It was evening. Unlike his usual schedule, Midnight was eating dinner in the guardroom with the other royal guards. They were usually pleasant to him, pitying his permanent night duty. More often than not, his infrequent visits caused people to pat him on the back and the more experienced guards to give him advice. The usual topic of discussion was mares whenever he walked in and Midnight suspected that the rest of the palace guard were worried about him not having a marefriend. Today was different.
Midnight walked into the guardroom to the sound of cheers and hoofstamping. He was sat down at a table where a large spread of food was awaiting him. Looking up, Midnight saw a banner proclaiming “Congratulations on the pair of mares!” He looked and saw the multitude of guards around him. It was almost every off duty guard in Canterlot and the room was packed from wall to wall. He sat dumbfounded for a minute before smiling, standing up on his chair and bowing jokingly for a moment to the roars and laughter of the assembled guards.
Sitting back down, the multitude around him following his example, he began to eat. It was touching that they had done all of this for him. He was nothing special, but the whole regiment had come to celebrate his finally getting a marefriend. One by one, all the guards walked up to him and patted him on the back, congratulating him, for not only having landed a princess, but also the best musician in Equestria. It was a big day for all of those who thought that he might not get a mare at all.
Suddenly, there was a quiet knock on the door. A nearby guard opened it to reveal Octavia, standing there with a gentle smile. A wave of quiet passed through the room, each stallion nudging the ones near him and shushing him into silence. Midnight noticed and turned to the door to see Octavia standing there. Smiling, he stood up.
“Are you ready for work?” asked Octavia, the love she felt for him plain in her voice.
“I’m ready, shall we go?” replied Midnight, getting up from his chair and walking over to her.
“Yes” said Octavia, smiling lovingly up at him.
Midnight crossed the threshold and kissed Octavia, who returned it. An enthusiastic cheer rushed through the guards in the room behind them. Midnight pulled away from Octavia and smiled. Her answering smile had a reddish tint as she blushed. The two then began to walk towards the balcony, walking weirdly, as they both had one foreleg around the other’s shoulders.
Luna looked at the couple as they arrived on the balcony five minutes early. In the privacy of her head, she swore lavishly. In the real world she said: “Well done Octavia, you managed to drag him away from the party. I hope it wasn’t too inconvenient for you.”
Octavia replied meekly. “Oh no problem at all for someone that you love.”
Her head filling with swear words again, Luna tried to counter Octavia’s excellent parry.
“Good, well I do hope that you can stay, I’m sure that Vinyl here would love your company.” She said, extending her hoof to the balcony railing where Vinyl was busily throwing up on the rooftops below.
“I don’t believe so. We have very different tastes in music. Your tastes are far closer to hers. Perhaps you could lend her a hoof with her other problems as well. I was never particularly good at those kinds of things.”
Luna looked at her adversary, considering surrendering on the spot. Octavia was perfect. She countered every single one of the advances that Luna had made effortlessly. She was brilliant. Luna was not going to give up so easily though. Instead she gave ground on this front and directed her attention on Midnight, who was congratulating Octavia on her clear victory. Luna began to accept her defeat. What could she do? She walked up to Midnight and sighed. She sat down in front of him and looked into his eyes. She saw her world come crashing down.
Tears welled up in her eyes and her vision began to blur. Her life was over. How could it not be? The only stallion that she had loved had been repelled by her own foolishness. The tears began to run down her cheeks and drip onto the ground. The confused look on Midnight’s face turned to one of horror and he rushed forwards, his forelegs wrapping around his princess. He was careful not to make it seem like an embrace of love. He didn’t want to lose Octavia, but Luna was so sad, her tears wrenched at his heart and he looked into her face. Luna looked confused and vulnerable, surprise at his sudden hug prevalent in her eyes.
She brought one foreleg down and returned his embrace. All too suddenly from Luna’s perspective, Midnight broke off the hug and stood between the two rivals of his affection. In a voice that was magically altered to provoke obedience, he spoke.
“Why do you have to fight over me? Why can’t you both have me? Wouldn’t it be better if we were all friends as opposed to enemies? Please just let this have a chance.”
Luna and Octavia looked at one another, bicuriousity reflected in their eyes in a way that Midnight found extremely disturbing.
Grinning mischievously, they both looked at one another and then back at Midnight. “Yes, I think we can handle that,” said Luna.
“Ohh yes,” said Octavia. “That would be fine by me as well.”
It immediately became certain to Midnight that he was the only one who was not wearing the pants in this relationship.
“Umm… on second thought, could we please go back to you two fighting over me. I think I would be a little bit more secure with that.”
“I don’t think that that would be a good idea,” said Luna and Octavia together, “Not until we have done some experimentation at least..."