PBJFanFiction - Why thank you. Here's the next one for ya! I'm still tweaking the pacing here and there, but I'll get it eventually.

PSYCHOPATH - Yeah, it probably would be kinda funny, but like I said, it just isn't my style.

KillerWoW - Never played Soul Sacrifice, but I couldn't find a good pic online when I looked, so I couldn't tell ya.

Magic - Maybe a little bit, didn't really think anything about it.

Lord of darkness the 1st - Lol yup, that they are. ;)

Ecomonococo - Well, I'm glad to hear you enjoy the overall story at least. :D

HYBRID BATTLESHIP INFINITY210 - Trust is a serious thing indeed, but you might find there's more going on here than you think.

DragonLovingBrony - It's possible they'll find a way back... As for the Orion thing, I actually looked up a 3-D star map of it to make sure it would look the way I wanted it to before I even put that part in the story.

Equius Zahhak - Lol. I wouldn't say that, but It just might play a bigger role in the future ;)

Mikalzilla - Me too. You'll just have to read on to find out ;)

xel101 - It'll get here, maybe sooner than you think, and maybe not in the way you think ;)

Kyguy - Yeah, it kinda was, but that's not necessarily a bad thing ;) Lol I ate them all!

noah2x4 - What could it possibly mean?

A/N - Hey there everypony! Another week, another update! Once again I apologize for the late update; Some new stuff for the desktop came in today, and I spent most of the afternoon getting everything set up. Not much else to report for the week, so I'll let y'all get to reading! As always, don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly; enjoy!

Luna stayed with me for awhile after we made up, but I urged her to go back to her room and get some sleep, the last week or so hadn't been easy on either of us.

After she took to the skies, I heard the balcony door open and close. "Hey Blake… is everything ok now?" I turned back to Twilight and nodded. She gave me a smile. "I'm glad. It's easy to see you two love each other, I'd hate to see something come between you."

She walked up and put her forehooves on the railing. "You know I love you too, right Twi? You, and Applejack and Derpy… I love you all."

She nodded and her smile grew. "We know… and you know that we love you too. To be honest, you're doing surprisingly well… most stallions have trouble splitting their time between a herd, and one or more mares end up feeling left out, but none of us feel that way with you."

I nudged her. "Well, you girls are a huge help with that." I chuckled as I thought back to how nervous and excited I was when AJ first told me about herding here. "I wouldn't know where to begin if it weren't for you."

We watched together as the sun began to peek over the horizon, far in the distance. The peaceful silence was only broken by Applejack quietly joining us on the balcony. Twilight shuddered as I used my aurasight to check inside and see that both Derpy and Scootaloo were still peacefully sleeping. "It always feels weird when you do that…" Twilight commented idly as I released the magic.

"Sorry Twi. I've actually been thinking about trying to figure out a way to use it without unicorns being able to detect it."

She stroked her chin with a hoof. "Hmm… I suppose it's possible, but trying to alter magic like that can be difficult; it'd probably be best if you let me help you when we get back to Ponyville."

Applejack gave us a look. "What tha hay're y'all talkin' about? Ah didn't feel nothin."

Twilight shook her head. "You wouldn't have. Blake was just using a type of inherent magic that only unicorns are sensitive enough to perceive, and most wouldn't even know what it was they were feeling."

AJ shook her head. "Y'all and yer fancy magic… us earth ponies get by just fine without it."

"I know how you feel AJ, magic was nothing more than a fairytale back on Earth. Now that I have it, I try not to rely on it too much; but I hafta admit, it is pretty convenient."

She gave me another look. "If'n ya ain't tryin' ta rely on it, why did y'all just use it?"

I gave her s shrug. "Just because I don't want to rely on it doesn't mean it's not a good idea to practice with it so that I can use it when I really need to." She opened her mouth to protest, but closed it as she apparently let my point soak in.

We fell back into a comfortable silence after that, until a familiar rumble came from Applejack. "Heh… Ah'm used ta havin' had breakfast and bein' out in tha field by now."

"Well, how about we wake up Derpy and Scootaloo, and go have us some breakfast?" Twilight and Applejack nodded their agreement and we headed inside to do just that.

After breakfast, we met back up with Shining Armor and Cadence, the latter of whom surprised me by hopping up and wrapping me in a hug. Scootaloo, who was in her favorite perch up on my shoulders, wiggled to avoid the hug. "So Blake, I meant to ask last night; do you know how to fly with those wings of yours?"

"Well… I know how to move them, but I don't really have a clue how to actually fly yet; I only just discovered yesterday that they even existed in the first place after all."

She nodded. "I see. Well, since we won't be heading back to Ponyville until tomorrow, why don't I give you a lesson on flying while we're here?"

And suddenly, Rainbow Dash! "Hang on there princess! If anypony's gonna teach Blake how to fly, it should be Equestria's number one flier!"

Scootaloo squirmed around on my shoulders. "Rainbow Dash! You're here!"

Twilight glared at our rainbow friend. "Rainbow Dash! You can't just barge in like that and expect ponies to just do what you say!"

Rainbow Dash scoffed. "Well why not?! Don't you think I'm good enough to teach him how to fly?" Dash was getting pretty upset.

Before things could escalate further, I pulled her over to the side and whispered to her. I noticed a faint blush on her cheeks when I wrapped my arm around the hovering mare. "Don't worry Dash, she can teach me the basics… you know, the boring stuff; and you can teach me the cooler, more advanced stuff… and maybe some of those awesome tricks of yours to boot."

She gave me a huge grin. "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea! I'm gonna go practice, see ya later!"

Twilight trotted up to me. "What did you say to her?"

I shrugged. "Nothing much, I just promised her that she could teach me some of the more advanced stuff that she knows."

Cadance trotted up to me. "That was pretty quick thinking. Now, why don't we get started?"

Just before I called my entire suit, I remembered that I could call individual pieces, and instead focused on just the wings. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but my doubt was quickly crushed when I felt them forming. With a quiet rustling sound, they unfurled behind me and everypony around, including several passers-by, stared at the beautiful, ethereal wings.

It took almost an hour before I was off the ground in any stable fashion, if you could call teetering in midair stable. I had the full support of my girls the entire time I was learning, they cheered me when I managed to do something right, and they were right there for me when I fell; and I did fall… a lot. Cadance turned out to be a great teacher, and I picked up on what I was supposed to do relatively quickly once I actually figured out the mechanics of moving my wings to keep me in the air.

Another half an hour later found my heart hammering in my chest as she led me on a slow, low to the ground flight above Canterlot, with Derpy flying next to me, hand-in-hoof. Scootaloo had wanted to come with me, but since this was my first flight, I had her wait with Twilight and Applejack; I actually did want to take her, but I was worried that something might go wrong and she would get hurt. Fortunately, she seemed to understand, and I promised to take her on a flight when I was more comfortable with it.

I looked over to Derpy and saw her smiling out of the corner of my eye, and when I looked over, her smile turned into a big grin as she looked back at me. "This is something I've always wanted to do, but I never thought I'd be able to since you couldn't fly before. I'm really glad you found that armor, because now you can fly with me!" I felt warm fuzzies grow in my heart when she told me this; I had no idea what she had given up to be with me.

We made a long, lazy circuit around the city, with Cadance dropping back to explain how to spot thermals to glide on so I wasn't flapping constantly, which I was somewhat glad for due to the unintentional show the pink Alicorn was giving me. During the extended flight, I discovered that while magical in nature, using my wings tired me out just like any other muscle; though I found that I was quickly becoming used to the new source of fatigue.

We circled back around, Derpy with a blissful grin and me with a much better understanding of flight. It would be awhile yet before I would be ready to learn even the simplest of Dash's tricks, but I knew the day would eventually come and we would be soaring through the tranquil blue skies together… maybe even have a race.

Derpy landed relatively well while Cadance touched down with all the grace of a swan. I, on the other hand, landed more like a brick; with the combination of inexperience and fatigue causing me to practically fall out of the air. As soon as my feet touched ground, I tucked into a ball and rolled to a stop, coming to rest in a crouch. My marefriends and Scootaloo, who was riding on Twilight's back, all rushed over as I stood up and dusted myself off, voicing their concerns. "Don't worry girls, I'm fine; I get beat up worse than this helping AJ on the farm."

"Well that's a relief, it looked like you hit the ground pretty hard… but then, I suppose your body is better designed to handle vertical stress like that than a pony's is."

We looked up as we all heard a familiar, raspy chuckle. "Twilight, you're such an egghead!" Twilight glared up at her friend, who was perched on a cloud above us. "Besides, if he was gonna hit hard, he would've just called that sweet armor to cushion his fall."

Twilight was about to open her mouth to say something, but Rainbow Dash yelped and jumped off her cloud as a torrent of rain poured down on her. We all looked further up to see none other than Derpy grinning from over top of a raincloud that she had somehow snuck overtop of the boisterous mare. Rainbow Dash turned around and started chasing Derpy through the air, while Derpy herself was laughing hysterically the entire time.

We watched as she miraculously avoided obstacles she would normally have plowed into, astonished at how well she flew compared to her normal klutzy self. When the two were out of sight, though we could still hear Rainbow Dash yelling, we heard a stallion clear his throat off to our collective left.

"Well, this has all been… entertaining," Shining Armor sounded less than amused. "but don't we have other things to do? Like… I don't know; teach him about his innate magic?"

Cadance rolled her eyes. "Shining Armor, you're such a stick in the mud sometimes. Besides, we agreed to teach him about that when we got back to Ponyville; and last time I checked, we were still in Canterlot."

Shining groaned, but didn't say anything else. It was still a little early for lunch, so the five of us, much to Shining's chagrin, all decided to visit the Canterlot museum. Twilight made a beeline for the Starswirl Exhibit, while Applejack headed for an agricultural display. Cadance practically dragged Shining off to an exhibit on ancient Equestrian culture, while Scootaloo and I went to see the Rare and Mythological Creatures Exhibit.

We headed down a short hallway, with Scoots still perched on my shoulders, and turned a corner into the exhibit room. There, in the middle of the room, was a wax statue of me. "Whoa! Papa, you're on display, isn't that cool?!"

Her outburst got the attention of several of the museum patrons, who all looked at me. They stared for a moment before looking back to the wax statue standing in the center of the room, posed with its feet shoulder-width apart, hands resting on the pommel of an ornate wax sword that didn't look a thing like mine.

The room was deathly silent until one of the mares squealed. "Oh my goodness! It's Sir Marshall!" The room instantly erupted into chaos as several of the mares and even a few stallions rushed me. The mare who had started the near-riot was the first to me, holding a pen and notepad in her mouth. "Can I have your autograph Sir Marshall?" I couldn't figure out how she managed to speak so perfectly with a pen and notepad clenched in her teeth.

I sighed and looked up at Scootaloo, who grinned from her perch, then back at the crowd. Fortunately, there were only around a dozen ponies in the room. "Fine. But just. This. Once. I don't want ponies seeing me as some kind of celebrity or somehow better than them, so I'll do it today, but make sure your friends know that this is a onetime deal."

The mare in front of me somehow brightened even more than she already had been. I took her utensils and put pen to paper to sign my name. "OH! Could you make that out to Suri Polomare?" I wrote a short message for her and handed her things back to her. "EEEE! My friends back in Manehatten are going to be so jealous!" She trotted off happily and the next pony stepped up.

This went on for the next ten minutes or so, and I could practically feel Scootaloo beaming above me. Finally, the last stallion trotted away, happily clutching his signed ticket stub from the museum beneath his wing. "That was awesome Papa! I can't believe you're famous now!"

I plucked her off my shoulders and set her on the ground. "Scoots, I want you to know something; what I said to that mare earlier is true, I don't want anypony thinking differently of me just because I'm a knight." She looked confused, but I cut her off before she could say anything. "Look at it this way kiddo; when it comes right down to it, I'm really not any different than the princesses' guards, except I don't do it full time like they do."

She looked at me for a long moment, then smiled. "Ok Papa, I understand. It's still pretty cool though!" She hopped up on her hind legs and I picked her up and put her back on my shoulders.

I chuckled. "Yeah… it is pretty cool. Now, how 'bout we see us some cool exhibits?" She jostled around as she nodded.

We toured the exhibits for awhile, Scootaloo bouncing around and pointing out the ones she thought were cool. We stopped and checked out several of them, many were similar if not the same as mythical creatures from Earth. "Hey, there you two. Having fun?" I turned around to see Twilight's smiling face standing at the entrance to the exhibit room.

"Hiya Twilight! There were a bunch of ponies asking for Papa's autograph earlier, it was so cool!"

Twilight gave me a look. "Don't tell me you spent the whole time signing autographs; the museum's about to close."

I gave her a shrug. "That's ok Twi, it didn't take long; I think we got to see everything worth seeing. Besides, it's not like we can't come back another day."

"That's true. So… the others are waiting at the entrance, we were thinking about heading out for dinner, wanna come with us?"

"We should go to Donut Joe's!" All three of us nearly jumped out of our skins at the exclamation.

"Pinkie Pie?! Where did you come from?!" Twilight was holding her chest as she tried to get her heart under control while I grabbed Scoots as she tumbled off of me.

The pink mare giggled. "Silly filly! I haven't seen Blakey in forever," For some reason, Twilight shuddered at the word. "So of course I had to come see him. I asked Rarity and Fluttershy if they wanted to come, but they wanted to… How did Rarity put it…? Oh yeah! 'Sorry Darling, but we simply must cleanse ourselves of our endeavors.'" Pinkie's strange impression of Rarity had us all snickering.

Twilight cleared her throat to stop herself. "Sorry Pinkie, but we'll have to ask the others if that's where they want to go first."

The others were, of course, fine with the idea of having dinner at this 'Donut Joe's'. All save for Shining Armor that is, who complained that donuts weren't healthy as a meal. We left the museum and headed into Canterlot, the city that never ceased to amaze me, both with its sheer beauty and the poor attitudes of its residents.

We arrived at Donut Joe's to find the place mostly deserted, save for a stocky tan stallion behind the counter as well as maybe six patrons at most. Pinkie hopped around and picked out a table for us then darted up to the counter before the door had even closed behind poor Shining, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

We ordered two and a half dozen donuts to split between us, taking into account that Shining would, at best, grudgingly eat one or two with some 'coaxing' from Cadance. A few minutes after we sat down, the stallion, whom I presumed to be Donut Joe himself if everything else I'd seen in my time here was anything to go by, brought out a wheeled cart with the glistening assortment of donuts all tastefully arranged around a pitcher of milk and six glasses. The stallion trotted off after wishing us a pleasant meal, and we dug in.

I grabbed a round donut with chocolate icing as my first, while Scoots grabbed a vanilla Long John. She bit into her donut and moaned around the bright red filling that oozed out around the edges of her mouth. Chuckling quietly to myself, I took a bite of my own donut and discovered that it was custard-filled, one of my favorites.

As I guessed, Shining had to be convinced to eat even one of the delicious pastries, with Cadance practically shoving a maple ring donut into his mouth, claiming he loved maple. The rest of us got a good laugh at the couple's antics, and I felt Applejack's hoof brush one hand as Twilight's brushed the other from its place across the backrest of Scootaloo's chair. I took their hooves in my hands and squeezed lightly as they smiled.

The rest of the 'meal' was fairly uneventful, with Cadance giving me some pointers on landing and the others idly chatting. Once we were done, Cadance and Shining Armor decided to call it a night, even though it was still early, and headed back to the palace. After they had left, I managed to convince Twilight to teleport the four of us up to the peak of the mountain to watch the sunset together from one of the highest points in Equestria.

"Whoa!" Our peace was disturbed by the sound of somepony crash-landing behind us. We turned around to see Rainbow Dash looking at us from her position flat on her back. "Heh heh… Sorry guys, wanted to try a new trick in the thinner air… didn't quite work out like I'd hoped." She groaned as she got to her hooves. "Whoa… awesome view; mind if I chill with you?"

After exchanging glances, Twilight beckoned our brash friend over. Scootaloo of course was all grins; it wasn't everyday she got to watch the sunset with her Papa and her idol after all. Dash trotted over and lay down in front of me, so that Scootaloo could hop up and be half on me, half on her. I began idly stroking her unkempt but soft rainbow-streaked mane. "So Dash, did you ever catch up to Derpy?"

She huffed. "No! I had no idea that klutz could fly like that. I can't figure out how she's always crashing into buildings with moves like she's got. Don't you worry, I'll get her back for drenching me!" I had the feeling that the strange laws of nature here had something to do with Derpy's escape; it was almost like the 'rule of funny' was just as real as gravity here.

By the time the sun went below the horizon, both Dash and Scoots were peacefully snoring away, while AJ and Twilight were happily snuggled up to either side of me. Applejack leaned over and whispered in my ear. "Ya know, Ah got a sneakin' suspicion Dash's up ta somethin'… Ah just can't figure out what though." The rainbow-maned Pegasus didn't even twitch as she whispered.

I shrugged lightly and whispered back. "It's hard telling with her, but if she is, I think I'll let whatever it is play out… if there really is some devious plot cooking in that rainbow noodle of hers, I want to see what it is."

As the moon began its ascent into the sky, we shook Dash and Scootaloo awake; the former of the two was more difficult, as she was apparently sleeping like a brick. Once she was finally awake, Twilight, at my request, teleported herself and Applejack to our room while Dash took off into the sky and out over Canterlot.

Scootaloo looked around. "So… how are we supposed to get down?"

I patted her head as my ethereal wings sprouted from my back. "Silly Scootaloo, we fly of course!"

Her grin practically lit up the sky. "You mean it?!"

I nodded to the beaming filly. "Yup. Thanks to that flight with Cadance, I feel much more comfortable flying now. One condition though; no tricks, I don't want to try anything risky so soon." She let out a disappointed 'Aww…', but didn't complain; in fact, she instantly brightened up again when I picked her up and spread my wings.

I stepped to the edge of the mountaintop and gulped as I realized just how high up we were. I realized there was no turning back now, and gave my wings a few experimental flaps before jumping into the air, one final flap sending us further up into the crisp air. I shifted my wings, angling us down slightly and began gliding back down the mountain, Scootaloo cheering the entire time.

We made it back to the palace without incident, though I set down near the palace entrance since I didn't know which balcony was ours from the outside. The landing itself was still a little rough, but thanks to Cadance's guidance, there was a significant improvement over my last attempt.

I dismissed the wings and we headed into the palace and up to our room, Scootaloo prancing around me and cheering about how awesome the flight was. When we entered our room, I noticed that Twilight, Applejack and even Derpy were all snuggling in bed together, apparently waiting for me.

After Scootaloo and I brushed our teeth, she headed to her bed, while I slipped into my own, my comfy blanket quickly forming around me. When Twilight and Derpy were gently breathing, I felt a hoof caress my inner thigh. "Ah got plans for y'all when we get back ta Ponyville cowpoke…"

I shivered when I felt a soft set of lips lightly kissing my neck. I had to bite my lip so I didn't moan when a warm, wet tongue slid across my sensitive flesh. I turned and kissed Applejack on the lips, the sweet flavor of apples perpetually on her lips mixing beautifully with her minty toothpaste.

Our mouths opened and our tongues found one another, dancing and swirling around as our passions flared. The rest of the world seemed to fall away as we lay there, each baring our passions for the other. My hand slid down to her flank, wonderfully toned by a lifetime of working in the field, and I began caressing the soft flesh surrounding her cutie mark.

Before I knew it, I felt a gentle hoof pressing on my chest. When we broke from one another, Applejack was panting, and I could tell she didn't want to stop any more than I did. "Whoa there pardner…" She half-whispered, half-panted. "As much as Ah don't want to, Ah think we oughta cool things off fer now. It won't do no good ta wake tha others like this, especially not Scootaloo."

As much as I didn't want her to be, I knew she was right, so I nodded and gave one last peck on the lips as I pulled her a little closer; she cuddled into me and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we would be heading back to Ponyville, and Cadance and Shining Armor would be giving me my first foray into combat magic.