1234andynguyen - Its surprising how much the smallest things can mean to you when they belonged to someone you care about. I can speak from experience on that one.

Guest - To be fair, this was my first foray into writing, and I've learned a lot since starting this fic. I will admit you make some good points, and If I went back to redo those early chapters, I would go about it differently. But that would change the spirit of the fanfic as a whole.

A/N - Hey there, Everycreature! Holee beanz! I honestly thought this site was dead for the longest time. It wasn't until I got a flood of new follow/favorite emails that I realized the site was back up and running. As such, I hope you enjoy this latest installment, and as always; be kind.

"Of course I don't mind you spending the evening with my sister!" Luna remarked as we walked the halls of the castle. The ceremony had ended a mere two hours ago, and the lovely mare beside me seemed to be in much better spirits, which I attributed to the catharsis of her having had a chance to say a proper farewell to her friend of old. "And I won't hear of you protesting my safeguarding your dreams for one more night, either! If you are going to spend the evening with Celestia, then I want to make sure you get a good night's sleep. It won't do for you to be tossing and turning all night next to her because of nightmares. She may believe the issue somehow lies with her."

I could only chuckle helplessly as I failed to find a flaw in her logic. "I suppose you have me on all points, Luna love." I replied, giving her a playful smirk. "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to do at least a little griping~"

We arrived outside the sitting room, where Celestia told us she would be at this time, taking a break from her normal duties with the excuse that the event had left her with a need to reflect. It seemed a flimsy excuse, but it got her out of her normal duties for the time being. "I shall leave you here, my love." Luna said, rearing up and kissing me affectionately. "The others and I shall keep ourselves occupied well enough, so there is no need to worry about us. Now go, enjoy your evening with my sister."

She moved behind me and nudged me toward the door with her snout, clearly being careful not to poke me with that long, relatively sharp horn of hers. "Alright alright, I'm going." I replied with a soft chuckle, looking back to her with a smirk before turning back around and placing a hand on the door to the sitting room.

Since Celestia and I had started dating in private, she'd given me permission to enter the room without knocking. It was an act I'd apparently, though unknowingly, had unspoken permission to do before, as their Knight-Defender. Our courtship had made it official however, and as such Celestia had told me in no uncertain terms that I was free to enter either the sitting room or her bedchambers at any time I chose. I still felt iffy about that second action, but it fortunately hadn't come up yet, so I hadn't had to deal with that prospect.

Upon entering the room, I smiled as I saw a certain, lovely white form lounging comfortably on her usual pillow, reading a book next to a merrily crackling fire. When she heard the door open and close, the alabaster Princess looked up and smiled brightly. "Oh! It's so nice to see you, my dearest." She said while still bearing that warm smile, standing from her pillow and trotting up to greet me.

Before the Princess of the Sun could say more, I wrapped my arms around her strong neck and pulled the mare into a deep, loving kiss. The act shocked her for a moment, but it didn't take long for Celestia to return my affection, moaning softly with delight as she took in the kiss, and gifted me her own, tender affection as she practically melted into my embrace.

That loving kiss was held for a long moment before I let the beauty in my arms go, pulling back and looking into her soft, magenta eyes. "Gods, I've wanted to do that for so long, Tia." I said with a smile, then pulled her into another, shorter-lived kiss. "I've missed you, and I'm happy to finally get to see you."

For her part, Celestia simply smiled back at me, accepting my second kiss just as eagerly as she had the first, once her initial shock had worn off. "I've missed you too, my beloved human." She said with a soft, dreamy tone, leaning her head in to press her forehead gently against mine, letting me feel her horn resting against the top of my head. "When I started watching you to see if you were worthy to bring here, I never thought we might fall in love. I always expected you would fall for Twilight, sweet mare that she is, but never for me."

My hand came up and gently caressed the mare's soft cheek, causing her to nuzzle my hand lightly as our foreheads continued to gently press together. "Tia… you're just as deserving of love as anypony else, and you're a wonderful mare in your own right. I don't care if you're a Princess or a Queen, or even just one of the kitchen scullery maids. I'd still find you just as appealing." A soft sigh escaped through the tall mare's nostrils as she listened to me, and her eyes closed contentedly as my hand slid down, beneath the large piece of jewelry she wore around her neck. "It's what's in here that draws me to you more than anything else. Certainly more than any sort of power you might have… political or otherwise."

There was a long moment of silence before she spoke. "Thank you, Blake. I have always feared that these crowns my sister and I bear, and what they represent, would prevent us from finding someone who truly loved us for who we are."

I had heard this concern from both of them before, but it was very understandable, especially given the emotionally tender state Celestia was likely in at the moment thanks to the recently concluded ceremony, so I didn't mind letting her reiterate her concerns again. Even more so with as many times as they heard me out on my own woes. "That's one of the many reasons I wouldn't want that kind of responsibility… too much uncertainty with people… or ponies in this case, being genuine when they tell me something. I'd always be guessing and second-guessing whether they meant what they said, or whether they were just trying to get on my good side. And I would feel like I could never fully trust what they said to be completely truthful regardless." I leaned down and kissed her snout affectionately. "I promise I won't ever do that to you, or to Luna, or anyone else. I always want to be as honest with all of you as I can be. As a matter of fact, I don't even see any reason to lie to any of you, not after all the things you've all seen and learned about me." Given that they already knew how I had unintentionally taken my own father's life in a bar during a short-lived, drunken brawl, what could I possibly have to hide?

Celestia took in a short breath through her nose, and let it slowly back out through her mouth. "Thank you again, Blake. That is more reassuring than you know." She moved her head back and smiled at me. "Now, I don't think you came here just for us to be melancholy at one another, so why don't we spend some time doing something enjoyable, hmm?"

I chuckled at her suggestion and gave the Solar Diarch a playful waggle of my eyebrows. "My my, I didn't think you'd want to move on to the kinky stuff so quickly, Tia. Shall I get the rope and paddles out?~"

I watched as Celestia's cheeks puffed up and turned red, only having time to just start worrying that I might have gone too far before she burst out laughing. "Twilight was right about you, Blake Marshall!" She exclaimed through a fit of giggles. "You truly are the worst."

I chuckled and wrapped her neck in a firm hug, and nuzzled into her impossibly soft mane. "Maybe. But it broke the tension, didn't it?" I asked with a soft smile.

Tia's laughter slowly died down, and she nodded lightly. "That it did, you terrible stallion." She replied after a moment, snickering softly. "Now, as for what we should actually do, I believe I would like to do something exciting. It seems all I ever do is sit around in this stuffy old castle, and I would like to be out of it for a change." She smiled at me hopefully. "Since I doubt there are any carnivals we could attend, would you like to take a flight around the mountain with me?"

I had a feeling this would be anything but a relaxing flight, like the ones I normally took with Luna, but it still sounded like fun, and so I nodded with a smile. "That actually sounds nice, Tia." I conceded. "How about we stop by my room so I can get changed for the weather, and then we can go? It shouldn't take more than a few minutes. I just need some thicker pants and my jacket, and I should be good." Celestia quickly agreed to my little plan, and we left the sitting room, quickly making our way to the room I shared with all my lovely girls.

As we reached the room, something gave me pause as I rested my hand on the handle, and caused me to gently place my ear to the door to listen to what was happening on the other side of the door. "Oh, Twilight… that feels amazing~" Luna's proclamation had me blushing, and I looked back to Tia. "Blake is just going to love this~"

My head came away from the door and I whispered to the Princess. "On second thought, I um… think I'll be ok." I remarked softly, face heating up as I clearly blushed from what I'd heard.

With a questioning look to me, Celestia leaned in and pressed her ear to the door briefly. Her own face lit up like a tomato and she pulled her head away quickly, clearing her throat. "Y-yes, I believe you're right." She said as she turned and trotted quickly down the hallway, leaving me to try to catch up. "Don't worry though; I know of a spell that can keep you warm in this frigid air, so we may fly together in comfort even without your extra clothing."

Just as I caught up with the lovely mare, her horn lit and I was surrounded by her pale, golden magical aura. It lasted only a brief moment, but I noticed a distinct difference in the air around me as the spell faded. "Whoa… that's really weird." I said as I looked around. "It feels like we went from winter to early summer in an instant."

Celestia giggled softly and smiled at me as we slipped into an empty guest room, a tactic Luna and I used when we wanted a quick exit from the palace, intending to leave via the balcony rather than spending all our time walking to the entrance and leaving the intended way. "That spell will protect you from the cold of the North lands, where the Crystal Empire lies, as well as the heat of the deserts around Saddle Arabia. It isn't perfect, and if you were to go to somewhere truly extreme, like the Dragon Lands, you may find it lacking, but it is certainly better than nothing."

Whatever spell she had just cast, it sounded incredibly useful. "That's actually pretty awesome." I said as we walked out onto the balcony, and I noticed the temperature around me seemed to have hardly changed at all as we transitioned outside into the cold, winter air. "Once Twilight gets this mess with my magic training sorted out, do you think you could teach me to cast it?" Celestia spread her wings even as I summoned my own from the ever-present amulet around my neck, and we took flight.

The mountain on this side of the castle was a sheer drop, hundreds of meters straight down. "I don't see why it would be a problem." Celestia said with a smile as we banked around the palace walls, gliding around as we gained altitude. "We know already that you can cast pony magics, even having been taught incorrectly, so once you know the right way, it should be even easier for you." Her thought process made sense to me, and I hoped she would prove to be right, as I knew there were some incredibly useful spells I would love to learn.

A certain spot caught my attention, and I gestured to the balcony of one of the rooms as we flew past. "Hey, that's the room where I tried to climb the wall to get to Luna awhile back!"

Tia squinted at where I was pointing, and giggled as we banked to get closer for a better look at where I'd almost gone skydiving without a parachute. "I see it. On the balcony, where a chunk of the edging stonework is missing near the corner of the railing?" A soft but audible 'hmm' escaped her as I acknowledged her assessment. "So, that is the place where you nearly plummeted down the mountain and became 'strawberry jam', as you put it? It's lucky my sister heard you scrabbling for handholds along the wall and came out to investigate, or she may not have realized in time to catch you."

I chuckled and nodded lightly. "Yeah. In hindsight, it was a pretty dumb thing to do, but Luna was hurting, and I wanted to make sure I was there for her. She's been alone for so long, I wanted to show her I'm here for her."

This earned me a warm smile from the pastel beauty flying next to me, as close as our wingspans would allow. "And you have my gratitude for that." She said warmly. "The truth is that I still feel guilty for that… incident, but I can't change those laws, as much as I wish I could, and I didn't want her to have her heart broken even worse by being torn from you after falling even more deeply in love."

There was a lull in our conversation as we both simply glided along, leaving the castle and the mountain further behind as we increased our arc around both. "Out of all the humans on the whole Earth, why did you two even consider one like me?" I asked finally. "I'm sure there are a million more that would have been better candidates. More level headed, less emotionally damaged… more peaceful."

Celestia let out a sigh that escaped in a cloud of steam that trailed behind her. "We chose you as one of our candidates specifically because of your flaws, but also because of your strengths. Because you have seen the worst humanity has to offer. You've stared into the Heart of Darkness, faced down the maelstrom of evil your people can be capable of, and had the force of will to choose a higher path. You exemplify what it means to be human through your courage and tenacity, but also through your failures and your mistakes, and your willingness to learn and grow. You represent the best by virtue of having experienced the worst, then coming out the other side intact. Yes you have been hurt, yes you bear emotional scars, and yes you still carry trauma, but you are still a gentle and loving person despite the horrors you have endured, yet you are also willing to fight for what you believe in, and who you love. Just look at how far you've come in the time you've been here; when you first arrived, you were closed off, wary, and afraid to trust or let anypony get close to you. And now you have several mares whom you love dearly and would protect even at the cost of your own life. In short, my dear human; we chose you, because you represent everything humanity has to offer, both good and bad. Yin and Yang, I believe some humans call it."

There was another lull in our conversation as I pondered her words, barely even paying attention to where we were flying as I took in the gravity of what I had been told. If I had been the one choosing, I would have looked for a human who was kind and caring and peaceful, who was slow to anger and who knew how to balance the needs of others with their own needs. Then it dawned on me that those were all the good traits of humanity, but wasn't representative of humanity as a whole, and I realized that Celestia was right; if they were going to bring humans back, as they'd originally planned, they needed a representative who could show them both sides of the coin, and not just the more appealing one. Even though I recognized the truth in Celestia's words when she stated that I carried those traits, it still didn't make sense how or why they chose me specifically. I supposed they had relied on a spell to narrow down the field of candidates to something more manageable, then selected their top choices from there. Then there was the issue of my death; it didn't make sense for them to go through all the extra effort to pull my soul from Limbo and place it into a new body when they could simply have chosen another from their pool of candidates and let my soul go wherever it was destined for.

"If your face gets any longer, I fear it may fall off entirely." Said the teasing voice of the near-literal Goddess I had come out here to fly with, breaking me out of my own thoughts. "Don't spend too much time dwelling on the choice my sister and I have made. We had our reasons for everything we did, and if you trust us at all, that should be enough for now. I promise you we had only the best intentions for both you, and our little ponies in mind."

That actually did help, and I smiled at the lovely figure flying beside me. "Thanks, Tia. I guess I tend to dwell like that sometimes. Getting caught in the doldrums, I think the term is."

Wordlessly, Celestia flew closer to me, locking her wings open to more easily glide closer to me. "Well then, if you're stuck in the doldrums, I shall simply have to help you escape~" She moved close enough to be able to whisper into my ear, showing off her expert flying skills. Then, she kissed my cheek. "Tag, you're it~" Before I could reply or respond at all, her wings tucked to her sides as she executed a graceful roll, arching herself so her snout was facing the ground far below, sending her rocketing downward.

The sudden act baffled me briefly, though a smile soon crept onto my face. "Oh, you naughty mare you~" I said with a grin and executed a similar, though much less graceful maneuver as I attempted to catch up with the streak of white below me, her body shape giving her an advantage as she looked almost like a missile shooting downward at breathtaking speed.

It became apparent rather quickly that I'd never be able to keep up with the mare with speed alone, as her more aerodynamic form let her plummet toward the ground much more quickly than I could. This was to say nothing of how new to flying I still was, especially when compared to Celestia's literal millenia of flight experience, which meant that my heart was hammering in my chest as I made every attempt to streamline myself. I did everything up to and including dismissing my wings altogether, holding my arms out in front of me while pressing my hands together with the palms flat against one another in an attempt to mimic Celestia's own form, which was in and of itself as straight and streamline as an arrow. There was a part of my mind that was screaming at me to call my wings, to pull up and try to get to Celestia another way, but I ignored those instinctual warning bells. I had to learn to do things like this, and I had a feeling that, as much as she was enjoying the thrill of things, Celestia knew I needed this, if for no other reason than to get my mind off my own thoughts, and focused on the here and now instead of past events that couldn't be changed.

I wanted to catch Celestia, because I was enjoying myself despite the hammering of my heart and the spiking of my adrenaline, though I was too far behind to intercept her straight on. I don't have to catch her straight on though. I thought to myself, looking to a point above the top of her body. She's going to have to pull out of the dive soon, and when she does, I can catch her if I angle myself right. My hands shifted as I fought to keep my body straight in the buffeting winds, and I angled myself to a point that seemed the most likely direction for the mare to angle up to when she pulled out of the dive.

Much to my chagrin however, the alabaster mare did not flare her wings and pull straight up out of the dive, as I had expected. Instead, she opened her wings only briefly, and asymmetrically, turning her body into a new orientation. Only then did she flare and pull up, hooves nearly skimming the ground as she did so, a feat of aerial precision and skill that left me temporarily dumbfounded as she shot off in an entirely different direction from the one I'd expected. So much so that I forgot entirely that I was still hurtling groundward, and failed to summon the ethereal wings created by my enchanted armor. "Oh fuck!" I cried out, breaking my own, self-imposed restriction on swearing as I realized I wasn't going to have time to pull up.

Desperately, I finally summoned the armor's wings, then used them as I'd been taught to start pulling out of the dive by locking them open and angling them to tilt my body into a new direction, as trying to flap and fight gravity directly would take too much time and energy. It wasn't going to be enough though, I knew that much even as I made my attempt to save myself from a certain, grisly doom. Perhaps as some sort of twisted joke, the augmentations made by that thrice-blasted artifact kicked in, and time seemed to slow for me, prolonging the horror as I was forced to watch the ground approach at an agonizing pace that I knew was misleading. In a last, desperate attempt to save myself from my own carelessness, with the ground seemingly right in my face, I pulled on my own magical energies, and shunted them into my wings, just as I had done when I first discovered them. There was no grace in the act, no gentle guiding of a serene stream, instead it was a forceful shove to an agitated torrent, born of desperation and terror.

When my magic flooded through the amulet and into my wings, something incredible happened. There was a jolt as though I had suddenly been buffeted upward by a strong wind, and I was suddenly flying parallel to the ground, less than a full meter above it. There shouldn't have been time for that though, I should have been smashed to smithereens on the rocky, snow-covered ground at the base of the mountain! It felt like my wings hadn't just flapped against the wind as they usually did, it felt as though they had generated their own thrust above and beyond that. It also felt like I had sapped a good portion of my magical reserves in that clumsy attempt.

"Blake! Are you alright!?" Tia came careening down toward me, gracefully pulling up from her dive to glide along next to me. "That was incredible! I had no idea you were so strong a flier already!" She seemed equally excited and relieved, and I couldn't say I blamed her.

Before answering, I began to flap and gain altitude, getting us away from the ground as I tried to get my heartbeat under control. I had so much adrenaline coursing through me it felt like I was on fire despite the frigid air around me, and my whole body was shaking and vibrating at the same time. "Yeah, I'm good Tia… somehow. I think my wings have more abilities than just normal flying though. When I thought I was going to hit the ground, I panicked, and I reached for my magic on instinct. I kind of… shoved it into my wings, like I did to summon them that first time. When I did that, it felt like I got a kick from an afterburner, and I was suddenly flying level. Felt like I burned through a ton of magic when I did it too."

Celestia seemed to study the snowy ground below as it became more distant beneath us. "It seems to me you got lucky then, my dear human. Perhaps we should call our game off for the day and return to the castle."

An idea came to my mind then, and I suppressed a grin. "I suppose that's not a bad idea…" I said, then suddenly shifted my flight, moving swiftly toward her. "Says the mare who's it!" With a laugh, I tagged the dumbstruck Princess and veered off, leaving her to recover.

Eventually, I heard a voice calling behind me. "Blake Marshall, you scoundrel! Get back here so I can tag you!"