//------------------------------// // Post Common Era Chapter Seven/War of Stars Chapter Three: Learning of the Stars // Story: The Lunar Knight's Willow Leaf // by Moonlit Novel //------------------------------// Author's Notes: Thanks to Deadinlight for beta-reading and helping me edit Post Common Era Chapter Seven/War of Stars Chapter Three: Learning of the Stars Masao stood there in the room awe struck as this soldier seemed to be more concerned with the fact that he was fighting alongside the ponies rather than the fact that he could do magic. “Seriously, you aren’t even going to ask about the magic?” “What? I have seen magic before, and at best that was telekinesis and even that isn’t mag-” Masao caused a ball of black lightning to form in his hand, “Interesting, though I fail to see how that matters, one of the men you killed was a powerful pyromancer, I will say that it does remind me of the Umbra Magus of my home” “Umbra Magus? as in Shadow Magician? Well that is close, I am a dark mage, a tenebrosus magus if I remember my latin correctly” said Masao and the soldier looked impressed. “Not many can claim to have conquered the dark magicks, most can only claim shadow magic. but I do not believe that is why you have me locked up, to brag about your skill” said the soldier and Masao nodded before frowning and motioned for the unicorn guard in the room to step out when they argued Masao informed them that he was not unprotected, that he didn’t need Crepusculo Magus, or Twilight Mages and the unicorns bristled but gave a bow and left all the same. “Now tell me what you know about psykers” - - - Luna began to subtly tease Willow Leaf over her ‘reward’ to Masao, and the earth pony started to get annoyed, so annoyed that she warned the alicorn that if she didn’t stop she would make sure Masao didn’t get any from either of them, one way or another. which made the blue alicorn laugh, before kissing Willow Leaf on the cheek causing the earth pony to nearly stumble at the sudden act. “W-wha—” “You are going to be my herd sister after all, I may as well treat you like one” that made Willow Leaf blush heavily and she nearly walked into Masao who stepped around the corner, the soldier with whom he had captured now walking beside him, Princess Luna bristled, figuring that Masao was in danger, but when Masao and the soldier noticed them, the soldier bowed, both hands to her sides. So there was no physical weapon being used… “I wish to apologize for my teams behaviour, when we had heard that you and yours were housing an enemy combatant, we assumed that you had allied with the Terran Empire, it seems we have brought war to your world, and we, of the United Earth Coalition will wish to make amends, as soon as they get my report” said the soldier, Luna for her part scowled, war had nearly tore Equestria apart in the past and now war had been brought to her home by—no she was not going to blame Masao, he was as angry as her when he found out who attacked them. “I also wish to apologize for the missile that started all of this, it was set for the Normian/United front, when it punched a hole revealing this world.” That did it, Luna was about to attack when Masao put a wall between all of them, sighing he motioned for the human soldier to continue even as Luna glared at her husband, oh he was sleeping on the couch tonight! “The missile was launched to attack a Normia Fount target when something happened with their shields, we believe that Terran saboteurs damaged it causing a rift that allowed passage to this world, not unlike like the Rift of 2014 in which I believe your… Sorry I still feel weird saying it, you do look alike like the ponies from our world—” “Get on with it” said Masao gritting his teeth, he knew he was going to pay for not letting Luna attack her but right now they needed the full story. A story that he, himself, did not have the information to tell. that and the fact they were standing in the hallway talking with what could still be classified as talking with an enemy soldier. “Sorry, anyway, I believe that your husband fell through the Rift of 2014, this rift is what led us to discovering thousands of new worlds, but it seems that until recently there was not enough tech to power the rift when it ended up here the first time not allowing us to make it here. Your husband, however must have been one of the thirty-five thousand people that disappeared when the rift first opened.” Luna’s frown deepened, Was it purely luck that Masao had ended up here on Equis? Or had fate intervened, and she failed to take it by the reins when she had the chance the first time? Shaking her head, Luna cleared it of any negative thoughts and turned around on the spot and headed for her room. “Masao, you are on the couch” she called before turning the corner to her room and Masao sighed knowing that was going to happen. Willow Leaf for her part looked at the two humans in confusion as the entire conversation made her head spin. “So you’re saying that he,” Willow Leaf pointed to Masao with her hoof, “Came from your world” her hoof moved to point at the other human, “And now you are going to try to fix it?” she finished. “Well that is the—” “No. Just no, he’s ours, I am not letting you take our Masao away, even if he came from your world, he’s ours now, he had lived here for millennia, he’s married our princess for Fraust’s sake! And I have been trying to marry him for over three lifetimes—!” yelled Willow Leaf and she suddenly went red at her exclamation. “I mean… Um…” “I don’t intend on making him leave, but he may have to, if command orders it—” “Now see here, I am all fine and good with you contacting your command, but they will not be giving me orders, I am a ruler here, and I do not recognize their authority, not over me, and certainly not over my subjects, if they wish to have a dialog with us, we can exchange ambassadors or something, but we are not going to be walked over as you intend on making it sound, all it took was two people to wipe out your entire team, and neither myself, nor my wife are the strongest magus around, there are several non-alicorn magus that could possibly beat us if they set their minds to it, of course that means facing down the entire Canterlot guard as well as Luna’s sister and her sister’s and my former student as well” said Masao and the soldier reeled back as if struck, this human was refusing to come home? It wasn’t unheard of but… It wasn’t a very popular option, still, if Masao was right then trying to force a confrontation would end badly, they were already at war with several enemies, they needed allies, not more enemies… - - - “You know, you don’t have sleep on the couch in my room” flirted Willow Leaf after they left the soldier in a room,they had placed guards on all accesses, meaning the human couldn’t escape, which impressed the human but she also had mentioned that she was curious on the status of her team, were they really dead as she feared, or… After Masao promised to let her know as soon as he found out they had left the human to sleep the rest of the night away, which leads back to Willow Leaf flirting with Masao and Masao glanced at her. “If you want to get married, we can, I told you, I have been waiting to marry you since I found out who you were” said Masao and Willow Leaf nodded a blush growing on her cheeks, sure she had said that she wanted to marry him, but to actually do it frightened her, sleeping with him was one thing, but if she married him that would mean that she was accepting him as her lover and confidant forever… “Well do you want to spend tonight with me or not?” she asked trying to change the subject and Masao frowned at her, her could see that she wasn’t all that comfortable talking about marriage yet, but it had been fifteen years, surely she felt something? Of course she did, otherwise she would not be trying to ‘bed him’ as it were, from what he remembered she did not bed anyone she didn’t like, or had no feelings for, and they were few and far between the stallions she liked, that she had bedded. Masao just nodded, and off they went, but as it turned out, they didn’t get much sleep, or rather, they were too busy to sleep at first… - - - “I’ll marry you” said Willow Leaf the next morning and Masao snuggled close to her and kissed her, “I mean it, set the date, I want to be able to say that you are mine”