Kuno fairly bounced down the road, pegasus wings fluttering happily and hooves dancing across the cobbles.
“You sure are bouncy,” Warden said drily, peering at her.
“Don’t you ever want to just bounce and jump?” Kuno asked, perking her ears at him.
Warden stared at her for several long moments.
“I know, I know, you have a bad hoof. So bouncing might look a little silly, but… it’s fun!” Kuno said, bouncing a little more. “C’mon, try it!”
Warden gave a long-suffering sigh, giving a half-hearted jump that landed on three hooves, before he resumed his natural limping gait.
Kuno snorted, nudging him firmly with her nose in annoyance. “You are such a killjoy.”
“Hey, we’re doing this for you, remember?” Warden asked, nudging her in response.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it too!” Kuno protested, huffing.
“You understand that this is a really, really big step, right?” Warden asked of her, frowning.
“Well duh,” Kuno retorted. “It’s a mansion!”
“I’m going to have to take out a loan to get the house… and then another loan to build a larger aurora field on the grounds, which is going to involve building specialised trellises, some kind of watering system that can overcome gravity to deliver water to the tops of the plants…” Warden trailed off with a faint groan. “I’m going to be in debt for at least five years.”
Kuno rolled her eyes, gently nudging his neck with her snout, making a soothing sound. “I can help out. I still have… some bits left over in one of my accounts. It’s not much, but it should at least help.”
Warden nodded, and then gave a long sigh. “I just… kinda don’t wanna move.”
“Why not?” Kuno asked, tilting her head to the left.
“It’s a mansion, Kuno. A giant huge house built for high-fallutin’ ponies and their servants. We’d have more rooms than we know what to do with,” Warden explained, frowning.
Kuno giggled and licked his cheek lovingly. “I know exactly what we’ll be doing in those rooms.”
Warden raised a brow slowly.
“Cakes! We’ll be making cakes!” Kuno said with an earnest nod.
Warden gave a faint laugh, shaking his head and nudging her hip lightly with his own. “And here I was thinking that you’d say-”
“After we christen them all with buttloads of sex,” Kuno corrected with a sly grin.
The entire classroom seemed to go quiet as Swarm stepped through the door. All eyes swung towards her, and then darted away, the foals hurriedly returning to their work and exchanging soft whispers.
Sparkling Acumen, their teacher, tapped a hoof on the desk to encourage quiet.
Swarm looked back and forth between the students, before moving to the teacher’s desk, stopping in front of it.
“Miss Acumen? I’m ready to return to class,” Swarm explained.
Sparkling Acumen barely even looked up from the book she was reading, nodding and waving her quill idly. “Take a seat then, Swarm. We’re drawing things again today.”
Swarm nodded, picking her way through the class. She paused as she stepped in front of unicorn who had been tormenting her. The unicorn seemed to be fine, but she twitched slightly when Swarm passed, her entire form visibly tensing.
Pausing, Swarm perked an ear towards the unicorn, and then took a step towards her and whispered ‘Boo!’.
The unicorn squealed in fright, hooves scrabbling against the floor as she screamed in fear and bolted from the classroom at high speed.
Sparkling Acumen looked up from her book with a long, weary sigh.
Swarm peered over her shoulder at the teacher, giving her most innocent smile, before prancing happily to the easel besides Wrought Iron’s.
“You got in trouble, didn’t you?” Wrought Iron asked. The unicorn colt’s eye was still red, but he at least seemed to have recovered.
“Not really,” Swarm said with a smile, watching Sparkling Acumen leaving to track down the unicorn. “And I doubt that she will be bothering us again.”
Wrought Iron nodded to himself, drawing a circle on his paper. “Well… thank you.”
“It was my pleasure,” Swarm said with a smirk.
The 'Manor Grandeza' dominated the skyline outside of Canterlot, a series of flat lines against the more irregular line of the mountain. The front lawn sloped all the way down to the gates. It was so far from the front gate to the front door that Warden felt his bad hoof start to ache in anticipation.
“It’s huge,” Warden said, staring. “What could we possibly want all that space for?”
“Well, we could have an amusement park over there, a pool over there, an above-ground aquarium and a second mansion made of smaller mansions over there,” Kuno explained, waving a hoof to various points on the grounds.
“It’s just… so over the top,” Warden admitted, frowning deeply. “I give it three months without a full-time gardener before the lawn looks like a clear-cut forest.”
Kuno rolled her eyes. “You’ll be growing more aurora and you’ll get more bits. It’ll all work out,” Kuno said with a wave of a hoof.
“And yet you haven’t even asked if I want to double or triple my workload, have you?” Warden asked flatly.
Kuno raised a brow slowly. “C’mon Warden. We both know that you love tending to your aurora. Not to mention that if you grow more of it, you can supply more to the hospitals that need it. Are you really going to turn all of that down?”
Warden frowned, biting his bottom lip. “I guess not… but it’s just… it’s huge.”
“I can have an entire room devoted entirely to cake!” Kuno said with a grin.
“More like five,” Warden said, slowly shaking his head. “There’s gotta be a hundred rooms in that thing.”
“I heard it has secret passages,” Kuno said with a knowledgeable nod. “Plus, it’s close to Canterlot, and has plenty of room for your aurora. Not to mention it’s within easy view of Canterlot itself so ponies can’t come rough you up.”
“And it’s likely to be exorbitantly expensive,” Warden said ruefully. “Five years of debt is not appealing to me.”
“Why are you trying to talk yourself out of this?” Kuno asked bluntly.
“I’m a pony, remember?” Warden asked, raising a brow.
“Vaguely. It crossed my mind once or twice,” Kuno responded dryly.
“Well we’re scared of change in general. And this is… this is a huge change.”
“Change isn’t always bad,” Kuno said with a sage nod. “And not to mention that, since it’s so damn huge, you can have other people live in the rooms we don’t need.”
“Other ponies in the mansion, for what?” Warden asked, blinking once.
“Ponies to help you grow the aurora, of course. Workers to keep the grounds looking nice… all sorts of reasons, really,” Kuno pointed out with a wave of a hoof.
“You’ve really thought this out, haven’t you?” Warden asked, peering at Kuno sideways.
Kuno nodded slowly. “I have.”
Warden sighed, kicking the ground with a hoof. “I’m just… I moved into the cottage when I left school. I was with Swarm, and then I was just… alone. I’m just really used to living out of the way and not… in some fancy castle.”
“Castles have keeps and towers,” Kuno said, examining the mansion carefully, head tilting to the side. “It’ll take at least two years to make us a nice private tower.”
Warden blinked slowly.
Kuno giggled, leaning sideways to nudge his cheek with her nose. “We could do anything.”
“We could burn it to the ground,” Warden offered conversationally.
“That would be quite a waste,” Kuno pointed out. “Especially after all the time we spent christening each room.”
“You understand there are at least a hundred rooms there, right?” Warden asked cautiously.
“So… two days?”
Warden winced, giving a nervous laugh. “I hope you’re joking.”
“If you keep acting like a goat being confronted with a lion, then no, I’m not,” Kuno responded smartly.
Warden gave a long-suffering sigh. “Fine… fine. So. Aren’t we supposed to be looking at this behemoth?”
“If you can jump the fence,” Kuno said with a giggle.
Warden winced again, ears pinning back. “Are you serious?”
“Well there’s no one up there… and it’s not exactly ‘viewing hours’ at the moment. So, feel up to some ‘breaking and entering’?” Kuno asked, bouncing slightly in place, excited.
Warden sighed softly. “Oh, I suppose, since I’ll be punished if I refuse.”
“Good boy!” Kuno crooned, before starting to the scale the fence nimbly. “Race you to the top!”
Warden was limping more heavily than ever as he and Kuno made it to the front door.
A quick twist and tug from Kuno’s hoof showed that it was securely locked.
Humming thoughtfully, Kuno reached into her mane and tugged out a bobby pin, twisting it out and starting to bend it into shape.
Warden watched with slowly raising eyebrows. “Where did you learn how to pick locks?”
“Changelings are awesome,” Kuno responded simply, snapping the bobby pin in half and then beginning to manipulate them in the keyhole. A green glow started in the area where Kuno’s horn should have been, but which was currently missing as she was in her pegasus form. After several seconds, the lock clicked and Kuno turned the handle with a grin towards him, pulling the door open. “After you.”
Warden slipped in through the opened door, squinting in the gloom. A long hallway led to what he assumed was the entrance hall.
Kuno brushed past him, leaving the door open as she stalked down the long hallway and into the entrance hall, peering around at the gloomy interior.
“Just think, this could all be ours!” Kuno said, bouncing happily in place.
Warden followed after her, much less enthusiastic, staring wide-eyed as he came out into the entrance hall, blinking slowly. “This… this is the entrance hall, isn’t it?”
“Yup!” Kuno said with a cheery nod.
“Our entire house would fit in here!” Warden stated in awe.
Kuno hummed thoughtfully, and then nodded. “Yeah, I suppose it would. Hey, you could have it shipped in and set it up inside. Then you could be in your house while you’re in your house!”
“This is insane,” Warden said with a slow shake of his head. “Why would anyone need this much space?”
“To show the rest of the world that they’re rich,” Kuno pointed out with a smile.
“Well I’m not rich,” Warden protested. “Not rich enough to want all this space.”
“I’m sure you could get assistance from the Crown if you tell them that you’re going to convert most of this into an aurora farm,” Kuno said with a knowledgeable nod.
Warden stared at his wife suspiciously for several long moments. “Why do I get the feeling that the decision has already been made for me?”
“Because you catch on quick!” Kuno said with a smile and a bounce. “Now c’mere, and I’ll show you where I ki-” Kuno caught herself, humming faintly, “Where I took care of Daggertail.”
“I hardly find this something to be excited about,” Warden admitted as Kuno grasped his wing and tugged him down a hallway eagerly.
“I find it exciting!” Kuno said, wings fluttering slightly in agitation as she dragged her husband to the east wing of the mansion and stopped in front of a door, pushing it open with relish. “I still remember stepping through this doorway. The look on Daggertail’s face…”
Warden raised a brow, pushing the door open and peering in at the room. It was in disarray, seemingly abandoned after Daggertail’s death. It looked to have originally been a library, except there were no books in sight. Instead, the shelves were filled with various jars and displays, showing a wide range of seemingly random objects, from crystals, to long-dead plants.
“I was Shine, so Daggertail didn’t suspect me until I got close. He asked me how the weather was, and I said it was fine, which was apparently the wrong ‘code’. So he snatched up a dagger and made a stab for me,” Kuno said, bouncing in place happily. “I took the dagger from him and shoved it into his throat.”
Warden raised a brow slowly. “Surprisingly efficient.You didn’t play with him?”
“I considered it,” Kuno said, drooping slightly. “I wanted to flay his fur while he was still alive and then place ground-up glass under the flesh before sewing it back in place and rolling him down a hill, but it all happened so fast.”
Warden took a step backwards, giving a nervous laugh. “Remind me never to break up with you.”
“I’d just zap you to make you love me again,” Kuno crooned, sidestepping to nudge up against his neck gently.
“I should really feel bad about that…” Warden admitted, chewing his bottom lip. “But I fell out of love with you once. Worst four hours of my life.”
Kuno giggled, wrapping a hoof around him tightly and squeezing.
“So where was Shine when all this was happening?” Warden queried.
“Dead in a ditch,” Kuno said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I took care of him first, and then I went after Daggertail.”
“Did you torture him?” Warden asked blankly.
“No,” Kuno admitted, looking away. “I kind of… lost control when I saw him.”
“Lost control?” Warden queried.
“Turned into a bear and turned his head until it was facing the other direction,” Kuno said, scratching the ground with a hoof. “It was… odd.”
“Why was it odd? You murdered Daggertail in much the same way,” Warden pointed out.
Kuno nodded once, frowning to herself. “But that was… logical. I did that because it had to be done. It was a net gain in terms of morality. I was removing a stain on the pony race, getting revenge for what was done to you, and removing a huge negative influence to you.”
“And Sunshine wasn’t any of those things?” Warden asked, confused.
“Not to the same extent as Daggertail. Sunshine was just a cronie. Just a dumb stallion that liked to hurt ponies. But when I saw him I went crazy. I was just so… angry. I wanted to literally tear off his limbs and then beat him to death with them. I’ve never… killed someone out of anger. Even the high-class pony I removed. He was just… a job. A chore. A thing I had to do. Killing Sunshine was something I did because I was angry.” Kuno gave a faint shudder, wrapping her wings tightly around herself.
Warden frowned, stepping closer to her and gently hugging her with a hoof. “I understand. I would have likely done the same.”
“No you wouldn’t,” Kuno said with a sad laugh. “You’re too… forgiving.”
“Yup,” Warden said with a wrinkled nose. “But I completely understand why you did what you did.”
“I don’t,” Kuno admitted, staring down at the floor between her hooves. “And it scares me sometimes to think that I could kill somepony when I’m just… angry.”
“That’s basically the only time it’s acceptable to kill someone. If you do it when you’re completely clear-headed, then you have some serious disconnection issues,” Warden pointed out. “Either that or you’re an executioner.”
“I guess that’s how I kinda saw Daggertail?” Kuno admitted, lifting a hoof to rub along the edge of Daggertail’s desk. Her hoof came away dark with accumulated dust. “Somepony had to take care of him… I was just the one that did. But with Sunshine, I did it because I was angry, because I wanted to kill him. It wasn’t logical. It was personal.”
“Taking a pony’s life should never be easy,” Warden said with a nod, nudging his nose into his wife’s neck gently. “The fact that you can be bothered by what you did is enough for me.”
“Other ponies would call me a monster,” Kuno pointed out.
“My monster,” Warden said with a smile, wrapping his hooves around her and squeezing gently. “If we buy this thing… this room has to be made into something cheery and productive.”
“Why not a storage room for your aurora produce?” Kuno asked, perking an ear upwards.
“That could work,” Warden said, looking around the room thoughtfully. “Plenty of shelves for jars. Room for some processing machines… we’d have to live in the other wing, so the noise wouldn’t bother us.”
“I think I can deal with that,” Kuno said with a short nod, tilting her head to the left, a slow smile spreading across her muzzle. A flash of green consumed her, and then Kuno the changeling was sitting there, smiling at him coquettishly. “So… wanna christen this room?”
“You killed a pony in here,” Warden said flatly.
Kuno nodded, smirking as she rose to her hooves and pushed him back into Daggertail’s desk, rubbing her muzzle powerfully against his neck. “I don’t see this room like that though. I see this room as the place where I regained your life for you, and broke the chains of your captivity. It’s also the place where I first realised I was in love with you.”
Warden blinked at that, surprised by the confession and completely compliant as his wife pushed him up onto the desk and then crawled onto it after him, straddling him and sitting on his belly, leaning down to kiss his nose.
“This is where you realised that you loved me?” Warden asked curiously, leaning up to kiss her chin and neck tenderly.
“Yes,” Kuno admitted, giving a faint smile. “When I was confronting Daggertail the first time… warning him away from you. That was when I realised I was in love with you. I was putting my life in danger for you, without even thinking about it.”
Warden wriggled a little bit under the changeling, wings giving a flutter before resting flat and comfortable across the surface of the desk. “And now you’re going to ruin that lovely memory of this room by having the worst kind of tired, exhausted, half-hearted sex imaginable.”
Kuno rolled her eyes, laying across him fully, squeezing him with her hooves. “I think it’s kind of romantic. Being here with you, right on this desk, happy and together in the very same place where your misery was orchestrated daily.”
“You are so weird,” Warden stated with a shake of his head and a chuckle.
“But don’t you agree?” Kuno asked earnestly, nudging his nose with her own plaintively.
Warden wrapped his hooves around her and shook his head, “I love you Kuno, but your viewpoint is just too far gone from my own for me to comprehend.”
Kuno huffed, pursing her lips.
Warden smiled, nudging her neck and pulling her against him, making her giggle and squirm, as he whispered into her ear with a grin, “You’re just going to have to convince me.”