Shade Fire sat up tall. "Look, I just have one question." She raised a hoof for emphasis. "Would I just be a trophy for a shelf?"
That was the wrong direction! "Of course not, but--"
"Then we should get to know one another." She rose to her hooves. "I won't marry, or even call someone a coltfriend, someone I don't know, even someone like you, sir."
Silver suddenly wrapped her in magic and hefted her from the ground. "See here, Shade, I'm trying my hardest to tell you you're a lovely mare, but I'm not trying to marry you." There, all out in the open. "I--" He paused, seeing her start to crumble. She wasn't taking the news well. "Isn't that--" Oh she was looking worse and trying to avoid meeting his gaze. "I..."
He sunk his head. "Let's do something, as friends."
"As friends," she agreed with a thin smile. "Your daughter mentioned you played O&O?"
O&O? Oh! Silver perked. "Oh, yes. My father's the writer of Humanway, the humanoid expansion for it."
Her eyes widened from her hurtful state. "You're the son of Rough Draft? I have some of his stuff. Kind of weird if you ask me, playing a humanoid, but I... kind of got it for the humor. Nice world he made." She tilted her head. "Oh my, here I am, insulting it."
"No, no," Silver shook his head quickly. "It's alright, really. It's not for everyone." It wasn't as if he was going to explain Ponyfinder to her. "But sure, I do play that."
"Great, then I will join that." With a flutter of her wings, she pulled free of his lax magic. "Please be well, Mister Watch."
She was gone and he settled to his haunches with a sigh. There were a thousand things he could have done better, but that didn't seem the worst he could have done.
He left his office. It was time to get dressed, but to approach the other sister would demand different clothes. He didn't emerge like a courtier, but a warrior, and he ran right into Night.
She blinked at his metal-clad body. "Going for Luna now? I heard about Celestia..." She glanced away and back. "I can't tell you not to, or to go ahead, but I want to be with you. May I?"
He leaned in and kissed her right above her glasses. "Get dressed for battle, and we'll win this fight, together."
She smiled with appreciation and trotted off, only to return fully dressed as a night guard, purple and intimidating. "Luna has things to apologize for, even if we're marrying her."
"How do you plan to do both at once?" Silver raised a brow. "We don't want to muddle the idea here."
"It's not just for her, but her guards and her people. They have formed their own ideas, separate of Equestria. Blast it, so have I... I can learn, so can she, so can they."
Silver lowered down and offered a kiss, which was accepted and they met in an exchange that started uncertaintly. Silver nuzzled gently with her as he parted. "You know you're still my wife, right?"
"Am... Look, I know, I know. At least, mentally." She glanced away and back. "But that used to mean First Wife. That... used to mean having you to myself, or close to it. That's changing. A lot is changing."
Silver spread his wings and brought them forward to gently brush her cheeks. "We're changing. Together, I hope. I don't want to move on without you, Night Watch. You're..." He leaned in. "I keep saying it, but words are cheap. Come on, you're standing with me, and we'll claim the moon, together."
They left together. Silver jangled as he walked, while Night was almost as silent as always, demonstrating the combat difference of the two, physically. Despite that, they marched on Luna's wing.
The guards were there, and expecting Silver. They crossed spears to bar the path. "You won't have her," stated one.
"Not without going through us," finished the other.
Night looked ready to fight, but Silver was less primed. "I know you both, and you have grown with me over the years. I'll fight if you want to test me, but it won't be with anger. You're friends, even if we see each other only as I come here."
The one on the left's spear wavered a little. "Do you--"
The one on the right cuffed him. "He's an ambassador! Don't be led astray by sweet words. He plans to take all the princesses for himself."
Silver slid into a combat-ready position, his wings spreading as his stance widened. "She, like Celestia, and myself, belong to Equestria first."
"She belongs to us!" barked the one on the right.
The one on the left seemed more uncertain. "She's a princess of Equestria, not, um, us."
Night suddenly charged forward, but her enemy was clear. She tackled the one on the right, metal against metal, teeth against teeth. They collapsed together, wrestling and fighting fiercely.
The one on the left glanced at the two, then back at Silver. "You'll be a good prince, right?"
Silver smiled. "I hope to be, to everypony, which includes you." He leaned forward. "I happen to think lunar ponies are fine ponies."
He blushed brightly. "I don't swing that way, sir. Um! Anyway, you have enough on your plate." He glanced back down at his friend and Night fighting fiercely. "We don't have to fight."
"Good, we'll save that for Equestria's enemies, unless you want to spar some day, we can try that." Silver trotted past him without further challenge. Night sprinted to catch up.
"He gave up as soon as you walked by," she reported. "Damned fool."
"Don't be too harsh on him. That opinion is one of many we have to fight." Silver leaned over to kiss an exposed ear, nuzzling the tuft there.
They arrived at Luna's door and it opened before they could knock. Luna stepped out, dressed to kill in metal and shimmering enchantments. "We have heard what you have done to our sister. We will not fall so easily to honeyed words and grand ideals." She drew a slender blade from her side. "Will you fight me as a proper warrior?"
Night stepped forward before Silver spoke. "I will. Mistress of the moon, you are being called to serve the nation alongside your sister. My husband swears to stand proudly at your side, for its betterment and against Equestria's foes. Yield and accept this."
"I will not." She spun the blade in her mouth to face behind her. "Prove your intentions with strength." She vanished, only to appear just before Night, who was leaping aside as the sword crashed down and cut a wicked path in the floor.
Silver spread out his magic, feeling the area. There was another. He was not the only alicorn with an ally. They were-- He was barreled into by his supposed bodyguard and driven to the ground.
"I told her!" she hissed angrily. "She didn't turn me away. You won't steal her from me now!" She raised a hoof clad in sharp metal to drove it down at Silver, only for it to be deflected by a small magic shield made just for the occasion.
He flared brightly, throwing her off as he scrambled to his hooves.
A crowd built to watch the battle. Every time metal struck metal, every little wound, every grunt of effort or pain. Lunar and solar alike gathered to watch them with wide eyes and rapt attention.
Silver made a lunge, only for his lunar opponent to vanish between shadows and appear behind him, driving her sharp weapons into his armor. He was badly scuffed, torn right through his metal and heaving for breath. Being an alicorn was far from enough to declare victory against this one.
Night was faring a little better, keeping up with Luna, though neither seemed to be getting the upper hand. It was a powerful testament to the potential skill of lunars as they held their own against their foes of superior size. "Future-wife," growled out Night. "This has to stop."
Luna made a sudden lash of the neck that brought about a thin red line as the sword caught Night just barely. "You can surrender at any time."
Night ducked under a deadly slice and thumped Luna in the side. "Equestria is a land of peace."
Luna snorted loudly. "That will be overrun by those opposed to it if we allow ourselves to be weak."
With the sound of crashing, Silver was knocked to the ground with a blade at his throat. "Go back to where you came from." Her moment of triumph was cut short as he activated his most deadly and draining of shields. Her body tried to come apart and Night Wing leaped back with a hiss, covered in new bleeding lines that wept angrily. "Damn unicorns. To think I trained you once."
Night gestured at Silver. "He wants desperately to stop fighting, but there he is, fighting, for you, for Equestria. We will stand against those that would defy her, but--" She cried out as the blade found its home with her talking, making her stagger back and collapse, one of her legs refusing to work. "This isn't the Equestria you want."
Luna advanced on Night, swinging the blade around to her front. "I... no, it isn't." She drove the blade down hard and it buried into the floor beside Night's head. "Will you protect Equestria?"
Night quirked a little smile. "We all will."
The two ceased their battle. Silver smiled at them, ready to accept the end, but it wasn't. Night Wing cuffed him. "You haven't beaten me, Your Lordship. I'll die before I let her go."
Silver felt something snap. As she lunged for him, his magic grabbed her mid-air and slammed her roughly into a wall, then the ceiling and finally the floor, each with the sound of tenderized flesh and her soft plaintive grunt. "Damn fool!" he shouted at her. "I'm not taking her from you, or anyone."
She forced her way to her hooves and moved towards him, only to be pushed backwards as he shouted at her, as if his very voice were doing the propelling. She crashed into a suit of armor and collapsed to the ground, though he was stomping towards her. "Stop this."
"Never," she spat, rising up even as her whole body trembled. "If I die here, I'll do it proudly."
"Luna needs you," argued Silver. "Will you abandon her now?"
"What?"
"She enters a new battle. One where she needs true friends. Will you stand with her, or die this meaningless death?"
Night Wing glanced at Luna and back at Silver, hackles rising even as she coughed blood to the floor. "You'll send me away, far away. I'll lose her either way."
"Fool." He threw her aside with a violent toss of a hoof. "Damned idiot! I won't send away anyone, especially not someone Luna trusts. Will you stand with her?" he asked the last with a tone of finality. "Or are you truly done?"
Silence descended on the hall. Night Watch had collapsed with a smile, her battle complete. Luna watched on with a heavy frown, but did not stop either.
Wing slowly forced herself up to a sitting position. "Her last order was that I guard you."
"Will you obey that?" he asked. He sat down as well, though he was taller than her. "Will you serve Equestria?" He offered a hoof to her.
She took it. She took it even as bitter tears loosed themselves. The fight was over, but there would be so much more needed to turn the bitter hearts of some back towards softer paths.
The crowd clopped softly, hoof against hoof and against the ground.
Luna approached Silver. "I will stand beside you."
Silver smiled, the fatigue of his efforts getting to him. "And I with you, for Equestria." He rose to his full height, ignoring the pains of the fight he had just endured. He produced the one engagement slipper he had left and offered it towards her, floating in the air. "As silver as the moon you safeguard, it can't hope to match you, but it is a symbol."
"And one I accept." The magic around the shoe changed as she took it and replaced one of her shoes with it. "We will stand, united. We vanguards of Equestria will be joined as one triumphant herd against all that would oppose Equestria, and as a smiling unit to those that share our want for friendship."
Silver glanced to the two lunars who had fought so well, but both were so tired and worn. Not that the alicorns present weren't... "We--"
Luna cut in. "Let us retire to my chambers, to finalize this." She hefted both Nights into the air with her magic. "We have much to discuss, both with words... and otherwise."
Her words brought a few cat calls from the crowd as she walked away smoothly, and out of their sight.
Silver moved to follow her, but his tail, still smooth and Trixie-like, perhaps never to return to normal, was yanked. He turned to see the guard that had let him pass. "Treat her well, sir."
"I will." He offered a hoof, and it was met with a soft clop.