57: Just gonna have to be a different man.
Just gonna have to be a different man.
Chapter published 2nd June 2013
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Late Oct 1224 AC
Taking up the entire top floor of a fairly expensive residential block nestled in a fashionable part of Canterlot’s western quarter was, what seemed form the outside at least, a fairly nondescript family apartment.
All four exterior walls were made of thick glass from ceiling to floor, enchanted so from the outside they just looked like sheets of obsidian polished to a mirror finish. One long continuous balcony formed a ring around the entire apartment with a set of steps on both the north and south sides leading up onto the large flat roof.
What any outward observer who hadn’t been deterred by this point wouldn’t know was that currently gathered in the lounge of this ordinary looking home was no ordinary group of Canterlot denizens. Inside its walls were two of the six bearers of the elements of harmony, a Still Way grandmaster, the sole living human on the entire planet, the only human/pony hybrid foal known to exist and last but not least their current house guest, an alicorn princess
The reason for this Canterlot city apartment to hold this odd collection of individuals: This was the second home of herd Bellerophon, probably the most famous herd of recent years in all of Equestria.
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“So, what are we doin’ anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked as she moved the last of the dining chairs out of the way and up against the wall of the modestly decorated lounge, next to where Twilight had previously levitated the dining table.
Twilight turned from where she was moving one of the sofas closer to the opposite walls in order to open up a decent sized bit of space in the middle of the already largish room. It didn't seem to matter to her that Lyra had been sitting on the sofa with her daughter at the time and the musician & foal had found themselves levitated across the room with both ponies still in their seats.
Taking It all in her stride, Sweet Spirit just climbed about over her mother’s neck, trying to make her way up the adult’s mane to get to her favourite watching place between her mother’s ears. The kid sure liked climbing and had developed an obsession with high places recently, her father's shoulders or the crown of her mother’s head being the most common places to find her once she decided to go adventuring.
Still pondering the positioning of the sofa, incumbents and all, Twi replied over her shoulder.
“Well, you remember that we found that as Lero’s pony form was pretty close to an earth pony we could make his transformation more stable by using an earth pony stallion like Big Mac as a template during the casting period?”
The purple unicorn moved the sofa a single flank width to the left, only to shift in back again a few seconds later.
“Well, now Princess Luna and I have had more time to go over Star Swirl’s notes we’re pretty sure that if we increase the amount of power we channel though to the spell and use a non-thoroughbred pegasus like yourself as a template then we should be able to push Lero into changing into a pretty good approximation of a pegasus pony. Or at least that’s the theory.”
The sofa went back to the left and it looked like it might actually stay there this time as Rainbow threw herself onto it, putting herself directly in the middle of her herdmate’s field of view as she did so.
“What?” She asked. “Whoa, cool. You mean he’d be able to fly? That'd be awesome!”
“Well, no, not at first.” Twilight replied. “Unfortunately, even if we made him a pegasus genetically, he still wouldn’t be an actual pegasus so he wouldn’t have access to any flight magic, much like how he hasn't had any noticeable earth pony powers whenever we’ve changed him before now. Unfortunately an individual’s magic’s not something you can just create from nowhere, there’s things like the law of equivalent exchange to account for after all.”
“Oh.“ Rainbow was crestfallen at this news. If it was possible for any pony (other than Pinkie Pie) to visibly deflate then she would have done so.
“Fear not my young friend.” Princess Luna clapped a forehoof on the pegasus’ shoulder. “I do believe that were I to utilise one of my rather old... and somewhat forbidden... spells I will be able to temporarily infuse your stallion with a very small portion of my own alicorn magic, meaning he will be able to wield pegasus flight magic for but a short while. It will be brief, but if we are successful it would give him the opportunity to at least get his feet, or hooves as they will be at the time, off of the ground.”
Rainbow’s ears perked up again at this particular piece of news. If it was also possible for a pony (other than Pinkie Pie) to visibly re-inflate then she’d have done that too.
“Yes, but we have to be careful about different types of magic reacting badly together.” Twilight interjected, not wanting to get her herdmate’s hopes up too far just in case. “While your earth pony heritage compliments your dominant pegasus nature, making your flight magic more powerful than that of any standard pegasi, you also occasionally get other mixed heritage ponies like Derpy whose earth pony magic is dominant over her pegasus nature, making both her flight and weather control somewhat unpredictable.”
“That’s true, does make her a damn good baker though.” Rainbow’s eyes took on a faraway look as some of the apology treats that the unfortunate mailmare was often bringing around town came to mind. “Her muffins are totally awesome and her cherry cupcakes are almost as good as Pinkie’s and the Pies are like full-on earth pony all the way back to the dark ages!”
“Indeed.” Twilight noted, waving a forehoof in front of her friend’s drooling face.”But we’re not one hundred percent sure how Lero’s body will react once we throw Luna’s alicorn magic into the mix. As alicorn magic is itself a balance between unicorn, pegasus and earth pony magic we’re hopeful it will have a profoundly stabilising influence on proceedings... Maybe.”
Lero wandered back from where he’d been moving the coffee table. “Aha, ‘hopeful’, yeah. I love the way we’re talking about giving me the big ol’ magical whammo whilst using phrases like ‘hopeful’ and ‘if’ and ‘approximation’. Really fills a boy with confidence, ya know.”
With a big goofy grin on his face he reached over and tussled Twilight’s fringe.
“I hope this isn’t going to end up like that time your niece had one of her magic surges and accidently changed poor Fluttershy into a tree. It took us at least an hour and three hairbrushes to get all the bits of bark out of her mane.”
Twilight grimaced at the reminder of that particular mishap.
“Well that was an accident.” More than a touch of indignation tainted the unicorn’s response. ”She didn’t mean it and it wasn’t like Fluttershy minded. Anyway, looking back I did far worse as a child. Apparently I once teleported Cadance a few hundred body lengths away just because she jumped out at me while we were playing hide and seek.”
“Well that’s not so bad.” Rainbow added, trying to be supportive of her herdmate who was suddenly looking bit down. But instead of looking encouraged as the pegasus had been hoping, the unicorn hung her head.
“It was a couple of hundred body lengths straight up.” Twi said meekly.
“Ooh. Yeah” Without meaning to Rainbow sucked air in through her teeth. Even for a trained stunt flyer like herself a sudden unexpected fall could be deadly. “Ouch. Good job she’s got wings then.”
“Yes, very.” The unicorn admitted, though the slightly... shifty expression that she wasn’t quick enough to hide was leaving the others wondering quite how much of the incident had really been an ‘accident’.
“Taught her not to yell ‘boo’ at a jumpy foal though.” Twilight added quickly. Rainbow and Lero, the only two beings in the room without horns on their foreheads, just glanced at each other. How unicorns could forever be so blasé about magic was beyond either of them.
“Ah well, let’s give it a whirl.“ Lero clapped his hands together to break up the awkward atmosphere. “Worst that can probably happen is I lose my shirt. Speaking of which, I’m going to go change into a towel. First time we tried this with me still dressed it destroyed my favourite pair of cargo pants and the last thing I want to be doing about now is exposing myself to a princess of the realm.”
As the tall biped left the room a vague muttering came from Luna’s direction which sounded shockingly like “Tis a pity” though no pony was brave enough to pry any further.
As the three non-alicorn adults in the room stood in stunned silence, young Sweet Spirit decided that at this point mommy’s left ear looked to be about the tastiest thing she’d ever seen and started to give give it a good chew.
Any pony who knew the mint green unicorn at all well would know that the sudden wideness of her eyes and barely perceptible hiss that escaped her lips meant that her daughter's surprisingly pointy teeth had found a particularly sensitive patch of skin.
“Whoa there, girly girl. “ Lyra said softly, a gentle glow enveloped her horn as the hungry foal was wrapped in her mother’s magic and gently lifted from within her mane. “I think someone needs a feeding and then bed.”
Hanging in the air just a scant horn’s width from mommy’s face, the foal’s stubby little ears suddenly sprang up at the mention of a feeding.
For a pony of such a young age, and who had yet to even speak her first word, she had an astounding grasp of language. This was especially true for words she really liked such as ‘food’, ‘playtime’ and her most totally-favouritist ever words (they surely must have been just due to the amount of times she’d heard them by now) ‘get down from there!’ & ‘how in Equestria did you manage that?’.
“Come on then, say goodnight to your mommies and auntie Luna and I’ll read you your favourite book about the little princess on the moon.” Lyra levitated her child over towards Twilight, knowing full well that otherwise Sweetie would have headed straight towards either the pegasus or the alicorn first, always leaving the lavender mare until last. Children could be so fickle at times.
After repeated nuzzles from her mothers and an extra long nuzzle from ‘Auntie Luna’ (extra long because Sweetie had learnt by now how to cling rather tightly onto her favourite aunt’s muzzle with all four limbs in a manner which prompted her father refer to her as - what every pony assumed was a cute little name - ‘facehugger’) the happy little child was carried off to her room where her mother was quite likely to get her teats nibbled to pieces if she wasn’t careful.
Watching the pair leave the room, the child still giggling and gyrating in her mother’s magic, Luna sighed deeply.
“To be honest with you, I’m a little worried about what will happen when she finds out that her favourite bedtime tale is about me. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to live up to her expectations.”
Turning back the the room’s two remaining occupants the lunar princess was surprised to find find Rainbow giving Twilight quite the suspicious glare.
“Ok, so this is all great and all but spill it, why all this effort?” The pegasus started, her tone making plain that she would take no wiff-waff from either of them today. “I doubt you’ve gone to all this trouble just so me and Lero have have a little fly about. What are you two really up to?”
Luna just turned towards Twilight, who was looking everywhere but at her herdmate, the expression on her face somewhat... guilty?.
“Well, erm, you see.” The unicorn began. “We had this idea that if we can trick lero’s DNA into thinking he’s a pegasus pony, then we could collect some of his... err, sperm and err...”
She trailed off, the position of the previously unmoved sofa suddenly taking up a surprising amount of her attention.
“Yes, and..?” Rainbow’s attention span had absolutely no intention of getting distracted by the furniture.
“Well, we could combine then it with one of your eggs and…” Twilight trailed off again, rubbing her right forehoof with her left and oh boy, the bookcase certainly looked like it could do with its weekly reorganising already.
“Yes, go on.” The pegasus was starting to get impatient, a forehoof tapping on the wooden floor an obvious testament to this. She may not have been the smartest mare in the room but she’d totally figured out where the herd’s little miss brainiac was heading by now.
Under Rainbow’s gaze Twi just mumbled, which in turn caused the pegasus to glare at her that bit harder.
Watching them both intently, Luna couldn't help but be a tad surprised. She’d planned on a number of different reactions from the young pegasus but she’d not expected any of them to be so... negative. Exasperated by the quickly developing vicious cycle developing in front of her, the lunar princess decided it was time to get involved. Seriously, there were some times that her friends really needed a royal hoof right in the derriere.
“Oh, by my sister’s beard.” The princess snapped, she wouldn’t even need the Royal Canterlot Voice for this. “Twilight Sparkle believes that she can combine your stallion’s seed with one of your own eggs and implant it within herself and were Master Lero to be a pegasus stallion at the point of his supplying his offering then the chances of the foal being a pegasus would be quite high.”
At the alicorn’s sudden statement (all thrown out in a single breath, not needing to breathe really had its advantages at times) Rainbow Dash just stood and stared. Yep, that was pretty much what she’d suspected but to have Luna lay it out as bluntly as that had still thrown her off track.
“But we’ve talked about this before.“ The pegasus stammered as her herdsister still refused to meet her eyes. “It’s way too dangerous, Twi. The amount of magic you needed just to keep Sweetie safe was astronomical. I can't even count the number of nosebleeds and migraines and stuff you gave yourself trying to channel enough of your magic into Lyra just to keep her stable for eleven months.”
As Rainbow continued her plea, her volume increasing as she did so, Luna looked back and forth between the two herdmates, surprised that the unicorn hadn’t talked this through with her wife long before today.
“You both said before that a surrogate pregnancy on top of all that other stuff would require the mother to have a massive amount of magic reserves, much more than even you have to hoof and buckets more than Lyra could pump into you without blowing her horn out.”
At this point both Twilight and Luna opened their mouths to speak but a wave of the pegasus’ forehoof cut them both off.
“Look, I think I know what you're trying to do and I appreciate the effort, I really do, but I can’t let you do this. There seems to be this crazy idea floating around that I’d be feeling left out if there’s no little pegasi kiddies for me to play with but that’s totally not true. Look Twi, I’d love our kids no matter that race they were, I don't care if they’ve got wings or horns or even fingers. Family's family, ya know, their shape doesn't really matter to me.”
Turning to pace back and forth - a nervous habit she’d been trying for a while now to get rid of - through the clear space that they’d made in the middle of the room, Rainbow pressed on with her point.
“Please, don't put yourself at risk over this. It’s not that important.” She said, her voice now carrying more concern than anger. “I just want everyone to be safe so I’m not having anyone else putting themselves in danger for me, that’s just not how the Dash rolls, you should both know that by now.”
At this point Lero re-entered the lounge, naked except for a large towel he had wrapped around his waist. Glancing about the room he was surprised to find one wife hiding her face, another pacing the floor (which her therapist had said before was a bad sign) and a slightly confused looking princess.
“Girls, what’s all this about? I could hear you down the hall in Sweetie’s room.”
Taking a perch on the arm of a sofa, careful to make sure that his towel retained his dignity, Lero motioned both of his wives over to him.
Ceasing her pacing, though still dithering slightly, Rainbow came and stood by one of her stallion’s knees while Twilight, gaze still averted and head slightly bowed, stood by the other. Keeping himself squarely between them both (years of living in Equestria had taught him much about herd dynamics) and ensuring that he didn’t show favour to one over the other, he slowly reached out with each hand to rub their heads, letting his fingers run through their manes as he did so. He’d found a long time ago that a soft word and a well placed touch was often the best method of keeping the peace in this place.
Turning to his pegasus mate, but careful to keep his physical contact equal between both wives, he spoke in a soft, reassuring tone.
“Rainbow, I know the idea of Twilight hurting herself with her magic still scares you.” Rainbow bristled at the very suggestion but they both knew it was true. “Believe me, I know how you felt having to watch Twi push herself all through Lyra’s pregnancy and knowing there was very little we could do to help her. Really, I know the feeling all too well. But you know she’s only trying to help.”
Turning to face Twilight, he let his hand move under her chin, lifting her head so he could look the unicorn in the eye.
“And we both know what scientists are like; they love to try out new spells to see if they work even if they’re not actually going to go all the way through with them.” He ran his thumb across his wife’s cheek in the way she always found so reassuring. “I doubt that Twi’s going to trying any really dangerous spells without giving them a proper test first.”
The human’s hands moved around to rub one of his wive’s ears each.
“Especially after the cutie mark incident.” He added.
A slight redness came to the cheeks of both mares as they were reminded of the consequences of one of Twilight’s previous attempts at casting a major spell without properly doing her homework first. They’d all learned a few things that week, none more so than the lavender unicorn.
But Rainbow and Twilight weren’t the only ones to find themselves blushing at the memories, or at least the few fragmented memories everyone but Twilight still had of that period in their lives. On the whole it was an incident that they’d all just as soon forget and unfortunately Lero just hadn’t been able to look either Rarity or Bon Bon in the eyes for weeks even after the whole thing had been fixed.
Of course, it didn't help that even now Rarity still occasionally insisted (just jokingly, she claimed) that Lero call her ‘Mistress’. It also hadn't helped that a mysterious package from Fancy Pants had arrived in the mail a week later, containing nothing but a riding crop, a set of reins and a drawing of a big smiley face.
“Anyway.” Lero shuddered slightly, bringing himself back to the present as he did so. “Why don’t we at least give it a go, eh, Rainbow? Twi and Princess Luna have obviously put a lot of time into this so it'd be a shame to let it go to waste. And even if nothing comes of it there might be other uses for the spell, hmm?”
While he spoke, Luna’s eyes were following the movements of Lero’s exposed shoulders as he stroked his mare’s manes, the way his muscles moved under the surface of his pink furless skin, the way his chest moved with every breath. Why was it that a creature that wore clothing so much of the time could be so fascinating once he started to take them off? Hang on, it looked like he was talking to her.
“Princess? Princess?” Lero called, a flicker of concern evident in his eyes.
“Oh, yes, pardon me.” Luna started, embarrassed by her lapse in concentration. “Yes, you are right Master Lero.”
Biting her lip, the alicorn hoped that was the right response for the situation. As the human soon turned his attention back to his pegasus wife with a smile on his face then it would appear that it was.
“You see.“ He said. “Even the princess thinks we should at least give the transformation spell a try. If it works then great, if not then no great loss. All that’ll happen is that Twi and Luna will then spend the next few hours cooped in the study trying to figure out what went wrong while you can help me in the kitchen. How’s that sound?”
Rainbow nodded her agreement. She obviously still had concerns but the power of logic coupled with a few minutes of ear-rubs had won her over.
“Besides, I’m curious to see what I look like with wings.” Leaning forward, Lero planted a soft kiss on the pegasus’ nose. “If they’re anything like yours then I’m betting they’ll be magnificent. If we get time you can even show me how to preen them if you like.”
“OK, big guy, you’ve won me over.” Rainbow pushed her face against her lover’s hand one more time before moving away to the middle of the room. “So let’s do this thing. Where do I need to be?”
“Just there will be fine.” Luna waved a hoof roughly where Rainbow was already standing. “As long as Master Lero and yourself stay fairly close together, say less than a body length apart, then we should be good to go.”
“Never been a problem before.” Rainbow smirked, her usual rebellious twinkle returning to her eye. “We could get even closer if you like.“
“Erm, yes.” Luna responded, easily picking up on where Rainbow was planning to take this, with or without the eyebrows being wiggled in her direction, and hoping to head it off at the pass. “I doubt we’ll need you to be quite that close.”
While his one wife and the princess bantered, Lero turned to his other herdmate.
“She’ll be ok.” He said quietly. “She doesn’t like to admit it but she was really scared for you before and knowing that as a pegasus there was nothing she could do for you drove her crazy.”
“I’m sorry.” Twi said, her voice sounding so small. “I should have told her what we were doing beforehoof. Then she probably wouldn’t have reacted so badly.”
“Maybe” Lero agreed with a sigh. Why were ponies so bad at communication? But then, it’s not like his species was really any better. “But it’s done now so no point fretting. Instead let’s show her what you can do. Give her an eyeful of ‘Lero the Mighty Pegasus’ and she’ll get over it in no time.”
Planting a soft kiss on the unicorn’s nose, the human rose from the sofa and moved to join the others in the middle of the room. As he came abreast of the princess, he reached out and rubbed the alicorn between the ears in a decidedly friendly gesture.
Though by now he may have had years of exposure to pony body language, he still managed to miss the way Luna’s ears pricked up that little bit further as his hand moved through her ethereal mane, causing a couple of her smaller stars to bounce and swirl as his fingers passed them by.
“I’m sorry you had to see that” the human said as he drew his hand back, not seeing the disappointment in the princess’ eyes as he broke contact. Hardly anypony except for her sister dared to touch her in such a casual manner the way Lero did in... by the source, it had been so long. “We really do appreciate everything you’ve done for us. I just wanted you to know that. So, thanks.”
“Thou should think nowt of it.“ Luna said, the part of her brain that dealt with modern speech taking a few seconds to catch up to the rest of her. “We art honoured that thou would allow us to join you in these private moments.”
Aaaand, there it was, her brain was back in play again. “Ahem, yes, indeed. That you should allow one such as I into your lives like this, as a family friend rather than as an untouchable ruler kept upon her pedestal. it is a true kindness that my sister and I do not often receive.”
“Well, our thanks anyway.” And with that Lero moved to a spot next to Rainbow Dash, deliberately letting the back of his hand rub against her shoulder as he took his place.
Crouching down in the middle of the room - shapeshifting often made him dizzy and if we was going to fall he'd rather not fall the whole six feet - the human took a deep breath to steady his nerves.
“Ok, let’s do this.“ Rainbow declared, spreading her wings and taking a low combat stance. She didn't need to, it just made her feel a bit more confident, especially in situations where she felt she had little control over the outcome.
Plus it looked wicked cool which was always a bonus.
After checking that Luna was also ready, Twilight closed her eyes and began the slow process of building up enough concentrated magic for a transformation spell of the magnitude needed to change a large biped into a smaller winged quadruped.
Reaching out with both her mind and her magic, she could feel Luna’s almost terrifyingly large magical aura from just beside her as well as Rainbow’s much smaller aura just in front of her. Focusing on the spot between them where logically she knew Lero was crouched she searched for his essence.
Trying to get a magical lock on the human was always difficult as, due to him not being a born & bred part of the fabric of equestria, the magic of harmony tended to flow around him rather than through him. Lero often jokingly claimed he was using ‘stealth technology’ but after all these years she had figured out a few ways of snagging her man... both magically and otherwise.
Most times it was easiest to look for the magical ‘hole’ in her surroundings, the spot that the magic was avoiding. Pushing at the magical cold spot she found her mate, his strange aura registering as erratically against her own magic as it usually did. Wrapping him in her magical field the lavender unicorn began to weave the underpinnings of the transformation spell around him, checking, double-checking and triple-checking each small part before she moved on to the next.
Satisfied that everything was proceeding to plan Twilight opened one eye, glancing over at Princess Luna who was awaiting the signal to begin her own part of the spell.
“Ready for assistance.” Twilight immediately closed her eye again, confident that Luna would proceed as she should. Her confidence was not misplaced as within seconds - far faster than any other spellcaster (except Lyra) that Twilight had ever met could manage - she felt strong reinforcement magic flowing around and into her horn.
“OK, that’s good.” She concentrated on pushing the extra magic at her disposal into Lero’s body, feeling his form resisting as her magic started to take him apart at the thaumic level. “His body’s fighting me, give me about twenty percent again of what you're currently giving me please.”
Luna leaned forward, funneling an additional tiny amount of her alicorn magic into her reinforcement spell. The difficulty right now wasn't in supplying extra magic for spell, but in only supplying as much at any time as the caster could handle. Twilight may be the most magically gifted unicorn since Star Swirl himself, but she was still just a unicorn and it would be all too easy to overload her horn with raw alicorn magic at this point.
“That’s good, hold just there please.” Twilight's breathing levelled out as she overcame the last bit of resistance that Lero’s body was putting up, his human form finally becoming pliable under her magic’s control.
This bit always freaked Rainbow out and today was no exception. With a normal pony a transformation was fairly instantaneous. Twi would point her horn at them and then ZAP - a big flash, the smell of ozone and ‘voila’ suddenly it was butterfly wings or a new mane-do or a comedy moustache. Sometimes you’d get a pot plant instead but to be fair Twi hadn’t done that in years.
With Lero though, he was a totally different story. For starters the spell could take a good few minutes from start to finish. Plus there was also the fact that sometimes different parts would transform at totally different speeds and that was only if they decided to transform at all.
Much as she loved her man, there was something kinda creepy about a human from the waist up stuck on a pony’s body at the neck. Luckily today was running as smooth as a well trained stunt team. Twi was controlling her magic like a pro - which she totally was - and Lero was reforming nicely.
Eyes expanded, ears moved upwards and facial features repositioned, his mane growing and flowing over his shoulders, red and golds catching the light from Twilight’s spell like flickering flames. Fingers and toes pulled back into his limbs, hooves forming over the ends as soft brown fur flowed up his legs.
“Mmmm, chocolate. “ Rainbow uttered, clamping her forehooves over her mouth as she realised that she’d spoken out loud. Fearing she’d disturbed her unicorn herdmate’s casting she glanced over at Twi, relieved to see that her verbal slip seemed to have passed unnoticed.
Rainbow took the chance to just let her eyes flow over her stallion in his (always magnificent) pony form. His strong shoulders, his flowing mane and noble face, his mighty flanks sadly covered today by that damn towel. Face wise he always ended up with almost the same features with each transformation and there was something always just so recognisably... 'Lero' about his expressions.
Taking in the view even though she knew this was anything but the time and place for it, she couldn't resist imagining what illicit acts they could get up to in the short time that his body would hold this shape.
If the pegasus didn’t know better she’d swear Twilight was sculpting a few of his features into her ideal stallion even though the unicorn repeatedly insisted that there was no way she could control the transformation with the level of finesse. Heck, Rainbow hadn't even been sure what ‘finesse’ meant until Lyra had explained it to her but she still thought Twilight was talking through her saddle with her denials.
“OK, ready for template.” Twi’s words shook the pegasus out of her short but enjoyable fantasy (and it had just been getting good too) as Rainbow found herself enveloped in the caster’s second magical field.
“Mapping template.” Twi grunted as her spell caused the trapped pegasus to glow green, a grid of magical lines moving back and forth over her subject’s body. “Luna, I’m going to need a tiny bit more power here, yes that’s it, thank you.”
“Copying attributes.” Twilight’s magic lifted both Rainbow and Lero from the ground as she moved her attention back and forth between them both. “Compressing target down to pegasus size, wing formation initialised.”
Lero could feel himself being squeezed from all sides, much like he’d had the few times he’d ever been scuba diving as a teen. As quickly as it had began the sensation ceased only to be replaced with a sudden... weight on his back as a pair of large blue wings sprouted from behind his shoulder blades. As he felt them unfurl, their impressive wingspan spreading away from his body, ripples of brown worked their way along each of his strange new appendages, replacing the blue as they went.
Twi slowly opened her eyes, careful to maintain her casting lest the spell collapse in on itself.
“Well I think we can call that a success, don’t you Luna?” The unicorn asked as she turned to her alicorn friend.
“Oh yes, I wholeheartedly concour.” Luna agreed. “Now, if you could maintain both fields for a few moments longer I can infuse Master Lero with my alicorn magic whilst you weave it into place throughout his new form. If you are confident you can embed it within him correctly without using Lady Dash as a template then feel free to release her but I would not recommend it on your first attempt.”
Twi turned back to face Lero, eyes moving from her stallion to her herd mate and back again.
“No, I think you’re right. It would make stabilising the flight magic easier.” She said. “Alright then, I’m ready when you are, Princess.”
“Splendid.” Luna nodded, turning her attention to the rather impressive pegasus stallion stood before her.
So now it was the lunar princess’ turn to close her eyes as she prepared to cast her ancient spell. She had not used magic of this nature in over a thousand years now, though to her it felt like just yesterday.
The last time she had imparted a portion of her own alicorn magic into another had been when she gifted her own, now long departed, stallion with a portion of her essence. Though the spell she would use today was far simpler and the amount of magic being moved much smaller, the similarities between the situations was still enough to remind her of those long past heady days of her love.
Pushing the memories to the back of her mind, she narrowed her attention, focusing just on what lay before her. Releasing a very small portion of her raw alicorn magic, Luna compressed and refined it before slowly feeding it into Twilight's horn. Feeling the unicorn begin to separate the offered magic into it’s component pegasus, unicorn and earth pony parts and guide only the pegasus element towards Lero, Luna started to siphon the unnecessary parts back into her own core.
As she concentrated on the task at hand she was vaguely aware of a noise behind her... No, she should pay it no mind, it was just Lyra returning to the room.
But the noise continued.. and there was a tugging sensation coming from her tail... and her leg... something was climbing up her leg!
Allowing a portion of her attention to divert from her casting, Luna realised that what was climbing up the back of her leg was in fact Sweet Spirit. The child must have escaped from her room and wanted to rejoin the adults.
“Young lady.“ Lyra cried as she darted into the room, spotting her errant foal swiftly ascending towards the lunar princess’ royal backside. “Get down from there. Princess Luna is doing something very difficult and doesn’t need you climbing up her tush.”
By this point the adventurous child had reached the back of Luna’s thigh, the little ‘nubbins’ on the backs of each of her ankles making the ascent easier for her than it would have done for any other non-hybrid foal. Not that any other foal would have dared use the co-ruler of Equestria as their own personal climbing frame.
“Princess, I‘m sorry.” Lyra apologised as she moved towards her offspring, who by now was very much on the naughty list. “She’s just figured out who the heroine of her bedtime story really is.”
It was at this point that Sweet Spirit decided to surprise everyone in the room with her first ever words.
“Woona!” She cried at the top of her little lungs, grasping tightly against her favourite aunt’s leg. “Woona Lonely!”
Five sets of eyes turned to the noisy foal, shouting her first words as if they meant the difference between life and death... and to her young mind they may as well have done.
Their surprise was short lived however as Lero’s body decided to take this opportunity to start rejecting Twilight’s spell, his new wings pulling back into his sides with a pronounced ‘slurp’ noise.
“Oh, horseapples.” Twilight rushed to modify her casting before any more rejection could take place, catching the spell before it managed to turn into an unstoppable cascade failure.
As Luna turned the royal derriere (and its unexpected passenger) towards the worried mother, Lyra moved to grab Sweetie with her telekinesis.
“Come on Sweetie, back to bed.”
“NO!” The foal shouted as she was enveloped by her mother’s magic. “LOVE WOONA!”
As her four small hooves were peeled away from her perilous perch, the child used the last method she could think of to keep herself latched to her ‘Woona’... her teeth.
A little known fact about alicorns was that, as a combination of the three pony races, they had the erogenous zones of all three... and they were really quite sensitive, especially where all three races had zones that overlapped... like the inner thigh.
So as far as Luna was concerned, being bitten in the surprisingly soft skin on the back of her thigh by a screaming child didn’t just hurt... it hurt a lot.
And when the small child’s sharp canine teeth broke the skin it hurt even more... a lot more.
“BY MY TEATS THAT HURTS!.”
Never had the rather common equestrian curse been so close to the truth. Both literally and geographically.
As the Royal Canterlot Voice echoed around the room, a rather surprised Sweet Spirit let go of her aunt's leg, the sudden lack of resistance to her mother’s telekinesis catapulting her across the room past the mint green unicorn who desperately dived to catch her child.
Unfortunately the unexpected pain had (understandably) disrupted Luna’s concentration and rather more raw alicorn magic than she had been prepared to share was suddenly forced into Twilight’s horn.
A magical prodigy though she may have been, there was a limit to what the purple thaumologist could handle and while she did manage to harmlessly vent off an impressive amount of her unwanted payload, a sizeable amount still found itself being channeled back out through her horn and into her transformation spell.
The effect was almost instantaneous. In less than a second Lero’s formerly chocolate brown coat had strobed through every colour of the rainbow before settling on jet black, a black as dark as Princess Luna’s own coat, his mane and tail each reforming into a short ruffled brown mess. Spreading wide as they erupted from his back his pegasus wings returned while his face contorted, his features becoming that of a stallion that in no way could be mistaken for the former human.
“Sable?!” Luna gasped, an expression of distress coming to her own features. “No, you’re gone, you can’t be here! I saw you die!”
The Lero that wasn’t opened his mouth as if to cry out but no sound could be heard. Instead his entire form burst into flame, the flames moving about his body before suddenly receding from his coat until they were concentrated in just his mane and tail. As the flames left his body they exposed a coat and wings of bone white, a white so pure it would make Princess Celestia’s pristine coat look positively drab. As Lero’s feature’s rearranged themselves once more a large unicorn horn erupted from his forehead.
“Terra!” Luna’s face contorted in rage, her irises constricting to slits, great anger echoed in her voice. “No, you left us, you have no place here! Unhoof this stallion right now, you cannot have him, I will not allow it!”.
As the flaming mane flared out around its head, the being that wasn’t Lero again opened its mouth as if to speak, but before any sound could come forth it stopped dead, turning to stare in confusion directly at Twilight.
“Luna!” The unicorn shouted, sparks jumping from her drastically overloaded horn. “I’m getting a lot of feedback here! My transformation spell’s completely out of control and I’ve no idea how much longer I can hold it together!”
Just as quickly as he had moved through his unexpected changes just moments before, Lero was unceremoniously returned to a more familiar chocolate brown earth pony form, his blinking eyes still focused on his unicorn herdmate.
“I’m fine, I’m okay. Not sure what happened there but I’m back to normal.” He called, glancing down at his hooves. “Well, pony normal anyway.”
Unfortunately their troubles were far from over as Twilight still had a huge amount of magic running through what was left of her tattered transformation spell. Screwing her eyes tight she concentrated on gathering all the errant magic she could find and compressing it into a ball at the end of her horn.
”OK, everypony, get out of the way!” She cried, praying that she could control the imminent magical explosion. “I’ve got to dissipate this magic and you DO NOT want to be in front of it when it pops.”
The next thing Lero felt was Rainbow Dash ramming into his side, pushing him across the dining table and away to safety, then a sudden flash followed by an immense boom.
And then there was nothing but silence.
------------------------------
As the haze cleared Luna did what royalty does best; she took charge of the situation.
“Everypony.” She called into the smoke, the smell of ozone mixed with rotten eggs and burnt sugar making her nose twitch.
“We command thee to sound off. We wish to know thou are all in one piece.” The fall back into her old speech patterns betrayed her concern that one or more of her friends might be injured... or worse. She had never seen a spell backfire in such a spectacular fashion before and, for a being of both her age and her exposure to the early years of unicorn magic, that was saying something
Twilight staggered out of the smoke, her horn blackened and smouldering around the tip. Much of her fringe was burnt away and the rest of her mane was heavily singed around the edges.
“I’m here. Got the biggest headache of my life though and the ringing in my ears is... Sweetie!” The unicorn cast about the room anxiously. “Where’s Sweetie?”
From the other side of the room Lyra’s disembodied voice floated through the fog
“She’s down here.”
A mint green head poked up from behind a lightly smoking sofa before ducking back down again just to reappear seconds later with a giggling foal in her teeth. The youngster seemed to think the whole thing was a splendid game and could she have another go?
Twilight breathed a heavy sigh of relief at the sight of the wriggling child.
“Phew, ok, so four down, where’s the other two?”
Calling for the last two members of herd Bellaphon, the three adults were unspeakably glad to hear Lero’s voice from the far end of the room.
“I’m over here. Back to being human and I still seem to have all my bits attached as well which is good.”
The biped pulled open one of the apartment windows, letting the smoke start to billow its way out of the room. As the air started to clear around him they could see that his normally smooth pink skin appeared to be rippling, stripes of short brown fur weaving their way over his body, though he had somehow managed to keep his towel in place... much to Luna’s chagrin.
After a scant few seconds the furry markings dissipated in much the same way as when a transformation spell would wear off his annoyingly 'transmogrification-magic-resistant' body, leaving just his tanned skin with a swath of paler pink across his chest where he usually wore a shirt.
Suddenly there was a cough and then Rainbow’s voice came from another part of the room, behind an overturned table where the force of the magical explosion had thrown her after she’d jumped between Lero and the magical detonation.
“Ahh man, why’s it so *cough* cold in here?” She complained. “Did that kick-ass bang make it winter in here or something? If there’s snowballs I am soooo *cough* on Lyra’s side.”
Expecting the pegasus to shake herself off and make herself known, the others started to become concerned when all that came from behind the toppled table for the next few seconds were a series of thumps and frustrated grunts.
“Err, guys.” Rainbow’s voice had more than just a touch of panic to it. “I’m having some trouble here. My legs aren’t doing what I’m telling them... HOLY CRAP where’s my fur gone?!”
Quickly pulling the table away, Lero exposed a very confused Rainbow who was flailing her limbs around as she tried to stand. As she moved, furry stripes of pale blue moved across her body, fading away much like Lero’s had moments before to leave nothing but pale pink skin behind.
Pushing her forelimbs out in front of her she could see her forehooves had been replaced with hands sporting long slender fingers, much slimmer than those of her stallion. Cyan eyebrows reached for the heavens as her - still rose coloured, though much smaller than before - eyes took in the sight of these weird alien appendages at the ends of her arms, flexing and curling at her every command.
Looking down she could see the rest of her body was the same colour of Lero’s untanned parts, though she was much slimmer that he was and for some reason she seemed to have these two fleshy bits that... jiggled, right on her chest where Lero’s nipples were. The ends of her rainbow hued mane fell forward over her shoulders and if anything it seemed longer than before.
Moving further down she could see a belly button like Lero’s, then a small patch of cyan fur with thankfully no penis hidden under it (praise be to Celestia for small mercies) and these long, long legs that seemed to go on forever.
Looking up to find her three startled herdmates, with an exuberantly grinning child and a gob-smacked princess all staring back at her, a wave of panic, easily evident even with a whole new face to deal with, started to make its merry way over her features.
“WHAT THE BUCK?!” cried a very suprised human woman.
-------------------------
Lero just stood, slack jawed and staring. A twitching under his towel wordlessly communicating exactly what the rest of his body was trying to say even though both his mouth and his brain appeared to have clocked off for the day.
“My god!” He finally stuttered. “Human you is so fucking hot!”
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I've never had a chapter as soooo determined to be written as this one.
And the pair weren't seen until the next week.
ROFL
2665622
More you fool! I demand more!
lol. Funny stuff, man,
And that's why Lero couldn't walk normally for the whole next week.
2665682
seconding this notion
This chapter ended way too abruptly.
Note to self: do not raise the dead in Equestria.
This could've been phrased a little more clearly. It took me a moment to realize you were talking about Derpy's ancestry as opposed to, say, timey-wimey shenanigans.
And finally, we see the risks of being used as a template for an elaborate transmutation when combined with curious foals whose fathers are descended from brachiators. Now, of course, there's the question of how Dash's new human form is going to interact with the ambient magic of Equestria.
...assuming Twilight can isolate her from Lero long enough to get any readings.
I do hope you continue this.
Nice job, Sweetie! Logic suggests that Rainbow should 'reset' in time the same way it does with Lero but a lot of the variables are different. Specifically, she's more susceptible to magic than a human.
Fixing this may take some time and, in the meantime, Rainbow is going to have to learn a whole new set of rules!
I'm hoping for more of these antics specifically. And i loved the by my teats moment. Also, I can't remember if this was stated anywhere earlier so I wonder if Lero's kid got the genes for digesting meat. AWKWARD SOCIAL MOMENTS HO!
2665761
Oh god. Imagine the chafing.
Best chapter by far, the internet requires moar.
Also that last line is the best
So... Did Lero just nearly seduce Luna?
law of equivalent exchange? rofl.
I like the hijinks their child had cost but seriously that is one wigged out chapter. Too bad we'll never get to see the consequences of such hijinks since this is the chapter before something seriously happens in the next one. Lero's comment in the end is hilarious though.
We need a continuation along these lines. Would be interesting to see their reactions towards seeing a human female the first time and how dash will get used to it.
Now there's a hoopy frood who knows where his towel is!
Well if you want a human child there you go.
I wonder what other spells can be found in the somewhat forbidden section?
roflmfao
(roflmfao= roling on floor laughing my f***ing a$$ off
Alicorn magic... Now this makes a good likely incident for the conception of the child that some of the Leroverse stories say she and he are FATED to make together. Take human egg and human sperm, mix well, and stew for 11 months when momma changes back...
Let her stay this way for just a bit, please?
2665881 - Actually, I think that was Pinkie's ancestry - Derpy is almost as good at making muffins (baking being an earth pony talent, presumably) as is Pinkie Pie, and Pinkie Pie's talent at baking may be attributed to Pinkie's long ancestry of pure earth ponies.
I was kind of hoping to see human Lero with blue pegasus wings (and flight magic) so he could make a 'Blue Angels' joke that none of the ponies would get. Kudos to him for using 'facehugger' with a straight face, though.
That would be Pinkie's ancestors being Earth Ponys back to the Dark Ages.
Maybe she really is Puddinhead's great great Grandaughter.
Great chapter.
Much like chapter (now) 16, this plotline is one I won't mind seeing spun into its own story, or at least follow-up chapters:)
I enjoyed it immensely.
So now Luna wants in on the action huh?
I'm okay with this
Alright, that earned a 9 out of 10.
I hate to be the irritating nitpicker, but this chapter could do with a quick proofread. "Imbibe" should be "imbue," and there are occasional spelling errors, mis-capitalization, and punctuation mistakes to clean up. In particular, watch out for commas before independent ("and") clauses.
10 /10 WOULD READ AGAIN
Excellent chapter. Loved it.
2665682>>2665836
All in favour? Aye.
Looking forward to more. Keep up the awesome work.
2666436
Hands... human magic.
"Nopony can resist the hands, filly." *bowchicabowwow*
Lero x Luna?
Yes, please.
Everything about this is brilliant. Especially the "Woona lonely!" bit. Almost cried. Then the biting and "BY MY TEETS!" made me laugh until I cried. I hope to see a follow up.
For those who don't know. It's from the movie "Alien" and all the preceding films.
images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080210191235/aliens/images/9/94/Alien_facehugger.jpg
A human Dash, alright. Though considering you keep things mainly PG-13, I don't foresee anything happening in the future, despite how hot Dash may be.
2666436
Not that she was complaining...
-
So she's not Rainbow Crotch, then?
Given how often I make this joke, and usually at the exact wrong time...Yeah, I'd of said the same thing at such a sight.
alright first things first I love sweet spirit ^^ "woona lonely" her first words will hold very strong feelings for Luna in the future, and I seriously wouldn't doubt it if Luna and sweet would eventually fall in love in the future (shrugs) really be something to look forward to in future stories ^^
As for human dash o.0 thats unexpected then again something I should have thought of long ago and lero's final line had in me in stitches
2685407 could also be referring to good ol'e headcrabs. (also colloquially known as "facehuggers")
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Headcrab
mmmm, crabs.
Here's a little study on pony size compared to humans, just as a little guide. I personally think its points are very valid and I agree to its points:
My LITTLE pony size study.
My Little Pony, indeed.
I’m pretty sure you meant “potted” plant. Unless Twilight has a side job we don’t know about…
3805124
new1.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/The+pope+has+been+lostwell+lets+go+find+him+_0e2ab4ea9ac417cd46e97725a459329d.jpg
I'm with you, Lero.
Missing period.
Are you sure they didn't model the earth pony on Pinkie, not Big Mac?
OCD strikes again.
Please hold. Your conversation is very important to us.
Well, that was unexpected. Also, Luna, shame on you swearing in front of the child.
3805124
It's ok. The rest of the world understood what he ment.