Location: North Dakota

There was a figure walking through the snow with heavy winter gear as well as a flashlight. There was police tape and broken rubble around the hole in the concrete wall of where the car drove through. “Something doesn’t seem right. The scene around the crash looks like something that could be written into a fan fiction of some sort. The clues aren’t adding up. They found the car but it looked as if there were no traces of a person it.”

The person leaned down and looked out into the water below. As the person was standing up on their feet, they heard a noise behind them. They looked behind them to see a baby deer on two feet behind them. They stared at the deer before being kicked into the freezing water below, a silent scream was the only thing heard from them before they crashed into the water.

The deer made a good bye gesture with their hand “Bye bye, boy.”

Location: Canterlot Halls

Ash wasn’t blind when it came to holidays, he knew when the holiday season was upon him, and to what it looked like to him, Christmas was coming soon or as the ponies called it, Hearth’s Warming.

He’s gotten gifts ready for his friends from the money he earned from guard training, but he was thinking of getting something special for Luna and Celestia. That was why he was currently sneaking through the hallways of the castle with a headlight and mining materials. You’re probably wondering what he had in mind, well, he was thinking of making them a necklace with a gemstone that represented their personalities.

Back to Ash, he turned a corner but quickly stepped backwards because of the pony down that very hall. “Guard, could you please obtain Ash for me, I would like to speak to him about something.” The sound of metal moving was heard, so he must have saluted.

Ash was trapped, he couldn’t just fly up, the bat pony would see him as well as if he just retreated. The bat guard was about to turn the corner but a hand quickly grabbed his shoulder, pulling Ash into a room behind him. His mouth was quickly covered by a hand to keep him quiet. Then a voice whispered in his ear “What are you doing sneaking around the castle like this? A pony’s going to have your head by accident if you keep doing this.” Cosmo Wave!

She took her hand off and got a closer look at Ash. “What were you doing anyways?”

“I was trying to sneak out to get materials for Celestia’s and Luna’s Hearth’s Warming present. I was thinking of getting a gemstone to represent their persoanality and then make a necklace with it.”

Cosmo Wave gave a silent whistle “I know the phrase ‘Go big or go home,’ but you are going Big.” Ash blushed with a shrug, but she continued “Alright, I’ll help, I’m on break anyways.” She opened the room door and peeked outside to see the coast was clear. She gave a moving forward motion with her hand, Ash followed after.

Luna was tapping her hoof on the tile in slight impatience, it’s been fifteen minutes since she gave that guard the request. She then saw the same guard running up to her, slightly out of breath “Your Highness, the human you requested isn’t in his room and it seemed he left thirty minutes ago.”

“He’s gone?!” The walls began to shake at her shout, but she ignored that fact and flew off to Ash’s room.

Going into his room as looking to see the guard was right. She then started to worry, ”What could he possibly be doing to sneak out of the castle? Does he have a marefriend? Is he doing something he shouldn’t?”

“So what gemstones are you after?”

Ash thought for a moment before answering “A rose quartz for Celestia and a black jasper for Luna. A rose quartz is the gemstone that represents love and compassion, Celestia adores and cares for all of her subjects. And a black jasper is thought to deflect negativity and stress while also induces mental clarity, focus, stamina and good health. It’s also associated with stability, security and independence.”

Ash kept walking while Cosmo Wave stopped for a second before shaking her head. “Dang, that’s surprisingly accurate. Where did you learn that?”

Ash pulled out his phone “Google, just because I have no Wi-Fi doesn’t mean I can’t look stuff up.”

Cosmo nodded her head and the two continued on, before Cosmo stopped in front of a cavern mouth. “Here it is, this should have what you need, just be mindful of diamond dogs. My break is up, so I need to get back, good luck!” Ash thanked her for her help and turned on his headlight before going inside.

“Why should I watch out for cute puppies in a cave.” After about ten minutes he came across the rose quartz. He went to grab his pic only to find his back bare, he turned around to look for it but came up with nothing.

As Ash was turning around, his pic axe was sailing towards his shoulder, landing a hard hit. He yelled out in pain, his blurry but he could just make out a figure with his pic axe. A raspy strange voice said “Looking for this?”

When his vision became clear again he cringed “You are an ugly dog if I’ve ever seen one.” It growled and went to strike at him again but he deflected the hit with his magic shield. Ash crouched down and touched the cavern floor, moments later a vine grew from the top of the cavern roof and grabbed onto the dogs leg and carrying him upwards. This sudden action made him drop the pic axe. Ash picked it back and went to mine the rose quartz.

He got a decent size of it, before turning around to see the dogs tripled “Damnit.”

Cosmo Wave stood at her post with a stoic expression, but she was deeply bored on the inside. “Private Cosmo Wave!” She turned her head to see Princess Luna walking towards her with an expression of anger and worry. “Do you know where Ash is? I’m asking you specifically because you are one of Ash’s best friends.”

”Shit, if Ash snuck out, he didn’t want them to know. But she looks worried sick, but if I say what he’s doing then she’ll ask where he is. I can just say it’s a surprise, at least that will ease some of her worries.”

“Private!”

“He went out to get a present for you and your sister for Hearth’s Warming, Your Majesty.”

“What could he possibly be getting this late at night?”

“He told me it would be a surprise.”

Luna only groaned in annoyance, Cosmo Wave was getting scared. This was going to be a long night for her.

Ash was covered in bruises, cuts and patches of his own blood with small bits of the dogs. It’s been the same sing and song for about ten minutes. He’s wasn’t really thinking getting gems was going to be this hard.

Ash threw another fireball, but since the diamond dog was so tired it didn’t have enough energy to dodge it in time. Meaning the fireball hit him in the stomach sending it back and into a stone wall. The roof above it rattled before sending rubble down onto the dog, burying him in stone. The other dogs saw the scene and quickly escaped, not wanting to face the same fate.

Ash let out a huff of relief but then the realization kicked in full force. ”I just killed someone.”

The sun was beginning to rise, little to Ash’s knowledge, as the rubble came down on the dog it also trapped him in the cavern as well. Celestia was eating her pancakes but noticed quickly that Luna wasn’t there nor was Ash, and he usually got there before her. With those two notions, Celestia knew something was wrong.

She got up from her chair when Luna ran into the room. Celestia, startled by the action powered her magic but soon saw it was her sister. She walked up to her with worry “Sister, what’s the matter?”

“Ash is gone and I don’t know where, he’s been gone all night!”

“Did you get any information?”

“Only the reason but not the where.”

“Well, tell me what information you have.”

“Ash snuck out of the castle because he wanted to get us a Hearth’s Warming present. And I only know that much, probably to keep it a surprise as his friend had told me.”

Celestia sighed, they will just have to wait till he returned, his friend is asleep and they don’t have anything other than he is getting them a present.

Ash gotten over the realization and went back to mining, albeit slowly because of his injuries but still mining. During the fight, Ash had struck a fireball to which the dogs dodged but hit the wall making a hole and revealing a patch of black jaspers. He got lucky with that one.

As he was about to leave he realized the exit for him was block by the rubble from the end of the fight, but nothing he couldn’t handle. He touched the rubble and summoned the energy to create vines to break the rocks. He did so and casually walked out of the cave but quickly covered his eyes.

You know when you go into a movie theater during the middle of the day, and you walk outside into the sun, yeah, that’s how Ash is feeling.

“Ah, my retinas!” While Ash was recovering from the light a flapping was heard in front of him.

“Ash, where the hell were you man?!” Ash recognized the voice as Steel Wind, but couldn’t exactly see him clearly. “Dude, what happened to you?”

Ash stood up straighter and said with a serious voice “We will never speak of what I had to go through to get my present for the princesses.” Steel Wind didn’t want to know with Ash’s response. “Now, can you carry me, I still don’t trust my eyesight right now.”

Steel nodded and picked Ash up and carried him by his armpits. Steel Wind surprisingly made it all the way to the castle and by the time they got their Ash’s eyesight was better.

All of Ash’s friends were there, even Cosmo but she looked extremely tired.

There were multiple gasps at the state he was in, even Cosmo. “Ash where have you been?!” Celestia yelled.

Cookie Dough walked up to him and pulled the axe off his back “Mining apparently.”

And at that moment Twilight and her friends came into the room and saw his state. Fluttershy rushed over and held his face in her hands “Ash what happened!” That, was the first time anyone of her friends hear their friend yell.

River Dust walked up to him and went through his bag “A rose quartz and… is that a black jasper?!”

Spike licked his lips “I heard a black jasper is supposed to taste delicious. Can I have a nibble?”

“NO! These were supposed to be surprise gifts for Celestia and Lulu, buts it not that much of a surprise now.”

Cosmo Wave walked up to him “You can still finish it, this is basically just a part of a puzzle. The present isn’t done yet.”

Gold Streak broke in “Are we not going to talk about Ash’s damage?”

Cosmo looked him over and whispered to him “You ran into the dogs didn’t you? How many came in and came out?”

Ash sighed “3, then 2.”

Cosmo spoke a little louder “What happened?”

Ash was silent “Rubble.”

Celestia stepped up “I at least want you to be fixed up first.” She grabbed his hand and teleported him to the infirmary.

Celestia put a sound proof bubble around him, “Ash, please tell me happened, you can trust me.”

Ash looked up and examined her sincere eyes, then he sighed in defeat. “I wanted to make you and Lulu a present for Hearth’s Warming, but I wanted it to be special. I was going to make a necklace for each of you. It was going to contain a gemstone that represented your personalities. Yours was the rose quartz, it represents love and compassion. You really love and care for your subjects. Luna’s was the black jasper, it stood for independence and deflecting negative emotions.”

“But I was attacked by diamond dogs, and at the end of the fight.” He stopped talking but Celestia got the message and went down to hug Ash softly and comfort.

Celestia went to kiss Ash on the forehead but he moved his head. So instead of a kiss on the forehead he instead got a kiss on lips by Celestia. And right as the kiss happened, it ended.

Celestia had a great blush on her face “I’m sorry, I meant to give you a kiss on the forehead and I didn’t mean to actually kiss you, you moved your head so my lips connected with yours on accident.” Celestia rambled on but Ash only found it cute. Celestia, the Co-Ruler of Equestria, rambling on like a schoolgirl.

Ash gave a small chuckle “It’s okay Sunshine, it more my fault than yours.” Celestia continued to blush but stood up.

“I should get going, a nurse is going to come in and check on you any minute now, and I have to go and begin Day Court, Um bye Ash.” She gave a small wave before leaving.

“Heh, bye Sunshine.”

Location: Sweet Apple Acre Fields

The figure was laying against a tree before he began to open his eyes. “Ugh, my head. Where am I?” He took in his surroundings and came to the conclusion that he was in an apple orchard, “Maybe I can ask someone for some help, wait didn’t a fawn kick me into the water? Am I dead?”

He got up and made his way out of the orchard, he soon came across a village with a sign at the entrance. He read it and was perplexed by the name. “Ponyville? What kind of name is that?”

The figure made his way into town and stopped when he saw a colorful anthropomorphic pony. “Now I really know I’m dead.” The pony turned and greeted him in a friendly manner, like it’s seen him before.

The pony started walking over to him and he realized it was a child. “Hey Ash!”

The figure was about to push the pony off before he froze for multiple reasons.

The pony looked up “Oh, sorry, I thought you were somepony else.”

The man knelt down “Who did you think I was?”

“Oh, one of my friends, his name is Ash Westwind, why? Do you know him?”

The man nodded “Can you please take me to him?”

The pony gladly agreed. She grabbed his hand and guided him to the train station “He should be in Canterlot right now, but every now and then he comes to visit my sister and her friends.” They both sat down and waited as the train took them to Canterlot. But the man was anything but patient.

Ash was healed by the doctors for the most part but had to take it easy for a while.

He was walking down one of the halls when he heard the voice of Rarity. “Sweetiebelle?! What in the name of Equestria are you doing here?”

“I found this human walking into town, and I thought he was Ash because he looked like him. But then he wanted to know where Ash was.”

Ash gasped and started running down the halls, taking it easy be damned. Celestia came out of a room and looked to her left to see Ash running down the halls “Ash?! Why are running?!”

Ash ignored her and turned the corner. Once he did he tackled the figure taking everyone aback by the aggressive action. “Conner!!”

Conner looked up to the attacker to find Ash on top of him “Ash!! You’re alive!”

Celestia ran after Ash when she saw him running, but she stopped when she came upon the current scene in front of her. She snapped herself out of it and pulled Ash off and turned him around so he was facing her. “Ash. What part of taking it easy do you not understand?”

Ash got out of his emotional state and stood up, Celestia doing the same. “Sorry Celestia, I just jumped at the chance when Sweetiebelle mentioned Conner.”

Celestia finally looked towards the other human, who finally started to stand up, and his height seemed bigger than Ash’s. “Well, I jumped at the chance to my brother, but we believed you were dead.”

“Dead?”

Ash chuckled “By the incident I can only assume but that also means people will think your dead too.”

“We’ll then they’re going to have harder time to catch the killer, mine wasn’t an accident. I was kicked off the same bridge by Bambi. Guess he wanted revenge.”

Celestia looked in confusion “Who Bambi?”

Ash walked over to his brother “So, you’re telling me you were pushed off the same bridge, by a baby deer?” Ash looked at him curiously before bursting out laughing.

Conner looked down at his brother with annoyance “I’m sorry, I should be taking you more seriously, but the way you said it.” Conner sighed “You will never take things seriously will you?”

Ash lost the comedy act “I do take things seriously!”

Conner scoffed “Sure, let me name some times. Fifth grade, November 16”, Ash gained a panicked look.

“You said you would never bring that up!”

“A girl confessed to like you since Kindergarten, but you laughed it off as a joke!”

Celestia and Rarity gained a shocked expression. “Or, what about 7th grade. It was a school dance but you were dumb enough to spike the bowl of punch, I’m surprised you didn’t go to the county jail for that. Maybe because they didn’t find the culprit, even on the footage.”

Ash shouted in a voice that was equivalent to that of a shotgun “Alright Enough!!.” Conner covered his ears at the yell “I know, I did a lot of questionable decisions, I will admit but let me ask you this. What did I do when you broke your leg?”

“You carried me even despite the size difference.”

“What did I do when you liked Luna?”

Conner sighed “You got us a reservation to a fancy restraunant, even though all we were doing was hanging out.”

Ash gave Conner a smirk and Conner gave a huff of annoyance.

Celestia gave a slight laugh before introducing herself. Conner looked at her then Ash “It’s wrong to ask this but are you two dating? I mean it’s wrong because your a human and she’s a horse.”

Rarity covered Sweetiebelle’s ears while Celestia went silent. Ash put both his hands over his mouth “That is wrong, Celestia is a smart and beautiful pony.” Celestia lost the silent look and blushed madly with a little stutter.

Conner removed his hands “But that’s-”

Ash quickly shut his mouth again before he could say anything else stupid.

Ash turned his brother around and reached up to his ear “You do not call them horses, I made that mistake the hard way with Lulu, do not make it with Celestia. Let me give you a little insight about this world. Lulu and Celestia can move celestial objects, so do NOT call them horses.” Ash stepped away for that to sink into Conner’s mind.

Ash turned to Celestia “He didn’t mean to call you that Celestia, your a perfect and independent pony.” Celestia’s face only seemed to heat up more at his compliments.

Conner coughed to get Ash’s attention “Ash, there’s something I need to talk to you about. It’s about Chloe.”

Ash’s colors drained “How do you-“

“Let me finish, while you were in the phone with mom, she texted me,”

“You have her number?!”

“And she wanted to get back together with you.”

Ash’s face was full of emotions.

The only emotion Celestia was feeling was heartbreak. ”He has a marefriend?”

“She, wants-“

Ash stood still, but then secretly turned his gaze to Celestia, Sunshine, His Sunshine. He didn’t know why, but something about her just drove him to do crazy decisions. And whenever she was hurt, he was hurt. And whenever she was happy, just seeing her smile made it worth while. And seeing her laugh just set his heart aflame.

Ash directed his attention back to Conner with a straight face “Tell her no.”

Conner stared wide eyed as well as Celestia “But, dude, I remember when you first met her and you couldn’t form a sentence, and when you got together.”

“How’d you even know we were together.”

“Haha, I’m your brother, I know you better than anyone.”

“Still, you tell her no, she was the one who cheated on me when I was in London.”

Conner finally nodded.

Celestia’s mood changed instantly.

After the introductions were done and he moved to his new room, after realizing he couldn’t go home. He started adapting just fine. And over the fact that Ash has wings now.

Celestia was signing papers when she heard a knock on her door. “Who is it?”

“It’s me Celestia.”

Celestia’s heart rate began to pick up at his voice “Enter.”

Ash opened the door and stepped inside, “Celestia, I need to speak with you about something.” Celestia nodded and set her quill down.

She got up and walked over to Ash “What is it that you needed to discuss with me?”

Ash fiddled with his hands, opening and closing them. But he just sighed before grabbing Celestia and kissing her.

She was taken aback by the bold action. Causing her to step back into her desk, trapping her between him and the desk behind her.

After a few seconds she returned the kiss with enthusiasm and gratitude. “Mhm.” Celestia moaned into the kiss before pulling away for air. “You do know what this means right?”

“That I’m committing a cliche scandal, but also asking you to be my girlfriend? Yeah, I’m aware but you’re worth it. I finally just realized it before it was too late.”

“You don’t know how long I’ve been wanting this.”

“I might be able to take a guess by the kiss.”

“I need to know how you feel, I need to know this is real.”

Ash grew serious and pulled her closer “Everytime I’m next to you you set my heart on fire, you make it worth it to wake up in the morning just to see you, I went through heck to get you a necklace, and making you smile is my greatest accomplishment.”

Celestia’s eyes began to swell up with tears before she kissed him again. “Please don’t leave me alone tonight.”

Ash wrapped his arms and wings around her. “Doing that to you would be a sin, and as your boyfriend, it is my job to comfort and love you in your time of need. We’ll just need to be careful, Sunshine.”

Celestia sighed and set her head on his shoulder “I’m aware, and I love it when you call me that.”

Ash lightly laughed “Good, because you’re my one and only Sunshine and I’m here to stay.”

The both of them stood there and stayed in that comfortable silence.

Author's Note

Celestia and Ash are finally together, what challenges will they have to face with this development.

(They got together sooner than I liked, and thought. But that will just put more attention and cute moments between the two)

Hope you stay tuned for the next chapters to come and enjoy your week.