//------------------------------//
// Chapter 07 
// Story: The Royal Apples 
// by Radical Gopher 
//------------------------------//

	“I never should have listened to you… NEVER!” yelled Silver Lance as he paced back and forth in the parlor of Emerald Mist’s palace apartment.  “You said you had my back… that you had incontrovertible proof that Macintosh Apple did not deserve his knighthood, and I believed you!”  
“That was because you wanted to believe me,” Blueblood replied.  
The knight commander snorted in disgust.  “That stupid petition was only our way of gaining an audience with the Princess.  You were supposed to present your evidence to Celestia.”
“Yes, I was… And now, I have proven yet again how much of a fool I am, but what’s even better is that your reputation has been damaged.  Neither Luna nor Celestia will trust you without questioning your motives.  Quite the successful audience, wasn’t it?”
Silver Lance stared at the unicorn, his eyes widening slowly.  “You wanted this?”
“Of course.  Isolating the princesses is the first step in the plan.  Eventually, there won’t be any councilor she can trust…”  Blueblood was interrupted by a not so gentle nudge from Emerald Cloud.
“You’re doing it again,” the Royal Librarian warned.
“Doing what?” he asked, a frown creasing his muzzle.
“Monologing,” the pegasus replied, “and in front of the minion to boot.”
“Minion?” asked Silver Lance
Blueblood stopped, thought about it for a moment then smiled.  “Quite right, my dear, quite right…”  He gently touched muzzles with Emerald Cloud.  “What would I ever do without you?”
“Fail miserably,” she answered, a coquettishly wicked grin on her face.  Turning she stared at the knight commander.  The pegasus’ eyes began to glow with a faint green color.  “You no longer remember this conversation, do you?”
For Silver Lance it was almost as if somepony had opened a spigot in his head and all his own thoughts had flowed out.  “What?  Were you talking to me?” he asked weakly, his eyes glazed over.
“All you remember is that you talked yourself into presenting a ridiculous petition to Celestia and were rightly and properly chastised.  You no longer feel comfortable trusting your own judgment now… do you?”
Silver Lance visibly wilted in front of her.  “No… I… don’t”   
Emerald Cloud smiled hearing this.   “Then you should return to your duties… “ she said.
The unicorn turned and paced out of the room.  As soon as the doors closed behind him he shook his head and looked around, the glazed expression gone from his eyes.  How on earth had he wandered into this part of the castle?  The dressing down Celestia had given him stung, his memory of it fresh.  He must have just wandered here out of numbness.  Turning, he began trotting towards his office.  The princess wanted him to select a knight to train Big Mac.  Perhaps he should ask his friend, Blaze Storm for advice, or maybe even Crimson Shield, or Shadow Starlight.  One of them might be able to help him… he hoped.
When the doors closed behind Silver Lance, Blueblood looked at Emerald Cloud.  “How long will that spell last?”
“As long as I wish it, she replied.  Not only will he forget our involvement, but he will be in a perpetual state of mild confusion, making it hard for him to carry out his duties.”
“I presume you do not have to focus in order to maintain the spell.”
“That’s the beauty of it,” she chuckled wickedly.  “It’s a cast and forget enchantment.  I need do nothing to maintain it.”
“I didn’t realize how much power you truly had until now,” Blueblood said.  “Is he the fourth or fifth of Princess Celestia’s inner circle whose mind you’ve been able to oblivate.”
“The seventh, actually,” she replied.  “From this point on, we must take care how we proceed.  If too many of her councilors become ineffective in too short a time, the Princess may suspect something is amiss.”
“Perhaps we should focus on Princess Luna’s advisors for a short while.  I’ve noticed that since the “attack” on her last winter she has become more… confident.  It would not help our plans if her powers were fully reinstated and she became as she was before the advent of Nightmare Moon.”
Emerald Cloud paused for a moment.  “No… it would not.  I wonder what the cause of her new found strength might be?”
“Perhaps we should consult with… Chrysalis again.  See if she knows what has happened to Luna.”
The pegasus filly whirled on the unicorn.  “NO… ABSOLUTELY NOT!  I WILL HAVE NOTHING MORE TO DO WITH THAT… BITCH!  HER PART IN THIS SCHEME IS ENDED!”  Emerald Cloud closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to restore her previous sense of calm.  ‘Besides,” she cooed seductively, “am I not a much more desirable filly than the Queen of Holes?” 
“That you are,” Blueblood replied, gently brushing his cheek with hers, before planting a long, and very passionate kiss on the pegasus’ lips.  She responded eagerly, pushing her tongue into his mouth and entwining his.  
The unicorn’s breath deepened and became warm.  It smelled and tasted of mint.  Emerald Cloud inhaled his scent, his warmth, and in turn could feel the heat rising in her loins.  Rumor had it that the Prince was so much in love with himself that he could never make love to or satisfy a filly.  The pegasus knew that to be a lie.  
Breaking off the kiss, she stepped back and gently guided him towards her bedroom.  They disappeared within, each carefully calculating how much more the other would be bonded to them as a result of their love-making.

**********

Three hours!  Three whole hours of work wasted because of a silly tradition.  The red-furred earth pony finished hitching himself to the plow and began pulling it across the pasture, turning and refreshing the soil.  Applejack had wanted to have the field ready by lunch so the farm hands could plant a crop of carrots.  Now, because of his morning ‘lessons,’ Macintosh doubted he’d have it done before two in the afternoon… providing he didn’t stop for lunch.  
Watching the stallion from the farmhouse window, Shadow Starlight couldn’t help but admire him as he pulled the plow from one end of the field to the other without even one single misstep.  Reaching the end of a furrow, he swung his body around forcing the plow to follow exactly as intended.  
“You know,” the gray-furred unicorn filly said, a note of awe in her voice, “I’ve trained my whole life as a soldier and guards pony, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that kind of precision or strength so well matched in one pony, not even on the drill field.  No wonder he was able to buck down an oak tree right on top of Queen Chrysalis.”
Granny Smith looked up from the apples she was peeling for pie.  “Iffin you’re talkin’ bout ma grandson, Ah gotta warn ya, he’s already spoken for.”
“What… Oh, Uh… No… No!  I wasn’t thinking about Big Macintosh that way.  Not at all,” she insisted.  
Granny cackled slightly.  “Ah’m sure ya wasn’t   It’s just that more than half the eligible fillies in town sound exactly like you when they see Mac a comin’ along the road.”
“He’s a bit of a heart-breaker, is he?” asked Shadow Starlight.  
“More than a bit,” she replied, “but not cause he’s a philanderer, mind ya.  If anythin’, it’s cause he’s always been too gall darned shy fer his own good.  A filly’s got ta know some fancy rope work ta lasso that colt.”
The unicorn continued to watch Big Mac as he worked the field.  She’d only met him yesterday and, though she tried not to show it, was surprised by his size and strength.  The descriptions she’d heard of him did not compare to the real stallion.  Add to that he was handsome in a rugged, practical way that put other, more groomed ponies to shame.  He was smart as well.  Obviously annoyed by the lessons on court protocol and ceremony, he nevertheless made an honest effort to learn what she was teaching.  She couldn’t help but like the farmer.  
“I take it his special somepony knows these tricks.”
“Y’all could say that,” Granny Smith replied, slicing up an apple into chucks and dropping them into a large mixing bowl.
Applejack trotted into the room and noticed Shadow Starlight looking out the window towards the field and Big Mac.  “So how’d today’s lesson go?”
“Well enough, though I still don’t see why he insists on getting such an early start in the morning.”  
“Well, farm folk like us just naturally like ta get the hard work done before the day gets hot.”
“Understandable.”  The unicorn looked over at the cow pony.  “Your grande-dame was just telling me that Sir Macintosh has a special somepony.  It might be a good idea if I met her and went over some of the protocol of a royal court she might encounter as his significant other.”
There was a long pause in the conversation as both Granny and Applejack silently looked at each other then broke out laughing.
“Did I just say something funny?”
“Sorry ‘bout that sugar cube,” Applejack replied, wiping a tear from her eye.  “Private joke.”
“Ah wouldn’t worry none about his special somepony,” Granny Smith said.  “She’s probably forgotten more about royal etiquette than y’all could find askin’ a hundred ponies.”
“She has?” Shadow Starlight replied, eyebrows raised.  “It sounds like you’re talking about somepony who’s a member of the Equestrian court.”
“Uh… Ah, uh, don’t recall sayin’ anythin’ about her bein’ a part of any court, royal or otherwise,” Applejack muttered nervously.  
The unicorn looked at both ponies long and hard, then shrugged her shoulders.  “Well, whoever she is, she certainly has herself a catch with your brother.” 
“That’s somethin’ we can agree on.”  Applejack looked at the old grandfather clock in the living room.  “Will y’all be stayin’ fer lunch?”
Shadow Starlight shook her head, her ebon mane dancing in the light.  “No, I have other duties I must attend to, but thank-you anyway for the invitation.  I will return on the morrow and continue with Sir Macintosh’s instruction.”
Applejack saw the unicorn to the door and she trotted off down the road in the direction of Ponyville.  Granny’s words still echoed in Shadow Starlight’s mind.  There was a certain ring of truth about what she had said.  It brought her back to wondering which member of the court might be carrying on a clandestine affair with Macintosh Apple.  Such things were not unknown within the nobility, but most nobles wouldn’t give the farm pony the time of day.   It was the kind of arrogance that grated on the filly.  Hopefully, whoever it was, would treat the farmer with the kind of respect and courtesy due him, both as a knight and an honest, hard-working pony.  Knowing how things worked, however, she doubted that would happen.  
She paused for a moment in her journey.  Big Mac was her student now and needed to know about the ceremonies involved with his investiture in the Order of Equestria, but there was no one able to teach him the ins and outs of court intrigue.   It was something often learned through painful experience.  She knew this intimately.  What the new knight most needed was a protector, someone who could ensure he was not abused then simply cast off like an old glove by some court floozy.  She knew beyond a doubt this was something she could do.  Then maybe the handsome stallion might notice her, maybe even desire her.  
Her mind made up, she resumed her travels.  She would become Big Mac’s mentor and defender.  The first step of course would be to find out which noble was toying with the heart of her pony and put them in their place.

**********

When Luna arrived at their private gazebo that evening, Big Mac was nowhere to be seen.  She waited there patiently for about twenty minutes, then went in search of the stallion.  She cast a glamour on herself so she looked like an ordinary earth pony.  Reaching the crest of a hill that overlooked the farm, she spotted the red-furred farm pony hitched to a stump and hauling on it as hard as he could.  Sweat poured down his brow and across his shoulders.  His eyes were screwed tightly shut with effort as slowly, ever so slowly one root after another began to snap.  It was a classic image of the immovable object meeting the irresistible force.  Luna had seen this same kind of thing in the Canterlot gardens, but there, the stump was only a third the size of the one Mac was hauling on and it had taken three, burley earth ponies to yank it free.  
As the Princess trotted down to the farmer’s side the remaining roots seemed to give up simultaneously, causing Big Mac to stumble forward and go down on his front knees.  One of the straps on his harness came loose and whipped around, striking Luna sharply across the muzzle.  It left behind a dazed alicorn and a large welt that stung like hell.  Her glamour vanished 
“OW!”
Mac looked up at the Princess.  “Luna?”  He leapt to his hooves and went over to her, examining her muzzle closely.  
“OW! OW! OW!  No… no… no… no… no!  Don’t touch it… it hurts.”
Ignoring her, Macintosh shook off his harness and guided the alicorn over to a small saddlebag that hung from one of the nearby fence posts.  Reaching in, he pulled out a small gauze pad and gently dabbed it across the welt, drawing off a few small spots of blood.  He then removed a small bottle and another gauze pad from the bag.  He doused the gauze with some clear liquid then held it above her muzzle.
“Now this will hurt just a mite,” the stallion warned.  He gently brushed the pad across the welt.  
Luna wondered for a moment what he was talking about.  The fluid actually felt cool as it was applied… for all of about five seconds.  It then felt like liquid fire.  The alicorn gritted her teeth and drew in a long, hissing breath.  The pain lasted for several very long seconds before fading.  “What was that?” she asked.
“Just a little diluted H2O2.  It’s good fer cleaning out cuts and scrapes and such, which we tend ta get a lot o’ around the farm.”
“The cure is almost worse than the cut.  Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Luna muttered as she looked at her reflection in a nearby rain barrel.  
“Ta be honest, Ah don’t rightly know,” Big Mac admitted.  “The important thing is that it works.”  
“I was up at the gazebo just now waiting for you,” Luna said.  “You were late.”
“Eeeyup… sorry ‘bout that.  Ah got distracted tryin’ ta get this here stump outta the ground.  Darn thing was almost as stubborn as Ah am.”
The princess nickered softly.  “Almost… but not quite.”  She leaned forward and brushed her head against Big Mac’s neck then abruptly backed off.  “All that hard work has made you a lot more… pungent… than usual.”
“Eeeyup.”
“Not to worry,” Luna said brightly.  “I know just how to handle it.”
“Ya do?” the stallion asked.  There was an abrupt flash of light and he found himself inside a large, tiled room with ornate decorations and inlaid gold mirrors.  Next to him was a large pool of clear, fresh water.  Steam gently rose from its surface, fogging the lower half of the mirrors and a strong scent of salts and minerals filled the air.  From the minor shudder in his stomach Macintosh knew the princess had teleported him some distance.  
“Where’s this?”
“It’s Tia’s and my private bath house, just outside Canterlot castle.  We built it atop an old, natural hot spring so the water is always warm and circulates naturally.”	
“Private bath house,” the stallion repeated.  “Won’t Princess Celestia object?”
“Why should she?  It’s mine just as much as hers.  Besides, you’re my guest.”  She smiled slyly at Big Mac.  “Why don’t you take off that harness and collar and get in?”
Shrugging, the farm pony removed his leather and wood horse collar, placing it to one side.  He gently dipped his right fore hoof into the pool testing the water’s temperature.  Without warning he heard a giggle then felt something shove him, hard.  Unprepared, the farm pony found himself tumbling into the water.  
The playful joke backfired on Luna.  Mac was much larger than Tia, on whom she normally played this prank.  The unexpected back splash caught the alicorn full in the face, drenching the front half of her body including her mane.   The stallion surface to see her soaked, her crown askew and water streaming down her face.  He grinned at her.
There was a soft glow as the princess of the night magically divested herself of her crown, torc and shoes and stepped daintily into the water.  Seeing her do this the inside of Big Mac’s ears blush almost crimson.  He hadn’t actually shared a bath with a filly since he and Applejack were foals. 	Without a word the blue furred alicorn began levitating a host of washcloths, soaps, shampoos, conditioners and brushes in and around the farmer.  They assaulted him vigorously, scrubbing at his fur until every last vestige of dirt and grime had vanished.  Luna couldn’t help but giggle as the farm pony’s fur changed from dark red to a much lighter shade.  “I’ve heard of Earth ponies being connected to the land, but didn’t know how much of the land was connected to you.” 
“Eeeyup.”  For the most part Big Mac stood quietly; enduring the process with no small amount of pleasure.  It felt good to have his coat and skin thoroughly massaged.  It wasn’t until a wash cloth brushed up against a much more intimate part of his body that he jumped a little, stirring the water around him.  “Uh… Princess… Ah… uh… don’t think…”  He felt a shudder race along his spine causing his tail to flip without conscious effort.  “Y’all should be….washin’ down around…there!!!”
“Around where?” Luna answered faking innocence.  The washcloth began moving slowly back and forth.  
“Uh!  There!” the stallion groaned feeling himself start to become excited.
“Where?”  The wash cloth was joined by one of its fellows and both began sliding up and down Macintosh’s stomach.
“There… Ah… Right THERE!!”  An electric shock seemed to envelop the earth pony, and he froze, unable to move for a second or two.
Luna looked at Macintosh and smiled wickedly.  “Oh, you mean right there!”  He inhaled sharply.  She stepped forward and kissed him full on the lips.  After a moment’s surprise he closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss, breathing in the scent of apricot body wash and cinnamon.  The kiss both excited and relaxed him, and he allowed the alicorn to continue massaging him without further complaint.  
When they broke their kiss Macintosh looked deeply into Luna’s eyes.  He could see both a mix of desire and a little fear.  “Are you sure?” he whispered softly, running his hoof against her cheek.  
“Yes,” she breathed, even as the warmth of the bath drew forth her own warmth.  They kissed again and Luna felt a tremor of excitement.  The stallion broke off the kiss and began nuzzling against her flank.  Luna inhaled sharply then moaned with long, pent up desire.  “Wait…” she muttered dreamily.  “Not here!”
“Where?”
There was a small pop of imploding air and the two ponies found themselves in a very ornate room, decorated with motifs of the night sky and furnished grandly.  The centerpiece was a large circular bed surrounded by lace curtains and covered with a white satin quilt that almost seemed to glow.  The quilt’s pattern was a stylized depiction of the moon.  “Here,” Luna said, gently guiding the farm pony towards the bed.

**********

The next morning Princess Celestia awoke before dawn and went to the bathhouse to freshen up.  There she discovered Luna’s crown, torc and shoes carefully placed against one wall, next to a wooden horse collar.  The alicorn looked at the items thoughtfully, then smiled, a small tear of happiness for her sister tracing a path down her cheek.