AuthorGenesis - I'd love to be able to answer all of your reviews individually, but alas, my busy life doesn't allow me time for that. I will say though, that I enjoyed reading them. I will also say that if you want 'kinky stuff', just read my side project (when I finally post it :P )

PyraohXBlaze - Some people (and ponies) just can't take the heat. And don't worry, you'll find out about the others soon enough. (Blake and Luna actually haven't even made the announcement yet either)

FallenDeity14 - To us, yes; but she needs a father-figure more than a sibling, and so that's how her mind identifies Blake (I have first-hand experience with this kind of situation)

ShadowfireAngel - If she'd allowed him time, I'm sure BLake would've told her that's how he'd react

xel101 - Yeah... you have to remember though; ponies tend to be far more expressive with their emotions than we are

lonewolf4709 - And I don't plan to stop amazing anytime soon ;)

Guest - In the hot tub you mean? It's in the basement; it doesn't have any windows, only a few small vents to collect the steam to be filtered and reused in the tub, and those don't even lead outside

centaurus2 - Well, this fortunately isn't Highlander, because there can be more than one! XD

DragonLovingBrony - Well, in her defense, Cadance knows her husband well enough to know when he's about to stick his hoof in his mouth :P As for springing that on him; would waiting really have made a difference?

Guest - Yeah... that might not go over so well. Though it does make one wonder just how similar the two really are...

bobfromsiam99 - Lol let's just hope Blake hasn't created a monster in Cadance ;)

killer43penguin - And I plan to keep that trend going ;)

TurnupGrain43 - Hmm... perhaps...

StacheKing - I'm honored to be reviewed by an internet celebrity :D As for your critiques... I'm not sure I could answer without sounding defensive when I don't mean to be, but I'll give it a shot. Suffice it to say that my pacing seems wonky because I'm attempting to model it on real life; it's unpredictable and sometimes things just happen out-of-the-blue. As for the timeframe, the story is set somewhere in the middle of season three. And Tirek is mentioned here because... well, to put it simply, Blake's presence is disrupting the canon flow of things.

PBJFanFiction - What can I say? Blake deserves a bit of downtime after that business in the Everfree.

KillerWoW - I figured as much, I was just messing with you:P And Don't worry Pinkie, you'll be in the story again soon!

Mikalzilla - Did you leave an almost identical review as a Guest? Because there is one... I actually had to do a double-take when I got to yours because I could've sworn I'd already answered that exact review

theflammablefiredragon - Then I have done my job ;)

Ponified Bacon Boss - Hmm... not sure what's gong to happen that far into the future... And did Scootaloo kick your puppy or something?

coldshadow 92 - Lol well, here's more!

A/N - Howdy everypony! Here we are again with another installment of A Second Chance! For those of you who have been patiently waiting to read it, the first chapter of my side project should be going up tomorrow; I actually had a decent amount of free time over the weekend, and managed to get quite a bit done on it. As always, don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly; enjoy!

We didn't see Shining Armor for the rest of the night, and while I was tempted to go find him to talk sense at him, I knew that he wouldn't be in a listening mood, so I let him be. Instead, Luna and I focused on keeping Cadance's mind off of her husband's reaction; telling jokes, talking about Twilight and the others, and planning my training regimen.

Cadance had wanted to focus on my shield spell first, but I convinced her that I had a decent grasp of it with a few demonstrations, starting by lifting a globe of water out of the hot tub and releasing it above Luna's head, drenching her completely. Cadance had been skeptical at first, but I also convinced her that I was even more capable when I wasn't inebriated.

When she agreed to focus on other aspects of my magic, I asked her to train me in healing magic first and foremost. She had other ideas in mind of course, but it didn't take her very long to figure out my motivation for wanting to learn healing magic over defensive magic, and she agreed to teach me how to access the healing portion of my innate magic first thing in the morning.

We stayed in the hot tub until well into Luna's night, finally deciding to get out and dry ourselves off and head to bed when Cadance started yawning almost constantly. Luna and I escorted her up to the room she would be sharing with Shining. When she opened the door, we saw the stallion sitting on the bed, facing away from us, the only source of light being his gently glowing horn. Cadance trotted slowly into the room, and Luna and I left them to talk things out in peace.

We entered the master bedroom and I closed the door quietly behind me. The room was pitch black, and so I activated my aurasight, wincing at the realization that using it might have cost me, though I sighed quietly when it didn't. I remembered that I had been using other magic just fine, and guessed that all of my magic was intact after Falathiel used my own magic to cast a healing spell on me.

Luna and I crept into bed, sliding in carefully so as not to awaken Twilight and Derpy, who were both sleeping peacefully. I settled into my usual position and was quickly swarmed by a trio of warm, soft bodies as Luna joined me on the bed. I let out a quiet sigh and allowed myself to drift off to sleep.

Once again I found myself in the same starry plane that I always seemed to encounter the ancient wizard. "So, it seems you passed, with flying colors I might add."

I quirked an eyebrow, already having a good guess of the answer to my question. "And what 'test' would that be?"

He smirked and nodded his head to the side, a flat panel forming and displaying a familiar tree-hut belonging to a very familiar zebra. "Why, the test of what you would sacrifice for one you claimed to love."

Even though this was a dream, I still felt my blood pressure spike at the admission. "You mean… you knew Scootaloo was going to get hurt, going to nearly die, and you didn't tell me?!"

He nodded, a solemn expression on his face. "Yes… but that was not my decision to make; I knew full well that you would sacrifice your vision, and much more than that, to save the life of your filly, but I was given orders to test you, and make sure you knew nothing about it."

So… you knew that the book was what I really needed, but you told me about the flower instead so that I could use it to save Scootaloo." I stopped for a second as his words sunk in. "Who would order you to do something like that, and why?"

He shook his head, bells jingling merrily as always. "I can't tell you that, not yet. I've said too much already, in fact. Suffice it to say that even though you may not feel like it, and rightly so, the powers that be have a vested interest in you, and want to see you succeed. But, that doesn't mean they can, or will, make things easy on you either."

I smirked ruefully at the stallion. "You just love to talk in riddles, don't you?"

He returned my smirk with a playful grin. "But of course; it's so much fun to watch others try to puzzle out what I'm saying." His face suddenly turned serious, and he let out a small sigh. "As for the book… yes and no; we knew the book was what you really needed, that much is true, but the powers that be wanted you to believe that the flower was your goal, and that you were giving it up to save Scootaloo. In fact, either one would have restored your sight, but they wanted to test your resolve by making you choose between your sight and the life of your daughter… and she would have died had you not given her the flower. But enough of the past; I need to talk to you about one of your marefriends, Twilight Sparkle. You must make haste with your training in the healing arts, she is-"

I was jolted out of the dream by a scream coming from down the hallway from my room; I recognized the scream instantly as Scootaloo's. Fearing the worst, and pushing aside Starswirl's warning, I leapt out of bed, using levitation to tear Falathiel off of the wall pegs she rested on and bringing her over to me even as I dashed out of the door. Time seemed to slow down as I neared the door to the fillies' room, and my mind raced as I lay my hand on the knob, twisting it and throwing the door open without a moment's hesitation.

The instant the door was open, I kicked on my aurasight, keeping alert for anything that may be in the room. Before I took a single step into the fillies' room, something slammed into my chest, bowling me to the ground. I looked down to see Scootaloo clutching tightly to my chest with all four hooves.

Even through the pitch-blackness, I could see the terror in her eyes. "Papa! The timberwolves are back! They want to eat me!"

Before I had a chance to get back to my feet, I heard several sets of clambering hoofsteps from my right, as well as the telltale wood-on-wood clacking of Aurora's paws to my left. I stroked her mane as I scanned the room with my aurasight. When I was sure the room was safe, I looked down to her. "It's alright Scootaloo, it was just a nightmare…"

Scootaloo turned her tear-filled gaze to Luna. "Mama, I thought you were supposed to keep ponies from having nightmares! Why didn't you keep me safe from the timberwolves?!" Her tone was clearly more pleading than accusatory, but Luna winced back all the same.

"I-I am not sure Scootaloo… I didn't sense that you were having a nightmare." Luna looked down at the floor, face screwed up in thought. "Strange… that has never happened before. I promise you Scootaloo, I will do all that I can to make sure you don't have any more nightmares."

I stroked her mane and kissed her forehead. "And you know I'll always keep you safe from anything that tries to hurt you Scoots."

She clutched me tighter and buried her face in my chest. "I know Papa… you saved me from them the first time. It was just… so scary… it felt like they were really about to… to… eat me…"

I hugged her tightly to me. "Shh… It's ok now Scoots, it was just a bad dream. No timberwolves are breaking into this house; your Papa made sure this place was built like a fortress."

She unburied her head and looked back up at me. "Can… can I sleep with you tonight Papa?"

I nodded and kissed her forehead again. "Of course you can kiddo." I looked over to Dinky to see that Derpy had somehow gone past us and was now comforting her confused little sister. "Do you want to sleep with us too Dinky?"

The little unicorn pulled back from her sister's hug. "No thanks Daddy, I'm ok." She looked back to her big sister, who was fawning over her as though she had been the one to scream. "Really sis, I'm ok! Scootaloo just startled me, that's all." I actually couldn't tell if she was telling the truth or putting on a brave face.

I stood up, carefully cradling Scoots to my chest as I did. Then, still carrying her, I turned and started walking back down the hallway towards the master bedroom, followed by a procession of mares. I set Scootaloo down just inside the room. "You go on ahead Scoots, I want to talk to Luna for a second." The little filly nodded and scampered into the room.

Everyone else filed into the room after her, save Luna, who's low-hung head wasn't lost on me. "I… I honestly do not know what happened… I have never experienced a pony having a nightmare that I was not alerted to before."

I patted her on the back and motioned to the bedroom. "It's ok Luna, everyone has an off day once in awhile. Besides, it was probably just a fluke, or maybe something that you couldn't have controlled anyway."

She suddenly looked worried. "That's what I am afraid of; the realm of dreams is my domain, there should be nothing that is beyond my control…"

I really didn't know what to tell her at this point; I wanted to comfort her, but I barely understood how her dream magic worked, so I had nothing that I really could say. "Come on Lulu, let's get back to bed, we can talk more about this in the morning, when we have clear heads and we can think about what happened properly."

She was silent for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Alright… you are probably right… it may be that I was too overcome with the emotions caused by today's events."

I ushered her into the room, and was about to follow when Cadance popped her head out of the guest room they were staying in. "Is everything alright? We thought we heard a scream."

I was about to ask why they hadn't done anything about it sooner, when her appearance made the reason clear; she looked disheveled, her mane was a mess, it looked like her coat was matted with sweat, and she looked exhausted, but not like she had just suffered a rude awakening. I felt a smirk crease my features at the realization. "So… I assume he said 'yes'?"

Cadance looked puzzled for a moment until she caught her reflection in a picture frame across the hall from the door. Her pink face lit up a bright red, and she gave me an embarrassed smile. "I um… it's really that easy to tell?"

I chuckled and shook my head. "Oh yeah. I've seen that look enough times to know what it means. I bet you two cast some sort of spell to mute the sound, didn't you?" She nodded slowly, but didn't say anything. "Hey, what you two do behind closed doors is your business, so I won't say anything about it if you won't."

She gave me a grateful nod. "Thank you." She started to pull back into the room. "And yes, he agreed to take some of my blood." She had closed the door again before I could even say 'congratulations'.

I shrugged and went back to the master bedroom, where I cuddled up with my mares, Scootaloo quickly taking up residence on my chest, curling up like a cat and quickly falling asleep. I wrapped my arms around her and allowed the calm of the night to swallow me up.

I woke up for the day to find it dark, as usual, though I noticed that two bodies were missing from the massive bed; Luna, who I wholly expected, and, oddly enough, Twilight. I was about to dismiss Twilight's absence as something simple, like not being able to sleep, when Starswirl's partial warning about her popped back into my mind.

Wanting to find her quickly, I activated my aurasight as I got dressed for the day and spread it throughout the house, glad that I could still spread it that far even with Falathiel dormant, though I had to push the question of why I still could to the back of my mind for the time being.

As my aurasight spread, I felt the presence of everyone else that was supposed to be here; Derpy and Scootaloo were still sleeping peacefully in the master bedroom, while little Dinky, who rolled over and curled up into a ball as my spell passed over her, slept in the room she and Scootaloo shares. I even found Luna sitting in the downstairs study, drinking from a teacup and reading. She looked up from her book and a frown creased her beautiful face as she felt the familiar tingle of my spell in her horn.

After scanning the entire house and coming up empty-handed, I decided to go down and ask Luna if she knew anything. When I got to the base of the stairs, I found that she was there, waiting for me. "Is everything alright, my love? I could feel your aurasight spell."

I made my way to the base of the stairs and gave her a tender kiss on the lips. "Don't worry about me Love, I can still see, I was just trying to find Twilight."

"That is a relief. Though, why were you looking for her with your aurasight, is something wrong?"

I shrugged and shook my head. "I'm really not sure; last night I had another visit from our bearded friend, and he said something about Twilight. He said that I should hurry with my studies in healing magic, but Scootaloo woke me up before he could finish what he was saying, so I have no idea what's going on."

She nodded. "I see. Well, you can rest assured my love; she left for the library this morning, she did not get a chance to talk with her young dragon yesterday, and so wished to make up for lost time."

I kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks Luna. I think I'll go see her, just to make sure she's alright. I should be back before too long, so start thinking about what you want for breakfast."

She smiled and nodded. "Do not be too long, my love, my stomach shall be counting the seconds until your return."

I chuckled and headed out into town and towards the library. The chill of the predawn air was strangely invigorating, and I found myself lamenting the fact that I wasn't able to just take a leisurely stroll through town and just soak in the calm, cool morning.

I made a beeline for the library, though I got several curious stares and even more friendly waves and greetings. I couldn't deny that it felt good to be back in the friendly little town, and I was grateful that everyone seemed to have forgotten the incident involving my darkest secret awhile back.

"Hey dude! I haven't seen you in, like, forever! Where ya been?" I turned around at the familiar voice and came face-to-face with a familiar pair of purple shades as their owner reared up and put her stark white hooves on my shoulders.

I shrugged as she hopped back down. "Well, long story short, I had to go into the Everfree to find a flower that could fix my eyes."

Vinyl raised her trademark shades up over her eyes. "Dude… You went out there, just to find some flower?!"

"Well, there's more to the story than that, but I'll have to tell you later, I'm actually on my way to the library to find someone." Ponyville's signature DJ gave me a skeptical look. "Tell you what; I'll drop by your place and tell you and 'Tavi all about it. You can even invite Lyra over if you want."

Vi popped her head forward and her stylish glasses dropped back into place. "Alright… but I'm gonna hold ya to that Blake." I gave her a nod, and she turned to walk off. "Oh, and be there around eight if you can, I'll make sure 'Tavi has some free time by then." She trotted off before I could acknowledge her.

I turned around myself and resumed my course for the library. The place was one of the easiest buildings to find in Ponyville; being not only taller than many of the squat buildings around town, but also the town's only tree-building, not counting Zecora's hut.

I made the rest of the trip without further incident, save for more friendly waves. I rested a hand on the handle, and opened the door. I stepped inside to find the place as dark as a dungeon, not so much as a candle lit in the whole place. "Hey Twi, you here?" I asked in a quiet whisper. "How about you Spike?"

I turned on my aurasight and started walking through the main room of the library, careful not to trip over one of the seemingly endless piles of books strewn about the floor. I pushed my aurasight further, encompassing the loft, and saw that there was indeed somepony up there, though if it was Twilight, her aura was the wrong color; it had intensified to a vibrant purple rather than the mare in question's usual, subdued mulberry, and seemed to have strands of pinkish red flitting through it.

I carefully crept up the stairs leading to the loft and peeked my head over the top step, looking around with both my normal sight, as well as my spell. I spotted the aura I had seen before, curled up in Twilight's bed, tossing and turning as it's owner groaned in what sounded like a mix of pleasure and pain. I could tell from the voice that it was indeed Twilight in that bed.

I traced her foreleg down from the shoulder, thinking that she was clutching her stomach in pain, but soon realized that her hoof went lower than that, and the faint, wet sounds that suddenly reached my ears coupled with the aroma that just as suddenly wafted out from under the covers made it all too obvious what she was doing. I could hear her mumbling under her breath, but the only thing I could make out was my own name.

In my mind, I wanted to say something to her, to ask if she was ok, but my body wanted me to ask a very different question. I suddenly became aware of a strange sensation; almost like my body was trying to override my mind, and something about the situation suddenly felt very wrong. Luna had explained to me what happened to a mare during her heat cycle, so I would be ready when the time came, and while I had never seen it for myself, I knew enough from what she'd said to know that this was very different.

I turned around slowly and, pushing aside my rising baser desires, made my way quietly back out of the library. I didn't realize until I'd soundlessly closed the door behind me that my heart was beating so hard that I could hear the blood rushing through my ears.

I turned around and braced my back against the door, letting out a huge sigh as my back hit the wood. "Hey Blake! I'm glad you all made it back ok! Did you just talk to Twilight?" My eyes, which I hadn't realized I'd closed, shot open, and I looked down to see Spike standing in front of me with a bag of groceries in his claws. "She was acting all weird this morning; she sent me out of the library with this list of stuff to get, and all these weird places to get it. The weird thing is, I could've made a trip to the marketplace and gotten all this stuff in one or two spots!"

I reached down and patted the little drake on the shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about it too much Bud; Twilight's been through a lot this past week or so; I think she just needs some time to herself to… sort things out, that's all. Come on, let's go back to my place for a bit, and we'll wait for her to come find you. I'm sure she'll be right as rain once she's had a chance to 'unwind' by herself."

The little drake seemed skeptical, looking me up and down for a long moment before nodding his head. "Sure! I heard Princess Cadance and Shining Armor were in town, and I haven't seen them since the wedding! I'd love a chance to ask them about married life!" I knew exactly the reason he wanted to ask about that, and I had to fight to keep my mouth shut, lest I break his tiny little dragon heart.

I shooed the little drake in front of me, intent on making sure he didn't change his mind and head back to the library when I wasn't looking. Twilight was basically a sister to him, and who knew what finding her in that state would have done to his fragile psyche.

"Hey there Blake, long-time no-see! When did you get back into town?" I looked off to my right to see a certain pink-maned blacksmith trotting towards me, dirty frock still draped around her neck.

She reached me and gave me a quick hug. "Yesterday actually. I would've come by sooner, but-"

She stopped me with a raised hoof. "Say no more; after what you must've gone through just to fix your eyesight, I'd say you deserve a few days of downtime." Her words caught me off-guard, and I didn't know what to say. She giggled and elbowed me in the ribs. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

I cleared my head with a vigorous shake. "Yeah… you could say that. So, how goes the life of Hammer Hoof?"

She grinned widely. "Funny you should mention that… Thanks to you, business has been up so high I've hired three new helping hoofs just to keep up with all the orders!" She did a little hop in her excitement. "I actually have enough bits saved up that I've hired a contractor to remodel and expand the smithy!"

I found her grin infectious. "That's great Hammer Hoof! When should I stop back by to help out?"

Hammer Hoof's face turned down into a frown and she rubbed her leg with a hoof. "That's actually the thing… with three new helping hoofs around the shop, I don't really need a fourth set…" I felt my own mood quickly nosediving at the news. "That was the bad news… now, here's the good news; since you made all this happen, and didn't even ask for a single bit in return for all those formulas and alloys you gave me, I've decided… to make you a full partner! You'll get just as much say in what the shop does as I do, and, you'll get a handsome salary to boot!"

I stood there, dumbfounded by the announcement; I was already getting more than a fair share of bits in royalties from her shop, and from the sound of things, I was about to get even more. Normally, I would never have taken her up on the offer, but I knew the fiery forge-master well enough to know that 'no' wasn't in her vocabulary at times like this.

Hammer Hoof looked down to Spike. "Hee hee… Looks like I broke 'im." She trotted past and nudged my side as she went. "I'll just leave you to soak all that in. Ta-ta for now… Partner!" Before I could even recover enough to pick my jaw up off the ground, she was gone.

I finally managed to pull myself together, and Spike and I resumed our course for my house. We were right at the edge of town when I happened to look up and see a familiar shock of rainbow hair poking out over the edge of a cloud. I looked down to Spike. "You go on ahead, I need to talk to Rainbow Dash about something." I spoke quietly enough not to wake the sleeping mare; after all, she was in for a rude awakening…