> A Red and Green brush
>  by Netherweaver
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapters 0 to 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prologue…
THUD. Something just crashed into my house.  A small figure approached me through the falling dust left by the impact. It was vaguely equine in shape, and seemed to have wings, which struck me as odd, as the last time I had checked, winged horses didn’t exist.
As it emerged from the dust, the first thing that struck me was its vivid green of its eyes. In combination with the deep red of its body, it was a peculiar looking creature.  As it looked me up and down a thought struck me,
“I probably look pretty weird to it too!” I thought. I immediately lowered my stance, knowing that looking harmless is the easiest way to avoid confrontations.
“Well, that landing didn’t go too well…” It giggled in a definitely feminine voice. “Sorry ‘bout the wall though.”
“No problem” I replied. Then the shock of this crazy situation hit me. “I’m talking to a winged horse. I seriously need to lay off the video games…” 
After a few awkward moments, the horse, if you could call something just under 5 feet tall a horse, spoke up again.
“Well, here I am talking to a weird monkey thing after crashing into its house, and I can’t try to apologise without it freaking out…” it complained. I soon wiped the look of complete and utter brainless panic off my face.
“Sorry for not being used to winged… horses? … That suddenly crash through the wall of my house at 2 a.m.” I replied in a voice laden with sarcasm. An English accent is a wonderful thing sometimes.
“I’m a pony, and sorry for being a bit cranky after going headfirst through a brick wall.” It replied, matching my sarcastic tone almost perfectly. “’Name’s Brusher, what’s yours?” it asked, without a hint of sarcasm left in its voice.
“Max.” I said, still weary of this intruder. “How did you end up crashing into my house anyway?”
“I was flying along, happy as can be, then all of a sudden I’m hit by a bolt of purple… stuff and I end up here.” She explained, I was sure it was a she now as its tone became even more feminine. “Well, that’s the abridged version anyhow.”
“Erm, did this purple stuff look like… a little floating cloud of mist?” I asked, peering over her shoulder at the aforementioned mist.
“Yes, actually…” Brusher turned around to see what I was staring at, and upon seeing the mist, she let out an incomprehensible string of words. “OHNONONONONOTAGAIN! CELESTIASAVEMELUNASAVEME! OHBUCKNO!” This string of incomprehensible sounds pretty much summed up our collective feelings as the mist suddenly hit us both like a ton of bricks.

***

Chapter One…
“Ugh, my face…” I whined, as I slowly awoke to the fact that whatever the mist had done, it most definitely included throwing me nose-first into a bookcase. As I extracted myself from the bookcase, I suddenly felt quite a few pairs of eyes watching me, so I slowly turned, and finally came face to face with something that definitely didn’t make sense.
A group of at least six of the little… pony? …things were stood staring at me. It was at this point that the orange-coloured one decided that giving me mild concussion was the best way to say hello. It was at this point I realised that among all the aches and pains that my body was reminding me about, fairly persistently, I felt a new feeling, some sort of power welling up inside me. I made up my mind, the orange one would be the perfect subject to test this power on…
I felt the power shift around my body, finding its way to my hands fairly rapidly. Just as I was about to unleash this power upon the orange menace, Brusher finally woke up.
“What the HAY just happened? My head feels like someone just dropped an Ursa on it!” Her voice cut through the red mist that was clouding my mind, and I decided that it was better to try helping Brusher than blast this orange monstrosity from existence.
“You okay down there Brusher?” I asked, never once taking my eyes off Kicker. Kicker being the name I decided to know the orange pony by until I learned her proper name and a proper apology.
“I guess.” She grunted back.
“Okay, back to removing Kicker over here from this plane of existence.” As I said this the group of ponies reeled in, what I could only assume was, shock.
“Don’t you dare!” yelled a frail looking, pastel yellow coloured pony. “You crash into our friend’s house, and then go on to threaten another one of our friends! How dare you even think something like that?!” I burst out laughing at the little creature.
“Oh that’s RICH coming from you! What could you possibly do to me?” I cackled. She just glared back, the kind of glare that could whittle down mountains and shame mighty rivers. But I had something she didn’t, by this point I had fallen so far from rational thought that this just made me laugh harder. I had some Crazy! The little pony began to sob, and that snapped me back to rational thought, reminding me of my little sister so much that I was drained of all the anger left in me.
“I’m so sorry!” I nearly yelled as I rushed to comfort the poor creature. “I didn’t mean to upset you; I just lost it when your friend belted me in the face.” I pulled the poor thing into a protective embrace and slowly calmed her down. Her friends seemed so shocked by this sudden change in my personality they stood there, speechless for the second time in as many minutes.
“It’s okay, I’m sure Applejack was just scared of you.” The little pony said, and with that she extracted herself from my bear hug.
“Yeah… Ah'm sorry for bucking you in the head, 
Ah just jumped to conclusions, s’all.” She said, in what I presumed to be a southern American accent.
“It’s no big deal; I’m just sorry I scared you gals…” I muttered, passing out for the second time that day…

***

Chapter Two…

(Author’s Note: Sorry for the lacking length in these first few chapters, but I doubt you’d want to hear about an unconscious man’s exploits in “The Void” P.S. I’m English, so don’t mind the odd mad-sounding expression.)

I woke to find myself on what seemed to be a settee of some sort, with what seemed to be a small rabbit staring me in the eye. I stared right back, and I didn’t quite feel safe after seeing that rabbit’s gaze.
“Erm, you wouldn’t happen to speak like the ponies do in these parts?” it shook its head. “You know exactly what I'm saying don’t you?” a nod. “Clever little rabbit, aren’t you?” another nod. “Well, after seeing some of the animals round these parts, well, I'm not going to doubt that fact.” A look that could have almost been ‘I know that feeling’ if it had been spoken as words.
“Um, ah, are you awake?” said something with an incredibly gentle voice.
“Yes, thanks, just enjoying a conversation with what I presume is you pet rabbit?” I replied.
“Oh, Angel Bunny is very intelligent, isn’t he?” responded the voice, which by now I had worked out as belonging to the pale yellow pony from before.
“Yep.” I said as I went to stand up.
THUD. I fell over as soon as I attempted to stand, eliciting a yelp of fear from yellow and a look of concern from Angel.
“I knew my balance was bad, but this isn’t normal,” I muttered to myself as I tried again, and again failing miserably. As I turned to as the little yellow pony for help I noticed a look that told me that something had happened to me. “I’m not a human anymore, am I?” I groaned. A shaking head from both of the other, for lack of a better word, people, in the room. “What am I?” I asked, terrified of the answer.
“R-really… b-b-big p-pony…” yellow whimpered.
“Oh… my… lord…” I responded. “Am I just a normal pony?” I asked, with some trepidation.
“Weird… w-wings and horn…” was all she managed to squeak out. “Let’s go ask Twilight…” she added once she realised that I was still the same kind creature that comforted her before.

A few minutes later we were stood in front of a giant tree that I presumed was Twilight’s home. As we entered, I saw a small green and purple streak belt across the floor in front of me, making a whimpering sound as it went.
“Hello Fluttershy, do you…” The unicorn that had addresses us from a previously unseen balcony almost fainted. “Who’s this you brought to see me?” she asked in a terrified voice.
“Erm… sorry about last time we met, but my name is Max, and I would guess that you are Twilight?” I said in an apologetic tone.
“I should buck you in the face so hard…” she retorted.
“That’s what got us into our little spat, Twilight, or have you forgotten how mad I get when I'm mildly concussed?” I snapped back. I heard a small whining sound coming from behind me. I turned and saw that, once again, I had scared yellow, whose real name is actually Fluttershy according to my logic. I pulled her into another protective hug. “Please don’t cry Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to scare you again…” “Way to go genius, your only friend in this mad place is terrified of you.” I added mentally.
“Sorry I snapped at you Max, I just didn’t know how to react when a seemingly equicidal maniac that threatened my friends turns up on my doorstep with another of my friends he is apparently protective of.”
“I’m sorry too, but like I said, Applejack did kick me pretty hard…” I trailed off mid-sentence as Fluttershy nuzzled my chest, and from the way that she looked into my eyes sent me the message loud and clear, but she said it out loud anyway.
“Don’t be mad at him Twi, he didn’t know any better, and besides, he only ever seems to worry that he upset someone.” She looked up at me just like my baby sister does back home…
“Oh no, not good, my house is in ruins, I'm missing and there is no trace of what happened, back in my world I bet everyone’s freaking out, oh no I need to get back.” I spluttered, finally realising that as long as I’m here I'm not there, at home, where I belong.
“Oh, about that…” Twilight said, “I think that you are still technically at home, but the ‘you’ at home doesn’t contain your consciousness.” 
“Different body, same mind?” I simplified.
“Basically.” She confirmed
“Okay, not too bad.” I said “might as well get used to this place as I don’t want a rematch with that purple mist…” I suddenly noticed a sensation where I presumed my wings were, and decided to stretch them. Baaaaaaaaad idea. As I looked around to inspect my wings, I found that they weren’t wings at all, but six large, floating crystals on either side of my body arranged in the shape of a pair of wings. “Wow… Sparkly…” was all I could muster at that point. “I presume that my horn is the same?”
“Um, yes it is. Sorry about this Max.” A new voice said. She sounded exactly like my housemate did just before showing me another piece of broken furniture…

***

Chapter Three…
“Okay Max, nice little dream you’re having here, but I think it’s time you woke up now” I remarked mentally “Yeah, it’s only a dream, only a dream.” I replied to my mind, letting out an insane cackle as I did so.
“Sorry, young colt, but this is no dream.” said a tall, regal looking pony with both wings and a horn. Her coat was pure white and her mane was a mix of pastel hues.
“Well, I'm sat here in very lavishly furnished room that looks like something out of a fairy-tale, talking to a giant white pony with a freaky hairdo. I don’t think anything is going to convince me otherwise.” I cackled in response. I then looked down to see something that I REALLY didn’t expect; my 15 year old self. “And this just puts the icing on the cake.” I remarked, still chuckling as my mind decided what to do. I decided for it.
THUD! THUD! THUD! I had decided to once again put myself under. In case you were wondering how I was handling this new world so well, it’s simple really. My brain just said dream, and I didn’t argue. But now, with the reality of this mounting up, my mind had given up on keeping control, and so I just lost myself in a pile of emotions. Having a teenager’s body and hormones again suddenly, combined with the fact that I was freaking out really messed me up.

“Art thou conscious, pale one?” someone asked me as I was jerked awake by a very sharp horn right in my solar plexus.
“Yes, no thanks to someone’s attempt to impale me.” I said.
“We are… *cough* I mean, I am sorry for this, pale one.” said a very regal voice belonging to a deep blue-purple pony. “I am Princess Luna!” she said loudly, almost putting my eardrums through.
“Ugh, caps lock much.” I groaned to myself, still feeling pretty insane. I then noticed my vision was blurred, and put it down to the repeated head trauma.
“Do you know why you are here?” she asked, having turned the volume down from 11 after seeing me trying to recover from her last burst of caps lock speech.
“Nope.” I replied, still somewhat groggy due to a splitting headache.
“Well, my sister brought you here hoping to find out how a being such as yourself was to end up in Equestria, and to find why you threatened equicide against one of our most important subjects,” she explained, “and was just about to ask why when you proceeded to knock yourself unconscious.” She finished without the faintest indication of amusement.
“Well, if you’d just experienced 2 cases of head trauma and one not-too-pleasant magic induced nap, I think your mind would just leave you to beat some sense into your brain.” I replied in a sarcastic tone.
“I see.” She remarked, confusing me with the lack of even the slightest repercussions. “You look a lot different to how Twilight described your human form, do you know why?”
“From the looks of things, I’d say that when your sister put me under, she miscalculated and reversed the aging of my body by about 6 years.” I remarked, surprising myself with how calm I was. “Oh no, I completely forgot that 6 years ago I still needed my glasses…” I started to panic, realising that my laser eye surgery that I had done had also been reversed.
“I can help with that,” said a third voice, belonging to the other royal sister, “I am sorry I put your body under too much stress, but it’s the least I can do to fix your eyesight.” A blinding flash and another splitting headache later, I could see again.
“Thank you, Princess… hmmm… Sunshine?” I joked. “But seriously, I really couldn’t see, and I’m grateful for you fixing it.”
“I’m sorry I can’t do more to help you, but aging isn’t one of my strong points. And I’m called Celestia, by the way.” She replied, chuckling a little. “Now, to work out why you ended up here…”

***

Chapter Four…

“So that’s how Twilight sparkle ended up bringing me here.” I finished my story for the Princesses.
“I told her to get that Library some magic dampeners…” Princess Celestia fumed; making her mane and tail flow faster than they had been before.
“It’s okay Princess, she didn’t actually remove me from my world, just my mind, and created a copy of me here.” I said, desperately trying to save the little unicorn from the sun Princess’ wrath. “I don’t mind, just as long as…” Suddenly, it felt like my shoulder blades were ripping themselves out of my back “AAAAAGH!” I screamed through the crippling pain. Luna was the first to react, grabbing me with her magic so I didn’t hit the floor 
“Max?! Are you OK?!” she shouted, but her voice was… different? Less regal, somehow? Then it clicked.
“Y-You’re Brusher?” I asked through gritted teeth, only succeeding as the adrenalin hit me.
“Yes, I am…” she replied “I didn’t want to be a Princess all the time, so I created a second body for myself that I can go anywhere in.” Needless to say, we were stunned. Then my shoulder blades finally won the struggle.
“HOLY SHIT!” I screamed as two huge gouts of blood sprayed from my shoulders, rendering all three of us unable to move from shock. Surprisingly, I didn’t black out, but instead stood back up. “That… hurt…” was all I could say. I felt the tingling sensation that I had first felt when I moved my wings as a pony, and tentatively looked over my shoulder. Sure enough, there were two crystalline wings attached to me. “Ah, that’s new…” I said, stretching them. Celestia’s jaw then proceeded to detach itself from the rest of her face, and Luna fainted. I rushed over and grabbed her before she hit the ground. “Well, I guess that I’ve found out what that power I was about to hurl at Applejack was… wait, where are the blood stains?” I asked no-one in particular as Celestia still hadn’t regained use of her lower jaw. Then I noticed the crystals were a particular shade of red… “Oh bugger” I said, and then a crippling burst of laughter hit me as I saw Celestia trying to regain her composure.
“Hey! That’s not funny!” she said back, joining in with my hysteric laughter after ‘hitting’ me upside the head. We woke Luna, who joined in after me and Celestia only just managed to explain what had transpired when she was unconscious. “I think that you just earned yourself a house somewhere, my friend!” Celestia said, still chuckling as we recovered from the previous hilarity. I then got a sense of a second body around mine, and decided to probe it with my mind
POOF! I suddenly felt my centre of gravity lower, and my viewpoint rise slightly.
“Wow Max that was impressive!” said ‘Brusher’, who was stood next to me “You even managed to transform me!” Celestia was stunned by her sister’s second form, a small Pegasus pony with light red skin and bright green eyes. Her mane was still pretty much the same save for it was a bit more purple than normal “Hmm, coat colour is a bit off though…” she muttered to herself.
“It looks nicer in that shade of red.” I said, nudging her shoulder slightly. She giggled, having become much less… uptight than before.
“It seems you are a fifth kind of pony Max; and one I never expected to see again since… since…” Celestia said, suddenly sobbing. Me and Luna went to comfort her.
“It’s ok Tia, it’s all ok…” Luna said, shifting back to her normal form as she hugged her big sister. I joined her, and the three of us sat there, together, until Celestia stopped crying. “What’s up?” Luna asked, concerned by her sister’s unusual display of sadness.
“He’s… he’s just like father…” Celestia said, still sobbing slightly. Me and Luna looked at each other in shock. “I don’t wanna talk about it…” Celestia said, so Luna and I decided not to probe further, having both been shocked by the revelation that I was potentially more powerful than the both of them combined. Celestia walked to her bedroom, and me and Luna accompanied her as far as the door.

An hour later, me and Luna were sitting together in Celestia’s court giving her time to recover from such a huge emotional shock. Every person that came to us asked where Celestia was, and we just gave the same answer,
“She needs some time alone right now, and we hope you understand” this worked for every pony. Except one; Prince Blueblood.
“I simply must speak to aunt Celestia, my dear aunt Luna” he whined like a little girl, or filly for that matter.
“I’m sorry Blueblood but she really needs time alone right now, she’s just had a very large emotional shock.” Luna replied, trying to soothe the petulant prince.
“But Luuuuuuuunaaaaaa…” he whined. It took all my self-control to stop me from shutting him up.
“Listen, Blueblood, I know you really want to see Celestia but I don’t think she’s…” I started to say before a refreshed looking Celestia interrupted me.
“It’s okay Bluey, Aunty Celestia is here now.” She teased, a huge smile splitting her face. Needless to say, Blueblood was not impressed “It’s okay guys, I can take care of this now.” Me and Luna both breathed a sigh of relief as we walked into the private gardens…
(Author’s Note: the chapters are starting to get a lot longer now, so I’ll just be uploading them one at a time. The story is finally picking up some sanity, and now I can really start to write. Allons-y!)

***

Chapter Five… 

'Brusher’ and I had decided to go into Canterlot to get me used to pony life. After a little while in the palace gardens we set off into Canterlot, but only after having made my wings and horn invisible through a cloaking spell. We visited a load of shops, and eventually ended up outside a little pet shop.
“I think you should get a pet Max, it’d give you something to keep you company when I’m on ‘business’.” Brusher said, nudging me suggestively.
“Brusher, how could you imply something like that!” I said, mock scolding her. She just giggled. We entered the shop and my eyes instantly stretched wide open. “That’s a lot of animals.” I said, gawping uncontrollably.
“How can I help youse two?” said the shop keeper in an odd accent. He was a small stallion, much smaller than any of the others I had seen. “Wants a pet to prepare for havin’ a foal?” He joked, making Brusher blush wildly. I took it well and chuckled, making her blush even more. This made her concentration slip for a second, and she lost her grip on the cloaking spell.
“Bollocks.” I said waiting for the shopkeeper’s reaction. He took it extremely well.
“Hey, ya look like one of them fancy alicorn sisters!” he remarked. “I’d guess that you’re one of the sisters, missy.” He continued. Luna let her transformation spell go, nodding her head. “It’s okay, ya know, I'm not gonna tell no-one what your disguises are.”
“Thanks” said Luna, shifting back into Brusher and cloaking my horn and wings. Throughout the entire conversation I had been looking around the shop, and a particular pet had caught my eye. It was a large green bird, reminding me of a hawk, but it was a bit too… fluorescent.
“How much for that green bird over there?” I said motioning towards it with a hoof.
“Ah, the Fell Phoenix? About 100 bits, he’s been here for too long now as nobody wants a demon pet.” The shopkeeper said, retrieving the bird from its cage.
“Could I borrow some… bits…? Please Brusher?” I asked realising that human currency would be of no use here.
“Of course, but do you think that I could have some of your native currency as well? I want to know how your people trade.” She replied.
“Of course… oh bugger, it’s in my pocket…” I said. Making frantic movements to tell Luna what I needed to do.
“Ah well, we’ll just have to get it when we get home.” She said, saving me from my own stupidity. She handed the money to the owner and we left with a weight off our hearts and a pet for me.

A little while later, we arrived outside a bar that Luna went to often. As we went in, I suddenly decided on a name for my new pet, ‘Illidan’. (A/N: I did just go there.)
“Here we are, the music isn’t too bad and it’s a nice atmosphere.” Brusher remarked as we entered, and as soon as we had found a nice place to sit, the DJ suddenly had a request from, what looked like, a pair of twin brothers. The DJ put in their CD and hit play. I looked at Luna in shock as I heard a very familiar song, one from back home.
“How the hell did they get that track?!” I said to Luna. She looked at me a bit oddly.
“It was made by Skoltex, it only came out last year.” She said, as if it was common knowledge.
“Then why is it the exact same as a track by Skrillex back home?” I said, confounded. She shrugged, and I just gave up and relaxed to the music, but then an idea popped into my head, “I need to go to the bathroom…” I said. Luna pointed at a door over the other side of the room.

I went into a cubicle, and as soon as I was sure there was no-one else, I changed back into a human and pulled my phone out of my pocket, smiling happily when it was the phone from back when I was 15. I put it out of reach for a second, and after changing back to my pony form, I reached out my wing and picked it up, placing it on my back. Once I had done that, the cloaking spell re-established as Luna realised what I had done, and I walked back into the club, and once the twins had finished their number, I walked up to the DJ and asked if she could play a couple of the songs on my phone, and she happily obliged. She happily flicked through the songs until she found one she liked the look of, and using her magic managed to plug my phone into her decks, and once again hit play. As the song began to play, one of the six ponies from my arrival looked up to see me and the DJ chatting.
“Hey! Nice choice Lyra.” Said the cyan Pegasus when she finally arrived at the decks. “Not bad for your first time performing without your lyre.”
“Hehe, thanks Rainbow, but it was on his phone,” Lyra said, pointing at me.
“What’s it called buddy?” Rainbow asked, her rainbow coloured mane flashing in the light.
“Loyalty,” I said with a wink “I thought this place was familiar! I’m in my little pony!” I remarked mentally as everything started to come back from my teenage years. “Hope you like it!” I said as I wandered back to Luna. Dash was stunned completely, and couldn’t move.
“What did you do to Rainbow?” Luna asked. I chuckled at my little joke;
“Just told her the name of the song.” I said. We stayed at the club for most of the night, and I got to know Dash once she recovered from my little joke. That was the best night of my life, in Equestria or otherwise; Apart from Illidan managing to get drunk somehow. I’m looking at you, Rainbow Dash…

***

(Authors Note: Max’s birthday is the 22nd of March, and it’s around 10:00am, just to clarify the issue, although he is technically 22 now, his body was 16 just before Celestia came back after the ‘Revelation’. You’ll see what I mean in a bit.)

Chapter Six…

“You awake yet Max?” a voice broke the peace of my sleep. I opened my eye slightly to see who it was that woke me up, and I was staring right into a pair of bright green eyes.
“Ugh… my head. Thanks for not using your caps lock voice to wake me up Luna…” I muttered, not wondering how she was so close until she spoke again.
“Thanks for last night Max, it was the most fun I’ve had for years…” she said softly, cuddling up to me. My face flushed and memories of the previous night shot back into my head when I figured out what she meant.
“Wait… we… you’re a princess… oh god…” I stuttered, before remembering what day it had been, “Today is the 23rd of the third month, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Yep, the month is called March” she giggled.
“Thanks for the best birthday ever Luna.” I sighed happily “And I didn’t know you had the same month structure as us humans.” Luna was beaming at the news, and she switched back to her ‘Luna’ body. “Luna, does this make us, you know, a couple now?”
“I wouldn’t mind that…” she sighed in her more regal voice. “I wouldn’t mind at all. Oh, I really think we should tell Tia about us being a couple.” She continued, slipping back into her more relaxed voice.
“Then it’s decided, we’ve got a princess to find! Come on!” I jumped out of bed, surprising her slightly. I walked around to the other side of the bed and pulled her out. We ended up as a giggling heap on the floor, and somehow she wound up on top. She didn’t say anything, she just stared straight into my eyes, and then she lowered her muzzle to mine, and kissed me. It wasn’t a particularly long kiss, but it spoke volumes. It filled my heart with a feeling of purpose and joy like nothing else ever had. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this mare. Suddenly, everything felt… right. Like it had before my best friend was diagnosed with cancer. I sat by his hospital bed every day, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. His parents had seen how much it hurt me to see him suffer, and when he finally passed, they had been there to keep me out of the depression I was spiralling down towards. I was only 19, but his parents wanted me to make a speech at the funeral because I had been there in his time of need, whenever his family wasn’t there. It had almost destroyed me, but Luna… she fixed all that now, she made me feel that spark of life again, just as he had when we were kids…
“Are you okay Max?” she asked, seeing my eyes becoming teary.
“I am now I have you…” I whispered, holding her close. She sighed happily, and climbed off me so we could go find her sister.
As we trotted through the castle, I felt a sudden urge to change back to my human form, so I did. When I did, I remembered why I wanted to. Luna turned around when my hoofsteps stopped, to see me digging through my pockets.
“Got it!” I said when I finally fished my wallet out of my pocket. “Oh, completely forgot that I was flat broke at 16…” I said as Luna came over to see what I was doing. “Just trying to find that money you wanted to look at, but I don’t have the right wallet. We normally use little slips of plastic with a magnetic strip that can be scanned. That allows them to take money straight out of the bank.” I explained “Aha! Got it!” I exclaimed when I found some change in my wallet. I held it on my palm for Luna to see.
“Ooh, just like bits, but what are all the different sizes and shapes for?” she asked sifting through the mound of copper and silver I held on my hand
“I’ll tell you later, Lu. But right now we need to find your sister.” I said, dumping the coins into my pocket for easy access later. We continued walking through the castle, and I switched into my pony form so I didn’t embarrass her by not being a pony, and I noticed that my wings weren’t floating crystals anymore, but crystalline wings like those present on my human form. I put one over Luna, and she snuggled up to me. We walked like this all the way to Celestia’s bedroom. When we arrived, Luna did exactly what I didn’t expect her to do; walked up to the door and start pounding it with a hoof yelling
“Tia! Wake Up! We have good news!” she was certainly putting her caps lock voice to good use then, and didn’t my eardrums know it…
“Five more minutes Lulu!” Celestia replied with the same amount of ear-splitting volume.
“TIA! UP! NOW!” Luna finished the argument. From the other side of the door came grumbling sounds galore as the sun princess shuffled to the door.
“What did I tell you about waking me up just after I’ve raised the sun Lulu?” Celestia said.
“If you can do it while fast asleep why are you so moody Tia?” Luna said.
“I had to do the moon last night too.” Celestia answered flatly. “I’m only kidding, I know you two were having a good time.” She joked, trying to lighten the mood. “So, what’s the big news?”
“Me and Max are… well…” Luna was blushing the brightest shade of red I’ve ever seen someone blush. “Erm… well… we’re together now.” She said, looking at me for support.
“Wow… that was fast…” Celestia said, slightly shocked. “Hehe, I can’t say I disapprove, he is such a nice young stallion. But, there is about a 1900 year age gap…” Celestia said, trying to unsuccessfully hide a chuckle.
“In alicorn years I’m his age!” Luna said petulantly “And besides, he’s basically an alicorn too!”
“I know, I’m just messing with you Lulu, you’re exactly the same age.” Celestia said, letting out a pent up laugh. “At least, my magic says you are.” She finished.
“That’s good enough for us!” I said, grinning like an idiot.
“Oh, Max, remember when I said you’d earned a house somewhere?” I nodded. “Well, I bought you one in Ponyville! I guess Lulu could go with you if you're really serious about being together.” Celestia said.
“Really? Thanks a lot big sister!” Luna said, becoming Brusher again so she could show her emotions better. She flung her forelegs around Celestia, almost knocking her down with her enthusiasm. “Come on Max, we need to pack!” Luna said as she detached herself from her big sister and latched onto me.
“I suppose.” I said, but upon suddenly hearing a strange sound, I spun around to find Illidan sitting next to a bright red phoenix. He flew over and landed on my wings, which weren’t cloaked anymore. “Hey little buddy, how you holding up after last night?” He mimed throwing up, making me laugh. “Gonna have to get Rainbow back for that, aren’t we?” He squawked in agreement.
“Come on Max! I'm really excited about moving somewhere new! Oh gosh, Tia, are you OK doing moon duty?” Brusher said, so fast it was almost incomprehensible.
“I’m fine doing it little sister; you go enjoy yourself with your coltfriend.” Celestia chuckled. Brusher squealed in delight and dragged me out of the door towards her bedroom…

***

Chapter Seven…

Having packed Luna’s belongings into a nondescript trunk and loaded it onto a carriage that Celestia had lent us for the trip to Ponyville; Luna and I relaxed together as four royal guards pulled us through the streets of Canterlot, as to attract as little attention as possible, the royal guards having not donned their armour for the first leg of the trip.
As we followed the road down into Ponyville, we passed rolling apple orchards, beautifully constructed buildings and lush meadows.
“What a beautiful place, I’m glad your sister bought us a house here.” I sighed, holding Luna close. “Still not as beautiful as you…” I sighed again, nuzzling the top of her head with my muzzle.
“Thanks Max” she replied. “I wonder how the Elements are…” she said, drifting off into thought. We finished the rest of the journey in silence.
We arrived in Ponyville sometime during mid-afternoon, and the guards showed us to our house. Luna then decided that we should get something to eat at Sugarcube Corner. She led the way, and we received surprisingly few odd glances, considering my wings and horn were on display. I did, however, manage to walk straight into somepony as I completely forgot to look where I was walking. A familiar sobbing sound reached my ears when I managed to remove my face from the dirt, and I turned to see that not only had I managed to trip over Fluttershy, I had also managed to catch her wing in such a way it had broken.
“Oh, I'm so sorry Fluttershy, I didn’t see you there…” I said soothingly as I carefully picked her up off the ground and rested her on my back “Let’s get you to a hospital so we can get that wing fixed up, eh?” I continued. “Brush, we got a problem over here!” I called to Luna, who immediately turned around to see a sobbing Fluttershy being cradled gingerly by my wings. “I messed up and tripped on her wing and now we need to get her to a hospital.” I explained.
“Okay, it’s this way if I remember…” she said, leading the way off without a second word.
About 10 minutes later we entered the hospital, and all it took was one glance at Fluttershy’s wing to get the doctor fussing.
“Oh Fluttershy, what’s happened now?” he asked, while bandaging her wing.
“Max tripped over me, it was an accident.” The doctor looked at her, boring into her with his gaze. “Honest Dad, it was an accident!” she squealed as the pressure of the gaze mounted.
“I believe you dear.” Said the old earth pony, as we stared at him in confusion. “Her mother was a Pegasus, by the way.” He said, and everything fell into place. Fluttershy let out a squeak as he pulled the bandages tight. “There we go. Now you go straight home and don’t move that wing!” he said. “It’s not as badly broken as Rainbow Dash’s was, but its broken in a way that we can’t do anything for it, and being laid up in bed would just grind the bones together.” he explained to the three of us.
“How did you know just by looking, that it was broken in a weird way?” I asked the pale yellow earth pony.
“A mix of experience and a bit of fatherly instinct, as this isn’t the first time this has happened to poor Flutters…” he explained patiently, obviously having expected the slew of question coming at him. “I’m supposed to have finished by now anyway, so I’ll walk her home.” He finished, and with that he and Fluttershy walked out of the door.
“Didn’t see that coming.” I remarked to Luna.
“Eeyup.” Said a third, previously unheard, voice. I turned to see a large red pony stood next to Brusher. He was quite tall and bore a strong resemblance to Applejack, but obviously didn’t have her speed as he had a large mark where something had fallen on him. He then waved at the receptionist and walked out of the waiting room.
“Was he…” I pondered.
“Yep; he was there the whole time.” Luna said, answering my unasked question. “Let’s get to Sugarcube corner. And please don’t trip over anypony else on the way there.” she joked. 
“Okay Brush, let’s get going…” I said, and we walked out of the hospital and back into Ponyville.

We arrived at Sugarcube corner with no more incidents. As we entered, a shocking pink pony ran towards us, and the look on her face told me that she wasn’t happy.
“You…” she growled, “You’re the one that threatened AJ aren’t you?” she continued, freaking me out.
“How did you…” I said, starting to back away. She lunged for me, her poufy hair suddenly turning straight. “You don’t want to do this…” I warned her.
“Oh but I really, really do!” she cackled, a large knife appearing in her mouth as she lunged again. I had learned how do walk and move my wings in my pony form, but I only knew self-defence as a human. I finally thanked my Dad for going through them self-defence drills with me. Having only just dodged the last two slashes, I switched into my human body, and that was when things got interesting.

(A/N: listen to this, it gives the fight more of the pace I wanted.)

We bounced around the store, scattering ponies left and right, and trading blows. I finally had got to breaking point, and slamming my wings down as hard as I could, I created a shock-wave that sent the crazy pink pony flying. She just came straight back at me.
"Max, jump!" yelled Brusher, as the psychotic little monster charged again. I jumped, just avoiding the blade as it flashed past my face. I brought a wing down on the pony, flipping it over. As I stood over it, I pointed the sword-like edge of my wing towards it's throat.
"You really want to carry this on?" I threatened. The pony responded in kind, kicking me in the chest with a free hoof, sending me sailing towards the door.
"I could keep this up all day, Bitch." the pony finally answered, hitting me with another kick which sent me through the door. She rushed out after me, and she would have impaled me with her knife if I hadn't whipped my legs around, sending her tumbling across the road, and launching me into the air. I started to flap my wings, and after a few dive-bombs had the pony pinned again.
"Either you stop now, or I swear I will slit your throat!" I screamed in her face, letting my rage boil over. She tried to kick me off once again, but as I went to end her life, a familiar voice ripped through the screams of the onlookers.
"Stop this NOW!" yelled Princess Celestia, who looked about as pleased as wolf that has had its dinner taken away. "What the HAY is going on here!" she continued, but I refused to let the pink pony go.
"Sorry Celestia, but this little piece of shit tried to kill me!" I shouted back. Celestia was stunned at having had not only her guest, but also her only link to her father threatened.
"Pinkamena Diane Pie! You'll be lucky to come back from the moon at all!" she screamed, letting all of her pent-up emotions out. Everyone outside at the time started cowering as soon as this was said, fearing for their lives after seeing the Princess scream at full blast. "Twilight, get yourself here NOW!" she yelled once again, and once she had a secure grip on Pinkamena, I stood up and joined her. "How did you let this happen!" she demanded of Twilight, who had walked up to us with a deathly pale face after seeing her long-time mentor and friend in such a fit of anger. "That letter said to tell everyone that Max was friendly, and not to hurt him!" Celestia said, pointing to a large gash down the side of my face that I hadn't noticed. as the blood ran down my face, I could feel it, and it felt like it was still a part of me. I probed this feeling as I had done with my pony body, and the blood started floating away from my face, crystallising as it went. A few seconds later, there was a long red splinter of crystal was floating in front of me. It slowly grew into a broadsword as more and more blood poured out to it. Celestia and Twilight were too interested in their argument that they only noticed when I grabbed the sword, and fell over from blood loss...

***

Chapter Eight...

After  ten days in hospital, the staff finally decided I had recovered from my blood loss. They discharged me with a clean bill of health, and I walked out of the hospital, where Brusher was waiting for me. Surprisingly, there were six other ponies surrounding her. As we walked to our new home, the six ponies shared their stories with us, leaving when we were passing their houses. Rarity, the white one I didn't recognise immediately was a seamstress, and a darned good one at that. Rainbow was a member of the weather team, who took care of the weather for the town through lord-knows-what mind-fuckery. Applejack worked on the big apple orchards, and Pinkie was an employee at Sugarcube corner. She sure did give one hell of an apology as well, but I swear I heard her mutter something about cupcakes... Twilight was the town librarian, and her assistant was a baby dragon called Spike. Fluttershy was the closest thing to a Vet that Ponyville had, and looked after all the animals in the surrounding area. As we finally said goodbye to the six of them, we arrived outside our new house.
"Isn't it wonderful!" Brusher said, and I realised that we had never actually been in the house for longer than it took to dump our belongings. As we looked around the house, we noticed a strange thumping coming from the wall. Then there was yelling over the thumping.
"LYRA! I know you're excited to finally have become a DJ but please for the love of Celestia stick to your Lyre at home!" there was the sound of hoofsteps coming up to the wall and then the voice continued yelling "Sorry you guys had to come home to that!" The hoofsteps then faded away as our neighbours finally decided to turn their music off; allowing my eardrums to recover.

As we finished unpacking our belongings, I noticed that Brush had brought all her 'Royal' jewellery.
"Hey, I didn't think you'd have brought all of that with you." I said, walking over to her. "After all, you won't have to do anything too royal around here, right?"
"Well, if we finally decide to tell everyone who I actually am, I'm gonna need it." she said.
"I guess that's a good enough reason. But where are we gonna keep it?" I asked, assuming it was valuable.
"Its fine there, its only made of painted iron. It looks fancy, but its more practical that way." she said, gesturing towards a shelf she put them on. "Speaking of paint, this place needs a makeover." I groaned, and Illidan echoed me from the other side of the room. "Lets go pick out what we want!" she was practically bouncing at the thought of making our house a home.

"That went better than expected." I said as we walked out of the store where we had bought everything we needed. We had decided to go with white walls, with black and purple fixtures. It was her idea to make the ceiling look like her night sky, and it turned out quite well after a liberal dose of magic. I had decided to claim the basement as my own, and thus it ended up being striped with black and fluorescent green, giving it a very computerised look. Illidan approved of all these decisions, apart from the purple cushions on the settees, which he sat on, unmoving, until Luna had blasted them a deeper shade of purple with her magic. It actually looked a lot better, and Illidan was being quite smug about it, cawing loudly. After we had finally finished decorating, we noticed it was around 6 pm, and Brush had decided we were going out for a meal.

We were looking around Ponyville when Brush saw a restaurant she liked the look of. As we went to enter, we heard shouting coming from inside.
"You... you hit me? My face has been defiled by your common touch!" I instantly recognised the snooty, stuck-up voice. Blueblood.
"Common? COMMON?! You DARE call ME common you foalish, disgustingly pathetic excuse for royalty!" screamed another voice. Blueblood ran out of the restaurant, a huge red mark on his face where he had been hit by a pretty vicious punch from somepony. Rarity came out after him, looking like she was about to commit murder. "You better run, and if I ever see you here again, you'll regret it!"
"Rarity? What happened?" I asked.
"That pig of a prince insulted my friends, insulted my favourite restaurant, and then dared to call me common!" she raged.
"I know how you feel, just be confident that aunty Celestia will be having words with her favourite nephew." I said, chuckling slightly as I remembered my first meeting with Blueblood. Rarity just looked at me with confusion in her eyes. "Hey, do you mind if we join you?"
"Of... of course not! I haven't even placed my order yet." she stuttered, leading us to her table. As we sat down, the waiter asked for our orders. we placed them, and when they arrived I realised that every time I had eaten in Equestria I had eaten as a human, and I was stuck in the awkward situation of not knowing how to eat. Brush realised that as well, and we shared a look of confusion as to what to do. A look of dread crossed my face when I realised that I either had to be fed by Luna, which wouldn't turn out well as she would have to transform, or eat like a pig. I decided on a third course of action, and excused myself from the table. Its not as if anyone would mind, would they? I took the plunge and shifted forms to my human body. I walked back into the main area of the restaurant, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, and it was working until Lyra saw me...
"Look Bonnie, I told you they were real!" she squealed in delight, pointing at me.
"Lyra, I know you're excited but could you leave the poor lad alone? I think he wants to get back to his meal." the mare sitting next to Lyra said, giving her friend a smack upside the head. Lyra looked at me sullenly as I walked back to my table.
"I guess Lyra finally got her proof..." Rarity sighed as I returned. The food arrived about 30 seconds after I sat down, and as we ate, I was so grateful at that point that ponies shared many things with humans, including their cutlery. My meal tasted as good in my human form as it had looked to my pony form. We finished our meal and paid the waiter. As we walked out of the restaurant, Rarity noticed that I had dropped a small amount of my meal on my trousers, and that somehow prompted her to ask if I needed any extra clothes.
"Max, darling, do you have any other clothes to wear?" she asked.
"No, and these aren't exactly the trousers I would have chosen to wear if I was going to a new world." I said, looking down at my black suit trousers, which I wore instead of jeans. "I also need some shirts, as this one isn't liking having two extra holes ripped in it." I concluded, noticing my shirt had begun to fray around where my wings were.
"Okay, you can come to my boutique tomorrow morning so I can measure you, and get your preferences on what you would like." she said, trotting off towards her aforementioned boutique. We carried on walking, and by the time we arrived home night was about to fall. As we entered our new home, I wrapped my arms around Brush, and pulled her into a bear hug.
"Thanks for being so understanding about my predicament Lu, I don't think I would have been able to pull that off without you." I said, and she brought her muzzle to my mouth and kissed me. When she broke the kiss, she looked into my eyes.
"Thanks for accepting me after my dubious history." she replied. 

***

Chapter Nine...

A few months had passed, and we had adjusted well to our new home. Nightmare Night was coming up quickly, and Luna was in a bind over what to do. Appear as Nightmare Moon to play with the kids, or be Brush and enjoy herself. We decided that she should make and appearance as Nightmare to entertain the kids, and then spend the rest of the night as Brush. We asked one of the Guards from the palace to secure some supplies for us, as we wanted to treat the kids this year, instead of only terrifying them senseless.

It was the big day, and Luna was terrified of messing up and scaring the kids too much, and I decided to sit in the front row of seats in front of the podium where Nightmare would be announcing her "conquest" of Equestria, only to have the magnificent sun princess save the day and cast down the terrible Mare in the Moon. We started making preparations, helping her fit her false fangs etc., and once we had finished I left to round up the kids. Pinkie was with the kids, which wasn't surprising because of her sugar addiction. As we found our seats, the mayor started making her usual speech, only to be interrupted, as planned, by a mysterious cloud. Nightmare Moon appeared on the stage, and the smallest of the children shot onto my lap, looking like he had seen the rider himself. Then Nightmare Moon decided to start her speech, shooting a sly wink in my direction.
"My little sun loving subjects! How wonderful it is to see you again!" She started at full volume. "Welcome to the eternal night I promised so long ago. Now you will never see your precious sun again! Now, it is time to welcome your..." She was interrupted by a flash of light as Celestia flew into her, knocking Nightmare down, and pinning her there.
"Can't keep me down, Nightmare! I've banished you once, and I can do it again!" Celestia shouted, her horn glowing really bright as she banished Nightmare to the "moon", in this case our front room. A mighty cheer went up from the crowds, and everyone slowly filtered away from the stand and back to the candy. I went back to the house to find Brush sat with the little foal who had sat on my lap, but there was something a bit different about him. As I approached them, I noticed tears streaming down his face.
"What's up little guy?" I asked.
"Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon... c-came up to me and t-took my candy." he said between massive sobs. I could see from his size he was a lot younger than the other foals.
"I think we should get you home, don't you? Here, you can have some of our candy." I said soothingly, filling his little bag with sweets. Me and Brush walked with him towards his house, when the two fillies who had stolen his sweets walked up to him and demanded more. "What do you think you're doing, bullying this little guy?" I said, in as threatening a voice as I could muster. "Why do you need to take his sweets when you have your own, eh?" The foals looked at me with as much hate as they could find, and walked off. As it turned out, we were right outside the little guy's home. After hearing the commotion, his parents came out. after me and Brush had explained what the fuss was about, they took him inside and thanked us for being so kind to him. Me and Brush set off back to the house, but on the trip home a gang of large pegasi lumbered up to us.
"What do you want?" I asked, lowering my stance slightly.
"Her." the largest replied, lumbering towards Brush, who managed to jump out of his path.
"Fat chance, bozo!" I said, slamming my hoof into his face as hard as I could. He yelped in pain, and the rest of the gang advanced upon us. "Shit." was the only thing I said, shifting back into my human form, and surprisingly my sword appeared in my hand. I suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline as my body prepared to fight. Then the shit hit the fan, big time. One charged at me, and I managed to slide my sword between his ribs before he could but his vicious looking brass hooves to use. I saw one of them go for Brush, so I charged and ran him through, feeling his blood run down the blade. I was so enraptured with the raw power his blood was giving me I didn't notice that the ringleader had got back up. By the time I noticed he was there, it was too late. He brought both his forelegs down on the back of my neck, slamming me to the ground. I couldn't move because of the huge amount of pain signals overloading my spinal cord, and I saw him advance upon her, the remainder of his gang following suit. (A/N: Stop the music.) As they started to surround her, she was becoming more and more agitated, until she flipped out, becoming Nightmare Moon once again, but this time, it wasn't a joke. She had become the aspect of eternal night for real, and lighning lashed from her horn, daring the gang to come any closer.
"Nopony threatens me, and nopony EVER threatens my Max!" she screamed, unleashing a huge wave of lightning and dark energy which ripped through the thugs. Her anger was more terrifying than I had imagined sweet little Luna was capable of. The only ponies still awake happened to be the bearers of Harmony, and they all came rushing towards the sound of Nightmare Moon's scream. As they arrived to the scene of carnage left by Nightmare, they saw her bending over me, pouring her energies into me to try and heal my injured spine.
"Bring me... the sword... and blood..." I gasped to her as my lungs started to give in. She levitated the sword towards me, and found a corpse that wasn't flash dried by her lightning. As the sword touched my hand, I felt the leaking life force of each of the dead thugs around me. I drew it into myself, using it to heal my wounds and repair my spine. Twilight and her friends finally decided it was safe to approach as Luna lost her terrifying visage and became the princess of the moon once more.
"Luna?! I thought you had been transported to Canterlot, why are you still here?" Twilight asked, her normally calm face a mess of panic and fear.
"Sorry it had to come out like this, but you guys need to know now." Luna sighed. "I'm actually Brusher, and have been living here in Ponyville with Max for the past few months." The Elements didn't know what to make of this newest development, but a certain black-robed skeleton had arrived to carry out his duty. Everyone stared at him in shock as he drained the last remaining life force out of the corpses, and left with nothing more than a 'well done' to me and Luna.

It was the morning after, and the royal guard had been and cleaned up the mess during the night. There was a knock at our front door, but Luna didn't look like she was in any state to answer it. I went downstairs and opened the door to find none other than Celestia on the doorstep. I let her in, knowing exactly why she was here.
"Why?" was the only thing she said. It was all she really needed to say.
"They tried to... r-r-rape Luna." I stuttered, barely managing to hold myself together. Celestia looked back with horror in her eyes. "There was nothing else we could have done, they could easily match us for speed so we had to fight back."
"But, did you have to kill them?" she asked, still horrified by her little sister's ordeal.
"Yes, they were armed, and one almost killed me. I managed to heal myself though." I replied, shuddering as I remembered what happened. Celestia was stunned, and had to take a second to regain her composure.
"But what happened to do that to them?" Celestia asked, referring to the flash-dried corpses.
"When the leader broke my neck, Luna lost control and became Nightmare Moon." I said, worrying about what Celestia would do to her. "Please don't hurt her, she was only trying to protect me!" I said, throwing my arms around Celestia as the tears that had been welling up broke though. Celestia just sat there and hugged me back, until I stopped crying.
"It was obvious that the gang were at fault Max, I won't hold you or Luna responsible." she decreed loud enough for her guards to hear. "And thank you for protecting my sister, you're the best thing to happen to her in a long time." she continued quietly. Luna had obviously been woken up but the commotion, and came downstairs to find out what was happening. She didn't say a word as she saw her big sister holding me, she just walked over and joined the hug. We sat there until Celestia had to leave, then I made us something to eat. That day, we did nothing. We sat together, quietly comforting each other. Eventually we drifted off, and fell asleep in each other's embrace.
> Chapter Ten: Recovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Ten...

It had been 3 months since Nightmare night, and Luna still refused to leave the house. The elements came to visit every so often, and had all become worried about Luna's reluctance to go outside. They had tried everything, but she was still worried. Most days, she would just sit with me, worrying about what would happen if she went outside. Would everyone hate her? Would they call her a murderer?

I heard knocking at the door and went to answer it. All of the elements were stood outside.
"Max? we're really worried about Brush, could you let us in please?" Asked Twilight. I let them all in, showing them into the living room where Luna was wrapped up in a duvet. "Princess? Are you okay?" Twilight asked. Luna just nodded her head. "Please come outside Luna, everyone is really worried, and nopony holds what you did against you." Twilight said. Luna just shook her head.
"Luna, darling, everypony is worried sick about you; and staying cooped up inside is just going to make you ill dear." Rarity said, trying to soothe the terrified princess.
"Come on Luna, everything will be okay, we promise." Fluttershy added. I heard another knock at the door. I went to open it to find Celestia stood over a pile of shattered wood. She was frantically looking around.
"Luna's just through here Tia." I said, putting a comforting hand on the alicorn's shoulder. I hadn't left my human form since the incident, as I was still feeling a bit paranoid myself. She shot past me into the room, and as I caught up I saw she had scooped her younger sister into a hug, and was whispering comfortingly into her ear. Luna was sobbing, letting out all the emotions she had been bottling up over the past three months.
"Thanks for coming Princess." Said Twilight. Celestia didn't even look up from her little sister, worry etched onto her face. Luna suddenly stopped crying and stood up. She walked over to me, and grabbed me in a hug.
"I'm sorry for worrying you so much Max." She said, still sniffling a bit. I was so happy to see her back to normal I picked her up (which was no easy feat by any means) and spun her around. She squealed with delight, and everyone was so overjoyed to see her happy again that no-one noticed Pinkie's party cannon. The house erupted with sound as she hit the fire button, and I don't think anyone escaped the blast radius.

Thankfully, the party was over before it was even afternoon. Illidan was sitting on my shoulder, and Luna was howling with laughter at my pirate act. Celestia stayed for the entire party, ignoring every reminder her assistant sent her about a meeting with Blueblood. Fluttershy had to go and look after some animals, and Twilight had to look after Spike as he was feeling ill. After everyone else had left, Rarity grabbed me, and started to frog-march me to her boutique. Luna galloped after us, trying to keep up.
"You simply must let me make you them clothes I promised dear,  You've been wearing those trousers for too long!" Rarity insisted, and I was in no position to argue, as even with constant cleaning my trousers were getting a bit worn. Luna finally caught up with us, and she was already feeling the effects of the fresh air, her mane had become less tangled and messy, and her coat was starting to gain some colour back after its fading. She was smiling properly for the first time in weeks.
"Rarity! Wait up! Max isn't the only one who needs new clothes!" she giggled. We finally arrived outside the boutique, and Rarity threw me through the door. Almost as soon as Luna got inside the door slammed and the 'open' sign switched to 'closed'. Rarity began measuring me, and was finished incredibly quickly. She then measured Luna, and as soon as she was done she started quizzing me over what I wanted.
"What style do you want the trousers in?" She asked.
"Erm... Baggy, with large pockets on the outside on the side of the knees, pockets at the sides on top and behind, camouflage pattern, dark greens or desert tans." I said, remembering my pair of combat trousers at home.
"Mhm, and what about shirts?" She continued as she scribbled away at designs for my new trousers.
"Some like this, but with wing holes, and some with writing on, if you would be so kind." I said, hoping that the writing wouldn't be too much hassle.
"Me? You're the one being kind Max, giving me all of these wonderful ideas!" Rarity squealed with delight. "Now, what about undergarments?" she asked.
"Loose shorts, like the trousers, but in a less rugged material. They don't have to have any pattern." I said, trying not to blush.
"Easy! Now, Luna, what about you?" she said, analysing Luna's body.
"Erm... could you make me some dresses like the one Fluttershy wore to the gala?" Luna asked shyly.
"Of course, now, what colours..." Rarity muttered to herself, thinking of a colour scheme to match Luna's coat perfectly. "IDEA!" She said as a thought hit her. "Out! I need to work!" She said, pushing the two of us outside abruptly.

It was a few days later, and Rarity had summoned us to her 'Temple to fashion'. We entered to see her stood in front of a large theatrical curtain.
"Hello dears, I have your new clothes just behind here!" She said, looking like she was about to have a 'Pinkie' as she was so damned excited. "Please, sit!" She gestured towards some seats she had set up for us. We sat, and the curtain slowly raised. As we saw her designs we almost exploded out of sheer joy. The combats she had made for me were perfect, and the shirts were amazing. Luna's dresses matched her perfectly. We got up and walked over to the stands, and up close the clothes were even more awesome. "Well? Do you like them?"
"Like them? They're perfect Rarity!" Luna and I squealed in union.
"This is the. Best. Possible. Thing!" Rarity said, hugging us both tightly. "Now, about them shirts with text on them..." Rarity muttered, levitating a second bundle of blank shirts over.

When we finally arrived home, we unpacked out new clothes into the wardrobe and drawers, and I chanced into a clean set of clothes. Feeling refreshed, we went downstairs. Illidan approved of my new look, and cawed loudly as I let him out of his cage. We decided to go for a meal, and we decided to try Sugarcube corner again. We walked there slowly, Illidan flying behind us. As we arrived, Pinkie shot out of the door and tackled us to the ground.
"OhmygoshIloveyournewclothes.Itssogoodtoseeyoubetternowprincess!" she said as she pinned us to the ground
"Pinkie... some of us need air..." Luna gasped, and Pinkie stood back up. We laughed and walked up to the counter, picking something to eat. Luna chose a big pink doughnut, and I had a slice of chocolate cake. We ate, chatting back and forth with the ponies around us, who were all excited to see their princess in a good mood. As we finished up, there was a loud THUD as something slammed through the wall.
> Chapter Eleven: Another one!?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Eleven...

As I drew my sword to face down whatever had just slammed into the bakery, a strangely familiar form climbed out of the rubble. I looked on in shock as my house-mate stood up, and promptly fainted at the sight of the pastel coloured ponies.
"Well shoot, I though that Twilight had gotten some dampeners." I said, still reeling at the sight of another human being. Just then the town mail-mare poked her head through the wall.
"Oops. Guess flying above Twilight's library after one of Rainbow's tricks wasn't such a good idea..." She said, her eyes wandering freely. She backed out of the hole. "Better get the Princess..." she muttered, flying towards Canterlot, suddenly disappearing in a cloud of muffin-scented smoke.
"What the..." I said, unsure of what to do.
"It's Derpy, don't ask..." Pinkie said. "But first, let's get this guy up!"
"That 'Guy' has a name!" Elliott muttered from under the rubble. I walked over to him, smashing the pile with a blast of my wings. "When did you get wings?" he asked, rubbing his head where he had been thrown through the wall.
"Long story buddy, looong story..." I said, patting him on the shoulder. He may be the elder by about a month, but he still had a shorter attention span than a goldfish.
"Max? Who's this?" said Celestia from behind me. "Did you bring him here?"
"Nope, but Derpy said something that makes me thing Rainbow broke Twilight's magical dampeners..." I sighed, turning to face the princess. "And this, Tia, is my house-mate. Trust me, I didn't think that this would happen to him, of all people." Luna was confused, and I swear Pinkie was getting her party cannon ready...
"Well, either I'm tripping balls or this is one hell of a dream." He concluded, scratching his beard.
"Neither old buddy,  you're really surrounded by pastel coloured ponies, and I do have wings."
"Mindfuck much." He said. "Now seriously dude, stop messing with me."
"I'm not." Was my reply. "Better get used to it buddy because nopony is coming to rescue you."
"Nopony? seriously? This place just gets better and better..." He said. I could tell he was amused by the entire fiasco, and was just trying to push me onto a guilt trip.
"Dude, you ain't seen nothing yet, just wait till you meet Pinkie." I responded, stressing Pinkie's name as a signal.
"LET'S PARTY!" Pinkie screamed, slamming her hoof down on the fire button and once more flattening me. Elliott was slowly adjusting, and the party helped him along by a lot. He had calmed down rather quickly. I shifted into my Pony body just to mess with him a bit, and he was shocked when I told him my marefriend was a princess. Twilight walked into the library, her mane and tail smouldering slightly, and a repentant looking Rainbow followed her.
"Princess, I'm so sorry about what happened, but Rainbow managed to shatter the dampeners, letting a spell I was working on fly free and hit Derpy. I managed to get her back, but something else came through too..." She said, looking at Rainbow as if looks alone could kill. She turned to see Elliott talking to Luna, and nearly knocked Rainbow's front teeth out. "I  told you not to do any tricks near my house when the dampeners are on, and look what you've done now you idiot!" Princess Celestia had turned around at that exact moment, and sighed.
"Girls, I don't think fighting will help at the moment, and we need to see if this new human is friendly." She sighed heavily, putting on her 'wise old mentor' face. "Now, Elliott. Twilight here says that Derpy was hit by a spell, and she brought you through when she brought her back. Is this true?"
"I guess so. I don't remember much because Derpy landed on my bed while I was asleep." Elliott said.
"Hey Elliott, want me to try something?" I asked.
"Sure, just don't neuter me." he said. There was a blast of power as I created him a pony body, His body was a light grey like his jacket, and his mane and tail were jagged and spiky, like lightning bolts. Bright green lightning bolts. I then noticed that he had a small mark on his flank, like all the other ponies had. "I swear that tattoo was on my ankle..." He said as he inspected himself. "What made you give me these colourations?" He asked.
"I didn't. I just gave you enough power to create new body." I said back cheerily. "Its the exact body you would want as a pony!"
"Humph. You never were one to deprive me of choice." He said referring to the times when we had only one Xbox between us.
"Oh, living arrangements..." I said, realising that he had nowhere to live. "You could bunk at my place for the night, but there's only the settee for you to sleep on..."
"If it's okay with you and Luna, I'll happily commandeer your couch." He said.
"I'm okay with him borrowing the couch Max, just as long as he knows what knocking is..." Luna said, eyeing him up.
"Don't worry,  I know when to knock." Elliott responded curtly, remembering the last time he had forgotten to knock. We walked back to the house after saying our goodbyes.

It was the morning after Elliott's arrival, and he hadn't broken a single piece of furniture. Someone was knocking at the door.
"Safe!" said Elliott. I facehoofed, and Luna just stared at him in confusion.
"That rule doesn't apply here buddy; our glorious leader makes all the decisions." I said.
"That is correct, and we decree that Max must open the door!" she said, collapsing in laughter. I just sighed, looking at Elliott; making the universal 'crazy' motion. I went to open the door to see a very damp looking Rainbow Dash stood on my doorstep.
"What's happened this time Dash?" I said.
"C-Cloudsdale malfunctioned, and its not safe to live on for a while." She said, shivering.
"I didn't think you lived in Cloudsdale. Better come in lass." I sighed, standing aside so she could come in.
"It went straight through my house and destroyed it."
"Oh." We walked through to the living room. Elliott had his 'Awkward moment' face on. "Dude, what's with the derping?"
"You know damn well what." He said, gesturing towards Rainbow. I laughed at his predicament, he never could handle himself around attractive females. I was no better, but after living with Luna for so long I didn't see many other mares as attractive. The conversation trailed off, and we happily chatted the day away. Just after we had eaten dinner I saw Elliott slinking off with Rainbow.
"Good on you lad." I said. Luna looked up at me, wondering what I meant. "Didn't you see them two slink off together?" She just nodded in agreement. We left them to it and went to look through Twilight's library.
> Chapter Twelve: How much?!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	About two weeks had passed, and  my job at Sweet Apple Acres was raking in the bits, not that we needed them with Luna's endless treasury, but I needed them for something else...

Elliott groaned, asking the same question for about the fourteenth time;
"Where are we going and why couldn't Luna and Dash come?"
"Chill out, we're almost there." I said as we approached our undisclosed location. "Here we are..."
"The jewellers? Oh, that's why they couldn't come." Elliott said, suddenly having an epiphany.
"Yes, that's why, oh master of the blatantly obvious." I sighed. We entered the shop, and while he started wandering around entranced by all the glittering jewellery, I went straight to the counter. "Where are the engagement earrings please?" The mare behind the counter pointed towards a large stand, and went back to working on a large golden chain. I went over and looked through the items, but none of them took my fancy, as they were all very bright and would look out of place on a pony as dark as Luna. I sighed, and continued looking. I noticed a small earring with a single, brilliant-cut amethyst. The material it was made of was as black as night. My heart soared as I imagined Luna wearing it. "'Scuse me, how much is this one?" I called to the shop owner, pointing at the earring.
"About two thousand bits for a pair, it took so many tries to carve the haematite right." She said.
"Bloody Hell! Seriously?!" I exclaimed, shocked at the price tag. "Well, only the best for my princess..." I sighed, opening the bag of money that hung around my neck. "That's damn near all my money, looks like I'm not getting any other presents for her." I handed over the money, and the shopkeeper opened the cabinet.
"Who's the lucky mare?" she asked. I presumed she didn't get out much because Luna rarely disguised herself these days.
"Princess Luna." I said back. She reeled back in shock.
"Wow..." she said, picking herself up off the floor. "I need to get out more... I suppose you're going to want one to match, right?"
"Yes, but I don't want an earring... I need one for my finger." She looked as if I'd just sprouted another head. I just transformed into my human form and showed her the finger the ring would go on. "You've missed quite a lot I guess. Me and Luna have been living together for a few months, and I'm actually a human. That's about all of my story that I'm willing to share."
"Erm, Okay, I'll just take a rough measurement of how big you need the ring. You want it to match? Might take a while to get another amethyst of that quality." The shopkeeper said, desperately trying to keep herself busy to keep her mind off of the complete derp she'd just had.
"No, I have a different crystal in mind. Could I borrow that cutter for a second?" I said, knowing that this would freak her out. She passed me the cutter. "Do you mind if I go somewhere private?" She unlocked the door to the workshop. I drew the diamond-edged cutter across my palm, sealing the wound almost instantly to let only a small amount of blood out. I then worked the blood into the purest crystal I could, and as it became clearer, the currents of life inside the blood became visible through the crystal. "Perfect." I stepped back outside and handed her the crystal, and thankfully she didn't ask any questions.
"I'll have this done in the morning, though you can have the earring now if you want it." She said, pushing a very fancy box towards me over the counter. I took it.
"Thanks a bunch!" I said to her, grabbing Elliott by the ear and dragging him outside. "Got it! Now lets go find our mares. I wonder where they are?" I said without drawing breath.
"Rainbow said something about reconstituting her house now that Cloudsdale is back at 100%, and Luna said she'd gather some guard pegasi to help." He said, twisting out of my grip. "How do you manage to get the painful part of my ear every single freaking time?"
"Practice." I said back. "Let's go find them."
"How? I can't fly." Poof.
"Can now." I said as I made a pair of wings appear on his body. "Sometimes I don't regret lacking telekinesis." I chuckled as he flapped them tentatively.
"Dammit, y u no warn me when you do shit like this?" He said, imitating the meme from earth.
"Because it's fun not to!" I said, taking to the skies. He followed and we flew around Ponyville looking for Luna and Rainbow. There was an almighty crack from above us and we looked up to see a ring-shaped rainbow explode.
"There she is!" Elliott said. I looked at him confused. "It's Dash's signature move!" He explained. I saw a rainbow coloured streak plummeting directly at us. Elliott just darted slightly to the right and grabbed Dash out of her dive. "Gotcha!" Dash was laughing as Luna flew down next to me.
"We finished up at her house and decided to do some flight exercises." Luna said. "I'm hungry, wanna go grab something to eat?"
"Sure!" I said. "Perfeeect" I added mentally, stroking a small white cat in my mind. We flew over to Dash and Elliott, who were happily embracing without actually plummeting to their deaths. "Hey guys, you up for getting something to eat?" I asked as I put my head right next to theirs, while flying upside down. Pinkie taught me that trick.
"Food!" Elliott said, drooling slightly as he released Dash. I laughed at his usual reaction.
"It's decided. Lets go!" I said, continuing to fly upside down as we headed towards a restaurant. As we landed, I saw Spike looking up at me.
"Dude, That's creepy." He said.
"Pinkie taught me how to do it."
"Makes sense." We walked into the restaurant, and once we had sat down and ordered our meals I decided to pop the question. I swear that everyone in the room looked at me when I got down on one knee in front of Luna.
"Luna, you've made my life a brighter place. Your stars send my heart racing, and there's only one thing that could make me even happier; will you marry me?" I said, my heart practically trying to explode. I had to crystallise most of my blood to stop myself from fainting.
"Oh... my... oh wow... I... YES!" she stuttered, her heart almost beating as fast as mine. I let my blood go as I flung my arms around her. I let go of her and retrieved the ring from my pocket. I opened the box, and fastened the ring onto her ear. She squeaked as it went through, but I numbed the pain. "I love you Max." A huge cheer suddenly went up from the other customers in the restaurant, I looked around to see them all stamping their forelegs on the floor in applause. Just then Elliott did what I knew he would.
"Food's here!" He said, making us all laugh. The speakers flared up as news of my proposal somehow reached the DJ.
"This here song goes out to the lucky stallion marrying Princess Luna!" The voice of the DJ growled over the system. "I know I'm jealous! Hey, Tavi... *Thunk* Ouch! Totally worth it!" and with that the DJ clicked off her microphone. We all tucked into our meals. When we had finished our meals, we all coughed up the money we owed, and went outside. What we didn't expect to see were the five other elements of Harmony. Pinkie dragged us all to Sugarcube corner, where she had already set up a party.
"How did you..." I said, utterly confounded by the pink mare once again.
"Pinkie Sense!" she said back. Then she hit an invisible switch, and the party started...
> Chapter Thirteen: An unexpected guest.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Thirteen... (Sorry guys, no wedding yet!)

It had been about a week since I proposed to Luna, and she had already done all the planning. I was still putting off my one duty, because I couldn't be bothered finding Rainbow's house. Elliott had moved in with her about a day after the proposal. I finally decided to get my backside in gear and find him. As I opened the door, I noticed a box with a simple notice on the lid: Please. I picked the box up and took it back inside, being careful not to drop it as it seemed important somehow.
"Luna, could you come here for a minute?" I said, inspecting the box for any kind of traps. Luna finally arrived in the living room as I put the box down on the coffee table. "This was on the doorstep and I don't know what to make of it..."
"Opening it might be a good idea." She said, her mane still damp from the shower. I slowly took the lid off, wary of any sudden clicking sounds. As the lid came free I was confronted with something I didn't expect in the slightest. Looking out of the box was a baby Griffon. I was so shocked I almost fell over, and I was sat down so falling over wasn't too easy. As I looked back to the box, the baby was still there. It looked at me with it's big, round eyes and I couldn't stop myself from slowly taking it out of the box and carefully cradling it in my arms. Luna was almost as shocked as I was, but as soon as I had retrieved the baby from the box she started d'awwing. She sat down and I slowly passed the tiny baby to her, being as gentle as I could. She cradled it in her arms almost reverently.	"This little thing is just so cute!" she squealed. Inside the box there was another note:

Please look after this little child, you ponies are her last hope. Her mother rejected her as she was the runt of the clutch, and I only just caught her fast enough to stop her plummeting to her death. I can only hope you can find room in your hearts to raise this little child as your own. Please, be good to her. You are her last, and only, hope of survival.
Hail to the lunar skies,
Duskwing.

"Luna..." I said, stunned by the note.
"Yes Max?"
"Looks like the little one will be staying here for a long while..."
"What do you mean?"
"We are her last hope." I said, still stunned by the gravity of the situation.
"You... you mean she has nowhere else to go? No-one else to turn to?"
"She was rejected Lu, pushed out of the clutch and sent plummeting to her death."
"I see." She said "We must travel to Canterlot!" She said, becoming a true ruler once again. Her royal jewellery floated down the stairs, and she put it on, slipping into the hoofguards and placing the tiara on her head. She practically grew four feet as her royal aura took hold of me.
"I still don't know how your jewellery does that..." I muttered as we walked out of the door, holding our new daughter gingerly. The little baby suddenly seemed so much more precious now I knew she didn't have any other hope.
"Guards! We require transport to Canterlot!" She yelled, putting the traditional Royal Canterlot Voice to use. I barely had time to cover the baby's ears before she yelled.
"Lu, we still haven't got a name for the little one!" I said, realising that we couldn't call her 'baby' all her life.
"We shall decide in the carriage, but for now, let us celebrate our glorious daughter!" She said, trying to keep the volume down to keep from deafening our child. The carriage arrived promptly and we climbed in.

"I still like the name 'Twilight'." Luna insisted.
"There's already one Twilight in Ponyville Lu. I like 'Skye' more anyway." I said back.
"Hmmm, Skye, I like that. The domain of her mother and her aunt. It's decided. Skye Celestia..."
"Hey, why don't we give her our surname?" I said.
"But I don't... Oh wait, its traditional to take your husband's..."
"Skye Celestia Reynolds."
"Oh my, that sound beautiful Max. I didn't know you had such a nice surname!"
"I don't, but I decided to take my Mother's after going through all these changes." I sighed.
"Oh... Is it..."
"No, I just felt that being a new person meant I needed a new identity. I didn't do it for any other reason." I said sternly.
"Okay." Luna replied, taken aback by my scathing reply, seeing that she had touched a pretty raw nerve. We spent the rest of the journey taking turns holding Skye.

By the time we had arrived in Canterlot it was almost time for the sun to go down. As we stepped out of the carriage, Luna looked towards the skies, her eyes becoming pure black as she manipulated the moon into place, revealing the starry sky. The residents looked shocked.
"I have an important address to make, and I need the power of my moon to do so. Do not fear." She announced, placating the majority of the residents, apart from Blueblood. I silenced him with a murderous glare as he opened his mouth to protest however.
"Don't even think about it Blueblood, or I'll tell Rarity where you live..." I threatened as he opened his mouth once more. The thought of that was enough to send him sprinting. We walked to the palace, where a confused looking Celestia sat scratching her head.
"Celestia, we have an important address to make in the morning." Luna said, walking up to her sister.
"Oh! so that's why the moon is up! Okay, your room is okay for you to use..." Celestia said, standing up. She trailed off as soon as she saw the black band in Luna's ear, and the matching band on my finger. "You two are engaged?!" she squealed in excitement, almost knocking Luna flat in a hug.
"Yes we are Tia, now get off, we have something more important to discuss in private." Luna said, throwing her big sister off in an impressive feat of strength. She led the way to her old bedroom. We entered and Luna threw up several layers of magic around all the windows and doors. "Tia... meet Skye, our adopted daughter." I showed Celestia the tiny blanket-wrapped griffon.
"She... She's a Griffon..." Celestia said, stunned. "Well I never. My little sister is getting married and has adopted a daughter." Celestia said with a sniff. "I... I don't know what to say Luna... I'm so happy..." Celestia said, tears starting to run down her face.
"You don't need to say anything Tia, you're going to have to be the one marrying us anyway." Luna said, beaming at her big sister's praise.
"Just try to stop me..." She said, "Oh, isn't little Skye just adorable!" She said, having recovered from the fact that her sister had adopted a child of a completely different species. "Oh, she... oh dear, she's only a mortal..."
"Nope, I can control Life remember? So I just switched her body to stop ageing so fast at about 15 years old, and made it so she won't ever age a day past 25." I said, proud of myself for giving my daughter the biggest gift I could. The sisters were stunned by this. "Not as useless as you thought, eh?"
"No, your the best father that this little baby could ask for."  Said Celestia, smiling at my foresight. "Now, let's get her something to eat." Celestia said. Luna had been conjuring up bits and pieces for Skye in the carriage, and she had eaten them all voraciously. Celestia brought up a link to the Griffon King. "Excuse my interruption, King Grimtalon, But I was wondering what baby Griffons eat?" Despite his dark sounding name, Grimtalon was a kindly ruler with a brilliant sense of humour and the capacity to love everything.
"Oh, that's easy, just give them ground sunflower seeds mixed with milk and honey, that's the best replacement for raw meat!" He said, sounding just like a wise, slightly mad old wizard. "Why do you ask my old friend?"
"There was an... incident and my sister has adopted a rejected baby." Celestia said.
"WHAT?! I told them idiot mountain griffons not to throw runts out any more! But, alas, it makes my heart soar to see that the baby was rescued and has found a safe home." He said, his amber eyes burning like the flames of hell. You could practically feel the rage through the mental image. "Now, Luna, I want you to know that Griffons will not grow properly with only one parent. You must take care of the baby, and it will take a long time to mature."
"That's not a problem at all, old friend, I'm engaged so the baby will always have a father!" Luna said, happy that she had the griffon king's blessing for her daughter.
"You're getting married? Oh happy days! You must tell me when it is, I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Grimtalon exclaimed, looking as if he was about to explode. "Now, I must be going. I can't leave you without a wedding present, can I?" He said, breaking the link.
"Erm... Wow..." I said, still confused by what had just happened. "Wait, if you can make food with your magic, why did we have to pay all the restaurants?"
"I can't make very much at a time, but it's just enough for a baby." She said.
"Oh." I said. Celestia went over to a complicated looking contraption, and spoke into it.
"Chef? Yes, I know you're just about to go home, but could you send up some ground sunflower seeds, some milk and some honey? Yes, I am about feed a baby griffon, how did you... oh, never mind, you're a griffon yourself." She said down some sort of tube, hearing the replies through another, smaller pipe she held to her ear with magic. The chef came personally with the things, and knocked on the door.
"Hello? I got that stuff you wanted ma'am." He said, and Luna opened the door. Thankfully, I had been around for so long my human form didn't spook many people any more. He came in, and set down the ingredients. He then began to mix them in a very particular ratio, about 2 cups of milk to every half cup of sunflower seeds and every cup of honey. "You need to get the mix just right or it won't taste very nice." He explained to me, seeing that I was holding the baby. He stirred the mixture together, and handed me a small bottle filled with the mixture.
"Here you go Skye." I said as I gently fed her the contents of the bottle. Luna and Celestia were too busy mooning over her to notice the chef mixing up a huge batch of the mixture.
"If you preserve this with your magic, it should feed her for about 3 months." He said, tapping Luna on the shoulder.
"Thanks Aeron, we really appreciate this." Luna said to the chef as a blue glow enveloped the barrel.
"No problem Princess, just make sure to take care of the little gal." He said. Celestia left after him, leaving me, Luna and Skye together. Luna rooted around in the cupboard where she had left the things she didn't want to take with her to Ponyville, and found the cot that Celestia had made for her.
"This has lasted rather well..." She sighed, and pulled the cot out and put it at the foot of her bed. "Big day tomorrow, better get some sleep." She climbed into bed as I tucked Skye into the cot. Skye looked content with her new cot, and squawked softly. The squawking didn't surprise me that much, as she was half eagle. I climbed into bed next to Luna and drifted off into sleep, and we managed to make it through the night without Skye waking up.
> Chapter Fourteen: Chapter the Fourteenth.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Fourteen...

I was the first to wake up, having been laid in such a position that the sun shone straight in my eyes as soon as it rose. I grunted my dissatisfaction at Celestia's wake up call. I left Luna sleeping as I went to check on Skye. She had grown overnight, and now was about the same size as Pip. I knew griffons were big, but I didn't think she would have grown so much overnight. She slowly woke up and looked straight into my eyes, making happy gurgling sounds.
"C'mere." I said as I lifted her out of her cot, cradling her close to my chest. "Lu, wake up!" I said, trying to wake up the very much oblivious mare. "Lu, wake up, you gotta see this!"
"Wha? What time is it?" She muttered, stubbornly refusing to open her eyes.
"That doesn't matter, Skye's grown!" I said excitedly. She suddenly sat up, and seeing how big Skye had become she just smiled.
"She has, hasn't she? She's going to grow up into a big strong griffon, aren't you Skye, aren't you?" she said, breaking down into babbling baby speak. When Luna had finished gushing over our child, she stood up and retrieved her jewellery from the mantelpiece. "Okay, lets get her fed then go get Tia." I went over to the barrel of food, and opened the tap on the side. Once the bottle was filled, Luna took over. Holding Skye in her forelegs, she gripped the bottle with her magic and gently fed her. I took Skye from Luna, and putting her over my shoulder, burped her. Skye started giggling once the trapped gas was released. "Awww, she's just so adorable! I'm glad we took her in Max, she's going to be a wonderful addition to our family!" Luna said, taking Skye from me so I could get dressed. As I pulled my trousers on, I heard a familiar voice coming from outside the window.
"Why did we fly the entire way here when we know they wouldn't have left without a good reason, Dash?" Complained Elliott. I walked over to the window and stuck my head out.
"Down here you guys!" I shouted up to them. They looked down to see me hanging out of a window.
"Max, get down from there!" Called Luna from behind me. I jumped down from the window ledge and opened the doors to the balcony. I wondered why I didn't just go out there in the first place.
"Come in guys, we're just getting ready to go wake up the mythical beast known as a 'Sleeping Tia'." I joked, and I heard Luna laughing behind me as she sat on the bed with Skye. "Guys, I don't believe you have met the newest addition to our family. Meet Skye." I said, pointing over to Luna as Rainbow and Elliott landed on the balcony
"Is that a baby griffon?!" Dash squealed, running over to Luna without even thinking about why a griffon was part of my family.
"Yes it is, Dash." Said Luna as she carefully moved to show Skye to Dash. They then erupted into a fountain of baby speak, and Elliott turned to me.
"Erm, last time I checked griffons weren't born from ponies Max." Elliott said, utterly confounded by the fact that my daughter was a griffon.
"We adopted her, idiot." I said, facepalming.
"OH! Why didn't I think of that?" He said, looking as much of the fool as he had just made himself.
"Because you're an idiot?" I sighed. "Now, I think Celestia has had enough of a sleep in. Let's go!" I said, tapping Luna on the shoulder. We all set off walking through the palace, and upon reaching her bedroom, the doors flew open as Celestia was about to go looking for us. "Hey Tia, we were just coming to wake you up!" I said cheerily as Luna handed me Skye so she could talk to her sister about making the address. They disappeared into her bedroom, and I looked at one of the guards quizzically.
"Sorry, only royalty are allowed to help plan an address to the people; for security reasons. Don't worry though, they only need to work out  where to hold it." He said, explaining the situation.

About 30 minutes later they came out of the bedroom, looking pleased with themselves.
"So, where are you going to make the address?" I asked as they came out.
"We're going to the throne room, we managed to convince the guards to swing the walls out for the first time in about 3 centuries." Luna explained. As Rainbow and Elliott began to walk off, Luna shouted to them. "We couldn't possibly do this without my mare of honour!" Dash turned around, stunned.
"Or my Best Man!" Elliott just looked at me with his 'knew it' face on.
"Come on, I'll get everyone here." Celestia said. We all walked towards the throne room, and as we arrived I heard an unhealthy grating sound, and the entire front wall of the palace hinged outwards. Elliott, Rainbow and I stood there like blithering idiots. There was a loud crack as five bewildered looking ponies appeared in front of us. "So glad you could make it girls," Celestia said, grinning mischievously. They walked up to the thrones we were arranged around.
"Princess? Why did you bring us here?" Twilight asked,
"I couldn't let my most important subjects miss me announcing my sister's wedding!" Celestia said, still grinning.
"Where's Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked, worried about her friend.
"Over here!" Rainbow said, waving. "I'm Luna's mare of honour, can you believe it?" she said, bouncing with excitement.
"Oh... wow!" Cheered Fluttershy, quiet and gentle as always. "Oh, is that a baby you have there Max?" She continued, genuinely excited.
"Yes, she's only little thought so be quiet." I said, bending down so Fluttershy could get a better look Skye.
"Awww, she's so adorable!" Fluttershy whispered. "I hope she doesn't grow up to be like Gilda." She looked worried.
"Don't worry, she's got the best possible group of people to grow up around." I said, patting the frail pony on her head. She smiled, and just then the residents of Canterlot began to arrive at the palace.

After all the ponies had arrived, Celestia began to make the address.
"Citizens of Equestria, I have gathered you here for an important announcement. On this day, I hereby announce that my younger sister, Luna, shall be married!" A huge cheer. "The stallion who has brought us to this most joyous of times is one of the most passionate, caring and kind-hearted ponies you will ever meet." Another cheer as Luna and I stepped forwards. Celestia had told me to be in my pony form for this, and I saw why. "These two souls are to be joined in wedlock soon! But, among all of their acts, there is one that is good enough to bring you to even the darkest of ponies, as these two have put themselves out and taken in an orphan." Another round of cheering. Celestia raised her hoof to silence them. "The most amazing part of this story is that this orphan, having been rejected by its mother, is not a pony." A chorus of gasps went up from the crowd. "They have put themselves out for a baby griffon." Half of the crowd was enraged by this. "QUIET! I will hear nothing said about my niece! Unless you really want to know what the moon is like..." Celestia threatened, displaying her terrifying anger. "As I was saying, this griffon will be treated as you would treat any other pony. She is the ward of the three, and as such shall not be harmed in any way!" She turned to Fluttershy who was holding Skye, and gingerly took her. "By the sun, may you bring joy and prosperity." Celestia said, touching her niece on the forehead. She handed her to Luna.
"By the moon, may you have knowledge beyond words and power beyond bounds." Luna said, touching Skye on the forehead before handing her to me.
"By the power of Life, may you live long and prosper." I said, touching her on the forehead. Skye snuggled closer to my chest and I completely lost track of where I was, and just stood there looking at my daughter, wonder in my eyes. As I handed her back to Celestia, a small stream of white light came from Celestia's horn and touched Skye just next to her left eye, leaving a stripe of gold across her brilliant white feathers. Even Celestia herself was amazed by this. Another beam, this time of purple light, came from Luna's horn, leaving another mark just below Celestia's, this time of dark purple. I felt everyone's eyes upon me, and I realised that my power came from my blood, not my horn. I made a small cut on my left leg with the razor-sharp tip of my horn, and a small string of blood came out and touched Skye on her forehead, leaving a third mark, just above Celestia's, of a deep red. I closed the wound once the blood stopped flowing to her head. I took her back from Celestia and let the words flow from my mouth. "By the power of the three, may you become the wonder you deserve. I hereby name you SKYE!" I said, shouting the last part as the power of the words flowed through my voice.
"By the three I name you CELESTIA!" said Luna, evidently feeling the flow of power too. Celestia looked at her sister, smiling at her sister's choice of name.
"By the three we name you REYNOLDS!" We shouted in union, a huge balloon of light exploded from Skye, as she became the living heir to our powers.
"By the powers of Harmony, we bless you with our traits!" The elements shouted from behind us. We turned to see them floating into the air, the Elements themselves appearing around their necks. A huge rainbow burst forth from Twilight's crown, flowing into Skye, making her the most powerful being in existence. She just giggled happily at the stupid look on my face and I snapped back to reality.
"I guess that just about wraps this up guys, thanks for showing up!" I said to the crowd cheerily as they all stared in awe at the sheer amount of power emanating from the ten of us on the throne platform. The all cheered, and started filing out, talking between themselves about the happenings of the address. Elliott walked up to me and asked the obvious question;
"What the..." He started. I shoved a hoof in his mouth.
"No fouling of the language around my daughter please." I said. "No idea what just happened. I think Skye just stole the show though, don't you?"
"No doubt!" He said, jumping up to give me a bro-hug. "I'm proud of you buddy. But why do you have to be so darned tall?" He complained, making light of the fact I was as tall as Luna.
"Dunno, this is the body I ended up with." I said. The last of the ponies left, and I changed back to my human form. I went to Celestia and retrieved my daughter.
"I guess lunch is on me?" Celestia sighed, pretending she had to pay for all of our eleven lunches. We all laughed and walked down to the kitchens to get some service going.
> Chapter Fifteen: The Wedding
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Fifteen... 

"Hold still Max, it won't be comfortable if I get this wrong!" Said Fleur de Lis, seemingly the only other designer in Equestria who could cope with my human form. "Just a little bit longer!" She said, putting the last few pins into my suit. "Got it!" She said as she put the last pin in. I climbed out of the suit and relaxed. "No slouching! This is my biggest wedding ever!" She said, planting a hoof in my back to straighten me up.
"But Fleur, I always slouch!" I complained, looking to her husband for help. He just looked at me knowingly.
"No buts! I'm also a model, and I intend to make you look perfect, with out without your co-operation!" She said. I just sighed, knowing that there was no arguing from that point on. She used her magic to sew my suit, and I had to admit it looked good. "Now, get into this and don't move!" She commanded. I got into the suit, and as soon as I stood up again, she started manipulating the material with her magic to make sure it was just right. I was just about to start slouching again when Fancypants warned me;
"Don't slouch, she will hurt you if you crease it." He said, and I took his advice, not doubting that she would. She was worse than Rarity for this stuff.

After 15 minutes of being motionless it was show time. The big moment. I was practically crapping myself. Fleur led the way to the cathedral where the ceremony was going to be held. Thankfully, her shop was nearby.
"Remember, no slouching, and if you so much as try to do anything that doesn't look clean and crisp then I will personally see to it that you never have any foals of your own..." She growled as we entered. The cathedral was massive, and was divided in half. The left side was decorated in deep purples and blacks, where as the right was decorated with fiery reds and oranges. As Fleur guided me down the isle I was terrified. I saw Celestia standing at the altar. Fleur went and sat down on the front row, and Celestia gestured to a chair to the right of her, on the sunny side. It made sense, I suppose, because Luna would want to be in her own half of the chapel when she married me. I saw a book on the table, and thanked my lucky stars that it wasn't like a Catholic marriage from earth. I wouldn't have been able to stand in front of so many people for such a long time.  I sat down in the chair, and Celestia reached a hoof out and rested it on my shoulder, trying to calm me down. I sat there until the door opened behind me, which was my signal to stand. I remembered Fleur telling me not to look at Luna until she was next to me. After an excruciatingly long time, she finally arrived next to me. She was wearing her usual royal jewellery, and surprisingly, her dress was made up of Nightmare Moon's plating, with Rarity having sewn the dress on and around them. She smiled at me, and she seemed like she was taking it in her stride.
"Okay, here we go!" Said Celestia, and I was relieved that she wasn't being too formal about it. "Right. Under the worthy eyes of the sun and moon, blah blah blah, I grant you the right to become united in wedlock. Do you object, Max Reynolds?"
"No, your grace." I responded with a sly wink. Celestia giggled a bit.
"Same again, do you object, Princess Luna?"
"No." Said Luna.
"Okay, boring bit over. Would the bearers of the rings please bring the rings to me?" Celestia said. This was a lot more informal than I had expected, but ponies were a lot more laid back about such things as love. Rainbow and Elliott brought forwards two boxes, placing them in front of Celestia. When she opened them with her magic, everypony in the chapel was stunned. In Luna's box, there was a hanging earring with a large tear-shaped ruby mounted in it. The ruby glowed with an internal light, making it even more entrancing. Inside my box, there was a band, seemingly made of amethyst with diamonds set around it. My jaw unhinged itself, as my Gollum-like obsession with gems finally broke out of the cage I had put it in. It took all of my self-control to prevent myself from grabbing the ring. Luna saw me straining and chuckled as she lifted the ring out of the box with her magic and slid it onto my finger. I let out the breath I had been holding in, and took her earring and placed it through her ear, through the same hole I'd put her engagement earring through. I didn't need to numb the pain at all this time. "I now pronounce you husband and wife." Celestia said. "Finally! I hope you weren't disappointed with the lack of formality, but we're all friends here so what the hay?" We all laughed, and Fluttershy came up to the altar holding Skye.
"Thanks for looking after Skye, Fluttershy. I hope she wasn't too much trouble?" I said, taking my daughter from the frail little pony.
"No, she was behaving perfectly." She said, waving goodbye to Skye. Skye waved back.
"You're growing quickly aren't you?" I said, and Skye nodded. It had been about 5 months since she had been named officially, and she had been growing quickly. She was now about twice as big as Pip. She still couldn't speak, but that wasn't surprising for a five month old baby. Luna's blessing seemed to have given her quite a good grasp of body language and she could communicate through simple motions. "You hungry?" I asked. She nodded her head, grinning. I walked over to Fluttershy. "Where did you put her food?" I asked, and Fluttershy turned and looked at me like I was accusing her of something. "Don't worry, Skye's just hungry." Skye backed me up by nodding her head furiously.
"Oh, its just over here..." Fluttershy said as she lead us over to the side room where the reception was going to be held. Side room was an understatement as it was on the same grand scale as the rest of the cathedral. She led me over to a table just behind the DJ's decks, where the sound was as quiet as it would get, and took one of the bottles of food off the table. I fed Skye the food, but she didn't look very contented. She pointed over towards a large platter full of carrots. I smiled at her.
"You want to try some carrot?" I asked. She nodded her head. I carried her over to the table where the carrots were, and picked one up. I held it up to her beak so she could eat it. She snapped as small piece off and swallowed it. She squeaked as it hit the back of her throat. I laughed. "Don't take such big bites silly!" I said, sitting her on my lap. I snapped the carrot into several small pieces and helped her eat them. "Think you can try to pick one up Skye?" I said, wondering if she could use her talons to grasp properly. She nodded, and reaching a talon towards my outstretched hand, she picked a piece up gently, and raised it to her beak. As she put it in her beak, a huge smile split my face, and I hugged her tightly. "Well done!" I said, and put her back on my lap. Luna walked into the room just then. "Show mom what you can do Skye!" I said, putting another piece of carrot on my palm. She took it, less tentatively this time, and put it in her beak. She broke into a massive smile when she saw Luna's look of adoring pride.
"Awww, you're growing so fast..." Luna sighed as she walked over and kissed her daughter on her forehead. "Max, do you want me to send for a nanny for Skye?"
"No, I'm okay looking after her. I'm not one for parties anyway if you haven't noticed yet." I said.
"Putting your daughter first, even at your own wedding. You're the best father anyone could hope for." Said Grimtalon as he walked through the door. "Do you mind if I see her eye-mark? It's unique on every griffon, and they're born with them."
"Really? Skye wasn't, hers appeared when we blessed her." I said, looking at the kind old monarch.
"Oh? That only happens to griffons with no place in our society." He said. "But, she's a princess of another kingdom now, so it makes sense." He sighed.
"Wow... she wasn't meant for griffon society?" I asked, shocked at the revelation.
"I guess, but whatever, she's your daughter, and that is all that matters." He said, patting Skye on the head. "But, I got them presents I promised. For Max, a griffon war-ring charm, and for Luna, a lovely mountain's cusp necklace!" I took the charm, shaped like a small circular saw blade. Thankfully the edges were blunted so Skye couldn't hurt herself. Luna's necklace was a string of ice-like crystals joined by small links made of stone. It glittered in the light, and you could easily have mistaken it for a string of giant diamonds. Skye was entranced by the sound the charm made as it jiggled around against my house keys. I had gotten rid of my keys from Earth long ago, and these keys were for my home in Ponyville. I was a bit paranoid at first, worried by the thought that someone could walk into my house, so I had a lock put on each of the external doors. The locks also came in handy for stopping an adventurous Skye from going outside and hurting herself. I jiggled the key-chain in front of her face. She giggled as she reached for it an missed, but I had my other arm around her so she didn't fall off my lap and hurt herself. "Careful Skye!" I said as she reached again, scratching my arm with her talon. I healed the cuts pretty quickly. "Skye, your talons are really sharp, so please be careful!" I said, trying not to scare her, just to get the message across. She looked into my eyes, looking slightly hurt but knowing what I had said was true. She nodded her head, but brightened up again as I started to jiggle the key-chain again...
> Chapter Sixteen: The Wedding, Act 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Sixteen...

(Authors Note: I just want to say a big thank-you to everyone who reads 'A Red and Green brush', and an especially big thank-you to iloveportalz0r who has helped me immensely by helping me correct any errors I don't pick up on myself.)

I spent the next five minutes playing with Skye as Luna organised all the presents into a neat pile. Fluttershy came over, and was surprised to find me sitting on the floor with my baby daughter, jiggling a key-chain around. She quietly sat down next to me and watched Skye play with my key-chain.
"Hello Fluttershy, did you want to speak to me?" I asked, looking over to the shy pony.
"Oh, I don't like loud parties so I thought I'd come sit with you and Skye." She said, jumping when the DJ started the music with no warning. Skye didn't approve of the music either, and climbed up onto me.
"It's no problem, but let's go find another room where it's quieter." I said as I picked Skye up and carried her over to Luna. "Luna, the music is spooking Skye, is there anywhere I can take her?"
"Just go through that door on the left, it should take you right outside my bedroom. It's from when we used to have to make a quick getaway." She explained. "Will you be coming back?"
"No, sorry. Even at her age I don't think she's going to spend a whole day asleep. Sorry Lu." I apologized.
"It's okay, I'll handle the party. You just look after Skye." She said, knowing that my daughter came before any parties. "You too, Fluttershy; look after your spirit-niece." Fluttershy looked overjoyed at having been labelled Skye's third guardian.
"Let's go, she's getting restless." I said as Skye started to cover her ears. Fluttershy pushed the door open and we went through. We went through the passage and ended up outside Luna's room, as promised. As I went to enter, the guards snapped their wings out to stop me passing. "Erm, I don't know if you know or not, but I'm Luna's husband now?" The guard on the left facehoofed.
"Ugh, sorry. Completely forgot buddy. Go on in." He said. We entered, and I put Skye on the bed. I pulled her blanket out of the cot and laid it on the floor. I picked her up again and placed her on the blanket, where she happily curled up, looking at me with her deep blue eyes. She pointed at one of her books sticking out of Luna's saddlebags. I smiled and took the book out. As I started to read it to her, Fluttershy sat on the bed and watched us. I moved myself so that Skye could see the pictures inside the book. Once I had finished reading the book, she stood up shakily. I positioned myself so that if she fell I could catch her. She took a few tentative steps, using her wings to balance. I stayed with her, but she didn't fall. Evidently learning to walk on four legs is easier than being bipedal. I had just realised that if she was still living within griffon society she would be walking and flying everywhere with her parents. But, being human, my first instinct was to carry her.
"Well done Skye!" Fluttershy said as Skye made it to the end of the bed. Skye just sat down again, looking tired. I went and got another book from the pile. Her eyes lit up as I sat next to her and started reading the new book. Luna had done a good job of blessing her with brainpower. I finished the book, and Skye stood up. She tottered over to the pile of books and gently picked one up with her beak. She carried it back to me and place it on my lap.
"I guess I could read one more..." I said, picking her up and hugging her. She giggled happily. I put her down next to me so I could read the book to her. As I looked at the book I noticed that it wasn't one of her picture books, but one of the Daring-Do series that Luna was reading. I smiled as Skye reached over and opened the book with one of her talons. I set the book down between us so I could use my finger to help her follow the words. If she's as smart as I think, she'll learn to read this way, right? We made steady progress through the book, and even Fluttershy was gripped by the story. It was about 3pm, and we had just got through the first half, and we were all getting hungry. I looked for the tube thing that Celestia had used to communicate with the kitchens. I picked it up.
"Excuse me, is this the kitchens?" I asked tentatively.
"Yes, do you need anything?" Came the reply. I recognised the voice of the griffon chef.
"Could you send some carrots and some tomatoes to Luna's room please?" I asked, trying to be polite.
"Of course, I won't be long." He said, putting down his end. He was true to his word and arrived at the door of the room fairly quickly. He knocked. I went and opened the door. "Oh, hello again! I guess that your daughter didn't enjoy the music at your reception?"
"No. I brought her up here for a bit of peace and quiet." I said, holding the door open, allowing him to come in and place the big bowl of carrots and tomatoes down.
"I have to be going, there's a lot of preparation still to do for the dinner at the reception. Enjoy!" He said, leaving the room. I shut the door, and started snapping the carrot into small pieces for Skye. Fluttershy hopped down and took a carrot for herself, and we all sat there happily eating through the bowl. Skye managed to get a laugh from me and Fluttershy as she tried to bite a tomato, and squirted tomato juice everywhere. I cleaned up with the small towel Luna had packed for such occasions. Once our hunger was sated, we got back to reading Daring-Do and the quest for the Sapphire Stone. We had almost finished it when there was another knock at  the door.
"Come in!" I said, and Luna pushed the door open. She smiled when she saw the three of us sat on the floor with the book between us. "Skye picked the book out." I said, showing Luna the book her daughter had picked out.
"Really? I'd have thought that the picture books would have been more for her." Luna said, walking over and kissing me. She patted Skye on the head gently. 
"We've already read them all!" I said, proud of our daughter's voracious appetite for stories.
"Wow! You really like stories don't you Skye?" she said, bringing our daughter into a hug. "The lunch at the reception was amazing, did you have anything to eat?" She asked. I just pointed to the empty bowl on the floor with us. "I'll take that as a yes." She chuckled. "Well, now I know you three are OK, I should be getting back to the reception now, people will be missing me." She said, kissing me again. She left to return to the party, and we went back to reading the final chapter of the book. Most people say that your wedding day is the best day of your life, and I have to agree with them; but I only do because I didn't just get married to the mare of my dreams, I had witnessed my daughter's first steps, and helped her read her first real book.
> Chapter Seventeen: The 'Honeymoon'
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Seventeen...

Luna and I were struggling to decide where to go on honeymoon. It wasn't that there was nowhere to go, it was that we didn't want to go to anywhere that still had vacancies. Luna was tearing her mane out with frustration.
"ARGH! Why is there nowhere that sounds nice to go!" She said, pounding her hoof on the coffee table. I put my arm around her, pulling her close.
"It's okay, we'll find something eventually." I said, looking into her eyes.
"I know, I know." She said, leaning into my embrace. I leaned back onto the settee and we stayed like that for half on hour, until Skye jumped onto us and made it known she was hungry. I let go of Luna and picked Skye up.
"Come on, lets get you fed." I said, carrying her into the kitchen. Skye still couldn't walk very far without getting tired, and getting up onto the settee had almost completely drained her. I sat her on the counter as I took a carrot and a tomato out of the fridge and put them on the cutting board. I took a knife out of the block, its blood crystal blade glinting in the light. The actual metal blade had snapped a few days ago when Luna was being annoyed by a door-to-door salespony and threw it at him. He had knocked at the front door, but Luna had ignored him; so he went around to the back of the house where Luna had the kitchen window open. He had stuck his head through the window, and ignored Luna when she told him to get lost. He was lucky she didn't hit him. I had just got back with Skye at that point, and hearing the salespony scream I walked to around to the back of the house to find the knife blade lodged in a small boulder that we had put in our garden for Skye to climb on, and the handle on the floor below it. The salespony galloped away as fast as he could, and he never bothered anyone again. I had picked up the knife handle, but the blade refused to come out of the rock. Luna had to melt the metal into the crack it had caused so that it wasn't sharp. I had spent the next two days crafting the new blade, and had finished it without using more than a small drop of blood. I sliced the tomato and the carrot up small enough for Skye to eat, and put them on a plate. I tidied everything away, then I picked her up and carried her back into the living room with the plate in my hand. I put Skye on the settee next to Luna and sat down next to her. I put the plate down on the coffee table and pulled it over. As Skye started munching on her food, I leaned over to look at what Luna was doing. She was flicking through a catalogue of some sort. "Still trying to find somewhere to go for our Honeymoon?" I asked.
"No, I think I'd rather spend it at home now anyway. I'm just looking for something to spend our budget on." She said. I smiled at the thought of spending a week or two with Luna, who was off on official business quite often. Skye also seemed to know what she meant and hugged Luna. "It's settled. Two weeks at home with no interruptions." She said, hugging Skye back. "Skye, you still haven't finished your lunch." She said, releasing our daughter with a huge smile on her face. Skye went back to munching on her carrots and tomatoes. Luna went back to looking through her catalogue and I went outside to practice with my sword. 
"Never know when I might need to use it." I said to myself, justifying the decision. I retrieved the scabbard from the safe in the small cupboard under the stairs. I drew it as I stepped outside, and I felt a surge of power as I started to go through my drills. "This thing must draw power from the land by itself." I muttered, as last time I had used it, I had completely drained the power it had become charged with on Nightmare Night. I practised until I had drawn every drop of power out of it. I went back inside, almost glowing with the amount of power I held within myself.

It was the next day, and Luna had sent a letter to Canterlot saying that she wanted two weeks with no duties. The palace's organisation team sent one back almost immediately:

Princess Luna,
In regards to your letter asking for two weeks free from duties we regret to inform you that we cannot cancel any appointments already made, and the next two weeks are completely booked by Blueblood for debate about the 'Rarity' issue. We apologise for not being able to make a gap in your schedule, but we simply cannot cancel any more appointments for you than we already have.
With our sincerest apologies,
The Canterlot Palace organisational Staff.

Luna just looked at the letter with disbelief in her eyes.
"If that petty little idiot wasn't related to me, he wouldn't be around for much longer." She growled. A few seconds later another letter arrived.

Lulu,
I apologise for my staff's lack of respect, and I have cleared up the next four weeks of your schedule so you can enjoy your time with Max and Skye. Next time you need something, just send the letter straight to me as the staff will never go against my word.
All my love,
Tia.
P.S. I've made sure that Blueblood won't try to book meetings with you again.

Luna smiled, thanking her big sister for her timely intervention.
"Why don't the staff respect you, Lu?" I asked.
"They don't realise that even though I'm younger than Tia, I'm just as capable of handling myself." She explained, obviously cursing everypony on the Palace staff to hell. Skye had started crying in the other room, so I climbed out of bed and went to investigate. As I leaned over her cot, I saw that she had accidentally split her teddy bear with one of her talons. I lifted her out of her cot, and once I had hold of her securely with one arm, I reached down and picked her teddy up, being careful so none of the stuffing fell out. I walked back into the master bedroom.
"Lu, Skye's teddy bear needs repairing." I said, handing the stuffed toy to Luna.
"I'll get this to Rarity as fast as I can, you stay here with Skye." She replied, holding the toy with her magic as she trotted outside. I looked down into Skye's deep blue eyes, and for the first time saw tears. I brushed them away gently, and started bouncing Skye on my knee, making comforting noises. She had finally cheered up by the time that Luna got back. Luna handed Skye her teddy, and leaned over to kiss me. "I love you." She said, climbing up onto the bed next to me. I fell backwards onto the bed when Skye suddenly jumped up onto my chest. I grinned and tickled her in revenge. She giggled happily, but then things started going against me when Luna joined in.
"No fair! Two on one!" I said through choking fits of laughter. When we had all finished tickling each other we went downstairs to the living room where we started playing with Skye. We spent the entire day sat on the floor messing around, and that day was honestly the best waste of time in my life.
> Chapter Eighteen: New Tricks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Eighteen...

Eleven years... It had been eleven years since I first came to Ponyville. Everything had been going along steadily, until today...
"Dad! Wake up! I've got something to show you!" Skye said right next to my head. I groaned and tried to roll over, but Luna was in the way. My body still protested at early wake-up calls, but even over these eleven years my body had only aged about one. "Dad! Come on!" Skye repeated, grabbing me and pulling me out of bed.
"What is it sweetie?" I said as I slowly gained conciousness. I slowly rose to my hooves and looked down and my daughter. Over the eleven years she had been with us the feathers on her head had started to become tinted in a blazing red. She was now bigger than most of the ponies in Ponyville, but still not fully grown. She led me downstairs to the living room.
"Turn around dad!" She said as we entered. I complied, and I felt a huge surge of energy come from Skye. The surge managed to throw me out of my alicorn form. I staggered as my centre of gravity changed without warning. "You can look now!" She said, obviously pleased with whatever she had done. I turned to see a young human girl stood in the middle of the living room. Blazing red hair? Check. Deep blue eyes? Check. Three stripes next to her left eye? Check. She was wearing a baggy shirt and a pair of jeans. "So, how did it work?" My jaw was still refusing to attach itself to my face, so I just nodded to show that she had gotten everything right, as far as I could tell. "It worked!" She squealed. "I'm just like dad now!" She threw herself at me, using the wings on her back to propel herself. The wings had been folded in such a way that the baggy shirt hid them from the front. I splayed my wings and gave an almighty heave to stop Skye from sending me through a wall. I caught her, but she still managed to knock me over, so we ended up as a heap on the floor. As my voice decided to start obeying me again, I looked down at my daughter.
"You've grown so much Skye..." I sighed, pulling her into a hug. We stayed like that until a very displeased looking Brusher came down the stairs. She saw the small girl I was holding and it clicked.
"Skye? You can change forms now?" Brusher asked. Skye looked over, confused as to who it was that had spoken. "Oh, you've never seen my other body..." She said, unsure of how to say it.
"That's mom, Skye." I said, breaking the awkward silence. They both breathed a sigh of relief, and I let go of Skye so she could go to her mother. They embraced, and Skye looked over to me and winked. I could see what was going to happen through the mischievous glint in her eyes. She hugged her mother a bit tighter and released the magic she had charged in her hand. Luna looked confused as she suddenly became a human as well. Her hair was the same colour as her mane, and her eyes were the same Icy blue. She was wearing a lilac hoodie and some grey combats. I was howling with laughter at the look on her face. "Oh god, that look is priceless!" I managed to say through the choking bursts of laughter. Luna was not impressed by my outburst, and letting go of Skye, picked me up in a magic field and then dropped me about five feet onto the floor. I grunted and stood up again. "Totally worth it!"
"I'm going to make you pay for that Max..." Luna threatened. She jumped at me, using her wings for extra speed. She tackled me to the floor and started tickling me. "Ha! You're not the only one with fingers now!" She laughed as I writhed underneath her. I managed to get my arms free, and I pulled her down to me and kissed her. She stopped as soon as I did that, and returned the kiss.
"Ewww, gross!" Skye said as she mimed gagging motions. We laughed. Illidan had flown in from the kitchen to see what had woken him up, and seeing the three of us all as humans, he flew over and sat on Skye's shoulder. She went outside to play with him, and left us alone. I finally let go of Luna and broke the kiss. She rolled off me and stood up.
"Let's go and see where Skye and Illidan are up to." She said, hauling me onto my feet.
"Yes, I think we've horrified her enough today."
"Max! I just realised, it's your birthday tomorrow!" Luna exclaimed. "Oh horseapples, I haven't got you a present yet..."
"I think Skye just got me the best present ever." I said, taking her hand in mine. She sighed and rested her head on my shoulder.
"But I still want to get you a present."
"It's not like I'm gonna stop you." I said. We got to the back door and as we went outside we looked up to see Skye and Illidan having races above Ponyville. We flew up and intercepted them on their second lap. We all flew down into Ponyville and spent the day in town, telling all our friends what had happened. Skye had just spotted her friend Dinky with her mother.
"Heya Dinks!" She said, hugging the elder pony. Dinky had been like an elder sister to her. They wandered off, and Luna took the chance to go and buy me a present. I walked over to Dinky's mother, Derpy.
"Hello D, how're things going?" I said, patting my friend on the shoulder.
"Fine, Dinky is dealing really well with her changes, and Twilight is helping her with her magic." She said, fixing her left eye on me.
"D, I think I might be able to fix your lazy eye." I said, noticing that the nexus of energy in her right eye was skewed.
"Really? Let's give it a go then!" She said, hoping to finally be rid of her annoying eye. I placed the palm of my hand over her right eye, and gently manipulated the energy to straighten it. I did it slowly and carefully because it wasn't my eye, and I didn't want to mess her sight up any more than it already was. I removed my hand, and both her eyes were fixed on my face. "You did it!" She squealed as she hugged me. "I can see again!" She let go of me and started looking around, admiring the scenery around us for the first time in about seventeen years. "Thank you so much Max!" Dinky, Luna and Skye had just come back to notice Derpy looking a whole lot more normal. 
"Mom, what happened?!" Dinky said, worried that her mother had been injured.
"No need to worry any more muffin, Max fixed my lazy eye." Derpy said, grabbing her daughter and hugging her.
"Wow, thanks Mr. Reynolds..." Dinky said.
"It's okay Dinky, I was just doing my bit, and you can call me Max." I said, ruffling the unicorn's hair. "Now, we'd better get home now. Come on you two!" I took Skye and Luna's hands and we walked back to the house. Rainbow Dash suddenly came out of nowhere and landed in front of us.
"Whoa, when did you two know how to turn into humans?" She asked, looking at us suspiciously.
"I figured it out this morning aunt Dash!" Skye said, looking pleased with herself. Elliott landed next to Dash, tapping her on the flank hard enough to get a yelp out of her.
"Cool, think you could teach me how to do it?" Dash asked after shooting her husband a murderous glance.
"Sorry Dash, but I think that three humans is enough. Things get violent when there are too many humans around." I said, trying to stop it becoming a fad to become human.
"He has a point Dashie, humans get really violent when there are too many." Elliott said, remembering the slew of wars that earth had been in since time immemorial. Dash realised that he was telling the truth, remembering the times when I had almost flipped out when someone threatened my family or my friends. They walked off into town to get themselves a meal, and the three of us walked home.
> Chapter Nineteen: Faith
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Nineteen...

It was Skye's fifteenth birthday, and I only just got downstairs in time to stop Skye opening every single present as fast as possible.
"Breakfast first." I said, holding my daughter with my forelegs. It took a lot of effort but I finally managed to drag her into the kitchen. I stood in front of the door and pointed at the cupboard with the cereal in. Skye gave in and went to get herself some breakfast. I went with her, and we sat down at the kitchen table with our respective bowls of cereal.
"Dad, why can't I open my presents yet?" Skye asked, trying to look as innocent as possible. I finished my mouthful of cereal and answered.
"Mom wanted to watch you open them." I answered simply enough. I could see it in Skye's eye that something was about to happen, and it would probably involve a very annoyed Luna. "Don't try to wake her up with magic Skye, we don't want a repeat incident of the last time that happened." I warned, not wanting to experience another one of Luna's tickling bouts. Skye suddenly dropped the magic she was charging and looked around as if her mother was waiting in the shadows. About five minutes later, there was a thud from upstairs. Shuffling noises followed until Luna managed to drag herself into the kitchen. She grunted in acknowledgement as Skye bid her good morning. Luna finally reached the coffee machine and hit the button. She stared at it, as if she could speed it up through sheer willpower. As soon as the machine finished she downed the entire mug of coffee.
"Whoever invented coffee needs a medal." Luna said, suddenly looking a lot more alive. "Okay, present time Skye!" She said, hugging her daughter. We all walked into the room and Skye dive bombed the pile of presents. She pulled out the biggest one she could lift. She ripped it open to find a set of DJ decks, Mixers and a powerful computer. She was stunned.
"Where did you get these?" She squealed.
"I asked Vinyl." I responded.
"You... you know DJ-PON3?!" She almost screamed. "Oh my gosh, why didn't you tell me?" Luna levitated a smaller box over to Skye. She snatched it out of the air and used her talons to cut through the paper. A collection of high-end music programs lit her eyes up. "How did you know?" She said, still stunned.
"I keep finding my headphones in your room and my laptop has some new music programs on that I didn't install myself." I said, smiling.
"Oh..." Skye grabbed another box and clawed it open. Inside was a custom-made pair of headphones. Pure white with three stripes running across them. They housed a 7.1 surround sound system and a custom-made sound card. She looked at them, stunned.
"Only the best for a princess!" Luna said, using Skye's official title to break her out of her headset-induced trance. Skye then proceeded to decimate the rest of the presents. She reached the bottom of the pile, and behind her sat a tower of stuff. A custom-tailored dress from Rarity, the entire Daring Do series from Twilight, a Wonderbolts poster from Rainbow, an assortment of little carvings from Fluttershy and her animals, and a Stetson hat from Applejack. We had confiscated Pinkie's present as one party cannon was bad enough. Skye wasn't too beat up about it as she had been on the receiving end of the cannon on several occasions. There was a knocking on the front door. I went over to open it, and outside stood Celestia. I let her in, motioning for her to be quiet so she could surprise her niece. Just as I went to close the door one of the guards spoke quietly.
"You want us to take that cannon out of the garden?" He said.
"You don't know how much I want you to." I sighed, relieved that the monstrous invention wouldn't cause any more trouble. I heard a high-pitched squawk from inside, and went back into the living room to find Skye flying about five feet off the ground, looking annoyed. She landed and Celestia passed her the present that was resting on her back.
"Thanks aunt Tia." Skye said, still weary of any more pranks that the white alicorn was going to pull. She slowly opened the box, obviously expecting it to be booby-trapped. It wasn't, thankfully, and Skye carefully lifted out a tiara that almost matched the two alicorns' tiaras, except it was a blazing red metal. An enormous sapphire glinted in its centre, and Skye whistled sharply when it caught the light. "Thanks, but why do I need a tiara?" She said.
"You're a princess, duh!" Celestia said, imitating the speech of the current generation.
"What the... I thought it was just a nickname Mom had for me!" Skye said, everything suddenly clicking into place. She now knew why her parents could buy her all these presents. "You're joking, right?" She said, still reeling in shock. Celestia shook her head, and Skye fainted. My reactions kicked in and I grabbed her just before she hit the floor.
"Well, you've outdone yourself this time Tia." I said as I carried the unconscious form of my daughter to the settee. I laid her down gently, and sat next to her, gently stroking her feathers. She slowly stirred and snuggled closer to me.
"Is everything going to change daddy?" She asked, fearing that because I wasn't true royalty it would split the family.
"No, it's not sweetie, everything's gonna be fine." I said, reassuring my worried daughter. "Everything's gonna be just fine."

Once Skye was feeling better, we decided to go flying to get the rest of the emotions out of our systems. We had been happily flying for about half an hour when there was a deafening screech. We looked up to see squadron of griffons closing in on our position.
"Halt!" Screamed Celestia, but they just kept on coming. "Shit, mountain griffons. Move!" She continued. The rebels banked towards us as we dived to avoid them. "Stop now, by command of the royal alicorn sisters!" She commanded, but they kept coming.
"Give us the abomination and we'll let you live!" The leader said as they pulled up in front of us. He pointed at Skye.
"Never!" I screamed, letting all of my pent-up rage flow through me, allowing me to manipulate life forces from extreme distances. I used the leader's life against him, forcing his throat to collapse in on itself. As I crushed the life out of him, I didn't notice a second griffon swoop towards me. It fixed its beak around my ribcage and squeezed as hard as it could. I started to drain the life out of him to repair myself, but the damage was done as my ribs shattered, destroying my lungs. I plummeted towards the ground and landed with a sickening crunch. I saw the griffon fly back up, but before he could celebrate his victory, he was struck by a ball of lightning. His lifeless corpse rocketed into another griffon, slamming into him and causing him to plummet towards the ground. Luna was transforming again, and as she became Nightmare Moon, Celestia also started to transform. She looked a lot like Nightmare Moon, but her armour seemed to be made of plates of magma and her mane had become as black as obsidian. Skye had flown down and landed next to me.
"Dad! Dad! Please don't die!" She said as she poured her power into me. I felt my body reconstitute itself, but the strain had been too much. My vision faded into blackness, and Skye screamed as I died in her arms.

(Skye's perspective) "No! No no no!" I screamed as my Dad died. I looked up to the griffons that had killed him. I didn't stop to think, I just charged at them. I felt their lives as I approached them. Weak. Pitiful. Not worthy of Equestria. I killed the first one with a swipe of my talons. The second erupted into flames as I blasted him away from Mom. I destroyed them, leaving nothing but ash. I flew back down once they had all been disposed of. As I sat next to Dad's lifeless body, a surge of emotions hit me. It was too much for me, and I let the blackness envelop me.

I awoke in my bed, at home. Maybe it was all a dream? Maybe Dad was still alive? I saw Mom and Aunt Tia curled up next to my bed, tear stains covering their cheeks. I realised that the griffons really had killed him, and it was all my fault. I had caused this. I hated myself, and went into the bathroom as my stomach decided to empty itself.
> Epilogue/Prologue: An End and a Beginning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Epilogue to Act 1/Prologue for Act 2.

It's today. The big day. Dad's funeral. It was time to say goodbye to the man, who even though he wasn't meant for this world had taken me in and raised me. I didn't care if he wasn't my real father. My 'real' father was one of the bastards who attacked us. I didn't care about being a griffon any more. I was as much of a pony as Dinky, or Twilight. The griffons didn't deserve me. I've been refusing to use my griffon body ever since the incident, and everyone is worried about me. I'll show them that I'm strong like my father. I will never become one of them again. I don't care if it means having to wear his clothes. I don't care if it means having to stand out. I will never be a griffon. I am Skye, and I am strong.

As we said our last goodbyes in the chapel before we moved to the crematorium, I started to cry. I hadn't cried since I was a baby. We walked outside behind the coffin bearers, and we proceeded slowly towards the crematorium. Elliott was sobbing loudly into Rainbow's mane. Mom was leaning on me for support, having chosen to come as a human as well. Celestia was leading the procession. Pinkie and AJ were carrying Fluttershy between them, as she couldn't walk because of how hard she was crying. Twilight was walking along, straining to stop herself from crying so Spike didn't get even more upset than he already was. Rarity was at the rear of the procession with Derpy, Dinky and the CMC. Nopony said a word. The streets were hushed as we walked through them, as people came to pay their respects and to support their leaders. We arrived at the crematorium, and the bearers place his coffin on the mechanism. We all took our seats for the service.

(Max's Perspective. A/N: It's gonna take more than that to keep him down!)

Ba-dum... Ba-dum...

Darkness.

Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum...

Enclosed space.

Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum...

LIFE. I AM ALIVE! Sensations became feelings that became thoughts. I pressed my palms against the wood that enclosed me. Easy enough. I slammed my palms into the lid, creating an echoing thump. I heard a gasp from outside the coffin. I'm not buried yet. Another thump followed. Then another. Then another. Then the lid cracked open, flying upwards.
"I. AM. ALIVE!" I screamed as I breathed in the clean air of the building I was in. There was chorus of screams from the mourners, but I only heard one.
"DADDY!" Skye screamed as she ran to the coffin and hauled me out. "NEVER DO THIS TO US AGAIN!" She continued screaming as she punched me in the face. I didn't react, I just pulled her into the tightest hug I could.
"Never." I said, as Luna finally recovered enough to walk over to us.
"You... you're dead..." She said as she looked at me.
"Not any more Lu. It's gonna take more than some retarded punks to keep me down, especially when I have a wife and daughter to protect.
"Holy fucking shitballs." Elliott said as he walked over to me. "You never give up, do you?" He said, joining the growing group hug.
"What can I say, when I have a daughter powerful enough to repair a completely destroyed torso, how can I give up?" I said, tousling Skye's bright red hair. We all sat there together for the best part of an hour, and by the end I had taken enough hits to down an elephant as everyone took their frustration with me out on me. I took it all, I saw no point in stopping them from getting rid of all the fucked up emotions I was causing. "Well, I think a double party is in order. Pinkie, add 'Max is Back' to the banners and get ready to rip it up. Vinyl, go with her and get set up!" I said, seeing the albino DJ at the side of the cluster of ponies. Vinyl ran to catch up with Pinkie. "Octavia, go keep your marefriend in check!" I said, and Octavia ran to make sure that Vinyl and Pinkie didn't do anything too idiotic.
"Dad?" Skye asked.
"Yes sweetie?"
"You're the biggest douchebag I've ever met. But I still love you." She said, snuggling into my chest.
"C'mon, let's get to wherever your birthday party is Skye." I said, and Skye led the group of us further into Canterlot. We arrived at an impressive looking hall, easily as big as the throne room at the palace. As we walked in I saw Vinyl stood behind her DJ set-up. "Hit it, Vinyl!" I yelled. We spent the rest of the day and most of the night partying, and everyone came to terms with the fact that I was back.
> Chapter Twenty: Life
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Twenty...

Skye was first to wake up, and as always she woke me up too. We went downstairs to get some breakfast. I saw all her birthday presents sitting untouched in the middle of the room. I made a note to help her set everything up once we had eaten breakfast. We were happily eating our breakfast while the familiar thump followed by a load of shuffling heralded Luna's arrival. She drifted through the room,  sluggishly approaching the coffee machine. As she went through her normal coffee routine, everything seemed back to normal. It was as if I hadn't been dead for a week or had raised myself from the dead yesterday. As we finished our breakfasts I took the opportunity.
"Hey, Skye, let's get all this new kit set up." I said, hoping to cheer her up.
"Okay, let's go." She said, smiling slightly. My death had changed her, that much was clear. We headed out of the room, and as we picked up the various bits and pieces for Skye's studio, Luna levitated them all out of our grips.
"I've had caffeine now, I'll carry this." She said. We walked to Skye's room, Luna hefting the pile of electronics behind us. I cleared her desk of schoolwork, and we began to organise all the different bits and pieces as Vinyl had suggested. It turned out very well, and everything slotted together nicely. I plugged it all in and started up the computer, running all the first time checks fairly quickly. We sat back, and Skye took over, installing program after program. As she finished up on the final program, there was a knock at the door. I went downstairs and opened the door, looking down to find none other than the famous DJ-PON3 stood on my doorstep. Well, she wasn't DJ-PON3 at the moment as her shades were tucked into her hoodie pocket. I let her in.
"Hey Vinyl, what's up?" I asked as she took her hoodie off, retrieving her sunglasses.
"I thought that Skye might be cheered up by a visit from her one and only idol." She said, setting them over her eyes.
"First door on the left, Vinyl. Try not to give her a heart attack." I said, ushering the albino DJ up the stairs. I saw Octavia stood outside as well. "Come in Octavia, I can't have you stood around outside for too long now, can I?" I let the cellist in, and closed the door behind her. We walked into the living room. "Cup of tea for the refined lady?" I said, having a quiet dig at my friend.
"Please." She said, giggling slightly. I made her a cup of tea, and we sat and talked for the rest of the afternoon. Vinyl, Skye and Luna finally came downstairs to find Octavia diving face-first into a pile of biscuits, eating them in the least refined manner possible.
"Heh, and you call me uncouth." Vinyl said, chuckling at her wife. They embraced, and with a quick goodbye they left for home.
"How's everything working sweetie?" I said, hugging Skye. For a fifteen year old, she didn't mind my outward displays of affection, even before the... incident...
"It's all working fine dad. Vinyl even helped me come up with a DJ persona!" She squealed, obviously having wrung Vinyl's supplies of musical know-how dry. Her form shifted, and Skye stood before me, not as a human or a griffon, but as a humanoid dragon. "Behold the mighty Drake!" She said, and I had to suppress a laugh. She looked adorable as a dragon, and even the 20 or so year old nature of the body didn't corrupt my view of my daughter. I picked her up in a big hug, and she squealed just like she had all those years ago. "Dad! Put me down!" She laughed, obviously enjoying herself. I placed her back onto the ground. She looked almost unrecognisable, apart from the shock of red hair that was somehow growing out of her scaled scalp. We spent the rest of the day discussing recent events, and as it turned out Vinyl had asked her to help at her next gig, promising that she would help her become famous. We went upstairs and listened to Skye's first ever song. It was good. So damned good the drop almost liquidised my brain.
"Sweet Jesus..." I said, still under assault from the unrelenting bass. Luna looked at me with concern in her eyes, but as she saw the blissful look in my eyes, she decided against removing this wonderful ear nectar from my immediate vicinity.
"I still haven't named the track..." Skye said, looking at the floor sheepishly, trying to avoid looking at my face.
"Ugh, does it even need a name? Well, I guess it does..." I whined as the song ended.
"I know, how about 'Rebirth'?" Luna said, speaking up for the first time since Skye had brought us up into her room. We looked over to her. Skye was the first to react.
"Wow... that's a good name mom..." She said, smiling. "Okay. 'Rebirth' it is." We went downstairs, the two of them having to drag me out of the room before I could put the song on again. We decided to go out for a meal, and Skye shifted back to her human form. I didn't blame her for not wanting to be a griffon, after what they had done to me. We walked into Ponyville, and Skye picked out her favourite restaurant. We went in, and as we sat down and started to eat, I felt something brush past me. I looked around, and a small flash of light gave away the thing's position. I looked directly at it, until it came sulking out of the shadows. Scootaloo was looking rather depressed at having been spotted. The young mare walked over, hanging her head.
"Still trying your hand at stalking Scoots?" I asked tousling her mane.
"Yeah, I still don't understand why I'm so bad at it." She said, her scooter-shaped cutie mark glinting.
"I didn't think that cutie marks could be shiny." I said to her.
"I know, it really doesn't help with the sneaking." She said. She pulled her scooter off her back, and after a hefty kick it unfolded, her old wooden one having been replaced with a high-tech one last year. "See ya later Max!" She said as she zipped out of the door faster than seemed possible. I shook my head as she blasted through the town. I looked back to the table to see the waiter stood patiently, pencil poised to take our orders. We ordered, and as the food was being prepared, we talked about Skye's schoolwork. She was still enrolled at Cherilee's school, but she was having to attend after the little fillies had left so Cherilee could run through more advanced courses. We continued talking about that theme until the waiter returned with our orders. We ate, talking between mouthfuls of food.

We walked home together, Skye having borrowed Luna's hoodie as her mother was staying as a pony and it was getting cold. We were about half way home when she started looking tired. I didn't say anything as I picked her up. She curled up against my chest, and let me carry her home. Luna smiled at me as she saw the slight strain of carrying Skye on my face. We finally arrived home, and Luna looked up to the sky, and raised the night. I looked up the the familiar constellation of the three, and Luna moved a fourth star between the three coloured stars. It took on the glow of the others, and started to glow as an amalgamation of the three. I grinned at my wife as she gave our daughter yet another present. We entered the house as Luna unlocked the door. I carried Skye up to her bedroom and tucked her in. Luna locked the door behind us and followed me up the stairs. As we had just got into bed, I heard a shuffling from the hallway.
"Mommy, can I sleep in your bed tonight?" Skye asked, obviously not wanting to be alone again. She was clutching her duvet around herself, and I could see she hadn't got into her pyjamas either.
"Of course sweetie." Luna said, shuffling over so Skye could snuggle up between us. As we drifted off, all curled up together, I smiled to myself. I had everything I had ever wanted.
> Character Profile: Max.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Author's Note: Okay, my brain is being stubborn at the moment so I thought I'd write a profile for Max. I've had this idea floating around for a while, and if you want more profiles, tell me.)

Name: Max Reynolds

Age: 37 (Actual) 17 (Physical)

Height: 5' 6"

Weight: 65kg

Observations: Timid, only outgoing when experiencing strong emotions. Will do anything to protect friends, Wife and Daughter. Prone to fits of extreme anger and violence when feeling threatened or singled out, will become worse if family is threatened as well. Is obsessed with Daughter and Wife's happiness, and will do anything for them. Will always make right choices, even if it means being hurt. Relies on luck and speed, not very strong due to mild dyspraxic traits. Fine motor skills are shaky at best.

Relationships with other Subjects:

Princess Skye Reynolds: Adoptive father. He treats her as if she was his own child, and will defend her from any and all. He seems to be extremely caring towards her, putting his own safety after hers. Refers to her as 'Sweetie'. Will avoid confrontation with this subject. His death and subsequent return to life has made him even more protective and loving.

Princess Luna Reynolds: Husband. He treats her with the utmost respect but will not hesitate to put her in her place if she gets too aggressive. Will put her safety in front of his own, as with Subject #1. Will avoid confrontation if possible. His death and subsequent return to life has made him even more careful around her as she has become less stable.

Nightmare Moon: Husband. Nightmare Moon has only emerged twice since Max's relationship with Luna, both times in anger from harming of him. He is a calming influence, and Luna is always in control. He has never had any direct contact with this Subject, but from analysis of other relationships we predict he would treat her as he treats Luna.

Princess Celestia: Brother-in-Law, Advisor. He treats her as he would his own sister, and cares about her deeply. He has been a catalyst for bouts of anger, but these have allowed Celestia to stay more level-headed.

(A/N: More will be added as the story progresses.)
> Chapter Twenty-one: Bulletproof Paint
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Twenty-one...

"Max, did you just feel that?" Luna asked. We had been out all morning, and the day had been going so well...
"Yes, what was it?" I responded, slightly unnerved by the feeling. I took her hand in mine for comfort.
"Whatever it was, it's stopped now... It was coming from over there." Luna said, pointing in a seemingly random direction. "We'd better go see what it was." She sighed, starting towards the source of the sensation, and I followed behind. Skye was in Canterlot with Vinyl, getting some desperately needed time away from everything. We walked for about half an hour, and finally came across what had caused the sensation. In the middle of a field sat a tall blue box, with two ponies stood outside arguing. One I recognised as Twilight's research buddy, and the other was a small green unicorn. There was a large ring of scorched grass around the box. We walked over to see what was happening.
"I told you not to use that thing in the TARDIS River!" Said the earth pony.
"Sorry Doctor, but I had to stop you eating that pear!" The unicorn mare exclaimed. They looked over and saw us. They panicked and ran back inside the blue box. We stood, our mouths agape, as the box disappeared with an odd "vworp vworp" sound. After we had recovered from the shock of such an out-of-place occurrence, we walked to the centre of the crater where the box had been. As we stood in the middle of the crater, a rumbling sound started to come over one of the hills one the other side of the field. A boxy black shape appeared over the crest of the hill, and I knew exactly what it was, even after fifteen years of development. An armoured police van, probably housing a squad of armed police. Shit. The van rolled to a stop as the driver saw us, and the squad piled out of the van. They were holding unrecognisable rifles, evidently the trusty H&K MP5 had been replaced in the last 15 years. They all focused their aim on Luna, as she was casting several barrier spells. She was throwing up barriers as fast as she could so the bullets didn't get through even if they broke a barrier.
"Stop what you're doing and get on the ground now!" The captain demanded. She was a bit shorter than me, but the breaching shotgun she was aiming at me definitely levelled the playing field. Luna didn't stop, she sped up instead. The power radiating from the bubble of barriers was almost like a solid wave. The captain finally snapped. "Fire!" She yelled. The noise was deafening, but the look on the squad's faces when we were still stood, unharmed, after they had fired their entire magazines into us was priceless.
"I wish I didn't have to do this..." I sighed, launching myself forwards before they could reload. I swung my fist in an arc, catching the captain just under her chin. Because of my inhuman strength, she was launched backwards. She landed heavily, going limp. The rest of the squad had reloaded by now, so I put my wings in front of me, hoping that the crystal was strong enough to hold. It was, and I lashed out at one of the officers with my wing, knocking the gun out of his hand. Another officer had pulled out a Taser, and as it connected with my skin I grabbed his throat, allowing the current to pass through him too. He shuddered and hit the ground, but I stood through it by simply killing my body for a few seconds. I brought it back just in time to block a punch from a huge bear of a man, slugging him in the chest as he lunged into the punch. Four down, three to go. I turned to run at the last trio of officers, but a blast of energy caught them off guard and they ended up in a heap. I walked over to where the captain was unconscious, and roused her. "Now, you either come with us peacefully or you come with us in shackles, understand?" She nodded. I pulled her onto her feet, and pulled her helmet off. Her face was familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it...
"Max?" She asked, looking like she had seen a ghost. Which I technically am, but that's besides the point. "Is that really you, Max?" I still didn't recognise her. "You don't recognise me?"
"I haven't seen any humans other than Elliott, Luna and my daughter for 15 years." I said, because she obviously knew me.
"Fifteen years? That was when you started acting weird..." She said. Obviously my clone wasn't a true copy. "Max, I don't know how to say this, but you collapsed 15 years ago. You got a bit better, but then, a week ago, you collapsed again. You've been in a coma since. How are you here?" She explained. All the dates corresponded to when I had been fatally wounded. It clicked. My mind here was linked to my cloned mind on Earth. the connection had been severed when I had died, and my mind was feeling much less... constricted.
"I've been here the whole time. That wasn't me." I said, breaking the news to the stunned captain. "I don't know who you are, or why you're here, but you're just going to have to get used to it, because there's no going back now." I said, trying to comfort the panicking woman.
"But... You don't know who I am?" She said, tearing up. I nodded, hoping that she wasn't someone too close. "Max, please..." She pleaded, but I could do no more than shrug.
"I'm sorry, but I just don't know..." I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She collapsed, sobbing to herself. As she laid on the floor, I saw a small mark on the back of her neck. "No... Not you... Why did you have to get dragged into this..." I said, reeling with shock. Luna caught me before I fell. I staggered back to my feet and picked the sobbing woman up in a protective hug. "I'm so sorry Ali... I'm so, so sorry..." My sister smiled up at me when I realised who she was. "You've grown up so fast..." I sighed, cuddling her. Luna had been walking around, waking the officers and informing them of their new predicament. The squad had given up their weapons with very little argument, and Luna destroyed them completely. We called the royal guard to come and take the officers for re-training in the barracks, but Alison didn't want to be an officer of the law any more, she just wanted to be with her big brother again. We walked home, and as we had just got Alison something to eat, Skye arrived home.
"Daddy, I'm home!" She said in a sing-song voice, bouncing through the door.
"C'mere, we've got someone for you to meet sweetie." I said back, sticking my head around the kitchen door. Skye skipped over, and I let her into the kitchen. "Skye, this is my little sister Alison. Ali, this is my daughter, Skye." I said, hoping the introductions would go well.
"You look a lot older than dad, how are you his little sister?" Skye said, smiling at her aunt.
"I have no idea. Why do you look so young Max?" Alison asked, munching on a carrot thoughtfully.
"This is going to be hard to explain... I'm not a normal human here, as the wings and other stuff shows. Here, there are four immortals. The Celestial sisters, princesses of the land and controllers of the Sun and Moon. Then there is the avatar of Life, who is in control of the life force flowing around him. Then there is the Heir, inheritor of all three powers, a very powerful person. Celestia is the Sun princess. Luna, my wife, is the Moon princess. Skye, my daughter, is the Heir. The avatar of life is my title." I said, barely pausing for breath. "Because we are immortal, we age incredibly slowly until our bodies hit about 25, then we stop ageing completely. But all that is just part of the story. My sister-in-law's mistake when I arrived here turned my age back to 15 years old." Ali looked at me mischievously.
"You're an immortal? You're just a big softie really!" She said, tickling me out of the blue. I managed to get her back. "Wait... If you're immortal, and I'm a direct relative..." I could hear the cogs whirring in her head. "I'm immortal and powerful too!" She squealed.
"Just immortal for now Ali, you won't get any more powerful until you find the one thing you're the best at." She shrugged and went back to her carrots. We filled her in on all the events that had happened while I had been in Equestria. We decided to leave me dying out try and keep Alison calm, as she had always been very easy to move to tears. She had joined the police force about a year after I had been transported, and had worked her way through the ranks quickly. Her emotions had become blunted by her time in the force, and today was the first day she had felt anything strong enough to move her to tears. We decided to leave it a couple of days before we introduced her to Tia, so that Alison could get used to her new life.
> Chapter Twenty-two: Drop the Bass!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Twenty-two... (Author's Note: This chapter was a pain to write. In other news, I've set up an RP blog for you to ask any and all questions you have. They'll be answered from Max's point of view for the most part. Clicky clicky link!)

Alison was slowly adjusting to her new life. She had been living with us for about a week, and had fallen in step with our daily routine. Her first meeting with Celestia had gone surprisingly well, as I had though their personalities would have clashed. Thankfully, they had become firm friends, and had spent the rest of the day together. Luna had also become a firm freind and Skye was pretty much refusing to leave her side. I was left with Rainbow and Elliott to terrorise Canterlot's shopping district. By the end of the day we were staggering under the weight of the items we had bought. As we walked back to the palace, a guard approached us.
"Luna said to go meet her at the club on Yokevale and 4th." He said, walking back to his post. We looked at each other, a bit confused about this, knowing that it was unlike Luna to go to a club without organising it beforehand.
"I guess we should go." I sighed, shifting the weight of the bags onto my left foot. "Let's just drop these off first.". We walked to the palace, and when we got there, handed the shopping to Link, one of Luna's best friends on the guard roster. He took the bags in his magical grip, and hauled them up to Luna' chambers. We thanked him, and he grumbled something about never getting any thanks from anyone else. I changed into my pony form, but because I hadn't used it for so long my balance was a bit rusty, and I almost fell over twice. We walked back out of the palace, and headed for the club. When we arrived, the club was surprisingly large, which didn't seem right, as Luna hated big clubs. The bouncer stepped aside to let us in, and the whole of the line behind him roared their anger.
"Royalty first. If you keep shouting, you don't get in." He said, fixing the crowd with an icy stare. The crowd fell silent. We walked in, and couldn't see Luna, Tia, Alison or Skye anywhere. We walked to an unoccupied table and sat around it.
"So Max, why d'ya think they told us to come here?" Asked Rainbow, who was looking bored already.
"No idea Dash." I sighed, looking around. I spotted a familiar shock of pink hair. "Pinkie! Over here!" I shouted to the psychotic party monster. Even after settling down with Soarin', she was still as mad as ever. She bounced over, clearing about three ponies who were stood in the way in a single leap.
"Heya Max!" She said as she pulled a perfect backflip and landed on the chair without missing a beat. She really had been taking lessons from Soarin' about aerial control. "Did the Princess send for you too?" She asked, producing a cupcake from thin air.
"Yes, Lu wanted us here too. Where's Soarin'?" I sighed, shaking my head.
"Oh, he's just gone to the toilets." She said, devouring her cupcake with a single bite. She started to shake, then twitch and then do some other crazy things. "Oh! The rest of the girls are just about to arrive! This makes tonight even more super-fun!" She said as she spun around. "Three, two, one..." Right on que the rest of the elements arrived. I wasn't surprised by Pinkie's precision at all. "Heya!" She squealed as she bounced over to the girls. As they started speaking, Soarin' walked out of the toilets over to the rest of the wonderbolts. One of them was looking slightly annoyed, and seemed to be scrabbling around under the table for his pencil.
"I told you lot to be careful!" He said, in a familiar accent. Evidently the English accent exists in Equestria too. He scowled at the others and made his way over to another table, this time devoid of intoxicated flying aces. I laughed as another one of the pegasi followed him. I recognised her as Spitfire. She walked over and tried to calm him down, but as he gestured around, he managed to send a bottle of beer on the table flying into a speaker hanging over the bar. The speaker exploded, knocking a large stallion over. The stallion stood up, and with a cursory glance around, couldn't find the pony responsible through his beer goggles. He shrugged, and the drawing pegasus breathed a sigh of relief. I stood up and walked over, recognising a kindred soul amongst the drunk ponies.
"You okay lad?" I asked, sitting next to him.
"Yeah, I just get annoyed when others send my work flying across the club." He said. Just then a familiar albino DJ stepped onto the stage.
"You ready to party?!" She yelled down the microphone. There was a resounding yes from the rest of the club-goers. She punched the play button on her decks and the party really got into swing.
> Chapter Twenty-three: Earsplosion.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Twenty-three... (In case you didn't find it, there's a new tie-in fic. Check it out via my profile. Too lazy and ill to linky link)

The club had been rocking back and forth for the best part of an hour, and Firenze had left with a mare with a blonde and red mane. Pinkie had disappeared into the crowd, and Soarin' had followed her in. Fluttershy had found herself a booth that was out of the direct line of fire from the speakers, and Twilight had joined her. AJ had been collared by the landlord, who was in dire need of a cider supplier. Rarity was sat with Elliott, discussing something or other. Rainbow was, of course, on stage with Vinyl. I was sat on my own, happily humming along to the familiar tunes Vinyl played. Suddenly, I caught a flash of a familiar magical aura.
"What do they have planned, eh?" I muttered to myself, tapping the table with my hoof. I reached over to my glass of cola and took a drink. The glass slipped from between my hooves, and shattered on the floor. "Well shit. That was smart." I complained aloud sarcastically. I scraped up the pieces with my wing, careful not to cut myself. I crushed the remains of the glass into a powder, and dropped then as far away from myself as possible. Just as I turned back to the stage, Vinyl stopped the music. "Here we go..." I whispered to no-one in particular.
"There's someone I'd like you guys to meet. You're gonna be seeing a lot more of her at my gigs in the future..." she paused for dramatic effect; "The one, the only... DRAAAAAAAAAAAKE!" the club erupted as 'Drake' stepped onto the stage. I laughed, giving her an over-exaggerated wave. She winked at me from the corner of her eye, and started her set list. She had the crowd completely pumped, and the floor was so full several pegasi had decided to hover above the crowd to get a better look at the new kid on the block. She held the crowd for the remaining two hours of the set, and she was bearing up pretty well. She finished the gig with a flourish, unveiling her new track, 'Rebirth', to the club goers. Once it was finished, the club slowly emptied as it approached closing time. I walked up to the stage where Vinyl was packing up after everypony had left.
"Hey Vinyl, how's Skye?" I asked.
"She's fine, but she's a bit tired out." Vinyl responded.
"Well it is about 3 hours past her bed-time..." I said, grinning mischievously. Vinyl giggled a bit, and I went through to the backstage area. Skye was back in her human form, and was leaning heavily on Luna.
"Let's get her home, she's barely able to stand." said Luna. Skye grunted in agreement, and hauled herself up onto her mother's back. Luna adjusted her wings until they were holding Skye tightly enough to stop her falling off her back. We then walked back to the palace. We arrived back at the palace, and between us we just about managed to lift Skye onto the bed in Luna's chambers. We climbed in next to her and she snuggled up between us. We fell asleep after a few minutes of blissful peace.
(A/N: from here on out, this will be typed using my phone. Sorry about that but my laptop isn't going to be acsessible for a while. I'll put in another note once I get it back.)
A ray of light from the rising sun had somehow managed to slip between the curtains and strike me directly in my eyes. I grumbled to myself, and decided to go pay my lovely sister-in-law a visit. I plodded theough the corridors of the palace until I arrived outside, and after a stop in the kitchens for something to eat, I finally arrived outside the sun godess' chambers. The guard didn't try to stop me, recognising the look of someone who had been awakened by the affectionately named 'trollbeam'. I didn't bother to knock on the door, knowing full well that Tia would be awake by now. I walked over to her bed where she was sniggering away under the covers, and shouted at the top of my voice.
(A/N: I'm on my laptop again!)
"Hey Sunshine, time to get up!" I pulled the covers off her and yanked her out of bed. Not as subtle as the beam of light, but it got the job done. Tia shot me a look of pure malice, and pushed herself onto her hooves.
"I guess someone was going to get me back some day." she grunted, wandering towards her en-suite bathroom. I walked back outside, smiling to myself. I had confronted the god of the sun and come out the victor, and with no time at all on the moon. I made my way back to Luna's chambers, where Luna was trying to wake Skye. I walked over to the bed, and laid a hand on Skye's head.
"Wake up sleepyhead, it's time to get some breakfast." I said softly. She yawned, and opened her eyes slowly. I smiled down at her, and she rolled onto her back to lever herself up. I put my hoof under her arm to help her up.
"Mornin' dad." she said, wobbling to her feet. Luna walked over and put her wing around our daughter to support her. I walked behind them as we made our way down to the kitchens. Luna and Skye made their way over to the chefs, and I found a small table where we could sit and eat. I cleared the empty bowls from the staff off and carried them over to a sink. I balanced them on my back, and pushed them off using one of my wings. I was happily scrubbing away, when I felt a presence behind me. I could see a glowing blue glob flowing off to one side. It wasn't Luna, as she preferred her more ordinary, light blue mane. Tia's mane wasn't blue anyway, so there was only one other person it could be.
"Morning Ali, I see you've found your calling already." I remarked, and my sister giggle behind me.
"Awww, you always guess right. You never give me a chance to surprise you..." Alison said, gently hitting me with a hoof. Her coat was a light green-blue colour, that of the sea.
"I see you are in control of the sea now." I remarked, still surprisingly calm considering my sister had just managed to sneak up on me.
"I still don't know how you do that..." she muttered. "I'm going to find my niece now." she wandered off to find Skye. I heard a fourth set of hoofsteps, and noted Tia's presence in the room.
"Grub's up dad, come get some!" Skye called, and I turned to see her hands full of more plates than I believed it would be possible to carry as a human, but then I noticed the multicoloured aura surrounding some of the plates. I laughed, and walked over to the buffet that the girls had whipped up. I reached out and tipped a few wheat biscuits into a flat bowl, and somehow managed to pour milk over them. I made my way over to the table and slotted myself in on the end opposite Tia. We ate and chatted back and forth, discussing the world in general. Once we had finished, we put our things in the sink and walked out into Canterlot proper. The crowds parted before us as people tripped over each other to get out of the way of the three princesses and their alicorn friends. Alison was in the centre of our little group, as she was nervous about being seen in public. Celestia led us down to a metalwork shop. As we entered, I noticed a stout unicorn holding a large piece of iron in the centre of the furnace with his magic. Once it was just a ball of molten metal, he levitated it out and poured it into a large scythe blade mould. He then dropped the entire thing in a large barrel of water to cool it. He then turned to look at us.
"Good mornin' yer highnesses. Anythin' in particular yer wantin' me ta get ready fer ye?" he asked in a heavily accented voice.
"Could you bring me the Royal moulds please." Tia said, and the small blacksmith walked over to the wall next to the furnace. From a rack of other nondescript moulds he pulled a trio of other moulds. He placed them on the counter in front of Tia. She took them in her magic, and began to work them into a set of vices set around the shop. She stoked the furnace, and began working a large piece of iron into the heart of the flames.
> Chapter Twenty-four: The amount of Alicorns is Too Damn High!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Twenty-four...
(A/N: Sorry this took so long, I've been distracted for a while now. If there is anything that you want to know about the story that isn't in it, send me a message OR a question to my Tumblr. Might even hold a Skype interview thingy.)

It was a few days after the trip to Canterlot, and we had settled back into normal life, after Pinkie's second-ever 'New Alicorn' party. The elements were having a girls-only shindig, which Skye, Lu and Ali had been invited to, leaving us husbands to entertain ourselves.
"Max, pass me that flour." asked Soarin'. We'd decided to just mess around all night without any of us drinking any alcohol. We'd already half-deafened Elliott by messing around with Skye's PC, and my laptop was still cooling down after having been pushed to the limits by my half-assed scheme to run it through enough equipment to make it into a supercomputer. I walked over to where the flour was and grabbed it in my mouth. I dropped it in front of Soarin', and he proceeded to empty a good part of the bag into the bowl before him.
"Why are we baking a cake again Soarin'?" I asked as the wonderbolt cracked an egg into the flour.
"Well, the girls always look out for us and its about time we gave them something back. I thought that we should make a cake because, well, being married to a baker has taught me how to bake a bit myself." he said, starting to bring the cake together. He hustled me out of the way as it seemed Pinkie's unnatural knowledge of the kitchen had rubbed off on him. I sat with Elliott, who was only just recovering his hearing. We sat and flicked through the tech magazine I had bought on the way home. About an hour later Soarin' pulled the monstrously big cake from the oven, and called us into the kitchen. We all simply gawped at it, because it was so damned big. I swear, the bloody thing was bigger than the oven it came out of. We then set to work icing it. It took another good hour, but it was worth it. The cake was the most appetising thing to ever be put infront of me. But, alas, it wasn't for me.
"Well, now that's done, I suppose we should turn in for the night lads. It's nearly midnight." I said, dropping the hint for the guys to get out of my house. They complied, and with a round of goodbyes they went their separate ways. I closed the front door quietly, and padded up the stairs. My hooves were aching from the amount of work I had been making them do lately. I slid into my bedroom. It wasn't the master bedroom, because it was where I kept all of my things. I had also put a comfortable bed put in so when I had an argument with Luna we could cool off quicker. I threw myself down on the firm mattress and dragged the covers over me. I fell into a deep sleep quickly.

It was morning, and Illidan had decided to remind me of this horrid time of day by hopping up and down my prone form. I grunted and rolled out of bed. I looked over to the clock. It was about 8am, so I decided to go into town to grab some breakfast. I padded down the stairs, and took my pony coat off the hook in the hall, and slipped it on. I took my wallet off the shelf and walked out of the door, locking it behind me. The sun was high in the sky and there wasn't a cloud to be seen for miles. I smiled to myself as I walked through the town square towards Sugarcube Corner. I saw Lyra and Bon Bon trotting through town together, and Octavia and Vinyl were walking through town with Sparky, their adoptive daughter. I waved, smiling at the happy family. They all waved back, and carried on walking. I finally arrived at Sugarcube Corner. Mrs. Cake had just opened up as I walked in. I bought a couple of croissants and talked to Pound Cake as I ate them.
"How's life Pound?" I asked the young stallion.
"It's all right, but Pinkie doesn't visit as much any more." he said sullenly.
"Don't worry lad, she still thinks about you all the time. She's just a bit pre-occupied with Soarin' right now." I said, resting a hoof on his shoulder. He looked up at me, nodding. His sister came thundering down the stairs at that exact moment in time.
"Pound! We gotta get ready for the Sweet Apple Acres Faire!" She shouted as she grabbed him with her telekinesis. "Sorry Max, but we're in the talent show!" she explained as she carried her brother upstairs into the house. I sighed, shaking my head.
"Kids these days..." I said as I turned to walk outside. I almost walked straight into Big Mac, who was stood in the doorway. "Hey Mac, what's up?"
"Applebloom and her friends have gone missing because of another hare-brained scheme!" the big pony said, his eyes flickering about in panic.
"Do you know what they were talking about?" I asked, trying to calm him.
"Nope. I jus' saw them talking last night, but now they're gone!" he said, visibly shaking.
"Okay, I'll go get the girls, you stay here and calm down." I said, ushering him into the store. "Mrs. Cake? Big Mac's having a panic attack again!" I called to the kindly mare. She nodded, and came over to guide Mac into a seat and placing a large, frothy mug of hot chocolate in front of him. I walked outside, heading towards the library. I stuck my head through the door to see what shouldn't ever be in Twilight's library... a mess. I flinched as I saw the extent of the messiness, and felt a pang of fear for Spike's sanity. I proceeded through to the bedroom, where the girls were asleep. "Oh god why..." I glanced around, scanning as quickly as possible as to not see any more that what first met my eyes. Luna, Skye and Alison were all mysteriously not there. I descended the stairs back into the main room, and passed into Twilight's basement. As I descended, I saw swirling blue mist encircling a heap in the centre of the room. I approached, and ever so gently pulled the mist away from the heap. Luna, Skye and Alison were curled up together, sleeping soundly. I reached out to wake Luna up, but there was an almighty screech from the main room. Skye jerked awake, looking terrified. "It's okay, daddy's here..." I said as I stroked her hair with a hoof.
"Morning Dad." she said, turning her head so she could look at me. I smiled and nuzzled her cheek as she pulled herself up with my neck. I reached down to rouse Luna for the second time. I tapped her ribs with my hoof, and she snorted. I tapped a bit harder. Still no response. I licked the inside of her ear, and she started awake. I was busy cleaning my tongue, so Skye woke up Ali.
"Morning girls!" I chirped as we ascended back into the main room. I heard Rainbow yell something about sleeping, and I noticed the kitchen door was open. I walked over, and stuck my head in. Sure enough, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were passed out on the kitchen table. I turned back into the main room, where the girls were still stood.
"Let's get home, I have one hay of a hangover." said Luna, massaging the side of her head with a hoof. We walked outside, and Luna groaned as the light hit her eyes. Alison was no better, staring at the ground. Skye was busy trying to climb onto my back. We set off for home with encouraging images of aspirin and hot coffee dragging the hungover ponies behind us.
> Skye's Diary: 20 March 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(This diary is from the day Skye transformed into a human for the first time. Also, art. It took me 2 hours to draw this, please click through.)

Dear Diary,

13 years ago my mom was freed from the nightmare, and became princess Luna once again. 12 years ago, the elements of harmony froze Discord once again. 11 years ago, my dad showed up here. 10 years 3 months ago, I was born. I was born after all these events, but I still know more than the average pony does about them. I'm very smart for my age, or so my teacher says. Miss Cherilee has been giving me extra hard work to do, and I'm managing well. Last night, I made a breakthrough with my new spell. I've manage to unravel the mysteries of transformation! I'm going to surprise dad with it tomorrow morning and turn into a human. I think I'm going to use it on mom as well. I can't wait to see the look on their faces when I'm a human. On another note, mom seems tense about  something. I hope she hasn't forgot to get dad a birthday present again. Anyway, it's nearly bedtime. 

((A/N: sorry for the short chapter, but I wanted something to go with the portrait I've drawn of Skye. Don't hate me please!))
> Chapter Twenty-five: Return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I had managed to drag the girls back home, and they were all snuggling up together on the settee. I was outside, and nagging feeling in the back of my skull was telling me this day wasn't quite perfect. I couldn't see anything, so I ignored it. I was still slightly unnerved by the feeling so I went back inside to sit with the girls. As I walked through the door I immediately saw what was wrong... the clock slowly ticked to a stop. Their breathing slowed, and the world around me froze. A white glow surrounded my vision. I was panicking, and I tried to run over to the girls to find out what was happening. As I reached the end of the settee, my vision flashed and I hit the floor.

"He's coming through! Get back!" I heard an unkown voice shout as my vision began to return. "Okay, he's stable. Send them in!" I looked around. White tiles, halogen lights and a strange ring-shaped contraption. This couldn't look any more different from my living room. "Max. Can you hear me?" the voice said again. I tried to stand up, but there were several straps holding me down.
"Let me go!" I yelled at the unseen speaker. "Let me go home! What have you done to me!?" I continued, my voice becoming more strained as I began to panic.
"You are home, Max. The straps are for your own protection." I started to calm down, but a cold fury began to replace the panic.
"Send me back. NOW." I growled, realising that I had been taken away from my family. "I said send me back." I felt the rage build as my arms began to strain against the straps.
"Why? You're home after fifteen years, you should be happy!" another voice said.
"Send me back to my family before I raze this facility." I growled as I felt a familiar pain in my shoulder blades.
"But we are your family!" a distressed voice called from the other side of the room. I looked over to find my mother looking distressed at my rage. They had managed to bring me back to earth.
"Not any more." I whispered as my wings appeared. The explosion of blood crystal threw me into the air, destroying the bonds. I grinned psychotically, as I didn't have to hold back on earth. "Now, are we going to do this the hard way, or the slightly less painful way?" They looked up at me stunned, my parents having experienced the worst of the shock. As I slowly flew around the large room a voice echoed in the back of my head.
"Yes, give in to the hate little mortal." The Nightmare. This was getting interesting. "Well hello my lovely wife. How are you doing today?" I thought back, feeling Nightmare's glee at my response. "So, you recognise me mortal? How good." "Here's a deal Nightmare. I give you this world if you get me back home." "What would make this deal good for me?" "7 billion people. All at your mercy." "Yes, this is good. But, we need more power to get you home." during this internal conversation, several armed guards had entered the room, hustling my relatives away from me. "Take what you need from the guards Nightmare." I thought with a grin. I felt the room around me grow dark, and the guards were lifted into the air by an unseen force. They opened fire on me, but I couldn't get my wings up in time. The bullets ripped through my shoulder and leg, sending me spinning to the ground. Nightmare started to rip the guards apart slowly, feeding on their pain and fear. The blood started to pour from their wounds. I fed on the power with a hellish grin, and I felt a dark presence envelop me. "I will take this body for my own. Now, return to your family and rest easy. This world will provide ample entertainment for me." I felt like my mind was thrown backwards, and my vision flashed white. ((A/N: not following Max any more, only temporary.))

The flesh of the body rippled around Nightmare's dark essence. As it possessed the vacant shell, there was a ripping sound as the torso split around the centre. Nightmare's essence filled the gap and held the body together. Shards of the white tiles formed a suit of armour around the broken body as the flesh rose in vile pustules of red as the last vestiges of humanity left. Veins of dark goo flowed between the shards of ceramic, holding it together. The head was the last part to decay, splitting off from the body, with the spine attached. A dark mass took its place, and the head morphed into a giant eye surrounded by flesh. The spine hardened, and widened at the base of the skull, forming a crude blade. A deep chuckle escaped from the monstrosity as it reached down with one hand and hefted the demonic weapon. It shambled towards the door, collecting flesh from the dead guards as it went. Its arms swelled and elongated, giving it a gorilla-like appearance. Its legs began to crack as the flesh morphed into bone, the joints grating as it picked up speed. The ceramic tiles cracked under the pressure of the monstrosity as it advanced upon its new playground. The steel door shattered upon its gore-ridden form like glass dropped on the floor. The humans that had been evacuated upon the Nightmare's first contact withered under its unblinking glare as a single pinprick of light appeared in the midnight-black mass of its head. It raised its weapon and advanced upon the helpless humans...

I woke up laid on the floor of my living room, surrounded by four indistinct blurs. I rolled to one side and vomited a little, the image of Nightmare's corruption defacing my body etched into my mind's eye. I tried to forget, and the universe decided to smile upon me that time, and the image vanished.
"Max? What happened?" one of the blurs asked. My hearing was as bad as my sight and I couldn't quite work out who was speaking. I tried to respond but all that came out was a strangled gargling sound. I felt myself lifted into the air in a blue haze. I let myself be carried wherever they thought best, but I had little choice in the matter anyway. I felt a cool breeze on my face as I was carried outside. The ride was gentle and I fell asleep. Not into a dimension-shifting induced coma, but into a deep, dreamless sleep.

I awoke in a hospital ward. My vision had returned to normal so I looked around. I was in a separate room from the wards, and through the window was an endless expanse of blackness. A few stars twinkled here and there. I scanned around a bit more, looking for any clue as to where the hospital was. I craned my neck to look for the machinery that was attached to me. It was what looked like standard hospital equipment from earth. I panicked until I caught sight of the hoof-sized buttons that adorned the front of the machines. I let myself start to slide back into unconsciousness, until something started banging on the door. I looked over, freezing as I saw something that would be out of place in even the most twisted creator's imagination. I mean, it made Lovecraft's work look like a fairytale. Its jaw was hanging out of place, and its right eye was hanging out of its skull. The door refused to yield under its slamming, and it walked away. I looked around the room again, and noticed a small golden statue on the windowsill.
"Hello, I am Stefano. Daniel sent me. I am come to protect you.Trust me, for I am the bro." it said. "Now, you must throw a book at me, and send me though the window. I will bring Daniel to save you." I looked around, and a small hand appeared over a book just out of reach. I looked away, but the hand closed and the book followed my vision. I looked back to Stefano and the book launched itself at him, sending him through the window. A few moments later a man with blonde hair poked his head around the door as it opened. He stepped tentatively into the room, looking around. To break the mood, I decided to yell something ridiculous.
"Penis Everywhere!" I exclaimed at the top of my lungs, just as he did the same. He jumped a good foot backwards as he screamed. He walked over to the bed, and looked at me. A jar appeared in his hand.
"This should work!" he exclaimed as he launched it at me. It shattered on contact, coating me in a strange, acidic substance. "Right, now what Stefano?" he asked as he pulled the small golden statue out of a small bag on his shoulder. As he turned to exit the room, I slipped into unconsciousness once again, only to wake up in the same hospital bed. I looked up so find I was surrounded by five ponies. I reached up and put my hand on Luna's shoulder to make sure she was real. She jumped at the touch, but when she looked down to see me smiling up at her, she sighed.
"Feeling better now love?" she asked as she leaned down to give me a kiss.
"Yes, much better." I sighed as I looked around. I saw Alison, Celestia, Luna, Nurse Redheart and Dr. Shymane, Fluttershy's father. "Where's Skye?" I asked, thinking it odd that she wasn't here with us.
"She's just in the waiting room, sleeping. I'll go get her." Alison said, leaving the room.
"Now Mr. Reynolds, could you tell us what happened to you?" asked the doctor.
"The humans had developed some sort of machine that ripped my mind out of this body. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't get back on my own. I unleashed the Nightmare upon them, in return for being catapulted back." I said. Everyone gasped, except Luna, who was obviously pleased to have the last vestiges of her taint removed.
"But, what could possibly have possessed yo to do that Max?!"  Celestia asked, shocked by the revelation.
"Some parts of my mind that are best left untouched; and the desperation to return home. Love can make people do terrible things, Tia. I don't like it much either, but the humans would have used me as a weapon as soon as the found my true power." I sighed, running my hand along her wing. She nodded, her face lined with understanding. The doctor had filled in a sheet of paper, and he dropped it in my lap.
"This is your discharge form, you're free to go Mr. Reynolds." he walked away, with Redheart trailing close behind. Skye walked into the room and almost jumped over the bed in her rush to get to me.
"Daddy!" she squealed as I pulled her into a tight hug.
"Now, when you get down we're going home!" I said, laughing at her silly antics.

((A/N: sorry for the long wait, I was about 100 words into this chapter when my parents decided to start moving everything around. Also, the internet has been on the fritz for a few days. But, I got a new headset out of it. Will write more soon.))
> Chapter Twenty-six
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	((A/N: I'm back bitches! If anyone is still interested in this story, there are 2 more chapters in progress and a whole new arc PLANNED out! That's right folks! I've planned something!))

It was a normal Friday night, with me and Skye curled up on the big settee waiting for Luna to come home. I was sat with one of my old "50 funny things that a non-unicorn can do with physics!" editions, and Skye was busy chatting with one of her friends on her new Troglodyte-made phone. The troglodytes were a technologically advanced race of small monkeys, which Luna had discovered on one of her lengthy diplomatic missions. They had been living in the heart of the rainforest in a structure similar to the 'Eden Project' from earth, hidden from pony-kind until Luna literally came crashing through their front door after tangling with a particularly springy vine in the canopy, which had catapulted her carriage into the gates of the Troglodyte complex. Having learned from me a little about man's technology, she immediately recognised the sleek silicone-based tech embedded in the wreckage of the door. The rest, as they say, is history. The Trogs, as they prefer to be called, were in a dire predicament which Luna was able to solve, and now the Trogs were an integral part of the Equestrian community. Back on topic, Me and Skye were just snuggled up together, waiting for Luna to get back home.

"Dad, why's it taking Mom so long to get home?" Skye asked, looking up into my eyes.

"I don't know sweetie, maybe Aunt Tia needed some help with the Nobles, apparently some houses have been making nuisances of themselves." I replied, reaching around her with my foreleg, rubbing her arm with a hoof. Just as I turned back to my book, the front door opened with a click. "Speak of the devil..." I said, moving Skye off me to go help Luna with her things. What greeted me in the doorway, however, was not a pretty sight. Luna's mane was everywhere, parts of her coat had been messed up, and she was sweating profusely, like some kind of unholy pig-teenage-boy hybrid. "Wow, get hit by a thundercloud love?" I asked, curious as to why she was in such a state.

"Feel absolutely knackered, I'mma go bed now. Night Skye." she replied, already trudging up the stairs. I stuck my head back into the living room to talk to Skye.

"I'm going to go up with Mom, she looks real rough tonight sweetie..." I sighed, and Skye nodded her understanding. I climbed the stairs, and got to the top to find Luna leaning heavily on the door frame to our bedroom. I rushed over, and pulling her weight onto me with a wing I walked her to the bed. "Are you okay Lulu?" I asked, concern plastered over my features. She just grunted and rolled under the sheets, wrapping herself up in a cocoon of duvet. I climbed in next to her after switching off the lights, and pulled her over to me, resting her head on my neck and gently nuzzling her mane while she cuddled with me.

"I don't know what's wrong Maxie, I just feel so bad..." she said softly as she buried herself deeper in the fur on my neck. We lay like that, and Luna finally drifted off into a light sleep, with me following soon after.

***

Luna woke me up by ragging the duvet of the bed and opening the curtains with a flick of her head.

"Up! we're off to Canterlot!" Luna chirped as I rolled out of the bed. "We've got to get ready for the Wedding!"

"What wedding?" I groaned. "You never said anything about a wedding."

"Twilight's little brother is marrying Cadence!" Luna chimed once again.

"Cadence?" I asked.

"My niece!" Luna said, with the same unnerving happiness as before. I did a double take, but then I just sighed and shook my head. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but this is news to me too..." she explained.

***

An hour and a half later, all three of us were ready for the long journey to Canterlot. We waited patiently outside the front door for the carriage to arrive, and it showed up right on time. As I called a friendly hello to the guards, the door shot open and we were dragged in by a wall of purple.

"What the..." I said, bewildered.

"Sorry, but there is a threat around and the less time you spend in the open the better!" said a young looking stallion with an electric blue mane. "I'm Guard Captain Shining Armour, Twilight's little brother." he happily proclaimed, his helmet slipping over his eyes slightly. He nudged it back up with a hoof, his head-splitting grin unnerving to say the least.

"Definitely a Sparkle" Luna said, giving a soft chuckle as the young Stallion proudly regaled us with stories of how he became Guard Captain, along with Skye-level 'Awww' inducing tales of his foalhood with Twilight. As we neared Canterlot, Shining Armour visibly tensed, his muscles visibly bunching under his skin. A spark flashed from his horn and a giant purple shield appeared around the city, with a small opening to allow us through. as we passed into the sphere, the hole sealed shut and the barrier faded out of sight once again. Skye gaped at Shining Armour as I raised an eyebrow at his impressive feat.

"Are you powering the whole barrier Captain?" I asked. A small smile spread across his face.

"Yes sir! It's tiring to say the least but I'm doing my best!" He said proudly.

"Well, I'm glad you're to one to marry our niece Shining. If you can keep this up, you can protect her easily." I remarked as I analysed his signature. He was powerful. A wall of magic radiated from his horn as he lifted the curtain over the window on the carriage to look out. I finished the analysis as we landed on the pad outside the palace. We stepped out and were greeted by a pink Alicorn with a heart-shaped cutie mark.

"Glad you're back Shiny, I was getting lonely!" she said, her eyes growing impossibly large as she fluttered her eyelashes at him. She stiffened as she looked up and saw Luna standing with me and Skye. "Aunt Luna, its so good to see you!" her voice was straining ever so slightly, and her smile showed gritted teeth. Having been a compulsive liar for a long time, I picked up all these ticks when everyone else wrote it down to pre-wedding nerves. "Good to see you too Uncle Max and little Skye!" her eyes flashed green as she looked at Skye, who immediately started firing questions at her as they walked away together, with Skye wanting to 'get to know' her cousin. Shining followed behind Cadence obediently as me and Luna walked together to our chambers to unpack.

"Something seems off about Cadence, Lu..." I whispered in Luna's ear. "when she was talking to us I was seeing so many nervous ticks that it couldn't have been nerves. Even you weren't that jumpy and you get nervous about going to the Library."

"I know Max, but what can we do? There's nothing wrong with her at all besides that." Luna sighed as we neared the Lunar Suite, or Luna's bedroom as it is more commonly known. As we approached the door, the two guards infront of the door snapped their wings out to block our passing. "Guards, allow me into my chamers at once!" Luna said as she employed a small amount of the fearsome 'Royal Canterlot voice'.

"No-one goes in or out of Princes Mi Amore Cadenza's chambers without her permission!" said the hooded guard. I recognised him as the ranger that had been our freind since I arrived.

"Link? What's going on?" I asked, surprised. "Those are our chambers!"

"Princess Cadenza has taken this room as her own for the Wedding, you are to sleep in the Guest wing." Link said with a steely voice. "Leave before we have to use force, Princess." Luna lead me away before I caused a scene.

"This is wrong. No-one is allowed into those rooms beside me, you, Tia, Skye and Ali!" Luna said as panic crept into her voice.

"We can't do anything, Lu! She even has the guards on her side!" I hissed as my indignation became clear. We walked into the guest wing and found an empty suite.