn’t hurt. Besides, if it makes Princess Luna happy, why not?”

“Just seem like a bit of a waste of resources that could be better put into either the night or day guard,” I said with a frown, “How many did we end up with anyway?”

“We started with hundred and fifty and after basic training we are down to twenty five,” Sunset explained, “That’s about as far as we are getting without your support.”

“How so?”

She grinned, “Nobody actually know anything about the formation of a personal guard so I had to dig into the archives. It turns out that if we are to do things right, the Princess… or in this case Prince,”

“Hey!”

“Would need to personally chose how the training will progress and be focused,” she continued with a smile like I hadn’t spoken up, “So far, we have only gone through basic training. Running, some hoof to hoof, spell casting and some flying for the pegasi. Basically, yelling and pushing a bunch of ponies until they either started preforming or washed out. As I understand it, Swift Spear had a lot of fun with that.”

I chuckled at that, “Yeah, I can see that. Lieutenant or not, I think he’ll always be a sergeant at heart.”

“Yep. Was kind of fun to watch,” Sunset agreed, “But we are at the point where we need your input.”

“Just give them guard training,” I said, “That was easy.”

Sunset sighed and poked me with her hoof, “If we are to do this right, you need to inspect the troops first and hand the guard handbook or something over to me or Swift. But I’m not even sure if regular guard stuff would work with this.”

“Why?”

“Because they would guard you and I never seen you not run directly towards the danger,” she said with a frown, “The normal guard strategy is to get between their charge and the danger.”

“…Point,” I admitted, “Not that I’m trying to get into danger, but I can help and…”

Sunset nodded, “I know. But that won’t work with the normal guard training. If anything, they should be given the same kind of training we have gotten. But barely a third are unicorns and while I can at least start with them, I have no clue what to do about earth ponies and pegasi.”

There was that.

“I’ll consider it,” I said and frowned, “I should talk it over with Luna tonight.”

“All I ask,” she said and led me out onto the parade ground and I blinked twice at the sight before I stopped and grabbed Sunset it my magic, pulling her back out with me again as I ducked back into the room, ”Sunset?”

“Yes?” she asked innocently from the golden magic holding her in the air.

I took a slow breath and rubbed my eyes with a hoof before I set her back down, “…Why are they all female?”

“Symmetry,” She said and smiled at me, “The Princesses guards are all male. I figured that your guard should be all female. Besides, a lot of mares around that would have wanted to join the Guard but been unable to. Only thing they could do would be to try for cities local police forces.”

That… almost made some kind of twisted sense.

“Sunset, that’s… oh damn it. Do you have any idea how this might look?”

She smiled, “Oh, I know. But you’ll thank me in a couple of hundred years,” she said before she teased, “Or would you rather be surrounded by burly stallions.”

“…Fucking damn it, Sunny,” I groaned and then nodded, “Very well, mares I understand. But why are their armour different?”

“Unless you haven’t noticed,” she said and shifted next to me, bumping her side against mine, “Mares are a bit of a different shape than colts.”

“Oh I noticed,“ I grumbled and brushed my wing across her back, “But those seem a bit less covering and strictly form fitting than strictly necessary.”

She grinned, “I got Rarity involved with the royal armor smith and they got a good looking and still practical set of armor. You should see the dress uniform, it’s really nice.”

Sitting down, I rubbed the side of my head.

I’m getting a headache. Why did I give Sunset the authority to do this again? Oh yeah, because I was being lazy and didn’t want to this myself.

“…you don’t like it?” Sunset said after a moment, “I’m sorry, Page. I tried my best to…”

“No…” I said and shook my head, putting my wing around her and pulling her into a quick hug, “It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s not just what I was expecting.”

“I know. I wanted it to be a surprise.”

Nodding, I smiled at her, “Okay then. Let’s figure out what you should be teaching them then.”

She blinked at me, “Me?”

“Oh yeah, you got us into this, you get us out of it,” I said with a smile, “Perhaps you should be wearing that armour and dress uniform as well?”

“No, no, no!” She quickly said and shook her head, “I’m not joining!”

We’ll see about that.

Chuckling, I nodded, “Very well,” and let her go, “But you are helping with the rest of their training until they graduate.”

“…That’s mean,” she mumbled.

“Tough,” I told her and then stretched my wings, “Now, I think we have an inspection to do?”

“…Yeah.”

I watched her for a moment before I gave her another hug with my wing, “Thank you. I won’t be able to do it in a couple of hundred years, so I figured now would do it now.”

That got a smile from her.