Mercenary Of Mercenaries & st3v.j0bs - Well, those were rather rude... They have also been reported as abuse.

DragonLovingBrony - Lol. Hey, it happens to the best of us... the house is actually based off of one that i designed in my own spare time out of boredom. (I actually built it as best I could in Sims 3)

KillerWoW the Golden Foxy - Can't say I blame you, I'd love to have a house like myself one day.

INGENman - Ba dum tish... True, but he doesn't have five wives to clean his five castles...

Guest - The entire measurement was in feet. So basically, instead of writing 2m, he wrote 6' (I know that's not exact, but it's an example), which the construction crew interpreted as meters since Imperial units don't exist in this version of Equestria. This made the hot tub roughly three times bigger than Blake originally planned it to be.

RattPitt - Not a problem, I always make an effort to answer everyone's reviews if I can. I wouldn't try to make money directly off this even if I could. Though I was trying to get support for a based on sharing my various knowledge and skills so that I could devote more time to writing a better fic for you guys. I actually haven't decided if I'm going to do something like that or not...

Kyguy - You mean for the art comission? If so, feel free to send me a PM and we can talk about it there.

A/N - Hiya everypony! Another week, another chappy for all my awesome readers! I hope you're all enjoying the break from the action; I know Blake is ;) Anywho, not a whole lot in news this week, besides the two reviews I unfortunately had to report for abuse. I haven't gotten any responses for the art commission yet, so if anyone's interested, that's still up for grabs. As always, remember to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly; enjoy!

"So, who wants to go for a dip? There's apparently plenty of room for everyone…"

"That is not all that is here Blake." Luna said from beside me. "There is also a spacious sauna through that door to the left and a bar stocked with alcoholic beverages imported from the Minotaur kingdoms off to the right."

"What's an 'alcoholic beverage?" I merely smirked at Rainbow's question; the fact that she didn't even remember drinking that fermented cider was pretty amusing.

Applejack pulled her in close and whispered something into her ear. "Oh… nevermind." Rainbow grinned sheepishly.

"Come, there is more yet to see." Luna beckoned as she turned to head back up to the main floor.

"Wait, I thought we'd seen everything already." Pinkie was suddenly bouncing between me and Luna from out of nowhere.

Luna cleared her throat. "Everything within the house, yes; but there is still more to see on the rest of the grounds."

"Ooh ooh! Does that mean we'll get to see the aquaponics garden?" Twilight asked as she trotted enthusiastically next to me.

"Ah been meanin' ta ask; just what the heck is one o' them aqua-whatever dohickeys anyway? Twilight's been on about it fer tha last week…"

I shrugged. "Well, at this point, it'll probably be easier just to show you all what it is and how it works rather than try to tell you."

We all headed back up the stairs and headed out through a set of sliding glass doors set into the back wall of the home. The sliding doors led out to a spacious back yard with a mid-sized swimming pool to our right and what appeared at first glance to be a greenhouse to our left.

We walked over to the greenhouse and Luna held the door open with her magic. After we all filed in, I began explaining the inner workings of the system, how a pump would draw water up from the fish tank and send it through all the troughs to feed and water the plants before returning to the tank. There were no fish, plants or even water yet, but that was yet to come.

"Wow… Ah sure could use somethin' like this… it'd let us bring in some extra bits over tha winter."

I patted the country mare's shoulder. "Well heck, if you've got some spare land for it AJ, I don't see why we can't build one on Sweet Apple Acres." Applejack blushed and pawed the ground.

I could tell Applejack was about to protest, but a rainbow blur appeared in front of us before we had the chance. "Oh come on you two, this is boring! I wanna see the rest of this place!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she swooped in between us. "That pool out there looked pretty awesome, I wanna check it out!"

Rainbow lived up to her namesake and dashed out the door, the rest of us following behind. Rainbow was already going for a swim in the luckily pre-filled pool. Pinkie Pie bounded over in all of two massive hops and dove in as well. I looked at the others and shrugged. "Well, if ya can't beat 'em…"

All the others, save Luna and Fluttershy, rushed past me and dove into the relatively spacious in-ground pool. Fluttershy had a small blush on her face. "Oh um… I don't like to swim."

Luna scoffed. "Is it not rude to simply use something that belongs to someone else without asking first?"

I shrugged again. "Hey, as far as I know, the only other place to swim is that little pond up on the big hill over there." I pointed off to the northwest, indicating the hill in question. "Besides, they're all my friends, they know that they don't need my permission for stuff like this. Plus, that little 'if you can't beat em' comment was kind of an implied consent."

Luna brightened up. "If that is the case, then I believe I shall join them; it has been far too long since I have been able to simply enjoy a relaxing swim." Her royal 'attire' floated from her and came to rest in a neat pile on the porch as she trotted off to join our friends in the pool.

"I hope they realize I don't have any towels yet." I whispered to Fluttershy, who was still standing next to me.

She giggled in her soft little manner. "Oh I'm sure they do. Why don't you join them Blake? You don't have to miss out on the fun just because of me."

"Well, I don't have any swimwear, and I wouldn't want to get my clothes all wet, so I'd have to go without."

"Why is that a… Oh, right…" I chuckled as her face lit up as pink as her mane.

"It's ok 'Shy, I don't really feel like swimming anyway. That does remind me that I need to commission some more clothes from Rarity though." I looked over to see the aforementioned mare, the only one of us besides me and Fluttershy that wasn't in the pool, instead sunbathing in a lounge chair that hadn't been there before. "I'll save that for another day though, I think today should just be for us all to have fun together."

"That sounds nice, it's been awhile since we've all been able to just spend time together without something else going- AAHHH!"

Fluttershy yelped and I gasped as we were suddenly doused by surprisingly cold water. "Rainbow Dash!" Rarity sounded pretty mad. "You're supposed to say something before you do a cannonball! Oh, just look at my mane…"

The others started laughing as I walked up to the beautiful fashionista. "It's alright Rare, it's just water after all. Besides, your mane has that weird ability to poof back into shape all on its own."

The stark white mare giggled. "I suppose you're right. It's pretty warm out today anyway, and that was actually kind of refreshing."

Someone in the pool cleared their throat. "You should know that it was not young Rainbow Dash that caused that small tidal wave." We looked over to see a grinning Luna resting her forelegs on the white marble that bordered the pool. Seriously, what's with all the white marble? I hardly had any in my original design.

Rarity gulped. "Oh my, Princess Luna… I-I umm…"

Luna waved a hoof in the air. "Do not worry about it. I quite enjoy being able to relax and be myself. You have no idea how frustrating it is to be expected to maintain a 'royal demeanor' at all times."

I pulled out my pocket watch and checked the time. "Oh! It's almost time to pick up the girls from school. I can run and do that real quick if you girls want to stay here and keep having fun in the pool."

Twilight teleported out of the pool and appeared next to me, somehow drying off in the process. "I'll go with you. There's something I wanted to ask you anyway."

"Yeah! Go Twilight! You get 'im tiger!" Twilight turned red at Rainbow Dash's cheering. I couldn't tell if she was being serious or poking fun at her bookish friend… or maybe some combination of the two.

"It's not that kind of question! … It's about something else."

We walked off with much giggling coming from the others; even Luna seemed to have caught the giggle bug by the time we were out of sight. Twilight rolled her eyes. "What I really wanted to ask was; now that you have this place… that means you'll be moving out of the library… doesn't it?" She sounded depressed all of a sudden.

I stopped and she did as well. "Twilight… there's something I want to ask you. I don't want it to be just me and Scootaloo in that huge house… would you consider moving in with me?" Twilight gasped.

"B-but… I still have to watch the library…"

I stroked her cheek with the back of my hand. "That's easy; you can just walk there in the mornings and do your job normally, then lock up in the evening and come back at night. It's not that far of a walk, it'd take less than ten minutes each way. Plus, I could always visit when I have time."

She looked down at the grassy earth below with a look of deep concentration etched on her face. "You know what? You're right! It wouldn't be that big of a lifestyle change, plus I could have more than that tiny loft and a kitchen to call home." She nodded in determination. "That's exactly what I'm going to do! When this place gets furnished, we can move in together."

I leaned over and cupped her cheek in my hand, planting a loving kiss on her strawberry flavored lips, the scent and flavor coupled with the intimacy of the kiss sent jolts of pleasure up and down my entire body. "That's exactly what I hoped you'd say." I whispered as we pulled away from one another. "Now come on, I know three adorable little fillies who will be getting out of class soon; and I bet they'll all want to see Ponyville's newest residence."

Twilight smiled dreamily, still caught up in the emotion of the moment, following alongside me wordlessly. Just as the little red schoolhouse came into view, the bell perched in its tower began to sing, announcing the end of another school day at Ponyville Elementary.

We were coming up to the building sidelong, so we didn't get to see the flood of foals pouring out of the school's front doors. Twilight and I smiled at one another when we heard the giggles and excited chatter of the foals as they raced out of the building and headed home. My smile quickly faded as I heard Scootaloo's voice. "Why can't you ever just leave. Us. ALONE?!"

What sounded like two fillies giggling maliciously followed her heated cry. "Oh Scootaloo… why would we ever do a thing like that? I mean, you're all Blank Flanks for Celestia's sake! And now, you're clinging to that ugly, hairless ape-thing that's been crawling around Ponyville like he's your dad or something. Oh wait, I forgot; you don't have a dad!" Oh Hell no!

Scootaloo came running around the corner of the building just as I was about to do the same, bumping into my legs as she did so. "Oof! Why don't you… Dad!" She wrapped her hooves around my waist. "Those two won't stop bullying us; can you stop them?" She was clearly trying to hold back tears, but I could see she was starting to fail.

I looked up to see the two culprits standing at the corner of the schoolhouse, watching us with smug grins on their little faces. One was a pastel pony with a pink coat and a white-streaked purple mane wearing a tiara that matched her cutie mark, and the other was flat grey color, even having a two-tone grey mane; her cutie mark was some kind of ornate spoon. The grey one had a pair of light blue glasses perched on her snout. "See; what'd I tell ya Silver Spoon! She's following that ugly thing around like a lost puppy! I bet it gave her a biscuit and now she thinks it's her daddy!"

I've had all I can stands; I can't stands no more! These little bitches are gonna get it! I felt my blood begin to boil as I stood up and set Scoots down on the ground. "And just who in Tartarus do you two little brats think you are; slinging insults around like it's going out of style?! I have half a mind to tan both your hides right here, right now; maybe that would teach the two of you some respect!"

They were both cowering, and with good reason; they'd just pissed off a being that was roughly four times their size that was known throughout Equestria by now to have defeated Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony. "Y-you wouldn't dare l-lay one of those filthy paws on us! M-my daddy would tell P-Princess Celestia-"

I growled, my muscles tensing from my restrained anger as I leaned in close to get right in their faces. "Tell her what? That her Knight-Defender is doing his duty? That I had to step in because you two bully other foals to tears on a regular basis? That you're just a pair of spoiled brats who can't handle their own problems, so you take them out on others?" They were both crying now, but I wasn't done yet. "No. You're going to do absolutely nothing besides start treating your fellow ponies with respect and kindness, and you're going to start right NOW!" I emphasized my point by slamming my fist into the ground, leaving a fist-shaped impression in the soil.

The two fillies scampered off as fast as their little legs would carry them. "You'll be sorry!" The pink one shouted back to me. We'll see about that…

I turned back to Twilight and Scootaloo to see them staring at me with wide-eyed looks. "Th-that was…" Twilight seemed to be in some kind of shock.

"AWESOME!" Scootaloo finished for her as she dashed over to me. "Those two looked like they were about to have a heart attack!"

"That was amazing Blake!" Sweetie Belle squeaked as she and Applebloom trotted over to us.

"It sure was! Ah bet even Applejack wouldn't 've scared 'em off like that!"

I looked at the three fillies. "Now girls, what I did was nothing to be proud of. There were other ways to handle the situation, what I did was essentially bullying in and of itself, which is never the right thing to do."

Twilight walked up next to me. "Blake is right, bullying a bully never solves the problem; but in this case I think they deserved a taste of their own medicine."

"Better be careful Twi, I'm rubbing off on you." She deadpanned, but didn't say anything. "Now, what's this about being 'Blank Flanks'?"

Sweetie Belle pawed at the ground. "They make fun of us 'cause we don't have our cutie marks yet."

I cocked an eyebrow. "That's all?" the girls nodded. "That's a pretty dumb thing to make fun of somepony for."

I beckoned the girls to come closer to me. "Listen girls, the next time they try to bully you like that, I want you to ignore them, pretend they don't even exist. I know how bullies work, believe me… They want a reaction out of you, they want you to fight back; but if you ignore them then you take away their reason to bully you. I know it's hard and what they say will still hurt, but you can't let it get to you, otherwise they win."

Applebloom stomped a hoof. "Yeah! We won't let them win no more!"

"Don't worry Blake, we promise not to let them get to us anymore." Sweetie Belle chimed in.

Scootaloo just gave me a big, toothy grin. "Good. Now, I have a surprise for you Scootaloo, and I'd like for you two to come along to, your sisters are already there."

Scootaloo began prancing excitedly "Ooh! Ooh! Did we get a pet? Did Twilight make more room for us in the library? Is Spike cooking fish? … Are you cooking fish?"

The rest of us burst out laughing. "Don't worry Scoots, you'll see when we get there."

Scootaloo all but skipped alongside me as we made our way back to our new home. We came to the small hill that somehow blocked the view of our mansion-like home and I called everyone to a halt. "Hang on, there's something I want to do first." Everyone looked at me with a puzzled expression before the light clicked on for Twilight and she pulled out a bandanna from nowhere. "How did you… You know what? Never mind; I'm just going to blame it on Pinkie." We all froze when we heard the pink party mare shout 'HEY!'

Scootaloo looked at me curiously. "What're you going to do with that dad?"

I smirked at her. "Well, we wouldn't want you to see the surprise too soon, would we?"

She glanced around the area. "But the library's back that way; what's a surprise for me doing way out here?"

I kissed her forehead, causing her to make a pitiful attempt to bat me away. "You'll just have to trust me, won't you?"

She sighed in defeat and plopped her butt on the ground, allowing me to tie the blindfold around her eyes. She let out an adorable little yelp when I suddenly picked her up and set her on my shoulders. We continued on down the path for a way before cresting the small hill, bringing the red-bricked home into sight. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom both gasped when they saw it. "What? What's going on?!" Scootaloo demanded, squirming on my shoulders.

I put my hands on her forelegs as she struggled with the blindfold. "Hang on Scoots, we're almost there, I promise." She huffed and dangled her hooves in front of her, incidentally hanging them in front of my face.

Fortunately, Twilight stopped me with her magic before I tripped on the exposed rock that I couldn't see. I thanked her and we walked for another twenty yards or so before I put the rambunctious little filly down. "Ok Scoots, close your eyes and I'll take the blindfold off."

"Finally! I thought we'd never get there!"

I leaned down and untied the loose knot at the back of the cloth, handing it to Twilight, who stashed it… wherever it was she had gotten it from. "Ok Scootaloo, you can open your eyes now."

Her eyes shot opened and she gasped as they went wide at the sight before her. "What is this?"

I chuckled and patted her head. "This young Scootaloo, is our new home."

She looked at me. "Where did this place come from?"

"Well, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia wanted me to have a home to call my own since I'm going to be their knight in a little more than a week, so they had this built."

Her expression shifted to a strange one that I couldn't read. "But… you said this was our home."

"It is Scoots; as far as I'm concerned, you're officially my daughter; that means that we live together, no matter where that may be. And if the princesses don't like that, then I won't be living there."

Scootaloo's grin reached from ear to ear, and the other three all had smiles on their faces as well. "Do you really mean it?"

I ran my fingers through her mane. "Of course I do Scoots, why would you even ask that?" I was concerned about where this was coming from all of a sudden.

She pawed at the ground as Twilight shooed Applebloom and Sweetie Belle back towards the house. "Well… I guess I'm just worried that I'll be alone again. I mean, I know you love me just as much as I love you, but… I don't know, I can't really explain it…"

I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed the tomboyish filly close. "Scootaloo… I will never leave you alone like that. As long as I'm still alive, I'll always be there for you." I pulled back and looked her in the eyes. "I swear I'll be the best father I can be for you Scootaloo; I love you and I want you to have the best I can give you."

She sniffled as she wrapped her little hooves around my neck. "You already are the best, dad. I'm sorry I made you think you weren't. I know you'd never leave me alone if you could help it."

We broke the hug and I picked her up and put her back on my shoulders. "C'mon kiddo, let's check out our new house; then we can head back to the library and I'll make fish for dinner." She cheered and waved her forelegs around as I walked towards the house.

I took us around to the back of the house to let the others know we were back. The girls all waved at us from the lounge chairs they were now resting in, towels wrapped around their manes. "We have a pool?! That's so AWESOME!" Scootaloo exclaimed from my shoulders.

I set her down and she bounded over to check it out, squealing in excitement as she went. I walked over to the girls to see how they were. "Twilight told us about how you handled those bullies Darling." Rarity lifted her sunglasses off of her face as she began speaking. "I hope your little speech managed to set them straight; Sweetie Belle has come home in a foul mood more than once thanks to those ruffians."

"Yeah! You really showed 'em who's boss! I just wish I could've seen their faces when you sent 'em packin!" Rainbow Dash flew up as she talked and started throwing punches in the air.

"I'm glad everypony's ok, but couldn't you have found a nicer way to get them to stop? I mean, yelling at them like that seems awfully mean to me."

I Shrugged. "Sorry Fluttershy. Like I've said before; humans learned a long time ago that not every problem can be solved peacefully, no matter how much we want to or how hard we try."

She looked crestfallen. "Oh… ok then…"

"C'mon y'all! This is s'posed ta be a happy day! Blake's got a new place ta live 'n ev'rything!"

"That reminds me," Luna spoke up for the first time since I'd been back with the girls. "My sister and I felt you would appreciate being able to furnish the home yourself, rather than us furnishing it for you."

I nodded. "You're right. You should know I don't feel right just being given things; besides, I'd like to pick out what it's furnished with myself, even if that means it takes a little longer. I'm sure Twilight wouldn't mind if I stayed at the library for a bit longer." I winked at Twilight, causing her to blush. "For now though, how about we all head over to the café for dinner? It is about that time after all." A chorus of rumbling stomachs answered me.

"Hey everypony, I'm here!" I looked up in time to see the source of the voice crash into me, sending us both to the ground. "Oops, my bad!"

Rarity huffed. "'Oops, my bad' is all you can say after crashing into somepony like that?! You could have seriously hurt poor Blake like that!"

I got up and dusted myself off. "It's ok Rarity, I'm fine. I think the muffins cushioned the worst of it." I gestured to the saddlebag full of flattened pastries. "Besides, it's not like she did it on purpose; I know Derpy would never do something like that." As I spoke, I checked my clumsy marefriend over to make sure she was ok.

"Aww… I worked really hard baking those for everypony too…" She sounded really dejected at the loss of the no doubt yummy pastries.

I cupped her chin in my hand and tilted her head up to look at me. "Hey now, just because they're a little… squished doesn't mean we can't eat them. My grandma taught me a recipe for recycling unused cake and making it into a tasty treat; maybe we can do the same with your muffins."

She smiled a little. "You mean like those yummy cake pops the Cakes sell?"

Pinkie Pie giggled from off to the side. "Silly filly, who do you think gave them the recipe?"

Derpy gasped. "That was you?!" I nodded. "Wow! I love those things, but I never knew where they got the recipe. That sounds like a great idea! Can we do it now?" I looked over to everypony else. "Well, we were all about to go to the café for dinner; why don't you join us? Then we can go over to your place afterwards and figure out how to make these into pops."

Derpy giggled. "Hee hee… muffin pops… I like the sound of that. Alright, let's go everypony, to the café!"

She took off flying. "Derpy!" I called out to her. She looked back to me. "The café is that way!" She grinned sheepishly and landed next to me as we headed off for dinner.