//------------------------------// // 6: The Public // Story: A Whole New Responsibility // by Flanagan //------------------------------// I had been fighting this off for months, and I’ve finally had to lay down arms and accept defeat. I knew we couldn’t keep this a secret forever, but I’d been hoping to push it off until the general public, at least, stopped passing around rumors and scuttlebutt about me. Getting the nobles on board with that would have been nice, too. Though, hell, by the time that happens, the kid might be old enough to start dating. You’d think that would trigger some new bout of worry, but I had pretty much shut down for the interim. Shortly after I had agreed with Luna on announcing the pregnancy today, she also decided it would happen right after she finished her duties as Princess of the Night and switched off with Celestia. Which meant this announcement was going to take place in the morning at eight, when every pony was up and about, and would have the entire day to pass along this little tidbit of information so that, by about eight o’four, everyone from Equestria, Gondor, Atlantis, Tartarus or whatever other mythical kingdom that existed here will have heard the news. All in all, today was shaping up like I had suddenly arrived on the Titanic an hour before it had that scrape with an iceberg, and not even Captain Picard’s glorious sign of frustration was enough to help me now. “Damn you, Luna. How am I supposed to fight against weaponized cuteness?” “You’d never have fallen for me without it.” A familiar voice piped up behind me as a pair of arms wrapped around my torso, though it was slightly cheekier than what I was used to. “Good morning, Aedan.” “Morning, Luna…” I sighed, turning around to press her closer to me. With a smile as radiant as the one she was wearing, you’d think she was the one in charge of the sun. “How was your evening?” “Rather delightful,” she said as she looked up to me, a pleasant lilt to her voice. “I’ll have you know that one noble didn’t get any sleep last again.” “Don’t try to tell me he didn’t deserve it,” I said, bringing my hand under her chin. “Besides, I know you secretly enjoyed it.” Luna smiled in silence for a few moments before popping up on her tip toes to give me a quick kiss on the tip of my nose. “Every girl wants to have a stallion uphold their honor,” she whispered sweetly. “Glad I made that cut,” I replied, letting her go, “now let’s get going, I’m sure you want to tell the world the big news.” “You sure you’re ready for this, Aedan? You’ve been trying to avoid this for a long while now.” “I had a chance to pull out three months ago Luna,” I said taking a deep breath before looking down the hallway. “I didn’t then, so there’s no point in doing it now.” Luna looked quizzically at me and opened her mouth to ask me what I meant by that, but after a few moments, closed it again. The slight blush on her face told me that she didn’t want to admit that I just beat her in the war of words so easily. Hah! Score one for Aedan as he marches to his doom. Luna made up for that by quickly heading further down the hall.I felt a little bad for spoiling her mood like that just for the sake of an awesome one-liner. In the few moments I had seen her as she went through the halls taking care of business, it had seemed like she was floating around when she went from place to place. Impressive given I saw her at the end of the day, but given the magical and diabetes-inducing nature of this world, I’m surprised she didn’t trail sparkles behind her wherever she went. Still, now that I was alone again, my mind returned to the thoughts I had been struggling with for all of today. This time my thoughts started on how Celestia and I had taken to the news of Luna’s pregnancy. Our reactions hadn’t been supportive when she brought it up, and Luna took it hard. I clearly remember the look of hurt in her eyes, magnified by her tears, right before she nearly knocked us over with her voice and fled the room. If that was what happened with just the two of us, I shuddered to imagine what would happen if the public’s reaction didn’t match up with what she wanted. There was also the possibility of outright rejection, given what the nobles seemed to think of me. Luna hadn’t really been present for many of my interactions with them. She was always either asleep or taking care of something pertaining to the country, so she never got to see the tension between us. They hadn’t been stupid enough to try anything with me yet, probably because they didn’t know what I was capable of, but they didn’t bother hiding their disgust whenever they had to look in my direction. There had been a few times ‘gangs’ had tried to intimidate me, but the simple fact that they were talking pastel horses whose eye-level was just under my beltline made the effect more comical than intimidating, like a pet chihuahua barking at a grizzly bear. I smiled to myself, remembering one such incident where I told one of my potential assailants outside a doughnut shop that if he didn’t back off, I’d punt him through the big hole in the center of the shop’s sign. I now have free coffee and doughnuts for the rest of my life because of that. Apparently, he’d been causing trouble for the owner ever since that pony found out the owner had been serving me. “I know that smile,” trilled another familiar voice from behind me. “Remembering a particularly humorous past incident, are we?” “I guess you could say that,” I said as I turned around to look down at Celestia, only to realize she had decided to take her original pony form. “Looks like someone’s had enough of standing on two legs.” “YOU try walking around on two feet when you’re so top heavy,” she responded, gesturing at the general area her chest would be at with a forehoof. “I know you enjoy looking at them, but my back can only take so much.” I nodded, fighting my urge to get her with a really, really good insult as she gracefully walked to my side, stopping only when her shoulders were in line with mine. Annoying as she could be, I was glad for a companion, so I finally set off in the direction Luna had been going. Celestia kept pace next to me as I went. “Why are you still up?” she asked, tilting her head and flopping down an ear like a puppy, “I rose the sun close to an hour ago.” “Can’t a guy pull an all-day-er?” –That sounded a LOT better in my head.- “I… suppose?” Her ear popped back up, but now she she was scratching under her chin with some magic hoof and looking at the ceiling, eyes half-lidded in contemplation. “But you’ve never been the type to do that. Unless, of course, we were to talk about the times you stayed up well after sunrise, giving a minute by minute account of what the two of you were up two in Luna’s room. Always remember to soundproof the attached bathroom, by the way.” “You’ll never let me live that down will you?” “Well, I believe one day I could,” Celestia replied, finally looking at me with a cheeky grin, “on account that some of the wailing echoes I heard mentioned you going down in the first place.” My face went blank as a faint shade of red glossed across it. Celestia fought hard and managed to hold off a few bursts of laughter through snorts, but with my face and the combined sound of her own attempts to silence herself it was just too much. Her legs buckled as she fell over, using me as a post while she began to laugh with abandon. I had half a mind to step to one side and watch her fall flat on her face, but the gentlemen in me wouldn’t allow such an action, despite how much of an ass she was being at the moment. I crossed my arms and waited for her to finally gather her composure once again. It took a good minute, but finally she had to breathe and that fact alone was the only reason she managed to stop. “You done?” I was trying to see by this point if I could carve away some of the marble in the palace by scowling really hard, but the marble stubbornly resisted my attempts. Stupid architecture. “Only until the next time.” Celestia flicked her tail over my face and stuck her tongue out at me. “But you still haven’t answered my question - why are you still roaming the castle, and why are you so near the royal announcement balcony? This area is normally empty at this time of day.” “Well…” I began, “today we’re gonna… wait, royal announcement balcony?” “That’s what we call the balcony where we make royal announcements.” “You know, for being talking rainbow horses living in a world full of myth and magic you’d think you guys could come up with a better name.” “I’d like to see you come up with something better.” “Why not balustrade of royal declaration?” “That… is actually better,” Celestia said, squinting her eyes, “where did you-“ “I have a larger vocabulary than you give me credit for.” That, and Twilight sent me a ‘word of the day’ calendar for my birthday a month or so back. “Whatever,” she replied with her usual eye rolling, “but back to the original question, the one you keep avoiding.” “I’m not avoiding anything.” I crossed my arms and maintained a neutral expression, much to Celestia’s frustration. She matched my expression with a frown in silence for a few seconds before her eyes began to glow. Long familiar with the trick, I managed to close my eyes as a blinding light pierced through my eyelids before fading away in less than a few moments. Taking a few more seconds to recover my eyesight, I opened my eyes to see an absolutely gorgeous amazon of a woman standing before me in all her nude glory. The only things keeping her modest –or at least as modest as she could be- were her strategically placed arms. “Tell me what you’re doing,” she said, slowly removing her arm and gradually exposing her chest more and more, “or I’ll-“ “Alright! Okay!” I yelled, quickly averting my eyes and raising my hands into the air, “Luna’s making the big announcement today, and I’m here for moral support.” “Now was that so hard?” she said placing her hands on her hips, rendering herself completely exposed. My eyes were drawn back to her perfect proportions just long enough for me to realize my mouth was starting to water “Christ woman!” I yelled even louder this time as I slammed my hands into my eyes and turned around completely, “I told you what you wanted to know already!” Celestia looked to me slightly confused before she looked down and realized that her own personal dairy was still exposed. A very nonchalant laugh came from her mouth before the usual snap of her fingers echoed through my ears. Another flash of light burst forth before fading into nothing yet again. I cautiously turned my gaze back to her, knowing full well it may have just been a ruse, but as luck would have it she had donned her usual ‘royal human’ attire. Truthfully, that barely covered anything in the first place. “I’ve really got to remember to put something on before I uncover myself,” she said in a snarky tone, “especially with the way you react.” “You’d think if you knew me that well you’d remember,” I grunted, finally confident enough to bring my arms across my chest, “but knowing you, I’ll go out on a limb and say you do remember, you just want to watch me squirm.” Celestia’s laugh could be heard echoing around the hallway. “I do enjoy watching you fight yourself when you’re around me, but back to seriousness. What ‘big announcement’ are you talking about?” “Excuse me?” “What ‘big announcement’?” she repeated, a frown slowly creeping onto her face. “You said earlier that’s what Luna was planning to do, so what is it?” “She… didn’t tell you?” I asked, halfway dumbfounded. “She didn’t tell you about what she had planned?” Celestia rolled her shoulders and sighed, adopting the classic facepalm position before continuing.“If I knew I wouldn’t be asking you, now please, could you-“ Her head suddenly shot back up from her slumped position. Her eyes had widened and her body had become as rigid as the pillars that kept the ceiling from falling on us. It had started to dawn on me why she reacted like that, but for some reason the universe wanted me to be extra sure of it, because sometimes I’m just the cosmic punchline. So they made sure that Celestia shoved me towards the nearest wall, pinning me against the cold granite with no real hope of escape. Can you say déjà vu or what? “She announcing the BABY?!” she yelled, entirely unnecessary given our current distance from each other. “TODAY?!” “Yes!” I yelled back, with a sinking feeling in my chest as I really started to figure out why she was flipping out. “Didn’t Luna tell you?” I suddenly slid down the wall onto my ass as Celestia suddenly let go of me and began pacing randomly around the room. “NO! She just went off and decided to do something on a whim again! I wish she could just ask me every once in a while before she-“ “This wasn’t a ‘spur of the moment’ kinda thing Celestia…” I trailed off as I realized this may not have been the best time to bring that up. I had her full attention now, her face and eyes widened as some terror began to set in, so I pressed on. “We talked about this a week and a half ago! I’m the only reason the announcement was delayed for this long.” She was absolutely livid at this, so I was surprised she wasn’t screaming loud enough for everyone outside to hear her right now.“Why didn’t you tell me?! We may have been able to think of a better way to go about this if you did!” “Don’t look at me!” I scoffed, pointing towards the royal phone booth or whatever it was called, “Luna’s your sister, I thought if she would tell anyone she’d tell you!” She seemed slightly taken aback by my statement, but she rallied quickly “T-that’s hardly fair! I barely see her aft-” “All of the subjects have arisen!” Luna suddenly said with glee bursting through the curtains that lead to the balcony. “We can-“ Her voice died out as she saw the two of us standing together in the hallway. Apparently she hadn’t heard us from the balcony, but it was obvious from our body language we had been fighting. Luna’s eyes continued to dart between us as Celestia and I slowly shuffled back into awkward standing positions, with my hands stuffed into my pockets and Celestia pointedly looking away from Luna with her arms folded across her chest. The pressure in the room was beginning to climb high enough that you could hear all the marble nearby starting to groan under the stress. I don’t think we were sure what would give first - the floor, or one of us. “Hello, sister.” Luna was the first to break the silence, though she seemed very careful in her wording. Her hands were down by her sides at this point, and it looked like she was fighting to keep them unclenched. “You’ve made yet another lovely day.” This gave Celestia enough backbone to start looking at Luna again, though her face was too carefully managed to tell what was going on in her mind. “Thank you very much, Luna. I don’t have quite the canvas you do, but I try to keep things fresh as best I can” “I noticed. A bit more purple to the sunrise today. An unusual touch, but a nice one regardless.” By now, Luna had started closing the distance between us, and she had stopped clenching her hand. I still didn’t feel like things were getting better. In fact, as Luna stood next to me, across from Celestia, the pressure in the room had suddenly morphed into a chill. Luna had clearly picked a side just now, and Celestia probably wasn’t happy about that. That damn unmoving face of hers was starting to creep me out. Celestia was first to break the silence this time. “Weren’t you going to tell me before you made the announcement, Luna?” Luna actually put her hands on her hips at this, almost posing in front of Celestia. “It took me over a week to get this much out of Aedan, and I didn’t want it to take even longer to convince you about this too.” Thanks, babe. At least you kinda admit I wasn’t wild about this. Celestia stared between us for a little while, before the facade finally cracked. She let loose a huge sigh, slumping forward slightly and tilting her head down to cradle in her hand. “Luna, I would have supported you in doing this.” With that, the tension in the room finally dissipated. Most of it was immediately replaced by confusion. “Wait, sister,” Luna began, “ you would have? I mean, you were always stubborn about these sorts of th-” Celestia interrupted Luna with a quick wave of the hand. “Nonono, I learned my lesson on that long ago Luna. I’m not as proud as I used to be.” At this, Luna actually cracked a small smile. “So does this mean you’re alright with us making the announcement?” Celestia paused for a moment, before crossing her arms underneath her chest. “Only on one condition.” Given everything that’s just happened over the past minute, I was alert enough to panic over this and tired enough that I didn’t respond before she opened her mouth again “This ‘us’ you’re speaking about needs to include me.” “Well then, let us be off!” Luna said, grabbing my shirt before completely spinning around. “The public is about to know the wonderful news!” All I could do was clumsily follow behind Luna like a child’s safety blanket while Celestia cracked her first smile in the last fifteen minutes. As we made our way to the curtains that barred access to the balcony, Luna reached out with her free hand to fling the curtains to the side, blasting me with sunlight I damn well knew I wasn’t prepared for. Using my hand as a makeshift shield against the sudden and unwanted rays of light, I was temporarily blinded to what was going on around me. For all I knew, Celestia and Luna could have whispered into my ear ‘long live the king’ before throwing me off the ledge and I would’ve been none the wiser. Fortunately for me, the two seemed to lack homicidal intent at that moment, and as Luna had stopped dragging me behind her the moment I had passed through the curtains. So, instead of finding myself with a sense of weightlessness and betrayal I found shock and awe. I was just outside the building, standing next to Celestia and somewhat hidden from the ponies below, but there was a lot I could still make out. The balcony stood a good three hundred feet above the streets below. The castle towers overshadowed the buildings that sprawled across the cityscape. Despite the overall beauty of a city waking up after what was probably a restful night, the thing that got my attention was the little moving dots in between the structures. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of ponies were already beginning their morning commute to work, or back home, depending on whether or not their place of business had a night shift. They just plodded along, all blissfully unaware of the shocking news that in just mere minutes was about to be brought to their attention. Doubt began to fill my mind once more at the sight of the general populace on the streets, and it didn’t help that I could notice their numbers rising. Scenarios began to run through my head on how they would react to the pregnancy. Would they be shocked like I was? Would they run around, panicking that the world is suddenly ending? Would they actually cheer for it? I’m hoping for one of those last two, but the reaction I feared the most would be if they started to riot. I mean, they might call for my head or exile, but then it comes down to how angry Luna gets at that point. It’s a battle between their love for Luna, their disgust at me, the joy behind a baby announcement, and the general pony reaction to panic at the smallest things, and I have no idea which of those is going to win out. “Something troubling you Aedan?” Celestia whispered calmly, placing a hand on my shoulder, “you seem distraught.” “The only thing that’s bothering me is what’s on my shoulders,” I admitted, letting out a deep sigh, “and whether or not I get to keep it.” I felt Celestia’s hand come off my shoulder for a moment before it returned and she gave a short chuckle. “Oh, don’t be like that Aedan. The last time we beheaded anyone was close to four hundred years ago.” Her attempt at humor went unappreciated as my brow furrowed and lip corners descended downward. I could understand why she made the joke, but now wasn’t the time for jokes. Luna was about to announce to the world that she’s been eating for two for just shy of three months, and there was no way on Earth or Equestria that either her sister or I could stop her. We were in this, for better or worse. Most likely the latter. I left my more serious mindset as it dawned on me again that we were on the closer side of three hundred feet above the ground. How the hell was Luna going to gain the attention of the bustling masses among the cacophony that was early morning rabble? A quick glance towards Luna gave me my answer, and unfortunately for me my earplugs were still on the side table back in our room. I went to cover my ears, but by the time my hands were above my waist it was already too late. “CITIZENS OF CANTERLOT!” Luna bellowed at an ear splitting volume, “IT IS I, YOUR PRINCESS! I BESEECH YOU TO CEASE YOUR CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND PAY HEED TO ME, FOR THERE IS AN URGENT MATTER I MUST INFORM YOU OF!” I swear I could feel blood pouring out of my eardrums while I staggered around in an attempt not to fall. I still remembered the first time she screamed that loudly. The two of us were rather preoccupied and I was in no way ready for it. Needless to say I had Luna make my earplugs after I regained my sense of sound. Not that I needed them for the next three days. Fortunately, before Luna had finished with her announcement, her volume dropped to a normal talking level, though my ears were still ringing quite a bit. Just as soon as I opened my mouth to ask how, Celestia placed her hand on my shoulder to turn me towards her and pointed to her own ears with her other hand. Magical earplugs. Apparently she did take my advice that day. If only she’d reacted sooner so she could have saved me from going deaf at such a young age. I turned my attention back to the once uncoordinated masses to see that they all had actually stopped in their tracks, waiting for Luna to bring her news to their attention. Personally, I didn’t blame them for stopping so suddenly. I wouldn’t want to be the guy to make a demigoddess mad, especially if she controlled one of the two celestial bodies. Once she was sure she had her audience’s undivided attention she continued, but with the aid of my newly formed magic earplugs, Luna sounded just like she was speaking normally. “Citizens of Equestria,” she began with a smile on her face, “first, I would like to thank you for taking time out of your busy morning so I could address you.” Celestia and I smirked. The way she said it, it seemed like what was happening was voluntary. “The reason I have garnered your attention on this fine morn is for a certain occurrence pertaining to my health,” she continued. The crowd gasped, but Luna waved her hand passively in an attempt to calm them. “There is no need to fret my subjects, for I suffer from nothing malicious, my condition is far more benevolent in nature.” The moment she stopped talking she spun around, grabbed me by the arm and started to pull. I froze, completely shocked at what I thought she was trying to do, but when I saw that smile on her face, I knew that my thoughts and reality were one in the same. I tried to get my arm back at first which gathered quite the reaction from my overly giddy better half. “Why are you resisting?” Luna asked, tilting her head to the side. “You’re just as much a part of this as I am.” I hoped these ear plugs only tuned out loud things, because she sounded like she was still talking in a normal voice. For all I knew then, she had just belted that out to all of Canterlot. “I said I was here for support,” I replied. “You never mentioned anything about sticking my head out there.” “I thought that was implied,” Luna answered. “After all, I did say our announcement.” “When did you say that?” “When I said ‘we must inform you of’,” Luna pouted, giving me her nearly irresistible puppy eyes. “Besides, if you truly wish to support me you would stand by my side as I address the subjects.” “I’m not too sure I should be involved in this,” I said, looking out to the public. Even irresistible puppy eyes weren’t quite enough to get me out for a front row seat to their reactions. “I’ll be back here in case you-“ “Whatever happened to being there for your woman?” Celestia suddenly interrupted, pushing me closer and closer to the public eye with her magic. “Is chivalry dead?” “Well I-you see, it’s-” I tried to think of a good reason, but between Luna’s eyes and Celestia’s magic there was no place else to go. “Noooooo,” I whined, succumbing to Luna’s tugging. “Wonderful!” she exclaimed, wrapping me up in her arms. “But now is not the time for delay, the populace awaits!” “Oh goody,” I mumbled, before turning to Celestia and mouthing a few words of discontent in her direction, to which she responded with a playful wave and a cute smile. Her gloating didn’t last long however, because just as soon as her hand went back to her side her body started to gravitate towards us. Apparently Luna’s plans to announce the baby also involved Celestia, and just like me she failed to let her in on said detail. I laughed to myself as she put up token resistance in Luna’s magical grasp before giving in and repeating some of the choice words I sent her way earlier back in my direction. My smile quickly faded the moment I came to the balcony’s edge. I’d already known that there were a lot of ponies out and about that morning, but a lot of my vision was obstructed by the combination of gold, granite and marble that I was now able to look over. The walkways were more and more congested the closer they were to the castle, as everyone was eager to know the fate of their co-ruler. Little did they know the hairless monkey standing next to her was the single reason for their curiosity. “Loyal subjects!” Luna (probably) yelled again, “once more I thank you for being an audience for this momentous occasion, but first I must bring to your attention the one standing next to me.” Luna turned her attention from the crowd to me, motioning with her head to move even closer to the railing. Taking a deep breath, I took a step forward. Now directly next to the railing, I could almost make out the faces of the ponies below. Though I couldn’t completely see the faces, I could tell that there were quite a few individuals below who weren’t too pleased with my presence. Some of them looked downright disgusted, and I’m pretty sure a gold maned pony just gave me the pony equivalent of a one-finger salute. Luna didn’t seem to notice though, so she continued with her little speech. “As you all know, Lord Aedan Ryan, Consort to Royalty, has been among us for nine months, and during that time our bond has become strong.” I could see the collective wave of disdain wash over the crowd. Even if they didn’t hate me for not being like them, there was still that sense that because I wasn’t a pony or of royal blood I shouldn’t be with Luna. I’ve dealt with it on many occasions, but never on such a large scale. Despite both my uneasiness and the crowd’s reaction, Luna continued on as if there was nothing wrong. “And in the strength of that bond something wonderful has happened,” she said with elation that I hadn’t seen since the day I finally admitted to loving her, “citizens of Equestria, today is a momentous occasion, for I am here to tell you that I am now with child!” I braced myself for the crowd’s reaction, expecting a slew of both random stuff they found on the ground and slurs, but after a few tense seconds I realized that there was one last reaction the crowd could have, one that could be considered even worse than rejection - silence. Dead silence, not a boo, not a cheer, just plain, dead silence. To be honest, I would’ve preferred an all-out riot over the quiet, but just as I was about to take Luna back inside it happened. “HARLOT!” a voice from deep within the crowd roared, “you have sullied the royal bloodline with the likes of a lesser being!” The smile on Luna’s face disappeared, replaced with a look of confusion and despair. “Wha-what did they call me?” she said as a tear formed in her eye. Before either myself or Celestia could get her out of there, that riot I had, for some ungodly reason, been asking for broke out. The crowd began an uproar as various curses and profanities were shouted in our direction. I went to grab Luna and pull her back in the castle before anything that could make this whole thing worse happen. Unfortunately, my reaction was too late. A sudden, sharp pain erupted across my lower lip, followed by the feeling of warm liquid pouring down my chin. I went to wipe away whatever it was when I saw that my hand was covered in red. I quickly placed my hand over the wound, hoping that neither of the other two standing next to me saw that I’d been tagged. “Those sons of bitches actually threw a rock at me,” I muttered to myself before letting out a chuckle for no damn reason. I’d hoped I reacted fast enough in covering my newfound gash that neither of the sisters saw that I’d been hurt by someone in the crowd, but when the sun flashed a shade of blue I knew that I had yet again failed to move quickly enough. The once rioting crowd fell silent: in fact, it was so quiet I heard a drop of my blood fall on the floor. I looked over to Celestia to see what she had done, and when I did I was honestly scared. Her arm was outstretched over the crowd, eyes and hair burning in pure fury. “ENOUGH!” she roared, forcefully bringing her hand back down to her side as the sun turned yellow again, “all of you return to your previous engagements, I will address this outrageous incident with you at later time.” The crowd instantly dispersed, all of them going to do whatever they were going to do before Luna got their attention. Celestia still stood there, her hair back to normal, but the same fire was still burning in her eyes. Not a word was spoken when she finally walked past Luna and I into the hall, and all we could do was follow her in. Once inside, Celestia turned to face us, her anger now replaced by concern and compassion for Luna, who was still in shock over some of the things said about her. Without warning, she immediately wrapped up her little sister in her embrace, almost like she never wanted to let go. “I’m so sorry Luna,” she signed, doing her best to console her, “this shouldn’t have happened…” “I-I… I thought they would be happy…” Luna stuttered, pushing herself away from Celestia, “I thought they would become excited! This would be the first true birth of a royal in almost two millenia! Why wouldn’t this occasion be celebrated?” “Perhaps if we discussed it prior to the actual announcement,” Celestia said, taking a step towards her sister, “then we may have avoided this entire debacle, and Aedan wouldn’t have been injured.” “Aedan?” Luna said, looking back to me finally realizing that I’d been hurt. “Aedan, what happened to you?!” “Nothing I can’t live through, sweetheart,” I said, trying to wave off her concern as she rushed me, “you know I’ve been through worse.” It took some manipulation, but Luna finally managed to remove my hand from my jaw so she could see the full extent of my injury. She almost took a step back when she saw it at first. I honestly didn’t think it was that bad, maybe something that may need a stitch or two, but considering how I got it and who I was to her, I’m positive I’d act the same way. Of course, I’d first pummel whoever did it to her, but the concept’s the same, really. “T-they did this to you?” Luna asked placing her fingers over my gash as her eyes began to glow. “They did this to you?” You’d think I’d have cared more about the scar, but it’s really just a new scar to add to my ever growing collection. That wasn’t the thing that stuck out in my mind - Luna was. She was still clearly upset, even though she knew I was alright. She brought her hand back from my face to her side, clenching it tightly as her entire body became tense. “I… I LOVE you,” she half growled, “they KNOW I love you, they know you love ME, and yet they still treat you as an animal! Like a lesser form of life…” The glow in her eyes dissipated, but her eyes didn’t look like they usually did. They were normally a soft blue, but they had changed into a hardened teal that took up much of her eyes as her pupils shrank into vertical slits. She looked much closer to a nocturnal predator than a princess. “Those pathetic peons will pay for their-“ “Calm down Luna,” I said, wrapping her up in my embrace. “It’s alright, just think of it as another symbol of how much I’m willing to put up with for you.” Luna didn’t respond for several seconds as her head stayed buried into my chest, but she finally pushed away far enough to look me in the eyes. Her’s had gone back to normal, though they were still watery. I took in a deep breath, relieved that the usual cure-all for when Luna was distraught in some way, shape, or form had worked. I was about to ask her what her little outburst was about before she buried her head even deeper into my chest. “How much more will you have to put up with?” she asked, squeezing me tightly, acting as if nothing had happened. “Until they’ve got nothing left,” I said with a smile as I let her go. “Now, let's head on to bed. I’m sure we could think of something to do that’ll blow off some steam before we go to sleep.” I found myself giving her a playful pat on the backside before she walked past her sister without so much as a word. Within a few steps she was gone, leaving me alone with Celestia once more, and giving me a chance to ask her something I wouldn’t exactly be sure how to if Luna was around. “What was that all about?” “What was what?” Celestia asked, pretending not to know what I was talking about. “You know damn well Celestia,” I said quietly, folding my arms, “now tell me.” Celestia hesitated at first, but in the end she decided to give in and elaborate. “I was angry. I was so angry that they treated you in such a way, that they treated Luna in such a way… when I saw that they’d actually hurt you, I got mad, since… well, the last time I failed to stand up for someone I cared about, I almost killed her. As it was, I locked her away in a hellish prison on the moon for a thousand years.” “Oh, wow,” I said, awkwardly staring at the opposite wall, “um… that was actually my second question. I was talking about Luna…” “What do you mean?” “When she was talking to herself,” I explained, “her eyes changed. Different color, vertical slits, kinda reminded me of that dragon working with Twilight. You know… vertical slits instead of circles.” Celestia froze at the explanation of Luna’s ocular change, sweat forming on her brow before she hastily wiped it away. “Are you sure you saw that?” she asked. “Are you one hundred percent positive that’s what you saw?” “I’m pretty sure I’m not on anything,” I said rolling my eyes, “besides I’ve never done anything along those lines. Hell, here I don’t even NE-” “I’m serious Aedan!” Celestia said sternly, pointing at me with authority. “If what you said is true then this is no laughing matter!” After successfully silencing me Celestia started to pace back and forth, no doubt contemplating her next course of action. Several minutes passed in which I wondered if Luna was going to come back in before she finally stopped and turned her attention back to me. Taking her time to walk to me she placed her hands on my shoulders and held my gaze before speaking. “I’ll speak to her about her duties this evening,” she said, taking a deep breath, “but in the meantime the two of you need a good rest and more than likely some ‘personal bonding’.” “Won’t deny the second one,” I said shamelessly, “especially after what’s just happened.” “Then I won’t hold you here any longer,” Celestia replied, sending me off with a firm smack on my ass in a very similar fashion to what I did to Luna several minutes prior. “Don’t keep her waiting, you know more than most how impatient she can get.” “Celestia, Luna’s impatience is the least of my problems. Besides,” I shrugged before starting to make my way to appointed destination, “after what happened today, I don’t think there’s anything that we won’t be able to handle.”