One Week Later

Anon surveyed the reconstruction of Canterlot happening just below in the middle district from his observation point on Celestia's balcony. As pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies worked together to rebuild after the chaos, the city's original glory slowly took shape once more. A small smile found its way onto Anon's face as he turned around and headed back inside, finding Javelin waiting patiently for him near the door.

"Enjoy the view?" Javelin smirked.

"More and more with each passing day. Although, the statue they're putting up in the gardens still seems like a bit much." Anon replied, with a chuckle.

"What do you mean? You're a legit hero, dude. If it weren't for you, I definitely would not have made it past the foyer with Raven, and then Chrysalis would've just stopped Cadence and Shining Armor from doing their thing. You're as much a hero as any other pony they're making a statue of." Javelin rebutted.

Anon shrugged, "I mean, yeah, I guess... but did they have to put the frying pan in my hands? I look like a housewife that just decided her husband shit talking her casserole was the last straw."

Javelin raised an eyebrow, "Didn't you mount it on the wall and get a little plaque for it?"

Anon coughed and awkwardly adjusted his collar, "W-well, yeah... but all of Canterlot doesn't need to know that. They could at least think it was something cool, like a sword."

Javelin laughed, "Aww, come on! You put some serious work in with that thing."

Anon shook his head as he reached the doorway. Javelin opened the door for him, before falling in step behind as Anon led the way toward the throne room.

"I mean, couldn't they at least have made it at least look a little cooler?" Anon whined.

"I think it looks cool enough. Don't want you to let all that hot air get to your head, now do we?" Javelin smirked.

Anon sighed as he rounded a corner and almost bumped into a pair of royal guards.

"Sir!" They both announced, immediately parting ways to allow him to pass while giving a crisp salute.

Anon held his hands out placatingly, "Relax, guys. I'm not a prince or anything. You don't have to salute me whenever I walk past you." He said.

"With all due respect, sir, it's not because of your position." The first guard responded.

"You might not know, but you saved my stallion and little fillies, sir. It's an honor to salute you." The second mare explained, her eyes watering ever so slightly.

Anon chewed his tongue. He looked down to Javelin to find the stallion shrugging back up to him. After a moment of thought, Anon nodded.

"I'm just glad your family is okay. They're adorable, by the way." Anon replied, returning the salute.

The mare's dropped their salutes, "Little Rosemary said you beat two changelings to save them... Thank you so much for what you did." The second guard replied.

"It was nothing special," Anon dismissively waved his hand, "Like I said, I'm just glad they're okay."

The second guard allowed a smile to grace her face as she allowed Anon to walk past, before she resumed her route with her comrade.

"Seems like you did more heroics than you let on. I didn't know you saved any little fillies or stallions." Javelin spoke up, tilting his head to the side in interest.

"Eh, I forgot to mention it. A lot happened really fast last week, and trying to rebuild has been anything but quick," Anon replied, a thoughtful look on his face, before he snapped his fingers, "Oh! That reminds me! We need to get a new pantry door. I managed to fix up the windows, but the pantry's fucked." Anon replied, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Ugh," Javelin sighed, "I saw. Think you might be able to pick one up on the way home? I've got another long shift today to help with the castle damage." He responded.

"I gotchu." Anon nodded, earning a thankful nod from the stallion walking beside him.

As they walked down the hallway toward the throne room, they walked past a window that was still shattered, and still retained some small matter of dried blood on the windowsill. Both Anon and Javelin gave a sad look to the red stains on the wall before continuing down the path and walking past several scorch marks along the walls.

"So, did Celestia say why she wanted you to come up today?" Javelin questioned.

Anon shook his head, "Nah. All I got was a letter asking me to come by around ten, and if she wasn't available, to wait in her room until eleven before coming back down to the throne room. She said she'd be finished with Day Court by then at the latest." He explained.

"Why'd she want you to wait up there?" Javelin asked.

"Something about anti-changeling wards in her room. Guess even she's being careful now." Anon shrugged.

"Eh, I guess that makes sense. Chrysalis did have you singled out back there when you were trying to save Celestia." Javelin nodded.

As the duo conversed, they soon reached the end of the long castle hallways and arrived at the throne room doors.

"Speaking of which, what are you going to do in that whole... 'princess' department?" Javelin asked, cautiously.

Anon paused right in front of the throne room doors. The pair of guards hesitated to open the door for them, their magical aura's already gripping the massive handles as they gave him a questioning look.

"I'm not sure, man. I really don't know." He admitted, before nodding to the guards at the door.

They quickly pulled the mighty throne room doors open, revealing a crowd of no less than three hundred mares and stallions, all yelling and shouting to both Celestia and a group of treasury ponies beside her.

"Princess! My house was destroyed by the changelings! I still had thirty mortgage payments on it!" One mare cried.

"I still haven't seen my little fillies!" A stallion shouted.

"My entire business was destroyed! I have no way to make money now!"

Both Anon and Javelin stared at the crowd with wide eyes as the ponies shouted and cried out for their princesses to help. Celestia struggled to maintain her infamous poker face at the sight of so many of her subjects in pain, but she managed to keep herself from overly showing it. Beside her, Raven sifted through several parchments and scrolls, along with nearly a dozen other ponies that all had money themed cutie marks.

A still bandaged Lieutenant Valorant stood in front of the princess, along with half a dozen more guards, all struggling to maintain order in the court.

"Wait your turns! You will present your grievance to the crown when you are called on!" Lieutenant Valorant shouted, even her unnaturally loud voice struggling to pierce the sea of ponies yelling in front of her.

Anon and Javelin shared a look before slowly approaching the outside of the crowd and attempting to sneak their way around the gathered ponies. Within a minute, they were spotted, and a series of hushes and whispers overtook the crowd. The deafening room suddenly silenced itself to near complete noiselessness as the eyes of hundreds of ponies drifted onto Anon.

Even Lieutenant Valorant was taken aback at the complete shift in tone of the room, and cast a confused glance back to Celestia. The solar princess shrugged her withers in shared confusion, until she looked over to where her subjects were looking, and found Anon.

"Anon." She whispered, her quiet voice booming in the silent hall.

"Anon?" One mare questioned.

"The Hero of Canterlot!" A stallion cheered.

"He's here!" Another stallion cried out.

Without warning, the entire crowd shifted toward Anon and Javelin, dozens of mares and stallions quickly rushing up to him in excitement. Anon held out his arms in alarm as no less than seven ponies all circled him and hugged his legs while the rest followed suite.

"Hey, back up!" Javelin shouted, to no avail as he was forced away from Anon by the crowd.

"I saw you smack a changeling in the face with a frying pan! It was so heroic!" A stallion exclaimed, climbing over other stallions to get closer to Anon.

Anon whipped his head back and forth at the ponies surrounding him and assaulting him with praise. He struggled to get a word in, while the ponies only piled over each other more and more to be closer to him. Across the throne room, Celestia pushed herself to her hooves and flared her wings out while she ignited her horn. A golden aura quickly wrapped around Anon and Javelin, before pulling them out of the crowd of overly excited ponies.

"Gah, what the fuck!?" Anon managed to question as he was pulled from the clutches of the crowd.

Celestia swiftly levitated both Anon and Javelin over to her throne while the ponies beneath them fought to keep up and follow. They were swiftly intercepted by Lieutenant Valorant and the rest of her guards before they could get anywhere near the throne, prompting several of them to cry out in despair. Once they were both clear of her subjects, Celestia deposited Anon and Javelin on the marble steps and pulled them both in close with her wings.

"Anon, Javelin. I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. Are you both alright?" Celestia worriedly questioned, although her voice could barely be heard over the crowd.

"What!?" Anon replied, leaning in closer.

"I'm going to teleport us to the dining room." Celestia replied, just loud enough for Anon and Javelin to make out her words.

"Teleport?! Nah, don't do that! You know teleporting fucks with my stomach!" Anon quickly protested, waving his hands around frantically.

Celestia paused mid spell, and shook her head, "Right, my apologies. Give me a moment." She responded, before turning to Lieutenant Valorant, "Lieutenant! Clear the throne room! Day Court is closed!" She commanded, using her full volume.

Lieutenant Valorant gave a quick salute to the princess, before casting several spells to enhance her voice, along with a few barriers to keep ponies away.

"NOW HEAR THIS! DAY COURT IS CLOSED!! RETURN TO YOUR HOMES AT ONCE OR BE FORCEFULLY REMOVED!" She shouted, her enhanced volume shaking the walls and deafening the ponies at the front of the crowd.

Almost immediately, the gathered ponies lost any fight they had left and dispersed, a chorus of discontent murmurs and protests echoing from the crowd as they made their way to the exit. After a few minutes, the last pony left the room, and the lieutenant closed the throne room door with her magic, before turning around and making her way back up to the throne.

"All civilians have been removed from the premises, Princess." Lieutenant Valorant announced.

Celestia gave a thankful smile, "Good work, Lieutenant. I can always count on you. Faust, it was getting hard to think, let alone speak." She replied, shaking her head.

"Normally we'd have many more guards, Princess, but... well, you know." Lieutenant Valorant gave a small shrug.

"I understand. Many of them are still recovering. It's not any of their faults... Hay, it isn't even the crowd's fault either. The Changeling Queen truly did disrupt all aspects of daily life in Canterlot. I was hoping it would be relatively easy to reopen day court as much of the damage was centered around the castle, but I didn't realize the true extent of what the changelings did." Celestia explained, sitting in her throne with a tired sigh.

"Those little shits did a number on the city, didn't they?" Anon asked, placing his hands in his pockets as he looked out the castle window at the city below.

"They certainly did... as of right now, we're looking at over fifteen million bits in damages, as well as emergency services that are still strung thin, and to top it all off, there are still dozens of dignitaries from foreign countries in the hospitals in critical condition, which is only causing more tension with our neighbors." Celestia rubbed her temples with her hooves.

"Damn... I knew it was bad, but I was hoping it just kinda looked worse than it was. What are you planning to do to fix all of this?" Anon questioned.

"At the moment, I think all I really can do is just try to tackle one issue at a time. Raven has been writing down most of the damages individuals in Day Court brought forth, but I'm not sure the crown can even cover this much damage."

Anon looked over to the secretary pony as she scribbled away with her quill and parchment.

"So far, we have well over a hundred ponies who lost everything. Their home, place of work, and belongings. Trying to rehome and compensate them is going to be tricky, but if we cut the Gala budget by fifty percent, we can cover at least the ponies we've heard so far." Raven spoke up, her eyes still attached to her parchment as she continued to write.

Anon let out a whistle, "Well I wonder how the nobles will take that."

"Comet Star and the rest of his goons are still in prison for their attempt on your life, so I doubt the Gala will be very well received this year anyway." Celestia replied, before turning to Raven, "In all actuality, it might be much more enjoyable this year if it's a smaller affair and has fewer ponies there purely to show off how wealthy they are. Go ahead and write that down then, Raven. We'll cut the Gala budget this year to help ponies who need it now."

Anon tilted his head to the side and raised his eyebrows in surprise as he watched Raven nod and write down Celestia's orders. After a moment, Celestia looked at him curiously.

"What is it, Anon?" She asked.

Anon shook his head, "Nothing, nothing. Just... even still I'm surprised at how you handle things here. Back home my government would have just printed more money and raised taxes to fix the issue rather than cut funding for any of their parties or programs."

Celestia nodded, "While I'm sure many of the noble class will be upset over my decision, the most important thing right now is getting my ponies back on their hooves. Their well-being is so much more important to me than some silly party we have every year, anyway."

Anon gave a nod, although his expression showed that he was clearly impressed, before Celestia continued.

"The only truly unfortunate detail with regards to the Gala is that it usually attracts delegates from all over the world, and I haven't seen some of those faces in nearly a decade. Hopefully they'll be able to attend next year's Gala, assuming nothing as crazy as an invasion happens again." Celestia sighed.

"Well, when you say it like that, you make it sound like invasions happen around here all the time." Anon chuckled.

"Don't even get me started. It feels like every five years, there's a disaster." Celestia rolled her eyes.

Anon shook his head and sighed, "Jesus. Sounds like a real pain in the ass to deal with."

"As usual, I'm not sure how donkeys fit in to it, but regardless, this is all talk for me to deal with later. I did not ask you here today to bombard you with my problems." Celestia said, giving a tired smile.

"I don't mind helping out however I can. Only thing I've been doing the last week has been fixing up Jav's place since they bombed us." Anon chuckled.

"I truly appreciate that, Anon. Perhaps later I will take you up on that offer. For now though, I think I've had as much talk of money and disasters as I can stomach for the day. I did ask you to come here for a reason, and I would like to discuss it with you, if you're willing to hear me and Luna out." Celestia responded, a hopeful smile forming on her face.

Anon nodded, "Yeah, sure. Are we gonna go to her?"

"If you wouldn't mind. Javelin could stay here and keep Raven company, if he wishes." Celestia answered, a sly smirk appearing on her face.

"Don't mind if I do." Javelin smiled as he walked over to Raven's side.

Raven smiled as Javelin stepped over and sat down beside her, before planting a chaste kiss on his cheek, instantly making the stallion blush.

"Aw, get a room, you two." Anon joked, causing a snicker from Celestia, and a laugh from Raven while Javelin blushed even harder.

"Come along, Anon. Luna will be most happy to see you." She called behind her as she walked toward the throne room doorway.

Anon followed behind as Celestia led the way out of the throne room and down the East hall toward her and Luna's bedrooms. As they walked, they passed a large, pony shaped hole in the wall, and several still shattered windows. Several black burn marks littered the ceiling, walls, and floor all the way down the hall. Even the wooden door frame was splintered in several places.

"They haven't gotten around to fixing up the hallways yet, have they?" Anon questioned.

"They're getting around to it. The south hall leading straight to the dining room was less damaged, so repairs have started there, but this hall was marked for more serious repair work. If I recall correctly, the construction team will be tackling this one tomorrow." Celestia replied, a thoughtful look on her face.

Anon nodded and dropped the subject, prompting Celestia to do the same and continue the walk in a relatively comfortable silence. However, Anon quickly noticed a slight edge in Celestia's step, and a stiffness to her movements, almost as if she was worried, or nervous about something. His brow briefly furrowed in concern, but before he could say anything, they reached the end of the hall and turned into the stairwell leading up the castle spire.

Celestia quickly trotted up the stairs, nearly leaving Anon behind as he hurried to keep pace with her.

"Any reason you're in such a rush all of a sudden?" Anon asked.

Celestia instantly slowed to nearly a snail's pace, "Oh, sorry, sorry. My apologies. I just lost myself in my thoughts for a moment." She replied, giving a sheepish smile.

Anon chuckled, "What were you thinking about? Money?"

Celestia shook her head, "If I think about money any longer, I'm liable to give myself an aneurism. I was simply thinking of how strange it feels to have you back here in the castle." She admitted, a small blush showing on her face.

Anon smiled, "You know, it feels really weird to be back here, too. Not in a bad way or anything, but just... strange. Can't believe I kinda missed all the stairs in here." He laughed.

Celestia let out a giggle, "Well I'm sure the stairs have missed you dearly as well. Now, let's get up to Luna's room." She replied, turning tail and heading up the remainder of the stairs. Anon followed after her, and quickly found himself in the hallway connecting Celestia and Luna's bedrooms.

With the sun princess at the lead, they quickly arrived at Luna''s bedroom and knocked several times. A loud, very unfeminine snore answered them, prompting a sheepish smile to form on Celestia's face.

"I suppose she fell asleep waiting for us." She chuckled.

"Should we let her sleep?" Anon asked.

"No, no. She wants to talk to you as much as I do. She said to wake her up if she was asleep when you arrived." Celestia replied, before banging on the door with her hoof.

A muffled groan emanated from the room, followed by the sound of a heavy sigh, and then finally hooves hitting the marble floor. A soft clopping sound slowly grew louder as the moon princess reached the door and pulled it open, the bags under her eyes greeting her guests before she could even say a word.

"Mhhm, sister?" Luna mumbled, before looking over to Anon, her eyes widening immediately as her entire demeaner perked up, "A-Anon!?"

Before Anon could respond, Luna launched herself at him and wrapped her hooves around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug. Anon jumped at the sudden affection, before letting out a chuckle and hugging Luna back. He gently wrapped his arms around her barrel, carefully avoiding her wings as he nuzzled his cheek against her mane.

"Mmmmm... you give the best hugs." Luna whispered.

"I'm glad to hear that. I've been out of practice for a while." Anon smiled.

Once Anon and Luna pulled away from each other, Celestia cleared her throat and looked inconspicuously out the window. Anon raised an eyebrow before a chuckle escaped his lips and he turned to face her.

"You want a hug too?" He asked, more of a statement than a question.

Celestia turned to Anon, mock surprise on her face, "A hug! Why, of course! I'd love one." She teased.

Anon snickered as he pulled the sun princess in to a hug, her cheek resting on his shoulder while his arms wrapped around her neck and withers. Her soft rainbow mane slowly billowed around his arms, the mystical hair leaving a distinct feeling of warmth and comfort every time it touched his skin. Anon rubbed his hand up and down Celestia's neck, each digit of his hand running through the velveteen fur along her body, and earning a soft sigh from the sun princess as she wrapped her hooves around his waist in thanks.

Eventually, they pulled away from each other, and Celestia dropped back down to all four hooves.

"Well, that was certainly one of the best hugs I've ever had." Celestia said, almost breathlessly.

Anon simply smiled, "So what's this thing you wanted to talk about?"

"Right, come along, Anon. I think it'd be best if we discussed this in my room." Luna spoke up, her eyes lighting up in excitement.

Luna led the way inside while Celestia and Anon quickly followed after her. Once they were all in her room, she shut the door with her magic while Celestia walked over to her bed and Anon made his way to her window. He placed his hands in his pockets once more as he looked out of the stained glass to the world below, before turning around to face both princesses.

"Alright. So what's up?" Anon inquired.

Celestia and Luna shared a look, before looking to Anon.

"Anon," Celestia started, "I'm not going to bring up old wounds and start apologizing again and again for what we did to you back then... but after what happened last week... after what you did for us, I think it'd be wrong of us not to at least try one more time."

"We don't want to pressure you," Luna continued, "And if your answer is 'no', then we'll respect that and never ask you again..." She trailed off.

"-But if you'd give us one more chance, we'd both absolutely love the opportunity to take you out on a date." Celestia added.

"-As ourselves. We'll never lie to you again. That, we swear." Luna finished, bowing her head ever so slightly.

As the princesses of Equestria awaited an answer, Anon stared back at them with a mix of emotions on his face. He pursed his lips in thought for a few moments, while his brow furrowed ever so slightly. Eventually, he looked down to the floor, and over to Luna's vanity mirror against the wall. After staring at the combined reflections of himself and the two princesses, Anon finally turned back to face them.

"I think... I'd like that." He replied, quietly.

Instantly, both princesses rushed him and pulled him into a group hug while nuzzling their cheeks against his.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Luna cried.

"Thank you so much, Anon! We won't ruin this, we swear!" Celestia added, a tear clawing its way out of her tightly closed eyes.

Anon let out a chuckle as he returned the hug, "I'm glad you guys are so excited. I'm... I'm really excited too." He admitted.

Celestia and Luna squeezed him even tighter as the tears truly fell. The room descended into a chorus of sniffles and choked, happy sobs as the solar and lunar princesses finally held Anon in their forelegs once more. It took them almost ten minutes to finally release the hug.

Author's Note

Aren't they just adorable?

Alright, serious talk time. I've been reading the comments and ya'll have made me kinda consider doing some extra writing on this story. A few of you complained that the 6 month time gap was a bit of a cop out rather than showing everything that happened during that time. I did that because I felt like the story was already taking forever to get to the climax, but that's just me. Since opinions seem incredibly split on this story already, I want to take a poll and decide from there. Depending on how ya'll vote, I'll either post like normal or put the story on hiatus for a few weeks to write the extra chapters.

So if you want me to write in some chapters to fill the 6 month time skip, and put the story on hiatus, let me know in the comments.

If you want me to keep posting the story as normal, also please let me know. I am not going to do some seperate story with the six months in there or something. This is either gonna be done here or not at all.

Also please don't just say "you're the author, do what you want", because I don't want to do those chapters, at all. However, I want this story to be the best it can be, so if you think that would add to it, say so. I'll count up the comments by Friday and whichever side gets the most supportive comments is what I'll do.