The Heart of Pleasure
By Haunter Rayne
Ch 114 - The Shortest Reign in History

Four well manicured hooves trotted elegantly down the hallway in Canterlot Castle. A radiant mane helped to frame the face of a mare who looked upon the great hall from behind her meticulously applied eye makeup. "Good afternoon, dear sister." Luna called out with an air of grace about her that seemed even more majestic than usual for the princess.

Sitting upon her throne Celestia seemed to be arguing with a small number of Canterlot's elite. "Oh yes, good afternoon Luna. Now I don't care if the shipments from the south are being delayed, that does not take priority over- wait a minute… GOOD AFTERNOON LUNA!" Celestia exclaimed, breaking off from her conversation in surprise. She looked to the sunny window and then back at her sister in alarm before shoving a pile of shipping manifests into Fancy Pant's hooves.

"Well, I say!" The monocle wearing stallion shouted in surprise.

In lieu of seeing her sister awake in the middle of the day Celestia abandoned her seat and rushed to address Luna with concern. "It IS still the afternoon. The moon, like you, has hours still before its time to rise. What are you doing awake dear sister?" But as Luna simply stood there smiling Celestia began to notice something different about her younger sibling. "Wait a minute, Luna… are you wearing perfume? And… your eye makeup looks dazzling today. Would you care to explain why my little sister is up and out of bed while looking like the bell at the ball this afternoon?" She asked with a playful air about her now.

"Oh, tis nothing." Luna teased until she laughed when Celestia nudged her in her side. "Oh it's really, I just figured I needed a distraction is all. Maybe I'll get out of the castle and go have dinner in Manehattan tonight, who knows?" She said with a smirk.

"Mm, I see." Celestia replied in a knowing tone. "So what you're really saying is that you need a break from reading, and re-reading, and then re-re-reading Rayne's letters and now your feeling antsy about going on your date with him tomo-" Celestia teased until her sister shushed her and looked over in concern that the others in the room might have overheard.

"I do not... Fine! Yes, okay? And at the same time, no." Luna responded as she straightened herself to regain her composure. "My date with Rayne will happen in due time, yet I realize I haven't been very fair to Magnus considering all that he has done for me. With having no other plans for this evening I felt it was time to give something back to the pegasus who has pursued me for so long."

It was at that moment that the sour looking group of Canterlot's elite walked on by to make their way out from the room. "Yes, well perhaps it would be best to discuss matters of state at another time." Fancy Pants remarked with an off-put tone.

As he and the others turned to leave, Fluer de Lis stopped to wink at Luna before saying, "You look absolutely stunning today, princess." She said with a smile until Fancy Pants cleared his throat from the door to where Fluer hastily trotted to catch up.

After waiting for the two of them to be alone Luna promptly looked up to her sister and said, "In any case, I figured I could surprise Magnus with braving a short outing with him tonight. Nothing too outlandish mind you, but still giving him an honest share for my attention."

Celestia smiled and nodded that she understood. "If that is what you wish, dear sister. But perhaps you ought to not overdo it with arranging thy outings so close together." She advised and was given a curious expression in return from her sister. "Your date with Rayne is tomorrow. Just make sure you get enough rest if you do decide to go out with Magnus tonight."

• Elsewhere in Equestria -

Laughter erupted from within the dingy warehouse as the unicorn on the ground twitched unnervingly from the sensation of the spellbinding ring. "Haa! You see there?! I told you he was faking! I keep telling ya, chloroform is always a better form of subduing somepony for a kidnapping! But nooo! Mister fancy over here always has to argue that the bag-full-of-bits is traditional!" One of the kidnappers complained in a mocking tone.

"Shut up, both of you. Or else you'll see which cheesy cliché I'll put you both through." Called a different voice from across the warehouse. All eyes looked over to a brown earth pony who was sitting in a cushioned leather chair behind a desk. He had a greasy black mane and cruel demeanor to him. Once the others had quieted down he stood up from his seat to step over to the stallion who was on his knees. "Well, well, well… It looks like we finally have you. Or one of you at least. Isn't that right, Rayne? Because you see, you aren't the only 'you' who's walking around out there. Now are ya?"

Rayne looked up in surprise from where he was being held by the three pegasi in Canterlot Guard armor. He scowled at the petty cliché of a low level mob boss who was standing there taunting him. But he kept his lips shut, allowing the greasy criminal to ramble on.

"I mean boy, you sure pulled a fast one over all those friends of yours in Ponyville. Little do they know they've got a rockstar living in their midst. That is a factual statement though, isn't it… Faceless?" The brown stallion asked with a smirk.

Rayne could not resist the flash of unease upon his face but he still kept his responses in check, remaining quiet and just listening as the would-be villain gave his knowledge away.

"Oh yeah... We know all about it! Your whole operation is at an end!" The brown stallion announced jovially. "I don't know what kind of scam you thought that you were running, but the jig is up. We know you've somehow got copies of yourself running all over the place. You're a rockstar in the big cities but a small town goodfellow in the farming communities. You travel as far as down south as Klugetown and once or twice a week you change into… I don't even know, some kinda big monster to pick off other animals for a snack. You're even playing lover boy with all them dames of yours in Ponyville. Like that little rock farm tart in her love shack underground. We've noticed that you keep an especially watchful eye over her. And we also know that every so often all your copies meet back together in the Everfree Forest to rejoin before splitting back up again. But none of 'you' will be seeing the light of day again after tonight."

Rayne knelt there baring his teeth as he scowled with murderous intent. "Tell me what you're planning… and if you try to hurt Maud or anypony that I care ab-"

"THWACK!" Came the rushing of a hoof as Rayne was slapped hard across his face.

• Back in Canterlot -

"Excuse me…" Luna asked politely as she approached a pair of guard ponies keeping watch over the castle entrance. "Perhaps thy could be of assistance. We are searching for Flash Magnus but he is nowhere to be found. Hath either of you seen him today?"

One stallion looked to the other but they both shook their heads back to the princess. "I'm sorry your highness, but he hasn't been through this way. I have not seen him around since last night." One of the guards informed her.

"Oh... I see." Luna replied, sounding more than a bit disappointed. "Very well then, as you were." She replied after gesturing to them gratefully.

• Back to the Warehouse -

"Just tell me what is it that you want?!" Rayne shouted once the greasy earth pony finally paused from beating him back and forth. The dark stallion stared up in anger through only one eye as the other had become swollen shut. Additionally a thin line of blood was spit down his chin from where his lip had been split.

"Who me? Oh no, I want nothing." The earth pony remarked while slowly trotting back to his desk. "You see, I just follow orders. This isn't anything personal. But the thing is, you've upset someone… somepony far up the food chain in our organization. And they would like to see you punished for the things that you've done." Then he sat back down and raised his hooves up onto the table. "All we're doing now is just waiting." He said while gesturing to the other kidnappers lounging around the room. "We're waiting... for the others."

Rayne coughed while wheezing air through his lungs from his bruised and battered ribs. "The others?" He asked while looking up from behind the welts he was left with.

"That's right." The mid level mob boss answered back. "We sent out kidnapping parties to Manehattan, the Ponyville Hotel, your little loveshack underground, and even all the way to Klugetown. I don't know what business you're doing that far outside of Equestria but it should only be a matter of time before we have all of your copies together again. And that's when the real fun begins." He snickered.

Just then a lavender colored unicorn stepped out from the shadows beside his boss. He was wearing a surgical mask and a lab coat while pushing a tray of shiny metal objects on a cart. Rayne didn't need any explanation to understand that the plan was for him to be tortured. But he remained kneeling silently upon the floor. Instead of fighting back Rayne just grimaced angrily, contemplating about the fact that these ponies had no idea of the mistake they had made by assaulting him and endangering his friends.

• Continuing Luna's Search -

Next the princess's travels took her outside the castle and across the courtyard to the guardhouse. "Excuse me…" Luna began but straightened up in surprise as everypony inside suddenly jumped at seeing a princess entering within their barracks. Now each pony was all standing at attention but it was a rather sorry sight to see. A table had been flipped over, guard armor had clattered loudly around the floor, and both stallions and mares alike were in various states of undress.

"Yes, your highness! What may we do for you, ma'am?!" A dutiful mare sergeant called out, ignoring the fact that she was wearing only a pair of sweat-bottoms and her guard helmet.

"Please, all of you, at ease." Luna tried as she fumbled to step over spilled playing cards and other personal effects of the troops. "It is my understanding that Flash Magnus is still assigned to assist with the training of new Canterlot soldiers. Does anypony know where I might find him?"

As soon as she asked several of the guards murmured to themselves quietly about the princess stopping by the barracks to ask for Magnus by name. Seeing this, the sergeant stomped her hoof and scowled at the group until they each straightened up. Turning to the princess she removed her helmet and said, "The deployment rooster is over there on the wall."

Luna looked from the sergeant to the sheet pad hanging up and back to the mare again. "Um, deployment? I'm afraid that I don't understand. I thought Magnus was stationed here, for training purposes only?"

The sergeant just shrugged and reached down to help flip the table that had been knocked over back onto it's legs again. After which, all of the other guards seemed to settle down and return to whatever activities they had been doing before the princess stepped in. "I don't know what to tell ya. Late last night he just stormed in here in a hurry. It was way after hours but he just signed out three of our strongest fliers and said that he needed them for an urgent mission. I didn't even get a chance to ask on whose authority he was making use of Canterlot guards for. But they rushed outta here in a split second and they haven't been seen back since."

Luna nodded as she tried to follow along but then she exclaimed, "Wait, you mean he's gone?! As in he may not even be in Canterlot?!" She shouted before marching over to the deployment rooster. "But… this is useless!" She shouted while looking over the writing. "It does not explain where they went or what they were leaving for. It simply says SNR next to their checked out names." She huffed in frustration. After turning back to the sergeant Luna asked, "What does this acronym mean?"

The mare simply sighed as she slouched down upon her cot. "The current military acronym for SNR stands for Senior National Representative… which could mean Magnus is overstepping his position to deploy Canterlot soldiers for his own personal use." However turning her gaze away she added, "But I've gotten to know Magnus and he doesn't seem like that kind of pony to me. I find it much more likely that he is using an outdated acronym that was probably changed at some point in the last thousand years. My best guess would be that he was doing a Surveillance and Reconnaissance night opt."

"But… that wouldn't explain why they would still be gone by this time the next day." Luna surmised.

Then looking back up with an expression that shared the princess's concern the sergeant replied, "No, it doesn't ma'am."

• A Not So Peaceful Warehouse -

Panic ensued from all around. A canister of oil had been knocked down and set ablaze in all of the commotion. Frantic hooves darted across the rumble of broken crates as screams from ponies bounced off the walls like shadows from the roaring flames. Meanwhile, a large Hydra made of obsidian loomed over the room. It's fangs pulled upon the armor of one of the pegasi, holding the winged pony in place while it's tail thrashed about behind.

"AHHHHH!" Another remaining pegasi shouted as sharp fangs from two obsidian canines bit down upon his back hooves and proceeded to drag him away throughout the warehouse.

"How in the world-" One of the other pegasi asked before turning to check on their prisoner. Still sitting peacefully on his knees the dark stallion hadn't moved an inch. He didn't appear to be struggling and his spellbinding ring was still sitting tightly in place. However at the moment their eyes met the pegasi felt strange before he was in an instant turned to stone.

"Whoa! WHOA!" Their criminal ring leader called out. "What is happening?! What ARE those things?!" The earth pony shouted while watching a pair of Obsidianwolves dragging his henchmen through the warehouse. "I thought that you couldn't use magic!" He shouted to Rayne as he watched the dark stallion bend his head down low until a volley of pin needles shot out from his back. Whipping around the brown stallion saw the unicorn suddenly being stuck to the wall by his lab coat as he had been trying to flee.

A smile now spread across the otherwise calm stallion's face. Rayne sat peacefully with his eyes closed while listening to the carnage that spread out around him. He ignored the shouts of his kidnapper while taking a long deep breath. Then he finally stood up from the ground since there was no pony left to hold him down.

"These spellbinding rings really are quite useful." He said in a condescending tone, gloating over the change in power that had taken place. "They do indeed work very well at stopping unicorns from casting spells." He acknowledged with his voice like silk, channeling the tone of an evil John Travolta; gentlemanly but terrifying. "Although it just seems a shame, well for you anyways, that they don't quite prevent ALL of the types of magic that exist in Equestria."

"W-what are you talking about?" The brown stallion quaked, not understanding why he suddenly felt like prey under the gaze of a predator.

"Supernatural abilities!" Rayne called out as if it were the answer to a television game show. "For example, the pin needle shot of a Pukwudgie or the stone gaze of a Cockatrice's stare." He explained while leaning against the petrified pegasus standing beside him. "Alternatively though, it wouldn't have helped you anyways even if the ring had prevented these abilities." Now the corners of Rayne's lips turned up into a devilish grin. "Even with all of my powers suppressed... you still would have had my hounds to deal with."

"Hounds?! What hounds?! What the heck are you talking about?!" The brown stallion shouted just before several Obsidianwolves rose up from the floor around him. Following this he watched one of the creatures bow to Rayne before pulling the spellbinding ring off from his horn with its teeth.

Immediately following the dark stallion shifted into a mighty panther as his voice grew sinister and deep. "My lovely Obsidianwolves that you now see before you. They exist apart from me as their own entities. They are neither controlled by me nor are they reliant on my magic to exist. However they are quite loyal… and they can be very unforgiving." He explained just as half a dozen more obsidian stone beasts rose up in the room in varying races.

"W-what are you doing?! What's going to happen to me?!" He cried out as he stared into the leering eyes of the panther who stalked forward right over the top of his desk toward him.

"You were so kind as to explain your plan to me. So now I am going to explain to you everything that is going to happen next… You are going to tell me everything I want to know about how you came to find out about me. You are also going to tell me who it is you work for, how many other cohorts you have in hiding, and any other information that may be of value for me to know." Rayne declared. "And just to make sure that you won't be lying to me or choosing to leave any details out…" With a wave of his paw a metal mask suddenly manifested in mid air, constructed quite similarly to the ones once used by King Sombra when had once taken over the Crystal Empire.

Twisting and shuffling gave no avail to the earth pony as he was held fast by the various obsidian creatures around him. Then a moment later his eyes flashed green from beneath the metal frame placed over his face as his sense of will had been overcome. "Yes, my Lord. I will tell you everything that you wish to know."

• Evening, Back to Canterlot -

All was calm amidst the castle grounds as Celestia set herself down to dinner. Her duties were done and her guests had departed. All that awaited her now was a steaming bowl of soup that wafted pleasantly up to her nose. She closed her eyes and raised a spoonful up to her lips until she found herself dropping the spoon into the bowl in surprise when a violent crash could be heard through the castle from down the hall. Quickly peering up through the open doorway Celestia had just enough time to see her sister storming by while muttering a series of remarks under her breath.

After giving a sigh toward her nice warm soup Celestia rushed from her seat to see what the commotion was all about. Down the hallway she saw two guards slumped down to the floor after having been smashed by Luna with the heavy double doors. Meanwhile the enraged princess had already disappeared up the pathway towards her tower while angry remarks echoed off the walls back behind her.

"Luna, wait!" Celestia called out. By the time that Celestia had made it up to her sister's room she had to duck out of the way when Luna had absentmindedly thrown her crown behind her. "Sister! What turmoil has happened to put you in such a state?!" She asked as she stepped around with concern heavy in her voice but wary of other incoming projectiles.

"Ooohh… turmoil doth not even begin to cover it, dear sister! We are VEXED at this point!" Luna screamed with fury as Celestia had to rush over to prevent her sister from accidentally shattering her mirror.

"Goodness!" Celestia exclaimed but then was relieved to see Luna thrown herself to her bed where there was nothing within reach that was breakable.

"All day I hunted around for that missing pegasus! All day, where I could have been having a relaxing sleep which was sacrificed in vain for the sake of his requests!" She bellowed but then finally began to calm at her older sister's gentle touch lightly caressing her back. "And what is it that I find after my long, extensive search? That he has embarked on some mission, completely unsanctioned by proper authority, while taking three of Canterlot's best guard ponies along with him!"

Now Celestia gave pause as she was startled to hear that the situation was deeper than just her sister's love life. "Wait a minute, he did what?"

Luna nodded and leaned up to face her sister as they both sat together on the bed. "Mhm, tis true. Late into the night he checked out three guard pegasi and left with them for unexplained purposes. I checked with their commanding officer as well as the captain of the Canterlot Guard and neither of them knew anything about it."

"Surely there must be some mistake." Celestia responded. "I find it hard to believe that a pony of his character would manipulate our soldiers without some extraordinary reason behind it."

It was then that Luna laid herself back upon her bed with her eyes closed. "It matters not. Tis apparent my plans for the evening shall not be coming to pass."

"Oh Luna… Try not to be too hard on him. Clearly Magnus had no way of knowing your intentions." Celestia tried, attempting to help mitigate the damage done due to Magnus' absence. "Was there no record for why he might have left? Something written on a dispatch report perhaps?"

"Oh yes… there was…" Luna replied in an exasperated tone as she lay back with a hoof draped over her eyes. "Just some vague reconnaissance acronym with no other explanation as to what it was about. 'SNR' was all he had written with no details as to a location or purpose of his departure."

"SNR?" Her sister asked while thinking to herself quietly. However Luna looked up from below her hoof when she heard the sound of Celestia's wings suddenly unfurl themselves in startlement. "Wait, SNR?! Are you sure that is what he wrote?!"

"Yes, what is it? What's wrong?" Luna asked, sounding unsure of her sister's alarm.

Speaking with urgency now Celestia explained, "Luna, military lingo has changed several times over the course of the last thousand years. While it's true that may be the acronym for a reconnaissance mission today, that isn't what it meant during the time of Legionaries! It was shortly after the founding of the Wonderbolts that a lot of the terminology was changed because it was deemed to be improper of spelling or signification."

Lifting herself up to her elbows Luna looked to her sister and asked, "So then what did SNR mean back a thousand years ago?"

"The term SNR previously represented a Search and Rescue mission but was reassigned to SAR which is what we still use to this day." Celestia stated.

Luna's eyes bulged wide. "But that would mean… somepony must be in trouble and Magnus must be trying to save them!"

"Yes, I would think so. And if he did not have time to report the details to anypony then the situation must have required immediate action to respond to." Celestia announced as she turned away from her sister and rushed to the balcony.

"Hey! Where are you going?!" Luna shouted as she too leapt up from her bed.

Celestia stood at the edge of the railing as her eyes scanned over the city below. Then both sisters rested their gaze where smoke billowed up from the far eastern edge of town. With a nod they both dove from the tower to fly swiftly in that direction.

• A Night of Flames -

Fire lit up the evening sky in a quiet industrial section of Canterlot. Walkways of cement and steel prevented the flames from spreading to nearby buildings but the warehouse itself was a total loss as it smoked and crackled under the torrent of flames.

Not far from the burning building were a small grouping of ponies gathered together. However these were not onlookers who were summoned by the flames as one after the other they each lined up on the pavement on their knees. Each one of the pegasi, earth pony, and unicorn alike shared the same glowing green eyes. Then when parchment and quilts were handed out they all hastily committed themselves to writing.

Meanwhile a monstrous black panther stood by overseeing them. Although he turned and spoke when he heard the trotting of somepony new approaching from out of the darkness. "Are Maud and Anansi safe?" He asked as a familiar looking dark stallion approached with a team of green eyed unicorns following in his wake.

"Perfectly safe." Rayne's stallion form replied. "These kidnappers never even made it through the cave." He answered reassuringly. "After taking over their minds I found that they were only after me, not the girls. But they didn't have any other useful information to provide. Have you figured out what is going on?"

"I can answer that." A new voice called out as the rock idol Faceless stepped onto the scene. "Those aren't real guard ponies from Canterlot. It was all just a ruse. These stallion's who tried abducting us were all tied to the crime ring that used to operate out of the nightclub we renovated in Manehattan. They were pissed that we shut down their business and they decided to enact their revenge."

"Wait, that's it? That's all that this was about?" The panther grimaced in disappointment.

With a nod Faceless went on. "That's right. But in tailing me for several weeks to find out my weaknesses, it would seem that they also found out about all of you."

The others nodded but the panther spoke up next. "One of them here said that they were working for somepony else. A top boss for their organization."

"Already taken care of." A fourth and final voice announced as another copy of Rayne approached from the south with over a dozen mind controlled ponies in tow. "No one outside of this crime ring knows about us, I can assure you of that. And I have the leader right here behind me underneath one of Sombra's masks. He was aspiring to build an underground crime empire and reign over Equestria from the shadows. But this is it. This is all he had after we shut down his front in Manehattan."

"T'ch, short reign..." Faceless scoffed.

"Well I think that's perfect." The panther replied before smirking to the others with a wide and toothy grin. "And I know just what to do with them now that they are all together." He added while gesturing towards the captives who were still writing furiously across several stacks of paper. "You're going to love this, hehe."

• -

Not much later a small team of pegasi descended upon the wreckage just a few minutes ahead of a larger Canterlot force coming to investigate the flames.

"What in the blazes?! You there, work on finding the fire alert system. And you, look around for any survivors that might be hurt or trapped in the flames!" Flash Magnus ordered to the real Canterlot guards who were accompanying him. The group looked tired and sore from running themselves in circles throughout most of the day. But their resolve was still as strong as ever as the roaring flames gave them plenty reason to fuel their urgency.

What they found after they arrived though was definitely not what they had expected. Nearly forty different ponies were all kneeling on the ground in a line with their hooves holding a stack of papers laid out in front of them. None of them said a word as each of them just stared up at the guards expectantly as if they had been waiting for them to come.

"What is going on here? Who are all of you and how did you get these?!" One of the real Canterlot guards asked as he walked around collecting stolen guard armor and helmets from pegasi who clearly did not work at the castle.

After reaching down to skim through some of the papers Magnus said aloud, "These look like confessions… to both recent crimes as well as old ones going all the way back to grade school it seems." He stated while flipping through to the end. "It seems there's evidence here of an underground criminal organization. And from the looks of it, all these ponies are confessing to it." He said while looking around to the group on their knees.

"It's true! We're guilty! Abductions, pony smuggling… you name it!" One of the ponies suddenly cried out before all the others quickly nodded along. "Arrest us, please! We're all here to surrender!" Another yelled as if they were almost pleading.

"Sir Magnus!" One of the guards called out as they assisted a soot covered stallion away from the burning warehouse. "We have a survivor! It looks like the abductee who we've been searching for."

The blue eyed stallion limped along seeming weak from injuries as there was clearly some bruising upon his face. "Thank you… thank you for rescuing me." Rayne whispered to the guard who was helping him. Then the ash covered stallion looked up in surprise to the pegasus presiding over the arrests. "Magnus? What are you doing here?"

Stepping over with a smirk Magnus pulled a handkerchief out from his armor and laughed. "Here, you might want to clean up your face. It's a good thing that we got to you in time to save you from the fire. You really ought to be thankful to the friends you make in Ponyville otherwise we wouldn't have known to search for you."

"What are you talking about?" Rayne asked as he did his best to clean himself while Magnus started giving orders to the Canterlot soldiers just now arriving on scene. Meanwhile Rayne pretended not to notice how all of the criminals still kneeling on the ground were turning their gaze away from him fearfully.

Standing oblivious to this detail, Magnus helped to finish brushing Rayne off as he said, "It was your little friend at the Ponyville Hotel who tipped us off. I had stepped into town while looking for Rainbow Dash when she recognized me from your tour of Ponyville a couple days ago. She told me all about how she was held prisoner in the lobby and threatened not to say anything when you were abducted. But she begged me to save you."

"Gee, wow. I don't even know what to say to that." Rayne responded back as he only now put the pieces together for how strange she had been acting.

"We've been following a trail of clues and eyewitness reports from last night until we were finally able to track your location down to this warehouse. But I have to ask you, Rayne... what happened here?" Magnus questioned while looking in dismay at an entire crime syndicate who was inexplicably turning themselves in.

"Yes, we would like to know that as well." A new voice called out as both Rayne and Magnus turned to see the two princesses suddenly descend from the sky above. "What is the meaning of all this?" Celestia demanded to know while gesturing towards the fire and a row of ponies on their knees.

However they were all stricken silent when Celestia was cut off by her sister storming herself forward in front of all of them. "What are thou DOING HERE, RAYNE?!" Luna bellowed as her eyes twitched in agitation. The stallion just froze while looking shocked and then had to jump back as the princess aggressively stomped a hoof where he had stood. "How many times?! Why does thou ALWAYS seem to be at the center of things when there is trouble brewing Rayne?!" She shouted in furious surprise to find him there.

"Ahem." Magnus uttered before stepping up beside Rayne to defend him. "As you may not be aware, Rayne was just recently kidnapped from Ponyville by a group of these ponies you see behind us and I-"

"HOLD thy tongue Magnus, as once we have finished with Rayne we shall surely be having words with thee next!!" Luna screamed and now both of the stallions were standing nervously together as Luna seemed to be upset with each of them.

"You have some serious explaining to do!" She then snapped back at Rayne. "To think of all the personal worry I had put forth towards you, but now to find that you seem to be drawn to trouble like a moth to the literal flame!" She shouted while pointing a hoof to the burning building beside them.

Magnus had been standing there completely intent upon being patient. However, after listening to Luna's words he turned his head to the side and balked, "Wait, personal worry? For him? Surely you're not saying-"

"And you!" Luna rounded upon the legionnaire. "One would expect that a pony with such an illustrious military background would learn how to fill out a proper dispatch report! Do you have any idea of the frustrations I went through in searching for you today?! And here I thought of actually entertaining your request! But oh, after the stunt you pulled you can bet that the only conversation that I'll be having with you again will be alongside the captain of the guard!"

The pegasi gasped breathlessly as if he did not know what to say. "Princess, please… surely there has been some misunderstanding. Yes I may have been hasty in the conscription of a few soldiers but what is this that's happened to upset you so? What are these frustrations you speak of?"

Even though he meant well, the oblivious inquiring from Magnus only enraged the princess further. However as she stood there looking as if she might deck him, they were all distracted when Rayne called out while sounding quite soft-spoken.

"Look at her Magnus… isn't it easy for you to tell? She looks… beautiful." He almost whispered. Luna stopped her rage to frown at Rayne as she did not feel this was the appropriate time to be receiving compliments. "Look at her eyes, her hair… the way her hooves shine. Can't you tell that her makeup was perfect today? She dolled herself up and did an exquisite job of it too." Rayne pointed out and by the time he was done Luna felt conflicted because she was still mad but it felt good to have a stallion notice, even if it was the wrong stallion. "And she did that… all for you it seems." Rayne added while looking towards Magnus in disbelief.

"Ahem… I see." The pegasi said while clearing his throat. "Your highness had intended to accept my offer for company this evening but while I was not around." He conveyed to himself awkwardly, only adding to the tension that had now built up between the three of them.

By this point there were dozens of Canterlot soldiers who had arrived in response to the flames. Firefighter crews were also in attendance while the line of criminals were now being properly taken into custody. However, off to the sidelines Princess Celestia had decided to begin reigning her sister back while Rayne and Magnus were left to stare at each other in a whole new light.

The flickering of the fire reflected in each of their eyes as the two stallions began to process events together in their minds. Only recently had they started to get along as friends, each assuming that the actions back at the gala were due to the frivolity of the event. However now they both saw the truth they were standing in each other's way for what they felt Luna's heart was due.

"Sister, heed my words! You shall have your answers in due time once all of the evidence here has been sifted through. But now is not that time!" Celestia shouted while trying to calm her fuming sister. Unfortunately for what Celestia feared, she was too late as both stallions addressed Luna directly.

"Are you really dating him?!"

"Is this stallion courting you?!"

Both Magnus and Rayne had each spoken together and now they stood both staring at Luna as she realized the tables had turned against her. "I, well I…" Luna froze as it only now dawned upon her that she was standing before both her different suitors who up until this moment had no idea that they weren't the only ones vying to romance her. "Well you see, that answer is not quite the same as, well, oh dear…"

That was when the loud clop of a golden plated hoof stomped down in front to distract them all. "Now see here, all of you!" Celestia commanded. "As important as my sister's personal affairs may be to me, I feel obligated to discover why so many of my citizens are being arrested as a warehouse behind them burns to the ground! Now you, Magnus… You shall return to the castle and surrender yourself to the guard captain to await an official review which I shall oversee in the morning."

Whatever his begrudging feelings toward Rayne might have been, Magnus held them in check in light of a direct order from Equestria's ruler. "Yes, your majesty." He answered while watching Celestia turn authoritatively towards the dark stallion next.

Once Magnus was gone Celesta spoke sternly. "Rayne… trust in my words when I tell you that I too find it highly suspicious about what you are doing here. But for now that will have to wait. There will be an official review for what happened here the day AFTER tomorrow. But for now I recommend you catch the last train home to get some sleep. Despite what has happened, you still have plans with my sister tomorrow and I intend to see you that you keep them."

"But-" He began but her stern gaze was more than enough to silence him.

"My sister isn't well from having been sleep deprived and thoroughly agitated from the events of today. If your feelings towards Luna are in any way genuine then you will give sympathy to that aspect and leave her be until she is refreshed." She decreed to him.

Recognizing the mercy of an exit from a complicated situation when he saw one, Rayne kept his mouth shut and obeyed. With Celestia standing in the way of him even glancing toward Luna, he took his feelings on the situation and left as fast as his hooves could take him.

"How dare you interfere when I-" Luna tried to begin but had no better success in the face of Equestria's glowering ruler than the stallions did.

"Go home, and go to bed Luna." Celestia demanded of her.

"What?! I am not some child that you can-"

"GO HOME, AND GO TO BED, LUNA!" Celestia repeated with domineering authority. After which she softened her tone and added, "Please, for your own sake. You did not rest today and there are no answers to be found for you here tonight. Go home and sleep, and we shall sort this all out in the morrow." Luna hesitated, not liking the current outcome of things any more than the others had. But without further argument she took wing and flew back into the direction of the castle.

Now Celestia stood there alone, staring over the massive arrest that was being made as well as the attempts to extinguish the burning pile of rubble. One by one a sigh seemed to flow through from Celestia, to Magnus, then Rayne, and finally to Luna. They each finished their breath and respectively had the exact same thought. "What in the world just happened here tonight?"

Author's Note

So there might be quite a few lessons to be learned here. First of all, you should never take for granted the lengths of which a woman will go to make herself look beautiful for a date. Hell hath no fury like a woman who feels she wasted her time on you. I always get a lot of compliments about how well I write Luna's emotions when it comes to fretting over a new relationship. But I hope that my readers will be satisfied with how I write her losing her temper as well.

So what was it that Fancy Pants was complaining about, hmm? Perhaps we'll see news about that again some day.

I hope that Rayne being found out by someponies came as an entertaining shock to all of you. Faceless clearing out their nightclub didn't sit well with someponies but their revenge was obviously misguided. But they did reveal that at any given moment Rayne has no less than three, if not four copies of himself walking around and those copies are spread apart from each other over a substantially wide area.

Yeah so I spent more time than it should have taken me trying to look up military acronyms for different meanings. Maybe the thing between SNR vs SAR was obvious to some of you but it was just meant to build upon the mystery. Also it ended up adding some additional tension for Luna.

I think that John Travolta is a great actor with incredible range. I enjoy personifying charismatic personalities like his. And while living in a different world, Rayne still greatly enjoys personifying others while no one else will get the reference.

So Rayne didn't actually hurt or kill anypony in this chapter. These weren't villains, they were just criminals. They aren't terrorizing to overthrow Equestria and none of them are "recurring character" worthy. Yeah, Rayne gave a permanent end to characters like Tirek and the Storm King for being a substantial and potential recurring threat. But these were specified and calculated targets. I'm not trying to argue whether his actions were right or wrong, I just wanted it stated that Rayne isn't going around just wildly serial killing anyone who misbehaves.

Finally, the truth comes out that Magnus really is a good guy and he was trying to help Rayne. I'm not seriously about to villainize one of the pillars of harmony, haha. But many of the events in the past led up to this moment. After their disagreement at the gala the two tried to patch things up when Rayne gave Magnus a tour of Ponyville. Had that not happened the clerk at the hotel might not have thought to ask Magnus for help. And if she hadn't then Magnus would have gone on a romantic dinner date with Luna instead of spending almost 24 hours searching for our protagonist. Additionally, it is thanks to all of this that Magnus and Rayne discover they've both been courting Luna. And how will this end up affecting their future? Well you'll just have to wait and see.

P.S. This is a shout out to Wired, you know who you are! Thank you for what you do and great job getting it done! It means so much knowing that you're supporting me. I value each and every one of my fans, you included!