"Thunderbolt's back, Osprey had this big box that she wouldn't let anyone but Thunderbolt look in. Mom said that she sent out the invitations and such. Guess what dad." Morgan said all giddy with excitement.
"What my dear?" You ask
"She let me invite Luna! I even got to give her the invitation myself." Morgan said as Luna made the invitation appear from thin air.
It was a rather nice design, simplistic but elegant none the less. So it was aesthetically pleasing to you.
You didn't bother to read the invitation itself, you were sure Thunderbolt did a good job of writing it or had someone else write it for her. Either way you just smiled knowing Morgan had her best friend coming to your wedding. Though you know it was something Thunderbolt was doing for Morgan to make her happy.
"Well that's wonderful. Guess I can watch her for a while, if Luna's staying." You say making the whole thing swing on the point of Luna staying or not.
"Well, it's only a week, and I do get to catch up with Morgan. May I Celestia?" Luna said also asking for permission.
"I don't see why not. Just make sure she does basic labor for the week." Celestia said.
"Done. Twilight, looks like you'll be the shop monkey, moving those really big heavy things for me." You say as Twilight is both slightly delighted and saddened at the same time.
"When do I work for you?" Twilight asked rather defeated.
"Right now, there's parts that need to be arranged by their number, the paperwork should be there, just put the parts in their spots on the shelves." You say as Twilight runs off to do her task.
"She enjoys that type of monotonous shit doesn't she?" You ask to which all the biological ponies nod.
"Fuck, well least I don't have to do it." You say as Galactus did bring in a large parts order yesterday that you still had in pallets outside of your shop.
"Again thank you for disposing of that horrible weapon. I could have authorized Twilight to use it, but it's such a horrible thing." Celestia said as you nod.
"Well I know of many more weapons that are worse than a SOLG. I pray that she does not find them." You say though you're not a very religious person.
"What are some of those weapons?" Celestia asked to which you shake your head.
"I even give you an idea, and you'll have a pandemic of them. Trust me. You don't want the weapons I'm talking about." You say knowing nuclear weapons would rip this world apart.
"Alright, Come along little ponies, let's leave Rex, get back to whatever it was he was doing." Celestia said as she was about to leave when Edge came down to the group.
"Celestia. Hold up. It wasn't just me that took down the weapon. These ponies here did most of the work, the four black F-14s and those MiGs over there." You say sharing the credit with those who deserve it.
"Really Rex, these ponies did most of the damage? I thought you did that type of dangerous thing alone." Celestia said questioning you a little.
"I was the backup. Figured it was someone else's time to shine." You say as you look back at the two groups, the MiGs getting along well, and the F-14s who are messing around while KC yells at them not to mess up his bar.
"Could you get their attention for me?" Celestia asks as you nod.
"Hey you morons stop dicking around, Princess here has a word to say to you seven. MiGs, could you join us?" You say differentiating between groups.
"Rex tells me you seven helped him destroy that weapon that was going to fall on Canterlot. I'm eternally grateful to you for saving my home." Celestia said as the seven ponies were humbled by the experience.
"Ma'am, if Rex didn't scramble us, we would not have known about it." Blaze said as the seven of them were still partially bowed in respect.
"I give credit where credit is due Blaze. Sure Morgan, Falken and I could have done it ourselves, but how close to the ground would it have been?" You say as Blaze nods understanding your view.
"Many thanks Princess, are you needings of escort home?" Titov asked still bowed.
"Rex, may I take those three as an escort home?" Celestia asked.
"If they're volunteering I'm not going to stop them." You say as Korolev responds to you
"Thank you Glorious leader. We visit Foxhound then come back. Is ok da?" Korolev said to which you nod.
"Yes, that will be fine Korolev. Enjoy your visit with Foxhound. Be safe you three." You say as a group now leaves the bar, leaving just the F-14s, Morgan, Luna, KC and yourself in the bar.
"Well, that was eventful." You say as you being to assist KC in preparing to open for the day.
"Rex, ya don't need ta help me ya know?" KC said almost protesting your help.
"Yea, but I owe you for letting these rascals stay the night. Morgan are you and Luna having a sleepover again?" You say as you're helping with the small things.
"OH MY GOSH! Can we?" Morgan said with glee.
"Why not, go check with Thunder to make sure it's ok." You say as she goes sprinting out of the bar to find Thunderbolt.
"Hey thank you guys for doing that mission yesterday. Really saved my neck." You say as you knew you couldn't have done it without them, these ponies needed you to talk to them, whereas the MiGs you could appease with Vodka, which you've now got to place an order for.
"No, thank you for reminding us that we're still useful. We forgot how well we work together." Edge said as you just smile.
"You're all welcome, just don't let the memory of your friend drag you down. Do what you can to make him proud. I'm sure what you just did would. That and getting compliments from the biggest pain in my ass. There's a feat." You say as the four of them smile.
"Thank you Rex. Next time you're in Hornet, stop by and say hi." Snow said to which you nod.
"Definitely. You four are welcome in Avalon's Shadow any time, just next time, arrange with the hotel. Won't be crashing in my house or in the VIP rooms again." You say as they all laugh.
"I'll walk you out. Your buddies back in Hornet are probably wondering where you are." You say walking with them
"Yea, it's about time we went home." Blaze said as you and Luna were walking out with them to the runway.
"Remember you four are welcome here. Stop by the shop if you're not feeling up to spec." You say as the four of them line up on the runway say their goodbyes and then take off into the sky.
"How've you been Princess?" You ask as you and Luna walk to your shop.
"If you are asking if anything interesting happened between my last visit and now, no, even the war you and my sister waged was of no importance to me. It was Celestia's task not mine." Luna said as Morgan found the two of you.
"Thunderbolt said yes. Luna and I are having a sleepover!" Morgan said as she pranced a little in place making you laugh at her excitement.
"Isn't that wonderful Princess, you get to stay with us for a week. Oh, you haven't met Falken yet have you?" You say as the two of you reach your shop to find it hideously clean and organized.
"I have not." Luna said as Twilight was arguing with Falken about how you organized your shop.
"Twilight what the heck did you do to my shop?" You ask as you look at the incredibly clean room and very neatly organized parts, the organized parts you agree with, but the clean floor and missing oil and bloodstains, you could not.
"Well, I sorted your parts like you asked, rather easy system of organization, match the number on the boxes to the number on the shelving. Since I did that so quickly I cleaned the floors." Twilight said as you were visibly angry at the clean floors.
"I want my stains back. Those were memories to me, and you just erased them." You say as there was years of staining on this floor.
"You want the floor to be dirty?" Twilight asked to which you nod and have a very irritated look on your face.
"Yes, now return the floor to how it looked before you touched it today." You say through your teeth, and with a big purple light the floor was back to it's dirty self.
"Better. Next time ask before you do that." You say
"Wouldn't you prefer a clean shop?" Twilight asked as you were still mad at the moment.
"No, the floors are clean and dry, they're just stained. No clutter yes, but a perfectly clean shop? Makes it look like I don't do a thing, there's got to be a mess somewhere." You say as you're trying to calm down from nearly having memories wiped from the floor.
"But shouldn't this be a smooth debris less floor?" Twilight asked clearly having read up on Foreign Object Debris.
"Yes, and it is. I like having a stained floor, adds a bit of color to the dull grey concrete." You say as you stand over a collection of brown droplets and smile, remembering when you cut up your hands repairing Thunderbolt's turbine.
"Why are you smiling Rex?" Luna asked as you were looking at the ground.
"I was standing here rebuilding Thunderbolt's turbine when she saved my skin for the first time." You say as you walk off to your office.
"Oh Twilight, you're not allowed in the office, have fun with inventory." You say as Luna follows you in.
"Your office is such a mess, I need to clean it!" Twilight said as you stop at the doorway letting Luna in, but not before pointing to the shelves.
"Inventory. This is my office, I don't just do repair paperwork here, I also have important things to do like running Avalon." You say before shutting the door behind you.
"You run the entirety of Avalon from this little room?" Luna asked as you looked to see what popped up in your inboxes.
In the shop's there were about seven or eight invoices from orders that needed to be paid from the shop's funds.
In Avalon's inbox there were nothing but apology letters from the Gryphons for making you put on such a terrifying display of plane pony power. They were amusing to say the least.
"Yea, the office might be small, but it allows me to not be bothered." You say as you were going through the inboxes.
"Why do you not have a great throne like my sister and every other ruler of this world?" Luna asked
"Luna, why would I? I'm tiny in comparison to them, so why should I bother trying to compensate for my height. I personally believe that one shouldn't have to show off their power to be a ruler, just be there to guide their people in times of need and help those who need it." You say as you're still doing paperwork.
"And this small space, where nobody can see you is where you chose to decide everything?" Luna said
"It seems you've got a problem with it Princess, I prefer to work in the background, sure sometimes I take center stage, but only when I think their lives are too valuable to risk, I would rather send myself." You say talking about when you destroyed the burst missile complex.
Luna was going to say something but Morgan opened up the little back door to your office and was looking in.
"Oh, there you two are. Dad come on, Thunderbolt has something to tell you, oh and is Falken in the shop?" Morgan said.
"Yea, he is. Want me to get him?" You say
"Yea, I'll take Luna, and you go get Falken." Morgan said as she stood up and her eye disappeared from your doorway.
"Best get going, not polite to keep a lady waiting. Especially when the lady's got a 30mm Gatling." You say as you smile and walk out to find Falken following Twilight around.
"Falken, come on, your soon to be mother wants to talk to me." You say
"Dad, what's this little purple thing that sort of looks like us but without the fixed wings?" Falken asked.
"That's a regular pony, but that one happens to be a princess that made a mistake and I get to boss her around for a week. Come on Falken Thunder wants us." You say as saying pony only engaged his curiosity.
"And it's not mechanical in any way?" Falken asked as Twilight now knew what it felt like to not hear her name like when she first saw them.
"Correct, Falken we really must be going, last thing I want is Thunder coming in here and yelling at me for not listening." You say as Falken's holographic eyes shift to you then he smiles.
"Yea, we shouldn't keep mom waiting." Falken said as he left your shop leaving Twilight alone.
"Now you know how they felt." You say before you leave to go and find Thunderbolt with Falken.
The two of you walk for about five minutes before stumbling across Thunderbolt, Morgan, Luna and Osprey outside of your home.
"Rex you're really going to love the surprise Thunderbolt got for the two of you." Osprey said as she was hovering a little.
"I sincerely hope it's not another living being for me to take care of." You say as you are not ready for another pony to take care of.
"Anon, no, why would I? We've already got two to take care of." Thunderbolt said allowing you to give a sigh of relief.
"Good, You had me worried for a moment there." You say as Thunderbolt giggles.
"Well, you've got another six days until you get to see it. I really hope you like it. It was kind of expensive." Thunderbolt said.
"And the invitations and caterers?" You ask.
"Eh, cheaper than your resident rates for a turbine repair." Thunderbolt said
"Really? Less than four grand?" You ask a little surprised by how much those two items cost.
"Yup, left me plenty of bits to get the surprise." Thunderbolt said.
"Can we please stop talking about it?" You say as it's now starting to irritate you.
"Fine, I'll stop talking about it." Thunderbolt said to which you smile, very happy to hear that.
"Thanks sweetie." You say as she knocks you over, to which you start laughing.
"You always seem to forget I'm small and weak compared to you." You say as Morgan is giggling a little, and so is Falken, you were never one to let your differences bother you, unless it was your inability to fly, though after seeing Pinkie Pie, you had an idea. If that pink pony could break the laws of physics and gravity, why couldn't you. Didn't one author back home put it like this "Flying is learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss." but that's a trial for another day.
"I don't think I'll ever learn" Thunderbolt said
"Well just try Thunder." You say as the laughing stops and you all go home. Being home gives you some time to think, think back to some major points in your life.
Like eight years ago, when you first crashed here and endured a year and a half of tortures you have seemed to mostly forgotten, then a year and a half after that, when you started to build Morgan to help protect everyone and yourself. So that would make her about five years old at this point. Though it took you about two years to finish her airframe with you doing work on other ponies. Then there was the call from Morgan herself that brought her into your life as a completely different being. There was also bonding with Morgan in a way you never though possible, considering you can read eachothers thoughts and control eachother, though she's not very good at controlling you, whereas you have full control of her, the arrival of the shuttles, and most recently Falken's creation and the Gryphons who almost wiped themselves off the map. It certainly has been one hell of 8 years for you. You also had Thunderbolt, though she was the shyest A-10 in the city, she's always liked you, and you very slowly learned to love her. It took you time to get over interspecies relationships, even then just size could be a bit intimidating. It took her saving your ass for you to realize how much you loved her. Guess you just needed a good kick in the ass to realize that
All in all, you're pretty happy with your life here, wouldn't give it up for anything. So with life being pretty good, it's only going to get better from here on you think as you look up and around to see Thunderbolt cleaning up a little, Morgan playing with Luna, and Falken reading yes, 5 books at a singe time. Least he was educating himself
 
Elsewhere in Avalon's Shadow:
The Hornets are cleaning up their hangar after their most recent party had an "incident" with Blue and Strizhi at the center of it. For once it wasn't either side trying to blow eachother up