When Castus woke one morning, on a sunny day in the beginnings of a warm summer day. He let his eyes stay closed, despite his mind and senses being once again awake to the world and allowed himself to view the world in only the senses.
The feeling of warmth encasing his body from the covers of the bed that draped across his body and the soft warmth of the pillow that his head lay upon. The firm, yet comfortable feel of the mattress underneath him. After three years in sleeping in fur rugs and on the ground, though not entirely uncomfortable, it was good to have what he considered a real bed.
A slight motion beside him, underneath his arm, made him only smile more and turn himself onto his side, and sliding his other arm under the presence beside him and wrap his arms around it, laying his hands on the warm fur at the stomach. His face, he pressed into the soft embrace of a long flowing mane of hair, and nuzzle against the back of the neck that lay beneath.
The presence shifted, and Castus felt a soft touch against his hands as the presence shifted closer to him. He helped by pulling himself closer. The warmth of soft fur tickled against the his skin, and added another layer of warmth to his body.
"Good morning." Castus whispered.
The presence shifted again, turning in his arms and instead of mane Castus' face was now close to the smiling face of, in his eyes, the most beautiful creature in the entire world.
"Good morning." Fluttershy whispered in turn, before leaning in and kissing him. Castus smiled and returned a kiss in kind. Not a heavy, passionate compress, or a quick peck. A slow, lingering light caress of lips that spoke its own volumes even long after the kiss was over.
Fluttershy giggled, and tried to move herself back, but Castus tightened his grip around her body to keep her close. Fluttershy still smiled and moved her hooves to wrap them around behind his head and pressed her forehead to his and sighed deeply in contentment.
The two lay there in peaceful silence for a time, content to merely enjoy the others presence more then anything else. The warmth of body and covering surrounding their forms, and the pulse of their hearts each felt by the other by proximity of their bodies.
If Castus had the power, he wished that he could freeze time so that he could enjoy this moment of true peace, a happiness he had not felt in the time that he had been yanked from his own world, and in the three years of exile and the months of war that followed later. Now he had it, and he wished to enjoy every moment for as long as possible.
But time and duties on both of their sides required that eventually they would have to rise. To see the day. In time, and one last kiss, they drew themselves from the warmth of the covers and worked to prepare to face the day. The only benefit of this for Castus was to drink a cup of his second love in life. Coffee. Then after that, it was time to work.
For Fluttershy it was her usual duties of seeing to the wellbeing of her animals in and around her cottage. Then she would go to town, and help in local shelters and veterinarian clinics, and on every other day or so would return with a new critter. A hamster one day. A number of chickens another. And one time she had come back with a young pygmy hippopotamus baby; which would later be given a larger home in an Equestrian wild life preserve where it could grow up to one day return to the wild. Then after all that, she would be the first to return home where she would again see to any needs of the animals in her cottage, help acclimate any newcomer critters.
For Castus it was a more chaotic time. Though the majority of his work in aiding to repair the Equestrian infrastructure damaged in the war was finished, there were still small jobs that seemed to constantly add up further and further. Mostly it required him to use the Wind to aid in increasing the productivity of fields, and thus increase the quantity of the harvest. A skill that, while not his strongest, he knew enough to get the job done. Castus was sure that Celestia was intentionally adding these bits when needed as the harvest grew closer when she had learned, from his own lips during a conversation, of the aid the Wind could give crops. True Earth Ponies could do just the same, but adding both seemed to give even greater rewards.
He did not protest. It felt good to use his powers to build and grow then to destroy and burn. Besides, after some discussion he had managed to weasel a portion of the grains harvested as his payment for this work, which he could send back to the Empire for storage and to turn into seeds to help grow the empires own fields.
After the quick work in Equestria, Castus would then go to the Empire and aid in its work. It was a slow going work. The first job, had been to construct a city where the people could live. To aid in this, a small number of men and women who had shown affinity to use the Wind and whom Castus had taught the barest needs to keep from killing themselves or others by accident, aided in his weaving of a vast construction spell that built the city in nearly the course of a few hours.
After the city had been completed it was all about getting people settled. The people took to the houses with a mixture of awe at the sheer space they and their families had, and uncertainty on the need for such. Even when furnishings had been moved from tents to homes, there were still empty spaces. And only a third of the houses were even remotely filled. The total population of the newly formed Empire only numbered in at least 10,000; combined from the remaining clans and the newly freed humans that Castus had taken from Equestria.
Then there was the infrastructure to build. Castus used the memories of old Valhruan architecture and agriculture to meet these needs, combined with the ideas and ways from the history of his old world of Earth. Fields were plowed, by hand and tool and the power of the Wind. Then the irrigation had to be worked on, and it was on this day that Castus worked on it the most. The seeds of grains planted, and watered. And then there was the need to gather up livestock, and Castus himself went out to bring back several young Clefthoof calves that were placed in pens to domesticate.
Then was the teaching. Politics and other subjects with Marcus and the other Huntmasters, now called Lords. The drafting of a document to officially declare a government format for the nation. Then Wind training for any new or current students. There were not many new students as of yet, and the ones Castus did teach he only taught them things they needed to know. How to control themselves and the power, and in terms of spells he taught basic things that would offer help in the construction of the nation. How to make more prosperous fields and plants. How to control the mind of wild animals to pacify them. They were few spells, and none of them were anything like the war spells that Castus had in his mind.
No. He would not teach those spells. Not yet. If he could, he never would.
But in his mind, he knew that he would not be able to maintain that stance forever. But for now, he would hold onto the dream.
Then, depending on the day, after all this Castus would either return home, or return to Canterlot. When he did return to Canterlot, it was largely to attend to his job as Ambassador to his people. He would arrive via Waygate outside of the council building and walk in, and enter the chambers where the council sat. Then it would be a long eternity of politics, discussion of policy for the council and the endurance of contempt and dislike from a small number of ambassadors.
Then after the meeting, it was a small talk with Celestia, maybe pick through her storeroom of old artifacts from Valhrua to see if anything could offer aid to her kingdom or his, or even both. He had found more Amplifiers and Wells, and a collection of Repositories that held a near total library of old knowledge for him to read. He had found more Spell Stone artifacts, and other old artifacts. He identified and catalogued these, but he never took any out. They were safe here, for now at least.
When Castus finally did return home, it was always to the warm smile and a hug from Fluttershy, who he would kiss in return. Sometimes if he was early he would help make dinner, other times it was already being made when he arrived but he would ask if there was anything needed doing.
After that, the rest of the evening and night were theirs. They would talk, sit close together by the couch and snuggle under a warm blanket beside the fireplace until it was time to head to bed for the night. Castus would watch as she let her mane down, brushing it. Sometimes he would help her brush it. They would hold each other close, and it some days help each other out of their clothes of the day and into their night wear.
On nights like that, sometimes their hands and hooves did not stop at just the shirt, dress or sweater. And before long they would be in bed amongst a scattered pile of clothes and their breathing heavy and tired. Other nights they merely slid into bed quietly, but still lost in the others eyes.
And as the moon shone down, before sleep did take their minds, hand and hoof together they would whisper words to each other.
"Good night." Castus would whisper, as his arm wrapped around Fluttershy's body to hold her close. His lips brushing against her head.
"Sleep well." Fluttershy would whisper in kind, before kissing him gently.
And as their eyes closed, they would whisper a few final words to each other.
"I love you." They would say, before falling asleep in each others arms. In the safety in warmth of their home.