Chapter One - Our Circle

“We’re about a few blocks away, Noah,” she said as she led me down the block.

Who was “she”? She was one of my close friends.

Who was Noah? That’s was me, the guy she was leading through the town.

What was “it”? Well, it’s… actually, I should go back a little bit. Things will make sense once I show you how I got to this point, how I met the lady that I was walking with.

How I met Nightshade.

It was the second week in January, and the first day of my second semester of my sophomore year at the University of Florida. I lived off-campus, so I had to take the shuttle to school. I stepped onto the shuttle as it pulled up in front of my apartment, and the driver greeted me as I got on.

“Mornin’ Noah!” he said happily.

“Morning, Jeff,” I answered as I took my seat.

As I rode the shuttle, my phone started ringing.

“Hello?” I said as I answered it.

“Hey, Noah! You on the shuttle?”

“Yeah, Klaus. I’m on my way. I’ll be there in a couple minutes.”

“Alright. Meet me and Maud at the usual spot after your first class.”

“Right.”

I hopped off the shuttle several minutes later, heading to my Physics class so I could get it overwith and meet up with my friends.

Speaking of my friends, I should mention something about them. You see, they… weren’t exactly human.

Klaus was a griffon, Maud was a pony, and they were both from another world.

You see, for the past fifteen or so years, humans have been in contact with a faraway world known as Equus, a land where anthropomorphic ponies, griffins, and other magical creatures resided. One of the princesses of Equestria, the nation in Equus where most ponies resided in, used a spell that she developed herself to make an attempt at contacting another world, and wound up here, in the human world. Since then, the beings of Equus and Earth have been living in peace for the past fifteen years, with humans migrating to Equus to live there and vise-versa with beings of Equus.

For me, I just decided to stay here on Earth. I was never a big fan of traveling long distance, and another planet is WAY long distance…

But I digress. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, my friends.

First there was Klaus Stormcloud. As I said before, he was a griffon. He had grayish-blue facial and neck feathers with wings of the same color, grayish-white fur, golden talons, and brown eyes. His neck feathers, as well as the feathers on the lower halves of his wings were white, and all of his feathers had dark blue speckles on them.

Klaus was pretty lively, but not to the degree of a typical college party animal. He actually took his studies seriously and knew the time and place for fun, but he never failed to make others laugh.

Then there was Maud Pie. She was an earth pony from a small rock farm in Equestria. Unlike most ponies I’ve met, Maud wasn’t as… brightly colored, both in appearance and personality. Her coat was a plain gray while her mane, which was almost impossibly straight and went to just below her shoulders, was a grayish purple. Her entire wardrobe was nothing but gray, and her go-to style would either be a short dress, or a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, depending on the weather.

But we were in Florida, so it never got too cold.

Unlike Klaus, Maud was very quiet, blunt, and deadpan. She rarely showed any emotion, and when she, Klaus, and I first met, we got the impression that she didn’t like us, but she insisted otherwise.

Although the monotone she had when she said it didn’t help much.

Still, Klaus and I believed that she was telling the truth, considering the fact that she still hangs out with us and that, on the few occasions where she had smiled, they had been while she was spending time with us.

She was hard to figure out at first, but Klaus and I have gotten used to her, and she was actually rather nice once we got to know her better.

The three of us have been friends for about a year and a half now, and while Klaus was the livelier one of the group and Maud was more subdued, I was the one in the middle, balancing them out. We were all in the same graduating class, too. Maud was majoring in Geology, and Klaus was majoring in Game Design.

As for me, I was an Astronomy major.

When I got to my Physics class, I sat towards the back of the class, as I always did, and I had a good view of every other student in that class. When it came to academics, I was a real observer. In high school, I caught every instance of note-taking, texting, doodling, and other such things during classes.

Of course, I didn’t rat anyone out. This was just something that I did for my own personal amusement.

But when I looked around the class that day, I noticed one student that I hadn’t seen before.

She was a unicorn mare, sitting in the back of the class, just as I was. The lecture hall was large, and she was sitting pretty far away from me, so I couldn’t see her as well as I could have. From what I could see, she had a dark purple coat and a pitch black mane and tail. She was wearing a grayish-blue sweater with jeans that were so black, they blended with her tail. Her head was down, and her mane was blocking my view of her eyes, but I most likely wouldn’t have been able to see them anyway because of how far away she was from me.

What I found strange, though, was that this mare didn’t have a textbook. Hell, she didn’t even have a bag. All she had was a notebook and a pencil. She seemed to be scribbling something into the notebook, most likely the notes from the lecture based on how vigorously she was writing.

As much as this mare confused and intrigued me, I had to pay attention to the lecture that my professor was giving me.

After class, I left the lecture hall and began to head towards “the usual spot,” which was the back table at the student lounge. On my way over there, I texted Klaus that I was on my way, and while I carelessly walked with my head down, looking only at my phone and walking at a brisk pace, I ended up bumping into someone.

The impact was hard enough to knock both of us to the ground, and it took me a while to get myself everything to stop spinning. When my vision cleared, I looked at who I bumped into, and my eyes widened in surprise.

It was that same mare from class.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

She looked at me, and then she shook her head as she got up onto her hooves. “It’s okay. I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going either.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m just fine, thanks.”

I got myself up off the ground and dusted myself off. When I looked up, I was caught off guard by the mare’s face, or rather, her eyes.

They were a deep shade of blue.

The next thing I noticed was her height compared to mine. She was shorter than me by about two inches, and she was rather thin compared to most unicorn mares I’ve met, who were more voluptuous. Her figure was rather average, with nothing really standing out body-wise. Then again, the clothes she wore were pretty thick, so I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure whether she had curves or not.

“Forgive me if I’m being a little forward, but did you just come from Mr. Lance’s Physics 201 class?” I asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

“I’m in that class, too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before, though.”

She blinked rapidly and cleared her throat. “Oh, well, I’m a transfer student from Canterlot University. It’s my first day.”

“Oh, well welcome to the University of Florida,” I joked. “My name’s Noah. I’m an Astronomy major.”

The mare gave me a small smile. “My name is Nightshade. I’m an Astronomy major, too. It was nice meeting you, Noah.” She was about to walk away, when all of a sudden…

“Hey, Noah!” I heard from behind me. I turned around and saw Klaus waving at me as he walked towards me. “I was just on my way to meet up with you and Maud!” he smiled, and then he looked at the mare behind me. “Who’s this?”

“Oh, this is Nightshade. It’s her first day here,” I answered.

“Really? Well, it’s nice to meet you. My name’s Klaus.”

The mare nodded her head. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“Y’know, Noah and I were heading to meet a friend of ours at the student lounge. If you want, you can come with.”

Nightshade looked surprised at the offer at first, but then her face softened. “Um… okay. That would be nice.”

The three of us walked to the student lounge together, and when we got there, we saw Maud sitting at our usual table by herself.

“Hey, Maud,” I said. “We didn’t keep you waiting, did we?”

“No. I just got here,” she told me in her usual deadpan tone. “Who’s your friend?”

“My name is Nightshade,” said the unicorn.

“Oh, well it’s nice to meet you then. You can sit next to me if you want.”

Klaus and I could tell that Nightshade was thrown off by Maud’s monotone and her neutral facial expression. “You’ll get used to it,” the griffon told her with a chuckle as we all sat down.

Just then, Maud’s phone started vibrating on the table, and she looked at it curiously.

“What is it, Maud?” Klaus asked.

“My little sister sent me a text message,” she answered, and then she proceeded to read it. “‘Was looking through some old photos and found some Nightmare Night pictures of us when we were fillies.’”

I noticed Nightshade roll her eyes when Maud mentioned Nightmare Night.

“You don’t like Nightmare Night?” I asked.

“I’m not particularly fond of it,” she answered. “It’s rather ridiculous, if you ask me.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ve all outgrown it,” Klaus shrugged. “I mean, we’re all twenty years old, now. Well, unless you’re younger, Nightshade.”

The mare shook her head with a smirk. “No, I turned twenty just recently. I was born on the winter solstice.”

“Interesting,” said Maud.

Nightshade began to laugh. “I like you guys. Do you all gather here often?”

“Yeah, almost every day. Just the three of us,” I answered.

“But we’d be happy to make it four,” Klaus added.

The unicorn smirked. “I’ll take you up on that offer, Klaus.”

From then on, Nightshade became the fourth member of our circle, and she was an interesting mare to be around. She knew a lot about astronomy, particularly the stars and constellations. Klaus, Maud, and I have been friends with her for three months now, and she’s definitely brought a certain dynamic that we didn’t have before.

“We’re almost there, Noah,” said Nightshade. “It’s just around this corner."

Oh, right. I never explained what “it” was.

You see, Nightshade, like me, lived off-campus, but she never invited me, Klaus, or Maud over. We never really minded it, though. Whenever the four of us would hang out at one of our places, it was always mine, since it was the biggest.

A few days ago, Nightshade told me that she wanted to take me, and only me, over to her apartment, and when she asked me, she had a mix of nervousness and excitement in her eyes. I happily accepted her offer, and that’s what brings us to this moment. It was nighttime, and I was about to see where Nightshade lived.

But when we rounded the corner, something felt… off.

All the houses on this block were on the verge of collapsing; not a single one of them was comfortable enough for even one person to live in.

“Um… are you sure you live on this block, Nightshade?” I asked nervously.

“Of course, I’m sure,” she answered. “It’d be quite silly if I didn’t know where I lived.” She then grabbed my arm. “C’mon. My place is right over here.”

She led me down the block until we came to a stop in front of one of the buildings. It was the least damaged house, but it was still in pretty bad shape.

“You live here?” I asked in disbelief.

“I know it’s not much, but it’s home,” she told me as she led me inside.

“Okay, Nightshade. This isn’t funny anymore,” I said, my voice laced with nervousness.

“What do you mean?” she asked, tilting her head.

“This can’t possibly be where you live. This place looks like it’s about to fall apart. On top of that, you have no electricity, and I doubt you have any food here, either.”

“Well, I do have running water,” she said. “Whoever owns this place must have forgotten to cut off the water supply.” Noticing that she was off-topic she shook her head and gave me a serious look. “Listen, Noah. I know this is hard to believe, but this is my home, and it’s been my home for the past several months. I know it’s not as nice as I’d like, but I had no other choice.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Nightshade looked away from me, some of her mane obscuring her eyes. “Noah… We’re close friends, right?”

I blinked. “Of… of course…”

“And if I were to tell you a secret, I could trust you to keep it… right?”

“Well… yeah, I guess…”

“Then I want you to promise me… Promise me that no matter what, you won’t tell anyone what I’m about to show you. Can you do that for me?”

I had no idea what I was in store for. What secret could she possibly have that she could only trust me with?

As much as I feared the answer, I decided to take the risk.

“I promise,” I vowed to her.

Nightshade nodded her head and lit up her horn. It began to shine brightly, and numerous ribbons of dark blue magical energy began to surround her to the point where I could only see her silhouette. I watched as her body began to change form, her height increased rapidly, her limbs becoming longer, while her figure grew in spectacular volume and formed rips in her clothing under the power of its swelling girth. The shell of magic surrounding her began to rise as her horn grew to double its length at a pointed tip, and her mane and tail grew longer more voluminous. Finally, her form hunched over as two lumps appeared on her back. Said lumps grew larger and larger, until two large wings sprouted from her back.

The transformation complete, she began to come back down to the floor, and when she stood up, she was now over a head taller than me. The magical energy surrounding her dissipated, and the mare that stood before me at that moment…

It wasn’t Nightshade.

While she was wearing Nightshade’s clothes, everything about her was different. Her coat was pitch black, and her mane and tail were a deep blue, with little stars twinkling within as they flowed in a nonexistent breeze. Her body was much different from Nightshade’s as well. This mare had a body type that was a mix of the firm frame of an earth pony and the soft curves of a unicorn. Despite my immense dread, however, my passive observational instincts kicked in, and I noticed how much different this mare's figure was from Nightshade's.

Her hips had expanded greatly, the soft flesh of her enormous thighs protruding underneath the rips of her jeans. I flinched when I heard a harsh snapping sound and watched as her once modest bust grew to more than twice their size, each mound as large as her head. To compensate, her back became large and sturdy, giving her a powerful appearance.

And her eyes… I forgot about everything else when I saw them...

They were the same color as Nightshade’s for sure, but her pupils were slitted and cat-like, and she had purple eyelashes and eyeshadow, as well.

The mare stood there and looked at me with a nervous expression on her face, while I fell to the ground in fear. My mind stood frozen in time. My stomach tied itself into a knot and something made me feel as if I was going to fall into a panic at any moment. My heart went out of control as it pounded and pounded rather forcefully inside my chest. I… I simply could not believe it! Was this really Nightshade or was I just having a nightmare?

Wait a minute... Nightmare...

“Noah, please don’t panic,” she pleaded, her voice much deeper than Nightshade’s.

“You’re… you’re…” I stuttered as I looked at her fearfully.

I recognized this mare, the mare that almost plunged Equestria into eternal night, the mare that was the evil persona of Princess Luna. She was…

“Nightmare Moon!”

Chapter Two - Nightmare's Journey

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There was no way… I HAD to have been dreaming! Nightshade, one of my close friends, was actually Nightmare Moon, the mare who twice attempted to bring nighttime eternal to Equestria, and she was standing right in front of me! The adrenaline rushed through my veins as I trembled in fear. The terror enveloped my mind as I searched desperately for a solution, no ideas presenting themselves due to the panic attack. This dark mare’s presence itself was suffocating me as the air grew heavy and hard to breathe in. I shut my eyes and held my head, trying to wake myself up.

“It’s just a dream,” I repeated over and over. “It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream!”

“This isn’t a dream, Noah,” she said as she looked down at me. “What you’re seeing is the truth. I am Nightmare Moon.”

I backed away from her and continued to do so until I hit a wall, and Nightmare calmly approached me. I felt a crawling sensation upon my skin, warning me of her approach. It seemed that my body was prepared to do just about anything to avoid direct contact with this entity of illusions.

My mind raced… Nightshade… she must have kidnapped her and took her place.

“Where is she!?” I asked demandingly.

“What?” Nightmare asked innocently.

“What did you do to Nightshade!?” I yelled.

My fear had just dissolved. It had now turned into pure rage and aggression. I completely forgot about the impending danger in front of me for the sake of the friend that I had just remembered, a friend whom I really cherished. I had known Nightshade for quite a while, and even though she was the newest member of my companions, she was just as precious to me as Klaus and Maud were. The possibility of this evil creature stooping so low as to kill Nightshade and take her place infuriated me!

“You don’t understand. Nightshade and I are one and the same.”

“I don’t believe you!” I hollered again, clenching my fist in blind hatred.

The alicorn sighed and go on her knees so that she was closer to eye-level with me. “I’m telling the truth, Noah,” she said as she leaned closer to me. “Look at my eyes. You know it’s me. The only difference between Nightshade and I is our appearance.”

With no other choice, I peered into Nightmare’s teal-blue eyes, and for some reason, the speed of my heartbeat began to gradually go down. The burning sensation in my head and chest died down, a calmer feeling taking its place. I didn’t see any hostility in neither her eyes, nor the rest of her face, but… I still wasn’t sure.

“H-how are you even here? You’re supposed to share a body with Princess Luna, and she’s in Equestria…”

Nightmare sighed. “I know that I have a lot of explaining to do, and I am willing to tell you, but I must ask you a question first.”

“W-what?”

“How is it that you know enough of me to be so scared of me?” she asked. “I didn’t think that humans would know much about me outside of the Nightmare Night legends.”

I looked away from the alicorn, her piercing gaze becoming too much for me. “I was there… during the Summer Sun Celebration almost three years ago.” I confessed, a flood of unpleasant memories rushing back.

Nightmare’s eyes widened when she heard this. “You were?” she asked in disbelief. “But… you told me that you never liked travelling long-distance.”

“I don’t, and I didn’t like it back then, either, but my school’s Astronomy club wanted to go there for their summer trip, and we had spent the entire school year raising money to go. As the club’s president, I had to represent the group, so I really couldn’t get out of it.”

As I spoke, my breathing became calmer and more even, and I wasn’t as nervous as I was before.

“I see…” said Nightmare. “…So I guess you saw when I appeared at the event instead of Celestia.”

I nodded.

“But I’m no longer like that, Noah. I swear!”

“And how am I supposed to believe that?” I said, my tone dipped in pain. Betrayal swirled inside my heart, and it stung me deeply.

She sighed and sat beside me, and I moved away from her a little when she did. “I suppose it’d help if I first answered your question on how I even got here in the first place, if you’re willing to listen, that is.”

I nodded my head, and Nightmare began to explain herself.

“When I was defeated by the Elements of Harmony in the Castle of the Two Sisters, my spirit was forced out of Luna’s body, and I nearly died. However, by some miracle, a small fragment of me survived. I was nothing more than a small speck of magical energy, but over the course of the next several months, I started to regain some of my strength. By the time a year had passed, I became a full spirit; I was essentially a ghost. Over the next year, I attained a physical form, as well, and I was able to roam beyond the castle and gather food from the Everfree Forest.”

“And you left Equestria soon after that?”

“No. I was still much too weak. I had little to no magic left at first, so my horn was nothing more than an accessory. After about a week, though, I was able to perform invisibility spells, and I used them to visit the nearby towns and cities. At the time, I was still plotting my revenge, and I had planned to take Celestia down once and for all, but then I saw that it was not just her ruling Equestria anymore. There were now four princesses, her included, and I realized that my magic would have to be even more powerful than it used to be in order to defeat them. With that in mind, I knew that I had to go somewhere where they couldn’t track me while I regained my strength… and that’s when I noticed the humans.”

“What about humans?” I asked.

“From my short time in modern Equestria since I returned from the moon, I noticed the humans at the Summer Sun Celebration. They obviously weren’t from Equus, so they had to have come from somewhere, so eight months ago, I followed a family of humans to one of the portals to Earth, and that’s how I ended up in Florida. Once I got here, I knew that I couldn’t just stay in this broken-down house forever. With a physical body to maintain, I needed food and water, so I had been stealing from corner stores and drinking water from the sink since I’ve been here.”

That explained how she had been surviving for so long, but there was one thing that didn’t make sense. “Why did you decide to attend UF?”

“I figured that I needed to adapt to the way things worked in the human world, lest I stay in this house every day until I was ready to go back to Equus, so last November, once my magic developed to the point where I could disguise myself, I decided to don a new persona and see what normal young adult humans did.”

“And that was how Nightshade came to be?”

Nightmare Moon nodded her head as she continued. “At first I wandered around the campus, observing the other students and studying how they interacted. I also had to see how they used their technology as well, because my inexperience would have been a dead giveaway if I tried to blend in. When I felt that I was finally ready to test how much I had learned, I started walking in on classes. Thankfully, there were so many students that the professors didn’t even notice.”

Nightmare’s situation made a lot more sense to me once she explained it. All this time, she had been biding her time for her strength to come back, and then she’d return to Equestria to try and take over again.

But there was still something that didn’t add up.

“You said that the only difference between you and Nightshade was that your appearance, and yet you’re talking about to returning to Equestria and defeating the princesses.”

“Yes,” Nightmare answered, “but I don’t feel that way anymore.”

I looked at her skeptically. “What made you change your mind, then?”

The alicorn looked down at the floor for a moment, and then she looked back up at me. “It was when I met you.”

My eyes widened. “Me?” I asked.

“Not just you, but Klaus and Maud, too,” she answered. “I’ll admit, I wasn’t very excited about sitting with you guys the day we met, but when I saw how well the three of you get along, I suddenly felt the need for that sense of companionship, and with the way you guys accepted me so openly, I finally felt something that I never felt before. I felt like I was wanted, like I had a group of, well… friends. Being somepony who’s always been alone, I’ve never had that before.”

“Nightmare…” I said, unsure of what to say.

Now that I thought about it, I could almost see the emotional phases Nightmare endured throughout the periods of her existence: hate, vengeance, patience, curiosity, thirst for knowledge, surprise, pensiveness and reflections, opening up, the discovery of friendship, and finally, the desire to preserve that sense companionship and love.

“After getting to know the three of you, I began to let my guard down and actually be myself around you guys, and I began to forget about my plans for revenge. It began to matter less and less to me as the weeks went by, and I began to think that starting over my life as a normal pony would be better for me.”

“Well… why did you reveal yourself to only me?”

“Because out of the three of you, I trusted you the most. You were the first friend I made here, and you shared my interest in the stars and constellations. I thought that if I revealed myself to you, you wouldn’t react as harshly as anyone else would.”

After that statement, Nightmare’s ears lopped down, her expression pleading and regretful.

That really hit me…

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “I yelled and crawled away in fear.”

“Actually,” said Nightmare, “I’m quite relieved that that’s all you did. I feared that you would immediately run away and tell someone of my existence, but you stayed, and you were willing to listen to me.”

“How are you so sure that I won’t tell anyone?”

“I’m not sure, actually, but I don’t think you will.”

“And why’s that? You’ll do something terrible to me if I do?”

“No, and for two reasons, the first being that I’m still too weak to do anything that bad to you, and the second being that I don’t want to. I trust you, Noah, and all I ask is that you trust me.”

I looked down and sighed. “How much magic do you have then?” I asked, changing the subject.

“As of now, I can only perform invisibility and disguise spells, and my physical capabilities aren’t at their normal state, either,” she explained. “The way I am now, a regular earth pony could do more harm to you than I can.”

“Really?”

“Really. So, will you still keep my secret?”

I had to think about that for a moment. Nightshade, or rather, Nightmare Moon, was asking me to keep her existence a secret so that she wouldn’t be found out. She claimed that her magic and strength were a fraction of what they once were, but the only proof I had of that was her word.

It all boiled down to whether or not I could trust her not to do anything bad to me, or anyone else.

My common sense told me not to trust her, that she was just trying to use me, and that I’d be a fool to believe her story…

But something else within me told me that I could trust her, that Nightmare Moon was still the same mare that I had come to know over the past three months, and that she wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.

“I… I will,” I told her. “I won’t tell anyone.”

Nightmare’s eyes immediately brightened up when she heard me say that. “Thank you so much, Noah! I knew I made the right choice in telling you.”

“No problem…” I said nervously.

“So… I’ll see you at school tomorrow?” she asked.

I blinked. “Huh?”

“Will I see you at school tomorrow?” she repeated.

“Um, yeah. Sure.”

“I know this is a lot to take in, but I promise you, Noah, nothing will change between us. We’ll still be friends, just like before.”

I nodded my head and got onto my feet and walked towards the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then… Nightmare…”

The alicorn turned around and gave me a concerned look. “You can still call me Nightshade, if that makes you feel more comfortable.”

I didn’t look back at her. “Sure…”

With that, I walked out of the decrepit house, leaving the alicorn behind as I made my way down the block of houses that had lived well past their lifespan. As I walked, though, part of me felt guilty for leaving the poor mare back there like that. Hell, I didn’t even say goodbye to her. Not only that, but she was alone in that run-down building without any food, and she was lucky to have running water.

I sighed as looked back, wondering what the hell I was thinking, and I walked back to the house.

I didn’t bother to knock on the door and simply walked in, and I saw Nightmare Moon sitting in the same spot she was sitting in when I left her.

I took a deep breath and cleared my throat, and she immediately turned around, surprised to see me.

“Noah!” she gasped.

“Hey, Nightmare…” I said, looking at the ground. “Look, I don’t think that I can let you keep living here in good conscience, so…”

I hesitated for a moment, but then I just spit it out.

“Do you want to stay at my place?”

Chapter Three - Moving In

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“You guys are moving in together!?” Klaus shouted in shock.

“Could you speak up a little?” Maud asked. “I don’t think Equus heard you.”

“Sorry, but this is totally out of the blue!” said the griffin.

“It was for us, as well,” Nightshade told him.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, when I came home yesterday, I found a notice on my door saying that my building was going to be demolished and that I had a week to move out. With no other option, I called Noah and told him about my situation and that’s when he suggested that I move in with him.”

“How noble,” Maud said as she sipped her tea. “And I wasn’t being sarcastic, in case I sounded that way.”

“I believe you,” I chuckled.

“So, I guess you guys want to get this move done ASAP, then?” Klaus asked.

“For sure,” answered Nightshade. “Thankfully, I don’t have that much stuff to move, so Noah and I should be able to handle it ourselves.”

“Yeah!” I suddenly blurted out. “We can totally do it on our own, so there’s no reason for you guys to help. No reason at all!”

I nervously chucked as sweat rolled down the back of my neck. “Smooth, Noah. Real smooth,” I thought.

“Um… okay?” the griffon said as he gave me a confused look.

I really needed to stay cool, and I was not doing a good job at that so far, but after what I had been through in the past eighteen hours, could you really blame me?

When I made the offer to Nightmare last night, her face instantly brightened up, and she gave me an open-mouthed smile.

It was then that I noticed how sharp her teeth were, and I instantly started to question my decision.

“You really mean it?” she asked excitedly.

“Suuuuuuuure…” I said, wondering if my head was screwed on right.

She got up on her hooves and rushed towards me with a happy grin. I instinctively shielded myself with my arms, and the next thing I knew, Nightmare Moon’s arms were wrapped around me in a tight hug.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!” she repeated. “You really are my best friend, Noah!”

Was I really her best friend? I wasn’t even sure anymore… Then again, was it really okay for me to simply change my opinion just because she turned out to be somepony else? If they had the same personality, it didn’t matter, right?

My train of thought was derailed when Nightmare tightened her hug, and I felt how soft her fur was. My head was resting against the trap of her shoulder, her soft, black coat caressing my cheek.

Sure… maybe letting her stay with me won’t be such a bad idea. I’ll just keep my guard up in case anything bad happens. If she was a mare of her word, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about, right?

…Right?

“Do you have anything that you’ll be taking with you?” I asked as she released me, though I doubted that she had much.

As I expected, the alicorn shook her head. “No,” she answered. “I don’t really have any clothes, per-se. I just conjure up whatever I feel like with my disguise spell, although the drastic difference between my physique and Nightshade’s doesn’t help much when I change into my true form.”

“Well, how about we get you settled in tomorrow afternoon? You can stay here one more night, right?”

“Sure,” Nightmare answered. “I’ve been living here for months. One more night won’t kill me.”

I was really glad to hear that. In all honesty, since Nightmare Moon had no personal belongings of hers, she could’ve just come home with me that night, but I needed a night to gather my thoughts.

The events of that night were stressful enough; adding a move-in on top of that was not a good idea at the time.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then, Noah?” she asked.

I let out a long sigh. “Yeah, sure.”

After my last class of the day, which ended at five PM, I met up with Nightshade at the school’s main entrance. We waited for the shuttle to pass by, and as we got on, my pulse began to race, getting faster and faster with each passing second.

Nightmare Moon, THE Nightmare Moon, was gonna be living with me in my apartment!

But… she’s my friend, right? I can trust her, right?

“Are you okay, Noah?” Nightshade asked me.

“Who, me?” I asked, surprised. “I’m fine, just fine!”

The unicorn tiled her head and gave me a confused look. “You don’t look ‘just fine’ to me.”

“I dunno. It’s just… this whole ‘moving in’ thing is a lot for me to take in right now.”

“Don’t worry so much, Noah. I promise I’ll make it as comfortable for you as possible.”

“Shouldn’t I be saying that? I’m the one that’s taking you in.”

“Perhaps, but it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

I let out a sigh. “…I guess not…”

When we finally got to my apartment, I put my hand under the welcome mat and pulled something out, giving it to Nightshade.

“Here’s my spare key,” I told her. “Use it to get in and out of the house.”

“Thanks,” she said gratefully as she took it.

I unlocked the door with my own key and walked inside, Nightshade following close behind me.

“You’ve been here before, so you know where everything is, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“We’re roommates, now, so what’s mine is yours. You can eat whatever food you want from the fridge, and you can use the TV if you want, too.”

“Thanks, Noah,” Nightshade said from behind me, only… her voice sounded deeper.

I turned around and jumped when I saw that Nightshade had already transformed back into Nightmare Moon.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Did I scare you?”

“No…” I answered. “It’s just that I didn’t hear you transform, is all.”

This was weird… I was usually able to see and hear minute things without even trying. It must have been my nerves distracting me.

I looked at Nightmare as she gave me another concerned look, and then I noticed something about her.

“Your clothes… they aren’t ripped,” I told her.

“I’m wearing stretch fabrics. I figured I’d give myself clothes that could fit my real form as well as my Nightshade form.”

“Oh… okay…” I said as I tried to control my breathing.

“Noah, if this is all too much for you, we don’t have to do this today. I can wait until you’re more comfortable with me.”

I shook my head. “Waiting would probably only stall things. Besides, you’re already here, anyway.”

“If you say so…”

I led Nightmare to my bathroom door, which had another, narrower door next to it.

“I keep extra towels in this closet here,” I told her as I opened the narrow door and handed her a towel. “If you need a new one, just grab one from the top of the stack.”

The alicorn nodded her head. “So, where do I sleep?” she asked.

Shit, I didn’t even think about that. Hell, that should’ve been the first thing that I thought about. I only had one bedroom, and I definitely wasn’t comfortable with her sharing a bed with me.

“Um… give me a minute,” I told her.

I walked down the hall and went into my bedroom, which was the last door on the left. I looked through my closet to see if I could find the air mattress that I would use whenever a relative visited me. I ended up finding it at the very back of the closet, hidden by my hanging clothes. With the box containing the mattress in hand, I got up and I noticed something else in my closet that could be useful. I walked out my room and handed Nightshade the item that I found.

“This is a sweater that my grandmother knitted for me last Christmas. It’s four sizes too big for me, so you can use this to sleep in.”

“Thanks,” Nightmare said as she held the sweater.

“I’m gonna go set this up in the living room and fix up something to eat. You want anything in particular?”

“No, I’ll just have whatever you’re having. I’ll be taking a shower in the meantime.”

“Okay then,” I said as I cleared a space in the living room for the mattress. I took it out of the box and laid it out, and then I started the automatic air pump. With that taken care of, I headed into the kitchen so see what I had to eat.

“I’m not particularly hungry,” I thought to myself, “so I think some ramen noodles will do for tonight.”

I took out two packs of noodles and prepared them while the mattress was being pumped. With the microwave going, I turned on the TV, and it happened to be on the local news channel.

“In other news, star watchers everywhere are already preparing for Mary’s Comet to pass by the earth in two months. This astrological wonder passes by the planet every ninety years, making it a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Oh yeah… I remember my Physics professor mentioning that comet in class today. He seemed pretty excited about it, too. He showed the class a photo his grandfather took of the comet as it passed by, and even though it was an old picture, the comet looked pretty spectacular, to say the least.

The microwave started to beep, and I opened the door to let the noodles cool off as I carefully removed them from their hot confines. I then got two bowls from the cabinet above me and poured one box of noodles into each bowl.

“Were they just talking about Mary’s Comet on the news?” Nightmare asked from the hallway.

She was done with her shower already?

I turned around to answer her, but then my eyes widened when I saw that she was only wearing her towel.

“Um, yeah…” I struggled to say as I tried not to look at her. With her voluptuous physique, the poor towel was barely long enough to wrap around her without leaving any… open areas. Despite that, I could see some really bountiful cleavage exposed over her huge balcony. Her bountiful hourglass shape that her body possessed didn’t help much, either. Thankfully, her eyes were fixated on the TV, so she didn’t catch me staring. She just stood there, her fur matted with water and her mane and tail hanging down, the water keeping them from perpetually flowing like they usually did.

“Everyone’s really getting excited for this comet,” she said, more to herself than to me.

“Well, it’s supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event.”

“You know, we should do something for the comet. You, me, Klaus, and Maud, I mean. We could find a nice spot to look at the comet as it flies across the night sky.”

“Sure…” I said. “Um… Nightmare?”

“Yes, Noah?”

“Okay, think. What’s a polite way to tell her to put some clothes on?” I thought as I looked at her. “Errgh… Okay, I think I got it.”

“Um, not to be rude, but you’re dripping water on the floor.”

The alicorn looked down at herself and yelped in surprise. “Oh! I’m sorry! I’ll go get changed!” she said as she took her sweater and went back into the bathroom.

“There, no feelings hurt,” I muttered to myself.

I looked at the hallway floor, and I saw that Nightmare was, in fact, dripping water on the floor. I had honestly forgotten that with all that fur, mane, and tail, ponies tended to soak up more H2O than humans. Agh! I imagined Nightmare without her towel!

I shook my head and sighed. “I guess I should clean that up…”

I set the bowls on the coffee table, turned off the mattress’s air pump, took a dry towel from the refrigerator door handle, and walked over to the trail of small puddles that the mare left behind. I sighed as I got on my knees and began to wipe the floor.

“This is really gonna take some getting used to,” I thought as I dried the last wet spot on the floor.

The next thing I heard was a door opening and the sound of hoofsteps approaching me. I then saw two black hooves in front of me.

“Sorry about the water,” said the mare above me.

I looked up at her, and my eyes widened again when I saw that Nightmare wearing the sweater I gave her, and I had a view of the black panties she was wearing underneath it! Her lower half seemed pretty snug in its lacy confines, but that was none of my business! I shook my head and got up to my feet. “D-don’t worry about it,” I told her. “It’s fine.”

The alicorn smiled and inhaled deeply. “Dinner smells good. Ramen noodles, I presume?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled nervously. “Standard college kid cuisine.”

“Well, let’s not just stand here. Let’s eat.”

“R-right…” I said as we both went into the living room and took a seat on the couch. Nightmare hummed jubilantly to herself as she sipped away at her noodles, while I sat next to her, silently sipping mine.

“This is nice,” the mare said. “It’s a lot better than that old house I had been hiding out in. In fact, I might even say that this is better than my life would’ve been in Equestria.”

“What makes you say that?”

The alicorn sighed to herself and smiled. “Because I have friends now,” she told me as she looked right at me. “I don’t have to be alone anymore.”

“Nightmare…” I said, at a loss for words.

“Could you do me a favor, Noah?”

“Yeah… What is it?”

“Could you not call me Nightmare? I’d prefer it if you called me Moon.”

“Uh, sure… Moon,” I said, trying to get used to the name.

“See? That sounds much better, and a lot less threatening, if you ask me.”

“I guess so,” I shrugged as I finished my food. “You can just put your bowl in the sink when you’re done. I’m gonna go get some blankets for you, okay?”

The mare nodded her head. “Okay.”

After putting my dish away, I went back to my room and got some blankets from the closet, I then returned to the living room to see that Moon had turned off the TV and put her bowl away.

“Here are your sheets, Moon.”

“Thanks, Noah,” she smiled as she took them from me, and I turned around to go back to my room.

“Noah,” Moon called out.

“What is it?” I asked curiously as I turned around, only to be suddenly wrapped in another hug. As the alicorn held me close to her, I could smell the aroma of soap in her coat. It was also softer than when she last hugged me.

“I know I’ve said this several times before, but thanks for letting me stay here,” she crooned. “It really means a lot to me.”

I hesitated to answer her. I didn’t really know what to say. I was still conflicted over whether or not it was a good idea for her to even be here in the first place…

But so far, Moon seemed okay.

“Don’t mention it,” I told her as she let me go.

“Goodnight, Noah,” she said to me. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

I paused for a moment, and then I smiled just a little. “Yeah… see you in the morning.”

Chapter Four - Party Preparations

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The next morning, I woke up with a yawn as I stretched my arms out.

I looked to my left, where my clock was sitting on my nightstand.

Eight AM.

“Ugh… Why did my body have to wake up so early?” I thought. “It’s Friday. I don’t even have any classes today!”

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as I got out of bed, deciding that trying to get back to sleep now would be a vain attempt.

I slowly trudged out of my bedroom and headed towards the living room, letting out another yawn. “I’m not really in the mood to do anything today… maybe I should just stay home.”

I kept walking down the hall until I reached the living room and saw Nightmare… I mean, Moon, lying on the air mattress I set up for her last night, tucked under the covers and letting our soft, yet audible breaths.

“She’s still asleep. Figures. It’s still early in the morning, and that’s probably the most comfortable bed she’s been in since she’s lived on Earth.”

I kept looking at Moon as I walked into the kitchen. It was weird, seeing her sleeping like that, looking so peaceful… it made me question why I was so scared of her.

“Why am I so nervous around her? She looks practically harmless right now. Maybe I’m blowing this whole thing out of proportion. She hasn’t really done anything wrong since she revealed her identity to me. Hell, she’s probably just as nervous as I am, even if she doesn’t seem to be. With the way I’ve been acting, she’s probably walking on eggshells.”

I shook my head as I opened the freezer. It was way too early in the morning to be doing that much thinking. I peered into the freezer as I pondered what I should eat for breakfast. I decided on waffles and hashbrowns and took the packs out of the freezer. Deciding to make enough for Moon and I to split, I put six hashbrowns in the toaster oven and put four waffles into the pop-up toaster. With breakfast cooking, I turned around…

and I was met with an obsidian-coated alicorn looking right at me... looking right at me with those cat-like eyes of hers. I shuddered inwardly. I had forgotten how intimidating those eyes could be!

“Morning!” she said happily.

“AGH!” I yelped pathetically as she stood in front of me with a gleeful smile on her face. “Don’t you ever make noise when you move!?”

Moon tilted her head and looked up in thought. “I’ve never really thought about it… I just move.”

How was that possible I’d never know, but nonetheless, it was freaky, and really creepy, too.

“Okay, but don’t sneak up on me like that, alright?”

“Sure. Sorry about that,” the alicorn chuckled, and then she sniffed the air around her. “Smells good. What’s cooking?”

“Waffles and hashbrowns…” I answered as my heartbeat slowed to a more reasonable pace. Perfect. I was just telling myself to relax around her, and I still freak out whenever she talks to me. In an effort to try and ease my tension, I attempted to make conversation.

“So… did you sleep well?” I asked.

“Most definitely!” she replied enthusiastically as she stretched her arms up. “I haven’t slept that well in ages!”

“Really? The air mattress wasn’t uncomfortable at all?”

“Not in the slightest! It was quite comfortable, Noah.”

Both toasters dinged as their respective food items finished cooking, and I turned around and put on a mitten to take them out. As I opened the toaster oven door, two plates were levitated over to me be auras of greenish-blue magic.

“Here you go,” Moon said as she gave me the plates.

“Thanks.”

With both our meals prepared, we walked out into the living room and I saw that Moon had already deflated the mattress and put it in its box.

“I didn’t want you doing too much work,” she told me as we took a seat on the couch.

For the first few minutes, it was deathly quiet, and after a while, I decided to break the silence.

“Listen, Moon…”

“Yes?” the mare answered as she swallowed a bite of one of her waffles.

“I’m sorry for being so… jumpy around you lately. You’re probably thinking that I don’t want you here and that I’m only doing this to be nice, but I-”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Huh?”

“I said not to worry about it,” Moon repeated. “I know how scared you must have been, having someone like me living in your home. It’s only natural that you’d be at least a little scared of me at first.” The alicorn scooted closer to me and then leaned on my side. “This is something that both of us will have to adjust to, Noah. Just remember that you’re not the only one dealing with a new situation. We’re gonna get through this together, you’ll see.”

I tried not to shiver when I felt her body lean onto mine. I didn’t want to show any sign of fear or apprehension, but my core instincts forced me to let out a small shudder… I had no idea what was wrong with my body; it almost seemed like I had some sort of phobia.

Almost as if she could sense my fear, Moon let out a giggle.

“Don’t force yourself. We’ll get used to this, in time.”

Just then, my phone started to ring, and it said that Klaus was calling. Instead of picking it up, I put it on speaker.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Hey, Noah!” the griffon said excitedly. “You will not believe this! Remember Pete, the guy that was in our Calculus class last year?”

“Pete Wilson? Yeah, I remember him.”

“Well, he just told me that he’s having a party at his house tomorrow night and he invited you and me! Not only that, but we can both bring one guest!”

“Convenient, isn’t it?” asked a monotone voice.

“Is Maud with you?” I asked.

“Yeah, we’re getting a bite to eat at the school. So, are you and Nightshade gonna go to the party, or nah?”

“Umm… I dunno, man. You know I’m not about that party life.”

“Aww, c’mon! It’ll be fun! Nightshade, back me up here!”

Moon looked at the phone, and then she looked at me. “It does sound pretty fun, Noah,” she said in Nightshade’s voice. “Perhaps we should go?”

“See? She’s game!” Klaus insisted. “You want to go, too, right Maud?”

There was a moment of silence, and then the mare answered. “I’m fine either way.”

“Okay… well, that sort-of counts as a yes, so it’s three against one! You’ve got to come, Noah. This party is gonna be off the chain!”

“Off the chain?” I repeated. “What is this, 1995?”

Moon tugged on my sleeve and looked at me with pleading eyes. “I really want to go to this party, Noah,” she told me. “I really want to know what a college party is like. It’ll be the four of us there, so it’s not like we’ll be alone. Please?”

I looked at the mare’s large, watering eyes and sighed. As much as I sort-of feared her, I couldn’t say no to a face like that. “Fine, I’ll go.”

“YES!!!” Klaus cheered. “Oh man, this is gonna be awesome!”

“There is one problem, though,” Moon interrupted. “I don’t have anything to wear.”

“That’s not really a problem,” said Maud. “I was planning on doing some shopping today, so if you want, you can come with me.”

“That sounds great! What time were you planning to be there?”

“Around noon.”

“Oh! Maybe we should bring the boys with us so they can help us pick something out.”

Wait, what?

“I don’t know about all that…” Klaus said apprehensively.

“Yeah, maybe you two should do this by yourselves. You know, female bonding and all that good stuff.”

“Oh, quit making excuses!” said Moon. “You two just don’t want to go clothes shopping!”

“Can you blame us?” Klaus asked. “Girls take forever to pick out an outfit, and those stores never have anywhere to sit!”

“Don’t be such a stick in the mud! We won’t be long, right Maud?”

Another moment of silence. “It would be nice if the boys came along with us.”

Klaus let out an exasperated sigh. “What do you think, Noah?”

I pondered the thought for a moment. “As long as they don’t take too long.”

“It’s settled, then!” Moon declared. “We’ll meet up at the mall around noon, okay?”

“Okay,” said Maud.

“Fiiiiiiine…” Klaus groaned “See you there.”

The phone clicked as the griffin hung up, and Moon stood up and carried her empty plate to the kitchen. “So I guess we’ll have something to do today, after all.”

“I guess so,” I shrugged as I ate my last hashbrown. “Why were you so insistent on going to the party, though?”

“Well, I am trying to better adjust to life as a normal college student, and normal college students go to parties. Besides, it sounds like a fun little event, and it gives me an excuse to get me some real clothes. Having to generate clothing using my disguise spell has been taking a little bit of a toll on my magical energy lately.”

“Yeah, but you’re also gonna have to get clothes that can fit your Nightmare Moon form while you’re here. You can’t just wear that oversized sweater every day.”

“I suppose you’re right…” Moon admitted as she looked at the sweater I had given her, and then her eyes suddenly widened. “Shit! How am I gonna pay for clothes!?”

“I’ll cover you,” I told her. “I’ll be able to pay for it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, you’re gonna need clothes, and you don’t have any money, so I’ll have to do it.”

The alicorn smirked at me. “So I guess it’s a good thing that you’re coming along, then.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. It’s interesting, though. When you were on your own, you had no problem stealing food from corner stores, but you have reservations about stealing clothes.”

“It’s not that I have reservations. It’s just that clothes always have those stupid magnetic tag things that set off the alarms when you leave the store. It’s too much trouble. Anyway, you mind if I take my shower before you?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

Moon smiled at me and went into the bathroom to get ready for our trip to the mall.

“Maybe some fresh air and some time with my friends will be good for me,” I thought. “Like Moon said, I shouldn’t force myself to be comfortable around her. I’ll get used to it in time.”

With the both of us ready and Moon in her Nightshade disguise, we left the apartment and caught a taxi to the mall. By the time we got there, it was minutes to noon, and Klaus and Maud were waiting outside the main entrance.

“Hey, guys,” I greeted as Nightshade and I met up with them.

“Hey, Noah. Hey, Nightshade,” said the griffin. “So, you ready to get this over with?”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Maud deadpanned. “We won’t be in there for days.”

“Maybe not, but it’ll feel that way,” I commented.

“Oh, hush, Noah,” said Nightshade. “You boys will be just fine. Besides, the longer you two stay out here complaining about it, the longer it’ll take for us to ‘get this over with’.”

Klaus and I rolled our eyes and followed the mares into the mall as they led us to a clothing store that they both liked.

“Wet Seal?” I asked.

“Please let there be somewhere to sit, please let there be somewhere to sit,” Klaus prayed as Maud dragged him in.

“Do you think we should go with dresses, or blouses and jeans?” Nightshade asked the earth mare.

“It’s a house party, so I wouldn’t go in a dress,” she answered. “I wouldn’t get any expensive accessories, either, just in case. Also, don’t wear white. It’s likely to get stained.”

“You sound like you’ve been to your share of parties.”

“When you have a little sister whose talent is throwing parties, you tend to pick up on things.”

The four of us went through the store, stopping at various sections to pick up different items. While the mares did their thing, Klaus and I just stood by and kept quiet, watching as they picked out different items. Not surprisingly, all the items that Maud picked out were grey. Once the mares looked like they had everything they needed, Klaus and I let out sighs of relief.

“So we can cash out and leave now, right?” the griffon asked.

“Of course not. We have to see if these fit, first,” Nightshade answered.

“Don’t you two know what fits you and what doesn’t?” I asked.

“It’s not that simple.” Maud told me bluntly.

Klaus and I looked at each other. “Females are weird,” he said.

“Well, we’ll just wait here for you,” I told the mares, but then they gave us incredulous looks.

Well, Nightshade did. Maud just stared blankly at us, as usual.

“What do you mean you’ll ‘just wait here’?” asked the unicorn. “You have to come with us so you can give an opinion on how we look!”

“There was a reason why we wanted to bring you guys,” the earth mare deadpanned.

“Do we really have to?” the griffon and I asked.

Without even saying a word, Nightshade grabbed my wrist and Maud grabbed Klaus’s, and they both pulled us towards the dressing room area. When we got there, they then pulled us to separate dressing rooms that were on opposite ends of the hall.

“Why are we being separated?” I asked.

“You ask too many questions,” Maud answered as she pulled Klaus away.

“Be strong Noah!” Klaus called out as he dramatically reached out to me. “We’ll make it through this!”

I felt his pain, but I inwardly rolled my eyes at how ridiculous he was being. That guy can be such a dramatist sometimes.

When Nightshade and I reached the end of the hall, she finally let go of my wrist. “Wait out here while I change, and don’t go anywhere,” she ordered.

I sighed as she walked into the changing room and shut the door behind her. I looked behind me and saw that there was a bench for me to sit on. As I sat down, my phone vibrated; Klaus had texted me.

“At least there’s a place 2 sit,” the message read.

I rolled my eyes as I read the message and waited for Nightshade to come out of the dressing room with her first of God-knows-how-many outfits she had picked out.

“Ready, Noah?” she asked as she finished getting dressed.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered as I looked up from my phone, waiting for the mare to emerge from behind the door. I heard the door unlock, and it swung open, revealing Nightshade dressed in a black leather jacket with a white, low cut top and dark blue jeans.

“Well, what do you think?” she asked, with a pose, she then turned around with her hands on her hips and swished her tail back and forth. “I want you to be completely honest with me.”

“Eh, the top is cut a little too low for my tastes, but other than that, it looks nice enough.”

“Oh, stop being such a prude,” she scoffed as she walked up to me and grabbed my wrist.

“Whoa! Where are you taking me!?”

“Inside the dressing room. I want your opinion on how this will look in my true form.”

“Won’t it look pretty much the same? And you know you can’t transform in public!”

“I’ve already checked the room. There aren’t any cameras in there.”

I gulped as Nightshade pulled me in and closed the door. With the two of us occupying the space, the dressing room was less roomy than I would have liked, and I barely had enough room to stretch my arms.

“Okay, let’s hope these clothes don’t rip…” she said, more to herself than to me.

“You mean you don’t know!?”

“I’ve been practicing a spell that’ll let my clothes expand with my body size, but I haven’t really perfected it, yet.”

“When did you have time to practice this?”

“Last night. I also practiced my transformation spell so I can quickly switch back and forth between forms, like so.”

Nightshade lit up her horn, and in a flash of light, she transformed back into Nightmare Moon, voluptuous curves and all. Thankfully, not only was her transformation spell faster, but that spell she used to expand her clothes worked out fine, too.

“Phew. That’s a relief,” she muttered, and then she looked up at me. “See? There was nothing to worry about.”

“Says you,” I mumbled.

“And I know that Maud advised against wearing jewelry, but I found a really pretty necklace and couldn’t help myself.”

“Is that so?”

“Let me put it on so you can see how it looks,” Moon said as she turned around and bent over to get the necklace out of her pile of items. Unfortunately, because of how cramped the room was, her rear and stuck out and pushed me closer to the wall.

“Uh, Moon?” I asked as I backed up against the wall.

“Yeah?”

“It’s a little condensed in here, and I don’t really have a lot of room right now.”

“I’ll only be a second. The necklace got lost in the pile of clothes. I won’t be long.”

“Fuck...” I thought as I found my back against the wall, the alicorn’s butt still pushing up against me and pushing the oxygen out of my body. It was rather round and compact compared to her massive legs, and it squished as it pushed against me. I prayed to God that she’d move before a certain part of me decided to push back.

Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

With near-perfect timing, Moon removed her backside from me, allowing me to breathe again and clear my head.

“Sorry about that, Noah,” she said as she put her necklace on.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” I sighed exasperatedly.

The mare smiled and puffed her voluminous chest out, presenting the necklace hanging from her neck. “So, what do you think?”

I took a closer look at the charm hanging from the necklace, which was a crescent moon contained in a circle; the moon was a radiant sapphire blue color while the rest of the circle was filled in with a glossy white.

“I think it looks nice,” I told her.

“I know you do,” Moon chuckled. “I can tell by how close your face is to my chest.”

My eyes widened as I realized how close I was to the mare’s cleavage and I immediately pulled my head back and looked away from her with a heavy blush on my face.

“S-sorry…”

“Relax! I’m just messing with you!” Moon laughed. “You were always so quick to freak out.”

“Yeah…”

Moon hummed musically as she used her magic to switch between the different outfits she had picked out, which she seemed pretty satisfied with. When she changed back into her own clothes, she chuckled to herself.

“This is just like before…” she said softly, her face suddenly becoming heavy with thoughts.

“Before?” I asked, confused at what she meant. “Before what?”

“Before I revealed myself to you, before you know me as Nightmare Moon. You, me, Klaus, and Maud hanging out like this… it’s just like how things used to be. Even though you know my secret, nothing’s really changed between us.”

“The four of us, you mean?” I asked.

“…Yeah. That’s what I meant… the four of us,” Moon muttered, but then she shook her head and looked at me with a smile. “Well, these clothes seem to fit just fine, so why don’t we go up to the register.”

“Wait, you want all of these? Did you forget that I’m the one buying this stuff?

“Relax, Noah!” Moon told me as she turned back into Nightshade. “Everything’s half off today. It won’t cost much.”

“I hope not,” I commented under my breath as we walked out of the changing room.

When we got to the register, we saw that Maud and Klaus had already beaten us there.

“Oh, what a relief!” Klaus sighed. “I thought that you didn’t make it out!”

“You’re such a drama queen,” Maud said bluntly as she paid for her stuff.

Nightshade and I were called up to a nearby register, and when the clerk rang us up, the grand total came up to eighty-five dollars and ninety-three cents.

While that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, considering the amount of stuff that she had, I could still hear my wallet yelling out in agony.

I reluctantly used my debit card to purchase Nightshade’s clothes, and the clerk happily put them in bags and handed them to me.

“Would you be a dear and carry those for me?” the unicorn asked.

I looked over at Klaus, who was already carrying Maud’s stuff.

“Don’t try to fight it, Noah. You won’t win,” he told me.

I sucked it up and carried the mare’s bags.

After we arrived back home (and picked up some takeout on the way), Nightshade and I changed into some more comfortable clothes, and Nightshade transformed back into Nightmare Moon, making good use of her clothing expansion spell. After I had gotten changed, I walked out of my room and saw that Moon was dressed in a loose-fitting grey shirt with a pair of elastic shorts as she ate her food.

“So you got some sleeping clothes, too?”

The alicorn nodded her head. “Like you said, I can’t just wear the same thing every day when I’m in the house.”

“I guess I did say that,” I chuckled as I sat next to her.

“I’m really glad I was able to master this clothing expansion spell. I no longer have to worry about my bra snapping or my jeans ripping.”

“We’re eating, Moon.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ha, ha, ha.”

As we sat there and ate, I thought back to what Moon said… all that stuff about how this was just like before… she did have a point. This day was just like any other day where I would hang out with her, Klaus, and Maud. While she still scared me a little, and while she was a bit more forward than she used to be, Moon was somewhat right: not much really has changed between us. Hopefully, things will go back to normal.

As the alicorn finished her food, she levitated her trash into the trash can, and picked up the remote with her magic. “Netflix marathon?” she asked.

Her voice pulled me out of my thoughts, and I gave her a surprised look, but then I chuckled.

“Sure, but I get to pick the series we watch.”

Chapter Five - The House Party

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The next day, Moon was practically bouncing off the walls with how excited she was about the party. It was all she could talk about.

“My first college party!”

“It’s gonna be so much fun!”

“I need to look my best for this party!”

I know it seems pretty annoying, but to me, it was kinda funny. A mare that’s over a thousand years old was as giddy as a schoolfilly over this party, and it was a stark contrast to my initial impression of her.

Moon was really embracing her new life as a regular college student.

It was seven PM, and the party started at eight-thirty. Pete’s house was within walking distance from our apartment, and we would meet Klaus and Maud there. Everything was planned out…

Except for what time we would get to the party.

“I’m telling you, Moon, no one arrives at a party at the exact time that it starts,” I told her.

“Well if they don’t then it’s stupid!” she argued. “Why would you arrive late to a party?”

“The first thirty to sixty minutes of the party is always the most boring part. Everyone’s still getting there, the good music hasn’t started playing, and no one has really gotten into the atmosphere yet. It takes time for a party to actually get started, and that doesn’t happen until after that thirty to sixty minute period. It’s called being fashionably late.”

“But Noah, it’s my first college house party!”

“Exactly. Do you really want to be known as the overenthusiastic mare that actually showed up to a party the minute it started?”

Moon gave me a cross look, but then she let out a defeated sigh. “You know what? Fine. We’ll do things your way.”

“Good,” I said as I slumped into my couch and turned on the TV.

Moon stood in the hallway, idly swinging her arms back and forth. “Sooooo… when are we going to the party?”

“Klaus and Maud are gonna be getting there at nine-thirty, so we can just-”

“Whaaaaaaat!? But that’s such a long time from now. I understand everything you said about arriving fashionably late and what-not, but can’t we go a little earlier than nine-thirty?”

“No, Moon.”

“Please?”

“No.”

The alicorn lit up her horn and disappeared into thin air, only to reappear right in front of me, on her knees in a begging position with puppy-dog eyes.

Which was ironic, considering the fact that her eyes were very cat-like.

I gave her a straight face, not at all phased by her little act. “I said no, Moon.”

She let out a frustrated groan and fell to her back with her wings unfurled. “You are way too dramatic,” I told her.

The alicorn scoffed as she sat up. “I am the ex-princess of the night, Noah. It is in my job description.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said sarcastically. “Look, just relax, okay? The party isn’t going anywhere, and will have plenty of time to experience everything it has to offer.”

“Speaking of time, when does the party end?”

I shrugged. “Eh, house parties don’t really have a set end time.”

“So basically whenever we feel like leaving?”

“For the most part. People usually start to leave around one in the morning, and then the host usually starts kicking people out around two or three.”

“So if we’re getting there at nine-thirty, and most others leave around one AM, that only gives us… three and a half hours!?”

“Will you relax? Trust me, those three and a half hours will feel like at least six.”

“You had better be right about that,” Moon pouted, and she laid back down on the ground, only to sit back up not ten seconds later. “There will be food there, right?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Have you not been to a party before?”

“During my tenure in Princess Luna’s body, I hadn’t been to many parties… unless you count royal balls as parties.”

“Barely.”

“Then no, I haven’t been to a party before.”

I sighed. “Look, Moon. I understand how excited you are, but just chill. Most real-life college house parties are nothing like the ones you see in movies and on TV.”

“If you say so…” she conceded.

For the next hour and a half, Moon and I killed the time by watching TV and playing a video game or two. Throughout that time period, the alicorn was really fidgety and I noticed that she would keep glancing at the nearest clock to see what time it was. When the clock struck nine, we decided that we should at least get dressed since Pete’s house was a fifteen-minute walk from our place. We had already showered earlier that day, and for the time being I was keeping Moon’s clothes in my closet.

“I already have my clothes picked out, so I’ll just change in the bathroom while you figure out what you want to wear,” I told her.

“Sure, thanks,” Moon smiled as I took my clothes and left my bedroom.

My “outfit,” if you could call it that, was really just some random clothes I picked out: an orange long-sleeved shirt with a dark blue down vest, dark blue jeans, and orange sneakers with blue accents.

I didn’t realize how well my random picks matched until after I got dressed.

With that taken care of, I walked into the living room and started to turn all the appliances off since we’d be leaving soon. I decided to have a glass of water before leaving, and I leaned against the kitchen countertop as I drank. The sound of hoofsteps reached my ears, and then I heard Moon’s voice.

“Ta-da!” she exclaimed.

I gulped down the last bit of water in my glass as I set it down on the counter and turned around to look at her. Moon was approaching me with the same black leather jacket that she tried on at the store yesterday as well as the necklace that I got for her, but instead of the low-cut white top that she was wearing at the time, she wore a medium blue top that was cut just as low. She was also wearing a black miniskirt instead of jeans.

“Well? What do you think, Noah? I look quite fetching, no? I think the necklace really ties it all together.”

“You look… nice,” I said passively, trying not to look at her chest. I turned around to put my glass in the sink, but then I felt some kind of force surrounding me and forcibly turning me around to see a frustrated alicorn glaring at me.

“You know, you could at least try to show some concern,” she grunted. “I actually want your opinion.” She walked over to me and put her hands on her hips, and then she leaned forward a bit and looked right at me.

Last time, her eyes looked cute, but this time, I was beginning to fear them again. They were absolutely livid!

“I’m gonna ask you again, Noah. How do I look?”

Fuck, I was in a tough spot. Because of how close she was to me, and the fact that her magic was holding me in place, I had to either endure looking into her piercing eyes or look down at her cleavage. Damn! Why did they have to be so huge? It’s like she had stuffed her bra with a pair of big black water balloons!

I decided to go with option three: close my eyes.

“You look very nice, really,” I said to her.

“And how am I supposed to believe that when your eyes are closed?”

“Could you just not be so close to me?”

“Why?”

“Because your boobs are right in my face and I don’t want to make you mad by staring at them!” I admitted.

Moon blinked, and then she raised an eyebrow at me. “Is that it? And here I thought you were just being stubborn,” she said as she released her magical hold on me and shook her head. “Noah, I’m not gonna be mad at you if you happen to stare at me from time to time. You’re my best friend as well as my roommate. We’re around each other all the time. Combine that with my admittedly intimidating appearance and it’s not really a surprise that you’d stare. Just relax. I know you’re not doing it with a lecherous intent.”

I sighed. “I guess I am being a little paranoid.”

“You always have been the type to get unnecessarily flustered,” she chuckled. “It’s cute, though. C’mon. Let’s get to the party.”

Moon transformed into Nightshade and the two of us left the apartment to head to Pete’s place.

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun!” she cheered as we walked. “I wonder if this Pete is going to have any drinks at this party.”

“Most likely,” I answered, "but you can’t have any."

“What? Why not?”

“Unlike in Equestria, where the legal drinking age is seventeen, in the US, the legal drinking age is twenty-one. As far as everyone else knows, you’re only twenty, just like me, Klaus, and Maud.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Can’t I just say I’m twenty-one? It’s a house party, so it’s not like there’ll be someone to check my ID.”

“That may be true, but I can’t risk you getting drunk at the party. You’ll probably end up turning back into your true form and revealing your identity.”

“What? You think I can’t handle my alcohol?”

“I’m not saying that, but I’m not willing to take the chance, either.”

Nightshade huffed and folded her arms. “Fine.”

“And be careful, too,” I told her. “Sometimes guys like to take advantage of unsuspecting girls at parties.”

“Have you forgotten who you’re talking to? Even with my magic weakened, if any man or stallion even tries to take advantage of me, I’ll blast them into oblivion!”

“If you say so,” I shrugged. As much as I’d like to believe her, part of me felt that I should still keep an eye on her. The last thing either of us needed was for someone to find out who Nightshade really was.

On the other hand, I kinda liked that cocky attitude of hers. There was something that I found very attractive about reformed villainesses.

We met up with Klaus and Maud at Pete’s house and knocked on the door. We could hear the music that was playing inside.

“Looks like we came at the right time,” said the griffon.

I nodded in response as the door opened, revealing a tall, bearded man with a beanie on his head and a drink in his hand.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Klaus Stormcloud and Noah Ashburn. How’ve you guys been?”

“Pretty good,” I answered.

Pete then looked at the two mares behind us. “Ah, I see you two took advantage of the plus-ones I gave you and invited some lady friends.”

“Nice to meet you, Pete,” said the unicorn. “I’m Nightshade.”

“You remember me,” the earth pony said blankly.

“Who could forget you, Maud?” Pete laughed. “C’mon in, the party ain’t out here!” He let the four of us into his house, which was pulsing with music. There was a good amount of other guests, and a lot of them were dancing.

“I’m liking this place already!” Nightshade told me as she took in the scene.

“There’s some coolers in the kitchen with some drinks and there’s a table over there with some snacks on it,” Pete told us. “I made sure to get some non-alcoholic beverages for you young’uns.”

“Pfft! ‘Young’uns’, he says. You can’t be that much older than us,” said Nightshade.

“True, I’m only twenty-two, but I can still drink legally!”

“How very mature of you. I’m sure we can enjoy ourselves without alcohol.”

“You weren’t saying that on the way over here,” I interjected.

“Whatever.”

Pete laughed and left us alone while we went to get some sodas. The party was actually pretty fun, and Nightshade seemed to be enjoying herself, too. Despite that, though, I made sure to stay close enough so that I could make sure that she’d be okay.

“Why am I being so protective of her today?” I thought to myself. “I don’t really remember feeling this way about her before. Is it because I don’t want her secret to be revealed, or is it because of some other reason?”

My thoughts were interrupted as I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Nightshade looking up at me with a smile.

“This is really fun!” she told me over the music. “I just got through playing darts for money and I just won two hundred bucks!”

“You didn’t cheat, did you?” I asked.

“No, they were watching my horn to make sure that I didn’t, but I guess I’m just that good!”

“How modest of you to say that.”

Nightshade giggled and looked at the mass of people and ponies dancing to the music. “Check it out,” she chuckled. “Klaus and Maud are dancing together.”

I looked into the crowd and spotted the griffon and the earth mare dancing with each other to the upbeat music. Klaus was looking particularly uncomfortable, and he looked at me and Nightshade with a pleading expression. “Help me,” he mouthed as he danced with Maud. Speaking of a certain grey-coated mare, Nightshade and I were surprised to see that she was actually a really good dancer. She shook her back and hips and twisted her arms in rhythmic fashion. She was pretty amazing, but the truly baffling thing was that she did all of those wondrous moves while wearing her usual straight face.

“Did you know that she could move like that?” the unicorn beside me asked.

“Not at all,” I answered. “She’s pretty damn good. Her neutral face is throwing me off, though.”

“Yeah, it makes it look like she isn’t putting any effort into it,” Nightshade said in awe as she watched, but then a smile grew on her face. “Would you like to dance with me?”

“Huh?”

“I asked if you wanted to dance with me.”

“Ehh… I’d rather not. I’ll look like a trainwreck in there. Besides, do you even know how to dance at a modern-day party?”

“I think I’ve picked up enough from watching the other ladies on the dance floor, especially Maud. I’m sure I’ll be fine.” She grabbed my wrist and pulled me in against my will.

“I don’t remember accepting your offer!” I told her.

“I don’t remember caring!” she said back as we got into the crowd and she started dancing. As she said, she seemed to have learned from watching the other partygoers. “C’mon! You have to move, y’know!”

I gulped and did a simple two-step, bopping to the beat of the music so that I’d look like I was dancing without drawing attention to myself.

“I guess the best I’m gonna get from you,” she muttered. I didn’t really hear her all that well because of the music, but I heard most of it. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders as she danced with me, shaking her body rhythmically as she stayed close to mine. As she moved, she looked up at me with lidded eyes and a smirk. She then turned around and backed up against me, her butt bumping against my groin.

“I think you learned a little too much,” I told her.

“Oh, lighten up, Noah. Have some fun!” she answered as she kept dancing.

Under normal circumstances, I would’ve been incredibly uncomfortable, but for some reason, I wasn’t. It could’ve been the fact that most of the other females in the room were dancing like that, or the fact that no one was really paying attention to us, but there was something about the carefree nature of the party that made me, well, not care.

When we were through, Nightshade and I left the crowd and got some more sodas. “Man, what a rush!” the mare said as she took a sip of her cola. “I can really get used to these kinds of events! I’m gonna go back in. Wanna come with?”

“Not this time,” I sighed. “That was enough dancing for me.”

“Fine, I won’t force you this time,” she shrugged as she set her drink down beside me and went back into the crowd. As I watched her, I couldn’t help but smile. Nightshade, or Moon, rather, was having so much fun. She really was embracing her life as a regular mare. You’d expect an ex-princess to long for her crown back, but she was an exception. As I watched her, I made sure to keep track of her drink, making sure that nothing bad would happen.

It was a good thing I kept an eye out.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a hand go over Nightshade’s cup and drop some kind of pill into it, and then it grabbed the cup and picked it up.

“The hell?” I thought as I looked up. An earth pony stallion had dropped something into Nightshade’s drink and was taking it to her. I followed him at a distance as he made his way into the crowd and tapped the mare’s shoulder. Nightshade turned around curiously and looked up at the stallion, who put on a kind face as he handed her the cup.

“Here you go, miss.” he said. “You left your drink back there. You really can’t take your eye off your cup these days. Someone could’ve spiked your drink.”

“Oh! Thank you,” she said as she gratefully took the cup. “I really should’ve been more careful.”

“Well, don’t sweat it. I gotta say, though, you’ve got some moves, miss.”

“Please, call me Nightshade.”

“Well, Nightshade, you should really take a sip and cool off. Can’t get exhausted, y’know.”

“Shit!” I thought as I tried to get through the crowd.

“You’re right. I am feeling a little winded,” Nightshade said as she put the cup to her lips, but I was able to stop her before she could take a sip.

“Don’t drink that!” I yelled as I snatched the cup from her. I let out a relieved breath as I held the cup in my hand.

“Noah? What’s the matter?” she asked innocently.

“I saw this guy slip a roofie into your drink.”

“What!?” the stallion said, offended at what I had just said. “That’s a serious accusation, don’t you think?”

“Are you sure, Noah?” Nightshade asked. “That is a pretty big claim to make.”

“Trust me; I made sure to watch your drink while you were dancing,” I told her.

“Look, man. Do you even have any proof that I did this?” the stallion asked.

“I don’t need any proof when I saw you!”

Just then, a nearby dancer bumped into the earth stallion, and something fell out of his jacket pocket.

Namely, a plastic bag with several pills in it.

“But I guess if you really want proof, then there it is,” I scoffed.

“What?” Nightshade said, appalled. “You tried to drug me?”

“No, no, no,” the stallion said as he clumsily picked up his bag. “This is just… medicine! I have to take it every three hours, which is why I carry it around with me.” He put on a smile and approached the unicorn, stroking her mane. “Just relax, sweetheart, your little friend is being paranoid.”

“Don’t touch me!” Nightmare yelped as she swatted his hand away. “And don’t call me ‘sweetheart,’ either.” She grabbed my arm and tried to walk away. “Let’s go, Noah. I want to get as far away from this creep as possible.”

Just then, the stallion grabbed the mare’s arm firmly and pulled her back. “Where do you think you’re goin’!?”

“Let me go!”

“Not a chance!”

I tried to pry his hand from Nightshade’s arm, but he pushed me to the ground and continued to pull.

That’s when I saw the fury in Nightshade’s eyes. She glared at the stallion as she lit her horn. “Why you little…!” she growled as her horn grew brighter, until it fired a dark beam at the stallion, hitting him square in the chest. I scrambled to my feet, hoping that she didn’t kill him, and when I saw the result of the blast, I was in shock.

Nothing. The blast did nothing. The stallion merely staggered back a bit, his shirt barely singed by the magical energy. Nightshade’s efforts hadn’t succeeded at all.

The only thing she succeeded in doing was ruining the stallion’s shirt and making him mad.

“You little bitch! You know how much this shirt cost!?” he yelled as he stomped toward her. “I oughta-”

“You oughta what?” someone said as they stepped in front of Nightshade.

I looked and saw that Klaus and Maud and gotten in-between the aggressive earth pony and the frightened unicorn.

“Go ahead,” said the griffon. “Tell me. Tell me what you oughta do.”

By now, most everyone was looking at the scene that was unfolding, and the earth stallion raised a fist at Klaus, only for Maud to catch it as he brought it down.

“I wouldn’t,” she told him bluntly as she squeezed his fist, making the poor guy squeal like a filly.

Maud gave him a blank stare as she continued to squeeze, bringing the other earth pony to his knees. “Okay! Okay! Let go!!!”

“What’s going on here?” Pete said as he showed up to the scene. His eyes widened when he saw the stallion on the floor. “Brickstone? How’d you get in here? You causing trouble again?”

“N-no, Pete! This isn’t what it looks like!”

“Let go of ‘im, Maud. I got this,” Pete said as Maud let go of Brickstone’s fist. The stallion was then held up by his collar. “Y’know, you’re really startin’ to annoy me, man. You have a really bad history of stirrin’ shit up at my parties, and I’m gettin’ really tired, so unless you want me to lose a foot in your ass, you’d better get outta my house, you understand!?”

Brickstone nodded his head pathetically as Pete dropped him, and the earth stallion ran out the door with his tail between his legs.

“I’m really sorry about all this, you guys,” he said to my friends and me.

“It’s okay, Pete,” I sighed. “At least no one got hurt.”

I turned around and looked at Nightshade, who had her hands wrapped around herself, shaking like a leaf.

“I… think we’re gonna head home,” I said to Pete. “She needs some rest.”

“Good call,” he said as he turned around to address the crowd. “Nothing to see here, people!”

Nightshade and I walked out of the house, with Klaus and Maud following close behind. “You guys leaving, too?” I asked.

“It’s hard to stay in the partying mood after all that just happened,” said the griffon.

“We’re heading back to the school. Look after Nightshade, okay?” Maud asked, her usually neutral face showing an incredible amount of concern and worry.

I nodded my head as we parted ways, and as we walked home, I could hear Nightshade’s uneven breathing. I put my hand around her shoulder and pulled her closer to me, hoping that the gesture would calm her down some. Thankfully, it did.

Plus, it felt really good to be of help to her.

By the time we got home, it was quarter to midnight. I turned the lights on and went into the kitchen to get Nightshade a glass of water. When the glass was poured I turned around and saw that she had turned back into Nightmare Moon, but the distraught expression on her face still remained.

“Here,” I said as I handed her the glass.

“Thank you…” she whimpered as she gingerly took it from me and sipped as she sat on the couch.

“It’s okay, Moon,” I told her as I rubbed her shoulder. “Everything’s okay. It’s over. You weren’t hurt, and Brickstone was taken care of. You’re gonna be fine.”

The alicorn shook her head. “No I’m not,” she cried, tears falling from her face. “I was hurt, Noah. My pride was hurt. I tried to defend myself with a spell and it ended up doing nothing.”

I had never seen Moon like this; Her face was going through several emotions: sadness, fear, helplessness, anguish, frustration, and anger.

“You just underestimated him,” I consoled. “I know you would’ve taken him out if you weren’t holding back.”

Moon didn’t respond. Her hands merely shook violently. “No, I wouldn’t have,” she sniveled.

“What do you mean?”

She turned her head and looked at me with an emotionally mixed face, her eyes staring right at me.

“Noah, I put every ounce of magic I had into that blast, and he just brushed it off like it was nothing. If you weren’t around, I wouldn’t have had any way to defend myself. How do you think that makes me feel?”

I had finally realized why she was so upset. She used to be one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria, and all this time she had been building up her magical strength and learning more powerful spells, but after nearly three years, she still wasn’t strong enough to beat a regular guy.

“The whole time we walked home, I kept thinking about what would’ve happened if you and the others didn’t help me. I didn’t even know that he slipped a roofie in my drink. I would’ve been putty in his hands.” Moon began to shiver violently as more tears fell from her face, and she grabbed me and held me close to her. “I’m completely helpless on my own! I can’t even depend on myself to solve my own problems!”

I shut my eyes and hugged the sobbing alicorn, and her whimpering began to slow down.

“You’re not helpless, Moon. Everyone slips up and needs someone to catch them. That’s why you have friends to look out for you… That’s why you have me to look out for you.”

“Noah…” she said as she held me, her chin resting on my head. “If that’s true, can you promise me something?”

“What is it?”

Moon loosened her hold on me a little and looked down at me. “Promise me that you’ll always be there for me, and in turn, I’ll promise to always be there for you.”

I nodded and rested my head against the trap of her shoulder. “I promise.”

Moon and I sat there holding each other, taking comfort in each other’s warmth.

“I… I don’t want to sleep by myself tonight,” she whispered. “Could we-”

“Sure,” I answered before she could finish. We both stood up, Moon holding my hand, and we walked down the hall as she stayed close to me. When we got into my room, I took some of my sleeping clothes out of my closet while Moon used her magic to change into hers. I looked at her nervously as I held my clothes.

“Go ahead,” she said as she closed her eyes. “I won’t look.”

I quickly changed into my sleeping clothes and tossed my old garbs into the laundry basket. By the time I had gotten changed, Moon was already in the bed, tucked under the covers. I climbed onto the bed myself, tucking under the covers, too. Once I got in, the alicorn shifted a little and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me towards her once again. I became enveloped in her warm embrace, her obsidian coat feeling soft and smooth against my skin. Her body was so soft that I felt like I was melting; it was as if I was sinking into a mare-shaped water bed with extra-large bumps.

“You’ll keep your promise, right?” she whispered.

I wrapped my arms around her and nodded.

“I will.”

Chapter Six - Lifting Her Spirits

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I woke up the next morning with Moon still holding me close to her. Her chin was resting on top of my head while the side of my face was resting against her upper chest. It rose and fell as she peacefully inhaled and exhaled, and every now and then she’d let out a content sigh. While I had been awake for several minutes, I decided to wait until she woke up.

Thankfully, that didn’t take too long.

Moon let out a yawn as she slowly emerged from her slumber, and she loosened her hold on me so she could move her head down and nuzzle me.

“Good morning, Noah,” she crooned.

“Morning, Moon,” I replied as she released me. “Did you sleep well?”

The alicorn nodded her head. “Very well. Your bed is quite comfortable,” she told me, and then she muttered something under her breath, “and I suppose it didn’t hurt for me to have someone to share it with, for once.”

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she sighed, and she gave me a warm smile.

I shrugged my shoulders and got up onto my feet. “I’m headed to the kitchen. What do you want for breakfast?”

“Pancakes, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“I think I can manage that.”

I walked out of my room and into the kitchen, and I looked into the fridge to see if I had what I needed to make what Moon requested.

“I could always put some frozen pancakes in the toaster oven,” I thought, “but it’s a nice Sunday morning. I can make ‘em from scratch.”

As I prepared breakfast, I heard the shower running in the bathroom, and I started to think about Moon.

“That party last night must have been traumatizing for her. It makes me wonder what would’ve happened had I not been there to help her. I know it was really crushing for her to realize how far she was from her former strength, but I hope she doesn’t dwell on it too much. It wouldn’t be good for her, but then again, when I think about it, I can’t help but feel frustrated myself. True, I spotted the bastard with those roofies but still… I couldn’t stop him from harassing Moon… I’m gonna have to try harder if I want to keep something like that from happening again.”

About ten minutes later, Moon walked into the living room showered and dressed, and she sat on the couch.

“Perfect timing,” I told her. “I just finished making breakfast. You want your pancakes with butter and syrup, right?”

“M-hm,” she answered, and I could tell from the tone of her voice that her mind was elsewhere. Regardless, I fixed her food the way she asked me to and brought her plate to her, along with a glass of orange juice. I then brought my plate and drink into the living room as well and sat beside Moon as she ate.

The next few minutes were deathly silent. Moon didn’t even bother to turn on the TV. She just ate quietly, her eyes looking almost as blank as Maud’s.

“I didn’t overcook the pancakes, did I?” I asked.

She shook her head as she sipped some of her juice. “Not at all. They’re really good, Noah.”

“Okay then…”

“You know, I feel a little bad that you’re always making food for me. I should make some for myself for once.”

“I don’t mind. It’s not like I’m slaving over a hot stove for you. It’s no trouble.”

“Still, I feel like you keep going out of your way to make me comfortable. I’m supposed to be your roommate, not your burden.”

I let out a sigh. “Okay, Moon. What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, really,” she assured. “I’m fine. It’s just that… I’ve been thinking about last night, and how you had to save me back there. I wasn’t the least bit careful and you had to cover up for my foolishness. I didn’t mean to make you feel like you were my babysitter,” she then chuckled. “Now I know why you were on my case before we got to the party.”

“Look, Moon. You need to stop thinking about last night, okay. Like I said, we all slip up sometimes. I was looking out for you because that’s what friends do for each other. Don't forget that Maud and Klaus were the ones that saved you from that guy. I just stopped you from falling into his trap.”

“But you did save me! You took away my cup!”

“Nevertheless, that’s no excuse for my lack of strength. The guy… he pushed me aside like I was nothing. In the end, I didn’t do much.” My expression began to grow depressed.

“But it’s the thought that counts!” Moon reassured me.

“Yeah… I guess… But still, what happened was just a fuck-up, so don’t you worry!”

“But... what if I make the same mistake again?”

“I don’t think that’ll happen.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Bad things happen to us for a reason. Whenever you go through a bad experience or make a mistake, you’ll know what to do the next time that situation comes around, and even if you still aren’t sure, I’ll be around to help you, just like I promised.”

Moon’s uneasy look began to change into one of self-assurance. She looked at me with a smile and said “Thank you, Noah.”

“No problem,” I told her. “You know, it's pretty nice out today, too nice to spend cooped up indoors. Wanna go out into town today? I heard that there was a street fair that’s supposed to be starting in a few hours.”

The alicorn nodded her head. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

A few hours later, Moon and I were dressed and ready to go out. She wore a short-sleeved white shirt with black jeans, and she also wore that necklace again. Once we were both ready, Moon transformed into Nightshade and we left the apartment. By the time we were out of the house, it was half past twelve, and we caught a bus to the local shopping plaza. When we got there, we noticed the large amount of people and ponies there, and we knew that we had made it. When we got out of the bus, we found a sign at the end of the street, and when we took a closer look, we saw that it read:

WEST GAINESVILLE STREET FAIR

There were numerous tents set up along either side of the street. Under the tents were various attractions: vendors, face painters, carnival-style games, you name it, it was there.

I could tell that Nightshade was excited from the way her tail happily swished back and forth, and there was a considerably large grin on her face.

“Which tent do you want to hit first?” I asked generously.

The unicorn looked curiously at the different attractions. “Um… I don’t know… Oh! Let’s go over there!” She pulled me over to a nearby tent, where a pegasus mare was doing some face painting.

“Hi there!” she said happily.

“Hello,” said Nightshade. “How much does it cost to get my face painted?”

“Depends. What design are you going for?”

“Um… I was thinking that you could paint a dark purple blotch over my right eye and then paint a crescent moon in the center of the blotch.”

“Oh! For a simple design like that, I only charge five bucks.”

Nightshade turned to me and looked at me with puppy-dog eyes again, and I chuckled as I took out my wallet. “Here you go,” I said to the pegasus as I handed her the money.

“Thanks,” she smiled, and then she looked at Nightshade as she patted the stool in front of her. “Have a seat right here and I’ll get right to work.”

The unicorn happily took a seat in front of her, and the painter got to work decorating her face. It took her about five minutes for her to finish painting Nightshade’s face, and when she was done, Nightshade looked up at me with a smile.

“Well? How do I look?”

I chuckled. “It’s actually pretty cute.”

“Maybe you should get one!”

“Eh… Maybe not.”

“Oh, come on, Noah! It wouldn’t kill you!”

“I’ll do it free of charge,” said the pegasus mare.

“See? She’s all for it!” Nightshade insisted.

“Nah, I’m good.”

The unicorn let out a frustrated groan as she stood up. “You’re so boring, you know that?”

“Oh well,” I told her, and then I looked at the painter with a smile. “Thanks. She looks really nice.”

“You’re quite welcome,” she answered gratefully. “You two have a good day, now!”

“You too!” Nightshade and I answered as we left the tent, waving goodbye to her.

She stayed close to me as we walked down the street, looking at the different tents and wondering where we should go next.

“Noah, do you really think the design on my face looks cute?” she asked me.

“Yeah. While the blotch’s color doesn’t really stand out from your coat as Nightshade, I still think it suits you nicely.”

The mare smirked. “Well it should, because this is my cutie mark.”

“Oh… really?” The image of Nightmare Moon’s actual cutie mark in person started to fill my head as my face flushed red. Damn! I was imagining looking at it upon her bare ass! I shook my head vigorously as I tried to get that image out of my head.

“Having some dirty thoughts, are we?” Nightshade said as she gave me an evil grin.

“You asked for a painting of your cutie mark on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Aw, Noah! You know me so well,” she cheered as she hugged me.

I rolled my eyes with a sigh as she affectionately squeezed me, and when she let me go, she spotted another tent that she wanted to visit. Just like the last time, she dragged me by my arm over to said tent, where a middle-aged man was finishing up a drawing of a pair of foals sitting in front of him.

“Aaaaand… done!” he declared as he signed his name at the corner of the picture. “There you go, kids.”

“Thank you so much mister!” they said in unison as the man gave them the portrait and they happily ran over to their parents to show it to them. The man turned around to look at me and Nightshade and gave us a smile.

“Mornin’! How can I help you two?”

Nightshade grasped my arm and got close to me. “We were wondering if you could draw a portrait of the two of us.”

“The two of us?” I asked giving her a look.

“Sure!” the man said, not even hearing me. “It’s ten dollars for the portrait, and if you want it in color, it’s twenty dollars.”

Nightshade immediately gave me the puppy-dog eyes again, adding a pout for good measure. “Can we-”

“Yes, we’ll get it in color,” I answered before she could even finish. I took out my wallet and paid the man, and we took a seat in front of him.

This mare was starting to bleed me dry.

“We’d better get comfortable,” she told me. “We’re gonna be sitting here for a while.”

“I’ll try not to keep you guys waiting for too long,” the man laughed. “Just tell me when you’re ready.”

The unicorn shuffled in her seat to the left of me, and then she wrapped her arms around my left arm and pulled herself close to me, her body facing mine. She then looked at the artist with a smile and said “Ready!”

The man nodded and got to work drawing Nightshade and I. As we sat there, she held my arm tightly, sighing with content. Every now and then, I would look down at her out of the corner of my eye and see the big smile on her face. I could feel the mare’s heartbeat as she rested against me, and it was beating at a slow, steady pace. I suddenly felt her tail brush my lower back as we sat, and while I didn’t bother to look at her, I could tell she was smiling deviously. This mare was really getting to me, but as much as I hated to admit it, deep down I kinda liked it.

It took about fifteen minutes for the man to finish our portrait, and when he handed it to us, Nightshade gasped.

“I love it!” she cheered as she admired the drawing.

“It looks really nice,” I agreed.

The artist smiled and handed us a plastic sleeve to put the picture in and a plastic bag to carry it around in. “I’m glad you two like it! Pleasure doin’ business with ya!”

“Likewise,” Nightshade said with a nod and the two of us left his tent.

“So where to now?” I asked her.

“Well, I am feeling kinda hungry… I could go for a nice hayburger right now.”

“A hayburger? That’s a rather unrefined meal for a princess, don’t you think?"

"Ex-princess, and I’ll eat whatever I damn well please, thank you very much.”

The two of us found a tent that was selling food, and Nightshade got her beloved hayburger with hay fries while I got a regular burger with regular fries.

I’ve tried a hayburger before, and it just didn’t sit well with me.

Nightshade and I found an empty bench to sit at and we got to eating our food. As we ate, we looked around the fair and saw all sorts of festivities going on. There was even a bounce house for the kids, and I caught Nightshade staring at it intently.

“No,” I told her.

“Why not? It’ll be fun!”

“I’m not denying that, but I doubt that they’ll let two grown twenty-year-olds into a bounce house with a bunch of little kids. Besides… there’s a weight limit.”

"What're you trying to say?"

"You know full well that I didn't mean it like that. I meant our weight compared to that of a little kid."

“I suppose you’re right.”

As we continued eating, I looked up and noticed that Nightshade was just… looking at me. She just stared at me for no apparent reason, and her deep blue sapphire eyes bore into me as she gazed. I never noticed how different they were when she was in her Nightshade form. Unlike Moon's teal, cat-like eyes, Nightshade’s were as blue as the sea.

“Um… Do I have food on my face?” I asked her.

“Huh?” she asked back.

“You’ve been staring at me for, like, a minute and a half.”

“I have?” she blinked, fidgeting in her seat. “Sorry, I didn’t notice.”

“Hm…”

Did she really not notice that she had been staring me down? Not to mention that she seemed really embarrassed and timid all of a sudden, too. I think she might have been blushing, even.

I decided to shake it off and keep eating, dismissing it as another case of Nightshade being weird. After we finished our food, we continued to walk around the fair, stopping at whatever tent the unicorn found interesting. I even won a stuffed bat for her at a ring toss game.

All the while, Nightshade was really enjoying herself. She had gone back to being the same mare that I became friends with all those months ago, and she appeared to have put last night’s incident behind her. At around three-o-clock, she was ready to go home.

“When does the next bus come?” she asked.

“Three-fifteen,” I answered, “and in this crowd, it’ll take about five minutes to get to the bus stop from here.”

“In that case, let’s go now. I don’t mind waiting ten minutes for the bus.”

We traversed through the crowd of people and ponies on our way to the bus stop, and along the way, we saw a familiar face.

“Hey, is that Klaus?” the unicorn asked.

“I think so,” I said, and I looked to see if it was really him. He looked over at us and addressed us with a nod, and Nightshade and I walked over to him.

Although… something didn’t look right about him…

“What’s up, man?” I asked.

“Nothing much,” he answered, his voice a stark contrast from its usual happy tone.

“Why the long face?” Nightshade asked.

“Yeah, you don’t look too good,” I added.

Klaus looked at me and said in a low voice “I’ve been getting calls and messages from you-know-who again.”

“Again?” I asked. “When are they gonna quit?”

“I dunno, Noah. They just won’t quit bugging me. I came here to try and cheer myself up, but it just isn’t working. I’ll see you guys tomorrow, okay?”

The griffon walked off, not saying another word, leaving me feeling sorry for him, and Nightshade utterly confused at what happened.

“What’s wrong with Klaus?” she asked.

I let out a long sigh. “Don’t worry about it,” I told her as we continued to walk to the bus stop. “It wouldn’t help him if anyone else knew.”

“What do you mean? I’m his friend, too, aren’t I? If something’s bothering him-”

“He wants to keep it private,” I interrupted. “I’m the only one he’s ever told, and he doesn’t really want anyone else to know. Hell, the only reason he chose to tell me was so that he could have someone to vent to. Maud doesn’t even know about it. Long story short, he made me promise not to tell anyone, and I’m keeping that promise,” I explained calmly, lamenting Klaus's misfortune.

Nightshade gave me a concerned look, but then she decided to drop the issue. “I get it. I won’t push it any further than I already have.”

True to her word, she didn’t bring it up since then.

The bus ride home was quiet; I sat by the window as Nightshade slept on my shoulder. “All her excitement must’ve finally taken its toll on her,” I thought. She breathed silently as she slept, and she looked really peaceful as she rested against my side. I almost felt bad that I had to wake her up when we reached our stop.

“Wha? We’re here already?” she asked groggily as we came to a stop.

“Yep,” I answered. “C’mon sleepyhead. You can take a nap when we get inside.”

The two of us made our way inside the apartment and Nightshade stretched a little as she transformed back into Nightmare Moon.

“That street fair was rather festive, Noah,” she yawned. “I had a great time. Thanks for taking me.”

“Well, I thought that you could use a good day out instead of staying in here sulking all day.”

“I really should pay you back one of these days.”

“Aw, don’t worry about it. It’s no biggie.”

Moon giggled and sat on the couch, looking at the portrait that we had done of the both of us. “You know, I’d really love to have a portrait done of us when I’m in my true form.”

“Well, if there’s a street fair during Halloween, you could go as your true self and say that it’s a costume.”

The alicorn laughed a little. “I suppose that could be a possibility.”

I sat next to Moon and turned on the TV, and then I looked at her for a second; her cutie mark was still painted over her eye.

“That mark stands out a lot more in your true form’s black coat,” I told her.

Moon blinked at me in surprise and brushed away a stray lock of her mane with a blush on her face. “Thanks,” she muttered with a smile.

“Why’re you acting so shy all of a sudden,” I laughed.

“Well, you’ve never given me a compliment like that before,” she explained. “Usually when I get a compliment from you, I have to ask for it. It feels different when you say something like that on your own without me having to ask.”

“Really?” I asked. “To be honest, I never noticed that.”

Moon and I continued to watch TV for the next several hours, and we both decided to turn in early since we had class in the morning. I got up from the couch to go get the mare’s air mattress, but she gently grabbed my hand before I moved.

“Noah…” she said.

“Yeah?”

The alicorn looked down and blushed again. “I was wondering… if we could sleep together again tonight.”

I was a little surprised at the request. I only had her sleep next to me last night because she needed someone to comfort her, and I didn’t want her to feel alone, but it seemed that she had already taken a shine to sharing a bed. Now that she had asked me again, I wondered what her reason was.

I then decided that her reason was irrelevant. I didn’t really have a reason to say no.

I smiled down at Moon as she looked up at me hopefully.

“Sure, we can sleep together again.”

Chapter Seven - Seeing the Signs

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I woke up from my slumber with my head jolting up from atop my arms. I must have dozed off on my desk… again. It didn’t really bother me, though. As a renowned astronomer, I was my own boss, so it’s not like I was gonna get in trouble. I looked at my laptop and started to aimlessly surf the web, and then I heard my cell phone ringing.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Yo, Noah! How’s it hangin’?”

“Eh, it’s just a regular day at the observatory. Nothing new. What about yourself?”

“Tartarus Entertainment just posted the first trailer for my new video game! It’s gotten two million hits in a half hour!”

“Sounds like this may be your best release yet. I’ll check it out right now, and I’ll call you back when I finish it.”

“Great! Looking forward to it!”

I hung up the phone and set it on my desk beside the computer, and I logged on to Tartarus Entertainment’s website, where Klaus’s trailer was on the front page. Before I could view it, though, I heard a knock at the observatory door.

“Hm… I wonder who that could be,” I thought out loud as I walked up to the door, fixing my lab coat, and when I opened the door, I was met with quite the surprise.

“Guess who!” an obsidian-coated alicorn cheered as she hugged me tightly.

“M-moon!” I said in disbelief “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Equestria?”

“What in Tartarus are you talking about?” she asked back.

“Well, you know, you made amends with Princess Celestia and the other princesses and went back to Equestria to rule alongside them.”

“Is that what the me in your dream is doing?”

“Wait, what!?” I asked.

Moon gave me a confused look, as though I wasn’t in my right mind, and then she let out a laugh. “Oh, that’s right! I forgot! Most people and ponies don’t realize they’re dreaming until after they wake up.”

I blinked. “Wait… this is a dream?” After taking a second to evaluate the reality I was in, I realized that this had to be a dream.

“Quite the place you’ve got here,” Moon said as she walked inside. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in someone else’s dream.”

“You relearned how to go into others’ dreams now?”

“M-hm! It was weird, too. I wasn’t even trying. Soon after I drifted into sleep, I found myself in the space that I used to travel between dreams, and the portal to your dream was quite close since I was sleeping right next to you, so I decided to pay you a visit!”

Now, I wasn’t an expert in magic, but I realized that Moon’s strength has been growing faster lately. At first she was relearning mundane spells like short-distance teleportation and instant transformation, but now, less than a week after that, she could go into my dreams!

I began to wonder what would be next.

“Isn’t this great!” she cheered. “Now we can spend more time together! Of course, the range of my dreamwalking magic is still rather short at the moment, so we’ll have to sleep together every night from now on!”

“Um… cool?” I said, unsure of how to react to this news. It’s not that I didn’t want to spend time with Moon, it’s just that sometimes I liked being alone.

“As much as I’d like to spend more time with you, we have to wake up now,” she said as she lit up her horn and brought us both back to reality. When I woke up, I found myself in the same position I was in the previous night: wrapped in Nightmare Moon’s embrace with my head resting on her chest. Wait… No it wasn’t! I definitely don’t remember having my head on top of her breasts! I mean, not that I could complain, what with all that milky softness against my ear… but still! This was a rather intimate position we were in!

“Good morning,” she cooed as she looked at me with a smile.

“Morning…” I said.

“Well, we’d better get ready. We have a test in Physics today.”

“WHAT!?” I yelled as I tore myself from her embrace and looked at my calendar, where all my test dates were marked. Sure enough, right on today’s date, was a note that said “Physics test”.

“Shit! I totally forgot about that test! I have to get ready so I can cram for it!” I zoomed into the kitchen and made a quick breakfast for moon and me, and after I quickly gulped my breakfast down, I brushed my teeth and took a shower, and then I got dressed and got my Physics textbook.

“I have to go right now. You can catch up later. Your breakfast is on the table. See you in an hour!”

I rushed out of the apartment and caught the shuttle to the school, where I confined myself to the library for the next forty-five minutes, cramming every piece of information I could into my head. When it was time for me to get to class, I walked and read at the same time, hoping that I could at least get a passing grade on the test.

I entered the lecture hall and sat in my usual spot in the back. Nightshade entered after me and handed me a sheet of paper while the professor was clumsily getting the tests out. She then sat at her usual spot on the other side of the classroom. I looked at the paper she handed me as the professor called the students in the front row to get a test. The paper was folded in half and there was a note scribbled on it.

Here are the answers to today’s test. It’s all multiple choice, and since you sit in the back of the class, you should be fine. Because I know you’re wondering how I got these, I used an invisibility spell to sneak into the professor’s office behind him. If you decide not to use these, that’s fine. I just want to make sure you have an out in case you get desperate.

Love, Nightshade.

The shocked expression on my face intensified as I read each sentence.

“Nightshade stole the test answers for me?” I thought. “Was she insane!? She could get expelled if… oh right, she’s not an enrolled student, so she didn’t have anything to lose. Still why would she do this for me? And what’s with writing ‘love’ at the end of the note!?” I looked over to Nightshade, who was gazing at me with lidded eyes, and she subtly waved at me, doing that little finger-flicking thing that girls do when they…

Oh, God.

“No way,” I thought. “She has feelings for me, doesn’t she? Now it all makes sense! Wanting to share a bed with me for a second time, always holding me close to her when we’re sleeping, the way she’s been looking at me lately, and what she said in my dream about ‘spending more time together’. She definitely likes me!” I shook my head and tried to calm down. “Okay, Noah. Relax. Maybe you’re reading too much into this. Maybe she’s just being affectionate because I helped save her at the party two nights ago. Plus, she’s always been an outgoing mare, so maybe she’s just getting more comfortable being around me. Still, no normal friends sleep in the same bed hugged close together like we were for the past two nights. Plus she’s been teasing and flirting with me increasingly often lately.”

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the professor’s voice. “Will the students in the last two rows please come and get their tests,” he announced, and I folded the answer sheet and stuck it in my pocket before getting up.

“Well, even if she does like me, why am I stressing out about it so much?” I asked myself inwardly as I walked to the professor’s lectern. “I mean, it’s not like I hate her, or anything. She is really pretty, both as Nightshade and as Nightmare Moon, and we get along very well… but do I really feel a romantic attraction to her?” I sighed. “In any case, I’m thinking too far ahead. I still don’t know for sure if she even has feelings for me. I mean, I could always be direct and ask her, but if I end up being wrong, it might make things awkward between us, and if one thing is certain, it’s that I value our friendship. I shouldn’t ask her until I’m as sure as I can be about how she feels.”

I picked up my test and went back to my seat and began my test. I tried to do my best on it, but I was too distracted by my suspicions about Nightshade.

“Fuck it, I’ll just use the answers,” I thought, not wanting to make my brain explode. I copied the answers onto my test, and when I finished, I waited until about half the class had turned in their test before turning in mine. After that, I left the class with Nightshade following close behind.

I wonder…

“So, what do you wanna do now?” she asked.

“Well, I have two hours before my next class, and Klaus is free right now, so I’m gonna go see how he’s doing,” I told her. “It’d be best if I went alone.”

“Well, are you sure you want to go alone?” the unicorn asked.

“Don’t you have a class in ten minutes?”

“Yeah, but I stopped going to the classes that I didn’t share with you.”

Wait… what? I was just testing to see if she really didn’t want to be separated from me, but that last sentence of hers proved more than just that.

Not only did she not want to be separated from me, but she wanted to spend as much time as she could with me. I mean, I understand wanting to be around her best friend, but the idea of her cutting class just to be with me made me feel uneasy.

“I don’t think it’d be a good idea if you came with me,” I told her. “It’ll be better if it was just me. You can survive until I’m done, right?”

Nightshade looked down and sighed. “Okay,” she conceded. “See you later.”

I nodded my head and the two of us parted ways. I decided to see if Klaus was in his room, and along the way, I bumped into Maud.

“Hello, Noah,” she said with her usual monotone greeting.

“Hey, Maud.”

“…”

I gave the earth mare a confused look. While she was a mare of few words, she would usually have at least one thing to say to me other than “Hello.”

“You okay?” I asked her.

“I’m fine. I’m just surprised.”

Maud can be surprised? Well, this was new.

“Surprised at what?”

“Nightshade is usually with you when I see you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“That’s what it’s been like for a while now. I rarely ever see you two apart, hence my surprise.”

Maud was right. Nightshade and I have been spending a lot of time together, and it wasn’t through any prior planning of my own. She was just always around, and since I enjoyed her company, I never bothered to do anything about it.

“I am a lot more perceptive than I let on, Noah,” she told me. “She’s growing attached to you. Nightshade, I mean.”

“To be honest, I’ve been noticing that myself, as well… Can I ask you something?”

“I don’t know. Can you?”

“You know what I meant,” I said, not enjoying her passive grammar correction. “Do you think that Nightshade is growing attached to me because she has feelings for me?”

Maud blankly stared at me, looked up in thought, closed her eyes for a moment, and then she shrugged her shoulders.

“It is possible, but I can’t say for certain,” she admitted. “She’s harder to figure out than most other ponies and people that I’ve met. She’s a strange one, really hard to figure out.”

Look who’s talking.

“I’m sorry I can’t answer your question, Noah,” she said as she looked at her watch. “I have to go. My Advanced Geology class starts in ten minutes.”

“Sure. See you later,” I shrugged. “By the way, have you seen Klaus?”

“I last saw him at the student lounge sitting at our usual spot,” Maud answered as she kept walking.

“Thanks!” I called out before heading towards the lounge. As Maud had said, Klaus was sitting at our usual table, a cup of coffee in one hand and a bagel in the other, and from the look on his face, I could tell he was falling apart.

“Hey, man.” I said as I approached him. “You mind if I sit here, or would you rather-”

“Go ahead,” he said.

I nodded my head and sat down across from the griffon, who sighed as he sipped at his coffee.

“Things have gotten a little better, I hope,” I said, trying to stay positive, for his sake.

“I wish,” he scoffed. “They’ve been bugging me more often than usual… I don’t see why they can’t just leave me alone.”

“Have you tried asking Griselda to help you out?”

“She tried, but they won’t even listen to her, which just proves how adamant they are about this. I actually feel guilty for asking my big sister to fight my battles for me, though. She was the reason why I was able to leave home and come to Florida with my folks being none the wiser, and she’s the one paying my tuition.”

“Don’t think about it that way. At least you have someone in your family that supports you. It’s because of her that you were able to go to school here.”

“I guess that’s true,” Klaus said as he took a bite out of his bagel. He gulped it down and let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s such bullshit. Why can’t my parents just let me choose what I want to do with my life? Just because my older brothers and sisters all followed the same path doesn’t mean I have to.”

“Well, maybe they’ll adjust if you give them time.”

“I don’t know Noah. For generations, everyone in my family has gone on to be either a soldier, an athlete, or a law enforcement officer. I’m the only one that decided to do something different, and my folks can’t handle it. I once overheard my dad telling my mom that I was ‘just going through a rebellious phase’ because I was the youngest.”

“Well, you’re a grown adult now, so it’s not like they can force you to come back home,” I told him with a matter-of-fact tone. “You’re your own man now, so whatever decisions you make are none of their concern.”

“You wanna try telling them that?”

I opened my mouth to say something, but from the way Klaus described his parents, they sounded incredibly intimidating.

“I can see why you’d hesitate to tell them that… Look, maybe we could do something to cheer you up. You know Mary’s comet will be here in less than two months. You, me, Maud, and Nightshade can all drive to the beach together and watch it, and isn’t your sister supposed to be visiting from Texas around that time, too?”

“I don’t know if I can endure another two months…” Klaus said.

“Well, maybe you should try talking to your parents about this. When you told me about all this two months ago, I understood why you never really stood up to them, but the way things are going, you have to say something or else things will get worse.”

Klaus didn’t respond. He simply took another sip of coffee. “I get what you’re saying, but it’s a lot easier said than done.” The griffon sighed and got up from his seat. “Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Noah, but I need some more time to think about this.”

I nodded my head, not wanting to push the issue and inadvertently upset him. “Okay, take some time to mull it over. I’ll catch you later, okay?”

“Yeah…” Klaus said as he left the lounge.

I left not long after him, and I had a good amount of time until my next class, which was chemistry. Just then, my phone chimed and vibrated in my pocket; it was a text from Maud.

“Met up w/Nightshade @ the library. She’ll catch up w/you after your chem class.”

As I read the message, I wondered what I could do with my free time. Maud was hanging out with Nightshade and Klaus was busy moping, so I didn’t really have anything else to do. I shrugged my shoulders and let out a sigh.

“I guess I’ll just take a nap in the library.”

Chapter Eight - Hints and Insinuations

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I was pretty exhausted when I got home from Chemistry class that day. As one would imagine, having to listen to a three-hour lecture on the different types of bonds is really draining, especially when I already knew a good chunk of the material.

“Today was a long day…” I thought as I took my key out of my pocket and unlocked the door. “Well, at least I can finally relax in the comfort of my apartment. I’ll fix myself a nice dinner, watch an episode of ‘How It’s Made’, read that comic book I’ve been trying to finish, and then have a good night’s re-”

“NOAH!” A cheerful voice yelled as I was assaulted by a large force, said force being Moon pulling me in for an overwhelmingly tight hug. “You’re home! I’ve been waiting for you!”

“I see that…” I gasped, the air quickly escaping my lungs. Moon then let me go and I was able to breathe again. “How was your time with Maud?”

“Oh, it was fine,” she answered with a wave of her hand. “We just had random girl chatter for a while, and then she had to go to another one of her classes, so I just came back here. I’ve been waiting for a long time for you.”

“How long?”

“Thirty minutes.”

“That isn’t really a long time, you know.”

Moon then pulled me into another, less constricting hug. “A half hour can feel like a year without my closest friend with me!”

“Is that so?” I nervously chuckled. She said that I was her closest friend, but I suspected that there was more to it than that. In fact, there was a lot that I suspected about her actions that day, but I didn’t act on my suspicions just yet. It had only been two days since the party, so I decided to wait and see what Moon’s behavior towards me would be like over the course of the week.

As I had expected, she asked to sleep with me again that night. What I didn’t expect was for her to sleep with me every night after that. It got to the point where she didn’t even ask; she’d just hop into bed with me and make herself comfortable. Every night, she’d pull me close to her and whisper goodnight to me as my head rested against her warm and comfy chest with her heartbeat barely audible to me, and every night she’d visit me in my dreams. Whenever we were alone, Moon was very affectionate with me, and in my dreams, she was even more so.

Especially on one particular night.

They say that most people barely remember the dreams they have, and it’s true. It’s difficult to recollect what goes on in your dreams, unless the dream you had was either very scary, or very shocking.

I’m not quite sure which category I would put this particular dream in.

It was a Wednesday night when I had that dream, and it started with me waking up in a large bed with silk sheets.

You could imagine how confused I was.

I groggily got out of the bed and left the large bedroom, only to find myself in an even larger living room. The walls were painted white, there was a fireplace in the center, and there was a set of sliding glass doors to a balcony with a view of the south Florida coast.

I stared at the room in awe and confusion. “What in the-”

“There he is!” a jubilant voice sang as the mare it belonged to approached me with a skip in her step.

“Moon?” I said. “I guess I’m dreaming again.” Moon’s visits to my subconscious were so routine that I automatically assumed that I was dreaming whenever I found myself in an unfamiliar situation and she was around.

“Do you like what I’ve done with the place?”

“What you’ve done with the place? What do you mean?”

“Well, after three nights of visiting your dreams, I got the idea that I could make your dreams as pleasant as possible so that you can sleep well!”

“Um… thanks?” I said as I looked at the alicorn. She was wearing an apron and a red house dress with pinstriped white sleeves. Jeez! All that was missing was a 50s hairstyle! “What’s with the housewife getup?”

“I’m just going with the theme that I set up for this dream.”

“Theme?”

“Yeah! See, you’re a bigshot making a ton of money, you have a house with a beautiful view,” she then pulled me closer to her, holding my head to her chest, “and you have a lovely wife to come home to after a long day at work.”

“Wait… WIFE!?” I exclaimed, that four letter word echoing in my head.

“Oh relax, Noah. Like I said, I’m just fitting with the theme,” she laughed, “although the thought of having you as my husband is rather intriguing.”

“What!?”

“Oh, nothing?”

Nothing? Really? You don’t just drop a bomb like that and just act like you didn’t say it. What was up with her?

“You really should relax, Noah. No need to get worked up over something that isn’t even real,” Moon giggled.

I suppose she was right about that, but still, she was the one that made this dream for me. She didn’t have to make it so that we were married. I found it very hard to take her advice and relax, and just endured as much as I could.

This wasn’t the first instance where Moon’s actions and words have been a little… questionable, for lack of a better word. The very next day, I was free for the morning and I planned to swing by the comic book store to get the newest issue of my favorite series. It was supposed to be a quick trip, and Moon was taking a nap when I left the apartment, so I left a note on the fridge for her so she’d know where I was.

To this day, I wonder if doing that was a good idea.

It was a short bus ride to the comic book store, and I picked up the issue that I wanted.

“Hey there, Noah!” the clerk said as I walked up to her.

“Hey, Cecile,” I said back as I placed the comic on the table.

“I had a feeling you’d be here to pick that up. It’s an awesome issue, by the way. You’ll totally freak when you see the end-”

“Ah! Don’t spoil it!” I yelled, covering my ears.

“Oh, relax. I wasn’t gonna do that to you. I know how much you hate spoilers. Anyway, that’ll be three dollars and ninety-nine cents, please.”

“Sure,” I told Cecile as I got my wallet out. Just then, the store’s door flung open, and a flustered unicorn rushed inside.

“Noah!” she exclaimed as she rushed over to me. “Why did you leave the house without me!?”

“I left a note on the fridge, Nightshade. I said that I’d be back soon. I was just picking up a comic.”

“But you know I don’t like being alone!”

“I thought you’d still be asleep by the time I got back…” I tried to calm her down so that she wouldn’t make a scene, and thankfully, there wasn’t anyone else in the store besides Cecile.

The unicorn looked at the woman behind the counter, and then looked at me. “Who’s this?” she asked in a disarmingly accusatory tone.

“This is Cecile. She owns this store.”

“’Sup,” she said with a smile.

“Cecile, this is Nightshade. She’s my roommate.” I explained.

“Roommate?” she asked curiously. “I don’t remember you having a roommate.”

“I moved in a week ago,” Nightshade told her as she got closer to me. “We’re really close friends.”

“Is that so?” Cecile laughed. “I guess you two go way back, then.”

“Not neces-”

“Oh yeah, we go WAY back. We know practically everything about each other.”

“I wouldn’t say-”

“You’d think that we’ve been living together for years,” Nightshade finished. It really bothered me, the way she was talking. It was as if she was trying to make a point, like Cecile had crossed some nonexistent line and had to be put in her place.

“You don’t say,” Cecile smiled as she handed me my comic. “Well, you two take care, alright?”

“Sure,” I answered. “Say hi to Julian for me, okay?”

“You got it!”

Nightshade and I left the store, the unicorn still walking uncomfortably close to me. “Who’s Julian?” she asked in a bitter voice.

“Cecile’s fiancé,” I answered.

“Oh!” she said, her tone suddenly turning more pleasant. “I guess I had nothing to worry about, then!”

“Nothing to worry about?”

“Oh, forget it. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

I gave the mare a look. “Well, what does matter is the fact that you freaked out over me leaving the house for ten minutes.”

“Well, it’s not like I had any way to contact you in case something happened. My magic isn’t strong enough to defend myself, and I can’t perform telepathic spells yet, so I just teleported here to get you.”

As ridiculous as that excuse was, she did have one point: she had no way of contacting me if we were ever separated.

Not that she’d ever separate herself from me lately.

“I suppose you’re right about not being able to keep in touch with me…” I admitted with a sigh. “Since we’re here, why don’t I get you a prepaid phone?”

“That would be nice,” Nightshade smiled. “You don’t have to get me anything too expensive, though. You’ve spent enough on me already.”

Well, she may have been clingy with me, but at least she wasn’t clingy with my wallet.

After I had gotten Nightshade a phone for her to use, I could tell that she was more comfortable with me being away from her, but she still preferred for us to be together as much as possible, which still made me uneasy, as I liked to have at least some time to myself.

It was Friday night, I had no classes, and Moon and I were talking to Klaus and Maud on the phone while we sat on the couch. The phone laid on the coffee table on speakerphone, and we were all discussing our plans to see Mary’s Comet.

“The drive is about a half hour, so if we leave at seven, we’ll be able to get there, set up, and relax a little before the comet passes at eight.” I said.

“And I was able to get in touch with my sister, and she said that she’ll be able to fly in from Texas and come see the comet with us. That wouldn’t be a problem would it?” Klaus asked.

“No,” Maud answered.

“I suppose not,” Moon said in Nightshade’s voice.

“It’s no problem, Klaus,” I told him, “but is she really gonna pay for a plane to Florida just so she could see the comet with us.”

“Hell no!” the griffon exclaimed. “She’s flying here on her own!”

“On her own?” I asked in disbelief. “But it takes almost twenty hours to get from Texas to Florida by car! You’re telling me that she’s gonna fly that far for that long?”

“Not only can she do that, but she can fly faster than the average car’s top speed. She used to be a police officer in the Griffon Kingdom before she transferred to Earth, and they go hard with their police training.”

“The police force in the Griffon Kingdom does have rather high standards for their officers,” Moon told me with a matter-of-fact tone.

“So, I assume we’re using Noah’s telescope, then?” Maud asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I just need to get it out of my closet and assemble it when we get to the beach.”

“And we’ll take my car to get there,” Klaus added.

“So it’s settled then,” I smiled. “Everything’s planned out for Mary’s Comet.”

“Man, this is gonna be so cool!” the griffon yelled.

“I am looking forward to it, as well,” Maud deadpanned.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” Moon said with content.

“Well, I gotta let you guys go. I’m about to go make dinner,” I told them.

“Later!” Klaus answered.

“Goodbye,” said Maud.

Moon and I hung up the phone and I made my way into the kitchen to get dinner started. Since I started living with her, I had to watch what I ate more often than usual. Since she didn’t eat meat, I didn’t eat any around her out of respect for her.

“Hm… some rice sounds good for tonight,” I thought as I took out a pack and prepared it. I was pretty lucky that I had the knowledge to cook, and I had my mother to thank for that. She was so worried about my ability to feed myself that she gave me a crash course in cooking the week before I left for college.

She had the right to be worried, though. Prior to college, I couldn’t cook for shit.

“Did I ever tell you that I was always impressed by your ability to cook?” Moon asked me as she approached me in the kitchen.

“I don’t think so,” I answered. “Is she hitting on me now?” I thought. “She’s been dropping hints more and more often.”

Moon kept standing next to me as we waited for the rice to cook, but thankfully it finished cooking before the silence could get to me.

“Alright, dinner’s ready. I’ll fix you a plate.”

“Thanks, Noah,” Moon smiled as she happily pranced over into the living room and sat on the couch. When I brought her plate over to her, she happily took it and I took a seat next to her. “Mmm~ This rice is good!” she said as she had her first taste.

“Glad you like it,” I told her.

“I’m surprised that you don’t have a girlfriend with how good you are at taking care of a lady,” she chuckled. “If it were me, I’d jump at the chance to have a nice guy taking care of me.”

I nearly choked on my food when I heard that, and Moon looked gave me a surprised and concerned look. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just tried to swallow too much food at once.”

“You really should be more careful,” the alicorn said, and she softly rubbed my chest with one hand, while the other was on my shoulder. For a moment, I felt a little apprehensive, but there was a soothing feeling that her touch was giving me. It was like she knew how to calm me down. “Just slow down. Your food isn’t going anywhere, you know. No need to gulp it all down.”

“Uh… sure.” I said, and she removed her hand from my chest, part of me wanting her to continue. I ate the rest of my dinner and put my plate away. “I’ll be in my room,” I told Moon as I walked into the hallway.

“Okay,” she answered as she turned on the TV.

When I went into my room, I let out a long sigh and slumped onto my bed. I looked over to my nightstand; the comic that I bought yesterday was lying right next to my alarm clock, and I hadn’t even read it yet. My mind was too focused on Moon.

“By now, there’s no doubt in my mind that Moon has feelings for me. I’m sure of it,” I thought, “but do I feel the same about her? I mean, she’s a nice mare and all, I do care about her, and we’re definitely closer than best friends, but I don’t know if I really like her in a romantic kind of way.”

Just then, I heard a knock on my bedroom door, and I let out a sigh. “Come in,” I called out, and Moon opened the door and walked in. “You don’t normally knock before coming in here. You usually just come in.”

“You seemed to be pretty occupied when you left the living room, so I thought it’d be better if I knocked this time,” she explained.

“Well, thanks…” I sat there in silence while she approached the bed and climbed in next to me.

“Is something the matter?”

“Not really. I’m just… thinking…”

“About?”

I didn’t respond.

“What is it, Noah? You know you can tell me anything. When you promised to look out for me, I promised to do the same for you.”

I looked up for a moment, and then I decided to tell her what was on my mind. “Moon, there’s something that I’ve wanted to know about you.”

“Like what?”

“Well, lately you’ve been acting… differently towards me, to put it lightly. You’ve been wanting to spend more time with me, and you’ve been showing more attachment towards me too, and I have to ask: is this because I helped you at that party, or is it because you have feelings for me?”

Despite how much I thought it was the latter, I needed to hear it from her.

Moon’s eyes widened and a blush appeared on her black-coated face. She turned away from me and didn’t answer.

“Sorry for bringing it up so suddenly,” I told her, “It’s just that with what you’ve been doing lately, I can’t help but wonder if there was something more behind it.”

Moon continued to face away from me, her wing hiding her face.

“There was.”

I gave her a confused look, not hearing what she said. “What?”

“I said that there was something more behind it,” she admitted. “I wanted to tell you, but I wasn’t really prepared for it. This was the first time that I’ve… felt something like this for someone else, and I wasn’t really sure how to go about telling you, so I just tried dropping hints so you’d ask me yourself.”

“So you wanted me to be the one to bring it up?”

Moon shook her head and sat up, turning to face me. “I was hoping you would. Instead of just telling you, I wanted you to put the pieces together yourself. It was so much easier for me to just drop hints and make it so that you’d figure it out.”

“Why?”

“Because if I tried to simply tell you, it’d put me in a position of vulnerability… and I don’t like being vulnerable. I thought that if you were the one to ask me, then it’d be easier for me to tell you, but now… it only feels more difficult.”

“So you do have feelings for me, then?” I pointlessly asked.

Moon opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She then looked down and gripped the bedsheets harshly, trying to say at least something, but she ended up lunging towards me with the tightest hug she had ever given me, and the momentum pushed me onto my back.

Thankfully, I wasn’t impaled by her horn.

With me on my back and her body on top of mine, Moon pushed herself up with her arms and looked down at me with eyes that looked almost desperate.

“I do,” she told me. “I do have feelings for you.”

There it was. She had said it, but… why was I surprised? I mean, I saw the signs, and I expected her to say yes, but for some reason, it was still a shock to me.

“It was so difficult…” said Moon.

“What was?”

“Trying to figure out how I felt. I felt that you were different from the other friendships I felt. It was so unfamiliar to me, and I hated not knowing what it was, but when you saved me, I knew what made you different. You’d always be there for me, even when I first revealed myself to you, even though you were terrified of me at first, you still protected me. You kept saying that that’s what friends do, but with all that you’ve done for me, there’s no way that I could think of you as just a friend.” The alicorn lowered her face and gave me an affectionate nuzzle. “I love you, Noah,” she whispered, and she raised her head and looked me in the eyes again, only her gaze was much more passionate. “Do you love me?”

Now I was the one being put into a vulnerable position. I still didn’t know how I felt about her, and here she was, spilling her heart out to me. All her hinting was just a façade to hide how scared she was to really tell me how she felt. Did I really have the heart to disappoint her after she put herself through such a personal trial?

“I…” I struggled to say. Should I lie and keep her happy, or tell her the truth and potentially crush her?

“It’s okay, you don’t have to answer,” she stopped me. “Just let me do this.”

“Do what?”

Moon didn’t answer. She merely lowered her face towards me again, this time to place her soft lips upon mine, my eyes widening when our lips made contact. Her mane cascaded down onto my face, its soft strands caressing my cheeks. I felt her wings and arms slip underneath me and pull me up closer to her, leaving me unable to move in the slightest. That velvety melting feeling came back again, but it was stronger this time, and I was like putty in her hands. Soon, she finally removed her lips from mine, and she looked at me with the same passionate gaze that she gave me before the kiss.

“Was that good?” she asked.

I was nearly speechless. As unsure as I was about how I felt about her, there was no denying that her kiss felt amazing. I felt the same soothing sensation that I felt when she had massaged my chest not ten minutes ago, only this time it was multiplied tenfold.

“Yeah, it was,” I admitted with a nod.

The alicorn let out a sigh. “That’s a relief. I thought that you wouldn’t like it.” She smiled in content and laid down on top of me, minding her horn as she nuzzled me again. “I’m really glad I got this of my chest.”

Yeah, she got that off her chest, but I still didn’t know how I felt. I still wasn’t sure if I felt the same for her. Even so, I decided not to say anything. She didn’t need to hear that at the moment. I feared what her reaction would be if I told her something like that after she had just exposed her feelings to me.

I wrapped my arms around her and held her close to me, and she let out a satisfied hum.

“I should just keep her happy while I try and figure my feelings out,” I thought. “I hope I’m making the right choice here…”

Chapter Nine - Breaking the News

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The next morning, I woke up with the bed sheets covering me and a freshly fluffed pillow under my head. Surprisingly, Moon wasn’t sleeping next to me, for once, and I had to admit that it kinda missed it. I had gotten used to being held against her soft, velvety coat and-

Wait… what was that smell?

I climbed out of the bed and walked towards the door, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I did so. When I opened the door, the once faint scent hit me at full force.

Toast?

I walked at a faster pace and made my way to the kitchen, where I saw something incredibly surprising…

Moon was cooking breakfast!

She had two plates of toasted bread in front of her, and she held a knife in one hand and a small tub of butter in the other. The alicorn hummed musically to herself as she spread butter over each slice of bread.

“Noah’s going to love this!” she said to herself. “What guy wouldn’t love a girl serving him breakfast in bed?”

Moon wanted to serve me breakfast in bed? Well, that explains why she was gone when I woke up.

“It’ll be so romantic! He’ll wake up to see his lovely mare serving him buttered toast, and he’ll feel like a king!”

I sighed. “She worked so hard to do this for me…” I thought. “I guess I oughta let her have this one. Besides, I can’t say no to a few extra minutes of sleep.”

I went back to my room and climbed into my bed, closing my eyes and getting comfortable under the covers, and tried to go back to sleep, but several minutes later, I felt a delicate hand nudging me.

“Noah…” a soft voice cooed. “Wake up, Noah…”

Wait, she was inside the room already? I didn’t even hear her make a sound. Even if she teleported inside, I would’ve heard the sound of her magic.

Then it hit me: I had left the door open. She probably hovered in with her wings.

I stirred out of my half-slumber and opened my eyes to see Moon standing at my bedside with a plate in her hand.
“Good morning, sleepyhead!” she greeted, apparently not noticing that I was only feigning sleep. “I made you some breakfast!”

“Oh, you did?” I asked as I let out a surprisingly genuine yawn.

Moon nodded her head enthusiastically with an ear-to-ear smile on her face. “I know it’s not much, but it was the first meal I’ve ever cooked, so I didn’t want to go overboard.”

“It’s fine. This is nice enough. The toast does look good. You didn’t burn it or anything.”

The alicorn let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to know. I was worried that you wouldn’t like it.”

“You say that like I’m some kind of harsh food critic,” I said as I took a bite of the toasted bread. “Mmm… this tastes good, Moon.”

Her eyes immediately brightened up and she dove at me with a hug. “Oh, thank you, Noah! That really means a lot!” She squeezed me and gave me a kiss on the cheek as she nuzzled me.

“Don’t mention it,” I chuckled.

Moon and I continued to eat our breakfast in the bedroom, and once we were done, I saw that she was fidgeting in the chair that she pulled up beside the bed. Her eyes were cast off to the side, like there was something she wanted to say.

“Something on your mind?” I asked.

“Well, I was thinking… It’s Saturday, and there isn’t really anything that we’re doing today, so I was thinking that we could invite Klaus and Maud over so we can tell them.”

“Tell them? Tell them about what?”

She gave me a confused look, and then she laughed. “About us, silly! We are together now, and it wouldn’t be right of us to just keep it a secret from our closest friends!”

“But we’re-” I began to say, but then I caught myself. “Damn,” I thought. “She wants to go public already? I thought that she’d at least wait a couple of days before wanting to tell anyone, then I’d be able to figure out how I felt about her, but she’s taking things faster than I thought. Okay, think. Think, think, think, think, think… Maybe I can dissuade her a bit.”

Moon looked at me with concerned eyes. “Is something the matter, beloved?”

“Well, I just… Beloved?”

“Yeah, that’s one of my pet names for you.”

“One of them?”

“Nevermind that. What were you trying to say?”

“Well, I was thinking that maybe we should take things a little slower, you know?” I explained. “A lot happened yesterday and I think we should take some time to really define our relationship before we go off telling the whole world about it. We don’t want to rush into things.”

“Rush into things?” the alicorn asked, tilting her head.

“Yeah! I mean, it hasn’t even been a day yet. Don’t you think we should take some time to see where this goes? Y’know, test the waters a bit?”

Moon continued to stare at me confusedly, but then she let out a laugh. “Oh! Now I get it! It’s okay, Noah. I understand that you’re nervous about admitting our love to Klaus and Maud, but they’re our best friends! I’m sure they won’t be judgmental. In fact, I think that they’ll be happy for us! You’ll see, they’ll be excited to hear that we’re a couple now!”

“But I don’t even know it we’re a couple yet," I thought.

“They’re probably awake by now,” said the mare, “I’ll call them and see if they can come over this afternoon.” She then got up and took out her phone, leaving the room so she could call our friends.

“She’s really serious about this. I can’t just crush her feelings now by saying that I’m not sure about our relationship. I’ll just wait until she’s calmed down from all her excitement.”

It was three in the afternoon. We had already eaten lunch, and we were waiting for Klaus and Maud to arrive.

“You didn’t have to cook lunch today, sweetie,” she told me as we watched TV. “I could’ve done it.”

“You’ve done enough, today, Moon. You’re my roommate, not my servant.”

The alicorn gave me yet another hug. “Aww! How sweet! You’re always thinking about me, honey-bun!”
Okay, that one made me cringe. I mean, “honey-bun”? Seriously? ANY other pet name would’ve been fine!

“Yeah, well, Klaus and Maud will be here any minute,” I chuckled as I gently pushed her off. “Best not to make them uncomfortable when they get here.”

Moon chuckled back and looked at me with lidded eyes. “I suppose you’re right. I guess I’ll just have to make up the deficit later.” She gave me a quick nuzzle and got up from the couch to stretch her arms. “Aah~ I can’t wait to tell them!”

Just then, the doorbell rang, and the ecstatic alicorn transformed into Nightshade and rushed over to the door.

“Coming!” she said as she pranced towards the door and looked through the peephole. I couldn’t see the reaction on her face, but I could tell from the way her tail swished back and forth in wild excitement that it was Klaus and Maud. Nightshade turned to look at me and excitedly mouthed the words “they’re here”. She opened the door and happily greeted our guests. “Klaus! Maud! We’ve been waiting for you!”

“You seem to be pretty excited, Nightshade,” Klaus laughed. “This “big news” that you’re planning to tell us must be something good.”

“Uh, Nightshade? What exactly did you tell them?” I asked.

“When she called, she was really jumpy and frantic, and she told us that the two of you have some ‘big news’ to share with us,” Maud explained.

“Pretty much what Maud said,” the unicorn added.

“Maud was so sure that she knew what this big news was, but when I asked her, she wouldn’t tell me,” said the griffon. “Whatever it is, I hope it’s good!”

The earth mare rolled her eyes. “It’s staring you right in the face, Klaus.”

I couldn’t really blame Klaus for not knowing. It kinda made sense that Maud had an idea of what Nightshade wanted to say since I had already talked about my suspicions about the unicorn the other day.

“I am a lot more perceptive than I let on, Noah.”

Those were the words she said to me that day, and from what I was seeing, they seemed to be very true.

Nightshade let our friends in with a barely contained grin on her muzzle, and they sat in the nearby chairs while she sat beside me on the couch.

“So, what do you two want to tell us?” Klaus asked.

“Mind if I tell them, Noah?” the unicorn asked me.

“I… um…” I hesitated. Was it really a good idea for me to let her tell them? If I did, she’d say that we were dating, and then there’d be two others that would have the wrong idea…

But if I was to tell them, and I said that I wasn’t sure about our relationship, there’s no telling how she’d react. She could burst into tears for all I knew, and it’d make me look like some kind of insensitive jerk.

I decided to let her tell them and save my feelings for when Nightshade and I were alone. The less witnesses there were the better.

“I guess you could tell them,” I told her.

The unicorn squeed and then she jubilantly looked at our guests. “Okay, well, over the past week or so, I’ve been getting these strange feelings around Noah, like butterflies in my stomach, only more intense. I wanted to spend more time with him, and I almost felt… incomplete without him around, and after thinking about it, I realized that this was all because I loved him!” Nightshade leaned towards me and wrapped me in yet another hug. “So when I decided to tell him how I felt last night, he told me that he felt the same way about me, too!”

Wait, I never said that! I didn’t even answer her when she asked me how I felt!

“So, long story short, I called you here so that Noah and I could tell you that we were a couple, now!”

While Maud stared at the two of us blankly, Klaus’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head. “A couple! No way!”

Nightshade merely nodded her head and smiled. “Yes way. Noah’s my precious little sweetheart!”

Klaus stared at us for a few more seconds, and then he began to laugh louder than he had ever laughed before.

“Bwahahahaha! That was hilarious! 'Her little sweetheart', she said! Whoo!”

“It wasn’t that funny Klaus,” Maud told him, shaking her head.

“It sure was embarrassing, though,” I muttered.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Noah,” Nightshade cooed as she held my face with her hand. “There’s nothing embarrassing about admitting your love for someone.”

“In all seriousness, though, I’m really happy for you two,” Klaus told us. I found it ironic that he said “in all seriousness” when he was still holding back fits of laughter. “You guys always did seem right for each other, anyway.”

I had to raise an eyebrow at that. “How so?” I asked him.

“Well, you’re both always looking out for each other, especially you, Noah. You buy stuff for her, you defend her when she can’t defend herself, hell, you let her move into your apartment. It takes more than just any old friend to do that.”

“How sweet of you to say that Klaus!” Nightshade smiled.

While Klaus did make a valid point, he didn't know how valid it was. I really had been doing a lot for Nightshade when I really didn’t have to. I didn’t have to stay when she revealed her true self to me, I didn’t have to listen to her story, I didn’t have to offer my home to her, I didn’t have cheer her up when she felt sad, and I certainly didn’t have to keep her identity as Nightmare Moon a secret.

And yet, I did all those things and more, and most, if not all of those things were done without her having to ask me.

Despite all that, though, I didn’t know if my actions were fueled by a sense of loyalty to her as a friend, or by a sense of affection for her as a lover.

“So, I guess you two will be sharing a bed from now on?” Klaus joked.

“Actually,” said Nightshade, “we’ve been sharing a bed for almost a week now.”

“Well, you two were already practically a couple then!” he laughed. “Oh, God! I sound like my grandmother!”

“You’re so silly,” the unicorn giggled.

“Best of luck to both of you,” Maud said with a slight smile, but then she looked at me with her usual neutral expression. “Noah, can I talk to you for a moment?”

I blinked, looking at the mare with a curious face. “Okay, sure,” I answered as I got up and the two of us walked towards the apartment door. “You don’t mind, do you, Nightshade?”

“Oh, no! Take all the time you need,” she answered with a dismissive wave. “While they talk, would you like something to drink, Klaus?”

“Sure,” he said before I closed the door, leaving me and Maud outside.

“Call me crazy,” she began, “but you don’t seem too ecstatic about your newfound love.”

“What are you talking about,” I lied, sweat dripping down the back of my neck. I knew she said that she was perceptive, but I wasn’t expecting her to figure this out!

“I’m talking about how you looked so uncomfortable when Nightshade was talking about your relationship. Is there something wrong?”

As hard as it was to tell from her tone, I noticed her concern.

“I don’t know if you’d understand.”

“Regardless of whether or not I understand, it’s not a good idea to just not talk about it. You obviously don’t want to tell Nightshade, so I’m giving you a chance to tell me, and I won’t speak a word of it to anyone.”

I gave her an unsure look. “You promise?”

She nodded. “I promise.”

I took a deep breath and told her as much as I could without telling her about Nightshade’s true self.
“Well, it’s just that… I’m not sure how I feel about her yet. She had been dropping more and more hints lately, so last night I decided to ask her if she had feelings for me, and when she said yes, she told me that she was scared to tell me up front and was dropping hints on purpose so that I would ask her myself and take the pressure off of her. She practically poured her heart out to me, and I would’ve felt bad if I told her that I wasn’t quite sure about my feelings for her, so I decided to just, you know… roll with it. I’m just seeing where this relationship goes so I can better understand how I feel about her. Maybe I’ll end up realizing that I do like her.”

Maud took in what I told her, and then she let out a sigh. “While I can understand not wanting to hurt her, there’s a flipside to that coin, Noah. While there’s a possibility that you will feel the same for her, there’s also a possibility that you won’t, and if that ends up being the case, the longer you lead her on, the worse things will be for you. It'll get to the point where it becomes more of a problem than it had to be.”

Shit… she had a point there. “So either I keep her happy now and risk hurting her later, or tell her now and hurt her, but keep her from a relationship where she isn’t getting what she’s giving… What do you think I should do?”

“What you should do is for you to decide. I don’t have any right to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. I just want you to know what you’re getting yourself into, and it’s not like either choice is right or wrong. Feelings are going to be hurt either way, so it’s all a matter of whether you want to hurt them now or later. The only advice I can give is not to wait too long, because that won't be good for anyone.”

There it was, plain and simple. Now or later, it was all up to me.

“I don’t think you realize how much she values you, Noah,” Maud continued.

I looked up at her, surprised at what she had said. “How much she values me?” I asked.

“When I was hanging out with her the other day while you were in class, she seemed… out of it. It was like a part of her was missing. It got to the point where she wouldn’t stop talking about you. She was totally different from her usual self.”

“Really?” I asked in awe.

“Really. You have a stabilizing influence on her. When she’s around you, she’s her normal self, but when you’re separated, she falls off a little, like she doesn’t know what to do without you around.”

“I had no idea. I knew that she didn’t like to be away from me, but I didn’t think it’d be this serious.”

“Don’t think that it’s your fault. She’s just come to value and admire you. She’s always been an odd one to me, like something about her was never quite right, but I digress. Just be aware that your feelings aren’t the only ones that you should be considering.”

I let out a long sigh. “I get it… Thanks for talking to me about this, Maud.”

“Don’t mention it. I want the both of you to be happy, after all.”

I heard a variation in her tone, and when I looked at her, I saw a warm smile on her face, which made me smile, too.

Klaus and Maud left later that evening, and with them gone, Nightshade transformed back into Nightmare Moon.

“That went well, don’t you think, Noah?” she asked.

“Did you think that it wouldn’t go well?” I asked back.

“No, but I’m just glad that they were so accepting of our relationship. I didn’t want the fact that we were dating to mess up our dynamic, so I was a little nervous.”

“You could’ve fooled me,” I chuckled. “You must be really good at hiding your nerves.”

“I guess I am,” she boasted as we entered my room, and then she lifted my chin with her finger, “but you know that I’d never hide anything from you, my love.” She stared right at me with those cat-like eyes of hers, and they were filled with nothing but passion. The sight of them was rather disarming, and I gave her an awkward smile before moving towards my bed. “Tired already?” she asked.

“I know, but with what’s happened today, I think I need my rest,” I answered.

“I suppose my man needs his rest.”

I gulped a little when she called me “her man”, but I kept it cool and crawled under the covers. Not too long after that, Moon climbed into the bed as well, taking her usual position right beside me. Instead of pulling me close so that my back was against her front, however, she instead pulled me in so that I was facing her. She then wrapped her legs around me and planted a quick, three-second kiss on my lips.

“Goodnight, my beloved,” she crooned with a soft voice.

I was caught up in the warmth of her coat and allowed her to pull me in. The feeling of her bosom made me drift away as if into a dark and peaceful void of peace and forget all about my dilemma.

“Yeah… Goodnight.”

Chapter Ten - Well... I Wouldn't Really Call It A Date

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Saturday morning.

Moon had been acting strangely, as usual, and by strange, I mean that she calmed down a little following her initial excitement at our new… “relationship,” as she called it. Her attitude wasn’t as enthusiastic towards me as it was yesterday, and for the most part, she was back to how she was before all this romance stuff. With that said, I suppose that what was strange wasn’t her behavior in general, but rather her behavior compared to yesterday.

Take earlier this morning, for example.

As usual, I had woken up in the alicorn’s arms, my head rested against her soft chest. When I stirred, she began to wake up as well, and she looked down at me with a soft smile on her face.

“Good morning, Noah,” she told me softly.

She had given me her usual calm greeting rather than the excitable one that I had gotten yesterday, and she didn’t give me some ridiculous pet name, either.

“Morning, Moon,” I answered as I got up from the bed, and I headed out of my room and into the kitchen with her following close behind.

“What’s for breakfast today?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t really feel like going all out today, so I’ll probably just toast some waffles and call it a day. You can make something for yourself, if you want.”

“Waffles are just fine, Noah.”

Moon’s calm answer threw me off a little. Why was she so subdued? She was practically bouncing off the walls yesterday, and now she was back to normal. I know I shouldn’t be complaining, but it really makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

I toasted enough waffles for both me and Moon, and we took a seat on the couch as we ate.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked the alicorn.

“Of course,” she answered.

“How come you’re so relaxed today when you were all excited yesterday? It’s been bugging me all morning.”

“I suppose you would be a little rattled about it,” she chuckled with a blush on her face. “In retrospect, I was pretty hysterical.”

“Pretty hysterical?”

“Okay, I get it. I was really over-the-top yesterday, but could you blame me?”

“I’m not following you.”

The alicorn gazed at me and smiled. “Think of it this way: if you admitted your feelings to someone you liked and then found out that they felt the same way, wouldn’t you be excited about that?”

I smiled back nervously. “I guess, but I-”

“I know I might have made you nervous yesterday, but I’ve gotten it all out of my system now.” She got closer to me and wrapped me in a firm hug, looking down at me with loving eyes. “You don’t have to worry about anything anymore, Noah. Just like I promised, I’m going look out for you, and that goes double now that we’re a couple.”

I had nothing to worry about, huh… I wondered if that was really true. What if the one thing I had to worry about was her? Maybe it was the way she was holding me, or maybe it was the way she was looking at me, but something about her didn’t seem right.

Then again, did she ever seem right?

My situation was getting very real, very fast, and with the pace that Moon was moving this "relationship" in, I wasn't sure if I could keep up. It didn’t help that the mare kept putting those words in my mouth, either… about me returning her feelings…

Regardless, I would take this Moon over the excitable Moon any day.

“So I’ve been thinking…” she said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Thinking about what?” I asked.

“We should go out today. You know, like a date,” she smiled.

I gulped when I heard that last word. A date? Already? We’ve been “together” for barely a day and she already wants to go on a date. In the last two relationships I had, I waited at least a week before the first date.

“Well… what did you have in mind?” I asked.

“I was thinking that we could just go into town, walk around a little, and then get some lunch together. Nothing fancy or anything,” Moon shrugged.

“Okay… I think I can do that,” I thought. “At least she’s not aiming high for the first date. A walk through town and some lunch is doable.”

“So what do you say, Noah? Are you up for it?” She looked down at me with a hopeful expression on her face, which disarmed me a little. I could tell how badly she wanted me to say yes.

“Sure, I’m up for it,” I accepted.

“Perfect!” Moon smiled. “It’ll be just you and me on a nice, relaxing day.” She then leaned onto me and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek. “How does noon sound?”

I shrugged again. “It sounds alright, I guess.”

The next few hours went by with Moon and I getting ready to leave and me thinking about what was to come.

“Okay, Moon isn’t being as overzealous as she was yesterday, so that’s good… but it’s clear that she still believes that we’re a couple,” I thought. “Thankfully her idea of a first date isn’t unrealistic. A leisurely walk through town and a nice bite to eat is actually a rather tame idea. If she’s this relaxed about our ‘relationship’ and yesterday was just her getting used to the excitement, then maybe this can work out. I guess it all depends on how I end up feeling about her.”

Just then I felt a pair of arms wrap around me from behind. “Are you ready to go, beloved?” Moon asked as she rested her chin on my head.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered, ignoring that pet name as she transformed into Nightshade.

As planned, we left the apartment at noon and caught a bus to town. When we got off, Nightshade calmly took in a breath of the fresh air.

“Ahh! So, Noah, where to?” she asked.

“Eh, it’s your call. Wherever you want to go,” I answered.

“Okay then. In that case…” The mare grasped my hand and pulled me towards one of the concrete paths. “Why don’t we take a nice walk through the park, hm?”

“Uh… fine by me,” I shrugged. I wondered why she chose to go to the park. Was there something there that she wanted me to see? I shook my head, deciding that I was thinking too much and was reading too far into it. She just wanted to go to the park; there was no grand scheme behind it.

At least I hoped so.

“Isn’t this nice and relaxing, Noah?” she asked me. “Just you, me, and the pleasant breeze.” I noticed her looking around the park, and then her eyes focused on the lake, where a few other couples were sitting. We sat by the edge of the large body of water, and she scooted closer to me once she got comfortable. “This view is nice,” she crooned.

“It really is,” I agreed as I picked up a nearby pebble and tossed it, following the pebble with my eyes as it skipped across the water.

“Y’know, I’ve never tried that. Skipping a rock, I mean,” Nightshade told me. “You make it look so easy, too.”

“You wanna try?”

The unicorn smirked. “Why not?” she said as she looked at the ground for a good rock to use.

“It’s best to use a flat one,” I advised. “It helps it skip better.”

“Note taken.” She found a rock that fit my description and threw it, trying to mimic the way I threw my rock.

Unfortunately, she didn’t achieve the same result as I did.

Nightshade blinked as the rock fell to the bottom of the lake with a loud, deep splash. “That didn’t work out the way I’d hoped… Let me try again.”

She looked for another flat rock and when she found one, she took more time to prepare her toss, narrowing her eyes and winding her arm. She then tossed her stone, and this time, it skipped across the water, but it looked different from a normal skip. The stone looked like it was bouncing across the water rather than skipping and it looked really unnatural. I turned to look at Nightshade, and I saw that she was using her magic to keep the rock above water, and she had her eyes focused on the stone the whole time.

I furrowed my brow and flicked the mare’s horn, making her let out a yelp of surprise. “Cheater,” I scoffed.

“Alright, alright, you got me,” she sighed, throwing her hands up, and then she laughed it off as she leaned onto my side. I looked down at her and saw that she was looking off to her right. I looked in the same direction she was looking in; another couple was sitting by the lake’s edge.

They were two humans, and the girl was holding the boy’s hand atop her leg, her head resting on his shoulder. I then felt a hand grasp mine. Looking down, I saw Nightshade holding my hand and moving it towards her leg. When my hand made contact with her jeans, she ran my hand down the smooth fabric and rested her head on my shoulder with a content sigh.

“What is she doing?” I thought.

“This isn’t uncomfortable for you is it?” the mare asked.

“Eh, not really,” I answered.

A somewhat disappointed look grew on Nightshade’s face, and I saw her look off in another direction. Following her line of sight, I saw that she was looking at another nearby couple. This couple was an earth pony stallion and a pegasus mare. The mare was comfortably seated between the stallion’s legs as he embraced her from behind.

Nightshade’s gaze then shifted back to me, and she gave me a curious look. “Noah, you wouldn’t mind if I sat between your legs, would you?”

It was then that I realized what she was doing. She was trying to imitate the other couples. She wanted to make this a lot like the usual date, and she was using the other couples as a reference.

In an effort to keep her happy, I decided to grant her request.

“Sure,” I told the mare.

Her face instantly brightened up and she quickly took her position between my legs. As she was getting comfortable, though, her rump pushed against my groin and while I didn't have a mirror to see for sure, I knew that there was a fierce blush on my face.

"Um, Nightshade?"

"Hold on. I'm just... getting... comfortable..." she said as she looked at the other couple and tried to sit the same way the other mare was sitting. Finally, after practically grinding her ass against my privates in order to "get comfortable," she stopped moving and coiled her tail around my back. She then grabbed my wrists and pulled them around towards her front so that I was hugging her like the earth stallion near us was hugging his mare.

As uncomfortable as I had initially felt, holding her like this actually felt really nice, and I decided to go along with it and give her what she wanted.

Nightshade let out a content sigh and looked out at the lake. "You know, before coming to the human world and meeting you, romance was one of the last things on my mind," she told me. "As you may already know, my mind was preoccupied with... other things..." She let out a light chuckle. "It's funny how things work out, huh?"

She was right. It was funny how things worked out, not just for her, but for me, too. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that one of my friends would turn out to be a formerly evil ex-princess in disguise. Not only that, but she ended up moving in with me and developing feelings for me merely a week after moving in. Since I found out about Nightshade's true identity as Nightmare Moon, things have moved so fast, and here I was, sitting here with my arms around a once evil mare that believes that we're in love.

Then again, it's not like I really gave her any reason to think otherwise. It was my decision to indulge her and give her what she wanted in order to see if I felt the same way about her.

One thing was certain: I cared for her more than I would a regular friend. Was it a romantic kind of feeling? I didn't know for sure, but I definitely felt that she was... special, for want of a better word to describe her. I guess I felt really close to her, literally and figuratively.

"Yeah," I said, finally answering Nightshade's question. "I guess it is kinda funny how things work out."

After several minutes of sitting there in my arms, the unicorn began to stir. “I’m starting to get a little hungry, Noah. Wanna go get something to eat?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Okay, then,” I said as we got up and walked towards the nearest diner.

When we got back home, our stomachs were full and we were happy to be back.

“That was quite the filling lunch, don’t you think, Noah?” Moon asked as she changed out of her disguise form.

“It was pretty nice, I guess,” I answered as I sat on the couch and let out an exhausted sigh.

“That was such a nice date, Noah. I can’t wait until our next one! We could probably go out to a nice restaurant, or to the movies, or-”

“Maybe we should just relax for now and not think about dates for the time being,” I interrupted.

The alicorn let out a disappointed sigh. “I guess,” she huffed.

I couldn't help but laugh a little at her enthusiasm. As apprehensive as I originally was, this date turned out to be pretty nice. I actually had a lot of fun just hanging out with Moon. When she wasn't talking about how in love she was with me, she was a nice mare to spend time with, and I began to wonder if a romantic relationship with her would actually work out.

Just then, my phone began to ring and I stood up as I answered it, walking into my room to take the call.

“Hello? Yeah … I’m fine, thanks. And you? ... No, I’m good for now, but thanks for checking up on me … Yes, I will try to call you more often … Okay … I love you, too.”

I hung up the phone and turned around, only to see a perturbed-looking alicorn giving me a deadly glare. “Who was that?” she asked with an accusatory tone, moving her face closer to mine. “Who were you talking to on the phone, telling them that you ‘love’ them?”

“My mother!” I answered defensively as I backed away. “She was checking up on me, Moon.”

She blinked. “Oh! Well I guess there was nothing to worry about, then!” Moon happily walked out of my room, leaving me looking out of the doorway with a confused look on my face. She became so easily suspicious of who I was talking to on the phone, and it scared me a little.

It really made me wonder what she’d be like later on, with all this jealousy lingering about.

I let out a long sigh. "Noah Ashburn, what have you gotten yourself into?"

Chapter Eleven - Separation Anxiety

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In retrospect, I should've seen this coming.

After Moon had her little suspicious moment, I thought that she just had a little fit of insecurity, but it turned out to be more than that.

It was a sign of things to come.

About a week after our first date, Moon began to get more and more... clingy? Yeah, that would be a good word to describe it. To put it simply, she’s spent increasingly more time around me, as if she hadn't already been monopolizing my time.

For example, up until recently, she and I always sat apart from each other in Physics, but now she's been sitting next to me in that and any other class we had together. I think the only reason she hasn't snuck into my other classes was because when she first came here, she picked out a set of classes to sit in, and if she snuck into any more, the more attentive professors might have noticed an extra student in the class.

Now I know it sounds petty (and really childish) that I feel uncomfortable with my "marefriend" sitting next to me in class, but it's not that fact alone that bothers me. While we're sitting in class, she would always stroke my leg, rub my foot with her hoof, or brush me with her tail, and whenever I looked at her, she'd look at me with lidded eyes and give me a quick kissy face.

Long story short, it was really awkward. I mean, there's flirting, and then there's being borderline creepy.

Not only has Moon been demanding more time from me, but she's also been increasingly aggressive towards other females. You wouldn't notice this at first, though, because one thing I realized about her was that she preferred passive aggression. She'd never outright tell another girl to back off, but the way she chose her words and the way she said them sent a message that was just as, if not more threatening.

Here’s the best example I can give. We were running low on food, and I had to go shopping for more. Of course, Moon asked to come along, and since I knew she wouldn't take "no" for an answer, I let her come with me. She happily transformed into Nightshade and followed me out the door like a loyal puppy.

As much as it pains me to make that comparison, it's honestly the most accurate one I can make.

Anyway, we had gotten almost everything on our list, and Nightshade was comparing prices for eggs. While she was doing that, I was at the other end of the aisle looking at other items. Just then, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I turned around to see someone that I hadn't seen in a long time.

''Topaz?" I asked in disbelief.

"Surprised to see me, Noah?" she asked back with a chuckle.

"Well yeah, considering the fact that the last time I saw you was at our high school graduation in Miami. Besides, aren't you going to school in New York?"

"Yeah, but I just finished a semester, so I'm visiting my grandmother here in Florida. How has college been treating you?"

"Can't really complain, but it must be tough for you in the NYC."

"Eh, it wasn’t that hard to adjust, but those winters are cold as shit, though."

"Oh yeah, you always hated the cold. I always thought that was kinda weird-"

"Coming from a pony from the freezing north of Equestria, yeah, yeah. Didn’t you wear that joke out enough in high school?"

"I can't help it. It is pretty weird."

"Well, I suppose I just have an affinity for the warmer temperatures. Besides, there are ponies from Dodge Junction that hate the heat."

"Okay, okay. I get your point. Man, it seems like just yesterday we were bratty freshmen, and now we're sophomores in college."

"I know. Time sure does fly by doesn't it? You sure aren't the scrawny kid I met almost six years ago. In fact, you've become quite the looker. I bet you're slaying all the Florida chicks now."

"Well, actually..."

"AHEM!"

Topaz and I flinched in surprise and turned around to see Nightshade giving me a somewhat angry look.

"Noah, sweetie," she said, putting a deliberate emphasis on the word "sweetie" and gripping my hand firmly. "I've got everything I need now."

"Oh, okay then," I said as she brought herself closer to me, and I looked at the pegasus mare in front of me. "Um... Topaz, this is Nightshade, she's my-"

"I'm his marefriend," she interrupted rather aggressively as her steel grip on my hand intensified to the point of hurting.

"Well, look at you, Noah!" Topaz laughed. "You've gone and got yourself a marefriend. Good for you!"

"You say that as though I have zero experience with the opposite sex," I chuckled.

"I never said that. You just assumed it," she chuckled back, and then looked at Nightshade. "So, how long have you two been together?"

"Six months," the unicorn answered with a glare, and I looked at her in surprise at her blatant lie. "We're practically inseparable."

"Is that so? Well then, I assume you two are already living together, then?"

"Of course, but enough about me. How do you know Noah?"

It was impossible not to notice her interrogation-esque tone.

"I knew him in high school," Topaz answered.

"We were just catching up on old times," I added in an effort to alleviate Nightshade's suspicions.

"Oh really?" the unicorn scoffed. "'Cause it almost looked like you two were flirting. You weren't flirting with her, were you?"

Topaz waved her hands in front of her and shook her head. "Oh, no. We were just-"

"I was talking to Noah, not you!"

"Nightshade!"

Topaz stepped back a little when Nightshade snapped at her, and she looked at me uneasily.

"Well, I'd better get the rest of my shopping done. I don't wanna keep Grandma waiting. It was nice catching up with you, Noah."

"Same here," I said to her.

"You have me on Facebook, so we'll be in touch, right?"

I heard my "marefriend" growl a little, but I ignored it. "Sure. See ya, Topaz."

"Nice meeting you, Nightshade," the pegasus smiled nervously.

"Same here," the unicorn smiled as she watched Topaz leave hurriedly, and the second the pegasus was out of sight, Nightshade turned and glared at me. "What the hell was that!?" she asked with an accusatory tone.

"What? I was just talking to her," I told her.

"It looked to me like you were flirting with her!"

"She was the one who approached me! Besides, she's my friend, Nightshade, I'm not gonna just ignore her."

"She seems like more than just your friend, Noah."

Was she insinuating that I was seeing a mare on the side?

"Well we are just friends," I insisted, "and why are you getting on my case about this like I did something wrong? You were the one being so nasty to her when she didn't even say or do anything! And what was up with lying to her about how long we've been together? You know that we've only been together for two weeks."

"I had my reasons. She needed to know that you're off limits. I'm not just gonna let some floozy have her way with you," she said dismissively, and then she completely changed the subject. "You never told me that you had experience with the opposite sex before."

"I didn't think that it mattered," I answered defensively.

"Well, the cat's out of the bag. How many exes have you had?"

I groaned and decided to answer her question, hoping that being honest with her would make her drop the issue. "One. I dated Topaz's older sister when I was a sophomore. She was a grade ahead of me and we broke up before she graduated because we didn't want a long distance relationship. There, happy?"

"Ecstatic," she retorted. "...Did you have sex with her?"

"No!" I snapped, and I rubbed my temples with a sigh. "Nightshade, you need to relax, okay? Topaz and I are just friends. Hell, the last time we've spoken to each other was two years ago!"

"You sure she isn't another ex-marefriend of yours? Did little sis want what big sis was getting?"

"Am I sure? I think I'd know whether or not I've dated someone. Look, will you just chill?"

Nightshade marinated on her thoughts for a moment, but then she let out a sigh of defeat. "Fine," she said. "Is there anything left on the list?"

"I just need to get a box of cereal," I told her. "You can go to the register in the meantime while I go get it."

The unicorn stepped closer to me. "Why can't I go with you?"

"I never said that you couldn't. I'm just saying that it makes more sense for you to go to the checkout line while I get the cereal."

"Why does it make more sense for us not to be together?"

"It has nothing to do with that. Besides, I'll be gone for barely a minute."

"But why do we have to be separated?"

I rolled my eyes and gave in before I started to get really annoyed. "Alright fine. We'll go together."

"Great!" Nightshade smiled, her bubbly demeanor returning instantly, and she took my hand as we went to get the cereal.

That night, before we went to bed, I was finishing up a comic book by the light on my nightstand, and Moon walked in wearing a t-shirt and panties. Given the fact that she had gotten used to sleeping like that days ago, I didn’t even pay her any attention.

I had no idea how to approach this. I was feeling very mixed about the recent events and feeling like that ate at me on the inside. I didn’t know what to think of Moon anymore and the uncertainty served to make my feelings swirl into even more of a mess. Should I have been afraid of what she might do if our relationship didn’t work out or were things going to get better with a little more time? Maybe I should’ve been angry at the way she treated me… How did I feel about her? All the thinking I could do wasn’t working, and everything Moon did only serve to bury me in a progressively deeper hole.

"Hey, honey," she greeted as she climbed into the bed.

"Hey," I answered flatly, not even looking up from my book.

Moon let out a sigh and crawled towards me, kissing me on the forehead and nuzzling me affectionately.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked with a whiny tone.

"I'm not mad, just... frustrated," I answered. "You didn't have to be so mean to Topaz."

"I couldn't help it, baby. That's just how much I love you," she crooned as she kissed and sucked on my neck. "I'd do anything for you, Noah. You know that."

"I know, but I just wish that you'd be a little nicer to other girls. It's like you don't trust me enough to be around other females and not jump on them."

Moon looked down at me with a look of shock. "What? No, no, no, it's nothing like that, love! I know that you love me too much to leave me for someone else. I just don't want some other girl to take advantage of your kindness. You know that I trust you, Noah."

"Really?" I thought. "'Cause I'm not so sure."

"It's all because I love you, honey. Just remember that," she whispered.

"Yeah, sure..." I said.

I became a lot more wary of Moon after that.

It’s been several days since that incident at the grocery store, and I made plans to stay home for the entire day. I had been trying to get some time just for myself, but at every attempt, Moon wanted to come along. Whether I wanted to go study (and by that I mean goof around on my laptop) in the school library or just get some fresh air, Moon would always ask to go with me, to which I would say “never mind”. I had almost given up on trying to get some time to myself, but then, as if my prayers had been answered, I was given a golden opportunity.

It was a Saturday morning, and I was lying in my bed with Moon cuddling me when I heard my phone ring. The second I heard it, I tore myself from the alicorn’s embrace and rushed to answer it.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Yo! Noah! What’s up?”

“Nothing much, Klaus. You?”

“Aside from scoring tickets to today’s show at the mall’s comedy club, I haven’t done much either.”

“No way, really?” I asked in disbelief.

“Hell yeah! They had a two-for-one deal that I couldn’t pass up. You know how I am with money.”

“True, true.”

“So the show is gonna be at three, but we could just hang at the mall for a few hours until then and make it a guys’ day out.”

Yes! This was exactly what I needed!

“Definitely! I’m there! What time do you want to meet up?” I asked ecstatically.

“How does noon sound?” he asked back.

I looked at my clock, which read nine AM. “Sounds perfect. I’ll meet you at the bus stop outside the front entrance.”

“Great. See ya then buddy!” the griffon said as he hung up the phone.

“What did Klaus want, sweetie?” Moon asked as I got up from the bed.

“Oh, he wanted me to go see a comedy show with him,” I answered.

“Well, can I come with you guys?”

Here we go.

“Sorry, Moon, but he was only able to get two tickets. It’s just gonna be me and him today.”

“But what about me?” the alicorn whined as she crawled towards the edge of the bed and looked up at me. “I thought you were going to stay home today.”

“This just came up, Moon, so I made a change of plan. Besides, don’t you think we spend enough time together? We could use some time alone.”

She narrowed her eyes at me and pulled me close to her with her magic, and then she wrapped her arms around me.

“Noah, honey. I’ve been alone for over a thousand years. Trust me, it’s an overrated experience.”

I sighed and gently pushed her away. “Well, Klaus and I haven’t spent much time together without you and Maud around, so we decided to do a guys’ day today.”

“But I’ll miss you, Noah!”

“You’re acting like I’ll be gone for days. The show’s at three and it won’t be any longer than two hours. I’m gonna be home by dinner.”

“I don’t want to wait that long!”

“Look, Moon. I know you like being around me, and all, but I need some time for myself, okay? There are some leftovers in the fridge for lunch, and like I said, I’ll be home by dinner. If you need anything, you have my number, so just relax, alright?”

The alicorn looked at me crossly, and then she looked away from me as she thought about it. "You'll be back before dinner, right?" she asked.

"Yes," I answered.

"I really don't like this, but... fine. I guess I'll just stay here by myself while you go off and have fun."

I sighed in relief. "Thanks, Moon."

"You're just lucky that I love you so much," she chuckled as she kissed me on the forehead.

"You sure you'll be alright by yourself?" I asked warily.

"I'll be just fine, love."

"If you say so," I said as I left the room to make breakfast. After the both of us ate, I took a shower, got dressed, and left the apartment at eleven-thirty. By the time I caught the bus and rode it to the mall, it was minutes to noon, and I saw Klaus waiting by the bus stop.

"Yo! What's up, Noah?" he said as he gave me a high-five.

"Not much," I answered. "So, what do you wanna do before the show?"

"Well, we got three hours to kill, so we can hit a restaurant for lunch."

"Sounds good."

Just then, I heard a chime and felt a vibration in my pocket. I took my phone out and saw that Moon had sent me a text.

"Just checking on u. Did u get 2 the mall alright?"
Received: 11:57 PM

I sighed and sent a quick reply.

"Yeah, everything's fine."
Sent: 11:57 PM

Less than a minute later, I got another text.

"Oh, good. Have fun. Love u! <3"
Sent: 11:57 PM

I pocketed my phone and walked into the mall with Klaus. "Nightshade, I'm guessing?" he asked.

"Yeah, she was just checking up on me."

CONTINUED IN PART TWO

Author's Notes:

Yeah, I know that in the last Author's Note I said that this would be a 4-5K word chapter, but I thought that it'd help the flow of the story if I separated the one chapter into two parts.

So, Noah's pretty desperate for some time away from Moon, but she obviously doesn't want to be apart from him. How's this gonna affect their "relationship" (if Noah can call it that)? You'll have to wait and see.

A funny story about Topaz: When I originally wrote this story, I had her as a crystal pony, but I decided to change her to a pegasus and just keep her name because having her as a crystal pony would've been a problem. The Crystal Empire hasn't been back for that long, and it's written that Topaz and Noah have known each other for six years, so it would've been an error in continuity. Good thing I caught that when I did.

Anyway, let you know what you guys thought of the chapter in the comments, as usual, and I'll catch you guys later.

I'm gone!

Chapter Twelve - Separation Anxiety: Part Two

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Klaus and I took the elevator to the top floor of the mall, which had all the restaurants as well as the comedy club that our show was going to be at. We both decided to hit a steakhouse for lunch, and luckily for us, it wasn't too busy, so we were able to get a table rather quickly.

"Y'know, it's always a lot easier going out to eat with you, Klaus," I told him as I read the menu.

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"Since you're a griffon and you eat meat, I don't have to worry about what I eat in front of you. I can't remember the last time I had a good steak."

"Oh yeah. With Nightshade living with you, you probably eat meat a lot less often now. I dunno how you do it, man. I can handle going without it when I'm out with my vegetarian friends, but not for as long as you have."

"Well, this is why we have these days just for us dudes, right?"

"Amen to that, brother," Klaus laughed as we bumped fists.

Just then, my phone chimed again as I got another text. It vibrated loudly as it rested on the polished wood table. Before I could even glance at the screen, the phone vibrated again.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I thought as I looked to see the messages that I had received. As I expected, both of them were from Moon.

"Hi, honey-bunches! <3"
Received: 12:07 PM

"Whatcha doin?"
Received: 12:07 PM

"Is it Nightshade again?" Klaus asked.

"Yeah..." I answered with a heavy sigh as I quickly typed out a reply.

"Having lunch w/Klaus."
Sent: 12:08 PM

"You two really keep in touch with each other, huh?" he chuckled as flipped through his menu. "How long has it been since you guys got together? I lost track."

"It's been-"

"Hey there!" said a female voice, and Klaus and I looked up to see a waitress looking down at us with a pen and pad. "My name is Missy and I'll be taking your order today. Are you guys ready?"

"Oh, uh... Yeah, I think I know what I want," answered the griffon. "You ready, Noah?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna get the T-bone steak, medium rare, with a side of fries," I said.

"And what would you like to drink with that?" Missy asked.

"I'll go with a Coke."

The waitress smiled as she wrote my order down, and then she turned to look at Klaus. "And what would you like, sir?"

"I’ll have the same thing, only I'd like my steak well done. My drink will be a root beer, and can I get some mozzarella sticks as an appetizer?"

"Sure thing. I'll be here with your appetizer and your drinks shortly," Missy smiled as she left our table, and I let out a sigh. "Okay, what was I talking about?"

"You were telling me how long it's been since you and Nightshade started dating," Klaus reminded me.

"Right. I think it's been about two and a half weeks."

"Although lately it's been feeling like an eternity," I thought.

My phone began to vibrate again, and I held in an annoyed groan as I glanced at it.

"Practicing a new dinner recipe for u! You're gonna <3 it!"
Received: 12:11 PM

I rolled my eyes and silenced my phone before stuffing it in my pocket with a grunt.

"Okay, what's the matter?" Klaus asked, concern coating his tone.

"What are you talking about?" I asked back.

"There's obviously trouble in paradise. I can tell by how frustrated you look. Wanna talk about it?"

I shook my head. "No, forget about it. We're having a nice lunch, and we're going to a comedy show in a few hours. I don't wanna put a damper on things by talking about my problems."

"Noah, you're always willing to listen to me talk about my issues, so the least I can do is listen to you talk about yours. Hell, I practically owe you for making you listen to me bitch and moan about my parents for two and a half months."

I chuckled. "I guess that's true."

"Alright then. You can tell Dr. Klaus all about it. I know I don’t have my patients’ bed, but it’ll have to do on such short notice."

Ignoring his cheesy joke, I began to tell him about my problems. "See, when Nightshade and I first got together, I wasn't sure if it would really work out, especially when she was so enthusiastic about telling you and Maud not a day after, but for the first week we were together, I was starting to get used to having her as a marefriend. After her initial excitement, she calmed down a little, and she was a really nice, loving mare. Even our first date was just a stroll through the park and a quick bite to eat. That day, the idea of dating Nightshade grew on me, and I thought that... maybe this could end up being a long-term thing between us."

Klaus nodded his head as I continued to explain everything to him, and with each word I said, I got increasingly frustrated.

"But since then, she started acting a lot differently. After we got home from our first date, my mom called to check up on me, and when I hung up, Nightshade was all up in my face asking me 'Who was that? Who was that?' like I was trying to cheat on her or something, and it only got worse from there. Every time I want to go out, even when it's just to pick something up from the store real quick and come back, she wants to go with me. She pretty much NEVER wants to leave my side! It’s like it’s physically impossible for her! I had to convince her to let me go see this show with you without her tagging along! Can you believe how much of a pain that was for me? It was like pulling teeth!"

"So since she's away from you, she's constantly texting you to fill the void," Klaus surmised.

"Exactly," I answered, "and the worst part is that she's so friggin’ possessive! I can't even talk to another girl without her assuming the worst. If we go to buy something, I have to see if the clerk is a guy or a girl so she doesn't freak out. She gets so mean and passive aggressive, and when I call her out on it, she gives me some excuse saying 'that's how much I love you' and 'I can't trust other girls around you,' and even though she says otherwise, I think she acts like that because she doesn’t trust me. I'm starting to feel less like her boyfriend and more like her possession, and I'm getting really sick of it!"

"Okay, okay, calm down," the griffon said with a hushed voice, and I let out a long breath.

"Sorry... It's just that Nightshade's been getting to me lately..."

"I can understand why you seem so frustrated. Sorry I can't offer any advice to help you. I was gonna suggest talking to her, but you've already tried that..."

"Don't sweat it. Just talking to you about it made me feel a lot better." I sighed heavily as I reclined deep into my chair, psychological exhaustion evident on my face.

Ten minutes later, our food arrived, and Klaus and I dug into it like we hadn't eaten in days.

"This place makes the best steaks!" said the griffon. "Their T-bones are on point!"

"Their mozzarella sticks aren't too bad, either," I added. "I should've ordered some for myself."

Just then, Missy arrived at our table. "Everything good here?" she asked.

"We're just great," Klaus yawned.

"No room for dessert?"

"Not at all," I answered. "We'll take the check now, and we'll be paying separately."

"You got it. I'll be right back," the waitress smiled as she walked away. When she came back with our checks, Klaus and I paid them and left the restaurant. We still had about an hour and a half to kill before we had to get to the comedy club, so we spent those ninety minutes screwing around and walking through random stores. At two forty-five, we went to the club just in case there was a long line, and sure enough, there was.

"Man, this guy must be really popular," I commented as we waited in the line. "Just who is performing today? I didn't even bother to ask."

"His name's Henry Chuckles," Klaus answered. "He's a comedian from Fillydelphia. He moved here a few months ago to start his career and his popularity skyrocketed practically overnight."

"And how do you know all this?"

"Wikipedia."

"Ah, of course."

By the time the two of us got in, we were able to get some good seats near the stage, and at three o'clock, the lights dimmed and the MC got on the mic.

"Alright everyone, put your hands, paws, and claws together and give a nice Florida welcome to Mr. Henry Chuckles!"

The crowd cheered as a bright grey-coated diamond dog with green eyes stepped onto the stage with a smile on his face. "What's up, y'all? How're we feeling today?" he asked, and the audience cheered louder as he took his position in front of the mic. "I like to visit Florida from time to time. Beaches, ladies, Disney World, Florida's got some good stuff... if only it wasn't so fuckin’ hot."

We all chuckled at the truth in his joke.

"Not to mention the hurricanes. You wake up one morning and find that your roof is gone and your kitchen is an in-house swimming pool. I guess it's better than living in California. I mean, on top of the heat and the hurricanes, you gotta deal with earthquakes, too. At least with hurricanes you have a warning so you'll know when it's gonna hit. With earthquakes you don't know shit."

We all laughed again, and Klaus looked like he was in pain. "This guy is a riot!" he said to me as everyone else laughed.

As the show went on, Henry's jokes ranged from a bunch of different topics from money, to family, to fan encounters, and then, towards the end of the show, he started to go into a topic that hit home a little.

It started when he pointed out a couple sitting in the audience near me and Klaus.

"Aww, look at y’all! You two on a date?" Henry asked.

The human girl and the unicorn stallion next to her nodded their heads.

"You love each other?"

They nodded again.

"You spend all your time together?"

They nodded again.

"Really? How long have you two been together?"

"A week and a half," answered the girl.

"You'll see," Henry smiled evilly, and the whole audience, including the couple, laughed. "In a few more days, both of y'all are gonna want some alone time."

The stallion gave the diamond dog a questioning look and shook his head.

"Oh, you don't believe me? Alright, then. Show of hands, everyone. How many of you came here without your boyfriend or girlfriend?"

I decided to play along with his joke and raise my hand. I did come here without Moon, after all.

"Okay, it looks like we got ten... fifteen... twenty... Damn, y'all really needed some alone time, huh?"

We all laughed.

"I can understand, though. We all tend to go out of our way in the beginning of a relationship, especially females. Fellas, you ever notice when you first move in with your girlfriend that she wears matching underwear when she goes to bed with you?"

All the guys in the room, myself included, murmured in agreement.

"After a couple months, she won't give a shit less what she has on. She'll go to bed in a red bra and green panties. I mean, you don't have to match but have some pride. You look like a fuckin’ superhero!"

That joke probably got the most laughs in the entire show.

"Alright, let's have another show of hands. How many guys in here have dated a crazy chick?"

A large number of hands went up, including Klaus's.

"Yeah, that looks about right. Okay, now how many of you guys in here are currently dating a crazy chick?"

Only a few hands went up.

"Don't bullshit me now, I know you're thinking it," Henry smirked as he looked at all the guys in the audience.

"This guy's good," I thought, and I raised my hand up jokingly along with several other guys that were afraid to admit that they thought the girl they were dating was crazy.

"Now that looks more realistic," Henry laughed. "Don't worry. I've been there. Take this one chick I dated a few years ago for example. When I tell you that she was on my case about everything, I'm not just talkin’ shit. There was this one time when I was coming home from the bowling alley with my friends, and when I opened the door, she was right there waiting for me. She was all 'Where the hell have you been?' and I said 'At the bowling alley, like I told you. I even called you when I left.' So then she says 'Google Maps says that it takes ten minutes to drive here from the bowling alley! You took eleven minutes to get here.'"

I chuckled to myself. "Sounds like something Moon would say," I thought.

"So then she asks me this:" the diamond dog continued, "'Why'd it take you an extra minute to get home? Were you seeing some bitch on the side?' and I was like 'Babe, if I was cheating on you, I'd need a little more than a minute. That's not even enough time for me to pull up into her yard and say hi.'"

I was probably the loudest laugher that time. The fact that I related to the situation made it all the more hilarious to me.

But that's how stand-up comedy works, after all.

The rest of Henry's routine was full of hilarious jokes, and Klaus particularly liked the part about dealing with overbearing parents. By the time he was done, he received a standing ovation from the audience as we roared with applause and cheers.

"Thank you! Thank you!" he smiled as he acknowledged our applause. "Remember, I'll be in town all week, so tell all your friends! Goodnight y'all!"

We continued to clap as Henry made his way off the stage, and while some of the other audience members went to the bar, Klaus and I left the club, and we were still in stitches.

"That guy was too good!" I said in-between fits of laughter. "That part about his ex-girlfriend was a riot!"

"But that part about his parents, though!" Klaus laughed. "That almost had me on the floor!"

"Yeah, you would like that part, wouldn't you?"

"Just like you would like the part about his ex."

"Touché."

"But at least my parents have been pretty quiet lately. It's nice to have some peace and quiet for a while."

"Let's hope it lasts."

"You're telling me."

Just then Klaus and I jumped when we heard a voice from behind us.

"Klaus?" the voice asked. "Is that you?"

The griffon and I turned around to see a larger griffon that resembled Klaus standing behind us.

"Reggie?" Klaus asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for a retreat with my basketball team," the larger griffon answered "We just won the finals in the Griffon Kingdom and we came down to Florida to celebrate. What are you doing here?"

"I go to school in Florida, remember?"

"Not really, considering the fact that you haven't spoken to anyone in our family besides Griselda since you up and left."

"Oh... right... Well, I just saw a comedy show with my friend here," Klaus said as he gestured to me. "This is Noah. Noah, this is my older brother, Reggie. He's the closest to me in age."

"How many siblings do you have?" I asked.

"There are five of us in all," Reggie explained. "There's our older sister Griselda, our second older sister Violet, our older brother Victor, me, and then Klaus. We were all born three years apart from each other."

"You don't say?" I said.

"Even though Griselda told my parents where I was, they never told my other siblings," Klaus explained.

"We were really worried about you Klaus," said Reggie.

"I know, I know. It's just that I wasn't happy at home, so when I finally finished high school, I had to get out of there as soon as possible."

"I never said that I blamed you."

"Huh?"

Reggie smiled down at his little brother. "We all knew that you weren't meant to follow the same paths as the rest of us, but Mom and Dad were the only ones that didn't accept it. We never thought that you and Griselda had planned for you to leave as soon as you graduated. That took a lot of guts."

"Well, I don't know about all that."

"You don't give yourself enough credit, little bro. You did something that the rest of us, even Griselda, would've been too scared to do. Violet and Victor may be too tough to admit it, but we were all happy that you were brave enough to do your own thing. Trust me, if it ever comes to a confrontation between you, Mom, and Dad, we're gonna have your back."

Klaus looked up at his brother with a speechless expression. "I... Thanks, Reg."

Reggie smiled and ruffled the feathers on his little brother's head. "Don't sweat it. You should try and reach out to Violet and Victor. I'm sure they'll be happy to hear from you."

"Sure, I'll do that. Nice seeing you, big bro, and congrats on winning the finals."

"Thanks. Catch ya later," the older griffon then turned to me. "It was nice meeting you, Noah," he told me.

"Same here. Bye," I replied as we parted ways.

Klaus and I walked out of the mall, and he opted to take a cab while I decided to go on the bus.

"See ya around, Noah. I'll let you know when I score some tickets again," he told me as he waved goodbye.

"For sure. See ya!" I smiled as I waved back. Just then, the bus that I was supposed to catch pulled up in front of the stop, and I ran towards it to get on before it left. I found a seat and sat down as I let out a relaxed sigh. "This was just what I needed," I thought. "A nice relaxing day with one of my best friends. Hmm... I wonder what time it is."

I took my phone out of my pocket and looked to see the time. While I did see that the time was four fifty-five PM, what I saw below the clock was what drew my attention.

Forty-two missed calls. Fifteen voicemails. Ninety text messages. All from Moon.

I stared blankly at the screen for so long that I almost missed my stop.

When I finally got home, I stood in front of my apartment door for a good two minutes, wondering how Moon would react once she saw me. One thing was for sure, though: I couldn't delay the inevitable.

I slowly unlocked the door and made my way inside. There was no one in the living room, and I turned around to lock the door...

and then I was practically tackled by a heavy force.

I fell forward as whatever hit me held onto my back, and I hit the ground with a hard thud that knocked the wind out of me.

"Noah!" a voice cried from on top of me. "Why didn't you answer any of my texts or calls!?”

I turned myself around and saw Moon looking down at me with an unhappy expression.

"Moon, could you get off of me?" I asked with an annoyed voice.

"No!"

"I’m serious Moon! Knock it off!"

"Not until you tell me why you've been ignoring me for the past nearly five hours!"

I felt myself getting more frustrated with her as I laid there with her sitting on top of me. I knew that alicorns had the strength of earth ponies, and with how much of her old power she'd regained combined with the fact that I wasn't the most fit guy in the world, trying to force her off of me would be a lost cause.

I let out a frustrated sigh. "I had to silence my phone because I was in a restaurant," I lied, "and since I was going to the show afterward, I just kept it on silent."

"And you don't think you could've told me that!?" Moon yelled.

"Well, I'm sorry! Now will you get off of me!?"

The alicorn humphed and got onto her hooves, leaving me to slowly get up onto my feet.

"I understand you wondering why I abruptly stopped texting you, but you didn't have to leave my phone overflowing with calls and messages!"

"Well excuse me for worrying about you!" Moon snapped as she turned to look down at me with tear-filled eyes. "You said that if I needed anything then I could call you, but you didn't answer a single one of my calls! How do you think that makes me feel!? What's so wrong with me wanting to know what you're doing!?"

I wanted her to be quiet. I wanted her to leave me alone, but nothing I could say would get her to quit yelling her head off at me.

Then I realized... if I wanted her to stop, I didn't have to say something, but do something, something that, given my feelings towards Moon as of late, I really didn't want to do.

I had to kiss her.

With no other option, I lunged forward and pressed my lips against the alicorn's muzzle, and her little fit was immediately sedated. Her anger had melted to the point where she began to embrace me tightly and pull me in closer to her while wrapping her wings around me.

I meant for the kiss to last five seconds, but she made it last a full minute.

After sixty agonizing seconds, our lips parted, and Moon looked down at me with a somewhat dazed expression.

"I'm sorry, okay?" I told her.

She nodded at me blankly. "Okay..." she answered as her lips slowly contorted into a smile.

"Are you alright, now?"

"Mm-hm. I feel a little better now. Want some dinner?"

I let out a sigh. "Sure."

Moon had prepared a plate of noodles made from scratch rather than a pre-made pack, and the atmosphere was incredibly quiet as we ate.

I was too deep in my thoughts.

It seemed like throughout our "relationship", Moon had been going through phases. First, she was all excited about our "romance" when it first started, then she was completely calm, but now it seems like she's getting too used to being alongside me. She can't stand to be apart from me, and whenever she is, she feels the need to constantly call me in order to make up for the separation. It wasn't her calling and texting in and of itself that bothered me though. It was the fact that she'd do so to such an excessive degree. On top of that, she couldn't stand it when I talked to a girl other than her, regardless of who it was. It was only a matter of time until she started snapping at Maud.

Her current phase was a mixture of possessiveness and dependence, and I didn't like it. I didn't feel comfortable around her anymore, but she always wanted to be around me. I felt trapped.

I finished my dinner and put my plate in the sink before turning around to see Moon looking at me with a hopeful expression, and I knew what she wanted.

"Dinner was nice," I said calmly as I walked past her, not noticing the disappointed look on her face.

After brushing my teeth and showering, I went into my room alone and climbed into bed, with Moon inevitably climbing in after me. As usual, she held me close to her, but this time, her grip was much stronger, with her legs and wings wrapped around me, I could feel as much.

"Um... Moon?" I said as she bent her neck down and began nibbling at mine, shivering every time I felt her sharp teeth poke and prod at my soft skin.

"My beloved..." she moaned sultrily into my ear. “I love you so much."

"Moon, I-"

"I know it scares you that I used to be evil and I know that I can never be a normal mare, but believe me when I say that I love you with all my heart and that you mean the world and more to me," she crooned, nibbling and licking my neck. "Everything I do, I do for you. It's all because I love you, Noah. I'd gladly do anything for you... Anything..."

"Yeah, I know... and that's the problem."

Regardless of how much she loved me, Moon's love for me was starting to get out of hand, real fast.

“That settles it,” I thought. “Something’s gotta give.”

Chapter Thirteen - Sick and Tired

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Sleeping last night was unbearable. Moon had me held close to her so tightly that it became very uncomfortable, and I couldn't move much due to her strong hold on me. When I woke up, I found myself in the same constricted position I was in last night. Moon's arms, legs, and wings were wrapped around me as though she had latched onto me like a leech.

How fitting...

Hoping to get out of the bed and at least have a little time to myself, I tried to wiggle out of her grip, only to find that the combined strength of her four limbs and two wings kept me from moving even an inch.

The black alicorn then let out a yawn as she woke up, and she looked down at me with those loving, yet possessive eyes of hers. "Good morning, Pookie," she cooed as she kissed me on the forehead. "Did you sleep well?"

"Not really," I sighed as I pried myself from her and got off the bed.

"Aww? Why not?" she asked.

"Because I could barely move last night," I retorted bluntly.

"Sorry, honey. I just couldn't help myself, y'know? I just can't keep off of you!"

"I know. That’s the problem," I thought with an annoyed expression.

"You don't mind if I make breakfast today, do you?" Moon asked.

"Go ahead," I answered tiredly as I left the bedroom and headed straight to the bathroom. Once inside, I ran some cold water in the sink and splashed my face with it in order to wake myself up a little, and when I looked up into the mirror, I still had some slight bags under my eyes. I wiped the water off of my face with a towel and looked at my reflection again. I still looked tired, but not just because of my uncomfortable sleep.

I was tired of everything. I was tired of Moon treating me like her possession. I was tired of her obsessive need to be around me at all times. I was tired of how needy she'd get when I was away from her for too long. I was tired of how combative she was with other girls and mares.

I was fucking tired.

Looking into the mirror at my reflection, I let out a long, exhausted sigh. "Okay, Noah," I said to myself, "This has to end. Moon is starting to get out of control. You need to sit her down and tell her that you don't like the way things are going with her and that she needs to stop being so possessive, and if she can't handle it, then it's over between you and her, and it has to be today. Whether it's this morning or later in the day, it has to be done today. You can't take much more of this, and you have to draw the line."

After my little speech, I noticed something on my neck. After closer examination, I found that it was a red bruise that ran from midway down my neck to the trap of my shoulder, and it was a little blue in some spots.

"What the fuck," I said to myself as I put my hand to the bruise. "How did this-"

Then it hit me. Moon had been kissing my neck furiously the past night while we were in bed... I groaned when I realized what the bruise really was.

"I don't get it," I thought. "Even with all those kisses, she couldn't have given me this bad of a hickey. Man it's a good thing that I didn't plan on going anywhere today. I hope to God this clears up by tomorrow... at least to the point where I can say that it was a mosquito bite or something."

After staying in the bathroom for a little while longer to relish in the little solitude I had, I walked out the door and into the living room, where Moon had just finished making some buttered toast and hashbrowns.

"You were in there for quite a while, Noah," she giggled as she brought my plate over to me. When she got close, she immediately noticed my hickey, and she let out a sultry chuckle. "Oh my, I guess I went a little overboard last night."

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"I wanted to get a few extra kisses after you fell asleep, but I guess I gave you one kiss too many."

"So that's why..." I growled in annoyance as I took my plate.

"Oh well! Live and learn, I guess," the alicorn smiled as she walked over to the couch with her plate in hand. “At least it’ll be a nice signal.”

“Excuse me? A signal?” I questioned as I sat beside her. That comment of hers really rubbed me the wrong way.

“Of course. It’s a signal to all the other girls that you’re spoken for,” Moon declared smugly.

That expression of hers… I didn’t like it… I almost hated it.

“Oh, well I didn’t realize that I needed a ‘signal’ in order for others to know that I was taken. I thought I would’ve just, you know, tell them myself.”

“It’s not worth wasting your breath, sweetheart.”

“Y’know, most people normally try to conceal hickeys.”

“Well, that’s just silly. It’s the perfect symbol of a partnership, like a territorial mark.”

“I’m a little offended by that,” I told her with a perturbed expression, turning my face abruptly to face her.

Moon turned and looked at me with a tilted head. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you’re referring to me like I’m your property.”

“You know I didn’t mean it like that, Sugar Bear. Just put it this way: I’m all yours...” she then snaked her arms around me, bringing her face uncomfortably close to my own, “and you’re all mine,” she finished as she licked her lips predatorily.

“That doesn’t make me feel any less uncomfortable,” I thought. “It’s too early in the morning for this shit. I need to take a nap.”

When I finished eating I put my plate in the sink, but before I left the room, Moon spoke up.

“Noah, the fridge is getting empty. We need to go shopping soon.”

I looked into the fridge to confirm that fact, and sure enough, she was right. We needed to restock, and it was Sunday; I hated doing grocery shopping during the week, and with the way I was feeling at the moment, I REALLY wasn’t up for it.

“Goddamn it,” I thought. "I’ll go shopping later. Right now I need to take a nap,” I said. Before I even made it to the hallway, I heard hoofsteps behind me. “By myself,” I added sternly, and the hoofsteps came to a stop.

“Please?” the alicorn asked. “I promise I won’t hold you so tightly this time.”

I shut my eyes tightly and clenched my fists. “Moon, I really just want to take a nap by myself, and I’m too tired to argue with you about it, okay?”

There was a moment of silence before she replied with a hushed voice. “Okay…”

I let out a sigh of relief and went into my room, collapsing onto my bed as sleep overtook me. I had no idea how long I was out for, but it felt like a damn long time. By the time I woke up, I looked out the window and saw that the sun was low in the sky. Looking at the clock, I saw that it was six-thirty in the evening.

“Damn. I need to get to the store before it closes,” I thought as I rushed into the bathroom to take a shower and brush my teeth. Taking a quick glance at the weather report on my phone, I was relieved that it was going to be chilly (well, as chilly as it would get in Florida), so I put on a turtleneck to hide my hickey and headed to the door.

Well, I tried to get to the door, but then...

“Noah! You’re up!” Moon cheered. “Wait, are you heading to the store?”

“Yeah,” I answered. I’ll be back in about a half hour.

“You don’t have to tell me that. I’m going with you!”

“Of course you are,” I mumbled angrily.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Just hurry up.”

“No problem! I’ve already showered, so I just need to change. I won’t be long!”

I groaned silently as Moon got up, transformed into Nightshade, and went into my room to change, and I sank into my chair as I waited for her to get ready. I had just taken a nap and yet I wasn’t feeling any better. In fact, I was feeling even more drained than before.

Half an hour later, Nightshade and I were in the grocery store, getting all the stuff we needed and crossing the items off our list. While she seemed to be enjoying the trip, I was dreading every second of it. I was so fed up with her being around me that going out with her became a life-draining ordeal.

As dramatic as that sounds, it's really the most accurate description I can give.

"Okay, what's next on the list?" the disguised alicorn asked me.

I looked down at my phone and checked my notes. "Soda, then chips, and then eggs," I grumbled.

Nightshade gave me a concerned look. "Are you okay, Noah? You haven't been acting like yourself lately."

"And by that you mean?"

"Well, you've had this detached attitude about you, and you've been rather bitter this morning, too."

I sighed. "I dunno, maybe I just didn't get enough rest," I replied dismissively. While I put the issue aside with her, I kept thinking about what she said. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right: I was bitter, I wasn’t feeling myself and I was getting more and more frustrated by the day. Her clinginess was getting to me worse than ever, and it needed to end.

“Noah?” Nightshade said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Are you there?”

I stopped walking for a second and looked at the purple unicorn. “Look, Nightshade. There’s something that we need to talk about.”

Suddenly, the mare’s eyes widened, and she gave me a nervous smile. “Can it wait a minute, hon? I need to hit the little fillies’ room.”

“You didn’t go before we left?”

“I should’ve. I’ll be back, okay?”

“Sure.” I shrugged as she trotted off to the ladies’ room.

“Well, at least I have more time to figure out what I’m gonna say,” I thought. “Whatever I decide to tell her, it’s probably not a good idea to tell her at the grocery store… or any other public place for that matter. Yeah, it’s best that I tell her when we get home.”

“What are you doing just standing around?” someone asked me out of nowhere. The sudden question was followed by a giggle. “You were always pretty vacant, Noah.”

I turned around, curious to find out who was talking to me and how they knew my name, and then I saw her.

She was a tall pegasus mare with a bright yellow coat and a long, purple and blue mane that was tied back in a braid. She had bright purple eyes and a skinny frame, and she was wearing a blue crop top and short shorts.

“Jade?” I asked.

“Took ya long enough to recognize me,” she laughed.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in Texas?”

“Yeah, but Topaz and I are visiting our grandma for a while. I think she mentioned that she saw you the other day.”

“Oh yeah, we did run into each other.”

Jade then gave me a smirk and leaned in towards me. “My little sis also mentioned that you have a marefriend. I asked her to spill everything she knew, but you know Topaz. She’s really tight-lipped.”

“So I assume you’re gonna barrage me with questions now?”

“I wasn’t planning on it, but that’s a great idea!” Jade said coyly. “So, how long have you been seeing each other?”

I decided to humor the mare and answer her questions. It wouldn’t hurt, right?

“It’s been going on three weeks now,” I told her.

“So it’s recent, then?”

“Yeah, but we’ve known each other for several months, though.”

“Is she prettier than me?”

I blinked. “What kind of question is that?”

“What do you mean?” she asked. “I just want to know if your current marefriend is prettier than me.”

“Well, I mean, you both are about the same. You know that looks aren’t the only determining factor for me.”

“That’s true,” she chuckled. “Well, it’s nice to know that you still have the old charm, Noah. Whoever your new belle is, she must be madly in love with you.”

“You have no idea,” I thought.

“You definitely have gotten a lot cuter since we broke up. It makes me wonder why we decided to end our relationship in the first place.”

“We thought that we couldn’t handle the distance, remember?” I asked.

“Regardless, I want you to know that I really missed you, Noah,” Jade said as she gave me a hug that lingered a little too long for my tastes. I slipped out of the hug quickly, lest Nightshade see me and overreact.

“So… uh, it was nice seeing you again, Jade,” I chuckled nervously. “I guess I’ll catch you la-”

“AHEM!”

I almost choked on air when I heard that, and I gulped heavily before turning around to see Nightshade glaring daggers at me.

“Hi, Nightshade,” I said nervously.

“Hello, sweetheart,” she greeted back icily, taking a glance at the mare behind me.

“Um, you remember when we ran into my old friend Topaz the other day, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, this is her older sister, Golden Jade.”

“Oh, your ex-marefriend?” she said, putting an emphasis on the “ex.”

“So, Noah’s mentioned me?” Jade asked. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Nightshade.” The pegasus mare offered her hand to the unicorn, who tentatively accepted the gesture.

I looked at the two mares as they shook hands; Nightshade was giving Jade a somewhat threatening look, as if she was warning the other mare that she’d better watch her step. Meanwhile, Jade wasn’t giving Nightshade the expression I was expecting. While her younger sister was rather intimidated by Nightshade, Jade didn’t seem to be fazed by her in the slightest. If anything, she looked a little smug, like she was accepting a dare that she knew she could win.

Was she unaware of what Nightshade was silently telling her, or did she pick up on it and consider it to be a challenge?

Either way, I feared for her. One wrong move and it may very well be the end of her.

“Noah didn’t tell me you were so pretty, Nightshade,” Jade said. “Looks like he hasn’t lost his taste in a good mare.”

“Thanks...” the unicorn accepted warily.

“I’m sure you two will be together for quite some time, perhaps even longer than how long we’ve been together. I forget, Noah. How long had we been dating?”

“Three years,” I answered unassumingly, not realizing until after saying it that I had added fuel to the fire.

“Ah, that’s right. Three years,” the pegasus bragged.

Nightshade scoffed. “You’re right. I’m sure we’ll be able to beat that. In fact, if it’s any indication, Noah and I were living together before we even started dating.”

I realized what was happening and tried to prevent it from getting worse. “Yeah, well, it was nice seeing you, Jade, but Nightshade and I need to get all the stuff on our list before the place closes, so if you don’t mind-”

“Well then I guess he’s already taken you out on some amazing dates,” Jade continued, neither she nor Nightshade hearing a word I said. They didn’t even move; they just stared each other down. “Noah and I have had the best times together. There was this one night where he took me to see fireworks by the lake. It was really romantic.”

The unicorn furrowed her brow. “While we haven’t been on many dates yet, I don’t need to be taken out to know that Noah’s devoted to me. We spend every waking moment together. We even sleep together in each other’s arms every night. I have no doubt in my mind that Noah and I will be together for a very long time.”

It was at this point where the two mares started to be less subtle with their declarations, and I made a second attempt to get them to stop.

“Okay, I think we need to get going,” I said, but my cry once again fell on deaf ears.

Jade gave Nightshade a smug smirk and walked closer to me. “So you spend every moment with him, do you?” she asked. “Even so, I doubt you know his weak spots. Every guy has those few spots that make them tremble on contact. Even after all these years, I know all of them by heart.” She then looked at me with the same expression she gave Nightshade. “For example, one of my favorite weak points of Noah’s is riiiiight here,” she said as she slowly traced her finger up my chest.

“Jade… I’d prefer if you didn’t do that…” I told her.

“Oh relax, sweetheart,” she replied, putting emphasis on “sweetheart” and making Nightshade twitch with jealousy. The pegasus then looked back at the unicorn. “I’m just giving your sweet little mare a demonstration. Perhaps I should show her another one of your weak points?”

In that moment, Nightshade’s nose flared, and her eyes twitched in fury, showing the slitted pupils of Nightmare Moon for a split second. Jade blinked in surprise as Nightshade lit up her horn, looked around to see if anyone else was around…

and fired a massively powerful beam of magic at her.

The crash was incredibly loud, and when the dust settled, Jade was lying on the ground unconscious, surrounded by a busted wall. Pieces of the destroyed structure were falling from the top of the hole in the wall, and I couldn't tell if Jade was breathing or not.

Naturally, the loud noise attracted the other shoppers in the store, until there was a crowd slowly forming. I quickly took my phone out of my pocket, but then I felt something grasp my free hand and pull me back.

"Noah, what are you doing?" Nightshade asked me.

I glared at her and yanked my hand away from hers. "What does it look like I'm doing!? I'm calling an ambulance!"

"What are you doing that for? She deserved it!"

"She didn't deserve anything!" I yelled, but then I looked around at the crowd, who was still focused on the unconscious pegasus. I then lowered my voice and continued. "You had no right to do that to her!"

"I had EVERY right!" she argued with a hushed yell. "She tried to make a move on you when she knew you were mine!"

“Again with this!? Look what you just did!”

“It’s not that big a deal, Noah, and it isn’t your responsibility to call an ambulance for her. Let’s go home.”

It may not have been my responsibility, but I still felt the need to make sure that she was okay. “I’m not going anywhere,” I told her.

“Come now, love, you’re being ridicu-”

“Shut up, Nightshade!” I interrupted. “You can do what you want, but I’m staying here, and that’s final! We’ll talk about this when we get home!”

The unicorn gave me a stunned face, shocked that I had the gall to speak to her like that, but I continued to glare at her, determined to stand my ground.

“I… But…” she struggled to say, but then she let out a breath of defeat. “Fine,” she sighed as she turned around and walked away.

With Nightshade out of the way, I dialed 911 and called for an ambulance to pick up Jade, and I made my way to the front of the crowd and stayed by her side while I waited for it to arrive.

Several hours later, I sat in the waiting room of the hospital, waiting for the nurse to tell me that I could see Jade. Just then, Topaz rushed in frantically and ran up to me.

“Noah! I got your voicemail! Is my sister okay? What happened!?”

“I… don’t know.” I lied. “I just happened to be in the area when it happened. I heard a loud crash and when I went to see what it was, I saw Jade on the ground inside a busted wall.”

I felt bad for lying, but what else could I do? I couldn’t tell Topaz that her older sister was almost killed by my bat-shit crazy marefriend.

“Well, how is she?” the worried pegasus asked.

“The doctor said that her back and left wing were broken in several places. They just finished mending her broken bones and patching her up. She’ll be in a wheelchair for the next six months, but she should make a full recovery. She’s resting right now, so she can’t have any visitors at the moment.”

Topaz let out a sigh of relief. “Thank Celestia. Thanks for staying here, Noah. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know, but someone had to,” I told her.

"Well, you should get home. You must be really tired; I'll stay here while you go and get some rest."

"Thanks, T," I said as I got up from my seat. "Keep me posted, okay?"

The pegasus nodded her head as I left the hospital and caught a cab home.

By the time I got back to my apartment, it was minutes to eleven, and I was really tired, but there was one thing I needed to do before I went to bed.

I needed to give Moon a piece of my mind.

The second I walked into my living room, I heard an excited gasp and rushing hoofsteps. I then saw Moon's head peek out of the hallway. "Noah! You're home! I was so worried!" She began to rush over to me, but I sidestepped out of her way before she could reach me, and I walked away from her and into my bedroom.

The alicorn looked back at me with a confused expression as she followed me. "What's the matter Pookie?"

"You know good and goddamn well what the matter is!" I snapped.

"Noah, why are you talking to me like that?" Moon asked.

"What the hell was that all about back there!?" I yelled.

"You mean with Jade? I was just protecting you."

"From WHAT!?"

"You mean you didn't see how forward Jade was being? And she was so passive aggressive towards me!" the alicorn argued, raising her voice.

"And you were any better!? Quit being such a hypocrite! I may not have liked how Jade acted either, but regardless of her behavior, blasting her into a wall was TOTALLY uncalled for!"

"You don't understand, Noah! I HAD to do it!"

"Why!?"

"Because you belong to ME, that's why!" Moon shouted, but then her eyes widened at the realization of what she said. "Wait, Noah! I-"

"So you finally said it..." I said under my breath.

"No, Noah! I didn't mean it like that! You mean more to me than that!"

"Save it, Nightmare."

The alicorn looked down at me in shock, not believing what I had just said. "Why did you call me that? You always call me Moon."

"Because that's what my life's turned into since we got together! I should've never let this happen! At first I went along with it because I thought that maybe a romantic relationship with you would work out, but since then, you've been treating me like I was your property! You're so clingy and possessive, and now you sent a mare to the hospital! She's lucky to be alive right now!"

"I didn't know you'd be so mad with me, Noah. I only did it because I loved you."

"That's your excuse for EVERYTHING! It's like you have no self-control! I don't think you've changed at all!"

"What do you mean? I have changed!"

"No you haven't! You're the same Nightmare Moon that I saw three years ago."

Nightmare shut her eyes tightly and began to grit her teeth. "No... I'm... NOT!!!"

Suddenly, she opened her eyes, which became pure white, and her mane and tail flared up violently, enveloping the ceiling in a dark blue mist. Despite the severity of her outburst, I stood my ground against Nightmare as she glared right back at me, only for her to suddenly widen her eyes in sheer horror at something behind me. I turned around and saw that we were standing in front of my wall mirror,

and that Nightmare was looking at herself.

As suddenly as she flared up, she simmered down and looked at me with teary eyes. "Noah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"Just stop," I interrupted. "I can't do this anymore. I'm done."

Nightmare started to breathe heavily in panic. "What do you mean? You're breaking up with me?"

I didn't answer.

"Noah, please! I promise I won't do it again! If you'd just give me one more chance-"

"No more chances, Nightmare."

The alicorn began to hyperventilate, and as tears began to stream from her eyes, she disappeared into a cloud of mist.

With me left alone in my bedroom, I felt a wave of relief wash over me, like an enormous weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I changed into my sleeping clothes and went to bed. As I wrapped myself under the covers, I sprawled out on the bed and relished in my newfound freedom. I felt incredibly comfortable without Nightmare constricting me.

I sighed as I buried my head into my pillow. "Good riddance."

Chapter Fourteen - Distractions

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The next morning, I was still sprawled out on my bed, taking advantage of the fact that it had one less occupant. I had forgotten how much space my bed had, most likely because I had been… restrained over the last several weeks.

I let out a loud yawn as I got out of bed and sleepily walked to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. I decided on pancakes with butter and sat down in front of the TV, which was on the weather channel when I turned it on.

“…and so the cool weather from yesterday will continue on into the week, with the lowest temperature being on Friday.”

I was relieved to hear that. This way I could keep wearing clothes that covered my neck while this mark that she gave me clears up on my neck. After flipping through the channels and settling on an old nineties rerun, I finished up my breakfast and put my plate in the sink. Despite the fact that it was Monday morning, I felt really refreshed as I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and take a shower. After that, I got dressed and left the apartment to catch the shuttle to school.

When I arrived on campus, it was half past nine, and I made my way to the student lounge to meet up with Klaus and Maud at our usual spot. As I walked in they waved to me with smiles on their faces… well, I assumed that Maud was smiling on the inside, but then their expressions (yes, even Maud’s) became ones of concern instead of happiness.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I sat beside Klaus.

“Well, isn’t Nightshade usually with you when you come here?” the griffon asked.

“Yeah, and?”

“She isn’t with you today.”

I rolled my eyes. “What’s your point? We’re not attached at the hip, you know.”

Maud stared at me blankly. “Okay, what’s going on between you and Nightshade?”

My first instinct was to question her suspicion, but then I realized that this was Maud I was dealing with. When she senses that something is wrong, she’s usually, if not always right about it.

I let out a frustrated sigh and leaned forward, resting my cheek in my hand with my elbow on the table. “Nightshade and I broke up.”

“What!?” Klaus exclaimed while Maud’s eyes only widened slightly. “Broke up!?”

I winced at the griffon’s sudden increase in volume. “Could you keep it down? Not everyone has to hear you, you know.”

“Sorry…”

“I’m surprised,” Maud commented. “You two were practically inseparable.”

“That was the problem,” I told her.

“I knew you were getting fed up with her being so clingy, but I thought you guys would’ve been able to work it out,” said Klaus.

“When did you find that out?” the earth mare asked him with a raised eyebrow, “and why was I never told about this?”

“Well, we discussed it during our Guys’ Day Out.”

“And?”

It was at this point that Klaus chimed in. “There’s a stipulation of the Guys’ Day Out Agreement that any and all conversations and topics therein must not be discussed with any female peers, mutual or otherwise.”

“A stipulation that you just violated,” I quipped with an annoyed tone.

“Sorry…”

“Well, it’s all out in the open now, so what exactly happened?” Maud asked.

“Does it matter?” I asked. “It’s already over and done with, and I’m a lot happier, so it doesn’t matter.”

“You don’t seem happier to me.”

“Well, I was happier until I started getting interrogated.”

“Uh… okay guys, let’s just calm down…” Klaus said nervously.

“I’m perfectly calm,” Maud said with closed eyes and a shrug, and she was right. Despite her persistence, she had maintained her usual monotone throughout the entire conversation. I, on the other hand, was getting more frustrated by the second.

As much as I didn’t want to, I knew that there was no way that I would get Maud to drop the subject, so I gave in.

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “When Klaus and I went out two days ago, I told him that Nightshade was being very possessive of me, and that she was started to get very combative with pretty much every other girl besides you that talked to me. Wherever I went, she always wanted to tag along, and convincing her to let me go out without her was more of a hassle than it needed to be. Even while we were out, she kept texting and calling me every five minutes, and it got to the point where I had to turn my phone off. There, happy?”

She shrugged her shoulders again. “Eh.”

“So how did you guys break up?” Klaus asked.

“We had a fight and she left,” I answered.

“A fight? But neither of you seem like the fighting type,” the earth mare stated with a matter-of-fact tone. “And she just up and left? Just like that? Do you know where she went?”

I shrugged. “I dunno, and I honestly don’t care. I didn’t bother looking for her.”

“But doesn’t it worry you that she didn’t show up today?”

“Not in the slightest. In fact, I’m glad. She’s away from me, and I’m away from her.”

“And it doesn’t bother you at all that you haven’t seen or heard from her since the fight?”

Klaus cleared his throat. “Maud, maybe you should let Noah tell you all this when he’s ready.”

“You say that like she’s been missing for days,” I told the mare. “It hasn’t even been a good twelve hours.”

She scoffed. “Excuse me for wanting to know how my friend is doing.”

I rolled my eyes. “I bet if you knew what she was really like, you’d want nothing to do with her,” I thought.

“Okay, why don’t we order some tea or something and just chill?” Klaus asked. “We don’t need to be-”

“I’m actually surprised at you, Noah,” she continued. “You normally aren’t this indifferent.”

It was at that point where I started to get fed up. What more did this mare want? I told her about the problems I had with Nightshade, I told her how and why we broke up, and she still wouldn’t quit it with the questions! Why did it matter so much to her!?

I stood up from my seat and glared down at Maud in anger. “Well, maybe if I was a little more indifferent, none of my problems with Nightshade would’ve ever happened!” I yelled as I stormed out of the lounge without another word, infuriated at what I had just been put through.

I mean, you’d expect your friends to have your back when you’re going through a tough time, right?

I let out a sigh. Maybe I just needed to be alone for a while. Besides, I shouldn’t have expected them to understand, anyway. I could only tell them so much about my problems with Nightshade, because they didn’t know that she was Nightmare. How could I expect them to see where I was coming from?

If they knew who she really was, they wouldn’t give two shits about what she was doing.

I shook my head and headed to my Calculus class. As much as I detested math, it would still be a distraction from all the drama. Not a nice distraction, but a distraction nonetheless.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t as distracting as I had hoped.

As much as I tried to focus on the lecture the professor was giving, my mind kept flashing back to what Maud had told me.

“I’m actually surprised at you, Noah. You normally aren’t this indifferent.”

Indifferent… That word kept echoing over and over in my head. She was right, I was being indifferent. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find it in me to care about what happened to Nightmare after she left, but at the same time it didn’t really bother me that I didn’t care. Why should I care? Nightmare went from being a possessive burden to a dangerous threat to people’s lives, including mine.

I made the right choice ending my relationship with her. Aside from the fact that it was a relationship I never even wanted, who knows what would’ve happened if I stayed with her? She could’ve injured someone else, or worse, she could’ve killed them! And what if she ended up turning her aggression at me? What would have happened then? As much as she said that she’d never do anything to hurt me, I found it increasingly difficult to believe her. Who’s to say that she wouldn’t turn around and try to hurt me, or that she wouldn’t try to kill me in anger!

In retrospect, maybe I should’ve been more indifferent. If I had, I never would’ve invited her to stay at my house, and my relationship with her never would’ve gotten to where it was. If I wasn’t so damn nice and just cut her loose when I had the chance-

“What the?” I thought to myself as I felt a cool breeze pass behind me. I looked around the room and saw that all the windows were closed, and while the room did have central air, that breeze felt really unusual, like it went against the direction of the AC-

“Dismissed,” the professor said as he ended the class, and the rest of the class got up and filed out of the lecture hall doors.

“Great,” I thought. “I thought this class would keep me from thinking about Nightmare, but instead I spent the entire class thinking about her.” I left the lecture hall and decided to walk through the town just off campus in order to find a better distraction for myself. When I got there, I meandered through the shopping plaza, just to take in my surroundings and clear my head.

“Noah!” a voice called out of nowhere, and I turned around and saw Topaz approaching me with a plastic bag in one hand.

“Oh. Hey, T. What’s up?”

“Just doing some shopping for Golden Jade. Her doctor prescribed her some painkillers to help with her recovery, so I’m getting them for her while our grandma stays with her in her hospital room. I’m on my way back to the hospital.”

For a moment, my mind flashed back to when Nightmare attacked Jade and sent her flying into that wall, and I froze in place as the event replayed itself in my head.

“Noah?” said Topaz, “You okay?”

“Yeah… I’m fine…” I answered. “So how’s Jade doing?”

“Well, she doesn’t remember how the accident happened, but the doctor said that she can expect to go home in about a week or two. Grandma’s already told her school about her condition and they’re setting up online make-up courses for her.”

She didn’t remember anything about last night? That was a relief. I was worried that she or Topaz would somehow hold it against me that Nightmare blasted her into the wall.

“The doctor also said that she can have visitors now, so you can come with me if you want. You don’t have anything else to do, right?”

I hesitated to answer. “No, but… I don’t know, T.”

“Don’t be like that, Noah. I’m sure she’d be happy to see the guy that helped her get the care she needed. I told her that you were the one that helped her get to the hospital, and she wanted to thank you face to face.”

“Really?” I asked.

“What do you mean ‘really’? You say that as if what you did wasn’t important.”

“Well, I just did what any decent person would do,” I told her.

The pegasus merely chuckled. “I don’t know if you’re aware of this, Noah, but most people these days would rather record someone getting injured than call for help. Trust me, she’ll be happy to see you. She owes you her life, after all.”

“Yeah, but if she hadn’t run into me, her life wouldn’t have been in danger to begin with,” I thought. I knew that it wasn’t my fault that Nightmare attacked her, but I still felt some degree of guilt.

Then again, if what Topaz said was true, and Jade didn’t remember anything from last night, then seeing her wouldn’t really be a bad thing. Plus it could do me some good to see her recovering from her ordeal. She may have been bedridden for the time being, but she was still in much better condition than she was in last night.

I let out a conceding sigh. “Okay, Topaz. Let’s go.”

The pegasus mare smiled and walked to my side. “Great. I’m sure Jade will be surprised to see you. C’mon, my car is parked near here.”

“Your car?”

“Well, my grandma’s car, but still.”

We both had a little laugh as we walked to the car and left the shopping plaza on our way to the hospital. The drive was silent, though, and I could tell that the lack of conversation was getting to Topaz. She was always a talker during our high school days.

“So Noah…” she said as she drove, and I could tell by her tone that she was about to wander into touchy territory.

“Yeah?” I answered, wondering if I should be worried about what she’d say.

“How have you and your marefriend been doing? Nightshade, right?”

Of course she’d ask something like that. It seemed like everyone wanted to know what she was up to today.

“We broke up,” I answered dryly. “I didn’t like how she treated other mares.” My eyes then widened in fear. Had I said too much? Would she suspect something? I really should’ve stopped after “we broke up”.

“Well, I didn’t want to say anything,” said Topaz, “but I was a little intimidated by the way she talked to me when I first met her.”

“Yeah, we had a fight when we went home that day, and that led to the breakup,” I half-lied.

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “Don’t be. It wasn’t worth being with her if she was gonna act like that.”

We soon arrived at the hospital and found a space in the parking lot. Once we walked in, we got our visitors’ passes and headed to Jade’s room. When we reached her door, I started to become nervous again, so much so that Topaz noticed.

“Want me to go in first?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah… I’d like that.”

She smiled and opened the door, walking into the room to address her sister and grandmother. “I’m back, you guys.”

“Hey, little sis,” I heard Jade say, and I could hear the weakness in her voice. “Did you get any snacks on the way back? I’ve only had one meal here and I’m already sick of the slop at this place.”

“Well, I didn’t bring food, but someone is here to see you.”

“Really? Who?”

That was my cue. I took a deep breath and slowly walked inside. I saw Jade lying in her bed, with Topaz and their grandmother sitting in chairs towards the wall. The injured mare’s eyes brightened up when she saw me, and a smile adorned her face.

“Noah?” she asked in disbelief.

I gave her a timid wave. “Hi, Jade.”

“Grandma, this is Noah,” said Topaz. “He’s a friend of mine from high school.”

“Oh yes,” said the older mare as she stood up. “My name is Opal. I think we met at Topaz’s graduation.”

I nodded. “I think so, yeah.”

“Well, my granddaughter tells me that you were the young man that called the ambulance for Golden Jade. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we’re really grateful.”

“Don’t mention it,” I said, a little embarrassed.

“I really owe you one for this, Noah,” Jade chuckled softly. “I’d hug you right now if my back wasn’t killing me.”

“Already got you covered,” Topaz chimed in as she took out some of her sister’s medicine and gave it to her.

“Thanks,” she said as she took the pills and gulped them down with a swig of water.

I ended up spending the next few hours with the three mares. We watched TV, cracked jokes, and listened to some of Grandma Opal’s stories from when Topaz and Jade were fillies. Eventually, visiting hours ended, and we had to leave poor Jade all by her lonesome.

She smiled as we got up to leave. “It was nice having you guys here.”

Opal smiled back at her granddaughter. “That’s what family’s for, dearie. Sleep well, okay?”

“Okay, Grandma.” Jade then looked at Topaz. “See ya tomorrow, sis.”

“M-hm,” she nodded as she waved goodbye.

“And Noah,”

I looked back at her. “Yeah?”

“Thanks for coming to see me. It really means a lot.”

I blinked and looked at her blankly before regaining my composure. “No problem,” I said as I left the room.

Topaz and Opal were nice enough to give me a ride back to my apartment complex, and I thanked them as they drove off. Looking back on it, while today did have a rough start, it surprisingly turned out to work out for the better. I didn’t think that seeing Jade would help to brighten my day, but it just goes to show you how things work out sometimes.

When I got to my hallway, I went over to my mailbox and took out the mail that came in today before going to my apartment. Once inside, I sat down on the couch and looked at the mail I had received.

“Okay, we’ve got a greeting card, some pointless ads, an issue of Comic Junkie Monthly, a subscription renewal notice, and…” I looked at the last piece of mail with a perplexed expression. “What’s this?” I asked myself as I examined the envelope.

There was no return address, and my address wasn’t written on it, either. All that was on the envelope was my name written in dark blue ink with elegant calligraphy. I curiously opened the envelope, wondering just what could be inside, and I was surprised to find a handwritten letter, written in the same blue ink that was used to write my name on the envelope, and I almost dropped the letter in shock.

While I didn’t recognize the elaborate handwriting on the envelope, there was no mistaking who wrote this letter.

I continued to look at the penned note in disbelief and said one word.

“…Nightmare?”

Chapter Fifteen - Letters and Lunches

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I continued to stare at the letter in my hands in disbelief. I was caught off-guard by the reality that Nightmare had sent me a letter, which had today’s date on it, and I was disgusted with myself for actually putting the thought of reading it into consideration. I wasn’t obligated to do so, and it wouldn’t be any skin off my back if I didn’t. What was Nightmare doing sending me a letter any which way? You’d think that she’d understand that I wanted nothing to do with her, but she still had the gall to try and communicate with me. What was her deal?

I stared at the letter some more, and without even realizing it, I began to read the words that were written on it.

Noah,

I know you’re still mad at me, and I’m probably the last mare that you want to hear from, but please, if anything, at least read this through to the end. I’m really, REALLY sorry for what I did! If I knew that you’d be this upset with me, I never would’ve attacked Jade. I swear to you that I’m not the evil mare you think I am. I really have changed, and I didn’t mean to yell at you like that last night. I really didn’t mean to do that. I love you, and I would NEVER knowingly do anything to hurt you! You mean the world to me, and I know that I messed up, but you can forgive me, right? We can start over and be happy again, and if you do give me another chance I promise I won’t do anything to make you mad ever again! I really can’t bear being without you for this long, and I miss having you in my arms at night. Just please give me another chance to show you that I really am a good mare, and I promise that you won’t regret it. Please!

Love always,
Moon

With each sentence I grew more and more aggravated with Nightmare. By the time I had finished reading her pathetic plea of a letter, my first instinct was to tear it up and throw the pieces away.

And that’s exactly what I did.

As I watched the torn pieces of paper flutter down to the bottom of the trash can, I tried to process what I had just read. What was Nightmare thinking writing me that letter? Did she really believe that I was just going to forgive her like that? Did she really think that a simple apology would make me forget what she did, something that she didn’t even apologize for!? Sure, she said sorry, but she wasn’t sorry because she felt remorse over hurting Jade. She was sorry because of how I reacted to her hurting Jade. I bet she still thought that her actions were justified.

“Feh, if she thinks that I’m really gonna forgive her that easily, she’s got another thing coming,” I thought vehemently as I looked out the window. The sun had already gone down, and the moon was just starting to rise, so I went into the fridge and looked around to see what I could make for dinner. As I looked through the items, I heard a strange noise, and I looked around to see what it was. I then noticed the curtains on the window over the sink blowing in the wind, and I went over and shut the window, which immediately ended the strange sound.

It was strange, it had ben a relatively windy night, but the wind sounded somewhat like whimpering. Either that or my mind was playing tricks on me.

Fifteen minutes later, with my dinner in plate and plate in hand, I sat on my living room couch and ate. I really didn’t feel like watching TV, so I instead decided to consume my dinner in the silence of the night. I went straight to bed soon after eating.

The next day, I arrived on campus with a half hour to spare before my Physics class. As I walked down the concrete path from the main entrance, I saw the student lounge in the distance, but I decided not to go there. I was still upset with Maud over what she said to me yesterday, and I felt that seeing her wouldn’t be the best thing for me at the moment. Without my usual hangout, I decided to laze about in the library on my own in order to kill the time before class, and before I knew it, it was time to go.

As usual, Physics class was rather dull. I slouched in my usual seat in the back of the class as my attention to the professor’s lecture increased and decreased, picking up chunks of the lecture for a few minutes and then zoning out for another few minutes. Despite my lack of attention, I still made an effort not to fall asleep. There was a rumor that the Physics professor flipped out on the last student that took a nap in his class, and I didn’t want to test the validity of that rumor.

I was somehow able to survive until the end of class, and after I left the lecture hall, I heard my phone ring. When I looked at it, I saw that it was Klaus that was calling me, and after briefly debating over whether or not I should pick it up, I decided to answer the phone and see what the griffon wanted.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Noah. You got a minute?”

I sighed. “Sure, what is it?”

“I know you might still be mad about what happened with Maud yesterday, but I was wondering if you wanted to get some lunch with me today to help relax and take your mind off things.”

I thought about it for a moment. Spending some time with Klaus would help me to relax a little. Even though I had cut Nightmare loose, I still found myself stressed, and I always found it easy to blow off steam when I was hanging out with Klaus.

“Sure,” I told him. “Where do you want to meet?”

“Meet me at the main entrance to the school in ten minutes, and then we’ll walk to town.”

“Sounds like a plan. See you in ten,” I said as I hung up the phone. Since I was quite a ways away from the main entrance, I was relieved that I had a good ten minutes to get there. I made it to the entrance with two minutes to spare, and Klaus was waiting there for me.

“Hey, man. What’s up?” he said as he waved to me.

“Nothing much. So, what place are we gonna hit for lunch?” I asked as we walked towards town.

“How about Burger Frenzy? Haven’t been there for a while.”

“Neither have I. Sounds like a plan.”

It took us about fifteen minutes to get to Burger Frenzy, and thankfully, despite the lunch rush, we didn’t have to wait for a seat.

“Here are your menus, guys,” the host said as he seated us. “A server will be with you in a sec.”

“Thanks,” we both said as we sat down, and we browsed the menu looking at the different items.

“I might get the chicken sandwich with bottomless fries…” Klaus thought out loud as he viewed his options.

I had to stop what I was doing and stare at him for a moment. “Wait… really? Isn’t that kinda like cannibalism?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Eh, not really. I’m a bird of prey, and I’m also part lion, so it’s whatever.”

“Well, at least I won’t feel bad for ordering the chicken tenders then,” I shrugged. “I’ll probably get the bottomless fries, too.”

“Hey, there!” said a sweet female voice. We looked up and saw a unicorn mare looking down at us. “We ready to order?”

“I think so,” I answered, and Klaus and I gave her our orders.

“Okay, then. What will it be?”

“I want the chicken sandwich with bottomless fries.” Klaus said, pointing at his menu.
“And I’ll have the chicken tenders, also with bottomless fries.” I followed.

“Good!

“Okay, then. What would you guys like to drink?”

“Root beer,” I answered.

“Pepsi,” Klaus told her.

“Alright. I’ll get those for you while your food cooks,” she said as she jotted down our orders and walked off.

“So Klaus, how have things been going with you lately?” I asked.

“Pretty well, actually.”

“Still having trouble with your folks?”

“Yeah, but to be honest, I don’t really care anymore.”

I gave him a surprised look. “Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve been feeling a little better about my situation with them since running into Reggie the other day. Up until then, I thought that Griselda was the only one on my side, but now I know that all my siblings are behind me, even if they didn’t say it. Reggie told me that leaving the way I did took a lot of guts, and I never saw it that way before. For a while, I thought that I was a coward for just leaving without saying a word, but Reg helped me see it in a different way.”

“So what about your parents, then?” I asked.

“They still haven’t accepted it, but I’m not gonna let it bother me anymore. I’m my own man now, and what I do with my life is my decision to make. They’re gonna need more time to accept that, and if it turns out that they don’t accept it… Fuck ‘em.”

I chuckled. “Well said, Stormcloud. Well said.”

“Here are your drinks, boys!” our waitress said as she approached us, drinks in hand. She set two coasters on our table and put our drinks on the coasters. “Your food will be here shortly.”

“Thanks,” we told her as she walked away.

Klaus took a sip of his drink tentatively as he looked away from me. “Look, Noah,” he said, “I’m really sorry for what happened yesterday. With Maud, I mean. She was out of line.”

“Why are you apologizing?” I asked, confused. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”

“Yeah, but if I hadn’t let it slip that you were having problems with Nightshade, she wouldn’t have been so pushy.”

I waved off his concern. “She was already asking questions before you told her about my problems with Nightshade. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I don’t agree with some of the stuff Maud said. It wasn’t your responsibility to know where Nightshade was. She’s a grown mare, and you’re not her father. If Maud or I wanted to see how she was doing, we should call her ourselves, not ask you.”

“Thanks, man.”

The griffon smiled. “No problem, and I’m not gonna push you into talking about the breakup either. Just tell me whenever you feel like talking about it.”

I smiled. “Thanks again.”

Our food came about ten minutes later, and as we ate, I couldn’t help but think about the letter that Nightmare sent me, and thinking about the letter made me think about the breakup. I must have been thinking about it intensely, because Klaus noticed a tense expression on my face.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said as I shook my head.

He still looked concerned, but he shrugged it off. “If you say so.”

I wondered if I should at least give Klaus the gist of what happened between me and Nightmare. I didn’t have to tell him everything, just enough so that he’ll have a basic understanding of what happened.

I sighed and looked up at him. “I guess I could tell you what happened.”

“You sure?” he asked.

I hesitated for a moment, but I nodded. “Yeah… I’m sure.”

Klaus stopped eating and looked at me, listening attentively to what I was going to say.

“So you already know about the problems I’ve been having with Nightshade, what with how clingy and possessive she was being.”

“Uh-huh,” the griffon nodded. “You also mentioned that she was getting passive aggressive with other mares and girls, too.”

“Exactly, so the day after our Guys’ Day Out, I stayed home for most of the day, but then I had to get groceries, and of course, Nightshade wanted to tag along. I really wasn’t in the mood to argue, so I just let her come with me so I can get what we needed and get home as quickly as possible. While we were there, Nightshade had to go to the bathroom, and while she was gone, I ran into my ex-marefriend from high school.”

From the look on Klaus’s face, I knew that he could tell that the story was going to go downhill from that point on.

“We chatted for a while, but I wanted to end the conversation before Nightshade got back, but she showed up before I could leave my ex.”

“So she started to get aggressive again?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but she was a lot worse this time. It got to the point where it came to blows and my ex got really hurt.”

“Oh no. Is she okay?”

I paused for a moment before answering. “She could be better, but she’s doing fine,” I half-lied.

“So what happened afterward?”

“After we got home, I got really mad at Nightshade for what she did, and the argument escalated to the point where we broke up.”

“Oh…” Klaus said, unsure of how to respond to that.

“See, the thing of it is that if it were an accident, I wouldn’t have been that mad with her, but not only did she mean to do it, but she didn’t feel sorry about it, either.” I clenched my fists tightly as I remembered her words.

“How do you know that?” the griffon asked.

“At the moment it happened, I asked her why she did it, and she told me that she had every right to do it and that it wasn’t that big a deal, then when we got home and had the argument, she said that she had to attack my ex and then she yelled that I ‘belonged’ to her.”

“Oh, man…” Klaus muttered as he took in the severity of the situation.

“So after that I told her that I didn’t want to be in a relationship with her, and she left on her own.”

“Oh, on her own,” the griffon sighed. “I was afraid to ask if you kicked her out.”

“I most likely would have if she hadn’t left on her own accord.”

“And you haven’t seen her since?”

“Nope,” I said bluntly, and then my eyes suddenly widened. “Did you feel that?” I asked.

“Feel what?”

“I felt a cool wind.”

“In Florida? Isn’t that, like, against the laws of nature?”

I sighed and shook my head. “Never mind. It was probably just my imagination.”

“If you say so…” Klaus shrugged as he went back to eating. Once we were done, we paid the bill and left the restaurant. “So where are you headed now?”

“I have to go to the store and get some groceries. After all that happened the other day, I didn’t even buy the stuff that I had gotten.”

“Alright then. I’ve got a class in an hour and a half, so I’m gonna head back to campus. Catch ya later, Noah.”

“Yeah. See ya,” I said as we bumped fists and parted ways.

It was quarter to three when I got home, and aside from another one of those annoying ads, I didn’t get any mail. After restocking the fridge and pantry with groceries, I plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV, flipping through the channels to find something worth watching. While I was assaulting the remote control with my incessant clicking, I heard my phone ring, and I muted the TV and reached for my phone.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hey, Noah. It’s Topaz.”

“Oh hey, T. What’s up?”

“Nothing, just visiting Jade again before I have to head back to New York tomorrow morning.”

“You’re heading back already?”

I heard her sigh. “Yeah. As much as I don’t want to, I have to go. Grandma will still be here, so at least she’ll have some family to visit her.”

“That’s a relief. I might visit her this weekend, too. Are you in her room?”

“No, she’s having a treatment session right now, so I’m in the waiting room.”

“Well tell her that I said hi when you see her, then.”

“I’ll be sure to do that, Noah. Talk to you later, ‘kay?”

“Sure,” I said as I hung up the phone, only for it to ring again seconds later.

“Hello.”

“…Hey, Noah,” a soft, deadpan voice said.

“Maud?” I asked in disbelief as I pulled the phone away to check the caller ID to make sure it was her.

“I know we’re not on the best of terms right now, but I was wondering if I could talk to you. I can’t do tonight because I have a class, but you don’t have any classes tomorrow, right?”

“No…”

“Well, Klaus has class at nine AM tomorrow, so we can meet in the lounge at that time if it’s okay with you.”

I hesitated to answer. I was still pretty mad with Maud, and I thought that talking to her wouldn’t be the best option, but my conscience was telling me otherwise.

I let out a reluctant breath and spoke. “Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Chapter Sixteen - Friends Make Amends

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8:54 AM

I had just gotten off the shuttle to the campus, and I was on my way to the student lounge to meet up with Maud, an idea that I still wasn’t one hundred percent on-board with. Despite my uncertainty, though, I figured that it’d be best to just hear what she had to say and get it overwith. I mean, I could always just leave if things went south.

I walked through the double-door entrance of the lounge, and by force of habit, I walked to our usual spot. Sure enough, Maud was waiting there for me. She regarded me with her usual stoic expression, and I wasn’t sure if she was looking at me with happiness or disdain.

I hoped that it wasn’t the latter. The last thing I needed was another argument.

I gulped nervously and sat across from her. “Hey, Maud…” I said to her.

“Hi, Noah,” she greeted with her trademark monotone. She seemed as calm as ever, same as always, and while I should’ve been used to it by now, it never failed to perplex me from time to time. Maud never showed discomfort in any situation, no matter how uncomfortable it-

Wait… Something was wrong.

I took a good look at Maud’s face and noticed that she was doing something that she had never done before. Something that, in my nearly two years of knowing her, I have never seen her do.

She wasn’t looking at me.

Maud always made a point of looking at whoever she was talking to. She’d always give the same blank stare to whoever she was addressing, almost to the point where her stare would uncomfortably pierce through their soul. I have seen the strongest of people and ponies crumble before her endless gaze…

but now that gaze was averted.

Her expression was still the same, but her eyes were cast off to the side rather than looking straight at me. However, as weird as it was, it ultimately made this meeting a lot easier for me.

“Thanks for coming. I was worried that you wouldn’t show. You know, considering-”

“I know,” I politely interrupted. “I don’t think either of us need to be reminded of that.”

“You’re right. Sorry,” she said, and then she fell silent for a moment. “…You want something to drink? It’s on me.”

“That was… kinda out of nowhere. Why?” I asked.

The earth mare shrugged. “I thought that it’d help ease the tension.”

I decided to take her up on her offer and accepted. “Sure.”

“You want anything specific?”

I shrugged. “Surprise me.”

“Okay, then. I’ll be back,” Maud nodded as she got up from her seat and walked up to the lady running the drink stand, leaving me to watch her in confusion as she went and got us something to drink. Maud was acting really strange today, and I haven’t even been around her for a good five minutes yet. She eventually returned with one coffee cup in each hand, and she set my cup down in front of me before getting back into her seat.

“I got you some Earl Grey tea,” she told me. “Be careful. It’s hot.”

“Thanks,” I nodded as I looked down at the cup. Heeding her warning, I slowly brought it up to my lips and tentatively tilted it so that my tongue would be hit with the least amount of hot tea as possible. As Maud had said, it was pretty hot, so I let it back down on the table. Meanwhile, she was sipping her tea like it was a cool swig of ice water. When she was finished sipping, her attention focused back onto me… at least I thought it did, considering that she still wasn’t looking at me.

After a brief moment of silence, Maud cleared her throat and began to speak. “So, I’ve been thinking about the other day, when we had that argument, particularly what I had said to you, and… in retrospect, I probably did come off as rather harsh.”

“Probably?” I thought with a raised eyebrow.

“To be honest, at first I thought that what I had said wasn’t that bad and that you’d eventually see my point,” she explained, “but when you didn’t come here yesterday morning to meet up with Klaus and me, I started to wonder if I was too hard on you. Looking back on it now, some of the things I said were out-of-line.”

“Well, I was offended by some of the stuff you said,” I told her. “You did come across as-”

“Bitchy, I know.” Maud finished for me.

“Actually, I was gonna say something like ‘unpleasant’ or ‘mean’.”

“I think ‘bitchy’ would be the better word, though,” she admitted. “All I did was poke and prod you, demanding answers about something that was none of my business. I talked to you like you were the bad guy when I didn’t even know the whole story, and I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Yeah, I wondered why you did that.”

“When I heard that you and Nightshade broke up, my mind went back to the day Klaus and I found out that you were dating, and I told you to be careful, so when I heard about the breakup, I immediately thought that it was because of something you did.”

I thought about that for a moment and sighed. “Well, you were at least half-right. You did warn me not to wait too long, and it could’ve helped if I told Nightshade that I was uncomfortable with her clinginess the moment I noticed it.”

“Even so, I shouldn’t have kept pushing you,” said Maud. “It wasn’t fair for me to make you feel like it was all your fault just because I was protective of Nightshade.”

I blinked and looked at her in surprise. “Protective?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Well, there was a hidden side of Nightshade that I saw even when we first met her almost four months ago.”

A sense of fear washed over me as I froze in my seat, and I was afraid to hear where Maud was going with this. Did she know who Nightshade really was all this time? If so, why didn’t she say anything? Despite my fear, I dared to ask her…

“What was it that you saw?” I asked.

The mare slouched back into her side of the booth, her eyes still cast off to the side. “I saw that she was lonely,” she told me.

I sighed inwardly with relief at first, but then I actually processed what Maud had said. “Lonely?” I asked.

“Mm-hm. When I first saw her, I could tell that she was nervous to be around us, like she never had a group accept her as a friend so easily. Even while we were getting to know her, she always felt… scared, like she was afraid that we weren’t really friends with her.”

How come Klaus and I never noticed this?

“Then when you and Nightshade told Klaus and me that you were letting her move in with you, she seemed a lot happier, as if some of the fear that she had earlier disappeared,” Maud continued.

“I guess now you’re gonna tell me that she was her happiest when she was dating me?”

She stopped for a moment, staring blankly at the wall before speaking. “Well… yes and no. She was really happy, but some of the fear that she had before came back, and that’s why I pulled you aside and said what I said that day.”

“I didn’t realize that you cared so much for her,” I said.

“Well, since I realized that Nightshade was a fragile mare, I took it upon myself to quietly look out for her. That’s why I asked you to take care of her after that incident at Pete’s house party.”

“How is it that you were able to figure out all these things about her when I couldn’t?” I asked.

“When you have three younger sisters, you tend to pick up on subtle things,” Maud explained, but then she shook her head. “Regardless, how I felt about Nightshade doesn’t change the fact that what I said to you was wrong, and I had no right to blow up at you like that.”

“Well you didn’t really blow up,” I admitted. “If anything I-”

“You mean you didn’t notice how angry I was?” she interrupted.

“Um… no?”

“Anyway, I’m just rambling. Long story short, the point I’m trying to make is…”she stopped for a second, and for the first time that day, Maud turned and looked me in the eye. “I’m sorry, Noah,” she finished.

I couldn’t help but smile when she finally looked at me, and even with her usual stony expression, I could see a little bit of emotion. Before I could say that I accepted her apology, however, she got out of her seat and walked over to mine, looking down at me with that cold stare.

“Um…” I said as I looked up at her, unsure of what she’d do.

Without warning, Maud suddenly wrapped her arms around my torso, pulling me in for a gruesomely tight hug. What started out as a firm embrace became a deadly chokehold as my bones threatened to break from the crushing force of the mare’s arms.

“Maud…” I called, my voice muffled as my face was pressed against her surprisingly soft stomach. My cry went unheard as I continued to be crushed by her hug. “Maud…” I called again, but she still didn’t let go.

At this point my oxygen supply was running dangerously low.

“Maud Maud Maud Maud MAUD!!!”

Finally, the mare let me go as my limp form fell to the floor.

“There. I think that hug was long enough to show how sorry I am,” she deadpanned.

“Uuugh… A little too long if you ask me,” I groaned as I stood up. “I’m sorry, too Maud, I could’ve handled that situation better. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. So, are we cool now?”

Maud nodded her head and gave me one of her rare smiles. “Yeah, we’re cool. So, what are your plans for today?”

“I was going to head to the school library and check out a DVD, something to take advantage of my lack of classes. Maybe you and Klaus can come over to my place tonight and watch it with me. Maybe around seven?”

“That’d be nice. I’ll text Klaus after he gets out of class. See you later, Noah.”

“Later, Maud,” I said as I took my cup of tea and left the lounge. I sipped at my significantly cooler drink as I walked to the library, making sure to finish it before I got there.

The last thing I needed was to catch hell from the librarian.

Once inside the library, I perused the DVD section for something that Klaus, Maud, and I would enjoy, taking my time and whispering to myself as I considered all the options.

“Okay…. We already saw Shaun of the Dead recently… Klaus prefers the Scott Pilgrim comics over the movie… The Power Ponies movie was a poorly directed piece of shit… ”

I let out a sigh as I looked at the large shelf lined with movies, and I shook my head at my indecisiveness. Just then, I heard a panicky voice from the other aisle.

“Oh, man. Where is it, where is it, where is it?”

Curious as to whose voice it was, I walked over to the neighboring aisle and found someone that I recognized.

He was a short bespectacled unicorn stallion with a backpack more than half his size weighing down on him. He was one of the pre-med students at the school. “I can’t find it anywhere,” he whimpered to himself as he scanned the bookshelves.

“You alright there, Shortstuff?” I asked.

“I could be better,” he sighed depressively. “There’s this book on advanced medical spells I’m trying to find. The library has only one copy of it, and I need it to write my master thesis! I’ve been looking high and low hoping that someone put it on the wrong shelf by mistake!”

“Alright, alright, just relax,” I said calmly, trying to keep him from having a fit. “I’m sure one of the bookstores nearby has a copy in stock.”

“I doubt it,” the unicorn scoffed. “The edition I’m looking for is really hard to come by, and when I looked it up online, the price was outrageous!”

“Well, just ask the library to put the book on hold for you so no one else will check it out once whoever has the book returns it.”

Shortstuff let out a defeated sigh as he adjusted his backpack. “I suppose that’s my only option, then.” He then looked up at me. “So what brings you here?”

“Just looking for a good flick to rent out.”

“Have you seen The World’s End?”

I shook my head. “Never got around to it.”

“Try that one. It’s pretty funny. I’ll see you around, Noah.”

“Later, Shortstuff. Hope you get ahold of that book soon.”

The unicorn shot me a quick “Thanks” as he briskly walked to the circulation desk to place the hold, and I picked up his recommended movie from the DVD shelf and checked it out.

I had just gotten off the shuttle to my apartment building and I read the back of the DVD case as I walked inside.

“This does seem like a funny movie,” I thought as I absentmindedly took the mail out of my mailbox. “Then again, you can’t go wrong with Simon Pegg.”

I tucked the DVD under my arm as I unlocked my door and walked in, tossing the items I had onto the couch. After changing into some more comfortable clothes, I plopped myself on the couch and looked through the mail I had gotten, which was mostly ads, until I got to the letter at the bottom, a letter that looked all too familiar.

The lack of addresses on the envelope, the elegant writing of my name, the blue ink that it was written in…

“Another one?” I asked myself as I picked up the envelope and debated over whether or not I should read it. If it was gonna be anything like the one I had gotten yesterday, then it would be a waste of my time to even read it. The last thing I needed was another letter from Nightmare pleading and begging for me to take her back.

But there’s always that curious side in people that always asks “what if?” In this case, what if this letter was different from the last one?

Why should I care, though? I definitely wasn’t going to take Nightmare back anytime soon. There was no way I’d forgive her for doing something so terrible, something that she didn’t even apologize for.

Still, that curiosity was still poking at me.

I stared at the letter for what felt like an eternity, wondering whether or not I should open it.

…

I went into the kitchen and grabbed a letter opener from one of the drawers. “Let’s just get this overwith,” I sighed to myself as I slowly sliced through the adhesive on the envelope and looked at the letter inside. Just like last time, the letter was dated and was written in the same blue ink that was used to write my name on the envelope it came in, and I started to read what Nightmare had written.

Noah,

I know it’s only been a day since last I’ve written to you, but I feel the need to make up for the last letter I sent you. I shouldn’t have been so aggressive in my writing, and I probably made you even angrier with me, and I didn’t mean to do that. It was just that I missed you so much and I just felt so desperate to have you back. I still miss you, a lot, actually, but I’m doing a little better now, in case you’re wondering. I’m still getting used to not having you with me at night, which is when I miss you the most, but I’m hanging in there.

Also, I owe you an apology. A real one. I was wrong to think that I should have attacked Jade that night, and I really wish I could take it back. I know that doesn’t mean much, but I just wanted you to know that I do regret the pain that I caused her. I really hope that you forgive me one day, maybe someday soon.

Love always,
Moon

I let out an exasperated sigh as I finished the letter. It was relieving to see that it wasn’t another “please take me back” letter, but what she wrote still didn’t make me feel any better. I didn’t know why, but something about her apology felt… inauthentic, like she only said it in hope that I’d forgive her. She said it herself, though: she knew it didn’t mean much, and she was right. It didn’t mean much at all. Besides, how could she go from irrational to calm in one day?

The one thing that I could’ve been happy about was the fact that she wasn’t obsessing over my distance from her… at least not as much as last time. All in all, this letter was more bearable than her last… whatever the hell that was, but I was nowhere close to forgiving her.

One thing struck me, though. In both letters, she mentioned how much she missed having me around, which made me think about her clinginess while we were dating, and then I remembered what Maud said to me earlier today.

“She was lonely.”

Lonely… In retrospect, that notion made a lot of sense. Nightmare hated it when she was separated from me, and tried her hardest to have some kind of contact with me while I was gone, even now.

Even with that in mind, however, while her loneliness did explain her actions, they certainly didn’t justify them, and that’s what bothered me the most about her. Call me skeptical, but when all I have to go on is her word, I can’t really be sure that she truly is sorry.

The loud ringing of my phone abruptly snapped me out of my thoughts, and I picked it up to see who was calling.

“Klaus,” I muttered to myself as I answered the phone. “What’s up?” I said into the speaker.

“Not much. I just got out of class a few minutes ago. Maud texted me saying there’s gonna be a movie night at your place tonight.”

“Sorta,” I shrugged. “Kind of a last-minute thing, really.”

“What movie are we gonna be watchin’?”

“The World’s End.”

“Hmm… I wanted to see that movie. Should be awesome. I’ll be there tonight, and I’ll bring some snacks.”

I glanced over at my snack cabinet and cringed at its barren state. “That’s not a bad idea. See ya tonight okay?”

“Sure,” the griffon said as the phone clicked. I continued to look at the snack cabinet, silently scolding myself for forgetting to get snacks when I went shopping.

“Well, at least Klaus is bringing snacks,” I thought. “I hope he brings the extra buttery popcorn.”

Chapter Seventeen - A Forgotten Voice

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It was a Saturday afternoon, and Maud was driving Klaus and me to a shopping mall, a shopping mall that was quite a ways away from the school.

“Tell me again why we’re going all the way out here?” Klaus asked.

“There’s a specific part for my telescope that I need to get, and none of the stores near the school carry it,” I clarified.

“Think of this as a fun road trip,” Maud droned, trying to lighten the mood.

“Your tone doesn’t help much,” Klaus grumbled.

“And this is why you sit in the back seat when we go driving,” I commented, earning another grumble from the disgruntled griffon. “Okay, look. We’ll get something to eat while we’re there. How’s that sound?”

“Less shitty.”

“Alright, then.”

“We’re almost there, guys,” Maud said just as the mall came into view. It didn’t take long for us to find a parking space, and we were inside the mall in a matter of minutes.

“Okay, so I’m gonna go for the telescope part. Where are you guys headed?” I asked.

Maud shrugged “I dunno. I guess I’ll see if I can find something to entertain the grumpy griffon while you’re getting your part. It’s a big mall, so I’m sure there’s an arcade somewhere around here.”

“In that case, I’ll call you when I’m done taking care of business and then we’ll meet at the food court.”

“Alright then.”

I turned to leave, but then I quickly snapped back around. “Oh, and thanks for the ride, Maud.”

“No problem,” she nodded, but then she gave me a stare, “but you’re gonna come up on that gas money, right?”

Her sudden (yet unnoticeable to the untrained ear) change in attitude threw me off for a second, but then the mare eased her stare. “Relax, Noah. I was just kidding,” she told me.

“Really? You could’ve fooled me!” I thought as I let out an uneasy sigh. “Oh, okay then. Well, I do have gas money if you-”

“No, it’s okay. Now go on. We don’t want to keep Klaus here longer than he needs to be,” she said as she looked at him.

“Don’t patronize me, lady,” the griffon mumbled.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at them. The way they always went back and forth with each other made them seem like they were husband and wife.

“I’ll see you guys later, okay,” I laughed as I walked away from them, but I caught Klaus giving me a dirty look before I turned around.

“What’re you laughing at?” he asked with an irritated tone.

“Don’t worry about it,” I snickered. I practically felt the griffon’s glare hitting me.

I sighed as I walked through the mall to get to the store I was looking for. According to the directory, it was going to be quite a walk, and my mind began to wander as I trekked on.

It had been a week and three days since Maud and I made up, and almost two weeks since Nightmare and I broke up. For the most part, things were pretty normal, reminiscent of the days before Nightmare showed up and it was just Klaus, Maud, and me. We were still hanging out, and while I could tell that they (Maud especially) were worried about Nightshade, they didn’t ask me about her. Honestly, I didn’t get as agitated by the mention of her anymore…

but whenever I visit Jade, I’m reminded of why I broke up with Nightmare in the first place.

In the past week I’ve gone to see her about three or four times so that it wouldn’t be just her and her grandmother. She needed someone her own age to chat with, after all. She always brightened up when I came by, but I knew that she couldn’t be that happy, not in the crippled state she was in. Just thinking about her, about seeing her the day that she was attacked, was enough to remind me why I couldn’t take Moon back.

Why I wouldn’t take Moon back.

Speaking of Moon, though, I hadn’t heard from her since she wrote me that last letter. Knowing how obsessive she was over me, I expected to get another one, and the lack of contact from her was relieving, yet worrisome. On one hand, she could be planning some kind of insane attempt at getting back together with me, but on the other hand, this could just mean that she’s finally gotten the message and realized that I no longer wanted anything to do with her.

For my sake, I hoped that it was the latter.

I finally reached the store and got the part that I needed for my telescope, and once that was taken care of, I called Maud.

“Hello?” she answered.

“Hey, Maud. I got what I needed. Where are you and Klaus at?” I asked.

“We’re in a comic book shop, we’ll be out in a second.”

“Sure. See ya at the food court,” I said as I hung up the phone.

The three of us met up several minutes later, with me being the last to arrive. When I got there, I saw Klaus and Maud sitting at a table with Klaus reading one of several comics that he apparently bought when he was at the comic shop.

“I see you’ve found a way to lighten his sour mood.” I chuckled as I stood beside Maud.

“Thank Celestia,” she smirked, and then she looked at the griffon. “You might want to save some of those comics for the ride home,” she told him.

“And spare us the bitching,” I added.

“Aaaaand you’ve officially ruined my mood again,” Klaus spat, but then his eyes widened as he saw… something behind Maud and me. “Hey, guys. Check it out. Isn’t that Austin Perry over there?”

Maud and I raised our eyebrows and glanced over our shoulders to see a familiar looking human walking across the food court. He was a tan-skinned guy with jet-black hair and an athletic build.

“That’s Playboy Perry, alright,” said the earth mare. “Wasn’t he in the hospital two days ago?”

“Yeah, unless we were all having the same hallucination,” I commented.

“Well, he’s coming this way, so we’ll have a chance to ask him,” Klaus said as we all turned back to our table and pretended like we were never looking at Austin. Not a moment later, though, we heard him call out to us.

“Hey, guys!” he said as he waved to us, and we looked at him with nervous smiles on our faces.

Well… except Maud, of course.

“Heeeeeeey, Austin,” I drawled as he reached us.

“What brings you all the way out here?” Klaus asked.

“Oh, I’m meeting a girl,” Austin explained. “She’s from out of town, so we’re meeting up here.”

“Another girl? Didn’t you just break up with your last girlfriend a week ago?”

“Yeah, she was the reason why you ended up in the hospital,” Maud reminded him.

“Okay, so maybe it was a bad call to cheat on a girl that was a black belt in Taekwondo, and maybe she did mess me up a little, but it wasn’t that bad,” Austin shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to make his short stint in the hospital a little less serious.

“’Wasn’t that bad?’” I questioned. “She broke both your arms and three of your ribs!”

“She fucked your shit up, down, left, and right,” Klaus added as he read one of his comics.

“And yet here you are, less than a week later, and you’re fully recovered,” Maud finished.

“Like I said, guys. It was no big deal. It’ll take more than some broken bones to keep Playboy Perry down!” the cocky athlete boasted as he puffed up his chest. Klaus, Maud, and I rolled our eyes at his bravado, wondering how long it would be before his head exploded from how much it was swelling up. “Oh! There she is! I’ll catch you guys later!” he suddenly exclaimed as he rushed off to greet the lucky, or rather, unlucky lady that he was meeting up with. The three of us looked and saw that this time, his victim was a diamond dog.

“That poor, poor girl,” Maud sighed. “Just another unfortunate soul.”

“Yeesh, in the last year, that guy has dated an earth pony, a unicorn, a pegasus, a crystal pony, a griffon, a minotaur, a human, and now a diamond dog,” I said, amazed at the number of significant others he’s had. “Say what you want about Austin, but he sure doesn’t discriminate.”

Maud looked up at him and watched as he wooed the diamond dog. “Eh, I never really liked the guy.”

“Yeah, I think everyone just tolerates him,” I nodded.

“Can we get something to eat now?” Klaus whined as his stomach growled.

The earth mare looked at him with a slightly annoyed face. Well… annoyed by Maud standards. “You really are acting like a spoiled child, you know that?”

I let out a sigh and stood up. “C’mon, let’s go before you two start bickering again.”

The three of us stopped by a nearby fast food restaurant, where we got a cheap meal to sedate our hunger. “You guys wanna eat on the ride home?” Maud asked. “I don’t mind as long as you don’t make a mess.”

Klaus shrugged. “It’ll give me something to do instead of sitting in the car bored, so why not?”

We all got into the car and started on our way back to the school, eating our food along the way. “You guys hyped for Mary’s Comet, or what?” I asked in-between sips of my soda.

“Are you kidding? Of course!” Klaus cheered as he gulped down some fries.

“I’m so excited I could burst,” Maud said, her tone of voice once again betraying her.

“Just think, in less than three weeks we’ll be on the beach, the cool nighttime breeze and the calm waves setting the perfect atmosphere for seeing the comet!” I sighed, imagining the three of us watching the comet together. Oh, and Klaus’s sister. I almost forgot that she’d be coming, too.

“It just sucks that Nightshade won’t be able to go with us,” Klaus lamented, but then Maud shot him a look through the rearview mirror. “Oh, sorry.”

“Meh, it’s whatever,” I said dismissively. “I figured one of you guys would mention that eventually.”

“Still, forget that I said anything.”

“Sure,” I told him as I continued to eat, and the car fell silent for an awkward amount of time.

Maud was the one to finally break the silence. “So, either of you two think it was weird how Austin got out of the hospital so fast?”

Klaus scoffed. “Hey, you heard him: ‘it takes more than some broken bones to keep Playboy Perry down!’” he said, puffing up his chest and imitating Austin’s voice, eliciting several laughs from me.

“I’m serious you guys,” the mare asserted. “It just doesn’t seem… natural for a human to heal that quickly.”

“What are you trying to say?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just… weird that he got better in such a short amount of time, even with the integration of magic with human medicine.”

“Ah, what do we care? Doesn’t matter to us either way,” Klaus said as he took out one of his comics.

I nodded my head. “He’s got a point.”

Maud pondered the thought for a moment before finally letting it go. “Yeah, you’re right. As long as he doesn’t try to add me to the list of unlucky girls that he’s had sex with.”

“He already did, remember? It was about a year ago, and you lied and told him that you were a lesbian.”

“Oh yeah! I remember that,” Klaus said, laughing at the memory.

“Well, knowing him, he’ll probably forget that I said that and try again eventually,” the mare told us with what I assumed was a dreadful tone.

Klaus shook his head in disagreement. “I dunno. I heard that he has a log of every chick he’s hit on and has them all categorized: the ones he’s hit on, the ones he’s slept with, the ones he wants to sleep with again, the ones that hate his guts, the ones that aren’t into guys, and so on and so on."

“Well, at least he’s… organized…” I cringed.

I kicked off my shoes as I finally walked into my apartment and sprawled out on my couch with a relaxed sigh and took a nice power nap. When I woke up a few hours later, I tiredly looked at my TV. “Okay, now where’s the remote?” I asked myself, looking at the coffee table. As I searched through the clutter, I found the DVD that I had rented from the library. “I still didn’t return this?” I thought aloud as I opened the case to check the due date on the receipt.

Wait… the due date was… today!?

“FUCK!” I yelled, shooting up from the couch. My head practically swung to my left to look at the wall clock. It was six-thirty, and the school library closed at seven. I scampered to put my shoes back on, took the disc out of the DVD player, and rushed out the door as I clumsily put the disc back in the case.

Thankfully, the shuttle to the school was still running, and I was able to catch one without waiting for too long. My leg nervously twitched as I waited for the shuttle to reach the school. Fortunately for me, it didn’t stop very often as it was a Saturday evening, and not as many students were heading to the school. When the shuttle pulled up to the main entrance, I practically jumped out the door and ran to the library, making it to the door with mere minutes to spare. The air-conditioned facility did well to ease my exhaustion, cooling me off with a pleasant wintery breeze as I dropped the DVD into the returns bin.

I took my sweet time walking back to the school’s front entrance, and all that running left me a little parched, so I went to the convenience store across the street and bought a bottle of water to quench my thirst.

“This is just what I needed,” I thought to myself as I took a swig. “The shuttle should be here any minute now. What time is it?” I took out my phone to check the time, but the first thing that popped up was a missed call alert.

My eyes widened in confusion. “Was my phone on silent all day?” I thought, and then my eyes widened even further, if that was even possible.

The missed call was from Nightmare, and she had left a voicemail.

I apprehensively touched the icon and brought the phone to my ear, wondering what she could possibly have to say to me.

“Hey, Noah. It’s Moon. You probably still don’t want to hear from me, and I honestly don’t know why I’m even trying, but it’s worth a shot, I guess.” She paused to take a deep breath. “I wanted to ask if you maybe wanted to meet up, because there is something that I need to show you, and you wouldn’t believe me if I just told you. I am aware that you’ll most likely refuse, but I just want to put the offer on the table. If you ever change your mind, however-”

THWACK!

I felt a strong impact on my right cheek, staggering my balance and knocking the phone out of my hand.

“Agh! What the hell!?” I yelled in pain, rubbing my aching cheek and picking up my phone off of the concrete.

“What’s up, fucker?” a familiar voice asked me. I turned to my right to see a large, angry earth stallion glaring at me while cracking his knuckles.

“Brickstone?” I said in disbelief.

“What? You thought I forgot about you? You humiliated me at that party!”

I gave the stallion an incredulous look. “That was a whole fucking month ago! Get over it!” I yelled back at him, but then I had to duck when he swung another punch at me.

“You’d better watch your mouth, runt!” he warned.

“Okay, Noah. Think,” I thought to myself as I slowly backed away. “I definitely can’t take this guy. He’ll pummel me in a heartbeat. The police station isn’t too far from here. If I make a break for it and try to lose him in the shortcuts, I might have a chance.”

Without another thought, I turned on my heel and ran as fast as I could. As I expected, Brickstone was running after me.

“Get back here, you little shit!” he roared as his hooves hit the ground, stomp after intimidating stomp.

“C’mon! Run, dammit! Run!” I thought as I pushed my legs to their limit, the pain of my aching muscles overshadowed by my desire to live.

Unfortunately, my desire wasn’t strong enough.

I found myself grabbed by the back of my collar and flung into an alley, landing on my front with a thud and tumbling on the ground. The first impact was enough to knock the wind out of me and render me immobile. I struggled as I tried to move something, anything, so that I could get away from this psychopath, but it was to no avail. Brickstone’s hoofsteps became louder and louder as her got closer to me, and I shut my eyes tightly in fear as he cracked his knuckles again. I lied there helplessly as I waited for him to reach me, feeling nothing but exhaustion, pain…

and a cool breeze?

I felt a strong wind swirl around me, the pain racking my body suddenly and gradually subsiding to the point where I felt none at all. I got onto my knees and picked myself up, all the while wondering how I was able to do so after being way too weak a moment ago. I still felt the cool wind surrounding me as Brickstone ignorantly continued to approach me.

“Haven’t had enough, huh?” he taunted. “I oughta teach you how to stay down and take a beating!”

“YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!”

All of a sudden, the wind surrounding me became much stronger, a dark blue mist beginning to swirl around my feet before rising up in front of me like a pseudo-shield.

“What the hell!?” the stallion exclaimed in a mixture of shock and fear.

The shield of mist soon formed the head of an angry mare with bright blue-filled eyes. “I WILL ONLY WARN YOU ONCE, FOAL!” she bellowed. “LEAVE THIS PERSON BE, OR ELSE YOU SHALL SUFFER DIRE CONSEQUENCES!” Brickstone was practically speechless as he stared at the smoky figure before him, and seeing that he wasn’t saying anything, the figure continued to speak. “NOW BEGONE BEFORE I OBLITERATE YOU!!!” she said with one final ghostly yell, and the stallion ran off in a frightened panic.

Meanwhile, I stood behind the smoky mass in front of me, thinking only one thing:

I recognized that voice.

“Nightmare?” I asked as I reached out to touch the smoke. The figured turned to look at me, her eyes widening when she saw me looking at her. In a split second, the figure regressed back into a wisp of dark blue mist and flew off, leaving a trail behind. Without even thinking, I raced after her, hoping to catch her. Even as I chased her, I wondered why I was even bothering myself with her, but I kept on going, pursuing her through the dimly lit streets, not even paying attention to where I was going.

After what felt like an eternity of running, I finally cornered her at an old house, where she flew in to hide. I had to take a moment to catch my breath before standing upright and observing my surroundings.

”Wait a sec…” I thought. “This is that street with all the run-down houses.” I looked at the house I was standing in front of and saw that it was the same place where Nightmare first revealed her true self to me. Despite my better judgment, I slowly approached the front door and gingerly pushed it open, the hinges letting out a small squeak. The first thing I saw was Nightmare’s misty form reforming into her flesh and blood self, and the squeaky hinges alerted her to my presence.

The alicorn’s ears perked up as she swished around and looked at me in disbelief. “N-Noah?” she asked, and I nodded my head in response.

“Nightmare, we need to talk.”

Chapter Eighteen - We Need to Talk

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The air was deathly quiet as I looked at Nightmare, waiting for her to respond.

“You… you followed me?” she asked, the sudden question catching me off-guard for a moment before I nodded my head. “Why?”

To be totally honest, I had no idea why I followed her all the way out here. Even as I was chasing her mist form, I questioned why I was making the effort to catch up to her. I just felt compelled to do it, like I needed to actually talk to her after all this time, but none of these assumptions helped to alleviate my confusion.

I looked at Nightmare and saw that she was staring right at me, waiting for me to answer her question. Since I couldn’t come up with an answer, I just decided to explain what I was doing before she found me.

“Well, I got your voicemail, but I ran into Brickstone before I could hear where you wanted me to meet you,” I explained.

“So you were going to accept my offer to meet up with me?” she asked, a glimmer of hope shining in her eyes.

“That’s not the point,” I interjected, stopping her before she could get her hopes up. “How did you find me?”

The alicorn’s eyes widened at my question, and she took a step back as she averted her gaze from me. “I was in the area and I just happened to see you in trouble, so I did what any good pony would do.”

“Sure,” I said, my eyes narrowing at her as I paused to take a breath. “When you showed up, I felt a cool breeze blow past me.”

Nightmare took another step back while I took one step forward.

“And I’ve felt that breeze a few times before back when we had just broken up.”

She stepped back again, only for me to once again take a step forward in kind.

“That was you, wasn’t it?” I finally asked.

Nightmare tried to step back once more, only for her back to hit the barely standing wall. Her breathing became erratic as she shut her eyes tightly, not wanting to give me an answer…

In doing so, however, she already had given me an answer, one that I was far from happy with.

“You were following me, weren’t you!?” I yelled accusingly.

“Noah, please. Let me explain,” she begged, but her cries fell on deaf ears.

“Let you explain!?” I asked incredulously. “Why the hell should I!?”

“I know you’re mad, but all I ask is that you give me a chance to explain myself. Once I’m done, you can yell at me all you want. Just please let me say this.”

As much as I wanted to keep yelling at Nightmare, and as angry as I was at the realization that she had been following me, there was still that part of me that wondered why she did so when I made it perfectly clear that I wanted her nowhere near me.

I took a long, deep breath and looked at the alicorn. “I don’t know what possible reason you could have, but fine,” I grumbled.

Nightmare immediately eased her tense posture, resting her back on the wall and placing a hand on her chest in relief. “Thank you,” she sighed as she sat down on the floor. I groaned inwardly and sat down as well. If her sitting down was any indication, I was in for a long story.

I noticed that her eyes were looking everywhere else but at me, and her hands were shaking lightly as she tried to come up with something to say. “Okay, so…” she mumbled, “before I start, I just want you to know that I’m not trying to justify what I did, okay?”

I nodded my head silently, my arms crossed as I waited for her to go on. As I waited, I looked to my right hand side and saw a large pile of crumpled papers lying on the ground, and I couldn’t help but wonder what that was doing there.

I heard Nightmare take a breath to speak, and I turned my head to give her my attention “When you broke up with me, I knew that staying with you was out of the question, and I didn’t want to bring Klaus and Maud into it, so this was the only place I could think of for me to stay,” she explained. “I was still really shaken up and my first night here since I left was just… unbearable for me. I was so used to having you next to me at night that I just couldn’t get any sleep.”

She grasped her shoulders firmly to keep herself from shivering, supposedly from the unpleasant memory.

“By the time the next morning came I had to at least see you, so I went to school in my mist form so I could get that chance. I felt a little better, but I still wanted to be able to talk to you, or at least have some way to release my emotions, so I wrote that first letter to you.”

“You mean that obsessive love note?” I commented, and the mare’s head fell in shame.

“I know. I regretted writing that letter, but I still hoped that you’d at least take the time to read it, so I waited outside your window… and then I saw you rip it up the letter and throw it away…”

I rolled my eyes. Great, so she was basically stalking me. Wonderful.

Suddenly, I heard Nightmare sniffle, and I looked at her to see that there were tears running down her cheeks. “I felt so stupid…” she whimpered. “I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I just missed you so much that I couldn’t help myself…” She took a moment to compose herself, wiping her eyes as she tried to steady her breathing.

I felt a weird feeling in my chest, but I shook it off and focused my attention on the mare in front of me. “So you just continued to stalk me this whole time?” I asked.

Surprisingly, she shook her head. “I knew that I couldn’t go on like this, because I was afraid you’d find out eventually, so I tried to find ways to cope without having to actually be with you, but the next day, I went to go see you one last time while you were out with Klaus, and that was the last time I saw you before tonight.”

I marinated on that last part for a minute. While at first I doubted that Nightmare hadn’t been following me since my lunch with Klaus, I had noticed that I hadn’t felt the cool breeze of her presence since then. Still, though, I knew that she was really clingy with me when we were together, so if what she said was true…

“What were you doing all this time?” I asked.

Nightmare’s eyes shifted away from me again as she looked to her left towards the pile of crumpled paper. “After I wrote that last letter to you, I felt a feeling of relief that I also felt when I wrote the first letter, so I decided to vent my feelings through writing. Whenever I felt really lonely, I’d just write a letter and throw it away afterwards instead of sending them to you.” She paused. “I didn’t think you’d want to be bothered with all those notes.”

I glanced at the discarded parchment and noticed how large the pile was. I couldn’t help but imagine myself receiving all those unsent notes in my mailbox, and I shook my head at the thought.

Nightmare closed her eyes, letting out a light sigh before turning her attention back to me. “At night, when I miss you the most,” she reached into the collar of her shirt, pulling out something that was hanging around her neck, “I put this necklace on before I go to sleep. It helps me adjust to not having you around.” She looked up at me with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. “You do remember it… right?”

I looked at the necklace more carefully, and I recognized it faster than I would’ve liked to admit. It was the necklace that I bought for Nightmare when I went clothes shopping with her and the others. Honestly, I had completely forgotten about it until just then.

“Since I’m back to the old routine of swiping from convenience stores, I was out getting something to eat for dinner when I saw Brickstone chasing after you,” she explained, “and I knew I couldn’t let him hurt you.” Her voice began to break a little, and I could see her eyes beginning to water. “I just wish I’d gotten to you sooner. I wanted to hurt him so badly, I felt such an urge to cause him so much pain, and I was more than able to, but… it just didn’t feel right with me. My magic was dangerous, and the last thing I needed was to put someone else in the hospital.”

She… she actually held herself back? She was right; she definitely could’ve done more than just scare Brickstone away. She was always protective of me (overwhelmingly so, in some cases), and if her magic was still increasing in power in the last two weeks, she probably could’ve blasted that creep away into nothing.

So why didn’t she?

“What held you back?” I asked her, wondering what could’ve stopped her from attacking Brickstone.

“The other day, before I sent you that last letter, I went to the hospital in my mist form to see Jade,” Nightmare told me. “I had been thinking about how angry you were, and at the time, I didn’t think that I had done that much damage to her, but when I found the room she was in, I saw a doctor and a nurse walking down the hall, and they were discussing her condition. When they mentioned how much damage had been done and how long the recovery would take, I didn’t believe it, but when I went into Jade’s room and saw the state that she was in… it forced me to understand how much damage I’d done, and I felt horrible.” She stopped to take another breath. “You were right, Noah. I haven’t changed. I’m still the same old Nightmare I was three years ago. I let my love for you justify all my actions, and I ended up pushing you away.”

I had to admit it. This was probably the most honest Nightmare’s ever been with me. As skeptical as I was at first, she sounded really sincere, and as much as I wanted to doubt her story, part of me somehow knew she was telling the truth.

Then I wondered: since she was being so open with me about how she felt, I could use this chance to ask her something that had been on my mind for a while.

“Why me?” I asked.

The alicorn blinked in brief confusion. “Huh?”

“I mean, why do you feel so strongly about me?” I clarified. “I mean, I know I’ve done a lot of nice things for you, but I never understood why you were so attached to me.”

“Why?” the mare said, a light blush appearing on her face as she looked down. “The things you’ve done for me mean a lot more than you know, Noah.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, while I was still getting to know you, Klaus, and Maud, there was always this fear at the back of my head,” she sighed. “What if you guys found out my secret? What if you found out that I was Nightmare Moon? This was the first time I’ve ever had real friends, and I didn’t want to lose them.” She then looked up at me. “I couldn’t keep the secret to myself forever, though. Not having someone to confide in was painful for me, and I still felt a sense of loneliness because of it. I wasn’t sure who to tell, at first, but then I figured that since you were the first friend I made, you’d be the best choice. When you said that you’d keep my secret safe, I felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders, and I finally had someone that truly understood me, and then when you offered me a place to stay…” her lips slowly formed a small smile. “It was the nicest gesture I had ever been given.”

“So that’s when you started liking me?” I asked.

“Not yet,” she answered, “but I did start to see you as more than just a friend. I saw you as someone who’d… protect me.”

“Protect you?”

The alicorn nodded her head. “You gave me a place to call home, bought me clothes and food, made meals for me… it was like you were a guardian of sorts.”

I blushed lightly at the notion of being Nightmare’s guardian, and I had to clear my throat. “So, when did you start having feelings for me?” I asked.

“It was when we went to that house party and you defended me against Brickstone,” she answered. “My magic was still weak, so if it wasn’t for you, I don’t know what he would’ve done to me. You didn’t let him intimidate or scare you. All you were concerned about was my well-being.”

I started to remember the night she mentioned, and my blood began to boil at the memory of Brickstone trying to have his way with Nightmare. Wait… why did I feel this way?

“And then the next day, when you took me to the street fair just so I could feel better, I started to like you even more. You went above and beyond to make me happy, something no one has ever done for me before.”

Wow… I never thought about all I had been doing for her since she first moved in with me. I began to wonder if I should really have blamed her for being so attached to me after all that.

“Above all else, though, there’s one thing that I like most about you.” Nightmare then paused for a moment before continuing. “All this time, even after we broke up, you never told anyone about my secret. You could’ve revealed my identity as Nightmare Moon out of spite, but you didn’t, despite how mad you were with me. You were the only one who knew who I really was, and for once in my life… I didn’t feel so alone in the world.”

Alone… that word made me remember something Maud told me.

“There was a hidden side of Nightshade that I saw even when we first met her almost four months ago. I saw that she was lonely.”

She was right. I hadn’t even given it much thought, but it was true. Nightmare was lonely, and for a brief moment, I understood the motivation behind her actions.

But…

“You still went too far,” I reminded her.

Nightmare nodded. “I know, and I realize that now, which is why I want to make it right.”

I scoffed at her nonchalant affirmation. “Unless you can fix Jade’s back, I don’t think you can.”

There was a long, silent pause, and the next thing I heard was something I definitely didn’t expect to hear.

“What if I told you I could?”

My eyes widened in shock as I looked at the mare in disbelief. “W-what…” I stammered, trying to grasp what she had asked me.

“In that voicemail I left for you, I said that there was something I wanted you to see, something that you wouldn’t believe,” she explained as she got up on her hooves. “Come with me. I’ll show you.”

I got up cautiously, not taking my eyes off of Nightmare for a moment. My better judgment told me not to follow her, but the possibility of Jade being healed was enough to convince me to ignore that better judgment.

The alicorn began to walk up the staircase to the second floor of the building, but I stopped at the foot of the steps.

“They won’t collapse, if that’s what you’re wondering,” she told me as she continued up the stairs.

I gulped and stepped lightly, hoping that what she said was true. Thankfully, I made it to the top of the staircase safely and continued to follow Nightmare into another room in the house. When I walked inside, the first thing I noticed was the near-broken work desk standing against the left wall, along with the book resting on top of it. I followed the alicorn towards the desk and noticed the title.

“Advanced Medical Spells?” I read out loud.

“I took it from the school library a week ago, and I’ve been practicing some of the spells in it,” she explained.

Wait… this was the book that Shortstuff was looking for!

“There’s one spell in particular that I’m trying to master,” Nightmare continued, “one that mends broken bones. After seeing Jade, I thought that there had to be something I could do to speed up her recovery, and when I found this book, I began practicing the spell on other ponies and people with less severe cases.”

“Austin…” I mumbled in realization.

“He was one of the many I’ve tried the spell on. I’ve almost perfected it, and once I do, I’ll be able to heal Jade.”

I stared at the book in awe, my speechlessness taking hold of me, but there was something I needed to know.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“Because I need to,” she answered. “I don’t just owe it to you. I owe it to her, too. She was an innocent mare. She doesn’t deserve what she’s going through.”

“And you’re not doing this just to get back together with me?”

The mare shook her head. “No. I’m trying not to be selfish and think of someone other than myself for a change.”

“Selfish?” I asked. In retrospect, I could see that, but I never thought of Nightmare as selfish. Needy, possessive, and crazy, yes, but not selfish.

“Of course,” she answered. “Deep down, I always had this fear that you would eventually not want to be with me anymore. While we were together, you didn’t really show me much affection, and I was afraid that I’d be alone again, so I used that as an excuse for how I acted. Everything I did was because I didn’t want to be all by myself, and I was so desperate to keep you close to me that I started to become hostile.”

Dammit… I actually felt sorry for her now. In the short time I’ve been here with Nightmare, I began to question my entire view of her. All this time I thought her clinginess was because she was just plain crazy, but to find out that it was because of her loneliness… Man, Maud really did have this mare figured out, and she didn’t even know who she really was. I also began to feel guilty, too. I kept saying that Nightmare was being indifferent towards my feelings, but it turns out that I was doing the same thing to her. I didn’t even bother to actually sit her down and talk to her, instead choosing to just avoid her entirely, ignoring her pain and concentrating on my anger.

“Are you okay, Noah?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No. I’m not,” I sighed. “I think this was partially my fault, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s something that I should’ve told you before we even started going out, Nightmare.”

Her eyes slowly widened when she heard that. “Huh?”

“When you first told me you loved me, I still wasn’t sure if I felt the same way, but I went along with it because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings, and you were right about me barely showing you any affection, at least not to the degree that you showed me. If I had been honest and just told you about how I felt from the get go, you wouldn’t have gotten so desperate for validation.”

“I will admit… it would’ve been nice to hear an ‘I love you’ every once in a while,” she commented, looking off to the side.

“Sorry about that, Moon,” I sighed embarrassedly.

She suddenly blinked and looked back at me, a gradual smile appearing on her face. “You called me Moon…” she told me happily.

“Oh… I guess I did,” I mumbled nervously, scratching my cheek. “So I guess we’re both to blame for the situation we’re in, huh?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

“Yeah. I guess we are,” Moon admitted. “I should’ve been more considerate of your space.”

“And I should’ve been more honest with you,” I added.

Suddenly, Moon started to walk towards me, and I immediately started to get nervous. “W-what are you doing?” I asked.

“Relax. I just need to touch your cheek,” she calmly explained.

“For wha-OW!” I flinched when her fingers stroked the bruise on the right side of my face.

“Sorry,” she said as she lit up her horn. “Just one moment…” In mere seconds, the pain I was feeling had vanished, and I rubbed my cheek in disbelief. “I’ve been studying other healing spells on the side.”

“Well… thanks.” I said.

“You’re welcome,” she said back. “Look, Noah. I know it may be a long time before you decide to take me back, but no matter how long it takes, I’m willing to wait. You’re worth it to me.”

I fidgeted a little and looked away. “Well, I’m not sure if I’m ready for us to be a couple again,” I told her.

Moon gave me an understanding nod, and I let out a sigh.

“But… I guess there’s no harm in going back to being friends,” I finished.

The first thing I heard was a gasp, and then I was promptly wrapped in a tight embrace from Moon. “Really? Oh, thank you, Noah!” she cheered, only to suddenly release me and put her hands behind her back. “Sorry…”

“It’s okay,” I chuckled, a smile finally forming on my face. “Let’s go home.”

“You mean…”

“Of course. Unless you want to stay in this decrepit place,” I joked.

The alicorn blushed as she lit up her horn to teleport us back to my apartment. In that short moment, I felt a sense of great relief. I had finally cleared the air with Moon, and once she masters her healing spell, Jade will finally be up around again.

I smiled to myself and thought: “Things are finally starting to look up.”

Chapter Nineteen - Welcome Back

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Moon and I appeared in my apartment in a flash of light, the sudden feeling of teleportation disorienting me a little.

“You okay?” she asked me.

“A little dizzy, but I’ll be fine,” I nodded.

“It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve been here. It hasn’t changed much.”

“Well, I was never one for changing the layout of my home very frequently,” I joked, earning a chuckle from the alicorn. “If you’re hungry, there’s some mac and cheese in the fridge that you can heat up.”

“Actually, I think I’ll take a shower before I eat,” she answered. “The water at that old house is really cold, so you can imagine how uncomfortable that is.”

“Okay, then. The towels are where they usually are. I’ll heat up a bowl for you while you’re in the shower.”

“Thanks,” she nodded, turning around and heading towards the towel closet.

I reached into the fridge, taking out a large container of leftover mac and cheese and preparing bowls for both Moon and myself. I heated my bowl before hers, and left hers in the microwave once it was done. Taking a fork out of the nearby drawer, I leaned against the counter and began to eat.

“It’s weird how fast things are getting back to normal,” I thought. “I figured it would at least be a little weird for me to get used to her being around again, but it’s like she never left. Strange…”

I continued to eat silently by myself, until something floated in front of me, casting a shadow.

“You kept this?”

I looked up in curiosity and saw the portrait of Moon and me at the street fair being held in front of me by the alicorn’s magic.

“Huh?” I blinked.

The portrait floated back over to Moon, who was already dressed in her black nightgown. “I thought you would’ve gotten rid of this when you dumped me.”

“Oh. Well, to be honest, I kinda forgot about it,” I admitted. “Where’d you find it?”

“I saw it in the closet when I was looking for something to wear. I’m surprised you didn’t throw away my clothes, either.”

“I didn’t really think about that,” I explained. “At the time, I was just happy you were gone…” I shook my head. “That’s in the past now, though. Anyway, your food’s in the microwave.”

“Thank you,” she smiled as she opened the microwave and took the food out with her magic. She walked over to me and leaned on the counter beside me, happily eating what might have been her first hot meal in a long time.

“So…” she said after a few moments of silence. “I know you said that we’re just friends for now, but… I was wondering if we could still share the bed.”

After initially being taken aback by the sudden request, I mulled it over for a moment. “Um… I guess so,” I answered unsurely.

Just then, I shivered as something soft and light wrapped itself around my waist loosely, and I looked down to see Moon’s tail caressing my midsection. The sensation was chilling, yet comforting at the same time, like my senses were at war with each other. Should I have been happy, or scared?

“Maybe things won’t get back to normal that quickly…” I thought.

“I know I’ve been saying this a lot, but thanks, Noah,” Moon told me.

My face flushed a little as I gingerly ran my hand across her tail. “Don’t mention it…” I mumbled.

Once we finished eating, we tossed our bowls in the sink and headed to my bedroom. It had been a long day, and after all that had happened, I really needed some sleep.

“‘Night, Moon,” I yawned as I climbed into bed, getting comfortable under the covers, facing her.

“Goodnight, Noah,” she said back, turning off the lights and getting into bed next to me.

I shut my eyes, wanting to get some rest, but as I was falling asleep, I felt a hand reach over me, resting on my back, only to recede a few seconds afterward. I opened my eyes to see Moon lying in front of me, sleeping, with an uncomfortable look on her face. I looked under the blanket and could barely make out her hands trying to resist themselves from reaching over to me.

“Uh, Moon?” I whispered, waking her up. “You okay?”

“I’m fine…” she answered as her eyes fluttered open. “I’m just getting used to not holding you… I know how you don’t like it.”

A soft sigh escaped me, and I decided to scoot closer to her and drape my arm over her waist, pulling her closer to me. “Well, I guess it’d be okay. Just for tonight.”

Moon looked at me with widened eyes, the teal orbs somehow glowing in the darkened room. I soon heard a content hum from her as she returned my embrace. When her arms wrapped around my back, an instinctive shiver coursed through me, like I still wasn’t quite used to her being this close to me again, but part of me felt more secure with her than I was before.

I felt like I could trust her.

“Maybe we could do this another night, too…” I thought to myself.

The next morning, Moon offered to make breakfast, an offer that I gladly accepted. While she was cooking, I got my phone and conference called Klaus and Maud.

“Hello?” they answered at the same time.

“Hey, guys. Listen, are you both able to come by my place later today?”

“Well, I got up pretty early and showered already, so I’m pretty much ready to go whenever,” Klaus answered.

“Same here,” Maud droned. “I’m used to waking up early on the rock farm.”

“Uh… okay… Well, can you guys be here in about an hour?” I asked, looking at the clock.

“Sure. I’ll be there,” said the griffon.

“We can take my car, Klaus,” the earth mare offered. “The ride won’t be that long, in case you’re wondering.”

“I know how long it takes to get to Noah’s, Maud. Don’t patronize me.”

“Okay! See you two in an hour!” I interrupted loudly before hanging up. Those two could be just too much sometimes.

“You’re inviting Klaus and Maud over?” Moon asked.

“Yeah. I figured they’d be happy to see you. They really missed you, y’know.”

She blinked and stared at me in disbelief. “They did?”

“Of course. They’re your friends, aren’t they?”

The mare blushed with a light smile on her face. “Yeah… they are.”

“So what’s for breakfast?” I asked.

“Pancakes. You want syrup on yours?”

“Of course.”

Moon giggled, levitating the syrup bottle over my pancakes so she could fulfill my request. She then sent the plate my way. “There you go. Bon appetit!”

I chuckled as I took the plate from Moon’s magical grip, and she sat next to me once she prepared her own plate.

“Noah, can I ask you something?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Do you think that… I should tell Klaus and Maud about… well, you know.”

Well, that question sure came out of nowhere. A lengthy “Um…” escaped me, unsure of how to answer that question.

“I feel that they do deserve to know, and I think that they’d be able to keep the secret,” she explained, “I know that I want to tell them one day, but… I don’t know if I’m ready for them to know.”

“Then don’t tell them,” I responded impulsively.

Moon turned to me in slight surprise, her wide eyes asking for an explanation for my answer.

“What I mean is, if you’re not completely comfortable with telling them just yet, then there’s no need to rush anything. Letting them know your identity is your decision to make, so you don’t need to force yourself if you don’t think you’re ready.”

I heard Moon let out a soft breath as I felt her one of her wings reach around my back, resting itself on my shoulder. “I appreciate that, Noah. That makes me feel a lot better.”

The initial jolt of anxiety that I’d get from Moon touching me was still there, but it was a lot less intense. I smiled and lightly touched her wing, my fingers gently running over each feather, and I could feel her shaking a little, too. Could she have been just as nervous as me? “No problem,” I told her. Getting up from the couch, I picked up my empty plate and cup, walking over to the kitchen to toss them in the sink. “We should get ready. Maud and Klaus are gonna be here in less than an hour.”

“You can go ahead and shower first, then,” she replied. “I’m still eating.”

I nodded and headed off to the bathroom to get myself ready for my guests.

Nearly an hour had passed, and Moon and I were lying on our bed looking at some TV shows on my laptop.

“Did you hear from them yet?” she asked me.

“Mm-hm,” I answered with a nod. “Klaus texted me a few minutes ago saying that they’re on their way, so It should be any sec-”

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

“Right on cue,” Moon smirked as she lit up her horn, changing her appearance to that of her unicorn persona.

“I’ll let ‘em in,” I told her as I got up off the bed, leaving my room and making my way to the front door. When I opened it, I found my guests of honor standing in the hallway. “Hey, guys. Glad you could make it.”

“No problem, Noah!” Klaus answered with a smile. “So, you called us here early in the morning on a weekend. What’s the occasion?”

“I’ve been wondering that, too,” said Maud.

“Well, come on in and have a seat,” I told them. They looked at each other for a moment but eventually walked in and sat on the couch. “Give me a minute. I’ll be right back.” I walked to my room, poking my head into the doorway. “They’re ready,” I said to Nightshade with a ridiculously cryptic tone. She merely chuckled and got up off my bed, following me into the hallway.

I walked ahead of Nightshade, meeting Klaus and Maud back in the living room. “Guys, I have someone here that you might like to see.”

The griffon raised an eyebrow while the mare stared blankly at me, both of them wondering who I could possibly be talking about, but not a second later, their eyes widened to a degree that I didn’t even think was possible.

Yes. Maud, too.

Nightshade had caught up to me and was standing by my side. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Klaus and Maud shot up out of their seats, staring at the mare beside me in disbelief. “No way! Nightshade!?” the griffon exclaimed. “Where have you been? And what are you doing here?”

“I thought that I needed some time alone, so I stayed at an old friend’s house for a while,” the unicorn lied. “As for why I’m here, well, Noah and I ran into each other last night and had a long talk. We eventually decided to reconcile our differences.”

“Well, I’m glad to see you again, Shady,” Klaus smiled, giving Nightshade a firm hug.

“Shady?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s a new nickname I came up with on the spot. You like?”

The mare giggled. “It’s cute,” she told him as she let go of him, only to be wrapped in a tighter, almost crushing hug. “M-Maud?” she said in shock.

“I missed you,” the earth mare said quietly. “I’m glad you’re back, Nightshade.”

“I’m…” the unicorn coughed. “I’m glad to be back, too.”

“Jeez, Maud. You’re choking the poor thing!” Klaus objected, pulling at Maud’s shoulder, but it still took her a while for her to let go.

“Sorry,” she deadpanned. “I guess I got a little emotional.”

“It’s hard for me to believe that with your blank face,” Klaus scoffed. “In any case, that means we’ll have a full party for Mary’s Comet!”

“I think the only reason you’re excited is because you’ll get to see me and Nightshade in bathing suits,” Maud quipped.

“Not this again,” Nightshade and I groaned to ourselves.

“Maud, why would you even think that?” the griffon asked.

“You were trying really hard to cover your blush when the four of us went clothes shopping, so I can imagine you seeing Nightshade and me in bikinis.”

“Oh, please. You were just seeing things back then. Besides, I think you’re overestimating yourself a little.”

“You couldn’t handle my midriff, Klaus,” Maud said with a cold stare.

“Don’t make me have to kick you guys out,” I warned them, but Nightshade couldn’t help but chuckle. “What’s got you laughing?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing,” she sighed. “I just forgot how fun it was to be with you guys.”

After Klaus and Maud stayed for another hour or so, they eventually left, leaving Moon and me alone again.

“Have those two been bantering with each other more often?” she asked. “It seems that way to me.”

“It’s not just you,” I answered. “They really have been at each other lately.”

“It might have been because they missed me so much.”

“Oh, sure. It’s about you.”

“I’m kidding Noah. But… you know what I really think?”

I paused for a moment. “No, but I’m curious.” Moon leaned over to me, like she was about to whisper in my ear. “You do realize we’re the only ones here, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s more dramatic if I whisper it to you,” she argued, continuing to lean into me, and she began to whisper. “So, if you ask me, I think those two like each other.”

“Oh really?”

“Of course, or at least Klaus likes Maud.”

I shrugged. “I guess I could see that. Klaus does get a little flustered with Maud sometimes. It’s hard to tell what Maud feels, though.”

“I think she gets a kick out of teasing him and doesn’t show it.”

“You think so?” I asked. “I don’t know how you can see it.”

“I’m just trusting my female intuition,” Moon boasted.

“If you say so,” I sighed as I leaned back into the couch. “So… what now?”

“Well, I’ll just keep practicing my healing spell until I’m ready to use it on Jade.”

“You sure it’ll work?”

“Once I’m strong enough, yeah. I’ll admit that I was nervous the first time I tried it, but for some reason it came so naturally to me, and it’s been getting easier the more I do it.”

“I hope you don’t expect me to injure myself so you can practice.”

“When there’s already a hospital full of people and ponies with broken bones and other wounds?” she retorted. “Don’t worry, Noah. You won’t have to do anything that crazy.”

“Well, let’s just hope that you’ll be able to do this, however long it takes.”

“Yeah…” said Moon. “I hope so, too.”

Two weeks had passed, and Nightshade and I had just arrived at the hospital. We were walking off the bus as I looked at the large building in front of us. Maybe it was because of what Nightshade was about to do today, but for some reason the hospital looked bigger than usual.

“You sure you ready for this?” I asked.

“I’m sure, Noah,” she answered with determination. “I can do this. Wish me luck, okay?”

“Of course,” I said, “although, I’ve been wondering… how do you heal all these patients and not get caught?”

“I sneak in using my mist form, and security cameras can’t detect magic.”

“How do you know that?”

“How do you think I managed to steal food from those corner stores without getting caught?”

I gave her an uneasy look. “Well, you haven’t been seen up till now, so I’ll just have to trust you on that one,” I sighed. “Good luck, Nightshade.”

“Thanks, I’ll need it,” she replied as we approached a nearby alley. I stood guard while I waited for Nightshade to turn into her mist form, only to feel something wrap around me. I looked down to see Moon’s arms wrapped around my torso.

“Just for some extra luck,” she said before turning into mist, the light breeze of her movement passing me by, heading in the direction of the hospital.

“God, I hope this works.”

Final Chapter - Mary's Comet

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THREE DAYS LATER

“How long until they get here?” Moon asked as she swept the hallway with her magic while cleaning the dishes.

I glanced at my watch. “Ten minutes,” I answered as I finished vacuuming the couch. The two of us had spent the last half hour cleaning the apartment to get ready for some guests that were on their way over.

“Okay, the kitchen and bedroom are spotless,” Moon told me as she put away the broom and dustpan.

“Great. The living room and bathroom have been taken care of, too,” I said, emptying the vacuum into the trash can. With all the last minute cleaning done, I leaned against the kitchen counter in relief while Moon struck a nervous pose in front of me.

“How do I look?”

“Like Nightmare Moon.”

The mare’s pupils shrank as she lit up her horn. “Shit!” she exclaimed. I chuckled as she donned her unicorn disguise. “Thanks for reminding me.”

“Usually I wouldn’t have to. You’ve done a good job of hiding your identity so far.”

“I guess I’m just nervous…” the mare admitted.

I shrugged. “I don’t blame you. In fact, I’m a little nervous, too. We’ll just have to make the best of it.”

All of a sudden, my phone rang, and I answered it nervously. “Hello?” I said, trying to mask my anxiousness. “…Yeah, I’m in Apartment 6. …Okay. Bye.”

“I’m guessing that was them,” Nightshade said as I hung up the phone.

I nodded. “Yeah. They just reached the building and should be here any second now.” Just then, we heard several knocks on the door, our heads swiveling to look at it. “Well, here we go.”

I walked up to the door with Nightshade stepping back into the hallway nervously, and I opened the door to see two mares waiting in the hallway.

“Jade! Ms. Opal!” I exclaimed with an excited tone that was somewhat forced.

“Hi, Noah! Good to see you again!” the young mare greeted as I let her and her grandmother inside, allowing them to get comfortable.

“How’ve you been, Ms. Opal?” I asked.

“It’s adorable how you insist on calling me that,” she chuckled. “Like I keep saying, dearie, just ‘Opal’ is fine.”

I smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. I keep forgetting.” I looked back at Jade, who had gotten comfy on one of the living room chairs. The last time I saw her, it was before Moon had used her healing spell, when the pegasus was still bedridden at the hospital. When Moon told me that she had fully healed Jade, I was in disbelief at first, but then I had gotten an excited phone call from Jade several hours later. Seeing her now, up and around with a smile on her face, it was almost surreal when I compared it to her thinly veiled suffering not a few days ago.

“Oh, and who is this?” Opal asked as she saw Nightshade.

“Good afternoon, ma’am,” the unicorn said as she stepped out of the hallway. “My name is Nightshade. I’m Noah’s roommate.”

“Aww, such a polite young mare!” the elderly pony smiled.

“Grandma, when are you gonna stop talking to grown ponies like they’re foals?” Jade sighed.

“Oh, no. It’s quite alright,” Nightshade interjected, waving her arms in front of her. “I don’t mind.”

Jade then gave Nightshade a curious look. “Have we… met before?”

The unicorn and I gave each other surprised looks. I knew that she didn’t remember the accident, but she didn’t remember seeing Nightshade, either? Well, it was for the best that she didn’t remember her, anyway.

Nightshade looked at Jade “I don’t… think so...” she answered.

“Oh, well forget about it then,” the pegasus shrugged as Nightshade and I sat on the couch with Jade and Opal seated in two separate chairs. “So, Noah, are you and Nightshade an item or what?”

“Oh, it’s nothing like that,” the unicorn quickly denied. “We’re just roommates.”

“Yeah. We both wanted to live off-campus and decided that living together would be easier on us financially.”

“I wish I had thought of that during my school days,” Opal joked. “Then again, college wasn’t as expensive back then as it is now.”

Jade, Nightshade, and I nodded in agreement, two of us knowing firsthand how expensive college was, and one of us just going with the others.

“So how long before you head back to school, Jade?” I asked.

“Well, I submitted an application to get transferred to online classes for the rest of the quarter, and I planned on spending the summer down here in Florida, so I’ll be here for a while. When I told Topaz, she was really excited, and she can’t wait to see me in June!”

“Well, in that case…” Nightshade interjected before hesitating for a moment. “Would you like to go see Mary’s Comet with us?”

Jade tilted her head in curiosity. “Is that the thing that they’ve been talking about on the news?”

“Yeah. Noah and I were gonna drive to the beach and see it with some friends of ours, and we were even gonna stay there overnight. I’m sure our friends won’t mind as long as you bring your own tent.”

“That sounds cool, but I don’t think I have a tent.”-

“I have one that you can use, Jade,” said Opal. “I haven’t used it in a while, but it’s still in good shape.”

“In that case, when are you guys going?” the young pegasus asked with a smile.

As Nightshade told Jade and Opal about our plans, I looked at her with an amazed look. I could understand wanting to heal Jade because of how guilty she felt, but I didn’t think she’d want to invite her to see Mary’s Comet with us. Did she still feel guilty for what she put Jade through? As I looked at Nightshade, I saw some slight discomfort in her face, like she was forcing herself to extend this invitation.

I couldn’t help but wonder why she was going this far.

FOUR DAYS LATER

It was late in the afternoon, and Klaus, Maud, Nightshade and I drove to the beach to get ready to see the comet. We picked a nice, secluded spot by the sand for us to set up our tents, and we wanted to get that done before we did anything else.

“Hey, Maud! Could you help us out with this?” I called out as Nightshade and I struggled to get our tent up.

The mare looked over at us as she finished pitching her own tent. “Sure. I’ll be right over.” As Maud helped us out, I glanced over at Klaus, who was having a worse time than Nightshade and me.

“Come on, just… for one second… good. Now I just need to… SON OF A BITCH!”

“You okay over there?” I asked, trying my hardest to stifle an incoming laugh.

“Does this look ‘okay’?” he asked back, gesturing his arms towards the jumbled mess that was supposed to be his tent. “This stupid thing won’t stay up!”

“You never were very good at this kind of stuff, Klausie,” a voice said out of nowhere. Klaus’s feathers ruffled a little as he looked up into the sky. The rest of us looked up and saw another griffon flying down toward us. She looked strikingly similar to Klaus, more so than his brother, Reggie. The only difference between her and Klaus (besides her boobs) was that she had black hair tied back in a ponytail.

“Griffons can have hair?” I whispered, leaning over to Nightshade.

“Some can, yeah,” she whispered back.

“You’re a smart kid, but sometimes you can be a little inept,” the older griffon said to her little brother. “No offense, of course.”

“You have this bad habit of saying ‘no offense’ right before you say something offensive,” Klaus grumbled.

“So, are you gonna introduce me to your friends, or what?”

The younger griffon let out a frustrated sigh. “Guys this is my oldest sister, Griselda. Griselda, these are my friends, Noah, Nightshade, and Maud.”

“Nice meeting you guys,” Griselda said with a nod.

“You too,” I replied.

“So can you help me with this tent, Zelda?” Klaus asked, receiving a smirk from his big sister.

“Of course, little bro,” she told him, ruffling the feathers on his head. “You’d be totally lost otherwise!”

“I already regret asking for your help.”

“Tough titty! I’ve already accepted!” Griselda said with a toothy grin.

“I like you,” Maud deadpanned.

Just then, we heard someone calling out to us, or rather, Nightshade and me. “Noah! Nightshade!” the voice yelled, and the two of us turned to see Jade approaching us with two bags.

“Oh! Hey, Jade!” I called, waving at her as she waved back.

“So this is the mare you were talking about?” Maud asked.

“Yeah,” I answered as the mare in question reached us. “This is Golden Jade. She’s an old girlfriend of mine.”

“Hm… Not a lot of guys can say that they’re on amicable terms with their exes,” the earth mare commented.

“You’re telling me,” Klaus grunted, still struggling to put up his tent even with his sister’s help.

Nightshade and I resisted the urge to laugh.

After setting up our tents, Klaus went into the woods to find some firewood. Unfortunately, when we all drew straws, the two of us got the shortest ones.

“You think that maybe the girls sabotaged us?” the griffon asked as he tore off some branches from high up while I picked up some sizeable pieces of wood from the ground.

“Didn’t think of it ‘til now, but now that you mentioned it, it’s a possibility, knowing them, especially Nightshade and Jade.”

“So both your exes are tricksters. Way to pick ‘em, Ashburn.”

I shot him a look. “At least my exes don’t hate my guts, Stormcloud.”

There was a long pause before I heard “shut up.”

Once we had gotten what we thought was enough firewood, Klaus and I began to head back to the beach. We had wandered pretty far into the woods, so it was going to be quite the walk.

“So…” Klaus began, unsure of where to start. “You and Nightshade… You’re still ‘just friends’?”

“Mm-hm,” I answered without putting much thought into it.

“In that case, doesn’t that make it a little uncomfortable living with her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, isn’t there a weird vibe in the air when you’re at home in the same room?”

My first instinct was to answer “no,” but then I thought about it. Since Moon came back, there was a bit of hesitancy in me. Whenever she’d touch me, a cold shiver would run through me for a split second. While it did happen a lot less often lately, there were times where it would come back.

“There is, sometimes,” I admitted, “but I’m not the only one that feels that way.”

“What do you mean?” Klaus asked me.

“It’s true that I sometimes feel a little uncomfortable when I’m close to Nightshade, I can tell that she feels uncomfortable, too. Sometimes when she hugs me or whenever she gets close to me, she’d shiver a little, just like me. Knowing that she feels the same way as I do just makes me feel a little bit better.”

Klaus took a moment to take in everything I had said, giving me a smile as a sign of understanding. “Does the thought of getting back together with her ever cross your mind?” he asked.

“I actually try not to think about it,” I answered. “Among other things, I think one of the reasons why our relationship didn’t work out was because we got into it too early. Neither of us were at the point where we felt like we could tell each other everything, and that ended up messing things up between us, so right now I’m just focusing on being her friend first.”

“That’s one way to go about it…” The griffon nodded.

A smirk creeped its way across my face. “Of course, if that doesn’t work out, your sister looks pretty hot. She’s single, right?”

“AGH! Don’t even!” Klaus spat. “You don’t date you’re best friend’s sister! That’s guy code!”

“True, but what if she came onto me? What then?” I asked, keeping up the joke. “Besides, she can make her own decisions. She’s a grown woman.”

“Exactly! Griselda is twelve years older than us!”

“Well, considering that my last girlfriend was older than me by at least a thousand years, that’s not really a dealbreaker,” I thought to myself with a grin. “I guess my time dating Moon has desensitized me.”

“The heart wants what the heart wants,” I shrugged.

“You are five seconds away from catching rocks with your face, Noah!”

“Dude, relax,” I said with a calm chuckle. “I’m just messing with you. I don’t have the hots for your sister, although I would if it wasn’t for one thing.”

“And what’s that?” Klaus asked with a stern look.

“She looks too much like you,” I laughed.

“What’s that’s supposed to mean!?”

“It’s nothing against you,” I disclaimed. “It’s just that if she and I did end up dating, I’d keep seeing your face in place of hers if she ever tried to kiss me.”

The griffon grunted. “If that’s what’s gonna keep you from hitting on my sister, I guess I can’t complain,” he said, but then, I saw a look of discomfort on his face. “So… going back to what you said about you and Nightshade not knowing each other well enough to start a relationship…”

“Yeah…”

He averted his eyes from me for a moment before finally spitting it out. “You think that… Maud and I know each other well enough?”

My head turned to look at him almost immediately. Did he mean what I thought he meant?

“Um… I don’t…” I muttered, feigning ignorance.

“I’m asking if you think a relationship between Maud and me would work out.”

I had to think about it for a moment. “Well, you’ve known each other since the three of us started college, and you get along with her relatively well.”

“You can really say that with a straight face?” he asked.

“You’re still friends with her, though.”

Klaus let out a sigh. “True. I know that we bicker sometimes, especially lately, but I dunno. If it was anypony else, I would’ve stopped hanging out with them, but Maud’s different. I know that whenever she calls me out, it’s not to be mean or anything. She’s just… teasing.”

“Don’t tell me that you’ve been enjoying it,” I said warily.

I saw a blush appear on the griffon’s face. “Not at first.”

“I think I’m learning more about you than I’m comfortable with…”

“Well, that’s your role as my best friend, isn’t it? My bullshit is your bullshit.”

I gave him a look. “Don’t start quoting Kevin Hart on me, Klaus.”

“Sorry. Couldn’t help it.”

At this point, the two of us finally got close to the beach, but as we did, we began to hear splashing sounds accompanied by laughter.

“No they didn’t,” we growled as we rushed out of the woods to see all four girls in the shallow water, lazing about while Klaus and I did all the work!

“THE FUCK!?” the griffon yelled, forcefully throwing the firewood he had collected to the ground. “YOU GUYS WERE JUST DOING NOTHING THIS WHOLE TIME!?”

Griselda, who was almost fully submerged, save for her eyes, proceeded to roll them, a swarm of bubbles forming as she let out an underwater sigh. “Quit being so dramatic, Klausie,” she said as she stood up, giving me a good view of her two-piece swimsuit. I tried not to stare at the black bikini gracing her greyish-white fur as she pointed towards the tents. “We already set up a fire pit and the only thing left is to set up the telescope.”

“Which only Noah knows how to do,” Maud added.

“Exactly, so calm your tits, boys.” Griselda finished with her hands on her hips.

“Besides, we drew straws, so it’s not like you guys can complain,” Nightshade shrugged.

You’d think that at least she’d be on my side.

“Well, I guess you guys did do something while we were gone, at least,” Klaus sighed as he picked up his sticks off the sand. “Go ahead and toss your firewood in the pit, Noah. I’ll get the fire started. You set up the telescope.”

I nodded my head. “Sure.”

The two of us got to work on our respective tasks while the ladies talked in the water. I was still a little miffed that we were doing most of the work, but I eventually let it go. Assembling the telescope wasn’t that hard a task. There were just a lot of parts to put together. As I worked on the telescope, I noticed Klaus staring at something while he was getting the fire started. I followed his line of sight, only for it to lead to Maud, who was wearing a pale blue bikini with thin straps, leaving little to the imagination.

This was the first time I’ve seen Maud showing this much skin… or fur… coat… whatever. The mare usually dressed pretty conservatively, so you’d think that she’d opt for a one piece. I looked at Maud’s face, and as she was talking to Nightshade, Jade, and Griselda, she would occasionally glance back at Klaus, who would then look away and work on the fire.

I get he really can’t handle her midriff.

It kinda amused me that Maud was acting like she wasn’t into Klaus. Ever since Moon told me about her suspicions, Maud’s efforts to gain Klaus’s attention became a lot more obvious to me.

It’s funny how you don’t notice some things until someone else points it out to you.

Two hours had passed, and the sun had already set. The six of us were gathered around the fire, roasting marshmallows and shooting the shit about… well, just life in general. Of course, Maud and Klaus sat next to each other, Griselda sat to the left of her little brother, and I sat in-between Nightshade and Jade.

The telescope was set up nearby and was hooked up to my laptop. I programmed the computer to follow the comet as it passed by and record the telescope’s view of it.

“How much longer until the comet passes, Noah?” Maud asked. As the person with the telescope, I was the unofficial timekeeper.

I looked at my watch and almost choked on my marshmallow. “Three minutes!”

At that moment, everyone rushed to finish their marshmallows. We then scurried to the telescope with some of us looking at the sky and others looking at the computer. As time went by, we all grew more and more anxious to see the comet until-

“There it is!” Nightshade exclaimed as she pointed in the direction of the comet, and I immediately aimed the telescope so it could lock on to its target.

The view was amazing, both with the naked eye and with the telescope. From the ground, it looked like a big white ball crossing the sky, but close up, there was a multi-color trail running behind it.

“It’s so pretty,” Griselda said as she leaned forward to get a closer look, only for her chest to make contact with my bare back. “Oh. Sorry, Noah.”

“It’s fine…” I said with a shiver.

Maybe I could get past her looking like my best firend…

“It is really beautiful. Isn’t it, Klaus?” Maud asked.

“Yeah…” he answered absentmindedly. I glanced over at them and saw the earth mare grasping the griffon’s arm, and he held her close in response. I smiled at how cute they looked before turning my attention back to the comet.

Unfortunately, the moment didn’t last forever, and comet eventually left our sight.

“Imagine, by the time that rock comes around again, we’ll be around a hundred and ten years old,” Jade said in awe.

“Yeah, but I’ll be over a hundred and twenty. I’ll probably be long gone,” Griselda joked.

With the comet long since out of sight, the others helped me pack up the telescope before heading to bed. Klaus was going to be sharing a tent with his sister, but before I went into my tent with Nightshade, I saw the two griffons talking, the older sister smirking at her younger brother before nodding her head. I ducked into the tent before Klaus turned around and headed in my direction, passing my tent and heading toward Maud’s.

“He’s really gonna do it,” I whispered to myself.

“Who? Klaus?” Nightshade asked.

“Yeah. He’s heading towards Maud’s tent. You think Maud’s gonna let him sleep with her.”

“That’s a given. The real question is whether or not they’ll get it on.”

I scoffed at the notion. “I doubt it. Even if they wanted to, they probably wouldn’t because the rest of us would hear.”

“I was just joking, Noah,” the mare said, rolling her eyes. “Besides, tent sex isn’t very comfortable, so it’d be a terrible setting for a couple’s first time.”

“How do you know that?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m just going off of gossip that I’ve heard,” she answered with an innocent face.

I let out a “hmph” and got under the blanket next to Nightshade.

“You want to know why I’m so sure that Maud and Klaus like each other?” she asked out of the blue.

“Sure, why not?”

The mare gave me a mischievous look and smirked at me. “I may have peered into their dreams once or twice.”

“Don’t you think Princess Luna might find you?”

Nightshade shook her head. “Nah. Earth’s dreamscape is entirely separate from Equus’s. It’s completely different in the way it looks, too. Maybe I can take you there sometime?”

“That sounds cool,” I said as I finally got into a comfortable position. “So, Nighthsade…” I whispered.

“Yeah?”

“What do you think about where we stand right now… in terms of our relationship, I mean.”

The unicorn looked at me with a surprised expression before answering. “Well, even though we’re just friends, I’m still glad that I get to be around you and be a part of your life.”

“Do you still… have feelings for me?” I asked.

“Of course I do, Noah,” she answered with a matter of fact tone. “I still love you, and I always will, but I’m also willing to wait until you’re ready to love me back. Even if that never happens, as long as I get to see you happy.”

“See me happy?”

The mare nodded. “What really killed me during our time apart was that I made you feel so miserable, and I don’t ever want to see you like that again, so even if your happiness ends up being a loss for me, it’s worth it to me.”

“Is that why you invited Jade to see the comet with us?” I asked.

“Well, that and I wanted to get a chance to actually get to know her. She’s actually really nice. I’m looking forward to hanging out with her some more this summer.”

I looked at Nightshade in awe, and I was reminded of just how much she had changed from before.

“Thanks… Goodnight, Nightshade,” I smiled as I shut my eyes.

I heard a chuckle, and I felt a wing reach over my shoulder, the soft feathers caressing my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see the mare smiling at me, still in her Nightshade form, only she had one black wing unhidden and her eyes were here natural teal blue with those cat-like pupils. It amazed me how much control she had over her transformation magic.

“It’s Moon,” she corrected before retracting her wing and concealing it once more.

The two of us embraced each other as sleep took us both, and I had a content smile on my face, happy that I had such an amazing mare by my side.

Maybe I’d be ready to try again sooner than I thought.

END

Shades of Night

by Sketchy Changeling

Chapter One - Our Circle

Chapter Two - Nightmare's Journey

Chapter Three - Moving In

Chapter Four - Party Preparations

Chapter Five - The House Party

Chapter Six - Lifting Her Spirits

Chapter Seven - Seeing the Signs

Chapter Eight - Hints and Insinuations

Chapter Nine - Breaking the News

Chapter Ten - Well... I Wouldn't Really Call It A Date

Chapter Eleven - Separation Anxiety

Chapter Twelve - Separation Anxiety: Part Two

Chapter Thirteen - Sick and Tired

Chapter Fourteen - Distractions

Chapter Fifteen - Letters and Lunches

Chapter Sixteen - Friends Make Amends

Chapter Seventeen - A Forgotten Voice

Chapter Eighteen - We Need to Talk

Chapter Nineteen - Welcome Back

Final Chapter - Mary's Comet