Greatsword and Battleaxe walked into the room, trying to find where their little brother had hidden. After a few minutes, they found him inside one of the closets, doing his best to conceal his massive body amongst the sets of armor and additional cloting. When he realized that he was found, he calmly exited the closet maintaining his composure while his brothers could hardly hold their laughter. When everything seemed to be back to normal for the three, the questions began.
“Warhammer…” Greatsword began. A small smirk on his face, “Why was Princess Luna in here?”
Warhammer simply shrugged his shoulders, as if he didn’t know that she had even been in the room in the first place.
“Oh, come on little bro,” Battleaxe said shaking his head, “you don’t always have to be the so damn quiet, you can tell us why she was in here, we won’t judge… hell I might just give you a high hoof.”
Warhammer again, shrugged his shoulders still pretending to be unaware of Princess Luna’s prior presence.
“Ok then,” Greatsword said rolling his eyes. “If nothing happened why were you in the closet?”
Warhammer’s eyes widened giving a quick glance towards the closet he had taken refuge in only minutes prior.
“Battleaxe,” Greatsword said with a small smile ran across his face, “check the closet.”
“Oh, of course…” Battleaxe replied with a salute and the same stupid grin that Greatsword had.
He proceeded to search the closet that Warhammer had been hiding in. After a few moments of finding nothing, Battleaxe was about to give up on the search, but as he turned to leave he saw something out of place. One of the drawers in the closet was askew from the others. Battleaxe opened the drawer in question and found what he was looking for.
“What do you have there, Battleaxe?” Greatsword said seeing that his brother exited the closet, holding something with his magic.
“Why, only an eighty year old bottle of the finest wine from Prance, dear brother,” Battleaxe replied revealing the bottle to Greatsword. “See, the corkscrew? It’s still in the cork, to tell you the truth, if that wasn’t stuck in there, I may have never found this bottle in the first place.”
“Now, why would Warhammer have a bottle of Prench wine possibly older than the three of us combined?” Greatsword said rubbing his chin.
“I don’t know, Greatsword,” Battleaxe said twisting the corkscrew out of the bottle, releasing the smell of the wine into the room. “Maybe that was why Princess Luna was here, she may have asked Warhammer to fetch her this fine bottle of brew.”
“But the wine cellar is on the other side of the castle, Battleaxe,” Greatsword pointed out. “And she could have easily asked one of the castle’s many servants to get it for her.”
“That’s true, Greatsword,” Battleaxe replied looking toward the ceiling. “So why in Equestria would she be in here with an eighty year old bottle of wine and our brother, who knew that we would be gone for hours… this is truly a mystery to behold.”
“Fine…” Warhammer finally said with his hoof covering his face, “Princess Luna and I have grown quite close, in her healing we have been growing a bond, tonight was to be a special one, so she gathered a fine bottle of wine and met me here, we did nothing more than speak of our hearts connection to one another’s. Just as you entered, we had just-”
“I hope you were not too exhausted after the two of you were done.” Battleaxe interrupted, a huge smile on his face, he still couldn’t believe that one of his little jokes actually came to be the truth. “Is she a hoofful in bed?”
“As I was saying,” Warhammer said, agitated at his brother for interrupting him. “We had just shared our first kiss, there was nothing more after that. I speak the truth brothers, nothing more happened.”
“Damn, that was anticlimactic…” Battleaxe said hanging his head low.
“I am happy for you Warhammer, I truly am,” Greatsword said placing his hoof on his little brother’s shoulder. “Just take it slow. There’s no need to rush this thing.” Warhammer just nodded at Greatsword, he knew that Princess Luna was still very fragile from her past experiences and he wanted to be there for her.
“Now, I think we all have had a very eventful night,” Greatsword said looking to Battleaxe. “Let’s sleep it off and try to enjoy the rest of this time off, shall we?” the other two nodded in agreement made their way to their respective beds. Greatsword smiled, they were going to get to sleep in for the first time in three months and he was going to try to enjoy it for as much as it was worth.
With a flash of light Princess Luna appeared in her room, her heart still racing from her first kiss with Warhammer. He was so strong, so powerful asn yet he was more gentle than the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings when he was with her. It made her hooves tingle just to think about it, she thought she finally may have found somepony to love. Even though the moment was slightly ruined by the sudden arrival of his brothers and they never did get to drink any of that wine. She thought little of that anyway, she was still thinking about the kiss, the memory was repeating in her mind over and over again getting better and better each time.
“Luna, where have you been this evening?” Princess Celestia’s calm voice broke Princess Luna out of her blissful trance. “and why are you acting like that? I haven’t seen you like this in a very long time.”
Princess Luna’s eyes darted around her room, looking for anything that would serve as an excuse for her sister. “Uh… well… it’s, uh… it’s this!” she said grabbing up the first thing she could from her desk.
“A lamp?” Princess Celestia asked in confusion towards her little sister, while she was holding the lamp in question inches away from her face.
“Yes!” Princess Luna said quickly, “I love lamp!” Princess Luna forced a smile while her eyes darted from the lamp to her sister, hoping that the sheer amount of awkward confusion would force her sister to drop the conversation.
“Do you really love the lamp…” Princess Celestia said pushing the lamp away from her face, “or are you just saying that because it’s there?” she stared directly into her sister’s eyes, as if she were attempting to read her mind.
“I love lamp!” Princess Luna repeated trying to keep her horribly failing poker face.
After a few long moments of staring in silence, Princess Celestia finally broke eye contact with her sister; “Very well,” she said turning to leave. “I shall have more lamps of that style made for you, Luna.”
“Uh… thank you, Tia,” Princess Luna said barely able to keep her face straight, “we are very pleased for such an offer.”
“You need not be, Luna,” Princess Celestia said turning back to face Princess Luna, “after all, you might need more lamps when you and Warhammer are enjoying that wine you took from the cellar earlier.”
Princess Luna’s face turned a deep shade of purple as Princess Celestia made her way back to her while the look on her face changed to one of sheer awkward surprise. She nearly dropped the lamp while she tried to hide her face behind her starry mane. “You already knew?” she asked from behind her false cover.
“Yes, Luna,” Princess Celestia said placing her hoof around Princess Luna, “you can’t rule for over one thousand years without learning how to read ponies faces.”
“And you’re not mad?” Princess Luna asked her sister, pulling her mane away from her face.
“Everypony deserves to be happy, Luna,” Princess Celestia said placing her hoof under her sister’s chin, “especially you.” Princess Celestia softly patted Princess Luna’s mane and left her sister’s room, a smile on both their faces.
As with all vacations from hard work, it seemed to end far too quickly for the 1025th. They were back to work and before they knew it another near one thousand stallions stood before them, just as they had nearly three months prior. Commander Garrison gave his welcome speech; the stallions were split into groups that were to be led by their respective instructors. This time that part went far smother, since the untrained stallions had received an idea of what to do from the stallions that had already been through the training.
“Hard to believe that it’s been five weeks already, right?” Comet asked Greatsword as a day of training came to an end.
“Yeah, we’re already half way done,” Greatsword said smiling at his friend, “and after this we’ll be placed back into the normal equestrian military, that’ll be a good change of pace.”
“I hear you on that, buddy,” Comet said looking out towards the setting moon. “I’m getting tired of continually explaining how to properly scout unknown territory, but soon, I’ll get to just do it myself again.”
“Don’t get too cocky, Comet,” Greatsword said looking at the setting moon as well, “there might be life after the military, you know.”
“Celestia I hope so,” Comet said as he turned back to Greatsword, “because some of us have big plans.”
“I’m sure Patches would love to hear them, Comet.” Greatsword said to his now surprised friend.
“H-how, how do, how do you know that?” Comet asked in disbelief.
“Let’s just say that Warhammer isn’t the only one who can notice things like that, Comet.” Greatsword said smiling at his baffled friend.
“It’s really that noticeable, huh?” Comet said placing his hoof behind his head.
“No, it’s not that noticeable at all, but Warhammer and I picked up on it, him first of course, after all he‘s got that ‘looking into your soul’ thing that he does.” Greatsword said reassuring the nervous pegasus.
“Oh, ok,” Comet said with a sigh of relief, “because I have no idea what would happen if Commander Garrison found out.”
“Don’t worry about it, Comet, what matters is that the two of you are happy, right?” Greatsword said as he placed his hoof on Comet’s shoulder. “You can’t ask for anything more.”
“Yeah,” Comet said, returning his gaze to the lowering moon again, “I guess you’re right about that.” The two stayed there until the sun rose in silence, then Comet spoke again. “Speaking about happiness,” he began, “How are Warhammer and Princess Luna doing? I heard they hit it off.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Greatsword said quickly, he and his brother swore to them that they would keep their relationship a secret. “The Princess and my little brother have a professional relationship and a professional relationship alone.”
“uh-huh…” Comet said giving a sarcastic look to Greatsword, “I’m sure it’s like that…”
Back in Canterlot, Princess Luna and Warhammer were enjoying the last few minutes of the night on the balcony of her room. “It is truly a magnificent sight?” Princess Luna said, “Wouldn’t you say Warhammer?”
He simply nodded in agreement with her. Princess Luna rolled her eyes at him. Even around her he still never really talked that much, but when he said something at least he meant it. He was very different from all other ponies that had caught her eye over her thousands of years of existence. To her it felt like that he was always going to be there for her if she needed him, that was what she loved the most about him. He seemed to be the only one who wouldn’t turn hoof and run if something didn’t go quite right in the master plan.
“It’s hard to believe that you have the power to do this, Luna,” Warhammer broke the silence of the early morning when he spoke, “such beauty every night, it must put such a strain on you to make it like this.”
“It is nothing Warhammer,” Princess Luna replied, “I love doing it, so it makes all the effort that I put into it even more worthwhile.”
“Indeed,” Warhammer said. “If you love something you have to put effort into it, or else you will lose the love you have for it.”
“Well spoken, Warhammer,” Princess Luna said kissing him on the cheek. “And the effort I am willing to put into us is far more than the creation of one beautiful night.”
“As is mine.” Warhammer said in response to the Princess’s statement, returning the kiss. Warhammer left Princess with that, as he had every night for the past two weeks when he came to visit after training had been completed for the evening.
The three had arrived back in their quarters around the same time that morning, something that didn’t happen so much anymore. They all had their own personal thing to attend to after training. Greatsword would often be off with one or two of the other members of the 1025th, Warhammer was always with Princess Luna and Battleaxe went and did who knows what. This morning however, they were all there at the same time.
“Good Morning, all.” Greatsword said to the other ponies in the room with him.
“Morning, Greatsword,” Battleaxe said nodding towards him, “How was Comet this morning.”
“As he always is, Battleaxe,” Greatsword said closing his eyes, “as he always is.”
“Well, that’s boring,” Battleaxe said turning his attention to Warhammer, “What about you little bro? Did you finally score with Princess Luna tonight?”
Warhammer cast his unamused stare towards his brother, such a stare would probably turn a lesser pony into mush, but Battleaxe just seemed to wave it off.
“Take that as a ‘no’ then,” Battleaxe said preparing himself for bed, “you guys lead such dull lives.”
“One day, Battleaxe, you’ll find somepony who will tame that wild stallion inside you.” Greatsword said in a knowing tone. Warhammer nodded in agreement with his oldest brother.
“I doubt that,” Battleaxe said rolling his eyes at Greatsword, “being single is MUCH too fun.”
“We’ll see.” Greatsword replied.
“What’s THAT supposed to mean?” Battleaxe asked.
“We’ll see…” Greatsword repeated.
The next five weeks of training passed by like days for the 1025th. They had trained all remaining Lunar Stallions successfully and Princess Luna now had a competent and skilled guard to defend her. Each member was commended for their excellent service to her with the Lunar Service Ribbon. Princess Celestia released them of their service to her sister, lifted all charges from them and placed them back into the regular equestrian military again as the most elite special forces fighting unit in Equestria. For the next year or so the 1025th served Princess Celestia with great skill and bravery. Their missions changed from reconnaissance of the badlands to hunting down the last of the changeling soldiers after their failed attempt to conquer Equestria during the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. But as their prowess continued to rise other, darker forces began to take notice of all of them.