//------------------------------// // Post Common Era Chapter Eight/War of Stars Chapter Four: Old Arguments/Light Hearted Fun // 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 Eight/War of Stars Chapter Four: Old Arguments/Light Hearted Fun Marriage… Masao knew how it was to get married, he had done it before, he had been on both sides of the podium, the one performing the ceremony and the one getting married, but never in his life did he think that he would actually finally get married to the first mare that he loved, even if she was not the same mare from before, she was still his Evening Star, still his Sharp Sword, and now she was going to be his Willow Leaf. But first thing was first, Masao and a few of ESIS walked up and escorted the UEC soldier to a radio room that had been readied for her to start sending her message, the human was surprised at the level of tech in the room, some of it was so advanced she didn’t know what to do with it… “Sergeant Greelo reporting in to UEC headquarters, over” said the earth soldier and Masao smiled as they started to receive a response. This was going to be the start of a great alliance, if he could help make it happen. “This is UEC Headquarters please give your GDO” “Seriously? Garage Door Opener?” asked Masao and the soldier gave a sigh before putting the code in manually. “GDO confirmed, what is the problem? Is your team alright?” “We are alright, but in our infinite wisdom we got ourselves captured by the indigenous people. They are not allied with the enemy as we feared, but we did just step on their toes” said the UEC soldier and there was silence for a moment… - - - “So now we have a meeting with one of their commanding officers to negotiate the peaceful exchange of their soldiers” said Masao as he leaned back in his seat, with him were the three princesses of Equestria, and the surviving members of the team sent to… ascertain the likelihood of an alliance between the Terran Empire and the people of this world, and Willow Leaf… “So these are more humans?” asked Twilight in an almost downtrodden voice, “Are you going back with—” “No, I am not, in fact I have a wedding to plan” said Masao and one of the soldiers nearly choked at the statement. “They’re just—” “Private, they are one of the dominate species of this world, and in a way he ceased being human millennia ago” said Sergeant Greelo and Masao glanced at her before his eyes glowed and the doors opened to reveal several of the foals that now lived in the castle the foals chuckled nervously as they had been caught listening in on the conversation. “Kids, what have we told you about this? Some topics are not for your ears, even after you become adults” said Willow Leaf as she got up and shepherded the foals elsewhere. “Private, I would appreciate it, if you would think for a moment, if you lived your entire life alone, and then ended up in a place where everything was all about friendship and care for your neighbor. Wouldn’t you fall in love quickly?” “With the place, sure, but not with some animal” the sergeant looked at Masao worriedly before the prince chuckled which grew into a full belly laugh. “I haven’t had this argument in millennia! Alright private! Can they say yes or no to a sexual relationship?” asked Masao and the private looked at him in confusion but answered regardless. “They can answer yes or no—” “So they can give consent to sex?” “I don’t know where you are going with this” “Simple, ever hear of the Harkness Test?” asked Masao much to the surprise of the humans there only one of them had heard of “Doctor Who” and they didn’t even know what the Harkness Test was Masao groaned, “Of course… Anyway, the Harkness test can be simplified as a test to determine if you can have sex with a person, or persons within a species, ‘is it of sexual maturity for its species?’ in this case, we will use my wife, princess Luna, so yes she is, ‘can it talk or otherwise communicate?’ Hey love, can you talk?” asked Masao and Luna glared at him playfully. “Why, no I can not, I am obviously not talking to you right now” “and then there is, ‘does it have human intelligence, or greater?’ well the fact that most of the inventions were not even influenced by me I would have to say that they have human or greater intelligence” said Masao and the private seemed to to look on in shock at Masao’s comments. “Th-that doesn’t mean you can—” “And why wouldn’t I be allowed to marry her? I am a citizen, nay, a ruler of this grand principality, a four way ruling party” “Even if you are, you are already married! How can you talk so easily about marrying someone else in front of your wife!” countered the private, thinking that he had beaten Masao at his own game and Masao laughed as Willow Leaf walked back in with a sigh and as she walked right by Masao he twirled around and kissed her full on the lips right in plain view of Luna and the private before speaking up. “Because polygamy is legal here, first off, in fact it is encouraged due to the skewed gender ratio of three females to one male, and then of course you have the gay community who further skew the numbers” said Luna speaking up as she stood up and walked around the table to give Willow a hug and kiss Masao on the cheek, “Now if you excuse me, I have to go freshen up before the meeting with your commanding officers, it would not due for the head of the military to be in such a disarray!” “Wait, you’re not the head of the military? than when do you do?” asked the private and the sergeant shushed him as Masao chuckled. “I am the head of our intelligence network, ESIS, I know just about everything there is to know about this world, and even a few things a few diplomats would prefer I did not know” said Masao and the private shut up at that, apparently Masao had a lot of pull and was not just a figurehead as the private had feared. “Good, I was worried that—” Masao chuckled as he waved away the privates explanation. “I don’t need to know the reason that you were asking, for all I care you were asking so you could get more information, if not the alternative is not something that will help when it comes time to return you to your commanding officers. I wouldn’t care about how much power I have, only in how I wield that power, if I did not have as many responsibilities, I would have infiltrated your forces” “Come now, Masao, you needn’t get all upset,” said Celestia and Masao chuckled, nodding in agreement. “but he is right, he probably would have infiltrated your forces and done some irreparable damage to your forces, had this not come to pass” “It doesn’t hurt to try and make friends though, so I am glad that we didn’t have to do that” said Twilight as she levitated a fork over to poke Masao who knocked it away. “You are acting like a child again” he teased and she pouted in response before smirking. “Didn’t you say ‘what's the point in being all grown up f you can not act like a child sometimes?’ Masao?” and Masao laughed at her response...