Reviewers - To save myself sounding redundant or repetitive, I'd like to thank KillerWow, Hybrid Battleship Infinity210, and GhostChris for their reviews. I always appreciate feedback, and I love hearing that you're enjoying the story so far. I know it's goin' kinda slow right now, but the 'adventure' portion of this adventure/romance will be picking up fairly soon, so stay tuned for that.

A/N - Hello again everypony an welcome to the latest installment of A Second Chance. Well, the readers have spoken and at six to two, double-update wins! Unfortunately, it may take me some time to upload the bonus update, as my computer crashed right after I uploaded this chapter to the Doc Manager and refuses to restart; I am currently editing this chapter with the Author's Note and shout-out to the reviewers from my phone and have no access to the other chapters that I have typed. I'd like to apologize to my readers for this inconvenience, but unfortunately there is little I can do about it at the moment.

We followed the princesses down the halls of the castle to our next destination. "Since it's so late, we would like for you all to remain here for the night and return to your homes in the morning." Celestia said while turning her head around to address us. However, before we show you to your rooms, we'd like to invite you to dine with us for the evening if you're feeling up to it."

There was a quiet chorus of agreements from the others, and I agreed as well; it had been several hours since I had last eaten, and I was getting fairly hungry. We were led down another hall shortly after that ended in a pair of fairly large wooden double-doors. The doors opened to reveal a medium-sized dining hall; it was sparsely decorated and seemed to be made for entertaining personal guests. The table in the middle of the room looked to seat twelve, having five chairs on either side and one bigger, more ornate chair at each end.

We quickly chose a seat and stood by it; I chose the center seat on one side, with Twilight taking the seat on my left and Applejack taking the one on my right. Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash took the seats directly across from me and Fluttershy sat to the far right on my side of the table. Celestia took the end chair to my left with Luna taking the other end chair. Once the princesses were seated, we all followed suit. Celestia took a small bell that I hadn't noticed and rung it daintily with her magic, causing a soft, smooth chime to issue from the bell.

Moments later, servants began bringing trays covered with silver dome lids into the small dining hall and setting them on the table before removing the lids to reveal a plethora of different foods, from simple salads to dishes containing various flowers and vegetables; some of which I couldn't name, but smelled delicious all the same. "Please, help yourselves; this a casual dinner, there is no need to stand on ceremony here." Celestia said warmly.

With that, I began placing various dishes onto the plate that had been set before me. It wasn't long until I noticed that the others were only looking at the food, not making a move to take any for themselves. "What's the matter, aren't any of you hungry? After a long day like today, I figured you'd all be starving."

Twilight spoke first. "Was… was what we saw today real, Blake? Is that really what you told me about before?"

I sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yes Twilight, that's what really happened. I don't like it either, but being depressed and starving ourselves won't make it go away."

She sighed, "You're right, it's just hard to believe that something like that could really happen." This seemed to sink in with the others too, and they all began taking food for themselves.

After a few minutes, whether it be the wonderful flavor of the food or something else, they all started to cheer up again; and soon after, with a little help from the princesses, the dining hall was filled with the sounds of pleasant dinner conversation. I was still amazed to find that there were plants that tasted like various meats to ponies. I found the flavors of steak, chicken, turkey, pork and even venison among the various plants being served by our royal hosts.

"Alright, I believe it's time to show everypony to their rooms for the night." Celestia stated when it looked like everyone was done eating. She and Luna then proceeded to show us out of the dining hall and down another corridor.

We turned into another hallway; this one seemed to have several doors lining either side of it. "Alright, here we are. You may choose whichever rooms you wish, they are all the same." Celestia said with a smile before she bid us goodnight.

Luna hesitated for a moment. "Goodnight Blake; I am happy to see you again, though I wish we could have spent more time together…"

I knelt down and hugged her goodnight. "It's alright Luna, I won't be leaving right away in the morning, maybe we can spend some time together before I leave."I tightened my embrace slightly. "And thank you for what you did for me… Twilight told me about how you changed the phase of the moon to give those searching for me more light. If it wasn't for you, I might not even be here right now…"

She returned my embrace. "You are most welcome Blake, we have not known each other long, but you have endeared yourself to me, and I would hate to see tragedy befall you." She then broke the embrace and looked me in the eye with a smile and a slight blush. "Sleep well Blake Marshall, I look forward to seeing you in the morning." She said as she gave me another innocent smile, then turned to leave.

After she left, I looked around briefly before I picked one of the rooms on the left towards the center, while the girls each picked whichever room suited them. I took a quick look around my room, noticing it had a bookshelf with a variety of books on it. I picked one on Equestrian history and set it on the bed to read before I went to sleep. I then made my way to the bathroom. It seemed that these rooms were meant for those who traveled light, as it had soaps and shampoos for bathing, towels, even toothpaste and a prepackaged toothbrush.

All in all it felt much like a hotel room bathroom, though nowhere near as cramped; the bathroom itself was actually quite spacious, and even had a shower stall with a sliding glass door instead of a curtain. I unwrapped the toothbrush and proceeded to ready myself for bed, absent-mindedly opening a drawer looking for bed clothes, finding that the dresser was unsurprisingly devoid of clothing.

I laid down on the bed in just my boxer-briefs and picked up the book I had laid out before. After flipping through it for what felt like an hour, I came across a section about a being known as Nightmare Moon. The section detailed how Princess Luna became jealous of her sister and angry at their subjects for what she saw as shunning the night she worked so hard to create. This jealousy and anger overpowered her and manifested in a physical form known as Nightmare Moon. It said that Celestia was forced to use the power of a set of ancient artifacts known as the Elements of Harmony to banish this being, and her sister with it, to the moon for a thousand years.

It went on to detail how six friends, naming them as: Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack, rediscovered the Elements and used them to free Luna from Nightmare Moon when she returned to the world. It said that the six were now the wielders of these artifacts, known as the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and could call upon their power in times of need to defend Equestria from threats.

Once I finished reading this section, I decided that it was time to turn in for the night, so I turned out the lamp on the bedside table where I had set my book and made myself comfortable. I was drifting into the state of mind between sleep and awareness when I heard a quiet knock on my door. A moment later, the door opened, revealing the silhouetted head of a unicorn.

"Blake, are you awake?" the unicorn, whose voice I recognized to be Twilight's, whispered.

"Yeah, I'm still up, what's up Twi?" I asked.

This prompted her to step into the room, her horn glowing briefly as she shut the door with her magic, plunging the room back into darkness. I felt that same strange pressure again. "I couldn't sleep, I kept thinking about what the princesses showed us today…" She trailed off. "Could I maybe… sleep in here tonight? I… I just don't want to be alone tonight, and I'd feel safe being close to you…"

She couldn't see it, but a gentle smile played across my face. "Sure Twi, I don't have a problem with that, though we'll have to share the bed, I doubt any of this furniture would be very comfortable to sleep on."

I couldn't see her smile, but I could practically feel the relief coming from her.

She didn't waste any time in making her way over to the bed and hopping up into it, shuffling under the covers and making herself comfortable. She ended up rolling onto her side facing me. "Blake?" she asked, waiting for a response before continuing. "How do you do it? How do you act so happy when so much tragedy has befallen you?"

I turned my head to face her; I could just make out the glint of her eyes in the faint moonlight. "It's not easy Twi, but there's a saying that my granddad taught me: yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery; but today, today is a gift, that's why it's called the 'present'."

Twilight sighed next to me. "He sounds wise."

I nodded. "He was, the things he taught me are what's helping me through this; that you can't move forward, towards the future if you're constantly looking back at the past; you shouldn't forget it, but you can't focus on it either. He also taught me that when the foundations of your world have turned to sand, your true friends will always be there, like a bedding of rock to keep it from crashing down around you." I took a deep breath before I continued. "You all don't know how much your friendship means to me Twi… I don't know what I would have done if you all weren't here to support me; it's even more amazing that you're willing to do that for someone you barely know, most humans wouldn't have done that…"

"Ponies aren't like that; we wouldn't let somepony suffer if we could help. Besides, we may not have known you long, but we're still your friends."

I nodded sleepily. "You've all been great friends too, I'm glad the princesses brought me here, even with all that's happened."

Twilight sighed, also sounding sleepy. "Me too Blake, I bet all kinds of new things are going to start happening too." She ended her sentence with a yawn.

I chuckled before I yawned as well. "Sounds like this pair of friends should make friends with some friendly counting sheep."

Twilight giggled. "OK, goodnight you goofball."

"Goodnight Twilight." I said, and we both drifted off to peaceful sleep.

I came back to the world of the waking the next morning to see that the sun had risen and was somewhere over the horizon, judging by the amount of light filtering through the curtains over the rooms only window. I also noticed a strange, yet somewhat familiar, pressure across my chest. I looked down to see that Twilight was still sleeping peacefully, though she had her left foreleg draped across my abdomen and her head was resting on my chest; the rest of her body was snuggled against my side cutely. The way she was cuddled against me reminded me of many a peaceful morning waking up with my wife back on Earth. I quickly pushed the bittersweet memories from my mind, focusing instead on the purple mare embracing me in her sleep. I decided not to wake her just yet, instead wrapping my arm gingerly around her and returning the embrace while using my right hand to ever-so-lightly caress her silky, soft mane.

We laid there like that for what must have been an hour before Twilight finally started stirring, slowly awakening. Her violet eyes slowly opened and she looked up at me before giving me a sleepy smile. Her eyes then snapped open and she quickly moved away from me, blushing fiercely and stuttering out an apology. "Ohmygosh, I-I'm so s-sorry Blake; please don't be mad!" she seemed to be avoiding eye contact with me.

I reached over and cupped her cheek with my hand and moved her head so she was looking me in the eye. I gave her a reassuring smile. "It's ok Twi, I've been up for some time, if I wasn't ok with that, I would have said so sooner. Besides, it actually felt kinda nice to have someone sleeping next to me like that."

This caused a smile to creep its way across her face. "You mean you're really ok with me snuggling up to you like that?"

I nodded. "Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

Her smile brightened. "Thanks Blake, that means a lot."

I smiled back and began getting out of bed. "You're very welcome Twi; now, what say we get ourselves ready and get some breakfast?"

She hopped out of bed after me as her stomach growled, causing me to chuckle. "That sounds like a 'yes' to me." Twilight just nodded with a blush.

We made our way out into the long corridor, and together, managed to find our way back to the dining hall from the night before. It turned out that Twilight had been here before, but it had been so long that the route was fuzzy in her memory. When we opened the doors, we found both princesses already seated in the same places as the previous night, seemingly waiting for their morning meal to arrive. It only took them a moment to notice us after we entered, and they turned to regard us warmly. "Good morning Blake, good morning Twilight; I trust you slept well?" Celestia inquired.

Twilight and I smiled and nodded. "We did Princess, thank you for accommodating us for the night."

Celestia smiled at this, "It was no trouble my faithful student. Now, would the two of you be interested in joining us? I assume that's why you came to the dining hall."

I nodded again. "It is indeed Celestia; I think I can safely say that we'd be delighted to join you." Twilight and I took our seats, with her sitting on my left, closer to her mentor, and me choosing to sit nearer to Luna, who seemed thrilled by this.

The four of us made idle chitchat until the serving ponies brought out a few covered dishes. There were significantly fewer than the last time, but it still seemed too much for just the two of them; I could only guess that they were expecting us to join them this morning. The meal seemed fairly simple, English muffins with jam, pancakes with syrup, hashbrowns, eggs over-easy, and oatmeal with fruit on the side. I decided on an egg sandwich and a small bowl of oatmeal with some of the hashbrowns. The servers then returned with glasses of orange juice for everyone save Celestia, who took tea with her meal instead.

As we ate, Luna turned to me. "Blake, would you like to go out into the city with me today? I would very much like to give you a tour of Canterlot while the opportunity presents itself."

"Sure Luna, I'd like that, it'll give us an opportunity to spend time together as well." I then looked over to Twilight. "Would you mind explaining to our other friends what's going on?"

Twilight nodded with a smile. "Sure Blake, we all need to be heading back to Ponyville soon anyway, everypony has jobs they need to get back to." She had just finished her meal and hopped down from her chair. "In fact, I should probably get them all together so we can all get ready to leave."

Celestia then spoke up. "I shall accompany you Twilight; I wish to see you and your friends off after their visit." And with that, she and Twilight said their goodbyes and left through the same doors we had come through before, leaving Luna and I alone in the dining room.

I stood and with an exaggerated bow, I offered my hand to the lunar princess. "Shall we M'Lady?"

She placed a hoof on my offered hand and stood with a giggle. "We shall good sir." She said with a smirk.

Luna led me out of the castle and onto the main streets of Canterlot, showing me many of the different sites, such as: Joe's Donut Shop, according to her one of the best places in Equestria to get good donuts, the art gallery, the opera house, a racetrack where a team of apparently elite Pegasai called the Wonderbolts hold derbies, and the Canterlot Gardens, where exclusive garden parties are often held by Canterlot's elite. I rolled my eyes at that last one, having no interest in that sort of affair; Luna seemed to agree.

Luna stopped and turned to me while we were walking through the gardens, back towards the castle, as she wanted to show me more of its grounds, like the hedge maze. "Blake, I have a… request… you may feel free to say no, as it is only a request." She took a deep breath, which made me somewhat nervous. "I have heard of your martial prowess from the letters Twilight Sparkle has sent my sister, as well as from Twilight herself; I would like to see what you are capable of for myself, if you are willing to indulge me."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not entirely sure what you're asking Luna, do you want me to strike a few poses or something?"

She rubbed a foreleg with the opposite hoof nervously. "Actually, I was hoping you would be willing to demonstrate your skills in a… fight…" She practically whispered the word. I was afraid of that.

I stood there for a moment, contemplating. "What did you have in mind?"

She seemed to brighten up at that. "Nothing dangerous, I assure you, a simple hoof-to-hoof… or hand, in this case… sparring match between you and one of my Lunar Guard, so that I may observe how a human fights compared to a pony."

I considered her request for a moment. "Well, as long as it's unarmed and it's to the yield, I don't really see a problem with it, though considering how little training I have compared to one of your guards, don't be too surprised when I get trounced."

Luna grinned widely at this. "Wonderful! Follow me to the castle training grounds and I'll introduce you to your sparring partner." She exclaimed happily before leading me back towards the castle, a noticeable bounce in her step. She sure is excited to see me get whooped.

A short time later, we arrived at the training grounds, which looked much like I expected, with battered training dummies, sparring arenas of varying sizes, and weapon and armor racks here and there. Luna turned to me again when we arrived. "Please wait here Blake, and I'll fetch your sparring partner." She said before trotting off.

A few moments later, she returned with a strange looking unicorn mare walking beside her; she was obviously a mare, what struck me as odd were her eyes and ears. Her eyes were a pale yellow with slitted pupils, much like a cat's, and her ears had a bat-like look to them, with tufts of fur at the ends. She wore pale bluish-gray hoofcaps very similar to Luna's, and she had an ornate breastplate with sweeping sides and a jewel or crystal of some sort that appeared to be a blue slitted eye set at its center. She wasn't wearing a helmet, and I could see that her mane was fairly short, much like Rainbow Dash's and was the same bluish-gray as her hoofcaps. Her coat was a solid smoky gray and complimented the rest of her look well.

When they stopped in front of me, the new pony turned to Luna. "This the new meat you mentioned?" she asked in a condescending manner.

Luna seemed to ignore this and nodded. "Yes, this is Blake Marshall, and I would like to see how well he can fight. Blake, this is my guard captain, Midnight Flash; she will be your opponent." I eyed her appraisingly. "Don't worry, Midnight is aware of your lack of magical abilities, and has been instructed to refrain from using any of her own abilities."

Midnight Flash gestured with her head towards an empty arena. "C'mon Meat, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can get back to drilling my recruits."

We made our way to the indicated arena, which seemed to be about five meters in diameter, and took our places on opposite sides of the start area in the center. Midnight removed her armor and hoofcaps and did a few quick loosening exercises before taking her ready stance. "Ready to go down hard, Meat?" She jeered.

My only reply was to fall into my own ready stance, waiting for the starting signal. Luna stepped up to the edge of the circle. "Remember, this is to be a test of abilities, not an attempt to inflict undue harm." She raised her right hoof into the air. "Aaannd… BEGIN!" she exclaimed as she brought her hoof down, signaling the start of the match.

Midnight and I simply stood there for a moment, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Eventually, we began circling the ring, never taking our eyes off one another. Midnight made the first move, charging me before feinting right then spinning around and trying to buck me. Fortunately this was an old trick and I was ready for it; I side-stepped her buck and grabbed both her hind legs, using her own momentum to help toss her across the arena where she landed with an 'oof'.

Midnight got back to her hooves with a slight growl and charged me again before stopping just short and digging the front of her hoof into the loose soil of the ring, flicking it at my face. I had enough time to shield my eyes from the blinding silt, but the distraction cost me a shoulder-check to my chest, staggering me backwards.

I recovered faster than Midnight however, and landed a solid right jab to her snout, causing her to stumble back, dazed. I pressed this temporary advantage and kicked her front legs out from under while simultaneously grabbing her horn and wrenching it to the side, causing her to flip onto her back.

The gray unicorn scrambled back to her hooves with an angry scowl. She charged at me full steam and lowered her head to ram me, which would likely end with me impaled on her horn. I side-stepped the charge and landed another blow to the side of her jaw as she flew past. Her scowl deepened as she turned to face me, only to see that at that time I was already charging towards her with my fist drawn back for what I hoped was the finishing strike.

Before I could strike her however, her horn glowed momentarily, causing my eyes to go wide in the instant before I was struck in the chest with a bolt of magic that felt like a cannonball; sending me flying back for what had to have been three meters or more. I had enough clarity about me to roll with my landing as I hit the ground on my back, righting myself and skidding to a stop on my feet. "THAT IS ENOUGH!" I heard Luna bellow in a voice louder than I thought she could produce.

Unfortunately for me, it was too late; Midnight Flash unleashed another, larger bolt from her horn at that instant. All I could do was close my eyes and throw my arms up and hope that would be enough to keep me from getting killed… again. I cracked an eye open a moment later, puzzled, when the impact never came to see a shimmering, golden force-field that had swirls of light blue flowing through it imposed between the guard captain and I.

I was even more puzzled when I looked over to Luna to see not only the shocked expression on her face, but that neither her nor Midnight's horns were glowing. The shield dissipated a moment later and a feeling of absolute fatigue washed over me, and the last thing I saw as the darkness embraced me once again was Luna rushing to my side.