Equine Sexual Response
"...well -- no," Vanilla Bear just barely managed to say: the thin body was trembling somewhat, although any vibration which managed to reach the mane was instantly negated. "I -- Princesses, I -- don't think that's entirely right..."
Chocolate Bear pressed his own lightly-sweating, fast-retreating body into a far corner of the office, ignoring the scale model of a pegasus skeleton which had already been taking up most of it. Ivory-molded false wingbones rattled against the walls and made one of the three nearby anatomical charts shudder.
The siblings stared at them.
They had just finished telling the doctors -- well, not quite everything. Everything they feared, but not the ultimate consequences of it. But what they felt might be happening, to them and everypony Joyous and the Releases had come into contact with... that had been cited, at length. And now the diagnostician was directly telling them that they had something wrong, with the surgeon shakily nodding in the background as the last bit of mane stubble on that head threatened to fall out.
It would have been welcome news, if it had been coming from just about any other source. But from these two, who had provided nothing but failed test after failed test, with the occasional break for total disbelief in their diplomas...
"Explain," Luna tightly ordered them, and Celestia did nothing more than nod.
Vanilla swayed slightly. That didn't reach the mane either.
"In the blood," he shakily went on. "That's still possible. Especially with their being metallics. It's always just been seen as a fur trait, one which barely ever emerges. Metallic ponies are so rare... When Joyous told me that both her parents had the trait, we started researching as much as possible, trying to find out if two metallics had ever produced a foal before this, with or without The Most Special Spell. We -- haven't gotten very far. The census data doesn't exactly ask ponies to check off a box for it and neither do marriage certificate applications, so we got stuck with less reliable sources, like... um..."
"You know most of the stories in those magazines are made up," a perspiring Chocolate Bear interjected.
"I do now." The skinny stallion forced a breath. "But that still begs the question of why we haven't seen it in the rest of the population. It's a tiny sample size, but... there are metallics out there. I dated one for a while."
"You dated one of everything for a while," Chocolate pointed out.
"It's coming in handy now, isn't it? And her mark was for learning. She could memorize facts faster than anypony else. It didn't help her when it came to learning about patient interaction, but she knew all the wrong words to bombard them with. But her fur didn't mean she spent every non-reading moment of her life trying to find more books. So it's not universal, and..." This breath was a little deeper. "Princess, it's still possible that it's something which would turn up in the blood of metallics only, without being universal within them. We've been thinking that way for some time now, trying to come up with palliatives that might help her. There can be more testing there --"
Luna snorted, and made no effort to keep the derisiveness out of it. Eight knees bent.
"-- but... as for it being contagious... Princess, there are diseases which can spread just from being in the same room with an affected pony. We think things are -- carried on the air. That when somepony sneezes, more than just mucus flies out. But -- think about all the places Joyous and her family have been. How many years it's been since the first signs of illness, and all the myriad talents they would have sent out of control. The early stages... yes, some of that would look like falling. But if you assume that Joyous' parents infected both her and other ponies, somepony would have reached the stage she's at by now. There are talents where that could still appear to be an extreme case of falling into the mark -- but everypony? We would have noticed, and somepony like her parents..."
He looked to his partner, and the nature of the glance was familiar to both siblings.
"It comes down to this, Princesses," Chocolate Bear gamely took over. "The early stages would be able to hide in the population, masked under that false diagnosis. The latter ones can't, especially once the magic starts to go out of control. If this could be transmitted from pony to pony simply by sharing a room, there would have been cases all over the continent. Hundreds of ponies, possibly thousands or more, would have reached that stage where they couldn't pass as the fallen any longer. Every doctor in Equestria would be searching for a cure. And we heard about this -- on the day your staffs came to us. Unless it has an extremely limited range of ponies it can infect -- say, caught only by metallics -- it can't be airborne."
Celestia looked at Luna. An identical gaze came back the other way. Neither was willing to let themselves feel the hope.
"But -- there are other ways diseases can spread," Vanilla rushed on, the words coming faster than the sweat, which was starting to take some real work.
"Yes," Chocolate agreed, as the rich brown coat showed the first signs of froth.
"Ways we... would have to ask about..." Vanilla started to stammer. "We don't... we d-don't have any c-choice..."
Luna's eyes narrowed. Vanilla's trembling began to blur his garment around the edges.
"You need to ask us something."
A bare nod.
"And what would that be?"
The doctors looked at each other again. Last wills and testaments traveled across the gap, along with a final farewell and mutual apology for having gotten the other dragged into this.
"Have..." and it was all Vanilla could manage.
"...either of you..." Chocolate got out, and then stopped.
"What?" Celestia tightly encouraged, although the not-even-remotely hidden expression told Luna that her sibling at least had a rather good idea of the question. "What do you need to know about either of us potentially having done?"
Chocolate forced himself out of the corner, trotted slowly to his partner's side. Both took what they saw as their final breath, and let the chorused words driven into the mutual exhalation carry their lives away.
"Have either of you had sex with her?"
Several things happened at once.
There were twin rumbles of thunder, both coming from just outside the office. A spike of heat rose from Celestia's skin, while a plummet of chill emanated from Luna's. The two combined with the increased moisture in the air, and fog began to swirl outwards from the siblings. Four thermometers rather passively exploded.
"Do you know," Luna softly said, "how many ponies have dared to inquire about the status or presence of others in my bed? How many felt they had a right? A duty to know? Not even those of Murdocks' will inquire so openly, for they fear what might follow, no matter how desperately they wish to have the truth of the matter in the hopes that it will be interesting enough to save them the effort of recycling rumors for a day. What number would you guess at, Doctors?"
They pressed tightly against each other, vibrating at the exact same rate.
"Luna --" the elder tried.
"You are thinking it as well, sister," Luna continued, with the fog at knee-level (hers, not theirs) and rising. "They seek the same information about you, and have for a much longer time. I am simply the one expressing the thought, while your reaction remains somewhat more -- thermal. It is a question virtually none would dare to ask, Doctors, no matter what the circumstances, in spite of all true need, so many would choose to keep their silence --"
She sighed.
They stared at her. It was the only response they had remaining.
"-- and so I thank you for asking it now, when it is truly necessary to know." And another, deeper sigh. "We have not been with each other. I have been in brief physical contact: I escorted her through the between more than once, and teleporting with another is easier when both parties are touching. But as for sex... we have not."
The stare continued. But the vibration began to slow, even as the fog started to dissipate.
"Has there been -- any exchange of fluids?" Vanilla asked, and his own eyes widened in shock at having lived long enough for new words.
"Your definition?"
"Both of you with cuts, blood to blood contact," Chocolate provided. "Her tears falling into such a cut, or just into your eyes. A -- kiss, with saliva interaction..."
"No," Luna said. "None of that."
Celestia nodded. "The same, Doctors. And I haven't even teleported with her."
Slowly, the stallions moved away from each other. One full hoofwidth.
"Then... it's not impossible that you could have contracted any possible disease, Princesses," Vanilla said. "Because... even if other ponies..." He swallowed. "...but for right now, let's just say the odds are very long."
"We appreciate what you've told us," Chocolate continued. "It's something we'll have to -- watch for, and --" A deeper gulp, which mostly brought down the remaining mist in the air. "-- we can talk about it in a little while. But that's not why we called you in, and... maybe we'd better get to that. Because you should know what we did find."
"It's not a cause," Vanilla went on. "And I wish it was a cure. But... it might be a step, at least if we can't find any other way..."
The siblings looked from one stallion to the other, brown to white and back.
"One of your tests," Luna risked, "has borne results?"
The Doctors Bear nodded.
"Which?"
The stallions glanced at each other again, and this too was familiar.
"We know," they said together, "how her talent works."
They were all standing in front of what was, for them, glass: two medical practitioners, two sisters. From the other side -- it would be a mirror, and the old stallion confined to the sickbed on the other side would see nothing more than his reflection, if he ever could have raised his head that high. He breathed. He blinked. He looked as if both activities required all the strength he had left to give.
"Who is he?" Celestia gently asked.
"A friend," Chocolate sadly stated. With regret, "Although... we didn't figure that out for a while."
"And why is he here?" Luna more directly inquired.
"Because it's easiest to show this to you, and with a fresh subject for the test," Vanilla half-whispered.
"There are already enough ponies involved in this," Luna insisted. "More than sufficient. Unless you feel your own background investigations are somehow up to the level conducted by our staffs, I am not particularly enamored of expanding the conspiracy yet again --"
"-- he's dying."
Celestia looked at Vanilla. His eyes were closed, and the white head had dipped under the weight of something much heavier than the ridiculous mane.
"Two days," Chocolate quietly said. "Everything we can do, every drug, every spell... two days."
Luna's eyes slowly shut, opened again.
"That's one of the things about being a doctor," Vanilla went on, his voice forced into neutrality. "You get exposed to a lot of horse apples. When you're young, you have a better chance to fight them off. At his age... even after he retired, he kept dropping in at the hospital, just to see what was going on. To find out if there was anything else he could do. And in time... two days, Princesses. More likely one, now, after he asked us to move him here and make it easier for you. And... he loved the mares, all his life, especially younger ones, and this thing that's killing him took that from him along with everything else, and..."
"When we figured out what was happening, and that we needed a fresh test subject, we went to him," Chocolate told them. "And he said he would give up the last insensate hours he had left if it meant feeling something again."
Celestia forced her own eyes open.
"I'm sorry," she told them. Luna silently nodded.
"You didn't know," Vanilla passively replied, still watching the glass.
"And -- the restraint?" Celestia asked, nodding to the cone of thick metal which had been secured over the dying stallion's horn. "Is the disease something which affects his own magic?"
"Oh, his field's fine," Chocolate said. "He's our friend, Princess, or was at the end. And that's why we know not to trust him too far. Are you ready?"
The sisters looked through the glass, at the airtight door on the left. The one with a recently-teleported Joyous waiting behind it. Both eventually nodded, and the reluctance in each movement was perfectly visible to the other.
Vanilla's field exerted, and light blue coated the window, shimmered, faded out. "Filter," he said. "So you can see it. It'll last long enough. Chocolate, go let her in?" The bulkier stallion nodded, trotted out of the observation room. "He'll tell her to enter on the count of twenty -- long enough for him to get back here. And then... you'll see it happen."
"We will see her talent," Luna said.
"Yes."
"We've checked ourselves for magic," Celestia told the physician. "If that working is supposed to show us --"
"It will and it won't," the doctor said. "Because it is magic -- and it isn't."
They both blinked at him.
"Explain," Luna ordered, and not for the first time.
And just as with all the others, Vanilla Bear ignored her. "You have to see it, Princess. You might not even believe it if you didn't see it in action. Just -- wait..."
Luna's right forehoof scraped at the overly-clean floor. He ignored that too. And they waited until the surgeon returned, and then --
-- the door opened. Joyous entered. The old stallion forced his head up, just a little.
"Now," Chocolate whispered.
And it took a moment for Celestia to see it, for she was looking in the wrong place. At the old stallion. And even then, she thought it was a distortion created by the spell, or more likely a flaw in the glass itself, that dim waft of copper mist which seemed to be rising from the stallion's skin...
Luna gasped.
"What -- what is happening?"
Celestia wrenched her head to the left --
-- Joyous was just beginning her approach of the sickbed, one trembling hoofstep at a time. The cloud was beating her to it.
Color swirled about Joyous' coat, pink and purple and fuchsia and shades which approached those only perceived through pegasus sight. Those swirls were quickly filling the room, and the forward-reaching tendrils were already at the sickbed. And one curl of vapor surrounded the faint copper, encased it, began to carry it back...
"I wonder," Vanilla said, "if either of you has ever heard of pheromones?"
A pair of mare jaws very nearly dropped open.
The enclosed copper reached Joyous' coat. And a single heartbeat after it touched, the swirls coming off her began to change, all the new emanations shifting into bright silver, rapidly flowing back to the stallion. Those new mists touched him -- and the copper strengthened, became bright and beautiful as his head came all the way up, as he began to talk...
"Everything that lives," Chocolate softly lectured, "gives off scent. And those scents... can trigger responses. Many ponies will instinctively tense at the smell of fresh blood. Some flee. But it's more than that. We give off scents when we're afraid. There's a subtle one for sorrow, barely detectable through anything we have to use."
"And for everything that lives," Vanilla gently taught, "there is a scent which triggers sexual interest. Arousal. Which lets us know there is somepony interested in us, and that interest can be returned..."
Silver and copper, swirling, never quite melding, painting the air in transparent metal as the stallion's eyes grew bright...
"You... you said you took a sample of her smell..." Luna forced out. "I believed... you had been talking about horse apples, I did not see what purpose capturing a portion of air could possibly serve..."
"We try things," Vanilla quietly responded.
"Even crazy things," Chocolate carefully expanded.
"Because sometimes..."
"...crazy is all that's left."
Behind the glass, mare and stallion talked. He said something which almost made her giggle.
"We also tied his hind legs to the bed frame," Vanilla told the sisters. "Joyous is safe."
They all watched the mists. The color interactions were... almost beautiful.
"You said it was magic," Celestia breathed, "and not magic... Doctors, how is that possible?"
"The process by which her body -- samples the other pheromones, determines the appropriate scent to send back, and generates it -- at least some of that is magic, especially in the gathering process," Chocolate answered. "I can't say for certain without more detailed spells plus some possible exploratory surgery which I don't want to do, but I'm guessing there's some very interesting things going on within her skin, and one of the tests suggested an unusual level of activity in her liver. But once the scent is created -- it's just a normal chemical. The exact chemical it takes to trigger arousal in the receiving party -- with nothing magic about it at all."
"We should explain -- it's only partially triggered by smell," Vanilla said. "There's a skin contact element present as well. But once the chemical is in the receiving body... it stays there for a while. And keeps the triggers active. But... it does break down. It took longer than we ever would have believed, but eventually, that mist will fade. The air becomes a little -- stale. And once that happens... the effect on the receiving body should start to wear off."
Both sisters turned away from the freeform painting in progress, stared at the doctors.
"It's not permanent," Celestia not-quite-asked.
"We think... at her current strength, approximately two weeks after an exposure, presuming no new encounters," Chocolate said. "But it's guesswork. We need to pin down more of the variables. Time spent in her presence, body mass, air circulation... Somepony around her all the time would be continually affected, so in that sense... well, it would never have the chance to fade. But without that... affected ponies, and everyone else, should return to normal."
"Charcoal filters absorb it," Vanilla continued, "or at least do for what she's produced so far." He nodded to a little disc hung on the far right wall of that inner room, which was glowing with a soft silver, then turned to look at the sisters. "I'm sorry to say we can't get an air purification spell to remove or block it yet, because they're all natural substances. But if somepony who was more -- skilled at that... kind of research... worked on it..."
He stopped talking. His head did not tilt up and to the right, for the shock had left no room for fantasies of any kind, let alone words. He was silent and still as he and his partner both tried to reconcile the sight in front of them, something which could not be happening...
Luna. Forelegs bent. Head and wings dipped.
Curtsying.
"You are... competent," she said, and each word pinned itself to a stallion chest. "I apologize, Doctors Bear. I had thought... something lesser of you. And -- I was wrong. So I apologize, and..." Her head came up. "...I will trust you somewhat more in the future."
"You asked the next question," Celestia breathed, letting the wonder openly flow forth as she dropped into a matching pose. "You asked how her talent worked, on that very first day..."
The stallions had no words. They simply stood there, and let each support the other in the face of the impossible.
For the sisters, that too was familiar.
They were back in the main office. Joyous had been sent to a private room, with the old stallion lapsed into a smiling dream which Luna had no intention of intruding on, for last moments should be private, and there were far worse things to carry as last thoughts before the final journey.
"What's your next step?" Celestia asked the Doctors Bear.
"We have a stopgap measure we want to try," Vanilla replied. "Something physical. It's not a cure of any kind for her, and it won't help her parents in any way. But it may give her a little more freedom of movement."
"We do need to see her parents," Chocolate added. "Immediately. Because now that we know they have the same condition... whether it's in the blood or a disease, we have two more ponies we can test, looking for common factors."
"But if it was something from outside," Vanilla said, "a disease or infection... we need to track everywhere they've been. Every last wild zone, and possibly every location within it. Starting from the first time Joyous can remember them being neglectful, then working backwards."
"Your reasoning?" Luna asked, with just the faintest touch of deference.
Vanilla took a slow breath. "Because... if it's a disease, then it's a disease of marks," he said. "If it infected somepony too young to have gone through manifest... it might just lie dormant in the body, waiting for their magic to become active. So it's possible that her parents were infected first and then gave it to her: there are conditions where just kissing a cut to make it better could do it. Or all three could have been exposed at the same time -- but Joyous couldn't be visibly affected yet..." His gaze slowly tilted up to Celestia's face -- then down and across to Luna's. "...Princesses?"
"So we have another option," Celestia smiled.
"Yes." It was more true (if dark) mirth than Luna had felt in days. "So. Discord -- or the Crusaders?"
"Stick with Discord," the elder solemnly suggested.
"Agreed. Not only might the trio manifest in time despite their own best efforts, but better the chaos we know..."
The doctors, who had not been provided with that part of the discussion, were staring at them.
"It's a private joke," Celestia smiled. "And should probably remain so. Go on, Doctors."
Chocolate forced a nod. "Our idea is that the first bits of neglect would have come when the disease started to take hold. Backtrack that... and it narrows down the places they could have contracted this. If we're very lucky, it could potentially give us an exact time and location... but that's more luck than most doctors ever receive."
"And once we know where they were," Vanilla continued, "we'll have a better idea of what they could have been exposed to."
"Proceed, Doctors," Luna said. "We can bring you her parents. We will simply tell them that as part of the terms for their hiring, we will require a complete list of their previous employers, along with a full medical history, should that be of any assistance. That should still fall within the purview of things they are willing to hear, at least short-term."
Vanilla nodded -- then took several slow breaths. "Princesses... how much of this does she know?"
Celestia blinked. "Joyous?" Both stallions nodded. "Know -- about what?"
"At the absolute minimum, that her parents have been found," Chocolate answered. "That it... wasn't their fault. I would understand if you hadn't told her about your -- other concerns. Emotionally, she's still very fragile, and... it's not a shock I want her subjected to yet. But for her parents... she has to know."
"They were just brought in," Celestia replied. "And after that, there were -- other concerns..."
"She does not know they are in Canterlot," Luna stated.
"She has to," Vanilla told them.
They had no answer.
"But first... there's..." The diagnostician was starting to sweat again. "...something else. Something... necessary. And..."
Luna sighed. "Doctors... I would hope that our time spent together has shown you that we will understand when somepony has to do the needful. There is a question you are uncomfortable with asking -- still. Let the words emerge."
"We're all trying to do our best to help her," Celestia reminded them. "If there's a question we can answer which might help... please, let us hear it. You can't do much more damage to any egos we might have left."
Chocolate looked to Vanilla, and the same came back the other way.
"We were... talking," the surgeon said. "While the testing room was being cleared."
"About your concerns. If it's a disease. And communicable," Vanilla managed.
"We have reason to believe... it doesn't transmit easily to a normal pony body. Not through the air, at least, and that proof is in the lack of other cases, but..."
"...that's a normal pony body..."
They felt it coming, elder and younger. They could see the first hooves stepping onto the road, and once the path had been set, there was seldom any means of leaving it. Not until the final conclusion had been reached. For they had, in essence, sought out ponies who could think a different way, and then given those ponies permission to think of anything they could...
"...and you two..." Chocolate forced out.
"...aren't... normal ponies," Vanilla just barely finished.
They waited. There was nothing they could do but wait.
"You might be immune to things earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns suffer from," Chocolate shakily said. "You also might be -- susceptible to things all three races would ignore. We don't know. We have no way of knowing, and..." He turned to his partner.
"...we need your medical history," Vanilla told them, "All of it... and -- more than that. We need to start testing you immediately, to see if it's possible that you've been infected when nopony else has. But... that's still not everything..."
And now they took over for each other in turn, for neither had the strength for the full request.
"We need..."
"....every bit of data..."
"...on the medical history..."
"...of your species."
Halfway down the trail now. And they had to answer. For the sake of the world, the words had to come out...
"There is... no medical data," Celestia whispered. "Not for us."
"There were... some tests, early on," Luna softly added. "Basic ones, and a very few which were more -- advanced, at least for their time. But the results of those tests were... destroyed. If any portion of the information gathered survives in the modern age, it is because we missed a place where it was hidden. We could search now... but the chances of our finding anything in time, let alone there being anything to find at all..."
The doctors were staring at them again, and forms both thin and muscular had begun to assume the posture of trembling question marks.
"But... your race," Vanilla said. "I... know it's just the three of you... in the present, but somepony in the past must have done something, the doctors among your own species..."
Three-quarters of the way there, and four eyes closed, but only for a moment. Elder and younger looked to each other, and found the strength.
Together, each syllable weighted with centuries, "There is no alicorn race."
And the stallions didn't understand.
"Well... no..." Chocolate fearfully ventured. "Not any more. Not with just three left, and two related..."
"But in the Discordian Era..." Vanilla tried. "Didn't anything survive? Even a single scroll?"
"There never was an alicorn race," Luna quietly offered. "At least to our knowledge. We searched. For a very long time. Perhaps... before Discord. That might have been possible. But if so, all evidence was lost."
The finish was in sight now. The cliff.
The former roommates took two mutual hoofsteps back. Necks twisted. They whispered to each other for nearly a minute, then came forward again.
"We heard once," Chocolate said, "that on the first Hearth's Warning Eve... two of the windigos in the cave... didn't get hurt by the Surge of love, but absorbed it. And when they had the light of all that love inside them, with a little from all three major races, it transformed them, and..."
They shook their heads.
"Um..." Vanilla started -- then glared at his partner. "You're really going to make me be the one who says this, aren't you?"
"You're the one who guessed the wrong number!"
"Who would have ever guessed a negative?"
"You lost! Just like you lose every rounders game we ever play! Deal with it!"
"Fine!" And back to the sisters. "It's said..." the froth all seemed to come at once "... that if... three ponies, a pegasus, an earth pony, and a unicorn are all... having sex together, and if they sort of... all reach the... the... at the exact same split second..."
Luna blinked. "That is a new one."
"I've heard it twice," Celestia sighed. "From a great distance, obviously."
"Did you laugh?"
"Not at the time." She faced the doctors. "No."
The last hoofsteps were always the hardest.
"The zebras claim there's a seashell..." Chocolate tried.
"No," Luna said. "And they are still going on about that seashell? I suppose that when your nation is landlocked..."
"The head of the First Dragon split open..." Vanilla risked.
"Even Luna doesn't kick that hard," Celestia said, because it kept them from saying the rest for a few more seconds.
The doctors dropped back again, and the volume of their whispers had increased just enough.
"Do we ask them about the solar egg?"
"I am not going to ask about the egg! You ask!"
"I'm pretty sure if I ask about the egg, we are both going to die!"
Luna silently mouthed the word 'egg?' Celestia, exquisitely and equally confused, shrugged.
The stallions stepped forward again, and in doing so, crossed the finish line.
Together, flanks pressed tightly against each other, the words only brought out by the joined strength found in decades of friendship, "Princesses... where do alicorns come from?"
And they were there. For the first time since Luna's Return, they were both there...
There were excuses. Falsehoods, some of which had been allowed to lapse into the fiction emeritus status of mythology. At certain times in history, something close to orders. And in the end... dismissal to the status of foal questions, relegation into something only the youngest would ask about because everypony else would know better. Those foals grew up without ever being given the answers. They only learned to stop asking.
Sister sought out sister. Each thought of the burden, and the duty, and the world. Each nodded to the other, and for both, the movement was heavy with the weight of need.
Luna took a single hoofstep forward. The doctors instinctively pulled back.
Her wings flared, just enough to show all the unfurled joints. The lightest possible touch of corona glowed at the absolute tip of her horn.
"After," she said.
There were three anatomical charts on the far wall, near the false pegasus skeleton. Slowly, Luna trotted forward, past the shaking doctors, waited until she was sure they were watching her... and came to a stop in front of one.
"Before."
The silence stretched out, reached backwards, masked out the sounds from more than a thousand years of lies.
"...no," Chocolate breathed. "No... that's impossible... shapechange on that level would kill... the skeleton, the muscles, a pony body would just tear itself apart..."
"We are in front of you now, as the still-breathing proof of what took place," Celestia softly told them. "Changing to that degree would kill... except then. Except for that. Accept it, doctors -- please. You have to accept it, or there's nowhere else we can go."
"But..." Vanilla, weakly protesting. "...it..." A glance at Luna, next to that one chart. Back to Celestia. "...you?"
"The same." Mixed families had been something less than common in their youth. Something much closer to impossible.
"...Princess Cadance?" Chocolate seemed to be on the verge of a faint. "Somepony said that... once every seven centuries, or eight, or nine, when the stars were exactly right, it was possible for a normal pony to give birth to --"
"-- yes," Luna sighed. "From what I was told, that one was rather handy at the time, along with some ponies spontaneously deciding to believe that my sister had simply found a long-lost relative in a distant part of the world where nopony had previously thought to look, mostly because they would have had to know it existed first."
Celestia nodded. "Having her grow up in near-total isolation did most of the work all by itself."
"It must have helped you considerably," Luna decided, beginning to trot away from the chart.
"It didn't hurt."
The stallions were still reeling, swaying in unison. "But..." Vanilla tried, "she's... she's really a..."
Celestia's horn ignited, and her field surrounded the pegasus chart with soft glow.
"...who knows?" Chocolate just barely breathed. "Does anypony...?"
Luna paused in her trot, facing the doctors.
"Apart from the Princesses," she stated, "there are two living ponies who have been given this information -- and. They. Are. Standing. Before. Me."
And from behind her, a slightly embarrassed "...three."
Luna turned, and so missed the increase in the mutual sway rate.
"Three?"
"...yes."
"Truly?"
"...yes."
"...who?"
"Fancypants."
"Oh." And Luna smiled. "Oh. Of course!"
"You're not angry?"
"Sister, I have met him. If any should... then yes, let it be him. I am slightly frustrated that neither of you saw fit to tell me until now, but I can think of no better choice for your current seneschal. How long has he known?"
They also missed Vanilla's head tilting up and slightly to the never-before-witnessed left.
These words, just like the earlier ones, hurt. And yet... not entirely. Each one carried away a little weight, a mass which would return soon enough... but to let any bit of it out was to free a portion of the pain behind it, and such would require time to build again. For now, the sheer relief took over. "Nearly thirty years. I had... a bad night, we'd known each other for a while, and he was there, and... he doesn't know all of it, Luna. But he knows more than any pony alive. It was... the anniversary of the day we used the time travel spell, and... everything just kicked me at once, he was there, and I didn't want to tell you about it because I didn't know how you would feel about me having spoken for both of us..."
Gently. "Sister... once again, I have met him. Your taste in confidants is excellent. And if it was that date... then he knows her name?"
Not without a little touch of pride in a secret-carrier who had long-kept the knowledge private, "Yes."
The eyes rolling back were even missed by the stallion next to him.
"Well. Then should this problem ever be solved, I believe he and I will have to speak."
"But..." It was the last question Chocolate had strength left for. "...why? Why do you keep it secret at all?"
Celestia's weary gaze went past him, over both heads, looked into a possible future which neither sibling would no longer do anything to stop.
"Because," and her words only magnified the agony of memory, "when ponies know it's possible to become an alicorn... some of them try. And that can have a price, Doctors, a price we've seen paid in pony lives --"
But they all heard the skinny body hit the floor.
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YES, AN UPDATE! And a superb one at that!
SO much delicious info! The brilliantly simple explanation of Joyous' talent! The admission of before! The reason why before is kept such a secret!
EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
Hey, its a doctor kelso cameo, I'd guess he would want a last harra before the end.
Interesting idea on joyous's power.
I can see where this links into you last story, so this is before that one then as celestial doesn't know about the egg.
dang it are they whendigos? I don't understand what it is they are hinting at
Why do I suspect that Vanilla wasn't just Imagine Spoting?
6378866 they were explaining that, like twilight before magical mystery cure, they were once normal ponies.
The has to be my favorite story in your continuum. This chapter is also one of the best here. You are well worth the wait for chapters.
Huh. It's interesting to see where pony medicine is. As is seeing Joyous's talent in action. Good to see the Doctors Bear acting as more than gag characters. They knew what they were doing, even if Luna didn't. There is now definite hope in pinning down the source of the problem.
Seeing the various alicorn origin theories was fun. Sorry, guys. Headcanon debunked.
And that tease. That glorious tease. I suspect which tribe they once were, but it remains uncertain. (Also, they used the time travel spell? Why? When, and to when? So many tantalizing hints of what came before...)
Fancypants knows? Nice. I agree with Luna; if anypony can be trusted with that information, it's him.
In all, a great upswing chapter. A wonderful counterpart to the fear and contingency planning of the previous one.
Oh my goodness, it is a true pleasure to see a return of this.
6378913 ah, that makes more sense
Very happy to see a new chapter of this, and it adds so much to the story.
Wow! This was awesome.
Really sneaky, the way you almost but not quite informed us of what the sisters were Before. That'll be a kickass reveal.
Well now, this is interesting.
The fate of the entire Tryptich Continuum could rest on the withheld information in this chapter! Or at least the bits of the Continuum that I care about. I find it a bit ironic that what seems to be a relatively benign piece of world-building in this particular story has such colossal implications for another story. Although maybe it will turn out to be just as relevant to this story, with the two ultimately forming some kind of bizarre literary civil partnership.
Tell me it's Tryptich next.
Re-reading this from the top. I will have a more relevant comment tomorrow.
The Doctors remind me of Warren Hutch's Flim and Flam. Except 'heroic' instead of 'insane'.
You have no idea how great it is to have you back.
What really makes this unique, besides the basic premise, is the huge levels of tension you put in through the character interactions. Now, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, it draws in the reader, and they become more invested in Joyous' struggle. On the other, the royal sisters are treating the really hot mare as a problem of more dire import than that of a dragon-induced ice age, a slavedriving sorcerer-king, and a malevolent god of chaos. None of which got their personal attention. *sigh*
6380094
Well, one you can (theoretically) laser blast to oblivion because they're assholes.
Joyous, well... executing someone for their genetics seems like a dick move.
IDK. Just a possible reason.
If the CMC get a big enough pony costume, they can sorta pretend to be an Alicorn.
Of destruction and Tree Sap.
They're close enough.
On another note, can't they just get Joyous a hazmat?
Damn these chapters read so tensely
(that's a good thing)
I hope this revival is permanent. This is some damn good writing.
Made me curious. Time to explore the Triptych continuum.
6380229 I wondered about a Hazmat too. We saw them way back in the Cutie Pox episode (or at least the helmet) & more recently Rarity wearing a full-body one in Bats.
I just finished reading this two days ago, the update could not have been more timely XD
Great chapter. Finally, and for all, we know how Joy's talent work.
I am, however, a bit confused at the end. Can someone explain me WHERE do alicorns come from?
Yes, only adorable fillies in the armour of the Solar Guard would survive the "Egg" question.
Is it wrong that I now want to hear the "Seashell" story?
Fantastic to see this update. Thank you Estee.
6380229 Or a scuba outfit. Potentially, yes, if they have the technology, but the description of the operation of her condition, and the magical component in particular, makes me wonder if the pheremone cloud is being generated within her physical body or within the magic sense-cloud (ie it doesn't manifest as a normal chemical until it's a certain distance away from her skin).
Still - even if they don't have airtight suits, maybe some kind of deep-diving air-bubble spell?
6380872
They come from ponies ascending. The Sisters don't want this to leak because someone is going to try, and 99% of the time screw it up.
6381156 Okay, that is what I though. I was not certain, tho (The dialogs are sometimes a bit convobulate).
Thanks for answering!
So if Joyous just sat in containment for two weeks, and then wore a hazmat suit whenever she went outside for the rest of her life, would the problem be solved? I mean, not a lot of fun for Joyous, but big picture the problem would be solved.
6383127
That's like treating a broken arm with a shot of morphine. The symptom is reduced but the cause remains.
Ignoring that it would be monumentally unfair to Joyous, all it would take to set the shenanigans going again is a single breach. Such a solution would be a stopgap at best.
6383706 Well, the fact that its not an infectious disease and instead some rare mutation of Joyous means there are no secondary risks. And yes, going around outside in a hazmat suit forever would be very difficult for Joyous, no question, but its not a stopgap solution, the whole game has changed now that the vector of effect transmission has been identified. If Joyous's suit rips in the market or something like that, all the government needs to do is wait for ponies to start showing up outside her door with flowers and quarantine them for two weeks.
Alternatively, I wonder if this Equestria has magical artificial livers, simply removing the pheromone-inducing organ would probably also solve the problem.
6379636 Having read the whole story again, I just had a horrifying thought.
Spoilers for Triptych:
What if Fancy Pants is part of the Great Work and he is the one who told Dr. Gentle that ascension is possible, thus ensuring the Great Work would go as far as it has?
6386935 Speaking of the Great Work, knowing that attempts to become alicorns usually ended in dead ponies adds a whole new layer of nightmare fuel. The possibility that Malicorn might be the most successful subject of the Great Work...
Before starting into the replies: I just updated the story's TVTropes recap page with some new entries: Secret Keeper, Sadly MythTaken, and Living Aphrodisiac / Smells Sexy. If anyone can think of a trope pertaining to the chapter which I missed, please let me know. (Or, y'know, just openly-edit it in yourself. One of those)
6378836
Some people did guess pheromones along the way -- I should probably go back through the Comments and start upvoting -- and it was always planned as the intended mechanism. (Locally, pegasi often work acts of micro-telekinesis with the atmosphere: Joyous is operating on a very specific level with a narrow range of trace elements.) I tried to drop the hint through others focusing on her scent.
The open admission of before... for those who've been through everything (and i mean everything), I was hoping it would almost be a certified Big Moment. Which naturally means it probably didn't make it. But trying was one of the keys. At some point, they had to say the words to somepony, and it had to mean something...
There's also the implication there that they know letting Twilight have her chance may set some things off -- but now there's an extra level of necessity behind it. As for why she was set up for an attempt in the first place... that has to stay behind the curtain for a while.
(Sorry. Honest. And I know it's been a long process.)
6378844
"I told you that story so I could tell you this one."
Incidentally, we've now got a multi-author collection of stupid alicorn origin stories going in the blog. Drop on by!
6378881
I think he got stuck on imagining his own rapidly-approaching death. Several dozen times.
6378969
The way I treated it, the main problem they've been having is magnification. They know about cells in general, but they can't get a good enough view to pick up on the smallest bacteria and viruses -- and as said before, while they have more than a rough idea of genetics, they're clueless on DNA. (Both doctors are also engaging in a bit of Laypony's Terms during the scene.)
Chocolate and Vanilla, as pony versions of Turk & J.D. with some private practice experience under their garments, are going to wind up having some idea of what they're doing more often than they don't. But they're still going to be a little bit... off.
Horse-Ears Doctors?
*snicker*
I actually wish I had a (pony) character-based meme image of that with them.
Given that Celestia has said she and Luna were the same race before ascension and her dream self from the past having no idea what to do with a potential partner's wings, you can locally cross off "pegasus" once and for all.
The time-travel spell... if you put together this chapter with things said in Blessing and Multi-Factor Authentication, I think you'll know who, and it might provide a hint for why.
I did promise I'd bring that one out quickly.
āŖ He's the pony
the only pony
who knows! āŖ
(Or rather, the only one living whom Celestia has personally told.)
6379242
Which is why a collection of stories gradually turned into a 'verse of sorts. They're meant to support and affect each other... and ideally, for those who've come all the way, the echoes might travel.
6380094
Yeah, but none of them are currently listed as Princess turn-ons.
(We hope.)
There are real reasons the sisters don't risk themselves that often, and those reasons are summed up as 'the entire planet, responsibility for'. Joyous' presence pretty much forced (or enticed) them into direct action. And to be fair, neither had any idea of how potentially major a problem it might turn out to be.
6383977
I can safely say without fear of spoilers that in the local Equestria, if you remove a pony's liver, that pony is going to die.
6380229
6380767
Would you call that a stopgap measure?
(However, there's a certain problem with 'verse versions of the suits...)
6381104
The mist seen on entrance has pheromones of its own, and is one of the reasons the doctors wanted to expose Joyous to somepony she hadn't met before: to make the change more visible. At base setting, she gives off a sort of subconscious alert signal, a default chemical setting which would get the typical pony's attention, and that keeps going until her talent zeroes in on the new sentient's actual lock combination and produces a key. Think of it as a constant broad-spectrum antibiotic which then mutates into what's needed for precise treatment. Also, Luna had recently teleported her in, and Chocolate had just gone to tell her to enter on the count of twenty -- so you're also seeing some of the pheromones which are already set for them.
6381015
"Once."
Make up your own seashell story! There's a blog Comments section for it and everything!
6388244 Curse the Equestrian Science Agency and their lack of artificial liver research!
6388244 Okay so pheromones. Makes sense. Except these pheromones can affect different species? Is that where the magic part of the problem comes in?
Joyous is just lucky she never ran into a dragon...
6391200
(NSFW warning)
Staff edit: NSFW removed.
6383977 You mean wait until surrounding city block devolves into a riot over her. We've seen how fast those under the effect of her talent get to that point.
Potentially hundreds of people, likely injured, would then have to be imprisoned for two weeks. Can you imagine the resources that would take? The effect it would have on the populous? Hell, Murdock's band of goons, to use but one example, already give Celestia and Luna migraines; can you imagine shitstorm when they inevitably found out? And then let's not forget this little observation by the minotaur ambassador:
Again, lets ignore that it's massively unfair and cruel to Joyous, just for the moment. It's utterly impractical. It's a solution that entails effectively ending her life, because there's no way she'd be allowed to see the light of day ever again, and has the potential (read 'certainty', since this is Equestria) to blow up massively in the Princesses' faces and very likely endanger the nation in some way, since they haven't actually cured her!
Let me put this another way.
How many times has someone tossed/sealed an Artifact of Doom/Big Bad away, thinking 'out of sight, out of mind'? How many times has it come back to massively bite them in the ass?
6394100 I didn't state, but I had assumed any house she's in would be sealed with air circulated through charcoal filters, so her pheromones aren't leaking out. There's also the fact that she has to be physically seen for her magic to generate the specific pheromones needed to affect the individual in question, a hazmat suit that doesn't let anyone directly look at her may stop them from being generated in the first place, let alone released.
And yes, we've seen how fast those under the effect of her talent become dangerous, it seems to take several hours at least, after prolonged exposure to Joyous. Accidentally glimpsing her leg doesn't seem to cause ponies to start smashing down buildings, especially if they don't know where she is.
You're right there are national security implications, maybe you're saying she needs to live on Equestria's equivalent of Area 51? Or maybe just a secure wing of the palace, where the sisters can keep an eye on her, I can't imagine anyone stealing her from out under their noses unless they are powerful and dangerous enough that Joyous would not be a significant weapon in their arsenal.
The thing about those ancient artifacts that show up many hundreds or thousands of years later, is that they usually show up because everyone who locked them up died and/or forgot about them. Joyous isn't an artifact, she's a pony, who will age and die, and her talent with her.
And yes, having to wear a hazmat suit all the time is extremely unpleasant for Joyous, as I originally said. I just meant this had shifted from a matter of urgent national/global security back to being a unique medical crisis instead.
Rereading this chapter I was struck by a thought...
You've said that Flim and Flam's marks represent the con. (This much for me, that much for him, and none for you.) Also, if they put the effort into finishing an invention, they would be successful inventors. But they are blinded by the con. And they are starting to escalate...
Have Flim and Flam fallen?
6777347
It's in Chapter 9.
Moar soon? Pweeeze!
I do have one question, re-reading this & remembering a piece from Triptych itself (& possibly other stories in the Continuum): How/why did you come up with the concept of "foal questions?" Did Celestia & Luna engineer the notion, or is it a symptom of ponies simply preferring to not think about questions to which they don't have adequate answers? Is it a remnant of one of Discord's tricks/pranks? If it was intentionally developed by one or more immortals (the Sisters or Discord), then said developer(s) would have a LOT to answer for. I am quite curious as to how this concept arose, both in-Continuum and on a meta/writer level.
Wow! It updated! How did I miss this!
6388244
So, should those tropes be added to the Fanfic page too?
It's...It's so beautiful...
Actual, scientific thought, consideration of data...oh I love it so
But, it is now abundantly clear that Celestia and Luna need a to take a class on genetics, disease, and general physiology. Because, they jumped to contemplating their own deaths when the answer was (relatively) commonly available. Luna is forgivable-she's been gone a thousand years. Celestia, on the other hand, not so much. I know it'd be far too much to ask that she knows the ins and outs of every little field (she has professionals for that), but this seems like stuff she should have known and considered.
Hmm. I am now getting the image of Celestia failing the entrance exams to her own School because she hasn't been keeping up with the non-magical side of things.
I suppose I shouldn't have doubted you. Celestia and Luna's actions were the result of having no idea how genetics and disease works and an odd jump to apocalyptic thoughts and giving up when they can't find a solution even though they have barely scratched the surface on entire fields of science and medicine.
Seriously, I'm tempted to write a react fic from the point of view of Twilight ripping Celestia and Luna apart on their flawed thinking, investigative procedure, and so on.
I gotta admit, I like this story.
"long-lost", I'm guessing.
Thank you, good doctors, for talking some sense into these two silly sisters! Also, I had a feeling pheromones were involved, bit it's nice to finally have confirmation along with a plot-advancing breakthrough.
Princesses
More errant horizontal rule close tagsā¦
"Do the needful," eh? That's a very Indian (or at least South Asian) turn of phrase.
Okay so far this story has been fantastic. This chapter was too...except for one part.
This whole "after" and "before" thing! WHAT ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT!?!? IT MAKES NO SENSE TO ME.
Are they saying they existed before they existed?