CADENCE POV

I was not mad. I just had my two aunts bail on me to have a cuddle fest with my coltfriend. I just had to deal with a full night court full of paperwork and nobles who could be better considered as infants and snobs. "They couldn't have at least set the sun and risen the moon? I mean, I may be an alicorn but I'm an alicorn of LOVE, not the sun or moon. That stuff isn't easy," I groaned as I walked lazily through the castle. My loose thoughts went over all the craziness that has happened in the space of almost 2 months. Meeting Noire, Losing Shining to Chrysalis, Grim attacking Canterlot in three weeks, Noire and I being a couple. I was not mad. I was fucking tired. I was barely able to open the door to my room and when I saw Aunty Lulu cuddling Noire as if her life depended on it, I didn't have the strength to shout or complain. In fact, I didn't have the strength to notice Aunty Tia behind me or the strength to jump in surprise when I did. She just smiled and hugged me tightly.

"I'm sorry I haven't helped you much. I've neglected to be by your side in this endeavour and I have made your life so much harder," she whispered in my ear with that motherly tone that could put anyone at ease "I've even stooped to pushing my duties onto you so suddenly to pursue my own personal pleasure,"

"Aunty, if there is anything I've taken away from the past 2 months, it is that while our actions may make us evil in the eyes of others, there will be somepony, or in my case, a person, who supports us. You may not have held my hand the entire time and instead chose to enjoy yourself, I still support you and I still have a great coltfriend who will help me when I lose my way," I shifted my attention back to Noire, who was snuggling with Luna. Celestia saw this and smiled.

"Well then, I shouldn't keep you from him much longer," she picked me up and with her magic, made the bed big enough for all four of us. She set me in the bed and got in herself, kissing me on the forehead and hugging me tightly. I yawned and hugged her back and just like that all of my past stresses were gone. It was just Celestia, Luna, Noire and me. enjoying some well-deserved sleep.

NOIRE POV

"Decode Sword: Longblade" I swang my blade at Luna but she easily managed to dodge and delivered a quick kick to my stomach, sending me flying backwards and landing at the edge of the area we were fighting in. Luna thought to keep teaching sword fighting at night in a dream realm as time can move as fast or as slow as she wants here. For us, we have been here a whole day and it was starting to show on my sweaty face. Luna teleported over to me and gave me a hand up. We had been training for a while and while my swordsmanship has improved, it still can't compare to the years of experience Luna has under her belt.

"Your swings are getting faster but you're slow on the parry. You're losing control of your sword and not stopping your sword to set up a quicker parry but don't fret too much about it as this is the norm for a lot of swordsmen so you should get accustomed to it soon," the area around us started to shake "It looks like we are waking up. We'll do this again sometime and maybe talk about this 'date'" she smiled as my vision went black.

...

"Rise and Shine, sleppyhead..."

"Hellooo"

"WAKE UP!" I quickly jolted up from the bed where a fully dressed Cadence was waiting "So, you must have had a great time with my aunts if you really don't want to leave. Maybe I should just leave you here and go back on my own" she pouted and crossed her arms under her bust. I just groaned, rolled out of bed and did my morning routine; showering, brushing my teeth and putting on my armour ready to go home. I still didn't have any essential items to take with me so there was no need to pack. However, Cadence seemed to have carried her entire wardrobe while unconscious as there were 4 guards carrying pink suitcases. I paid that no mind though as I made my way with Cadence to our next stop, the dungeons.

We walked silently through the hall of the dungeons where not many were present since the crime was almost non-existent in Equestria. However, the cells that weren't empty had other species inside like diamond dogs and gryphons. At the very end of the hall was our prisoner, bound in chains with a magic dampener on her horn. Cadence opened the door to the cell and we both went inside. Once I shut the door, we began "Where is the rest of your hive?" I asked.

She quickly replied with little emotion in her voice "Dead,"

Cadence tilted her head in confusion "How?"

"She killed them all. Except for me"

We both looked at each other, suspicious of what she was saying is false. I went over to her and crouched so we were eye to eye "Tell us everything,"

She took a deep breath and sighed "Ever since you foiled her plans at the Royal Canterlot Wedding, our queen was desperate to keep us all alive. Many changelings didn't survive the attack and most of our changelings were too young to go out and collect love yet. So, our queen went out alone and whenever she came back, she barely had enough love to feed all of us and keep herself sustained. However, when she came back from Las Pegasus, she brought somepony with her. I couldn't see who it was with the cloak covering them completely. She began destroying her own hive, draining all of our love. By nightfall, our entire hive and gone and only I survived, hiding under the rubble. She dragged me out and lined me up with other survivors and told us if we wanted to live, we had to follow her instructions. The rest is history,"

I placed my hand on her head for a few seconds before standing back up "How old are you?"

"18 changeling years" she responded.

I looked at Cadence and she immediately knew what I was planning and hesitantly nodded "I knew that act you put on was a front. When I looked at you when the explosion went off, it was clear you were relieved that it would've been the end for you. I want to give you a second chance if you want to take it but you have to decide now," she looked down for a few seconds before a quiet stream of tears ran down her face.

"I want a place to call home again. Please take me with you," she said. Cadance and I both smiled, knowing she made the right choice. I undid her chains and at that moment I did she hugged me and whispered in my ear "Ayra. My name is Ayra Borealis"

"Hello, Ayra. My name is Noire," I replied.

Cadence just shook her head and sighed "You two are so weird. You're supposed to ask for names first,"

CADENCE POV

"Are you sure you want to go back? If Grim is being serious about his attack then we should come up with a plan," Aunty Tia was always bad at goodbyes. We were at the train station, ready to head back to the empire. As much as I wanted to stay for a bit longer, we needed to organise our troops to come over to Canterlot and I probably had a mountain of paperwork that I didn't want to get any bigger "Also, is it really okay for a changeling to be roaming around the castle?"

"We need to oragnise our troops, aunty. If Grim is being serious, then we need to be ready. Plus, Ayra won't be roaming around. She will be working at the castle and we will have 24-hour surveillance on her in case she's lying" Aunty Tia complied and gave me one last hug goodbye and teleported back to the castle. Across from me, Luna and Noire were saying their own farewells.

"You have gone beyond all of our expectations. You have proven to be a great friend, student and cuddle buddy. We wish you well on your way back," she said while Noire was trapped in a bone-crushing hug. Noire was trying to speak but it all came out as incoherent gasps and gurgles. She only let go to chase after a camera click which came from the same camerapony who took the last two "WHY MUST YOU TAKE PICTURES OF OUR DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION TOWARDS NOIRE?!!! YOU PERVERSE SCOUNDREL!!!" her leaving gave Noire the chance to breathe. He was helped up by a disguised Ayra. She was a light blue unicorn with a green and pink mane.

"Okay, let's head back. Everyone back home must be worried sick about us," I said, beckoning the both of them to get on. The train's whistle blew and like that, we were on our way back to our home. Back to the Crystal Empire.

The train ride back was mosty silent. Noire was fast asleep and Aura was too intimidated to say anything. As for me, I was plagued by thinking. Thinking of how we were supposed to handle a full-scale attack on Canterlot. Grim was cocky enough to tell us how much time we had left so it could have meant one of two things. 3 weeks isn't enough time to prepare for what he has in store for us or it is enough for us to evacuate as many people as possible. All I knew for sure is we are in a tight spot. I could sense the tension in everypony that we passed and the line for the court was swarmed with people petitioning for evacuation. Grim did what he wanted to achieve in that press conference, the whole city of Canterlot is in a panic. With the way things were, Noire is the only one who could effectively dispose of the beasts but getting rid of a whole army is more diificult than a small platoon. More training and defending ourselves was the only thing we could do. After 30 minutes, I started to notice Ayra's eyes were getting heavy and she was clutching her stomach. "Ayra, are you okay? You're starting to look a little pale,"

"Oh! Don't worry about it. It's only a little motion sickness. It'll... wear off...in a...while..." It wasn't too long before she left to the floor of the cabin and reverted back to her changeling form. I got up from my seat and woke up Noire. He immediately went over to her and put his hand on his forehead.

"That's not good. She has a fever and it's only getting worse. She must be starving from the amount of time she spent without love," How could I have forgotten about that?! It's the most well-known fact about changelings. I didn't have time to hate myself though. Her breathing was getting more erratic and I could tell she was in a lot of pain so I lifted her up and put my horn on her horn. I started giving her my magic, hoping it's strong love nature was enough to satisfy her for now and it succeeded. She let go of her stomach and her breathing went back to normal "That was a close one. While what I gave her wasn't exactly love, it should be enough to keep her going until we get back,"

"We should find a way for her to feed off of love without drawing attention to herself. Who knows what would happen if any of the generals found out about this, especially Tidal," Noire said, sitting back in his seat. He had a point; with our castle bustling with guards and maids plus attentive generals, it would be hard for Ayra to feed without getting caught "How about making her your personal assistant? It won't help our current situation but it will give us time with her to figure it out,"

"I guess you're right. We also need to ask her if she knows anything about the attack on Canterlot. As it stands, we are at too big of a disadvantage and the fight hasn't even started yet,"

"I've been thinking on that for a while an I have a theory that if proven correct could turn the tide" I peaked up in the interest of what Noire is theorising "You know I can infuse magic into my sword to give it certain effects. With practice, maybe I coukd apply the same effects into other swords,"

That was something I thought to be worth looking into. With a whole supply of enchanted weapons, we could stand a chance "That sounds brilliant! Maybe we could get them to turn into giant ghost swords!"

"Actually, the sword itself had the ability. The code just allowed me to activate it," I sighed in disappointment. I was hoping for that greater edge in the fight to come but beggars can't be choosers "However, I could feel that there is much more power I can draw out of this sword," he said, summoning the sword and inspecting its blade.

"Speaking of, wasn't its name the 'Decode Sword'? I heard you calling it that at the press conference. They say the bond between a swordsman and his sword will grow stronger when they both refer to each other by name," I said with a sage like voice. Noire guffawed at my silly voice, making me pout at him "We won't be reaching the empire for a couple more hours, you know. Maybe we could have some fun until we get there~" I traced my finger up and down his chest and he immediately caught on.

"Cadence, we are not having sex on a train. Plus, Ayra could wake up at any moment," I pouted once more.

"Not even a quickie?"

"No,"

"Can we at least cuddle?" I begged. My puppy dog eyes were no match for him and just like that, we were cuddled up close to each other "You know, a little blowjob wouldn't hurt anypony,"

"I'm going to forget I heard that and just keep cuddling" and keep cuddling he did. So did I and for the rest of the trip, all our troubles washed away. However, I was still upset I didn't get that human dick.

Author's Note

WuzzyBlu? More like LazyBlu! Amiright!... okay that was bad but still, I'm back in 2019 with a new chapter. Sorry if it seemed a bit all over the place. I'll be developing on them a lot better in the next chapters. Gotta keep this short as I have the next chapter to work on so I will see you next chapter.

Stay dizzy. Wuzzy out.
(Yeah! 2019!)